Kylie's Literary Adventures In 2010

[Nollaig]

Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders!

Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders!

Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders!

 

 

 

 

 

[Kylie]

I thought you might have some thoughts on me putting that on the list. But you're not biased in any way are you?

[Nollaig]

Moi? Biased?

 

It IS a great book though, I absolutely loved it.

[frankie]

I wish you good luck with your non-fiction endeavours!

 

Joanne Harris: Chocolat

Nick Hornby: High Fidelity

 

If you need any company for reading these I might be up for it, I've had Chocolat on my TBR for ages as well, I started it years ago and really liked it but for some reason which I cannot recall I stopped reading it and haven't started it again since then.

 

High Fidelity is on Rory List, I thinks? So why not

[Kylie]

Thanks Frankie. I'm going to start Sylvia Plath tomorrow, and the plan is that I'll just read small parts of it at night (it's too big to carry to work with me).

 

Ah thanks, I'll bump those up the TBR pile a bit. Let me know when you start Chocolat and I'll try to jump right in with you. I believe we should eat chocolate while reading it too, so make sure you have plenty handy.

 

I finished reading Club Dead by Charlaine Harris today and I'll be starting on Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants tomorrow.

[frankie]

Ah thanks, I'll bump those up the TBR pile a bit. Let me know when you start Chocolat and I'll try to jump right in with you. I believe we should eat chocolate while reading it too, so make sure you have plenty handy.

 

Will do! And you can also start it whenever and let me know if you start before me. Yes I think we need to buy chocolate before we start it, because I don't think one can manage reading the book without it, and I don't feel like going to the groceryshop near by, with the book in my hand and drooling on the aisles

 

I'll be starting on Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants tomorrow.

 

Argh, that's another book I really want to read and that's been on my TBR for years! Oh boy.

[frankie]

Hello there!

 

I was going through my uni literature courses and notes so I could find authors for Katrina's thread on black authors and noticed my From Utopia to Science Fiction notes and figured I might as well check them out while I'm at it to see if there's something I could suggest for your dystopian challenge. There were titles such as Brave New World, Frankenstein, Gulliver's Travels, The Principles of Newspeak (from 1984), The Bicentennial Man and The Time Machine. However, a sneak peek at your bookshelves on goodreads showed that you've either read all of these or then have them on your TBR. (I'm not completely surprised though ) Well, I did manage to find one title that wasn't on your TBR and it is E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops which you will find in Forster's Collected Short Stories

[Kylie]

Aww, that's so nice of you to think of me Frankie!

 

The Principles of Newspeak sounds really interesting, and I'll definitely look out for EM Forster one as well.

 

I'm almost halfway through Water for Elephants and it's going really well. I read about 20 pages of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath last night. This one is going to take me a while to get through.

[frankie]

No problem Kylie, it was a pleasure

 

The Journals is really thick isn't it, lots of pages... But I can't help but think that it'll be a really captivating book, something that sticks with you for long.

 

I'm glad you're enjoying Water for Elephants, can't wait to hear your thoughts on it

[Kylie]

It is huge. I'm only 20 or so pages in. I was planning it as a night-time read, but I'll have to take it on my commute occasionally if I want to finish it by the end of the month. The few pages I've read are amazing though. I've already found myself wondering at the talent that can construct such beautiful sentences and imagery.

 

Water for Elephants is also excellent. It's funny and sad and just, well, great.

[Kylie]

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

 

After being a bit disappointed in Winton's Breath, I was a little wary of reading Cloudstreet, said to be Winton's masterpiece and a great Australian novel. I can happily report that it is a great Australian novel, if not the great Australian novel.

 

The story follows the lives of two rural families who are thrown together in an Australian city to cope after various family tragedies. The novel is epic in scope, traversing several decades from the Depression on, and this alone was bound to win me over because I appreciate and love novels that show such great character development over a period of time.

 

Winton's writing style is beautiful. He captures the Australian spirit and language wonderfully (he was almost in danger of using every slang phrase ever known, but he managed to stop just short of going overboard).

 

It's quite humorous in some places, and heartbreaking in many others. These families did it so tough, but they still managed to hold their heads up and soldier on, using the typical Aussie humour and mateship to get through it all. Very highly recommended.

 

10/10

[chesilbeach]

Cloudstreet sounds right up my street, Kylie, so I think I'll be adding that to my wishlist. I have Breath on the shelf waiting to be read, so I'll go with that one first, but will definitely still look at Cloudstreet even if I don't get on with Breath.

[Kylie]

That's great news, Chesilbeach. I hate writing reviews of books I've really loved, but I'm afraid I won't get across just how wonderful they are. I'm glad I've convinced one person at least.

