02 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in 2014 Ancient May-hem Reading Challenge, Booktastic
Tags
era: ancient greece, reading: challenges (2014), reading: fun book reviews, text type: drama, writer: sophocles
Alas, I was unable to get through as many Classics as I would’ve liked in May, and only managed to finish one more book after the Aristotle. But hey, just because the month is over doesn’t mean the Ancient Awesomeness has to stop!
31. Sophocles – The Theban Plays (trans. E. F. Watling, Penguin) (23 May)
03 Saturday May 2014
Posted in Booktastic
Tags
era: 19th century, place: china, place: india, place: russia, reading: challenges (2014), reading: far and wide, reading: fun book reviews, reading: stunning, text type: novel, writer: contemporary, writer: gogol, writer: mistry, writer: young adult authors
April was a rather quiet reading month with only five books, primarily because I was busy with the third draft of my manuscript, which is now complete and with my trusty beta-readers (yay!). By some stroke of luck, I enjoyed every single book I read, even if some of them took a while to complete—all of these have garnered at least a 4/5!
24. Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance (10 Apr)
25. John Green – The Fault in Our Stars (12 Apr)
26. Rene Denfeld – The Enchanted (15 Apr)
27. Ha Jin – In the Pond (18 Apr)
28. Nikolay Gogol – Dead Souls (Penguin Classics, trans. Robert A. Maguire) (3 May)
(Yes, the Gogol technically belongs to May, but I’m going to leave this month free for responses to my Ancient May-hem Reading Challenge.)
13 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted in Booktastic
Tags
era: contemporary, era: edwardian, reading: brainless bedside books, reading: challenges (2014), reading: far and wide, reading: fun book reviews, reading: stunning, text type: novel, text type: short story, writer: james (henry), writer: kafka, writer: romance authors, writer: young adult authors
Another batch of “reviews”! (I will always refer to these as “reviews” because I feel they more closely resemble ramblings.) I read 9 books in March, and, once again, they’re from a range of different genres, eras, and countries. Here’s the list:
14. Anne Maria Nicholson – Weeping Waters (1 Mar)
15. Diana Gabaldon – Outlander (3 Mar)
16. Diana Wynne Jones – Fire and Hemlock (6 Mar)
17. Franz Kafka – Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Penguin Modern Classics, trans. Michael Hoffman) (10 Mar)
18. Gaston Leroux – The Phantom of the Opera (Dover, trans. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos) (13 Mar)
19. Philippa Gregory – The Other Boleyn Girl (13 Mar)
20. David Gaider – Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne (17 Mar)
21. Kate Quinn – Mistress of Rome (22 Mar)
22. Henry James – The Golden Bowl (26 Mar)
23. Janet Fitch – White Oleander (31 Mar)
And now, the “reviews”:
05 Saturday Apr 2014
Posted in Booktastic
Tags
era: 20th century, era: regency, era: victorian, reading: challenges (2014), reading: far and wide, reading: fun book reviews, text type: autobiography, text type: non-fiction, text type: novel, writer: austen, writer: dickens, writer: mcewan, writer: nietzsche, writer: young adult authors
I started my little bookfest in late January, and didn’t think it would go far—until, a week and five books later, I realised that hey, I can read books for funfunfun! In an attempt to have some sort of structure in these reviews, I’ll be organising my thoughts about fiction into four categories, which is essentially adapted from Aristotle’s take on tragedy in his Poetics (yes, I’m boring and completely unoriginal—thank goodness for the basics!).
So, here’s a list of the books I read in Jan/Feb (with finishing dates):
1. Georgette Heyer – Arabella (30 Jan)
2. Julian Short – An Intelligent Life (1 Feb)
3. Georgette Heyer – Cotillion (2 Feb)
4. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief (3 Feb)
5. Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics, ed. Richard Maxwell) (7 Feb)
6. Mark Haddon – A Spot of Bother (10 Feb)
7. Friedrich Nietzsche – Ecce Homo (Penguin Classics, trans. R. J. Hollingdale) (11 Feb)
8. Ian McEwan – Solar (13 Feb)
9. Sarah Rees Brennan – Unspoken (14 Feb)
10. J. D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye (21 Feb)
11. Salman Rushdie – Midnight’s Children (24 Feb)
12. J. R. R. Tolkien – The Hobbit (24 Feb)
13. Jane Austen – Persuasion (Penguin Classics, ed. Gillian Beer) (27 Feb)
And, my thoughts on them (with the cover images corresponding to those of my copies):
27 Thursday Mar 2014
Posted in Booktastic
27 December 2014: I finished both challenges! :D
Original post: Due to a change in life circumstances, I’m now able to tackle my massive mountain of fun books, aka non-academic related shinies. In the last two months, I’ve read 22 fun books—twenty-two! This is super exciting because ever since I decided to get serious about English literature, I never got to actually enjoy English literature as a reader, and not as an academic or researcher or someone-with-their-brain-perpetually-turned-on-while-words-are-present.
I’ve been keeping track of these books along with my general thoughts on them, and instead of hogging all the ranting and the gushing, I’m going to share them with the big, bad, scary Intermenet. And, seeing as I’m doing all this reading anyway, I thought it’d be fun to sign up to two rather funky challenges—so here we are!
The Colour Coded Challenge (hosted by My Reader’s Block)
1: “Blue”: Midnight’s Children by Salmon Rushdie
2: “Red”: Written in Red by Anne Bishop
3: “Yellow”: The Golden Bowl by Henry James
4: “Green”: Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig
5: “Brown”: Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
6: “Black”: The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
7: “White”: White Oleander by Janet Fitch
8: “Other”: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
9: “Implied”: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
The Alphabet Soup Challenge (hosted by Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book)
I’ll keep this list updated as I devour the books, and will also post my reviews/thoughts/analyses/ramblings related to the pleasures of reading funfunfun books!