The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is a curious novel. I really liked the main character. I wanted to pick up this book often. It is about a butler who goes on a car trip to see a housekeeper that used to work in the same house as he did. On his trip he comes to some realizations that his former employer may not have been all that he previously thought he was. He also finds that he may have had feelings for the housekeeper that left the house they both worked at. A very interesting look into the thoughts of this man and what it means to look back at your life, if you don’t particularly like what you were then. I gave this book 4 our of 5 stars.
I really enjoy the climbthestacks reviews and Ashley happens to have already done a video review of The Remains of the Day. It is excellent and you should watch it:
What are we supposed to take away from this book, what is the butler a metaphor? Thanks to YouTube we can get it from the man himself:
Publishers Weekly posted an article yesterday about a rise in book sales. While this is welcome news to any book nerd, myself included, I’m still so sad that there was such a dive in book sales to begin with. Don’t get me wrong I love reading on my kindle, iPhone and iPad, but I miss all the bookshops that once littered malls and especially the smaller mom and pop books stores, that sold new and used books.
These were the real diamond in the rough. I loved to be walking in a new small town and come across a bookstore selling new or used books. Browsing through bookstores is FUN! Even if you don’t come away with anything they give you this wonderful feeling knowing that they are there for a return visits, when next time you might find that real jewel of a book that becomes your new all-time favorite.
The article states that we hit 11.17 billion in sales last year, up from last year, but horribly down from the pre-2009 high of 17 billion. I hope we return to this number and I hope it is soon, because I want to see new bookstores opening up all over the place for book nerd browsing!
When I first heard that new Star Wars comics were going to come out I was very excited and I told myself I will buy all of these and I can’t wait to read them all. Thing is I didn’t realize all of them were coming out at the same time and that comic books now cost $3.99 each! With them all coming out at the same time it is hard to keep up with all of them. Plus 5 of these things would be $20! It is also hard to keep up with all the different ones that are coming out. I think there are a dozen different comics series right now for Star Wars. There is Shattered Empire, Princess Leia, Star Wars, Lando, Chewbacca, etc.
Star Wars: Princess Leia by Mark Waid, contains the first 5 comics from the Princess Leia series. The story was okay, it did give up some details about what happened before the Force Awakens, but really it wasn’t enough. The story was not as well written as Shattered Empire. The art was nowhere near as good as Shattered Empire either. This graphic novel was a fun distraction, but I don’t think it’s going to get non-graphic novel readers to read comic and it’s not going to draw in people who are not already fans of Star Wars. I would say if you are trying to keep up with everything in the Star Wars universe that this is one that you can safely skip. Maybe the next collection of Princess Leia comics will be better.
I liked the writing in this book very much. I originally picked up Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons because it is on my BBC list. I am very glad it was. The characters of Gibbons novel are particular and quirky. I had a little trouble getting to know the family at first, but after I had everyone placed things went really well. I occasionally had to re-read a line or two here and there since the acent some of the characters has was written in a bit difficult language for me.
Women are all alike– aye fussin’ over their fal-lals and bedazin’ a man’s eyes…
I really enjoyed Flora and I loved how the Starkadders addressed her as “Robert Poste’s Child” all the time. I’m totally going to do that to my nephew next time I see him. I loved reading a Penguin Classic. There is something about these little back books that is so enjoyable! Stella Gibbons first novel was this in 1932 and I have to say she did a stellar job on her very first book! Simply amazing for a first effort. The introduction talks about how this plagued her for the rest of her life. She hardly ever talked about the book and when she did, she never mentioned it by name. Only saying that thing or something similar.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. $1.50 at local libraries used book store. Another one I’ve been wanting to read for a very long time. Now, I have a like new copy, still has the Costco price sticker on it ($9.49).
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. $0.75. Another used book find. Another that has been on my list to read a long time!
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I can’t remember exactly, but lets say 75 cents. Another one I have wanted to read for a long time, I hope I get to it very soon!
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. Last 3 bought for $3.75 at local used book store.
