Month in Review: September 2011

September seems to have lasted forever, so much so that I when I came to compile the list below I didn't think I'd read some of the books this month.  This is not good.  I'm reading things so quickly I'm not really taking them in, so that I'll find myself wondering which book I read so-and-so in and be annoyed that I can't be certain.  Think I'm going to need to slow down and do some rereads of books from earlier this year, although it's my birthday this month which means a Book Buying Binge of grand proportions.  Still, I tend to read more books from the library than books I own, so maybe that will slow me down a little.

Books Read in September 2011
099. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer
100. The Treasure Map of Boys - E Lockhart
101. The Princess Diaries: Take Two - Meg Cabot
102. Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel - Andrew Graham-Dixon
103. Guyaholic - Carolyn Mackler
104. The Princess Diaries: Third Time Lucky - Meg Cabot
105. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things - Carolyn Mackler
106. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden - Helen Grant
107. The Riddle of the Poisoned Monk - Sarah Matthias
108. Feeling Sorry For Celia - Jaclyn Moriarty
109. Tom Fletcher and the Angel of Death - Sarah Matthias
110. And That's When it Fell off in My Hand - Louise Rennison
111. Hex Hall - Rachel Hawkins
112. The Glass Demon - Helen Grant
113. You Know Where To Find Me - Rachel Cohn
114. The Silver Branch - Rosemary Sutcliff
115. Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins
116. Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers - Louise Rennison
117. Startled by His Furry Shorts - Louise Rennison
118. Ripley's Game - Patricia Highsmith
119. The Thieves of Ostia - Caroline Lawrence
120. Luuurve is a Many Trousered Thing - Louise Rennison

Stats
Total = 22
Total pages = 5861
Average book length = 266
Most Read Author = Louise Rennison (4 books).

Nicest Covers of the Month


Top Ten Books of the Month
01. The Treasure Map of Boys
02. Lola and the Boy Next Door
03. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden
04. The Glass Demon
05. The Silver Branch
06. The Masqueraders
07. Hex Hall
08. Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel 
09. You Know Where To Find Me
10. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things

Month in Review: August 2011

Ah, long inactivity.  Fun things like moving house, job hunting and general lack of internet access have conspired against me (also: natural laziness) which means I haven't updated since April (at least it's April this year, but still) and am now planning all sorts of things which may or may not get done (including something involving Enid Blyton, though what that is I do not know). 

Anyway, something which I can do because it is essentially a list...

Books Read in August 2011
78. The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff (1/8 - 4/8)
79. The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory (22/7 - 5/8)
80. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray (5/8 - 7/8)
81. Rebel Angels - Libba Bray (7/8 - 8/8)
82. One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde (12/8)
83. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas - Louise Rennison (12/8 - 13/8)
84. The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith (25/7 - 13/8)
85. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson (13/8)
86. Tithe - Holly Black (13/8 - 14/8)
87. Bad Taste in Boys - Carrie Harris (15/8)
88. Five Are Together Again - Enid Blyton (15/8)
89. The Crowfield Demon - Pat Walsh (15/8 - 16/8)
90. Withering Tights - Louise Rennison (18/8 - 19/8)
91. Uglies - Scott Westerfeld (15/8 - 21/8)
92. Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead (21/8)
93. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken (22/8)
94. The Bermudez Triangle - Maureen Johnson (23/8)
95. Dancing in my Nuddy Pants - Louise Rennison (26/8 - 27/8)
96. The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett (27/8 - 29/8)
97. Vegan Virgin Valentine - Carolyn Mackler (30/8)
98. Outcast - Rosemary Sutcliff (31/8)

Stats
Total = 21
Total pages = 6591*
Average book length = 314 pages

Completed Challenge = 1st in a Series with Tithe (14/8)

Inadvertent Trope of the Month = It Got Worse.  Seriously, several of these books are full of things just getting worse and worse and bleaker and bleaker.  Prime examples: Outcast (ye gods, that was one thing after another); Uglies (and I know it's going to get worse in Pretties); and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (vile Victorian orphaned and alone bleakness).  I liked all of these books, and two at least had happy endings, but they needed buffers of 'happier' books around them.

Most Read Author = Louise Rennison (3 books).

Nicest Covers of the Month

Top Ten Books of the Month
01. Uglies
02. The Eagle of the Ninth
03. Speak
04. A Great and Terrible Beauty
05. Rebel Angels
06. Bad Taste in Boys
07. The Crowfield Demon
08. Bad Taste in Boys
09. The Bermudez Triangle
10. Vampire Academy

*I have a spreadsheet for this because clearly I a) have no life; b) am obsessive; and c) really like spreadsheets.

2010: End of Year Survey

Yanked from The Perpetual Page Turner, a reading survey for 2010 (because the title for this post is so vague).

