Kylie's Literary Adventures In 2010

[Kylie]

Much Obliged, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

I have a huge number of Wodehouse's books now: 33 on my TBR pile and I've read at least half a dozen others. I guess you could say I'm a fan. His books are consistently funny and I know without a doubt that every time I pick up on his books I'll come out the other side feeling happy and refreshed. Another excellent read. 9/10 (An extraordinarily vague review, I know, but I find it hard to separate his books when they are quite similar.)

The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum

Having seen the movie so many times, I'll always find it hard to separate the events of the book and the movie in my mind. In fact, I can't even remember much of the book now because the movie and Wicked have taken over in my mind. Still, I remember enough to know that it's a great read, and it's fun to pick out any small differences. 8/10

[Kylie]

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

A brilliant poet and great illustrator. An all-round fun read. I can't recommend him highly enough. Go and read some Silverstein. 9/10

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I've posted thoughts of this in various other places, so I'll keep this short. Wicked is an excellent story in a well-thought-out world with great characterisation. I really like the character of Elphaba and discovering her origins. I can't wait to see the stage show now! 9/10

 

The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne

What a charming story! I loved the characters, the writing style and the humour. I look forward to reading more Pooh. 9/10

[Kylie]

The Hudson River Mystery (Trixie Belden #28) by Kathryn KennyA predictably good mystery (there are very few duds in the series) and I often find the books somewhat educational. 8/10

 

The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde

A lovely collection of often heart-rending stories with great messages and morals to boot. I adored every single story, but the title story was probably my favourite of all.

 

My Dad has a psychedelic record of The La De Das' album called The Happy Prince, which I really want to listen to again. It's supposed to be Australiasia's first concept album from 1969.

 

[Kylie]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

A brilliant collection of short stories. Arthur Conan Doyle is a consistently good storyteller, and I found it impossible to pick a favourite story because they're all of such high quality.

 

I love his style of writing and the little twists within each story, not to mention the characterisation and banter between Holmes and Watson. Glorious reading. 9/10

[Roland Butter]

A propos of nothing, Kylie, but you might be interested ... ACD was reputed to be a more than useful cricketer. Apparently, he once dismissed the great W G Grace.

[~Andrea~]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

A brilliant collection of short stories. Arthur Conan Doyle is a consistently good storyteller, and I found it impossible to pick a favourite story because they're all of such high quality.

 

I love his style of writing and the little twists within each story, not to mention the characterisation and banter between Holmes and Watson. Glorious reading. 9/10

 

Now that's something I feel I should definitely read. Glad you enjoyed them Kylie. I'd heard they were very good. I must add to the wish list!

[poppyshake]

I must add them to mine too. I only know Sherlock Holmes's stories through TV and film, I've never actually read any of them, same with Miss Marple etc. I love them anyway, but I'm sure there's far more to them than what you get to see on screen. In any case I don't think I've seen any of these particular stories dramatised so it won't spoil the endings.

Thanks for your review Kylie

[Kylie]

A propos of nothing, Kylie, but you might be interested ... ACD was reputed to be a more than useful cricketer.

 

Ah, wonderful. He was a man of many talents!

 

Now that's something I feel I should definitely read. Glad you enjoyed them Kylie. I'd heard they were very good. I must add to the wish list!

 

I hope you get to read some Sherlock Holmes stories soon Andrea! I think you'd really like them.

 

In any case I don't think I've seen any of these particular stories dramatised so it won't spoil the endings.

Thanks for your review Kylie

 

Thanks Poppyshake. One of the networks over here has been showing The Return of Sherlock Holmes but I haven't been recording them because I haven't read the stories yet. I'll kick myself for that one day!

 

I have managed to get my TBR pile back down to (the still unmanageable) 600. I've only bought 2 books in the last two months, so I'm pretty proud of myself!

[Chrissy]

I've only bought 2 books in the last two months, so I'm pretty proud of myself!

