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bookgazing) wrote2009-10-26 05:51 am
bookgazing) wrote2009-10-26 05:51 am
Decide my reading fate! (ridiculous drama caught from reading sensationalist stories)
After readathon I cracked on with ‘The Woman in White’ and with a little bit of skimming during the last 20 pages I finished it yesterday afternoon, at about six. I’ll be posting my review the week after next, as part of the Classic Circuit’s Wilkie Collins blog tour, so no more about that for now. I’ll just let you know I had a very mixed reaction to this book, which would maybe be best described by a reading progression graph of some kind if I was graphically inclined.
‘The Woman in White’ was my final book for Carl’s RIP challenge, which means I’ve finished with a week to spare. Sadly my RIP choices have been a little lacklustre this year, with ‘The Lonely Werewolf Girl’ and ‘The Woman in White’ tying for most interesting read, even though I felt both were a bit uneven (and I bought a copy of ‘TLWG’ with many typing errors, because I forgot people had warned me about one particular edition). You can’t win them all and I know there are lots of other scary stories waiting for me to discover them next year, or even earlier. That’s what I love about Carl’s challenges, they remind me of all the stuff I could be reading, they make me examine my bookshelves and notice all the things I bought in a particular mood and then neglected. Until I took part I was blind to the gothic possibilities of my bookshelves, but now I realise they’re stuffed full of stories for dark and stormy night. I kind of wish he’d add a sci-fi challenge to his repertoire.
Of course, the really big bonus of this year’s challenge was discovering the artist Jennifer Gordan who created Carl’s challenge button this year. I’ve now got some creepy postcards, featuring her gothic prints. Post has never been so frightening!
I’m going straight from an authentic Victorian suspense novel to a novel that aims to imitate the style of a Victorian ghost story. I’m hoping to fly through ‘The Woman in Black’ by Susan Hill so that I can finally participate in the ‘Slaves of Golconda’ discussion group (discussing on 29th Oct). I saw ‘The Woman in Black’ on the stage when it was touring the country and have never quite been able to dispel the idea that one day I might see the play’s ghostly omen of death, so I’m excited to read the original text. I’m a few pages in and I like it much better than ‘The Mist in the Mirror’, which I reviewed last month. I suspect it’s the narrator’s voice which has already drawn me in, with his robust descriptions of the smells of the changing seasons.
‘The Woman in Black’ is a slim book, and I’m already indulging my greedy mind by thinking about what I should read next. Surprise, I want to read everything! I can’t decide between a whole heap of books and in a bid for increasing the interactivity of this blog (is it interactive enough, I don’t want you to feel I’m talking at you all the time?) how about you decide for me?
I’m picking between:
'The Folded Leaf' – William Maxwell : The tale of a friendship between two boys who life pushes apart, Danielle at ‘A Work in Progress’ mentioned this a while ago and it ended up in my final splurge pile before I started my most recent book buying ban (full disclosure: I broke the ban to buy ‘The Woman in Black’, but I donated 2 points to a Bookmooch charity).
'Dark Echo' – FG Cottam: The blurb mentions an evil boat, that’s a boat that is evil, squee!
'Making Money' – Terry Pratchett: umm ‘Unseen Academicals’ is out now and I feel I must read ‘Making Money’ before encouraging others to buy me another Pratchett novel for Christmas? Really I just like Pratchett, but I try to ration his books, so I’m not in some constant Discworld rereading loop (is it bad that my real, not trying to impress anyone, desert island books list would be all Pratchett and that I would try to get someone to create a one volume ‘complete works of Pratchett’ so I could count all his books as one choice?) . I feel like giving in and letting more wonderful Discworld into my life.
'The Children of Freedom' – Marc Levy: A bit of a WWII reading urge has come over me. The delicate balance between the heroic and the awful nature of humanity seems just right for the winter months. This book follows two brothers as they set up a new Resistance branch, only to discover a traitor in their group.
'The Inner Circle' – T C Boyle: This is a challenge read and basically there’s an awkward narrator, detailing sex and scandal in a 60s academic environment. It sounds good, but I’m always a little wary of awkward male narrators who tend to do all sorts of humiliating, or nasty things to stop their sexual naivety being discovered.
