mooncat_chelion | Entries tagged with books

Well, finally finished Go Set a Watchman (shakes fist at the stupid busy week that took up her reading time). Overall, I was...ok-ish with it. It was rough at times, probably half of it was Jean Louise/Scout reminiscing on her childhood, and was occasionally hard to follow who was speaking. It apparently was the first draft of what later became To Kill a Mockingbird. (I also learned that Harper Lee was friends with Truman Capote and helped him research material for his book In Cold Blood Neat.) Anyway...( On to the issue at hand. Spoilers, duh )

Final thoughts: I'm ambivalent to this work. It may be worth a read, just to see the origins of To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a rough and flawed story, reflecting the rough and flawed nature of the characters within.

Current Mood: awake

( Previous months )
March
My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic V.2(comic)-Heather Nuhfer
Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words-John Bemelmans Marciano
Attack on Titan V.1(manga)-Hajime Isayama

Edit: Well it's safe to say I did a crap job this year of tracking my books. I shall endeavour to do better next year.

Current Mood: hopeful

( Previous Months )
August
How to Train Your Dragon-Cressida Cowell

Current Mood: accomplished

( The List )

Current Mood: accomplished

Just finished reading The Child Thief by Brom. It's a darker interpretation of the Peter Pan story with some Arthurian elements woven in. I quite enjoyed it. Don't expect anything Disney about it: Peter is pretty much a sociopath, the Lost Boys are killers etc. Still an enjoyable read.

Current Mood: tired

A neat article I found. I'm all for more libraries and less Wal-Marts myself. (Now I know in some areas, folks don't have much choice in where to shop, it's Wal-mart or nothing, but still, using abandoned space for a library is a very good thing, to me)

Where Walmart departs, a library succeeds

( Article under cut for the non link-clicky types )

Current Mood: impressed

( Previous months )
December

Current Mood: geeky

Not that I've read much this year anyway, which is unusual for me. Still, with Atlantic Books closing near me, and the nearby Borders on its last 10 days of existence, local book-browsing options are now slim to none.

Libraries are, of course, still out there, but as much as I love them, I like to read at my own pace. Sometimes i will finish a book in a day, sometimes it might take me weeks, and that due date always looms and I'd feel bad if I had a book checked out and never read it, thus depriving someone else that chance.

Ah well. I still have a backlog of books that are in need of being read, so that'll keep me busy for a while yet.

Current Mood: tired

So, I just finished reading V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. I must say I rather liked it, but then I have a soft spot for dystopian type settings. Certainly had some concepts in it worth pondering. Eventually, I might watch the movie, just to compare it to the comic. *eyes the pile of movies that need watching and books that need reading* Oh, for extra hours in the day. They would be well used.

and dragons:

Current Mood: calm

In other news, Borders is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The store near me, thankfully, is not on the list of scheduled closures. I know with the increasing convenience of e-readers, online ordering, etc, brick and mortar storefronts carrying dead tree books are edging towards eventual extinction; but I still enjoy browsing, picking up a book to flip through it, maybe reading a chapter to decide if I want to take it home. Heck, even with my fascination for all things shiny and electronic, I still pay my bills by check. (I just prefer having a paper trail for finances, which I can later recycle. ;))

(speaking of books, I'm currently enjoying the first of the Night Angel trilogy, The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. Yay, assassins)

Ah well, more information about this can be found here, including the list of stores to be closed.

and dragons:

Current Mood: tired

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"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed."

from The Gunslinger by Stephen King, first of the Dark Tower series. I like it because it's simple, but makes me want to know who these people are, why is one running and the other following, etc.

There are others, but this is the first that comes to mind.

Current Mood: awake

Just for a bit of fun I decided to track what I read over the course of the year, be it manga, books, comics or re-reads of any of the previous. This post will be where I keep the main list. (Unless noted, all things read will be of the dead tree variety)

Mostly this is for my own curiosity, but anyone is welcome to comment or suggest reading material. :)

Current Mood: geeky

I just read an interesting graphic novel, Pride of Baghdad, a fictionalized account of what happened to the four lions that escaped from the Baghdad Zoo when it was bombed in 2003. It is violent, potentially triggering (there is a rape scene), and the end is sad. Still, worth the read, I think.

