When comparing this to the other books in the series like Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening. It doesn’t do to well. The story was extremely slow to start. Don’t get me wrong the book reads very fast. It took me two days and I had a ton of interruptions in reading. I’m glad I read this only because I know its not integral to the story of the Force Awakens.
The story follows Luke on a mission he is doing for the Rebel Alliance. Although, he never gets to the mission in the book (too bad, might have been a better story). He feels himself attracted (via the Force) to a planet he has never been to before. He visits the planet and figures out why the Force was calling him, unfortunately his presence has not gone unnoticed. A new bad guy finds him. The story is little ruined by the fact that we all know Luke makes it.
No surprises and a slow story earns this book 3 stars. One star for being about Star Wars included. If you are following along in the series you can skip this one, but its under 200 pages and written for a much younger audience so the book goes very fast. Just don’t expect it to be your favorite Star Wars novel.
This is not a good update. I’m way, way behind on reading this. I should be around 16 almost 17% through the book. When I last checked in with you in February I was at 6.3%. I am now at 7.2%. I have not been picking on this book very often. Even the fact that it is on my phone has not helped me read more. I thought that would increase my reading of it since I always have my phone so it is more convenient for me to read the book. But, there is always something else that I want to read more than this book.
I also thought that if I got all the War and Peace episodes from the new 2016 television mini-series that would get me more into reading this book. It has not. I’ve read 35 books so far this year. Most of them, I’ve read after having already started War and Peace, but I just can’t bring myself to pick up this book and as for the television show, I can’t seem to work up the excitement needed to turn that on either. There is just always a book I would rather spend my time with instead of watching anything on tv.
Currently, I’m avoiding War and Peace by reading Notes from a Small Island and Golden Son. Both much more immersive than War and Peace. Any suggestions on how I can get excited about reading War and Peace?
Three standouts out of 9 books. I think I liked Graham’s book more because I was excited to read what Rory Gillmore’s mom wrote. Plus, it was read by herself, which is always the best in an audio book. Cold Comfort surprised me. I was expecting a more stuffy book than I got and I enjoyed how nosey the main character was. The remains of the day was different, it was stuffy, but it really worked with the story in this case. The Darth Vader graphic novel was very good. I may have short changed it slightly as goodreads only allows whole number scores, this is much closer to 5 than four, but its not perfect. If you read one of the books above make it Darth Vader. I can’t believe I don’t have a post on that. I will have to so something about it.
As far as the 100 book challenge goes, I’m a head of schedule. I read more than 8 books in January and I read 9 in February, so, I’m good. So far in March, I’ve read a bunch of graphic novels. I’m in good shape.
February was an unexpectedly slow buying month for me. I found these three at the local libraries used bookstore.
I bought All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque because it was the reading group book of the month at least a year ago with one of my virtual reading clubs The History Book Club. Ever since they had this as their reading pick, I’ve been trying to track it down at used bookstores. I finally had some luck and found a decent copy last month. I’m excited about this because it qualifies as a foreign books since it was originally written in German and translated by A. W. Wheen.
Next, I found a Penguin Classic in its beautiful black and white paperback binding. I had no idea what Silas Marner was about before I grabbed it, but you can’t go wrong with George Eliot, so I grabbed it. I’m reading now on goodreads it is..
George Eliot’s tale of a solitary miser gradually redeemed by the joy of fatherhood.
Okay sounds good. This was $2 and looks like its never been opened. MSRP is $7. Not a bad savings.
Lastly, I’m very excited that I found More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl in the same bookstore. I got it for $1 and it is in the best condition. I would think it has never been opened. Very happy to have grabbed this as I have the first book, Book Lust and I absolutely loved it! They are great references to have around! It says on the cover there are 1,000 new recommendations! Sweet!
Me Reading Truthwitch on my Kindle while recovering from surgery
Several days ago I had ankle surgery on my right ankle. For those wondering it was not related to an injury, just had a bum bone in my foot. I’m enjoying all the time I have to read, but to be honest I am getting restless. My foot needs to stay elevated to typing at my desk is hard, since there is no where to put my foot up.
I’ve read four graphic novels and that I got from the library and I finished The Color Purple. I’ll write about them as soon as I can, but in the meantime. I am afraid its back to my chair so I can put my foot up. Hang in there with me and I’ll get back to regular post just as soon as I can.
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!
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!
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.
The Open Syllabus Project, is an effort to make the intellectual judgment embedded in syllabi relevant to broader explorations of teaching, publishing, and intellectual history. It released the top texts taught from the top US universities over the last 15 years and Quartz released an article listing them. This is exactly the kind of thing that I love. I love to keep learning and the way that works best for me is reading because I also love that. So, they only hard part is choosing the right books. These are definitely some of them. See the list they released below:
I would so love all of these books. I’ve read only a few. Most if not all of them are available as a penguin classic. In their little black perfect paperback versions. I love these. If only you could buy all of them in one go, with of course an accompanying bookshelf! Someday, Someday, Maybe.
