Ian's reading 2013

[ian]

Did some further nursing of my reading mojo by getting "The Hunger Games". I always knew I'd get around to this eventually, so I've deliberately avoided all the threads here, and everywhere else, plus I haven't seen the film. 

 

Loved it! A great storyline, that keeps you turning the page, with better characterisation than I've seen in some adult books I've read this year. Ending was a bit abrupt I thought, which must have been annoying when you had to wait for book 2, but as it is, I went straight to "Catching Fire" 

 

It gets 5 out of 5 from me

[Athena]

I'm glad to hear you liked it. I agree about the ending, it is kind of abrupt imo. It's good you waited to read all three (I usually do that too, wait until a trilogy is finished before reading all three).

[Devi]

. It's good you waited to read all three (I usually do that too, wait until a trilogy is finished before reading all three).

This is me all over, same goes for sagas too. Wait till they are all out and read, read read!

 

I've got the hunger games trilogy to read on my shelf.

[ian]

Finished "Catching Fire" last night. Again, excellent (but perhaps not as excellent as book 1) and again, a very abrupt ending.

 

I agree with you both  - waiting until the trilogy was written (although not intentionally) means I can go straight from one book to the next. I wouldn't have wanted to have been left waiting for book 3. As it is, guess what I'm reading next?!

[poppyshake]

I'm always debating whether to read The Hunger Games books or not (can I be bothered to get into another series ... do I need to be a teenager to enjoy them etc etc). Your review Ian has pushed me nearer to the 'I Must Have Them' side of the column. If I see them before I read a negative review I'm getting them

I came to the Harry Potter's quite late and it was a joy to be able to read the first three or four without waiting for the next installment. Books five, six and seven were hell to wait for .. what was she doing for goodness sake??

[ian]

I'm always debating whether to read The Hunger Games books or not (can I be bothered to get into another series ... do I need to be a teenager to enjoy them etc etc). Your review Ian has pushed me nearer to the 'I Must Have Them' side of the column. If I see them before I read a negative review I'm getting them

I came to the Harry Potter's quite late and it was a joy to be able to read the first three or four without waiting for the next installment. Books five, six and seven were hell to wait for .. what was she doing for goodness sake??

I was in exactly the same position with Harry Potter. It's definitely better to have them all written and ready! Meanwhile I've finished both "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay".. The usual trilogy pitfalls have been avoided, IMO. The flat part two, that doesn't really get us anywhere? No! The rush at the end of book three to tie up all the loose ends? No! 

 

I'll be honest, I read some trilogies for adults that I didn't think were as well-written or thought provoking as these are. I've since read that some people were unhappy with the ending, but for me it worked beautifully. An excellent set of books, and one I can see myself returning to again 

 

5 out of 5 (for Mockingjay and the series as a whole)

[ian]

Having the last couple of days at home means I zipped through the next Lee Child on my list - Worth Dying For.  What can I say really? If you like Reacher, you'll read it, if not, well it's more of the same! Enjoyable, brainless reading

 

4 out of 5

[ian]

Finished "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins. I read "The woman in white" a couple of years ago, and this has been on my TBR list ever since, and after reading mostly thrillers all year, I thought now was the right time. I enjoyed this very much - the writing style is, mostly, much more direct than other writers of his time, so is an easy read.

 

I gave it 4 out of 5

 

I'm now reading "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, I think the only Austen I haven't read

[ian]

I haven't updated on here for a while, so I have two books to add.

 

Finished Mansfield Park, which I would give 4 out of 5 - it's not going to be  my favourite Jane Austen, a little bit overlong in places for me, but enjoyable nevertheless.

 

I then read "The Affair" by Lee Child. I'll also give this 4 out of 5.

 

Now I need to route though my TBR pile for something new....

[Kidsmum]

Glad to see you enjoyed The Moonstone Ian, out of the two i'd say The Woman In White is my favourite though.

[ian]

Glad to see you enjoyed The Moonstone Ian, out of the two i'd say The Woman In White is my favourite though.

 

I would agree, The Woman in White is the better of the two books, but not by a huge ammount though IMO. What I did like about The Moonstone, is that you can see the genesis of the Who-dunit genre right there. The writing style is much more direct than other books of that period.

[ian]

Finished "A Wanted Man" by Lee Child, which I think brings me up to date with all the Reacher books so far. The last three books (excluding The Affair) have sort of followed on from each other. You can certainly read each seperately but you won't for instance know why he spends the whole book walking around with a broken nose.

 

4 out of 5

 

I'm now reading "Tom Sawyer"  - something I've never read

[Athena]

Tom Sawyer is on my TBR, I look forward to hear what you think of it .

[ian]

Finished Tom Sawyer.

 

I have looked forward to reading this book for a long time; not sure why it's taken me so long to get around to it. One reason it that the book is so pervasive throughout American fiction. So many current writers seem to either refer to it directly (Stephen King brings it up quite a few times) or hold up Mark Twain as an influence on them on becoming authors. The other is less serious. When I was about eight, I was given a book called something like "The adventure cook-book". This  book took great children's classics (The wizard of Oz, Tom sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, and two others I cannot remember) and gave recipes based upon those stories. So you had "Flying Monkey Muffins", "Yellow Brick Bread"  and "By Jingo Juice". I trace back both my love of reading and cooking back to that book! So, it seemed a bit of an anomaly that I've never read anything by Twain. Time to put that right! 

 

I thought Tom Sawyer was great. An easy read, which can either be read by children as a straight adventure book, or by adults who can enjoy the satire. I was chuckling along with this several times, and Tom misunderstands thing because he is too young, but we as adults can see exactly what is going on.

 

I heartily recommend this book, and only wish I'd read it years ago.

