divinenanny's Reading Journal

I love the idea of having a reading journal here, because I love the responsiveness of all the members of this group. So, no challenge, no lists, just reading....

The book I just finished is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I would have never known about this book without LibraryThing. This is why I love this site so much, it helps me find books I never would have found otherwise. Anyway, I picked this book up recently in a big shopping spree in London (I live in the Netherlands).
I didn't quite know what to expect, but I was hooked from about chapter two. I loved both stories, the one set in the thirties in the circus, and the one set in the now, in the old folks home. I loved how the young character was discovering the world of the circus at the same time we were. I can't say much more without giving away the story.

What I do love is that I used only read fantasy and science fiction and avoid 'regular' fiction and classics, and LT is helping me branch out.

My next book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I have read the first part already and despite the depressing subject matter it is a great book.

It is nice to see you join in the Green Dragon's reading journals and I am sure you'll be a great addition as you love Bette Midler! Perfect. A number of us have read Fahrenheit 451 recently due to its being a frequently banned book, and it just was banned book week. I think it is pretty universally appreciated here. Hope you like it, too.

Don't forget to add a link to this thread to the Master thread so clammy can add you to the big list! http://www.librarything.com/topic/98913

Thanks for the welcome! And yes, a major Bette fan here :D

Banned Books is not really an issue here, but glad to know I participated, even if it was a bit too late...

I just finished Fahrenheit 451, another one I just could not put down. To be truthful, I didn't want to read it at first because the subject is so depressing. I cannot stand the idea of books being destroyed. But, in the end I am so glad I did read it. For me, this books fits in the same category as A canticle for Leibowitz. Books everybody should read to value books for their real worth. Unfortunately we all know that will never happen.

Anyway, this is an eye-opener, a revelation and a deserved classic. For me this is a five star book, for its subject matter and its wonderful writing style.

About 15 years ago I tried to read Fahrenheit 451, mainly because I know I was expected to have read it, and because I thought I'd agree with the message. I didn't finish the book. As a major interest of mine is the ideas and practises that drive human societies I found I didn't need to be convinced censorship or the practise of banning what doesn't suit you is bad for us. And I've never been able to like Ray Bradbury's writing. Not then, not now. So I find it interesting that so many people do like and enjoy both his writing and that particular book.

Perhaps it's down to the fact in some settings the message is still relevant (and will always be, as long as there's humans about)?

Eh, I've recently read Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes and have no desire to slog through anything else Bradbury has written. I dislike his style immensely.

I found his writing style did take some getting used to (especially after an easy read such as Water for Elephants, but I didn't find it disagreeable. I do agree that these ideas are not new to me, nor do I disagree, but in the current political climate in The Netherlands, it is a good read. A short clarification without getting too political... after years and years of left and left-leaning governments we are now getting a definitely right-wing government, with support from an extreme right-wing party. This is bad news for anything to do with culture, though they have said to be good to libraries... But still...

I have never read anything else by Bradbury, and am not really planning to. I read this book more for the general idea of the dystopia through cultural degradation (as opposed to warfare, viruses etc.). If I find a Bradbury with a plot that seems interesting I would pick it up, but for now, this is it...

I tend to admire Bradbury's ideas more than I enjoy his writing. Canticle, though, is one of my old favorites. Did you enjoy that one, divinenanny?

Oooh, I loved Canticle so much. The reason I picked that up is because I loved Anathem by Neal Stephenson a whole lot, but a review (I read after reading the book) called it a bad imitation of Canticle. So I had to try Canticle. And I had no regrets, I loved both the story and the philosophy behind it.

All these books about the value of books strike home for me, not only because of my personal love of books (both the owning and the reading) but also because I work for our national library, so these stories also bring more value to my daily work.

I find Bradbury's short stories to be more readable and enjoyable than his novels. The Martian Chronicles was good because it was a collection of his short stories with a Mars theme. I must have read another collection of shorts at some time because I remember a time travel one and one about the Illustrated Man that wowed me. I really didn't like Something Wicked This Way Comes either and I started but never did finish Fahrenheit 451 but I will try it again sometime. Maybe it's as Jim53 says and I also admire Bradbury's ideas more than his writing.

Maybe it is also because I am a relatively fast reader. Fahrenheit 451 only took one day of my life, so I might be a bit more forgiving for language/plot flaws in books as I might glance over them. Hope that makes sense...