There's. Something. Wrong. In. The. Universe. Balance must be restored somehow.

 

Knowing your frequency of purchasing, has this been a decision not to or have you just not really seen anything you wanted?

[Kylie]

I think it's a bit of both Chrissy. There are loads of books that I'd love to buy, but for some reason I seem to be content with the books I already have! It doesn't happen very often so I'm trying to take full advantage of it.

 

It helps (or doesn't help) that the Aussie dollar is lower against the US dollar, so the bargains aren't quite as big as they used to be. But have no fear, there is another big book fair in 3 month's time, so I'm sure I'll stock up again then!

[Kylie]

I should mention that I finished reading my current book at work today. Because I wasn't expecting to get it finished, I didn't bring another one with me and now I'm rather distressed at the thought of being bookless.

 

I'm staying in a hotel tonight and won't realistically even get a chance to read until tomorrow afternoon when I get home again, but I can't bear the thought of being without a book all that time. Luckily one of my favourite bookshops happens to be on the way to the hotel, and because I've been such a good girl recently...

[AbielleRose]

Luckily one of my favourite bookshops happens to be on the way to the hotel, and because I've been such a good girl recently...

 

Hope you have fun tonight at the concert

 

Do you have any books in mind to buy yet or are you more of a browse and buy whatever jumps out at you kind of a shopper?

 

BTW- (a tad off topic) I watched the Australia soccer match the other day and thought it was so cute that they refer to their team as the 'Socceroos'. It made me think of you.

[Chrissy]

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

 

Have a terrific time tonight Kylie.

[Ben]

Hey Kylie long time no speak, how are you doing? I'm hoping you've had a good reading year so far. I'd say that I hope you've restrained yourself from buying too many, but in the spirit of things I don't think I could discourage you from your purchases.

[Kylie]

Do you have any books in mind to buy yet or are you more of a browse and buy whatever jumps out at you kind of a shopper?

 

BTW- (a tad off topic) I watched the Australia soccer match the other day and thought it was so cute that they refer to their team as the 'Socceroos'. It made me think of you.

 

I was caught off-guard by my lack of books so I just browsed. I ended up buying Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

 

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

 

Have a terrific time tonight Kylie.

 

Thanks Chrissy! I had an excellent time.

 

Hey Kylie long time no speak, how are you doing? I'm hoping you've had a good reading year so far. I'd say that I hope you've restrained yourself from buying too many, but in the spirit of things I don't think I could discourage you from your purchases.

 

Hi Ben! Good to see you around again. I'm having an excellent reading year. I've restrained myself reasonably well so far, I think!

[Kylie]

Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg

 

I've made my feelings about this book pretty clear in other threads so I won't go on about it too much more here.

 

I found the book an enormous struggle to get through and some parts were very dull (for example, the endless descriptions of the ship). I found it hard to identify at all with any of the characters, particularly Smilla herself, who seemed to be full of contradictions.

 

When things were actually happening and the plot was moving along it was interesting enough, and I learnt a lot about snow and ice, although I'm not sure how much to believe, as other forum members have pointed out mistakes in some of the technical aspects described.

 

Overall, a very disappointing read. 5/10

[Kylie]

I've generally spent the month of June trying to further my progress in all the different series I seem to be in the middle of.

 

I read Dead as Doornail by Charlaine Harris, which is the 5th in the Sookie Stackhouse series, and I read Hot Six by Janet Evanovich (no guessing which number that is!) Both were very enjoyable light reads, which seems to be all I'm in the mood for at the moment.

 

I also read Joy in the Morning by PG Wodeshoue, another delightful Jeeves and Wooster adventure. I bought and read Heidi by Johanna Spyri this week, which is a lovely children's classic.

 

I'm finally finishing up The Ants Are My Friends by Martin Toseland, which unfortunately isn't a patch on his other book, A Steroid Hit the Earth. The former is a book of linguistic gaffes which is mildly amusing but I think there's too much explanation about each one. The latter is about typos in books, all of which are self-explanatory and utterly hilarious.

