Days spent reading: 25
Books read: 10
...in fiction: 9
...in science fiction: 2
...in mystery: 2
...in non-fiction: 1
...in thriller: 1
...in short stories: 1
...in fantasy: 1
...in graphic novels: 1
...in young adult: 3
Series reads: none
Favorite book: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (Review) 9/10
and Woman With Birthmark by Håkan Nesser (Review) 9/10
Challenges
Countdown Challenge: +2 books for 42/45
Summer Lovin' Challenge: +0 books for 0/10
Chunkster Challenge: +1 books for 5/6
The Baker Street Challenge: +0 books for 0/3
My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge: +1 books for 1/12
Support Your Local Library Challenge: +4 books for 50/50 Completed!
Orbis Terrarum Challenge: +2 books for 8/10
30 June 2009
29 June 2009
Musing Mondays (29 June)
This week's Musing Mondays asks... "Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?"
I was actually just starting to put together my June wrap-up post yesterday, which led to starting the end of year wrap-up post (because I wanted to do it before I got lazy again, and because it was good for procrastinating studying), so I can answer this question pretty easily!
My highest-rated (and, coincidentally, favorite) book of the year so far is Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. I mentioned last week that I had actually returned this book to the library unread, so I'm very lucky that Scott read it while I had it the first time and coerced me into reading it. Sanderson writes some kick-ass female protagonists, so if that's your cup of tea, you should check this one out.
I also want to pimp The Manual of Detection, a great book that I don't think I've seen other reviews for outside of the one in BookPage that got me interested in the first place. This is a great mystery novel on so many levels and Berry just sucks you into this fantastical world he's created with his brilliant writing.
I was actually just starting to put together my June wrap-up post yesterday, which led to starting the end of year wrap-up post (because I wanted to do it before I got lazy again, and because it was good for procrastinating studying), so I can answer this question pretty easily!
My highest-rated (and, coincidentally, favorite) book of the year so far is Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. I mentioned last week that I had actually returned this book to the library unread, so I'm very lucky that Scott read it while I had it the first time and coerced me into reading it. Sanderson writes some kick-ass female protagonists, so if that's your cup of tea, you should check this one out.
I also want to pimp The Manual of Detection, a great book that I don't think I've seen other reviews for outside of the one in BookPage that got me interested in the first place. This is a great mystery novel on so many levels and Berry just sucks you into this fantastical world he's created with his brilliant writing.
28 June 2009
Summer Lovin' Challenge
I'm a week late on starting this, but that's cool, right? The Summer Lovin' Challenge asks participants to re-read some favorite novels over the summer (21 June — 21 September). Considering I haven't re-read a book since... a long time ago, I think this is the perfect challenge for me. I'm going to try to re-read 10 books in the next three months out of the list below.
Book pool:
Harry Potter books 1-7, by J.K. Rowling
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
In the Woods, by Tana French
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy", by Douglas Adams
Wicked and Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
Actually read:
1. Zoe's Tale, by John Scalzi (Review)
2. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (Review)
3. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, by J.K. Rowling (Review)
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling (Review)
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (Review)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (Review)
7. The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket (Review)
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (Review)
9. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (Review)
10. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle (Review)
24 June 2009
The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (20 June — 24 June)
Wow. What a book. I have to admit that I'm still not exactly sure what happened in this book, but in this case I think that's a good thing!
Zafón takes us to turn-of-the-century Barcelona to meet David Martín, a writer of crime stories first in the newspaper and then as part of a ridiculously long contract for monthly novels. After his first story is published, Martín receives a note from an Andreas Corelli congratulating him on his talent and expressing a wish to work with him in the future. These sorts of notes keep popping up until one day Martín and Corelli meet under odd circumstances and Martín decides to take Corelli up on his offer. This would be all well and good except it seems that Corelli has more than a few tricks up his sleeve and that Martín's life — his health and his world — may be in a bit of danger.
This novel is a bit fantastical but still reads like something that could happen to someone you know someday. I was never really sure what was going on with Corelli or with Diego Marlasca, another mysterious character in the novel, but I was with Martín 100 percent... until near the end, when all of the novel's truths are thrown up in the air like a deck of cards and I was turning pages furiously to see which cards would land face-up. (How about that metaphor?)
The ending was sort of a let-down; I thought it could have ended earlier, but I may be missing something. I'll have to read this through again in the future.
Rating: 8/10
(Chunkster Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Spain)
Zafón takes us to turn-of-the-century Barcelona to meet David Martín, a writer of crime stories first in the newspaper and then as part of a ridiculously long contract for monthly novels. After his first story is published, Martín receives a note from an Andreas Corelli congratulating him on his talent and expressing a wish to work with him in the future. These sorts of notes keep popping up until one day Martín and Corelli meet under odd circumstances and Martín decides to take Corelli up on his offer. This would be all well and good except it seems that Corelli has more than a few tricks up his sleeve and that Martín's life — his health and his world — may be in a bit of danger.
This novel is a bit fantastical but still reads like something that could happen to someone you know someday. I was never really sure what was going on with Corelli or with Diego Marlasca, another mysterious character in the novel, but I was with Martín 100 percent... until near the end, when all of the novel's truths are thrown up in the air like a deck of cards and I was turning pages furiously to see which cards would land face-up. (How about that metaphor?)
The ending was sort of a let-down; I thought it could have ended earlier, but I may be missing something. I'll have to read this through again in the future.
Rating: 8/10
(Chunkster Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Spain)
23 June 2009
Bookhunter, by Jason Shiga (20 June)
These graphic novel things are starting to grow on me. I don't think I'm ready for any big-kid books, like Watchmen and the like, but I'm getting there!