‘Funny How Things Change’ – Melissa Wyatt: Every teen is supposed to want to escape their small home town, but Remy’s not sure his home town is somewhere that needs escaping from. Set in the Appalachian mountains this sounds like a new development in young adult novels and comes recommended by Coleen at ‘Chasing Ray.
If you’re interested, vote with your voices in the comments and I’ll read whatever gets the majority vote.
‘The Woman in White’ was my final book for Carl’s RIP challenge, which means I’ve finished with a week to spare. Sadly my RIP choices have been a little lacklustre this year, with ‘The Lonely Werewolf Girl’ and ‘The Woman in White’ tying for most interesting read, even though I felt both were a bit uneven (and I bought a copy of ‘TLWG’ with many typing errors, because I forgot people had warned me about one particular edition). You can’t win them all and I know there are lots of other scary stories waiting for me to discover them next year, or even earlier. That’s what I love about Carl’s challenges, they remind me of all the stuff I could be reading, they make me examine my bookshelves and notice all the things I bought in a particular mood and then neglected. Until I took part I was blind to the gothic possibilities of my bookshelves, but now I realise they’re stuffed full of stories for dark and stormy night. I kind of wish he’d add a sci-fi challenge to his repertoire.
Of course, the really big bonus of this year’s challenge was discovering the artist Jennifer Gordan who created Carl’s challenge button this year. I’ve now got some creepy postcards, featuring her gothic prints. Post has never been so frightening!
I’m going straight from an authentic Victorian suspense novel to a novel that aims to imitate the style of a Victorian ghost story. I’m hoping to fly through ‘The Woman in Black’ by Susan Hill so that I can finally participate in the ‘Slaves of Golconda’ discussion group (discussing on 29th Oct). I saw ‘The Woman in Black’ on the stage when it was touring the country and have never quite been able to dispel the idea that one day I might see the play’s ghostly omen of death, so I’m excited to read the original text. I’m a few pages in and I like it much better than ‘The Mist in the Mirror’, which I reviewed last month. I suspect it’s the narrator’s voice which has already drawn me in, with his robust descriptions of the smells of the changing seasons.
‘The Woman in Black’ is a slim book, and I’m already indulging my greedy mind by thinking about what I should read next. Surprise, I want to read everything! I can’t decide between a whole heap of books and in a bid for increasing the interactivity of this blog (is it interactive enough, I don’t want you to feel I’m talking at you all the time?) how about you decide for me?
I’m picking between:
'The Folded Leaf' – William Maxwell : The tale of a friendship between two boys who life pushes apart, Danielle at ‘A Work in Progress’ mentioned this a while ago and it ended up in my final splurge pile before I started my most recent book buying ban (full disclosure: I broke the ban to buy ‘The Woman in Black’, but I donated 2 points to a Bookmooch charity).
'Dark Echo' – FG Cottam: The blurb mentions an evil boat, that’s a boat that is evil, squee!
'Making Money' – Terry Pratchett: umm ‘Unseen Academicals’ is out now and I feel I must read ‘Making Money’ before encouraging others to buy me another Pratchett novel for Christmas? Really I just like Pratchett, but I try to ration his books, so I’m not in some constant Discworld rereading loop (is it bad that my real, not trying to impress anyone, desert island books list would be all Pratchett and that I would try to get someone to create a one volume ‘complete works of Pratchett’ so I could count all his books as one choice?) . I feel like giving in and letting more wonderful Discworld into my life.
'The Children of Freedom' – Marc Levy: A bit of a WWII reading urge has come over me. The delicate balance between the heroic and the awful nature of humanity seems just right for the winter months. This book follows two brothers as they set up a new Resistance branch, only to discover a traitor in their group.
'The Inner Circle' – T C Boyle: This is a challenge read and basically there’s an awkward narrator, detailing sex and scandal in a 60s academic environment. It sounds good, but I’m always a little wary of awkward male narrators who tend to do all sorts of humiliating, or nasty things to stop their sexual naivety being discovered.
‘Funny How Things Change’ – Melissa Wyatt: Every teen is supposed to want to escape their small home town, but Remy’s not sure his home town is somewhere that needs escaping from. Set in the Appalachian mountains this sounds like a new development in young adult novels and comes recommended by Coleen at ‘Chasing Ray.
If you’re interested, vote with your voices in the comments and I’ll read whatever gets the majority vote.