 

Continuing on with my series reads, I'm currently reading The Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith, which is the second in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and I plan on reading another Trixie Belden book by the end of the month as well.

 

At this stage of the year, I have read 60 books and have 600 on my TBR pile. Such lovely round numbers!

Edited July 27, 2010 by Kylie

[Kylie]

I'm well behind on updates and reviews again...

 

I finished The Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith, and much like the first book in the series, it was a light and enjoyable read. I also knocked another book of my unread Trixie Belden pile, which leaves me with half a dozen more to read.

 

I read a book from my childhood called Penny Pollard's Diary by Robin Klein. I couldn't remember much of the book but it was an OK read, and rather touching in places.

 

I finished up the month of June with Mort by Terry Pratchett. I finally feel as though I'm really getting into the series now.

[Kylie]

Rama Revealed by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee

It has taken me several years to finally finish reading the series, and it was nice to have it all wrapped up. The last three books are vastly different from Rama because they're focused much more on the characters rather than Rama itself.

 

I felt that the story dragged on a bit too much in places, going into great detail about various alien species that weren't relevant in any way to the story. It seems that the authors occasionally forgot that they were writing about aliens too, because the different species were sometimes given human characteristics and reacted in distinctly human ways a little too often.

 

That said, the plot itself was enjoyable and was pretty much what I expected. Despite the length of the book, it was an easy read so flew by quickly. 7/10

 

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

An enjoyable collection of essays regarding Hornby's literary adventures over a period of 14 months. The essays were far more entertaining that I expected; I laughed out loud several times and found some great quotes about reading (none of which I took note of ).

 

A great read for all of us who have a passion for books. 8/10

 

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Lucky Jim is the story of a lecturer at an English university who is worried about keeping his job after a couple of unfortunate incidents. It's rather amusing in places and I kept cringing as Jim got himself into one unfortunate tangle after another (it reminded me of watching David Brent in The Office). As entertaining as it was, it was also a little boring because not much seems to happen. I'm not sure that I entirely appreciated the humour as others do. In the end, I liked it reasonably well, but I'd probably be wary of who I recommended it to. 7/10

[Kylie]

Just some little updates from me...

I've been working on updating my wish list lately, which should please Frankie, because it's much more complete now.

 

It seems that every time I get below 600 books on my TBR I go and buy several more, so I haven't been staying under 600 for long, and I've just gone and ordered 9 more books (on top of 2 others that I pre-ordered ages ago and which will be released in a week). Oops. I was doing so well for a while. I'm really happy with my reading rate, though. I'm well on my way to 100 books for the year, which I've never even gotten close to before. Yay me!

 

I have quite a few mini reviews to catch up on, but I'm far too absorbed in To Kill a Mockingbird at the moment. It's such a brilliant book!

[lopeanha]

Oh my goodness, Kylie and I thought I had a huge TBR pile (close to 200)...

[Kylie]

Oh my goodness, Kylie and I thought I had a huge TBR pile (close to 200)...

 

That's what happens when you spend so much time on BCF! I read too many reviews and great recommendations.

[Mac]

Alas, this is what happens to me, too. Curse you, BCF! Curse you!!!

 

Only joking, of course. I love it. Love it, love it love it!

 

(the pink person's me, the baffled one is BCF...)

Edited August 18, 2010 by Mac

[Kylie]

Aww, you're such a cutie-pie Mac.

 

And just so you know, you're partly responsible for my TBR pile too. Thanks to you and Noll, Vlad is currently winging its way to me across the world.

[frankie]

Kylie, you were indeed right, it pleaseth me much to see your wish list updated! The first page in your reading blog is the tidiest, most organised, the most envy-producing page I've seen and I almost feel I should be working on my own to make it look half decent!