Member: julieryc

Library1,769 books — see library

ReviewedNone so far

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Tagsfiction (398), star trek (331), science fiction (315), nonfiction (188), history (105), science (19), american history (14), biology (13), ancient history (12) — see all tags

Groups18th-19th Century Britain, Ancient History, Children's Fiction, Children's Literature, FantasyFans, Historical Fiction, Hogwarts Express, Lost In A Good Book, Medieval Europe, Music to read by — show all groups , Science Fiction Fans, Science!, The Green Dragon

Favorite authorsJane Austen, Peter David, Jasper Fforde, Jean Plaidy, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Alison Weir (Shared favorites)

About me Fiction quotes:

"To know a man's library is, to some extent, to know his mind." -from March

"Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say that you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear." -Helen Burns, from Jane Eyre

"I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment."
"That will make Your Ladyship's situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on me."
-Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lizzy Bennet, from Pride and Prejudice

"'Is it my imagination, Kebron," Soleta asked slowly, 'or is everyone on this vessel preoccupied with romance?'
'Not me.'
'No?' she asked.
'I don't need romance,' Zak Kebron told her confidently. 'I have goldfish.'
Soleta wisely didn't pursue it."
-from Star Trek: New Frontier

Non-fiction:

"Egad, sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox."
"That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
-exchange between John Wilkes and the Earl of Sandwich, taken from John Wilkes

"God does not play dice."
"Einstein, stop telling God what to do!"
-Einstein and Niels Bohr, from Einstein

Humor:

"As you know if you've ever been subjected to modern medical care, the whole theory is that if they can make you feel awful enough, you'll begin to look back on your original ailment with actual fondness. They take out all your blood and put you in a tiny room where they expose you repeatedly to daytime television, and every few hours total strangers come in and give you Jell-O and stab you with small medical harpoons and insert tubes at random into your body. Then they say, 'Are you feeling BETTER NOW? Or perhaps we should give you some MORE MEDICAL CARE HAHAHAHA.'" --Dave Barry

I'm a first-year pharmacy student who particularly enjoys reading and writing. Jane Austen is my absolute favorite writer of all time, with Pride and Prejudice as my favorite novel (Persuasion runs a close second, and I really have to say the only Austen novel I'm not that fond of is Emma, and perhaps sections of Northanger Abbey.) Given that I'm a LotR, Harry Potter, and Star Trek fan, I'd say that I'm pretty geeky. In general, I'll try to finish anything I start; a book has to be pretty wretched for me not to finish it (see list below.)

About my library It's a wide variety, including a smattering of young adult, historical fiction, lots and lots of non-fiction (primarily in history, biography, and biology/infectious diseases), and Star Trek books (TNG, DS9, NF, and VOY.) I also have fantasy, sci-fi, and just about every other genre excepting horror, romance, and poetry. Anything that's unrated generally means I haven't read it yet. I intend to tag everything eventually (note: the classics tag is for books either about or written in antiquity, generally Greek or Roman in nature, not classics like Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, et al.) For now, I'm considering it a small achievement just to have catalogued everything I own (excepting books that are actually collections of comic strips - FoxTrot, Calvin and Hobbes, etc., and a shelf's worth of old books I've acquired at used book sales and haven't yet gotten around to deciding if I'm going to keep or not.) I tend to hang on to books.

The WORST books I've read lately are listed below, and a brief summary of why. I was unable to finish these books, which is a rarity for me; in general, I read until something's done. These books were all in my library at some point in time, but I actually got rid of them (donating them to the library and thus inflicting them on some poor unsuspecting person at a book sale.)

Thornfield Hall. The characters were unrecognizable, the plot awful, the writing worse; published fanfiction of the worst sort.

The Phantom of Manhattan. Actually, I read this a long time ago, but it was also so terrible as to still make this list. Godawful published fanfiction, terribly written and completely uncompelling.

The Witch of Cologne. When the evil lustful Inquisitor took out his violin and began playing during a torture session, I gave up.

Nectar from a Stone. Completely and utterly predictable. It felt like a waste of time to keep reading.

God's War (A history of the Crusades.) I like history, but this was deadly dull. There was nothing factually bad or particularly awful, it was just mind-numbingly boring.

A People's History of Science. I gave up after the Greek chapter, which advocates bad research (Bernal) in the name of political screed, completely misinterprets Plato, and attempts to quote Herodotus as being an accurate source on linguistics, just to name a few major issues I had with the book. I had no trust in the author left after that chapter, and it felt less like a history of science and more like a professor who decides that disseminating their political beliefs are integral to teaching your molecular biology course.

Anne Boleyn: A New History of England's Tragic Queen. I'm all good with the opinion of Anne Boleyn as not as bad as Spanish propaganda paints her, and there's some good material on her early life, but the author seems to believe that Catherine of Aragon must be EVIL! (yes, with that much emphasis on EVIL!) in order for Anne to have been a decent person. But what made this book unfinishable was the whacking-over-the-head with the author's evangelical beliefs. It comes off as completely and utterly vitriolic and fire-spewing, not to mention unnecessarily offensive (particularly as the author feels the need to *prove* Catholicism, both then and now, as being wrong in order to vindicate Anne.)

Worst Book I've Actually Finished (Lately): His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass. Because there's nothing like ruining a good fantasy by whacking your reader over their head with obvious, screaming metaphor over and over and over until they want to fling the book across the room. (Disclaimer: Yes, I am Catholic. But I don't like the ending to Narnia, either.)

Runner-Up: Dan Brown, either the Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons, by virtue of the fact that if you've read one, the other is completely predictable and therefore just badly written dreck.

And Most Depressing Book in my Library: The Thrall's Tale. Well-written, but I don't recommend it. Every time you don't think things can get worse, they do. And it NEVER GETS HAPPY. (I suppose the same goes for Atonement, but that's not currently in my library.)

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Real nameJulie

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Member sinceAug 12, 2006