Today's Musing Monday is... "What is your preferred method of listening to audio books? Where and when do you listen to them?"
I don't read many audiobooks, because I'm pretty bad about zoning out when reading and I need the safety net of being able to go back a few sentences or paragraphs to where I stopped paying attention.
But Scott likes having audiobooks to listen to while he's playing video games and whatnot, so I've been trying to get more interested in them. We had success a few weeks ago with The Bad Beginning, probably because it's short and not very complicated and also I'd already read it. Oh, and it's narrated by Tim Curry and I could listen to him read the phone book. I've checked out The Reptile Room, and perhaps soon we will listen to that together as well.
07 September 2009
05 September 2009
Links of the Week
Links links links! If you've any fun ones to share, put 'em in the comments!
An interactive map of book challenges over the past couple years. (via The Book Bench)
Don't forget to take your bookmarks out of those books you're getting rid of... they might end up on the internet. (via Just One More Page...)
I'm not gonna lie, my favorite part of this video is the fact that Jeffrey Tambor is not a terrible-looking woman. (via The Book Lady's Blog)
An interactive map of book challenges over the past couple years. (via The Book Bench)
Don't forget to take your bookmarks out of those books you're getting rid of... they might end up on the internet. (via Just One More Page...)
I'm not gonna lie, my favorite part of this video is the fact that Jeffrey Tambor is not a terrible-looking woman. (via The Book Lady's Blog)
04 September 2009
The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle (2 September — 3 September)
I'm finally getting a start on that Baker Street Challenge I've been neglecting! Yay! (And it's a mystery and kind of creepy, really, so I'm gonna throw it in with RIP as well.)
This is one of those books that I've never read but that I feel like I've read because I saw a version of it on television, though it was many many years ago and it was the Rescue Rangers "Pound of the Baskervilles" and I don't remember it very well but I don't think it was much the same. :) It might have been, though.
In the novel, a Dr. Mortimer seeks Sherlock Holmes's help in a supernatural mystery; Mortimer's patient and friend Sir Charles Baskerville has died in mysterious circumstances that fit in with the family legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles. This Charles was declared dead of a heart attack, but Mortimer believes that a large hound was involved, judging by some footprints a ways away that the police didn't care about. If that wasn't bad enough, the last remaining Baskerville, a Sir Henry, is on his way to take over the estate and Mortimer fears for Henry's life.
Holmes, as ever, does some deducting and sends Watson out to the moor with Sir Henry to watch over him and report back. While there, Watson encounters some rather odd things that make him wonder if there isn't a spectral hound out to get the Baskervilles!
So, now I have read this book, and it was good! And, I will admit, the atmosphere and the case were just creepy enough that I was a little jumpy toward the end of the book and in fact was briefly scared by Scott holding a Wiimote over my head. And then I was just confused. :)
Rating: 7/10
(Baker Street Challenge, RIP Challenge)
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
This is one of those books that I've never read but that I feel like I've read because I saw a version of it on television, though it was many many years ago and it was the Rescue Rangers "Pound of the Baskervilles" and I don't remember it very well but I don't think it was much the same. :) It might have been, though.
In the novel, a Dr. Mortimer seeks Sherlock Holmes's help in a supernatural mystery; Mortimer's patient and friend Sir Charles Baskerville has died in mysterious circumstances that fit in with the family legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles. This Charles was declared dead of a heart attack, but Mortimer believes that a large hound was involved, judging by some footprints a ways away that the police didn't care about. If that wasn't bad enough, the last remaining Baskerville, a Sir Henry, is on his way to take over the estate and Mortimer fears for Henry's life.
Holmes, as ever, does some deducting and sends Watson out to the moor with Sir Henry to watch over him and report back. While there, Watson encounters some rather odd things that make him wonder if there isn't a spectral hound out to get the Baskervilles!