1. Best Book of 2010?
Young adult - Paper Towns by John Green.  I read all of his books in a burst this year, but Paper Towns was my favourite.  The ending left me with a weird feeling of sadness because it was so damn perfect.
Adult lit - Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut.  Read for Banned Books Week and, seriously, why had I never read this before?  Why?

2. Worst Book of 2010?
Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie.  Sadly, one of her later books which made it painfully slow reading, not to mention all the times when plot elements got skated over or forgotten.  Didn't help that I read it after watching Mark Gatiss's phenomenal ITV adaptation, which fixed every problem the book had.

3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010?
Ack, um...feel like a traitor but...Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.  Just because, as much as I liked it, it wasn't one of his best.  Possibly couldn't live up to my expectations, which were high, especially as the cover pretty much sets it up as "the wizards play football - the WIZARDS play FOOTBALL".

4. Most Surprising (in a good way!) Book of 2010?
The first four Vampire Diaries books.  I tried reading them when I was a teenager and remember not being impressed, but I found them cheap and bought them on a whim.  Ripped through them over the course of a couple of days.  Surprisingly fun (and Damon!  Oh dear, one of my few Bad Boy literary crushes).

5. Book You Recommended to People Most in 2010?
Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - albeit the latter had a caveat of You Are Not Prepared.

6. Best Series You Discovered in 2010?
The Hunger Games trilogy - have only read the first one, and am viewing the last two with some trepidation because they are definitely not going to be happy clappy cheerful books I can lose myself in for fun and frolics.

7. Favourite New Authors You Discovered in 2010?
John Green, Julie Halpern and Kurt Vonnegut.

8. Most Hilarious Read of 2010?
Movies in Fifteen Minutes by Cleolinda Jones, and anything by Lucy Mangan or Charlie Brooker.  I likes the rants.  Also may have laughed a little too hard at some of the things Caravaggio was getting up to in Rome.

9. Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book in 2010?
The Hunger Games and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, both of which had me sitting up late into the night and wandering the house like the book was permanently attached to my hand.

10. Book You Most Anticipated in 2010?
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - I had it on pre-order forever, and then the snow delayed the actual delivery (thanks, nature).

11. Favourite Cover of a Book You Read in 2010?
Either Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane because it features one of his self-portraits and he's my favourite artist; the British Hunger Games because of the origami effect; or Wake by Lisa McMann, because it is a collage of awesome.

12. Most Memorable Character in 2010?
Katniss Everdeen because she is a badass, and Damon Salvatore because he cracks me up.

13. Most Beautifully Written Book in 2010?
Paper Towns, and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

14. Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You in 2010?
Slaughterhouse-5 and Mother Night, both by Kurt Vonnegut and both ridiculously amazing.

15. Book You Can't Believe You Waited Until 2010 to Read?
Slaughterhouse-5.  In terms of a book I've owned for ages and finally got round to reading: A Passage to India.

Finished 50: Some Category Award Things

With the awesome Anna and the French Kiss I have now read 50 new books this year, so the next couple of posts will be about those.  Starting with a little category award type thing, though I don't think the categories have any relation to anything real.

Book That Made Me Swear The Most While Reading

I have a fairly dirty, I-could-be-an-extra-on-The-Wire mouth at the best (worst?) of times, but The Hunger Games made me exercise it to the full.  I was swearing, calling the whole thing fucked up, texting my friends to warn them that it was fucked up, and generally doing Clay Davis impressions every so often.  That possibly sounds like a condemnation, but the ranting came from the world being so real and the peril being so present and the Capitol and Game Planners being so evil I was wanting to call down curses upon their heads, not to mention the escalating wtfery that was going down.  A definite example of It Got Worse, the book kicks into high gear once The Games start, but even before that there are moments of "what?  Wait, what?  That really happened?  Are you kidding me?".  Highly recommended (and I still managed to read it on a train).  See also Mark Reads for someone equally new to the series discovering it.

Book That Made Me Laugh The Most While Reading

Movies in Fifteen Minutes - if you know the website it's pretty much that but with films not featured online.  As ever, the parodies are great, but best of all it made me remember about some films I love (and others from which I am staying far away) and sent me into a mammoth Lord of the Rings rewatch that get me going during the first days of NaNo.  Nothing like sitting around drunkenly with your friends remembering jokes you'd made *cough*seven*cough* years ago at university.  The book is quite hard to find - had to Amazon Marketplace it - but it is out there and definitely worth hunting down.  And if that's too tricky, there's the site and the Twilight film reviews: Twilight, New Moon ("Bella, you should be wearing a life jacket") and, possibly my favourite, Eclipse (extra added sparkle-saga).

