Reading

[rebness]

So, if nothing else, Spanish TV and its absolute bleakness means that I have managed to put a halt to neglecting my reading habits. For posterity, here’s a brief catch-up of reading this year:

 

 

The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger ***

 

This book had a really interesting concept: a man who is (unwillingly) dragged back and forward through his own life and the effects it has upon him but mainly the woman he loves. It had some evocative scenes and the ending in particular stays with me, but underneath it all it was basically a love story rather than sci-fi and…er… I didn’t much care for that. The good parts, though, made it worth the read.

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – JK Rowling ****

 

Yaay

 

The Accidental – Ali Smith ***

 

I have a lot of goodwill towards Smith. Hotel World absolutely captivated me and this book gripped me right until the end. It’s one of those mysterious-stranger-shows-up-and-changes-everyone’s-lives kind of thing, but one full of literary jokes and an air of menace. I don’t know what happened towards the end, though. It was three-quarters a really, really good read, original, funny, dark and then just… not. 

ETA: Although the scathing account of Love Actually and its inherent dishonesty was for me one of the lulziest moments of any novel I've ever read.

 

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon ****

 

Re-read. I love this book and loved it more upon the second reading. The end.

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway (unfinished)

 

I thought it was high time I read this book, so bought it on the flight back from America in April. It’s about something that deeply interests me – the Spanish Civil War – but I keep putting it down because something about the writing irritates me, possibly the fact that every time he refers to the protagonist, he uses his full name. It’s a small irritation, but one that drags me out of the narrative each and every time. 

Labyrinth – Kate Mosse (unfinished) 

I keep putting this one down and leaving it for weeks at a time. I don't know why; it's good and draws me in whenever I read it, but it's also easy to forget. Huh.

 

The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo ***

 

I read Veronika Decides to Die a few years ago an came away thinking that Coehlo was a pretentious git. The Alchemist, though really evocative and thoughtful in some parts, did little to disabuse me of this notion. I know everyone loves this book and I suppose I can see why, but I still dunt like him. 

Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks ****

 

Yet another novel about the First World War, but so very well-written that it stands out as one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s about the life of young English soldier and his experiences at the time, but there are so many other strands to the story – his clandestine love affair with a married woman, his granddaughter’s quest to find out more about him, the fate of the people he fought with and so on. The war scenes were unrelentingly graphic; at times, it was hard to continue reading because Faulks doesn’t flinch from describing a man’s brains slopping out of the ruins of his skull when a paragraph earlier he had been joking with another character, so that I was relieved whenever the action cut to his granddaughter’s perspective years later. I managed to get so much from this book and I think it deserves the praise lauded on it by the press and public alike.

 

Manon Lescaut – Abbe Prevost

 

Still reading. Enjoying immensely.

Comments

[jaffacakequeen.livejournal.com]

Laybrynth was too long, it needed editing. Some good stuff in it, like the trips around France and scenic battles... but it went on too long.

i liked Time Traveller's Wife, i think they going to film it..

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Ooer... looks like Labyrinth might be waiting a little longer to be picked up again, then.

I think Time Traveller's Wife would make a good film. It strikes me as very cinematic.

[keep-warm.livejournal.com]

I. Hate. Paulo. Coehlo.

I hate him.

I wanna kick him square in the nuts.

I spent many hours arguing with an Eng Lit professor over this, but all structuralist theory and neo-romanticism aside he. Just. Fucking. Sucks.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I am so glad that I never had to study him, srsly.

[keep-warm.livejournal.com]

The good thing is that I got to write an essay which basically said "this guy is a pretentious twatwaffle" using lit crit jargon. Always fun. See also using third wave feminism to point out that Jane Austen wrote the ame book fifty times.

[pandorasblog]

The Time Traveller's Wife will star Eric Bana as Henry. Mmmmmmm...

I loved the book; I cried buckets over it. I don't normally pick up a book for the love angle because I think it's hard to do well, but I think this is a book as much about loss as love, and that pushes my buttons, particularly when it's done as well as this.

I didn't know you were so into sci-fi; if I find anything interesting, can I slap a BC label on it and send it to you for release in Spain after you read it? I recently came across something that is a sci-fi and feminist classic, which was pretty interesting: Memoirs of a Spacewoman, by Naomi Mitchison. And I think others are lurking in my shelves.

#1 recommendation: Vonnegut. See if you can find Cat's Cradle; I thought it was incredible.

[jaffacakequeen.livejournal.com]

nice choice...

plus must write down those other books, they sound really interesting.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Checked IMDB - Rachel McAdams will play Claire! I love her - will definitely see it just for those two in the leads.

Thanks for the other recs. Shall check them out.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I liked The Accidental quite a lot. Time Traveller's Wife is one I've been meaning to read.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I´d recommend it.

Have you read anything else by Ali Smith?

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

No, that was the first I'd heard of her. I'd like to read more eventually, though.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely recommend Hotel World. It's a really strange book, but stayed with me for a long while afterwards.

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

LOLZ are those star ratings out of five??

[rebness.livejournal.com]

No, 17, bb

[tsaress.livejournal.com]

I can't read Labyrinth – Kate Mosse it bores me to death I've only read 30 pages.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

LMAO! Well, at least you're honest.