So, now I have read this book, and it was good! And, I will admit, the atmosphere and the case were just creepy enough that I was a little jumpy toward the end of the book and in fact was briefly scared by Scott holding a Wiimote over my head. And then I was just confused. :)
Rating: 7/10
(Baker Street Challenge, RIP Challenge)
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
03 September 2009
Booking Through Thursday (3 September)
Today's Booking Through Thursday question is... "What’s the biggest book you’ve read recently? (Feel free to think “big” as size, or as popularity, or in any other way you care to interpret.)"
Let me check my recent posts... hmm... I think I have to go with The Time Traveler's Wife, which I re-read in August. It is pretty long (over 500 pages in my trade paperback) and when I read it it was rather popular, what with the movie coming out and everything.
I could (and will!) also list Princeps' Fury, which is not a chunkster like some of its brethren but is part of one of those epic fantasy series (though not as epic as some).
Speaking of sweeping epic fantasy series, Scott is trying to get me to continue on with the Wheel of Time series, of which I have read the first book, more than a year ago. I would maybe be interested, but I feel like those are the sort of books you have to read at least rather close to each other or else lose the thread of the story. What do you think? If I'm not planning on reading more than, say, one every two months, is it worth getting into?
Let me check my recent posts... hmm... I think I have to go with The Time Traveler's Wife, which I re-read in August. It is pretty long (over 500 pages in my trade paperback) and when I read it it was rather popular, what with the movie coming out and everything.
I could (and will!) also list Princeps' Fury, which is not a chunkster like some of its brethren but is part of one of those epic fantasy series (though not as epic as some).
Speaking of sweeping epic fantasy series, Scott is trying to get me to continue on with the Wheel of Time series, of which I have read the first book, more than a year ago. I would maybe be interested, but I feel like those are the sort of books you have to read at least rather close to each other or else lose the thread of the story. What do you think? If I'm not planning on reading more than, say, one every two months, is it worth getting into?
02 September 2009
Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (1 September)
Wow. Just... wow. This book was excellent. Amazing. Wonderful, even. So good that when I described it to Scott, he told me to let him read it next, and this guy usually has to be begged and pleaded to read a book I like. So, yeah.
The novel is presented as a series of journal entries from our protagonist, Miranda, and starts off like the journal of a normal teenager — her dad is having a kid with his new young wife, there are tests that must be studied for, she's growing apart from her friends, her teachers are giving all sorts of extra homework because of some asteroid that's going to hit the moon. You know. The asteroid thing is supposed to be pretty cool to watch, so there are lots of block parties and things like that, but when the event actually happens, there is panic. See, those astronomer fellows who said that everything was going to be okay misjudged the mass of the asteroid and it ended up pushing the moon rather closer to the Earth. Uh-oh. (I don't know if this could really happen, but that's what speculative fiction is for, yes?)
At first, nothing seems much different except that the moon is huge in the sky. But soon reports are coming in about stronger tides taking out coastal areas everywhere, including some offshore oil rigs. Everyone panics and buys out the supermarkets; the cost of gas goes up right quick; the electricity starts to blink out. But still Miranda has to go to school... until the school, with no electricity and no food and a decreasing student population, closes early. And then things get worse.
I loved this book and devoured it in just a few hours. Pfeffer could have gone for the "people helping people" saccharine view, or the "people murdering people" depressing view, but instead she wrote this incredibly realistic account of what you and I would probably go through if suddenly something like this happened. I was sympathetic not just to Miranda but to her mother and brothers and her father's new family and her friends who've gone weird but who are still her friends, and I cried a whole bunch when some bad things happened to these good people.
And apparently there's a sequel! Oh, goody! I love it when excellent books turn into series. It's like some excellent whipped cream on an excellent scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mmm, ice cream.
Rating: 10/10
See also:
Book Nut
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
things mean a lot
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
The novel is presented as a series of journal entries from our protagonist, Miranda, and starts off like the journal of a normal teenager — her dad is having a kid with his new young wife, there are tests that must be studied for, she's growing apart from her friends, her teachers are giving all sorts of extra homework because of some asteroid that's going to hit the moon. You know. The asteroid thing is supposed to be pretty cool to watch, so there are lots of block parties and things like that, but when the event actually happens, there is panic. See, those astronomer fellows who said that everything was going to be okay misjudged the mass of the asteroid and it ended up pushing the moon rather closer to the Earth. Uh-oh. (I don't know if this could really happen, but that's what speculative fiction is for, yes?)