Yesterday I finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I picked up this book because earlier this year I read his The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. Before that I hadn't really heard of him as I only have been really into English literature/fiction for about two years, since really joining LT. I picked up De Zoet because of its Japanese/Dutch story (as I am Dutch and would love to see Japan and Decima). I really liked the book, especially the slightly surreal/fantasy undertone (the abbot) which was reinforced by an interview with him I read that eluded to more SF like elements in the sequel to De Zoet.
Anyway, I got the idea that Mitchell is a surreal author in the style of Murakami (which I also recently discovered and adore). I know Mitchell spent some time in Japan, and he also seems to know his history (despite some flaws in De Zoet). Completely random I picked Cloud Atlas to be my next Mitchell book to read.
Thinking back on what I think of the book is weird. On the one hand, I couldn't put it down, I had to keep reading it. On the other hand, what I missed was one major plot point, one event that all stories would be leading up to and explain. But then again, when I think back about the book, the major, story-overlapping themes jump out at me (helped by reading interviews and reviews after reading the book). The cyclic history. The power struggles. The reincarnation theme. And when I think about the story (stories) that way, I can't help but think that the book is brilliant. So many little things you start to notice. Makes me want to reread the book so I can find more patterns, more hints, and links. In the end, I gave the book five stars, and I will be reading more Mitchell in the future.

I really should get around to reading something by David Mitchell. It's rare to see anything bad said about his books. The two titles which you mention both sound really good reads.

I see now that I haven't updated my thread with my last (before the weekend) read, which was The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. The main reason I picked this up was because I loved Never let me go so much. I knew that Remains wasn't going to be about a dystopian future, but I still wanted to try it (I love dystopias).
The beginning of the book I found a bit slow going. This might have been because I was very tired, and the language used took some getting used to. However, after about 50 pages, I could not put it down. The story is so wonderfully written, so beautiful and tragic and lovely all at the same time. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this book. For me this is a four star book. Not five stars because the story itself was not that surprising.
While reading I was reminded of the tv sitcom The Nanny (of which I was/am a big fan, hence my screen name) and its butler Niles. Stevens would never have approved of the informal manners of Niles, however, Niles does have some Stevens in him. And the whole true part of the story with Miss Kenton is very recognizable. All in all a highly recommended read.

the movie version of The remains of the day is very good. Anthony Hopkins is so perfect as the stiff butler

I am not really a movie person (I almost never watch movies, and try to avoid those movies adapted from books I have read) but I might try this one one day. It would be interesting to see.

Let me throw in my recommendation for the movie of The Remains of the Day. It is one very memorable movie which is rare these days. I loved Hopkins' acting. A very bitter sweet story. I still remember it even though it has been years since I saw the movie.

And again I have been neglectful of this thread, so, some ramblings on my latest reads:

I read The Thirteenth Tale after many recommendations here on LT. I loved the story, the history, the mystery. Somehow the mental states and the tragedy of the people in the house (sorry, forgot the name, I have no memory to speak of) reminded me of Wuthering Heights, the self destructive tendencies of them all. I did not expect the ending, though I had my suspicions, and even though the book ended kind of open, I did not mind. Which is strange because I usually hate that in a story. I really could not put this book down. A nice light read.

After that I read The City & The City by China Mieville who is a new writer to me. Before a couple of months ago I had never heard of him (I should frequent some SF/Fantasy sections more often) but his name kept popping up and then he won the Hugo for this book, so I just had to try him. Plus the label he has for Weird Fiction sounded very attractive.
I loved the book. I loved the skill he had in creating this weird world of two overlaying, interlocking, connected cities and then told perfectly the consequences for the people living in these cities, all while also working on a murder mystery. I was fascinated. I read on Wikipedia about Mieville that all his books combine SF/Fantasy/Weird Fiction with one other main genre, and this was his 30s era detective work. It worked wonderfully and I cannot wait to read more of his work.

And then I read a book that was very similar in set-up, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, also a Hugo winner. I mean similar in set-up in that the world is as we know it, with one slight twist: The Jewish population didn't move to Palestine/Israel after WWII but was granted a piece of land in Alaska to stay, but only for 60 years (and those 60 years are up). And again, a murder is committed, but our main character, Landsman, a detective for the soon to be defunct police force, is prohibited from investigating. Like a good detective, he doesn't care and stumbles upon all kinds of stuff he never knew about his home country.
Like Mieville, Chabon weaves the murder mystery into the descriptions of this strange Alaskan Jewish land and their history. Masterfully done, and even though more bad stuff happened than I like, I loved the book. Chabon is another writer I will happily read more by.