My very own black Penguin Classic!
Areopagitica and Other Writings by John Milton. I finally got my very own little black Penguin classic book. I won it on Twitter and I love it!
The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis. $3. I got this not because I’m catholic or even particularly religious, but this guy is a very different Pope from what I’ve read and this is supposed to be his mission statement of sorts. I want to know what he wants to accomplish.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Ever since seeing the movie, I’ve wanted to read the book. I finally picked one up from a used book sale for fifty cents!
And finally, three beautiful books by Ian Fleming. Thunderball, Goldfinger and From Russia with Love. These were $0.50 each. Look at these, how could you say no? These are actually really hard to find. I looked on abebooks and they are not cheap or easy to find. Something to keep any eye out for in the used bookstores.
Ian Fleming Penguin Classics
The take away from this is that I bought 12 books for $33.74 in one month. It’s 2/9 and already I know there are at least 3 books that I have bought and I plan on visiting a book sale this Sunday. This all tells me I need to slow down and I’m buying books faster than I can read them. However, in the month of January I read 16 books. It’s too bad I never seem to catch up. Maybe, someday.
The other take away is that looking at these books again as I write about them makes me want to read them so bad! I can’t wait to get to them. I’m excited about it!
If you get the feeling that this books title and abundance of authors is trying to compensate for something, you would be right. First and foremost, this is a book written for juniors, DK says 8-12. It would probably be perfect for a 8 year-old boy. But I wanted more. I wanted the mysteries that the movie brought to use at least hinted at. Seeing as the target demographic is 8-12 year-old boys it makes sense that the bulk of the book deals with descriptions of characters, buildings, and droids/robots.
I did learn things I didn’t know before leafing through the pages, so it is a worth while checkout from your library, but unless you have some Star Wars fans that fall in the target age group I wouldn’t purchase this one. Keep to the books for the most part. If you have watched the Clone Wars and are watching Rebels you will already know more that what is in this book. There are only four pages or so in the back of the book that pertain to The Force Awakens, so don’t get this if you think it will reveal more about the movie.
Having said that the pictures are great quality like every DK book and there is a lot of information there.
These are just the ones that were on my desk in arms reach
Okay, another 100 book reading challenge article is this thing from the Observer going to be any good?
Does your reading list keep growing? Did you buy books that you’ve never read? It might be time to cross more books from your list this year than ever.
Yep. They got me! At least I’m not the only one.
Most of the books you read are not planned in advance. You don’t sit down in January and say: “The first week of June I’ll read this book.”
Actually, I do do that. I have a pile that I get from the library and I read them in a certain order. Usually by due date and the availability of renewals on the title. Darius Foroux, the author of this article makes a point of saying you need to have a lot of books around. I agree, this helps, but he seems to have forgotten about libraries. To have many books around you need to buy them which costs money. No, again, library, it is free and you can usually check out somewhere around 20 books at a time. Most libraries lending period is between 2 – 3 weeks and you can renew sometimes more than three times. So, I don’t see why you have to have money to read a lot of books.
This doesn’t really apply to me, but I like to borrow books before I buy them. If they are not something I like why should I spend money on them when I can borrow them for free. Last year I saved over $800 by borrowing from local public libraries.
Darius, can I call you Darius, says not to overthink what book you are going to read next. I do like to read some of the reviews on goodreads before starting a book. I like to read the synopsis of the book too, just to see what I’m getting myself into. Before I open any book I also read the cover, front and back to see what I can learn. I think that is all part of reading the book. I also do not skip introductions or forwards. The only part I skips are the notes and acknowledgements at the end of books.
I’m beginning to think Darius’ rules are a little too strict. Reading shouldn’t have so many rules!
I do like this though:
I live by a different motto: Always Be Reading.
I find this makes me feel guilty though. Even as I write this blog post, I’m thinking should I be spending my time doing this or catching up on War and Peace or reading some more of Cold Comfort? I like doing the blog post though so I need to make time for my other projects as well as reading. Still….I do feel guilty any time I’m doing something that is not reading.