At first, nothing seems much different except that the moon is huge in the sky. But soon reports are coming in about stronger tides taking out coastal areas everywhere, including some offshore oil rigs. Everyone panics and buys out the supermarkets; the cost of gas goes up right quick; the electricity starts to blink out. But still Miranda has to go to school... until the school, with no electricity and no food and a decreasing student population, closes early. And then things get worse.
I loved this book and devoured it in just a few hours. Pfeffer could have gone for the "people helping people" saccharine view, or the "people murdering people" depressing view, but instead she wrote this incredibly realistic account of what you and I would probably go through if suddenly something like this happened. I was sympathetic not just to Miranda but to her mother and brothers and her father's new family and her friends who've gone weird but who are still her friends, and I cried a whole bunch when some bad things happened to these good people.
And apparently there's a sequel! Oh, goody! I love it when excellent books turn into series. It's like some excellent whipped cream on an excellent scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mmm, ice cream.
Rating: 10/10
See also:
Book Nut
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
things mean a lot
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
01 September 2009
Happy Belated Birthday to Me!
Oh no! I've been sitting here thinking that I started this blog sometime in September of last year, because I'm crazy and a) did not make a "look at this blog I started!" post and b) copied over the reviews from my hand-made site to fill up space and make my blog look less lonely. And somewhere along the way I got the idea that I started it in the middle of September, though now that I have the correct info I have no idea where I went wrong.
But! Anyway! Looking over at my LiveJournal, I see that actually, I made my first post here on 26 August 2008, a stunning review of The Stepford Wives. So... yeah. Happy 371 days of blogging to me!
But! Anyway! Looking over at my LiveJournal, I see that actually, I made my first post here on 26 August 2008, a stunning review of The Stepford Wives. So... yeah. Happy 371 days of blogging to me!
The Little Road Trip Handbook, by Erin McHugh (27 August — 30 August)
Speaking of wanting to go on a road trip... this book is really making me long for one! Scott and I go on "road trips" all the time, driving a long way to get places, but this book is more to get you ready for a Kerouac-type trip — maybe you have a destination in mind, but there's plenty of time to stop and see anything and everything else along the way!
McHugh sets out the important things for a road trip: who and what to bring (and NOT to bring!), what music to listen to, how to assign duties for your fellow road-trippers (from Driver to Mapper to Point Man), and even what games to play when you get bored. And, of course, the obligatory "weird state laws section":
Ohio
• Getting a fish drunk is unlawful.
• A driver must honk the horn when he or she passes another car. (This is totally in the driver's ed manual, but I have never heard anyone do it, ever.)
• No one may be arrested on Sunday or the Fourth of July. (Mmhmm...)
Newark, NJ
• Selling ice cream after 6 p.m. is illegal unless the customer has a note from his doctor.
Tennessee
• Daring a child to purchase beer is against the law.
And more, of course, but those are the ones I enjoyed. :)
I definitely need to buy a copy of this book and put it in my glove box.
Rating: 8/10
See also:
Dreadlock Girl Reads
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
McHugh sets out the important things for a road trip: who and what to bring (and NOT to bring!), what music to listen to, how to assign duties for your fellow road-trippers (from Driver to Mapper to Point Man), and even what games to play when you get bored. And, of course, the obligatory "weird state laws section":
Ohio
• Getting a fish drunk is unlawful.
• A driver must honk the horn when he or she passes another car. (This is totally in the driver's ed manual, but I have never heard anyone do it, ever.)
• No one may be arrested on Sunday or the Fourth of July. (Mmhmm...)
Newark, NJ
• Selling ice cream after 6 p.m. is illegal unless the customer has a note from his doctor.
Tennessee
• Daring a child to purchase beer is against the law.
And more, of course, but those are the ones I enjoyed. :)
I definitely need to buy a copy of this book and put it in my glove box.
Rating: 8/10
See also:
Dreadlock Girl Reads
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
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