Category: Everything Else

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Other Weekly Geeks

Weekly Geeks: Why Haven’t I Read This Yet?

My TBR pile is currently standing at around 500 books, so there are a lot which I would love to read. There are a few which stand out as being long overdue though.

Here are the ones I am most looking forward to reading:



The Wind – Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

I love Murakami, but for some strange reason I haven’t read his most famous book yet. I plan to read it in the next few months (but I have been saying that for about a year now!)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

I have had a copy sitting on my shelves for about 6 months now – I really want to read it – especially when I see everyone has now moved on to the rest of the trilogy.

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

I have no idea how this book avoided my radar for so long. It only entered my TBR pile a few months ago, but the main question should be why it failed to get there sooner.

Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
I don’t think I’ll love this book, but I hate being the only one who hasn’t read it. I’ve somehow ended up owning three copies – I should really make the time to read it soon!



The Virgin Suicides – Jeffery Eugenides
This book has been on my shelves for years. I loved Middlesex, so I really should have got round to this ages ago. I think I’ll save it until 2010 though – it is always good to have a favourite waiting to be read – I’d hate to have nothing to look forward to!

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Have you read all these books?
Which was your favourite?


Have a look what the other weekly geeks haven’t got round to reading yet.

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Other

Links I’ve stumbled across this week

Bookish Links

 
Neil Gaiman wins the Hugo Award for The Graveyard Book.

The Guardian has revealed the VERY long list for the Not the Booker Prize.

I found this article about the secrets of the Amazon best-seller list very interesting.

This list of the 50 Best sites for audio books addicts was very useful.

Book discoveries

Another Cookie Crumbles persuaded me to add The Magic Toyshop to my wish list.

I’m always on the look out for good audio books to listen to, so Beth Fish Reads review of Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan added it to the TBR list straight away!

Award

Sandy kindly awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award.

Thank you Sandy!

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If you haven’t visited Sandy’s blog yet then you really should. We have a similar taste in books, so if you enjoy reading my blog you will love hers.

Sandy is also one of the best commenters in the blogosphere. She is almost always the first person to comment on my posts and I am really hoping she wins the best commenter award (along with a few of the other categories!) at this year’s Book Blogger Appreciation Week.

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Other

The winner is…..

The winner of Kill-Grief by Caroline Rance is…..

Melissa from  Shhh I’m Reading…

Congratulations Melissa! Caroline will contact you soon to arrange for a copy to be sent to you. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

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Uncategorized

One Morning Like a Bird – Andrew Miller

Ingenious Pain is one of my favourite books, so when I spotted that Andrew Miller had written a book set in Japan, a country I love reading about, I was very excited.

The book is set in Tokyo during WWII and focuses on Yuri, a young man who is unable to fight due to ill-health. He becomes friends with a French trader and his family, but as the war progresses this friendship causes him to have to make some difficult decisions.

As with all books written by Andrew Miller the writing is very good – it is simple, but effective. The book is well researched and explains the lives of the Japanese during the war well. My only criticism would be that it lacks the Japanese atmosphere that I love to read about – I can’t picture the sights, sounds and smells of 1940s Japan – this is a minor problem though. The characters are all well developed and believable, and the plot, although not having a fast pace, is engaging.

The lives of Japanese civilians during WWII isn’t something I’ve read about before, so seeing things through their eyes gives a whole new layer to the European war stories we are so used to reading.

I admire Andrew Miller for branching out into a new area and being able to create such a diverse range of books. I will continue to keep an eye out for his new releases and this book will ensure he keeps his place on my list of favourite authors.

Recommended. 

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Have you read any books written by Andrew Miller?

Have you read books set in Japan during WWII?

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I’m going to Edinburgh….

edinburgh

Tomorrow morning I’m travelling up to Edinburgh for the festival. I’ve got a few comedy nights booked and will hopefully manage to catch a few book events too.

I’m taking a laptop, so hopefully will be able to keep blogging as usual, but just in case the Wi-Fi doesn’t work I thought I’d let you know where I’ve gone!

Have you ever been to the Edinburgh festival?

Do you like seeing live comedy?

Who would you rather see – your favourite author or your favourite comedian?

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Blogging Other

The importance of honest book reviews

If you weren’t on Twitter yesterday you may have missed the debate which is currently occurring on my Wolf Hall post. I have been accused of not:

…being honest (or rather fair) about the book at all.

 My critic goes on to say that:

…to go and write a review about a work after getting only a fifth of the way through is not only ridiculous, but degrading to the responsibility of the critic.

Several other people were subjected to more abusive comments on their negative reviews yesterday – all by different people. I’m not sure what was happening yesterday, but there was a lot of bad feeling flying around.

I stand by my decision to write negative reviews for books.  The quotes I pulled from the book may not be representative of the text overall, but do explain exactly why I did not enjoy reading it.

I should perhaps make it clearer that my ratings are no indication of the quality of the book, but are purely based on how much I enjoyed reading it. There are lots of people who love reading Wolf Hall, and they in turn probably don’t enjoy reading the same books as me. There are millions of books out there, so it is great that we all enjoy reading different ones.

The blogging community has emerged so that like minded people can join together and discuss the books we’ve read. I think it is a shame that more people don’t write negative reviews, as I find it much easier to determine whether my taste in books matches someone elses if the complete range of books they’ve read is on display. As long as the review is not abusive or an attack on the author, then it can only help people to discover books they enjoy, therefore encourage more reading. I know that since I have found people whose recommendations I trust, the quality and therefore quantity of books I’ve read had increased massively.

I really hope that the abusive comments that were flying around yesterday do not prevent people from giving honest opinions on the books they’ve read.

How do you feel about negative reviews?

Do you think there is anything important to mention when writing negative reviews?

Were you put off writing negative reviews after reading the abusive comments others received yesterday?