Sheeta's reading list [from 2009 to...]

[Sheeta]

I'll type my list from today (5/12/2009), because I can't remember all I've read in the year... But I can remember some, so I'll put them too.

 

2009

 

- The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde

- Hide | Lisa Gardner

- Four Comedies | Oscar Wilde

- The Devil Wears Prada | Lauren Weisberger

- Everworld 3 | K. A. Applegate

- Le Miroir de Cassandre | Bernard Werber

- Lord of the Flies | William Golding

- All the books for my French exam: Dom Juan (Moli

Edited December 5, 2009 by Sheeta

[Sheeta]

Under Construction, maybe

[Chrissy]

From your list I have read about three;

- Hide | Lisa Gardner

- Lord of the Flies | William Golding

- This Perfect Day (Ira Levin)

 

I enjoy reading Lisa Gardner, and have especially enjoyed her Quincy & Rainie duo series.

 

You are also the only person I know that has read Ira Levin's 'This Perfect Day'. What did you think of it? It was the first dystopian book I had ever read, and it certainly started an interest in me.

[Sheeta]

I've read Hide by Lisa Gardner because it was the most attractive English book I found in a bookstore in France (ok, I find blood stains attractive xD), and I really enjoyed it too! For my second real book in English, I was so happy to have found an interesting story! (and a great final twist...)

 

For This Perfect Day, I had to read it for my French exam (although Ira Levin isn't French at all, but it was about a dystopia and this theme was in our program). If I hadn't have to read it, I think I wouldn't have find this book by myself...

 

But yes, I liked it a lot, because it was simple, not sinking me in a lot of details (you often see that in dystopian books, and sometimes it's nearly unbearable, especially when you have to read it quickly like I had to), and the story was really interesting! What did you think of it? The injections scared me, I don't want this world to end like this one...

[Chrissy]

You are right, it is a pretty simple story. The main concepts are put across really well without being smothered by layer upon layer of hidden meaning.

 

The thought of having everything so controlled by the state is scary, but that there are always those who will fight against that kind of oppression helps to reassure.

[Sheeta]

Yes, but in the middle of the book it's told that they think that

the big computer know that there are rebels, but it doesn't do anything against them cause it knows that they'll stay in islands, so they'll never bother the "normal" people...

 

Maybe, if it's real, it's worse because even if you want to become a rebel, you do what the computer wants...

 

Edited December 5, 2009 by Sheeta

[Chrissy]

There is that horrible bit when you think it was

all for nothing

, but the closing chapters sort that out!

 

It made me laugh when you said about choosing 'Hide' because of the cover! If I look at my bookshelves, there dead bodies, blood and weapons everywhere! I'm a nice person really - promise - I just love that kind of book!

[Sheeta]

I'm just like you, maybe you can help me with my "oh my god I have to find 6 books to buy in London in two weeks cause it's three times cheaper than in France" problem.

 

If you have a strange book with asylum things, I will be glad to know it cause I'm crazy about asylums (I nearly wanted to work in an asylum, but I thought about it and found that it wasn't like in horror stories, it's just an hospital ).

 

And for This Perfect Day, I thought the same until the closing chapters!

[Chrissy]

Two asylum books I thought of, although I haven't read either are 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey and 'Girl Interrupted' by Susanna Kaysen.

[Sheeta]

I checked the summaries of these two books, and I already want them right now! xD They're on my list too, thank you very much!

[Kylie]

You're both making me salivate with all your talk of This Perfect Day. It's on my TBR pile and I really can't wait to read it now!

[Sheeta]

Glad we have hidden the spoilers, then!

 

I had a really old edition of this book, from 1971 I think... The book nearly died in my hands, too brittle. But still the strange French translation (Un Bonheur Insoutenable isn't This Perfect Day, why do they change the words like that? ><). And I also think that there were censored editions of this book, because my friends didn't read some scenes I had! And after they told me "Mathilde, you see sex everywhere"

[Janet]

I really want to read Voltaire's Candide - and another one he wrote about London, the name of which escapes me now. I found a copy of Candide in a charity shop a few weeks ago, but when I checked, some of the pages were missing from the middle!

 

I love the name Mathilde.

[Sheeta]

Thank you Janet, even if I'm not really responsible of my name. xD

 

Candide is a funny book when you remember that the authors of this epoch couldn't write what they wanted... Voltaire can say a lot of things in a simple way without explicitly criticize something, and it's often really violent when he starts criticize something.