Timstar

Les Misérables - Victor Hugo Number of pages - 1,232 Synopsis ‘He was no longer Jean Valjean, but No. 24601’ Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty. A compelling and compassionate view of the victims of early nineteenth-century French society, Les Misérables is a novel on an epic scale, moving inexorably from the eve of the battle of Waterloo to the July Revolution of 1830. Review I read this last year over the period of a few months, and when I did I must have been one of the few people who had never seen the musical or film, or anything. So, other than the blurb I didn't really know much about the storyline. Nevertheless after the first few pages I knew what type of book it was going to be... slow, the kind of slow that makes a race between a sloth and a glacier look like Formula 1. So to say this book takes the scenic route is an understatement but the good thing about the scenic route is that the views are tremendous. To give you some idea, nearly a quarter of the book (the length of an average book) is devoted to digressions, including the social order, the church and nuns, the building of the Paris sewers and tonnes about Waterloo. The prose is fantastic and a joy to read. The descriptions are long-winded but do an excellent job in setting the scene, there is no detail too small or not worth mentioning. Anyone who has seen the musical or film/s will know that the characters are brilliant, both lovable and hate-able, fustrating and relentless. There is no direct translation of the title into English but 'The Dispossessed' or 'The Wretched' are close approximations, this very much sets the tone of the novel. It is not a happy story, yet it is not depressing, for all the death, toil and misery, Hugo weaves an underlying theme of hope throughout, and this hope makes it all worth it. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly, though I would say you do need to be in the right mood. If you want a thrilling narrative or a real page turner then don't bother, but I do think everyone should read this at some point. Overall 10/10

Thanks for letting me know, makes it less daunting Haha that's nothing compared to the random fetishes in Gravity's Rainbow, (e.g. Scatology) Not sure I did one Would give it 8/10. Did get them all signed though which was awesome.

No it's definitely not good, hope you feel differently to how did then.

Saw Interstellar last night, again, but this time at the Imax. Simply amazing!

Great review Steve, you're racing through this series now It's great when you get that kind of momentum!

Good luck!

Yeah I would say the same, after finishing all 3, The Painted Man is the only one I wanted to read again. I really hoping the next one is an improvement, the main issue is the length, they just dragged too much.

Yikes, It's definitely a chunk-at-a-time kinda book. Nothing wrong with audiobooks That is bizarre,the long one might include extra notes or something.

Looking forward to is a strong term... I am interested to give it a go, but probably not for a while. I wouldn't say it is THAT long, the text is quite big for a book that size, the word count is ~262,000, apparently only 2% of books are longer I don't how accurate that is though. However something like Atlas Shrugged is 645,000 words. That doesn't make it any easier to read of course, I have been using the wikipedia page (among others) to try and decipher more of it, one section simply states

The Painted Man is great, have you got the others in the series?

Haha, brilliant. The last line sums it up nicely "I'm not saying you should read it; that would be cruel. But if, for some inexplicable reason you choose to do so anyway, you won't regret it. Most of it, anyway."

Haha, that reminds me of when they get the winner of a beauty pagent to try and say something poignant but they haven't a clue

It's on hiatus Haha, yeah probably Until I finish Ulysses and get my medal that is. I'd recommend it, I enjoyed the first but the second is gripping me a lot more.

Glad your enjoying the Alcatraz series, I haven't read those but I did enjoy Steelheart which is another Sanderson YA novel, the sequel Firefight has just come out. I think you'd like them

Started Gravity's Rainbow, it's rather bizzare yet strangely addictive.

Hehe, I think it was. That is where I got the list from. Possibly not the best list ever made but it does have a broad spectrum of genres which will hopefully getting me reading a few I might not have otherwise done.

Ditto on that, I was at least expecting original screenplay and hoping for director/actor/picture. I'm glad to see Wes Anderson getting a nomination.