Lastly I read Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I have read a book (People of the book) by her before and liked it (even though opinions on LT varied). That was the reason I picked up this one. I have read books about the plague in the middle ages (Black Death and later) before, both fiction and non-fiction. Something about the desperation, the magnitude of the pandemic fascinates me. I wouldn't know what I would do if half of all the people around me died. What would happen to our infrastructure, our work, our everything.
Anyway, I am no stranger to the depressive nature of this topic. But this book did manage to be extremely depressing. For 250 pages it is basically a description of the downward spiral of a village, of all the deaths, and the reactions to those deaths.
And then, all of a sudden something happens, love, adventure and all that. For me it felt completely out of place and very forced.
I have noticed this before in historical fiction, but even though we are following a "normal" person (peasant, farmer, serf) whose lives in those days were very rough and hardly anybody 'broke' out of it, these writers feel the need to make their character rise above this. Peasant women learn to read, get rights that women never had in those days (but they are the exception), men treat there woman (this special main character) different than all men did before, etc. etc. This also happens here. I don't want to give away the ending, but it felt very unreal and forced.

So, that was my catching up. Now I am reading Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative: Of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. Yesterday evening we went to reading/lecture/talk by Redmond O'Hanlon who spoke about and read passionately from narratives by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. He inspired me to finally read this narrative. It might not be my only read (depends on how long it is and feels) but I am happy to be swept away.

I've been meaning to try China Mieville's work for some time and have the Bas-Lag trilogy sat on my tbr shelves. Unfortunately, I've not yet had the chance to fit him in. Hopefully I can do so soon. The City and the City sounds great as does The Yiddish Policeman's Union which will be added to my wishlist. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Wolfy, both were great, (I think) you won't be disappointed.

I finished reading the Personal Narrative of a journey by Humboldt. I read the abridged Penguin Classics edition. I tried a full chapter through Gutenberg, but I was happy my book was abridged. The full version contains a lot more measurements and purely scientific observations. While I am sure that they are very interesting and important, I am not a geologist, biologist or meteorologist, and I wanted to the work mainly for the journey and the discovery within.
I was a bit disappointed the book only describes Humboldt's life and journey around the Orinoco river system, and not the Andes, his meeting with Jefferson and all that, but as far as I understand this (the Andes trip at least) was described in a fourth manuscript destroyed/unfinished by Humboldt. Maybe one day I will pick a biography of him to discover more.
The book itself was incredibly well readable. There was a curious mix of old-fashioned prejudices (he found the natives slow and lazy) and 'modern' thought (he was very anti-slavery and he didn't always agree with the missionary treatment of the natives).
I tried to keep in mind what Humboldt knew and didn't know. He didn't know about evolution and about plate tetonics. If you know this, and then read Humboldt it is fascinating to see that he knows something isn't quite right, yet he doesn't realize the reasons for it (I remember he writes about how other naturalists found species in South America that also live in Europe, but Humboldt discovers these species are different yet share similar characteristics).
A very nice and good read, to discover what nineteenth century scientists like Humboldt, Darwin and Wallace went through to discover what we now take for granted.

My other read was The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry, a light Dan Brown-ish type read to offset Humboldt. It follows the same premise: Mystery to do with Christianity, clues hidden everywhere, a brotherhood protects it... Yet I like Steve Berry a lot more. His writing is more fast-paced and it doesn't claim to be anything it is not (like Dan Brown claiming truth)... This is part one in a series, and later on he also deals with non-Christian/non-Western mysteries.

My last read was The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I read The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood earlier this year and last year. These three books are all science fiction. I knew that this one wouldn't be, so I was a bit apprehensive about starting it, not sure if I would still like it. In the other three books it was the dystopia that appealed to me.
I didn't know anything about this book and its story. It took me some time to get into the book. I think part of the reason for this was the three or four story lines that are braided together in the book. It took me sometime and one good long read to figure out the relationship between them.
I really liked the story, especially reflecting back on it. I figured out the twist (or at least had a sneaking suspicion) about half way through the book, but I was curious until the ending about how the story would play out.
It is funny, I seem to be reading (or remember reading) a lot of books lately with tragic family stories in big English mansions. Wuthering Heights comes to mind, but also The Thirteenth Tale and maybe to a lesser extend Remains of the Day. Maybe it is just selective memory on my part, but it seems I should be glad not to have been born in a British aristocratic family.

My other reads have been graphic novels. Last Sunday I read The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, right before sleeping. I might have been worrying also, but that evening I couldn't sleep due to nightmares... I will read the other parts early in the morning. Other than the creepy feelings I really liked this first part of the series, though it is darker than what I am used to by Neil Gaiman.

I also read the first two books of the Scott Pilgrim series (Scott Pilgrim's precious little life and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). I admit, I had never heard of Scott Pilgrim before the movie, but as it seems to be very popular I wanted to read them. I am not always sure about what is happening, but they seem to be very entertaining. After reading all six parts I will be sure to watch the movie.

I just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I picked the book based on the good posts it gets here on LT talk. When I read the back flap I had some doubts if this book wouldn't be too childish (the main character and narrator is an eleven year old girl) and if the genre would be ok for me.
In the end I should have trusted my instincts. The book is a murder mystery, the murder is investigated by the girl, Flavia de Luce. And this is just not my genre. I don't like it on tv (Wallander, Inspector Lindley, Morse, Lewis etc) and I only like it in books that have another genre in them, such as historical fiction.