Book That Saved Me During A God-Awful Train Journey

That might not sound like particularly high praise, but if I hadn't had The Changeover at the time I probably would have ended up on the news for going mad on an over crowded train (Salisbury to Exeter, let's have fewer carriages than we need, no one goes to the West Country).  Sitting on your bag in the corridor with no natural light being stepped on is not fun, so I was glad to have this book to distract me.  I ordered it in the first place because of this (slightly spoiler-y) post but didn't really get round to reading it till that journey.  By the point I started I was at the changeover itself and was rushed along by the language, which is about 4 pages of amazing prose and imagery.  After that I rushed through to the end, and then spent the last twenty minutes or so of the journey digesting what I'd read (by then I had a seat near the door so this was accompanied by great Devon countryside).  I was very glad to have put this in my bag on a whim.

Book That Made Me Glad Not To Be Fifteen Anymore

Don't get me wrong, I loved this book - read it in one sitting and carried it round the house while fetching coffee - but it did make me glad I'm not a teenager.  Part of that is that it is so true to life (the cliques, the way your friends suddenly morph into evil bitch trolls from hell, the panic over how to fit in) but another part was seeing things that the narrator didn't.  The original love interest is a twat, it's completely clear he's not worth anything...unless you're a fifteen-year-old girl, in which case he is hot.  Reading that back that sounds horribly disparaging, but I know that if I've read this when I was fifteen I would have been wondering the same things about him as Jessie; it completely captures the way crushes can blind you to the truth about a person.  Ditto long term friendship.  To sound like a pompous reviewer in a Christmas culture mag: one of my favourite books of the year (and it made me want to play Dungeons and Dragons).

Some quick final 'categories':

Why Had I Never Read This Before? - Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

Who Needs to Sleep When You Can Read? - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (also gets the Most Obvious Product Placement Award)

I Finally Read a Booker Winner and It Was Good - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I'm Sorry, What?  Part 1: Now That's a Twist - Wake by Lisa McMann (also gets the I Need the Next Book NOW Or, Y'Know, When I Can Afford It Award)

I'm Sorry, What?  Part 2: Where Did That Come From? - A Passage to India by E.M. Forster: highlight to read a potential spoiler the bit where Mrs Moore died on the boat out of India!  What the hell, Forster? It surprised me so much I physically jumped on a train journey.

More to follow soon, maybe including a top ten and things I've learnt from my readings.

Reading Round Up: Project Fill in the Gaps

As I mention here, I actually started Project Fill in the Gaps in June.  At first it was manual, this crazed list in the back of my reading notebook, but now I've actually taken it to the proper site I thought I'd do quick reviews of the books I read before September - these will be quick because I read them some months ago and only have my copy of Looking for Alaska with me (and that's been forced on lent to a friend).

Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
I'd started reading this as a teenager when I first discovered Pratchett but didn't get very far.  Rereading, I thought I'd find it the same struggle now as I did then - was I wrong.  While I didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other early Discworld (like Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards!) it's still a great read.  I can't really talk about it without spoiling, but once again there are all sorts of arguments about human nature going on in a novel that, on the face of it, is merely a piss take of Ancient Egypt complete with walking mummies.

Eric - Terry Pratchett
Have to confess: I'm not the biggest fan of Rincewind, so I really wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy Eric.  It is a slight read (because of it's start as, I believe, a graphic novel) and is basically a reworking of Faust.  Eric himself isn't meant to be likeable and he really, really isn't.  The concept of be careful what you wish for is taken to its logical conclusion.  There were some great bits that were basically The Iliad: If Everyone Had Been Sensible and Listened to Odysseus's Sneaky Ideas From Day One, and the ending is dark and bleak (especially for the villain) but it's definitely a very slight tale for all that.

Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Another that I'd tried and failed to finish when younger.  Introduces Lu-Tze, who is so instrumental in two of my favourite later Discworlds, and takes a look at fanatical religion.  Again, the villain's fate is very bleak, which is fitting as the villain is one of the scariest/creepiest in the Discworld series - there's something about madmen acting for the best reasons which is very Pratchett and very scary.  Again, not going to knock any of my favourites off my list but I enjoyed it (that sounds like damning with faint praise but isn't).

Skellig - David Almond
On the list because it's one of those books which is always highly praised and which I thought I ought to read.  I enjoyed it more because I thought I should than because it gripped me - does that make sense?  The ideas, style, writing, everything is there and while I do give it 4 stars I'm still not sure how much I actually liked/enjoyed it from a purely Reading Is Fun sense.  This is very muddled, and possibly makes me sound like I hated it; I think the best way to describe it is that I probably would have loved it if I'd read it 10-15 years ago, but now I was reading it from a different perspective of "oh, this is a good bit of writing" which may have detracted.

Looking for Alaska - John Green
Having said that about Skellig above, I was also viewing Looking for Alaska as "oh, this is a good bit of writing" but I was also loving it the whole way through.  The book made me cry, that should be enough to show how much I became invested in the characters.  And I read this and his other two novels (An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns) over three consecutive days, wandering round the house with my nose stuck in them, making coffee one handed*.  Possibly my favourite of the Project so far, I again can't really talk about it without spoiling so will just close with: read it, for it is awesome.

*Less of a disaster than might be supposed.