Here's the full list of the books pictured above: Fiction: Tigana – Guy Gavriel Kay Magician - Raymond E. Feist Shogun – James Clavell The Once and Future King – T.H. White Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon (Currently Reading) Imajica – Clive Barker The Talisman – King/Straub Black House - King/Straub Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand Ulysses – James Joyce (Currently Reading) Don Quixote – Cervantes (Read) The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas (Read but a different translation) Les Misérables – Hugo (Read) War and Peace – Tolstoy Under the Dome – King (Read) 11/22/63 – King (Read) The Stand – King (Read but want to re-read soon) Non-Fiction Rise and Fall of the British Empire – Lawrence James A History of Christianity – Diarmaid MacCulloch The Crusades – Thomas Asbridge The First World War – Martin Gilbert The Second World War – Martin Gilbert As you can see I haven't read many. I finished Cannery Row by Steinbeck at the weekend, it was a nice short read. A quirky book with some interesting characters, I'm hoping to read the sequel, Sweet Thursday soon. Overall 8/10 I also started Gravity's Rainbow which I thought would take me ages but I ended reading 100 pages in one sitting, the prose is dense but delightful, it just sucked me right in. At 950 pages it will still take a while :S I also began Myke Cole's Fortress Frontier, the second in his Shadow Ops series. I did not want to put it down!

Thanks all! It's been good so far. I wouldn't call it frightening, it's certainly not a nice easy narrative and I can see why some... less educated people might not like it I have certainly enjoyed bits of it and the prose is wonderful, for the most part. I'm just over half way now.

Don't we all As I've almost finished the Sharpe books I'm getting more and more tempted by Aubrey/Maturin...

That's it for now, I'm currently reading Ulysses and will post my thoughts when it's done. Also reading Cannery Row by Steinbeck and Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb.

Hugo Award Winners 1953 - The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester 1954 -Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 1955 - They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton 1956 - Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein 1958 - The Big Time by Fritz Leiber 1959 - A Case of Conscience by James Blish 1960 - Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein 1961 - A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr 1962 - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein 1963 - The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick 1964 - Way Station by Clifford Simak 1965 - The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber 1966 (tie)- And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny 1966 (tie) - Dune by Frank Herbert 1967 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein 1968 – Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny 1969 - Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner 1970 - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 1971 - Ringworld by Larry Niven 1972 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer 1973 - The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov 1974 - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke 1975 - The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 1976 - The Forever War by Joe Haldeman 1977 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm 1978 - Gateway by Frederik Pohl 1979 - Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre 1980 - The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke 1981 - The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge 1982 - Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh 1983 - Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov 1984 - Startide Rising by David Brin 1985 - Neuromancer by William Gibson 1986 - Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card 1987 - Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card 1988 - The Uplift War by David Brin 1989 - Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh 1990 - Hyperion by Dan Simmons 1991 - The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold 1992 - Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold 1993 (tie) - A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge 1993 (tie) -Doomsday Book by Connie Willis 1994 - Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson 1995 - Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold 1996 - The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson 1997 - Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson 1998 - Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman 1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis 2000 - A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge 2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 2002 - American Gods by Neil Gaiman 2003 - Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer 2004 - Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold 2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke 2006 - Spin by Robert Charles Wilson 2007 - Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge 2008 - The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon 2009 - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 2010 (tie) - The City & The City, China Miéville 2010 (tie) - The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi 2011 - Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis 2012 -Among Others by Jo Walton 2013 - Redshirts by John Scalzi 2014 - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie 12/63

As with last year I have a couple of ongoing, passive challenges. 50 books to read before you die challenge. There are many lists which state 1000 books you must read or something along those lines, which is a ridicolous amount. I think 50 is quite achievable. So I am slowly working through this list. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JR Tolkien 1984 by George Orwell Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte A Passage to India by EM Forster The Lord of the Flies by William Golding Hamlet by William Shakespeare A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes The Bible The Cantebury Tales by Geofrrey Chaucer Ulysses by James Joyce The Quiet American by Graham Greene Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks Money by Martin Amis Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling Moby Dick by Herman Melville The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pulman Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon On the Road by Jack Kerouac Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope The Outsider by lbert Camus The Colour Purple by Alice Walker Life of Pi by Yann Martel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The War of the Worlds by HG Wells Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey Catch 22 by Joseph Heller The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden The Divine Comedy by Alighieri Dante The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 20/50 Crossed out in red means I have read them this year.

My tomes: Fiction: Non-Fiction: Apologies for the poor quality of the photos, I was in a rush. I pulled all my biggest books, whilst there isn't a strict criteria, they are all generally over 800 pages. Some have already been read but most haven't.

My last blog kind of fizzled out towards the end of last year, life got in the way then I lacked the motivation to get back to it. So I thought I would change it completely this year and insted of focussing on SF/F/Horror I will post about the numerous tomes I am hoping to read at some point. This will be an ongoing, rather than a yearly blog, as I won't get through that many in a year. I will also update on my other reads and purchases. I will not be including any tomes that are part of a series, unless they can be read as stand-alone. Otherwise half my fantasy shelf will be on here.