So this is a nice, short, simple-drawing book about the library police. No, really. I saw this description of it while plowing through the Unshelved archives (excellent comic, p.s., you should also go plow through the archives), and I was, to say the least, intrigued. Library police? Concentric locked-room mysteries?? Library police??? How can I join?
And, happily, it was a good time. We get what seems to be a cold open with the library police tracking down a guy who is stealing all the copies of one particular book from the Oakland Public Library. Agent Bay and his team bust in and totally get the guy, but then we don't care about him anymore and we move on to the main story. In this, there's a Bible missing and the OPL needs Bay to recover it before it has to be returned to the Library of Congress. Only... it was stolen from a safe that has not been obviously cracked. And the book is only in the safe at night, but there's also no sign that the thief broke into or out of the library. Which means the book must have left during the day, but without triggering the anti-theft alarms at the doors. An exhausting riddle!
Best of all, the book is set in 1973, so Bay solves the mystery with the help of microfilm and a giant card catalog. Can't go wrong with that.
Rating: 8/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2007)
So this is a nice, short, simple-drawing book about the library police. No, really. I saw this description of it while plowing through the Unshelved archives (excellent comic, p.s., you should also go plow through the archives), and I was, to say the least, intrigued. Library police? Concentric locked-room mysteries?? Library police??? How can I join?
And, happily, it was a good time. We get what seems to be a cold open with the library police tracking down a guy who is stealing all the copies of one particular book from the Oakland Public Library. Agent Bay and his team bust in and totally get the guy, but then we don't care about him anymore and we move on to the main story. In this, there's a Bible missing and the OPL needs Bay to recover it before it has to be returned to the Library of Congress. Only... it was stolen from a safe that has not been obviously cracked. And the book is only in the safe at night, but there's also no sign that the thief broke into or out of the library. Which means the book must have left during the day, but without triggering the anti-theft alarms at the doors. An exhausting riddle!
Best of all, the book is set in 1973, so Bay solves the mystery with the help of microfilm and a giant card catalog. Can't go wrong with that.
Rating: 8/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2007)
22 June 2009
Musing Mondays (22 June)
Today's Musing Mondays question is very appropriate for me: "Do you restrict yourself on how many books you take out from the library at a time? Do you borrow books if you already have some out? Do you always reborrow books you don’t get to?"
Restrict myself? Ha. No, no, no. This is mostly because I get a lot of books through the holds process, so I'll get an e-mail one day that says, "You have three books to pick up!" and then by the time I get to the library a day or two later there are two more to pick up as well! And then, after I've grabbed the five books and put them in my back, I'll go browse the new fiction shelves and see if anything looks good there.
As to the second question, I borrow books 99 out of 100 times that I go to the library. I'm lucky in that my library has an e-mail system that lets me know when my books are two days away from being due, so I always know what of my giant fluctuating pile of books has to go back to its mommy library.
This also helps me renew books that I haven't read within the borrowing period (usually three weeks). It often surprises me how many books I end up renewing; it's probably around 20 percent. This is because I constantly have ten or so books checked out that I read in order of interest, not due date. Of course, this causes problems on non-renewable books — new books, books with holds on them, books I've renewed five times already. If I can't renew a book that I really did mean to read, I'll put a hold on it right away, but mostly I figure I'll find them again when the mood strikes me. The new Jodi Picoult was one of those (has anyone read it? I haven't seen a review yet!), but another was Elantris, one of my favorite books ever. It took me a few months to decide to check it out again, but I'm certainly glad I did!
Restrict myself? Ha. No, no, no. This is mostly because I get a lot of books through the holds process, so I'll get an e-mail one day that says, "You have three books to pick up!" and then by the time I get to the library a day or two later there are two more to pick up as well! And then, after I've grabbed the five books and put them in my back, I'll go browse the new fiction shelves and see if anything looks good there.
As to the second question, I borrow books 99 out of 100 times that I go to the library. I'm lucky in that my library has an e-mail system that lets me know when my books are two days away from being due, so I always know what of my giant fluctuating pile of books has to go back to its mommy library.
This also helps me renew books that I haven't read within the borrowing period (usually three weeks). It often surprises me how many books I end up renewing; it's probably around 20 percent. This is because I constantly have ten or so books checked out that I read in order of interest, not due date. Of course, this causes problems on non-renewable books — new books, books with holds on them, books I've renewed five times already. If I can't renew a book that I really did mean to read, I'll put a hold on it right away, but mostly I figure I'll find them again when the mood strikes me. The new Jodi Picoult was one of those (has anyone read it? I haven't seen a review yet!), but another was Elantris, one of my favorite books ever. It took me a few months to decide to check it out again, but I'm certainly glad I did!
21 June 2009
Housekeeping Notes
First, because I forgot to mention this when it happened, I've completed the Support Your Local Library Challenge! I said I'd read 50 library books this year, and I have. In less than six months. Hmm. Considering I said I'd read 60 books total this year.... Well, that just goes to show you what unemployment will do to a girl. We'll see how classes and homework affect this reading rate for the rest of the year.
Also, I'm trying to fix up my Blogger template because I did a rather hack job of turning it into three columns a while back. I've found a 3-column version of this template done by someone cooler than me, but I also might go with something different, who knows? Basically, if you visit this site more than once today, you might see some construction going on. If you've got any suggestions for things I should add or take away, sidebar-wise, let me know!
Also, I'm trying to fix up my Blogger template because I did a rather hack job of turning it into three columns a while back. I've found a 3-column version of this template done by someone cooler than me, but I also might go with something different, who knows? Basically, if you visit this site more than once today, you might see some construction going on. If you've got any suggestions for things I should add or take away, sidebar-wise, let me know!
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