Devi's Mount TBR List 2014

[Devi]

I'm sorry to hear that    Being sick is awful as it is, but for us booklovers it's twice as bad because we cannot concentrate on our reading and our beloved books. Like you, I also started my reading again with a teenage favorite book series, and built up from that. I'm glad we have our ways to get back to our normal selves We are clever, we can't be beaten I hope you feel better and can continue getting back to reading more again

 

Thank you Frankie   

 

I don't actually think I am going to get any better than what I am now, which makes me want to wave the white flag sometimes    

Edited May 31, 2013 by Devi

[frankie]

Nice haul, Devi A lot of sci-fi/fantasy, I see, so I don't know many of the books. But I loved The Beach, I hope you enjoy it very much

[frankie]

I don't actually think I am going to get any better than what I am now, which makes me want to wave the white flag sometimes    

 

Never wave the white flag! Go on, paint a black pirate on it   If you mean your MS symptoms that have come to a point where they won't go away but will stay the same, and in time maybe get worse, then I'm sorry :empathy:  I don't know what that's like so it's difficult to relate. But I would say that no matter what, you just need to keep on trukking and try and make the best of what you've got   Sorry if that sounds ignorant!

[Devi]

Never wave the white flag! Go on, paint a black pirate on it   If you mean your MS symptoms that have come to a point where they won't go away but will stay the same, and in time maybe get worse, then I'm sorry :empathy:  I don't know what that's like so it's difficult to relate. But I would say that no matter what, you just need to keep on trukking and try and make the best of what you've got   Sorry if that sounds ignorant!

 

Yes thats what I meant, and no it wasn't ignorant at all . Everyone I know and meet always say I am a positive person, and I am for the most part, it just gets to me sometimes and its hit me harder than usual. I don't know if you have read my health thread on here (I know you don't usually read members threads due to time) but I am having partial seizures due to where the lesions are. I am on an anti-epileptic for them but they will only slow them, not stop them - you can't fix lesions you see. I also sometimes fall into what my doctor termed as mini comas - due to the seizures they believe.

 

Its not all bad though, I am going on a two week holiday to my aunts interstate, and my mum and partner are coming with. My cousins and another aunt/uncle are paying for me - all expenses and giving me spending money too. They wanted to do it after I was diagnosed with ms. I am super excited about the whole trip.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Devi

[frankie]

I haven't been following members threads in a long time because I've been so behind on reading logs, so no, I wasn't aware of all those things   It's really no wonder, and I think it's only natural, that you would sometimes go through more difficult times, mentally, what with everything that's going on with you physically. I'm very glad that you have such a good support system to help you through those times   The trip sounds just the kind of thing you need, I'm sure you will have loads of fun! I hope you are renting a minibus for you guys so you can haul back all those secondhand books you buy in all the different secondhand bookshops you run into on the trip... Or maybe you could get a mini charter!

[Athena]

Devi, that's a great haul!! So many nice books in there (which I've either read or are on my TBR).

 

I hope your symptoms won't get any worse, at least . I wish you a lot of fun on your trip, you deserve some fun and relaxation!

[Devi]

 So many books coming in! I got four more off a family friend today.

 

Fiction

 

The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

 

Non Fiction

 

Parvana - Deborah Ellis

Pack of Thieves? 52 Port Arthur Lives - Hamish Maxwell-Stewart & Susan Hood

 

 

If I go missing for awhile, send someone to check on me, I may have gone missing in a pile of books!

[bobblybear]

I use Firefox, but don't have the same problem (as you can see!).

 

I use Firefox too, and I don't have that problem either, although sometimes if the cursor is in the 'wrong' place and I press 'Enter' several times, I get several empty quote boxes which I then have to delete and start over.

[Janet]

 

XD no, but if I don't put the x there then there is often no space between the quote and my text (like now), on my screen (a space I type gets erased). I think it's a Firefox problem. I think I could fix it by using a different browser (ie. Chrome) but I prefer to use Firefox for most things. YouTube also isn't working properly lately, I can watch videos but I can't "like" or "subscribe" when I'm logged in. I don't know if the two issues are related though .

That's odd - I use Firefox too but it's fine for me too.