I am also still reading more Scott Pilgrim and enjoying it more and more.

#23 - I've wondered about that book myself. I DO like murder mysteries, but I'm often not fond of precocious or precious children.

#24 - She is a precocious, and not only that, the de Luce family is rich, so she (in her own way) feels above the regular villagers... A child you can be easily annoyed by...

I finished Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters yesterday. I have read some of the other Quirk Classics (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Dawn of the Dreadfuls) before, and liked them. I wasn't quite sure if I would like this one, because I didn't like Sense and Sensibility as much as Pride and Prejudice, and I like zombies a lot more (as a story element) than sea monsters.
And my expectations were confirmed. The story additions to Sense and Sensibility are that all sea/water life has turned against mankind. Sea travel is very dangerous, as are walks on the beach. The city they spend the winter in is a domed city on the sea floor in a steampunk style.
During the story I didn't feel the mixture as well as in the other two Quirk books I read. It felt like two separate stories. And the new addition wasn't done that well. Several loose plots (pirates, monsters, disasters) without any real resolution. It hasn't turned me off the classic/horror mashup genre, but this was a miss for me.

That Personnal Narrative sounds interesting. I've tried reading origin of species sometimes but it does drag out amazingly. How well is the translation done? Is it readable or stilted in places?

The Penguin Classic version was very good. I read the first few chapters through Gutenberg, and though it to be a bit long winded in places (especially as I am not a scientist in any of the fields that Humboldt is interested in). The Penguin translation was refreshing. Very well readable, and abridged in just the right places (all measurements and scientific observations are taken out, the wonder and awe is left in). That combined with a nice introduction and footnotes makes it a very good edition in my opinion.

I have some catching up to do...

I read The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry, the second book in the Cotton Malone series. A nice fast paced quick read. Think Indiana Jones and some Dan Brown, but I like Berry better.

I read Eragon on my iPad. I have heard much about this series in the past couple of years, and most of it not really good. The general comment I seem to remember is that the stories are okay, but heavily inspired by older and better fantasy such as The Lord of the Rings, and the writing isn't all that good either. I agree with those comments for the most part, but all in all it is an okay read. Maybe a bit too long, especially since it is so clearly a part one. Sometimes the 'inspirations' it took from books like LOTR were a bit annoying, but all in all, I will read Eldest next.

I read Bone, the graphic novel/comic by Jeff Smith, after seeing it in the stores so many times (and being impressed by the sheer size of the work) and reading some great reviews online. And they were not wrong. I could hardly put it down, such a nice adventure epic. The story was great and the drawings were fantastic. I did feel that most action at the end of the book could have been drawn out a bit more, but then again, I read it all at once and didn't have to wait twelve years and 55 issues for the story to finish. I highly recommend this work.

I also read Im Verborgenen, a story collection by John Ajvide Lindqvist of Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead fame. I am such a fan of the man, but the problem is he writes in Swedish, so I have to wait for translations of his work. I have two works (the two famous ones named above) in English, one (Het Zeewezen) in Dutch and now this one in German (Germany seems to love him too and is most of the times the first market of the three to have a translation). My German is okay for the most part, so I was able to read the stories and grasp most of what was written. The stories themselves are great, and all have that Lindqvist feel (the acceptance that there is something supernatural, be it zombies, vampires or magic, and a study of the human reaction). The bonus was a novella (100+ pages) that is part of the Handling the Undead story, where the main characters go back to the sanctuary. Great stuff, especially for fans.

I received for Sinterklaas many books, one of which was The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. I have read the original by Maurice Sendak when I was little (despite it not being as popular here as it is in the US) and I have seen the movie. I loved the movie so much, even though it was sad in a way. I was really curious as to what Eggers would have made of it. The book follows the movie (for the most part, the acknowledgments say it differs in some ways, but my memory is too bad to remember it well enough) but because you are now in Max's head, it is still a new read. I loved the book even more than the movie, maybe because it was even more tragic. Another great read.

When I inherited (read picked out from the storage in the attic) some books from my father, The Foundation Trilogy was one set that came with it. His versions were in Dutch from the seventies. Because the Foundation is often named as basic must-read science fiction, I knew I had to read it. I just read part one (De Foundation) and wasn't disappointed. Sure, it shows it age in some ways (it doesn't use technology we have come to expect in SF because it wasn't developed back then) but overall the story is great. I like the distance it has to its main characters. Its main character is really the Foundation, not the people that act in the events, which fits the main premise. I am now reading De Foundation en het Imperium, the second book of the trilogy.