[Kylie]

I received three books in the mail today. One is fiction and two are non-fiction:

 

The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

This is a poem first published in 1712 and it's about a Baron who cuts a lock of hair from a beautiful young woman at a society gathering.

 

The Australian Editing Handbook by Elizabeth Flann & Beryl Hill

Freelancing for Australians for Dummies by Susan M Drake & Monica Davidson

Both are reference books to assist me in starting a freelance proofreading and editing business.

 

I just went through all my reading lists to check that the size of my TBR pile was still correct and found that I have over-stated it by 6 books. Yay! I have decreased my pile without any effort! And that's after today's haul as well.

[frankie]

Nice to see you got some new books for your library Kylie I haven't heard of any of those titles before but The Rape of the Lock sounds appealing

 

Both are reference books to assist me in starting a freelance proofreading and editing business.

 

Wow, I didn't know you're up to something like that! Good job getting the reference books, hope you have great and exciting times reading them

 

I just went through all my reading lists to check that the size of my TBR pile was still correct and found that I have over-stated it by 6 books. Yay! I have decreased my pile without any effort! And that's after today's haul as well.

 

Way to go!

[Kylie]

I haven't heard of any of those titles before but The Rape of the Lock sounds appealing

 

I've wanted to read it for a while, and I used to drool over the (then) new Vintage edition but it looked a little pricey for such a short book. Then it was on sale on an Australian book site for just a few dollars so I thought I might as well order it when I ordered my other books!

 

The poem itself is 38 pages in my book, and probably almost half of that is made up of illustrations and blank pages, so it will probably take me about 5 minutes to read (well, maybe a little longer - the language is 'olde'). There's also an introduction that is almost half as long again.

 

It's also freely available online. Here's one I just found.

 

Wow, I didn't know you're up to something like that! Good job getting the reference books, hope you have great and exciting times reading them

 

Thanks! I was so excited about receiving them that I asked my friend to go especially to the post office today to pick them up. I would have had to wait an extra day otherwise. I'll just have a bit of time to browse through them before bed.

 

Way to go!

 

I actually feel a little silly because I thought I'd been keeping such careful tabs on the number of books on my TBR pile. I have a lot of fun updating all those posts at the beginning of my reading list () so it's a little embarrassing to find that I'm 6 books out after only 2 and a bit months!

[Kylie]

Frankie, I thought you would like to know that the next book fair is only about 6 weeks away!

 

I'm actually going down to Canberra this weekend (where it's held) but this time I'll be visiting some of the bookshops there. I have a brochure about a whole book trail (there's a couple of dozen bookshops involved) that I've been drooling over for months, but we never have to time to visit them because we spend all our time at the book fair and then are too exhausted to continue looking in other stores.

 

Because we're visiting for other reasons as well, we're just going to select a couple of stores that we each want to visit. Which reminds me, I have to go look at the brochure again and make my choices!

[frankie]

It does seem quite a short "book", what with all the fluffing it with pics and empty pages to make it look longer. And making long introductions which one might forget to read after reading the poem. But as long as it was on sale I might take a look at the poem online, thanks for the link! I'd feel a bit dubious though if I added it on the read-pile. I have the same problem with Rory's challenge, there's Allen Gingsburg's poem Howl on it, and while I could cross it off the list after reading it, I'd feel dishonest to add it on the read-list. Tricky! (That's just my personal opinion of course)

 

Thanks! I was so excited about receiving them that I asked my friend to go especially to the post office today to pick them up. I would have had to wait an extra day otherwise. I'll just have a bit of time to browse through them before bed.

 

What a good friend, s/he's definitely a keeper =) Happy browsing!

 

I actually feel a little silly because I thought I'd been keeping such careful tabs on the number of books on my TBR pile. I have a lot of fun updating all those posts at the beginning of my reading list, so it's a little embarrassing to find that I'm 6 books out after only 2 and a bit months!

 

Ah, don't feel silly! You know it's probably just because you have so many lists to update! You read one book, and unlike some of the others you don't have to just cross it off from TBR list, you also need to cross it off from other lists as well, such as the Rory list, 1001-list, dystopian challenge etc. The same goes for adding TBR books. No wonder if you make one tiny slip sometimes, no matter how much you enjoy updating the posts (I love it too, crossing off books from the lists as read titles feels so rewarding )

 

Frankie, I thought you would like to know that the next book fair is only about 6 weeks away!

 

Oh boy oh boy! 6 weeks seems like such a short time. Where have all the months gone?? By the way, I loved your idea about you harassing that certain person down in Australia and me continuing the harassing in here, maybe if we put our plan to use immediately I'll be having them plane tickets before the fair?! (Can you believe it, he actually mentioned where he lives so now I can bomb his home address with "slight" hints??)