Darius is right, you must find time to read books if it is important to you do do so. Just last night:
Next Darius covers a very important point. Don’t read books you don’t like. He says only read relevant books which I think is completely different, but if you don’t like something than stop reading it, good advice, but nothing we haven’t heard before.
Oh, I love this, “read multiple books at once.” Yep. Right now, here is the line up:
These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but I think there are some I forgetting. You get the point though.
Darius’ last point “retain the knowledge”. I do highlight in my kindle and ibooks when I find something I like or something that interest me, but I could be doing a better job of this of course. I never make notes in a library book and I find that takes notes, takes me away from the story and out of “the zone” when I’m reading. Therefore, I stopped doing that years ago.
Good job Darius, you hit some good points and I got a good reminder to be more studious and retain something from all these books I’m reading. Because if you don’t gain anything from reading 100 books in a year, what was the point?
Last check-in I had read 2.5% of War and Peace. So, where am I in the book? I am 6.3% into the book. This is bad, this is very bad. I needed to hit 8.2% by the 31st of January. I’m 2 points or 129 pages behind on my reading. That may not sound like much, but combined with the February goal of another 8.2% of the book or 560 pages, that is going to be a tall building to scale.
I’m reading this on my mobile phone so the pages are very small, which means there are more of them 6,822 pages at the font size I have chosen. Do you think ‘ol Tolstoy would have every thought someone would be reading his work on a small glowing screen which made phone calls and ordered coffee in advance of their arrival at a cafe that charged over $3 for a cup of coffee?
I thought I might be able to find a group reading the book right now especially since the show is out now from BBC. I haven’t watched any of the episodes, but I would like to. We will see, maybe watching an episode or two would help me get more into the book.
I’m so excited. I heard via Kindles and Wine, that Lauren Graham wrote a book! Awesome for fans of the Gilmore Girls, then I read more and see that she voices her own audiobook! I know I’m going to get this right away. I’ve always been a fan of the Gilmore Girls, I think my sister-in-law Lisa introduced me to the show, I’m not sure. Anyway, I’m writing this a little early since I haven’t finished listening to the book yet, I found it on Overdrive, but I had to write down how I felt about the series coming back. Thats right, It has been confirmed by the New York Times that the show is coming back to Netflix! No solid dates, but how awesome. They are recording now!
So, if you will excuse me I have to go back to listening to this audiobook!
Okay, all done. When I was down to the last 20 minutes it was hard to move forward, because I knew the book would end soon and the story and worse of all the sound of Lauren Graham’s voice.
I liked the story. It was a good love triangle and Ms. Graham’s wit is quick which made the whole story that much more enjoyable. The book moved fast but had a wonderful writing style that was very easy on the eyes/ears. I was rooting for one of the guys as soon as he was introduced and that was a fun way to listen to the book. This audiobook earned 4 out of 5 stars with me.
Star Wars: Before the Awakening is really three stories one for each of the characters on its cover: Finn, Rey and Poe. This is a junior novel. Really written for 12 year-old crowd, but it is a Star Wars book the tells the story of these characters before the movie and my local library had a copy, so my decision was made for me. I grabbed this as soon as it came in. And it already has another person waiting for it. They will get their chance now as I have finished it. I loved this book and gave it four stars. It loses one star for being a little easy, written for children as it is. Maybe I shouldn’t mark it off for that since it is a junior novel, but thats just the way I am. 5 stars is perfection after all.
In this novel we find go along with Finn through some of this training and on his first real mission. I had thought the one we saw in the movie was his first, but not so. Rey’s story I don’t want to tell you about. It concerns her scavenger life before the movie. Her story is so excellent, its actually the reason I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5. I loved her story so much, I thought there was more the author could have done with it. Poe’s story is also good. The second best story in the book after Rey’s of course. In it Poe meets general Leia Organa Solo for the first time and goes on a very thrilling mission. If you are a Star Wars fan, young or old, you will enjoy this book!
