All About Books discussion

Books read in 2014:


January
1. Nightmare Abbey 116 pages
2. Twelve Years a Slave 363 pages
3. Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops 119 pages
4. My Cousin Rachel 302 pages
5. World War One: History In An Hour 100 pages
6. Robinson Crusoe 241 pages
7. Death Note, Vol. 9: Contact 193 pages
8. Extras 62 pages DNF
9. The Husband's Secret 420 pages
10. Palestine 296 pages
11. Mary 136 pages
12. Magnetism 128 pages
Total 12 books / 2476 pages

February
13. The Grass Is Singing 209 pages
14. A Moveable Feast 126 pages
15. The Problems of Philosophy 100 pages
16. The Awakening 173 pages
17. The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You 456 pages
18. Fat Is A Feminist Issue 269 pages
19. ROBERT BURNS Selected Poems 20 pages DNF
20. Meetings In No Man's Land 264 pages
21. Death Note, Vol. 10: Deletion 188 pages
22. Dotter of Her Father's Eyes 96 pages
23. Such, Such Were the Joys 56 pages
24. Them: Adventures with Extremists 336 pages
25. The Reluctant Fundamentalist 224 pages
Total 13 books / 2517 pages

March
26. The Turn of the Screw 172 pages
27. The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry 282 pages
28. The Complete Persepolis 341 pages
29. Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile 128 pages
30. Fables, Vol. 2: Animal Farm 112 pages
31. Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford 744 pages
32. Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference 244 pages
33. V for Vendetta 296 pages
34. A Passage To India 362 pages
35. Death Note, Vol. 11: Kindred Spirit 211 pages
36. Death Note, Vol. 12: Finis 211 pages
37. The Railway Man 336 pages
38. Saga #1 48 pages
39. Of Mice and Men 112 pages
40. Slaughterhouse-Five: The Childrens Crusade, a Duty Dance with Death 275 pages
41. Watchmen 40 pages DNF
42. Jamaica Inn 272 pages
Total 17 books / 4186 pages

April
43. Ashenden 326 pages
44. Fight Club 218 pages
45. The Tortoise and the Hare 272 pages
46. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 959 pages
47. The Bacchae and Other Plays 234 pages
48. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 274 pages
49. The Scarlet Letter 292 pages
50. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea 316 pages
51. Dear Lupin...: Letters to a Wayward Son 300 pages
52. Allegiant 100 pages DNF
53. Dear Lumpy: Letters to a Disobedient Daughter 192 pages
54. Selected Poems 77 pages
55. A Clockwork Orange 149 pages
56. Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz 320 pages
Total 14 books / 4029 pages

May
57. Ain't I A Woman 205 pages
58. A Farewell to Arms 223 pages
59. Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life 336 pages
60. The Duchess of Windsor and Other Friends 50 pages DNF
61. Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West 205 pages
62. On The Map: Why the world looks the way it does 464 pages
63. The Valley of Fear 217 pages
64. Americanah 400 pages
65. The Secret Rooms: A castle filled with intrigue, a plotting Duchess, and a Mysterious Death 480 pages
66. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie 320 pages
67. Selected Poems 112 pages
68. More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops 121 pages
Total 12 books / 3133 pages

Good job so far Pink! ^_^

Really good job!

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops
Wow brilliant choice Pink. What's your favourite story from this?

Tweedledum, I quoted my favourite one in my review, it was a man who couldn't understand how anyone done enough in one day to fill Ulysses. Other ones I can remember...

The lady who asked if there was a sequel to Anne Frank's diary,

The person who asked for 'Lionel Richie and the wardrobe,

The girl who only knew of Wuthering Heights by the twilight references and was aghast at learning Voldermort played Heathcliff in a film version instead of Robert Pattinson,

Have you read this? I wasn't amazed by it but it was a quick fun little book, which was needed after Twelve years a slave!

I just laughed out loud the whole way through. Bought More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops lots of fun too! Though I think the best were in the first book.

Oh yes "Lionel Richie and the wardrobe!" My absolute favourite! There was a great one about a thesaurus......

Going to have to read it again now!

Wait till this book gets banned because it is literalist......

I have the second book too! I bought them cheap in the Christmas sales, though I'll save the next one for later...perhaps after another depressing book!

Monthly Wrap up: January

I plan on keeping track of my 2014 books in the first post above to keep things tidy on here. Plus I don't really mind not having each individual book pop up in notifications.

However, I thought it would be nice to do a monthly wrap up of what I've read. I've done this before in another group and I enjoy going back through my year, remembering which books or authors stood out. Here goes -

Total books: 12

Favourite book: My Cousin Rachel Without a doubt this has been my favourite book of the month. It reminded me all over again how much I loved Rebecca.

Least favourite book: Extras The fourth and last book in a YA series. It made me re-evaluate why I picked it up, which was basically just to tick the series off a list. I decided that there are better things I want to spend my time reading, so I chose to put it down after 60 pages and move onto something else.

Pleasant surprise: None! I'm usually surprised by one or two books each month, but apart from my Daphne du Maurier read, most of my January picks have been lacking in something. Overall a pretty poor month of reading, full of 2 and 3 star books!

Biggest disappointment: Palestine This wasn't a bad book, I just had much higher expectations and so I came away feeling let down. I thought this would pack more power, but I didn't feel invested in the story and have largely forgotten it already.

Feel free to comment on anything I've read, or let me know how you're getting on this month :)

I like the wrap up idea. Sometime this year I will get to My Cousin Rachel! In fact, even if I had had the time, my library's copy has been checked out so I wouldn't have been able to join in the readalong anyway...

Leslie wrote: "I like the wrap up idea. Sometime this year I will get to My Cousin Rachel! In fact, even if I had had the time, my library's copy has been checked out so I wouldn't have been abl..."

I hope you get around to it later Leslie. The strange thing with both Daphne du Maurier books I've read, is that I put them off for a long time . Often I didn't think I was in the mood to read them, but as soon as I picked them up I was captivated. Fingers crossed for Jamaica Inn, which I'll be reading in March.

I wanted to do something very similar too! Can I "steal" your idea? :-D

Anastasia wrote: "I wanted to do something very similar too! Can I "steal" your idea? :-D"

Definitely! :)

Monthly Wrap up: February

Total books: 13

Favourite book: The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You More of a reference book, but I really enjoyed this and look forward to dipping in and out of it over the coming months and years.

Least favourite book: The Problems of Philosophy I HATED it.

Pleasant surprise: Dotter of Her Father's Eyes Enchanting read, brilliant artwork, plus it depicted James Joyce as an idiotic Father, which I quite liked.

Biggest disappointment: Fat Is A Feminist Issue I thought this would be more of a look at how society views this issue, but it was too much of a binge eating self-help book for me.

I've enjoyed this reading month a little better and packed in quite a few shorter books.

I love your "summing up" idea, Pink! And in this case it's reminded me that the Susie Orbach might not be the biting commentary I always thought it was, so I might not bother with it :(

Also, I really like the way you put your covers at the end! I never have worked out how to do this - maybe it's just not possible on a mainframe computer.

Thanks Jean, I think the main problem with Fat Is A Feminist Issue is that it's a product of it's time, though I still think she had a lot of great social commentary and wonder if her more recent work would be better suited to me.

Adding book covers is easy from a computer, you just have to know where to look. Click 'add book/author' then there's an option at the bottom to choose either link (for the title) or cover, just click which one you prefer :)

Well what do you know, I'd never noticed that before! I've only recently started using the "add book/author" tab anyway. Before that I was using the "html" one every time, which is a lot more complicated and time-consuming. So thanks very much and I'm now off to play...er... add covers to my own lists :D

Dotter of Her Father's Eyes seems interesting! I have definitely to read it :)

Monthly Wrap up: March

Total books: 17

How are we a quarter of the way through the year? I am far from a quarter of the way through my personal challenges. I've read plenty of books, just different ones than planned!

Favourite book: Very tough to choose, because I've had a great reading month. I really liked The Complete Persepolis, Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford, Saga #1 and A Passage to India but as an overall winner I would have to go with Slaughterhouse-Five

Least favourite book: Death Note, Vol. 11: Kindred Spirit and Death Note, Vol. 12: Finis I got tired of this series several books ago, but wanted to finish what I started.

Pleasant surprise: Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference I thought this might be too technical with neuroscience and quite dry as a feminist work, but it was both insightful and humorously written.

Biggest disappointment: V for Vendetta I've seen the film. I liked the film. I thought the book was okay, but just lacking something. Also the font in the comic was really difficult to read and put me off somewhat as I kept getting distracted from the actual story.

Has anyone else read the same books as me, or want to know more about something else I've read?

Monthly Wrap up: April

Total books: 14

Favourite book: A Clockwork Orange which I thought was very cleverly written. I've only seen parts of the Kubrick film version, so don't know how close it compares. I know it was very controversial because of the violence, but I didn't find the book very graphic, more disturbing in a dystopian nightmare sort of way.

Least favourite book: The Scarlet Letter Aghh I just didn't like the story, sexist, misogynistic, puritanical nonsense. It was very well written though, so if this doesn't bug you, then you'll probably enjoy it.

Pleasant surprise: The Tortoise and the Hare I'd never heard of this and picked it up entirely because of the pretty cover edition in my library. What a nice surprise! Not much happens, it's slow paced, but completely gripping and I loved it.

Biggest disappointment: This would probably be Dear Lupin...: Letters to a Wayward Son and Dear Lumpy: Letters to a Disobedient Daughter which I picked up cheap on kindle as recently I've liked reading collections of letters, especially as you can dip in and out without needing to give the book your full attention. These became repetitive and after a while the upper class family issues began to grate on me. All lunches, horse racing, getting pissed, drunk driving, juggling income resources and telling off the posh kids in a mildly comical sort of way.

What a great list Pink :) I think I would like to read all of these (which I haven't already, if you see what I mean!)

You've made me extremely worried about The Scarlet Letter though - "sexist, misogynistic, puritanical nonsense". Oh my goodness! I had assumed it to be about the appalling situation of a young girl of the time - a victim of her circumstances - sort of Hardy-esque but American! How wrong could I be! (I only know the story through dramatisations.)

I'm supposed to be joining in a readalong of this shortly, but I'm sure these aspects will bug me a lot!! Presumably the authorial voice (as opposed to the narrator's) intrudes too much? I'll have to try not to get too het up about Hester...

As one who saw A Clockwork Orange in the cinema when it came out, I can attest to having precisely the same reaction to the film, as you did to the novel. Very "disturbing in a dystopian sort of way". Perhaps more so, because at the time it was unusual. Of course then the tabloid press took it up, blaming the film for thugs attacking an old man etc etc. I knew people who were absolutely disgusted by the film. Of course! That was the point! I personally never saw the reason for the ban.

Thanks for sharing your reads and reactions :)

Ahh Jean, I think The Scarlet Letter seems to split opinion. In maybe a similar but completely different way to Wuthering Heights?! Meaning that I appreciated the writing, liked the pacing, wanted to find out what happened next, but HATED what actually unfolded and wanted to throw it against a wall when I'd finished!

I read A Clockwork Orange with another group and we discussed whether the book seemed more violent at the time of writing and if we've become immune to this as a society in recent years. Or had it just received a lot of notoriety from the film version and so we expected it to be more graphic than it actually was? I'm not sure I've been around quite long enough to answer that one!

It came out in 1971, the year I did my "A" Levels - or if it was at the end of the year, then I was at Art College. That's the only time I've ever seen the film.

There were groups with placards outside, campaigning, much as they did with "Monty Python's Life of Brian" and "Last Tango in Paris". Different times. I didn't understand the depth of feeling either then or now, but yes, I can remember :)

I really like the way you're laying your monthly reads out Pink, might do something like that for next year's books.

Alannah wrote: "I really like the way you're laying your monthly reads out Pink, might do something like that for next year's books."

I find it much easier to keep everything in one main thread, especially as time goes by. Plus I don't update often enough to add a new thread for every book I read, though I have liked doing monthly wrap ups so I remember which books have stood out each month.

Monthly Wrap up: May

Total books: 12

Favourite book: I have a few favourites from May. Two notable works of non-fiction were Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West and Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie My favourite fiction was Americanah

Least favourite book: The Duchess of Windsor and Other Friends which was not well written and pure sycophancy from Diana Mitford Mosley.

Pleasant surprise: A Farewell to Arms I was not expecting to like a book by Hemingway, but this was superbly written and I found the story engaging to the end. I love war books, though I'm less inclined to enjoy WW1 fiction. This greatly surpassed my expectations.

Biggest disappointment: The Valley of Fear I've been slowly working my way through Sherlock over the past year, but found this story a little tiresome. Still good, but perhaps not up to previous standards.

Pink, I had the same reaction to The Valley of Fear! I had the feeling that he was pushed into publishing another Sherlock Holmes book by his publishers and so threw together a couple of short stories because it really didn't hang together that well IMO.

I agree Leslie, I think he was fed up with writing the same stuff and that's why he killed Sherlock off earlier. He wanted to move onto different stories, but the public enjoyed Holmes and Watson too much, so he kept writing them.

I've decided to stop keeping track on this thread, as GR logs all the books I read anyway and I think that's enough for me :)

Aw, I loved the way you set it all out Pink! But I can appreciate it takes... ages! Thanks for the interesting posts so far, then :)

Pink wrote: "I've decided to stop keeping track on this thread, as GR logs all the books I read anyway and I think that's enough for me :)"

Understandable. I will miss your wrap ups though :(