 

5 out of 5

 

There is only one place to go from here - so my next book is "Huckleberry Finn"

[julie]

Ian

So glad you enjoyed Tom so much . I personally liked Huck even more .

There's a book called The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews . It was written 30 years ago

I cannot believe I read it that long ago .

Anyhow , you could possibly find it on Amazon in the used books area, I'm not sure . It was surprisingly good for a sequel written by someone else .

Mark Twain was quite a character himself ,so it's no wonder he wrote books that are so much fun to read . I'll bet he was an ornery boy once just like Tom & Huck . 

[ian]

Ian

So glad you enjoyed Tom so much . I personally liked Huck even more .

There's a book called The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews . It was written 30 years ago

I cannot believe I read it that long ago .

Anyhow , you could possibly find it on Amazon in the used books area, I'm not sure . It was surprisingly good for a sequel written by someone else .

Mark Twain was quite a character himself ,so it's no wonder he wrote books that are so much fun to read . I'll bet he was an ornery boy once just like Tom & Huck . 

He certainly was a character! I've been reading up about him on Wikipedia. 

[Athena]

Tom Sawyer is on my shelf, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! Nice review . I'll have to get onto reading it, I'm glad to hear it was easy to follow. The last classic I read confused me so reading a classic that's easier to follow seems like a good idea (for my next classic read).

[ian]

Finished Huckleberry Finn. If anything, this is even better than Tom Sawyer - it has more of a plot, and is very funny and satirical in places. A warning - given the time and where it's action takes places, there is a LOT of the use of the word N****R. (I won't write it here). It's not something that bothers me in a novel written during that time, and Mark Twain's distaste of slavery does come across, but it might upset some readers.

 

4 out of 5. As a result of reading this, I then went on to read "A Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass" by Frederick Douglass. This book is quoted in Huckleberry Finn, and thanks to the margin notes I was able to download this free to my Kindle. It's the true story of an actual slave that escaped from the south to the north in the 1800's. It offered me a real insight into the plight of slaves during that time. It's not for the fainthearted. It's a short book, and I read it in one sitting. I won't try to rate this book, It would seem a bit pointless to do that, but I do recommend it.

[poppyshake]

Thanks for the review and info Ian .. I've downloaded A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to my Kindle .. I am faint hearted but have only ever read about slavery in fiction ..  it'll be good to read a true account .. however harrowing. You can't possibly gain insight otherwise.

 

I haven't read Tom Sawyer but read Huck Finn with enjoyment. The language is difficult as you say but in context and truthful to that particular time in American history.

[julie]

Ian

I'm glad you liked Huck so much. He seemed to have more personality than Tom ,or maybe just more adventurous . Those books have taken some grief throughout the years due to the racial names mainly ,and some of the comments made about how Blacks were portrayed back in those times .

There have been many schools here who had those books on their reading lists ,where in certain areas, the parents complained at the school board meetings until the books were removed from their curriculum .

I can't say I know what it's like to read a book that would portray your ancestors in such a negative way . There have even been groups who will agree to have the book as a mandatory read in school IF they publish copies with the derogatory words and sentences removed or reworded.

To me, that would take away from the story. It was written in a time and place where that was the custom, and to take that chunk out of the book would change it completely .The only way we can all learn by past mistakes is to keep them in print ,so that people reading them in the future will realize how things once were and how far things have come since .

 

I read the book "Roots" by Alex Haley many years ago. It will definitely give you a completely different way of looking at the plight of the African Americans and their history of slavery and struggles . It's a blockbuster of a book . They also made it into a tv mini-series many years ago . Very impressive piece of work .

[Kidsmum]

For some reason i've never been drawn to reading Tom Sawyer Or Huck Finn but i have added Frederick Douglass to my wishlist. I read The Last Runaway  Tracey Chevalier earlier this year & although i didn't think the book was that great it did make me interested to find out more about the underground slave railroad. 

[willoyd]

Finished Huckleberry Finn. If anything, this is even better than Tom Sawyer....4 out of 5.

I'd agree - I rate Huck Finn as better than Tom Sawyer too. A bit puzzled though: you gave Tom Sawyer 5/5, but Huck Finn 4/5 ?!

Edited July 25, 2013 by willoyd

[ian]

I'd agree - I rate Huck Finn as better than Tom Sawyer too. A bit puzzled though: you gave Tom Sawyer 5/5, but Huck Finn 4/5 ?!

 

Did I?! Just goes to show I rarely look back at my own ratings!

 

I suppose I marked it down one mark because, as it was a longer book, there were some sections that I found didn't move the story on. There isn't any time for that in Tom Sawyer.

That's my excuse anyway!

[ian]

Finished "Lolita". I really am in two minds about this book. The writing is excellent, some of it is beautiful - the way the words fall off the page with a rhythm that just keeps you reading. I think I have rarely read something that, linguistically, is so attractive. But the subject is so repellent!

 

I suppose I should put that down to good writing; there is very little that could be considered lewd, but narrated as it is by a man we would now consider a pedophile, there were parts of this book that made me very uncomfortable. I can't say that as a whole, I enjoyed reading this. I can only give it 2 out of 5.

 

It got me thinking about other controversial book, so now I am reading "Lady Chatterley's Lover"

[ian]

I surprised myself how much I enjoyed Lady Chatterley's Lover. I only really knew this book by its noteriety, so I wasn't expecting the social criticism that, for me, was the majority of the book. It reminded my in parts of 1984, the Morlocks of H.G.Well's "Time Machine" and even the Orcs of LOTR in its depiction of a working class becoming unthinking, unfeeling beasts.

I must admit, I did think that the sexual scenes would be tame by modern standards and was prepared for a "what's all the fuss about" reaction. I was wrong! I can certainly see why the book caused such an uproar at the time.  4/5