 

ETA sorry - I missed the above post!

[pontalba]

 So many books coming in! I got four more off a family friend today.

 

Fiction

 

The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

 

Non Fiction

 

Parvana - Deborah Ellis

Pack of Thieves? 52 Port Arthur Lives - Hamish Maxwell-Stewart & Susan Hood

 

 

If I go missing for awhile, send someone to check on me, I may have gone missing in a pile of books!

OH!  The Day of the Triffids is one of my all time favorites!!!!

[Devi]

OH!  The Day of the Triffids is one of my all time favorites!!!!

 

 I thought of you when I spotted the book! I had to grab it, and I am excited to read it.

[Devi]

On the last stretch of the first book; an old young adult series I read and loved as a teen. Its a fantasy/fiction series of 12 books called Everworld by K A Applegate.

 

Its about these teens who get pulled into another world called Everworld with your usual trolls and ogres, but its also got Aztecs, vikings and gods too.The twist is when they sleep in everworld, they are living their normal lives back on Earth, and vise versa. They remember what they do in each world every time they wake in the other. I probably made it a lot more confusing than it actually is.

 

I think its what I need right now, an easy read that takes little effort.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2013 by Devi

[Athena]

This sounds interesting, wishlisted .

[Devi]

ETA:

 

Title: Search for Senna
Author: K A Applegate

Series: Everworld

Book No: 1

 

Review:

 

Now I remember why I loved this series as a teen. Its a fantasy series based on an alternate world that four teens get dragged into after Senna, one of the four teens gf is taken by a wolf from another world. It all happens within the first few chapters so your thrown into the deep end almost straight away, which I love. No mess no fuss. When the teens fall asleep in Everworld, they wake back up in their old world, with memories still intact.When they fall asleep in the real world they wake up in Everworld with memories of their old still intact too. Two lives, one body.  

 

The chapters are short and sweet, and Applegate has this knack of leaving you on the hook at the end of each chapter, which makes you want to just keep on reading. What I love about the books is the fact that you do get two stories in one, the alternate world and the real world, and the stories are so easy to follow. Sure it has its trolls and ogres, but Applegate also tosses in gods, aztecs and Vikings, which makes it a nice mix of races.

 

4/5

Here is a short excerpt from the book.

We chased the Aztecs as they ran for the walls of their city.
Across the sand onto paved road.
And then I felt a shadow.
I looked up. A cloud? No, darker than any cloud.
The sun had risen behind the huge pyramid. It almost seemed to be sitting atop the pyramid. And from that sun, at the top of that monstrous pyramid, a shape appeared.
Huitzilopoctli.
He was shaped like a man. Blue, the blue of the sky late on a summer day. His face was striped horizontally with bands of blue and yellow. Around his eyes were glittering white stars, stars that seemed real and hot and explosive.
Iridescent feathers grew from his head, spreading down across his shoulders and back. In his left hand he held a disk, a mirror that smoked and burned. In the right hand was a snake, a twisting, writhing snake that breathed fire and almost seemed an extension of his hand.
His other hand, the one that held the mirror, dripped red. It dripped red and you knew, knew deep down, that it could never, would never be wiped clean.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Devi

[Devi]

I've started book 2 Land of Loss of the Everworld series, and thought this excerpt described what the whole series was about, far better than I ever could.

I was back. Somehow I must have finally fallen asleep in Everworld. Hard to imagine. I'd been lying there on clean straw beside dirty men, staring up into blank darkness and trying to think about anything, anything besides that pyramid.

But I had fallen asleep. It was the only way I could possibly be here. Back in the real world. It's the way it worked. We didn't know why. Fall asleep in Everworld, you woke up back in the old life, the old body, with two intact sets of memories: the dull, ordinary details of another dull, ordinary day of school and home and more school. And you had the memories of the other side. Memories that were not so dull.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Devi

[Devi]

I'm 3 pages away from 200 pages in game of thrones! I finally feel like I am starting to get my mojo back.