I spotted it on the shelf at Borders, in fact I only really noticed it because of this article on ten popular graphic novels that often come under fire from those who would have them banned. Included in the list are two others I have read and own: The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman, and Watchmen by Alan Moore. I've heard of several others on the list, but have yet to read them.

Current Mood: contemplative

So, a few days ago

feylan loaned me two books to read: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. I just need to decide which to read first.

The one is touted as "the most famous science fiction novel ever written" and would be the first of Heinlein's works that I will have read, and the other is a post-holocaust/apocalypse/disaster scenario, one of my favourite settings.

Decisions, decisions...

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Boadicea-Enya

I've been working my way through Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone during random free moments in which I have time to read. So far I like it. It's certainly a much lighter read than some of his previous work (Imajica, I'm looking at you) but still entertaining. When the first sentence of a book entreats you to burn it, you know it's going to be interesting, to say the least. :)

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Seether-Remedy

and now, a musical interlude:

Also, I finished A Dirty Job on Thursday. Figured out some of the plot elements way before they happened, but still enjoyed it. *scans her bookshelves for the next book to read*

Current Mood: amused

Stuck home, car-less. Hubby's car is being looked at and he needed mine. Not that I particularly want to go anywhere in this weather, but still, the fact that I can't is irksome.

Ah well, might as well clean...or something.

*edit* Or..continue reading Anansi Boys. Quite enjoying it right now.
*second edit, several hours later* Rather, finishing Anansi Boys.

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: Terrapin Station-Grateful Dead

Don't take too long to think about it. List fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you, for whatever reasons. This isn't your top 15 canon or even books you'd necessarily recommend, just books that have made their mark on you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

Meme taken from: various users

In no particular order:

Stephen King-The Dark Tower (series)
Margaret Atwood-The Handmaid's Tale
George Orwell-1984
Richard Bach-Illusions
C.S. Lewis-The Chronicles of Narnia (series)
Stephen King-The Stand
William Kotzwinkle-Dr. Rat
Richard Adams-Watership Down
Michael Ende-The Neverending Story
Richard Bach-Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Mary Brown-The Unlikely Ones
J.R.R. Tolkien-The Hobbit
George Orwell-Animal Farm
Peter S. Beagle-The Last Unicorn
Douglas Adams-Last Chance to See

That isn't nearly all of them, just the first fifteen my shoddy brain could dredge up from my malfunctioning memory. Many of the books that I've read have left some mark on me, however large or small, be it something to think about, or an amusing turn of phrase, or a setting that I admire, etc. Picking a mere fifteen wasn't easy.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Pts 1-5)-Pink Floyd

*Dusts off the ol' LiveJournal*

But..I like both. Hmm...

( Cat Logic )

I also just finished reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher, the first novel in the Dresden Files. I rather liked it, even if it was told in first-person narrative, a style that I sometimes can't get into. It worked well in the Myth books by Robert Asprin, and was ok in the first few novels of the Anita Blake series, before I got so fed up with them that I refused to read another. Here it works as well, being almost a tradition of detective type novels to be narrated in this style. Harry Dresden is a likable character, and is refreshingly not overpowered, as many in the "supernatural fiction" genre tend to be.

The bookstore didn't have volume two when I went there yesterday, so I contented myself with Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and The Pessimist's Guide to History by Doris Flexner and Stuart Berg Flexner, a compendium of historical disasters, mayhem and catastrophes. Whee.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: home
Current Music: Ruby Dear-Talking Heads

I do, on occasion, ponder the notion that books choose their time to be read. Case in point is my newest reading endeavour, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. This is the third time I've picked up the book, the previous two just never caught on, but this time I think I'll be able to finish it. Which is good, because I'm curious about the story.

Same thing has happened with The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. Now I love his work, but for some reason I keep being unable to finish the book. Guess it's not the right time yet.

*Pats Anansi Boys, soon I'll get to you. along with the pile of others waiting to be read*

oh hai, dragons: