The Dusty Bookshelf discussion

If you want to talk about the books you are reading with others, post it in this folder. You can make a topic about a specific book or you can make discussions about books in general. Have fun!

I'm reading at the moment - been meaning to read it for a while but for some reason I never got round to it.

I've only just started reading it but it's different from what I imagined it would be (I've seen some clips etc of the various films made).

I love HG Wells but the only thing I've ever read of his is War of the Worlds. By the way, I loved a lot of the books on your shelf. You have awesome taste in classics! A Tale of Two Cities was amazing and I loved it.

Yeah, same here really - I quite enjoyed War of the Worlds and hope I'll feel the same about this book :)

Thanks, it's mainly the classics that I've put off tbh but this year will be different ;)

I'm glad to hear you like Tale of Two Cities, I've heard mixed reports about that so I'm not sure how I'll feel about it :S

I want to start Hunchback of Notre Dame before the end of the month. Since you want to read it, too, Hayley I'll stick it back on the to-read shelf when I'm done :D

Thanks hun :) I hope it does alright, I'll be keeping an eye out for how many stars you give it to give me an idea ;D

I really want to read The Invisible Man. I might have to get it (:

I'll probably read first since it's the shortest.

That sounds like a fun read :) How many pages is it? When are you planning on starting to read it (sorry, am at work so rather bored and curious ;D)

I've started on this morning. My review for Invisible Man is gonna be held back so that there aren't weeks w/out any review posts when I read the bigger books :S

Like 98 lol. It's just on my shelf. I don't even think it's mine. Probably my brother's. Anyway it's been staring at me for a long time.

I NEED TO READ THAT! Is there a specific order for all those league of extraordinary men characters?

Ah a good, quick read then -sounds like a plan!

It's from another group challenge that I joined, partly because I had all the books listed. Nice spot btw :)

The order is: Invisible Man, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, 20,000 Leagues, King Solomon's Mines, Bram Stoker's Dracula (already read but want to reread as it's been a while!) plus the others are just 'extra credit' :D

After that it's really only my TBR list that's in some kind of order of how I want to read them all.

Wait, There's a League of extraordinary men challenge! Where? :D

Thanks Hayley!
Will not be reading Dracula. Kind of hate it.

Jessica wrote: "Wait, There's a League of extraordinary men challenge! Where? :D"

It's a group I joined called Bookish - they have it going on in their Bookish University section :)

Adriana wrote: "Thanks Hayley!
Will not be reading Dracula. Kind of hate it."

I haven't read it since I was 12/13 but I remember liking it, so it will be interesting to see what I think about it 12/13 years on. I'm sorry to hear you didn't like it :(

My teacher one year went crazy with Vampire books... I just don't like reading in that old style of writing.

Oh no, I'm not a big fan of all vampire books - they have to be good ones to get my attention (or the true blood series which I started reading after seeing how fit Eric was in the show ;D) But Dracula was the first and best vampire book I can remember reading :D

OH I applied to Bookish the other day! What a fun challenge! I hope I get in...

I'm reading classics (at least one a month), mysteries (one a month), Christian non-fic (equivalent to one a month), and fantasy (ends up 2 a month but we'll see). There were mini-challenges by genre on another forum so I'm using those to help me decide which books to pull and read first.

I'm also in the group here about reading 50 books for the year, though my goal is 52 (book a week). Posting the challenge info I'm following there but I can re-post it here if anyone wants to see it. Longish.

The book I'm reading now is taking me forever to read. It is dragging me down. Now I know why it was on the shelf gathering dust. Aarrgghh

LOL it's so true. I'm going to feel that way for a lot of the books sitting on my shelf. You can do it Alysia! Tell us why you hate it in snarky ways and maybe that will help?

Hahah, I do find being snarky about books I dislike to help getting through them. (; My friends and I just started a tradition of passing around The Magnolia League, because apparently, it was really terrible. So we're now writing snarky comments about it in the margin's to ease getting through the awful. (:

Woot Woot! Got done with my first book on my list! So cute...and yet totally dispicable in a fairy tale way. It always amazes me that fairy tales are really beastly stories! I read Perrault's Fairy Tales, it was fun becuase they all had a bit of a twist from what I grew up with, you know those traditional Grimm Bros and their oh so happy out comes LOL! Anyway, it was a cute, quick read that got me motivated to move through my list! But, now where to go??? Something to make me cry, think, laugh out loud??? My brain is telling me I should save some of my light-hearted ones to bring up the mood after the downers:)

Congrats April! You have to tell me what you pick next!

I went for the gusto...I'm working on Wuthering Heights!

I really liked Wuthering Heights. Good pick :)

Wuthering Heights is on my TBR for this year also!

So, I started Wuthering Heights! I'm excited because I have NO idea, Nope NONE...of what it's about! I was surprised to find it narrated by a male character! F.U.N...and different from what I noramlly read! I also love books that start with grumy folks, and this book has quite a few! I can't wait to see their change of hearts...or at least their reason for their grump fest!

I'm thankful for the group, Jessica! It's so fun to be able to talk about books! I'd love to join a group and talk about books that everyone is reading the same thing...but between 2-3 of those a month for the kids...and finding husband time, ya, it just doesn't happen! Maybe, it's on my list of goals this year to start one! We'll see:) But, for now, you all are filling my void...and I'm thankful for you:)

And...Jessica, I'm looking forward to reading Paradise Lost with ya! Let me know when you'll be ready to start, and if timing works, we can go for it! It'll be a tough read for me, I'm aware of that...but if I've got someone to complain too, and/or be fascinated with...it'll be much more fun!

Anyway...I'm happy I've got an outlet...can anyone tell I'm a homeschool mama of three that has little adult interaction?!?!

Happy Tuesday all!

Thalia wrote: "Hahah, I do find being snarky about books I dislike to help getting through them. (; My friends and I just started a tradition of passing around The Magnolia League, because apparently, it was real..."

OK guys...clue an old lady in on 'SNARKY' is this mean...or does it just mean inventive ways to say mean things that don't sound mean??? I'm not all IN on the language:) Hahaha!~

Okay, I don't really know what snarky means. I like to use words even if I only have an idea of what they mean. But Dictionary says:

Snarky: critical, cutting, snide.

If it's in the dictionary, that means it's not slang, right? :D

Too funny! I love your honesty! Well, I'm with ya, if it's in the dictionary...it's not slang:) At least now I can be "snarky" in an educated way:)

What's even funnier is I just assumed it was slang and never bothered checking the dictionary~! Lesson learned:)

Totally carrying over coversation for introductions! NO, Jessica it is not bad:) That's called mommy's quiet reading time! :D Mama hearts video game time (but my kids think I'm mean, cause it's only an hour a day!)....so I have to do what I can:) Hahahah!

Thanks April! I never thought about it that way. I thought video game time was only good for doing the laundry and stuff :D

Naw...at our house laundry day (monday) is done during worksheet time:) So we ALL get the benefit of the video games (doubley so if I can get some quiet reading time during THEIR quiet reading time too! )

Okay, I'm following Jessica's advice and putting in my reply from the OTHER thread into this one so we don't overwhelm any newbies who actually want to introduce themselves!

I don't read much non-fiction; I tend to find it boring. OTL *typical teenager* The closest thing I have to nonfiction that I want to read would be Killing Lincoln, hahah. But yep, I cannot muster the strenght to read more than one book at a time, even if one were nonfiction. I only do it if we're reading a book in my English class, which, I cannot go two months stuck on one book, so I break my rules for that!

But seriously, so happy that everybody here understands reading one book at a time!

WH is narrated by a guy?! Huzzah! I'm always trying to find books from a male POV, since most young adult books are written from a teenage girl's view, which can get boring after awhile, hahah.

Hmm, I never thought of snarky as being too cruel, hahah. I use more like synonymous with "sassy", except with more attitude! And lots of sarcasm. It's very helpful. (:

Thalia,
I'm with you on non-fiction. About all I can stomach are my christian self-help kinda things...the rest is dry, dry, dry...bluxkh! So I only pick ones that I think I can tolerate to the end:)

...and as for WH being narrated by a male character...I'm totally geeked about it! Because believe it or not...(and maybe it's just the books I tend to read..which are YA and/or reguar adult books that are really YA but just with older people! LOL)...they are all from a womens perspective! It's going to be refreshing, yet I still find it funny, since it's a female author...HAHA..on that! So it's a woman 'pretending' to be a man...so I'm betting he's going to end up being in touch with his feminine side (giggle giggle!)

I'm actually looking forward to reading a book I may not like...just so I can be "snarky"...Love learning new words! . . and I'm already really good at the sarcasm thing! ..and Sassy, not a problem!

(oh, ps..my husband reading Killing Lincoln right now! :D)

Give me things that aren't reality, and I'll be good. ;D

Ugh, well, it's not easy! One of the books I hope to publish *someday* is from a guy's point of view and it's dang hard! It used to be from a girl's point of view, but then I realized I was fed up with so many books being from a girl's point of view and switched my main charactetr, hahah. But yes, it's hard to not let the "femininine side" creep in once and awhile. x)

Seriously, sometimes I'm like, excited if I get to give a one star rating. I'm always, "Woo hoo, I get to be all snarky about it because it was terriblleeee!!" (: Is sassy a problem for anybody? (;

(Really? Does he like it? I heard snippets of it when my dad was listening to it on audiobook on our looong drive home from California once.)

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer I think this book is from a guys POV but I can't say for sure since I haven't read it. But it was recommended to me by my librarian and I've been wanting to read it for a while. OH, and it's YA :D

Good luck to you, Thalia...Its hard enough to write a book (I've watched my husband...and no darn well, I couldn't do it) . . .I can't imagine writing it from the POV of the opposite sex (and being at all true...it would always be just what a guy SHOULD say...) LOL!
I have to admit I liked the twilight books (not exactly literary genius, but I liked the story...) and I read a the part of the Edward book Miss Meyer has on line...the Book from Edward's perspective is way better!

...and here's to getting to read a few bad books...just so we can be 'snarky'! (and I think you're right...being sassy isn't a problem for anyone under the age of 20 (boy or girl.) and NEVER a prob for a woman...I think guys would rather be aloof than sassy! :D Hahahaha!

...and your last question...Yes, he's really enjoying it (but he reads alot of non-fiction, war and just plain ole guy stuff!:) so not sure if that's helpful!

. . . and thanks Jessica. Cause as addicted as I am to goodreads already, I needed another book to add to my WAY TOO LONG to-read list! . . It's a problem! I use it as my own private library browsing time! So...it can't be a bad thing if you're addicted to books right???! :)

I have to admit that WH is not a book I want to read - I managedthe first chapter, put it down and never picked it back up again :( But then that's the joy of this sorta group - everyone has their own tastes. My sister adores WH and is constantly trying to get me into it - even lending me the DVDs of the latest BBC adaptation.

I'm really struggling with 20,000 Leagues at the moment - it's just filled with a lot of unnecessary paragraphs, imo, that it ruins the flow. Really wanting to stop reading, and dreading having to write a review about it - oh well, maybe it picks up right at the end!

I do enjoy being snarky about bad books - but it takes a very good reason to make me finish a bad book so there aren't many opportunities for me to do so :(

I know what you mean Hayley! ...and it's nice to have people of varying degrees of likes and dislikes. Sometimes people try to make me feel bad about not liking a certain author...cause they're one of the greats! I have to admit...I like C.S. Lewis for Screwtape letters and I loved the Magicians Nephew and Lion Witch and Wardrobe...but outside of those I have trouble with his run-on forever and ever sentences that I have to re-read because by the time I get to the end I have NO idea where it was going!

WH, I'll be honest, it took me until the middle of chapter 2 before I really got interested (funny, I was just talking to my son about this becuase he has a book he supposed to read that he really doesn't want to!)...
20,000 leagues was fun for me, but we used it as a read-aloud for school...so I got to do cool voices, that kept us going! But, it'll be fun to see what you're reading and what you like and what you give your snarky remarks to! And..it's fun to hear somebody can just put a book down when it's bad and walk away...(I sometimes wish I could, so I could move on!)...but I'm always glad I finish! Atlas Shrugged took me FOREVER...but I was glad I made it to the end! (talk about a lot of useless paragraphs!) :)
Hope you have fun, and let us know what you're reading next! Hope you make it through 20,000 Leagues!

Jessica, have instantly added your recommendation. I really am a sucker for reading from a guy's POV. I think that's why the Pendragon series hooked me so a couple years ago. <3

Oh, really? I haven't read Midnight Sun yet, but again, because it's from Edward's POV, I'm really looking forward to it. (; I sure wish she had finished it up and it hadn't leaked, though. Would be nice to hold it in my hands! But I have two older brothers who are kind of similar to my main character, so I'm using what I remember of their high school lives to follow, hahha.

I'm curious as to how many books are on everybody's "to-read" shelf here on GR. Mine is something like 1700+ books, hahah. And now I just added three because of Jessica, and I felt compelled to add the entire series to my list. OTL.

The only time I read 20000 Leagues was like, in fifth grade, and it was the Great Illustrated Classics version, hahah. I don't think I have an interest in reading it all, though I can't remember much of what it was about. XD

Something that helps me get through bad books is that I read a lot out loud. (I feel like I miss everything when I read in my head, hahah.) Reading bad books out loud makes you see how truly awful the writing (dialogue especially) is, and you can just laugh your way through it. Becomes less of a chore to finish it and more like, 'Man, this is so awful, I need to see how bad it gets!'

Good luck with 20000 Leagues, Hayley! (:

Thalia, I hope that book really is from a guy POV :D Let me know.

That's totally hilarious that you read terrible books out loud! I am SO going to do that next time!!

I only have like 382 books on my to-read in goodreads. But those are just the ones I bothered to add LOL

Well, I read everything out loud, but it's so much more fun when they're awful. (; I think when you read in your head, you can sometimes trick yourself into thinking a book is okay. But when you read out loud, there's no mistaking terrible writing, or awkward dialogue!

Except for The Seven Rays. That book was so terrible, I couldn't bring myself to read it aloud, since I just felt stupid saying the things written, hahah.

382?! Whaaa, so few! I had an anon on my tumblr blog tell me my goals were unrealistic and I should delete most of my TBR shelf. OTL.

You guys are making me laugh! I love reading the books outloud, but I have to be honest...alot of what I'm reading I certainly don't want my kids repeating...so MY books are not read aloud! I could just see my husband...would you please SHUT UP, I'm trying to sleep! Hahaha! But, that would make akward dialog so much worse..I tend to say what I want in my head if the conversation doesn't flow!

Midnight Sun is much better...and in my humble opinion...I think Stephenie is just being a diva...she says she wants everyone to just forget about it and she'll finish it, PuhLease! What better way to get more attention....Yes, I wish she'd finish it...but I won't give her the satisfaction of signing any of the petitions or plead with her onher page...I'll just do what she said...forget about it and read it when I'm 80!

382 books!~ Well, it's certainly apparent then, that I have a problem! What I really need to do is go put them in some order so I have any idea of WHAT I want to read and when...instead of sifting through 700 books right now (and those are only the ones on here...I haven't added all of them from my library page, eeekkkk~) Whatever...I'll have something to read until I'm dead!

....and now I might have to go find Seven Rays and read it just to see how bad it could possibly be!

What does OTL mean?

Jessica, oh sorry! OTL is supposed to look like a person kneeling down with their head on the floor. Like falling on your knees in defeat? XD If you ever saw "The Two Towers" think of when Aragorn thinks Merry and Pippin are dead and kicks that helmet off in the distance, falls to his knees and screams, hahah.

You can also do "orz", but I don't like that one as much, hahah.

April, hahah! I do that too; fix the dialogue to what it should sound like. In Michael Grant's Gone, he uses "said" so many times, that I eventually just put my own words in place of it, hahah.

Yes, she probably is. But there are petitions to get it finished!? Now that's a little crazy. However, I don't think I'd mind if she surprised us and published it, hahha. x)

Oh, April, you should. I actually tell people to read it because it was so awful. It's actually written by the same woman who wrote the sceenplays to the "Bring it On" cheerleading movies! Had I known that beforehand, I NEVER would have picked it up! It's so terrible, and you can tell somebody who wrote lame and stupid cheerleading movies wrote the book!

Okay, totally didn't expect the conversation to be THIS far after the other... but that's what I get for not getting on here yesterday I suppose! LOL

Are you reading the Silmarillion? I've read it twice and have pages of notes so that I could understand it. It WAS really hard to get into. If you want some of my notes, let me know. They are filled of awesome stuff like this:

Names of the moon: Isil the sheen, Flower of Teperion (Elder), Rana the Waywayd, Arien Maiar

Seriously why does the moon need so many names???

I have two toddlers, too! Is it bad that they are playing video games while I'm blogging....?

Yep, reading Silmarillion. I did decide yesterday that notes would be great if I wanted to trace all the names of an individual person/place/thing, and really figure out the history... but I'm not all about making sure the history lines up with everything and just want the STORY, at least this round, so I think for now I'm okay without notes. If I end up too confused to follow the story I may change my mind though! LOL


How old are your toddlers? My twins are 16 months old so it's just beginning for us! Nice to meet another homeschooler with littles!



And as far as Twilight goes - I didn't even read it. Didn't bother. Read The Host and I came to the same conclusions as April; she's no literary genius, but it was a good story. I just decided that I'd enjoy the movies as a fun story and spend my reading time with something more worthwhile. But, that's how I feel about most romances in general, so why should vampires be any different? /snark/


My non-fic is all Christian books also - self help, or introspective, or Bible study, or whatever. The most into biographies and history I get is our lovely homeschooling curriculum... which I nicely round out with historical fiction. ROFL!


Wuthering Heights is on my TBR also.

We need some kind of widget where we all enter our TBR's and it tells us which ones we have in common. We should totally do group reads here! Loving this group more all the time. ;)

I thought it was Out To Lunch! Hahah...cracking myself up over here!

April wrote: "I thought it was Out To Lunch! Hahah...cracking myself up over here!"

Hahahaha! That's grand! x)

HAHAHA And WTF is why the face!!! Out to lunch is an awesome meaning for OTL!!! Oh, and this is hiking or something ^.^ I totally don't get emoticons. In my day of the internet you had happy and sad and that covered 90% of your emotions.

Hiking!? What in the world! XD

Well, of course, what else could WTF mean? (;
But OTL was one that took me forever, and asking several people, to understand! There's one I still don't know, but I can't remember what it is right now!