[chesilbeach]

That's great news, Devi!  Let's hope it sticks around for you

[Athena]

That's great news ! I'm reading it too, I'm nearly at 300 pages. It should be nice to talk about it when we both have it finished. I hope your mojo stays good for a while.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Athena

[vodkafan]

ETA:

 

 

Now I remember why I loved this series as a teen. Its a fantasy series based on an alternate world that four teens get dragged into after Senna, one of the four teens gf is taken by a wolf from another world. It all happens within the first few chapters so your thrown into the deep end almost straight away, which I love. No mess no fuss. When the teens fall asleep in Everworld, they wake back up in their old world, with memories still intact.When they fall asleep in the real world they wake up in Everworld with memories of their old still intact too. Two lives, one body.  

 

That would be so cool. Really good for those "A" type people  who don't like to waste a moment.

[Devi]

I finished this book today, this one ended in a bit of a cliff hanger but I am going to read a few more chapters of A Game of Thrones first, before continuing on with Everworld. I forgot to mention, each book is based off each of the main characters within the story - so you get a different personality with each book. The first one was about David, this one was based on Chris - a macho/popular kind of guy who is all about clothes and credibility.

[Devi]

I just wanted to explain something, in the hopes people will understand more about me.

 

I recently had a neuropsychological test and got the results back. This is taken from my members thread:

 

"Working memory - trying to get what I want to say out in the right words/order, forming thoughts properly on the spot and sometimes understanding people. This one is quite depressing for me, as they said I am highly intelligent, but due to the fact I can't get out what I want to say, or process things properly most days, it makes me feel like I'm very stupid."

 

This is why my reviews etc can come across as a jumbled mess of words. Nothing makes me more upset as I know what I want to say, but can't always get it across the way I want it to. I am also a bit of a grammar nazi, but sometimes, without realising I misspell words. Please believe me, its unintentional when I do it.

 

I have trouble remembering names, for example, the last book I read when writing the review I had to go back and search the names out again, despite just finishing the book mere minutes earlier.

 

Like now, I know I had more to add but it has fled my mind.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Devi

[Kidsmum]

Devi i always find your reviews enjoyable to read & hadn't realised they were a struggle for you to write ; it makes me feel guilty for being lazy about putting my own thoughts down in writing. Thanks for taking the time to do them & i shall endeavour to follow your example 

[Athena]

I haven't really noticed anything weird about your reviews, to me they were just as readable as any other person's reviews here . It's not nice though that it's hard for you . I can imagine it somewhat, when I just started on my current medication, I had huge memory problems. I tried to read a book but I couldn't remember anything of I read 10 mins ago. Thus I couldn't read any novels, I decided to read short stories of 5-10 pages instead (and forgot them after I finished them). It really frustrated me that I had these problems (a side effect of starting the medication I presume, though the doctor didn't say anything about it beforehand, I reason that is the explanation), especially since normally I have a pretty good memory. It must be very frustrating for you . I love reading your reviews so please know your efforts are appreciated!

 

Isn't reading A Game of Thrones very difficult for you? I have a bit of trouble keeping up with all the names now and then.

[Devi]

Thanks guys. Makes me feel a little better.

 

Kidsmum: It is a huge struggle, and when I find I can't do it; I end up being angry at myself, even though I know its not my fault - and around and around I go. Please don't feel guilty! Its not what I had intended to do.

Even when replying to comments I re-read everything I type to make sure it makes sense.

 

 

Athena: Yeah it can be a struggle - its weird, though, sometimes I know exactly who is who and what is going on till I put the book down, that is when I forget what I just read. My partner tries to ask me questions about the book - he is watching the tv series and wants to know the differences I spot as I read, but I can never recall - so I show him instead. Thats the new memory issue I explained about in my members thread.

[Devi]

I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, as it was about a week or so ago.

 

We have a small independent book/art store in town, they don't get the major titles but you can sometimes find some old gems in there. Anyway I happen to ask the lady if she got to pick what books came in as I was after a few titles, and she said, wait for this, that I could go through all the unopened boxes of books she had stored under a table!!! Can you believe it!!! :D

 

I was like a kid in a candy store...

 

I found six books, and she was even kind enough to take $6 off my purchase. Really made my week. You don't get that in any of your big department bookstores! I made very sure every book was put back the way it came out. Sandy (thats the ladies name) said she could tell I was enjoying myself.