 

I'm actually going down to Canberra this weekend (where it's held) but this time I'll be visiting some of the bookshops there. I have a brochure about a whole book trail (there's a couple of dozen bookshops involved) that I've been drooling over for months, but we never have to time to visit them because we spend all our time at the book fair and then are too exhausted to continue looking in other stores.

 

Excellent idea, visiting the bookshops beforehand so you can concentrate totally on the book fair itself the weekend it's held I wonder if you're going to top my book buying numbers this weekend already...

[Weave]

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

 

After being a bit disappointed in Winton's Breath, I was a little wary of reading Cloudstreet, said to be Winton's masterpiece and a great Australian novel. I can happily report that it is a great Australian novel, if not the great Australian novel.

 

The story follows the lives of two rural families who are thrown together in an Australian city to cope after various family tragedies. The novel is epic in scope, traversing several decades from the Depression on, and this alone was bound to win me over because I appreciate and love novels that show such great character development over a period of time.

 

Winton's writing style is beautiful. He captures the Australian spirit and language wonderfully (he was almost in danger of using every slang phrase ever known, but he managed to stop just short of going overboard).

 

It's quite humorous in some places, and heartbreaking in many others. These families did it so tough, but they still managed to hold their heads up and soldier on, using the typical Aussie humour and mateship to get through it all. Very highly recommended.

 

10/10

 

Fantastic review Kylie! I love 'Cloudstreet', great story, great characters, just a great book

[Kylie]

I have the same problem with Rory's challenge, there's Allen Gingsburg's poem Howl on it, and while I could cross it off the list after reading it, I'd feel dishonest to add it on the read-list. Tricky! (That's just my personal opinion of course)

 

I fortunately found a copy of Howl and Other Poems recently, so as far as I'm concerned it will be a book I can cross off all my lists. Maybe you'll be able to find a cheap copy secondhand, or available from the library.

 

By the way, I loved your idea about you harassing that certain person down in Australia and me continuing the harassing in here, maybe if we put our plan to use immediately I'll be having them plane tickets before the fair?! (Can you believe it, he actually mentioned where he lives so now I can bomb his home address with "slight" hints??)

 

I had the same idea when I realised how few weeks are left. We'll work out a plan of attack and synchronise our watches (which will be difficult with us being in different time zones and all!)

 

I wonder if you're going to top my book buying numbers this weekend already...

 

*goes and checks how many books Frankie has bought this year*

 

78?! I don't think there's any way I'll catch up to you this weekend (actually I just found out we'll have to put the trip back another week). Maybe I'll catch up at the book fair though.

[Kylie]

Fantastic review Kylie! I love 'Cloudstreet', great story, great characters, just a great book

 

Thanks Weave! I remember that you're a fan of Winton too. My memory could be a bit hazy here, but have you also read That Eye, the Sky?

[Kylie]

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

 

I saw the movie a couple of months ago and decided immediately that I had to read the book as well (I usually do things the other way around). It was, of course, just as good as the movie: a short and easy but dark read, full of wonderful imagery and characters.

 

8/10

[Kylie]

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

 

A light, fast read, but rather boring in places. Most of the plot was taken up by a card game, and while I learnt a little that will assist me the next time I watch Paul's grandpa gambling in A Hard Day's Night, it barely held my attention sometimes. Also, even though the story is about 50 years old, it's incredibly sexist, and it's very hard to overlook that sometimes.

 

I'm glad I finally got around to reading a James Bond novel, but it will probably be my first and last.

 

6/10

[Kylie]

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

 

The third in the Sookie Stackhouse series was just as enjoyable as the first two, although I kind of missed having the story set in Bon Temps and revisiting all the characters there.

 

I liked Eric a lot more in this book, and I loved meeting Alcide. Maybe the story didn't quite capture my attention enough though, because I had a little trouble with the plot. Was it just me, or were some of the events not explained very well? I get that

Bill was having an affair - but I never understood why, or how this woman came back into his life and how he ended up with her again. I was quite puzzled.

 

 

8/10

[Kylie]

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

 

An excellent read. I like books concerning the Great Depression and I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about circus life. Such a rough way of life though! I think I would have constantly feared for my life being in that circus, what with all those crazy characters running around fighting and arguing. The cruelty to animals was a bit hard to handle though. But Rosie was awesome.

 

I enjoyed the characters and their interactions with each other. It reminded me of a movie with Jimmy Stewart and Charlton Heston called The Greatest Show on Earth, which is also about a circus. I haven't seen it in a while so for all I know the similarities end there.

 

A very entertaining read and highly recommended.

 

8/10