Hundår
by Markus Zusak
Original title: The Underdog

For the A-Z reading challenge.

Swedish
128 pages
Richters
ISBN: 91-7130-027-9

First line: Det var medan vi tittade på teve som vi bestämde oss för att råna tandläkaren.

Back cover blurb:
Cameron Wolfe är en ensamvarg och underdog som slår i underläge. Alltid i underläge!
I Hundår berättar han om några månader i sitt liv. Inte för att det hände något särskilt. Bara hans försök att hitta sin väg genom livet. Och några boxningsmatcher på bakgården.

Thoughts: I don’t know if it was because of the translation, my mood at the time, or because Zusak is just not my cup of tea, but I didn’t like this book. I’ve been hearing a lot of good stuff about him, so I think I’ll probably try The Book Thief anyway, though not by buying it. If I’ll read it, I’ll borrow it from the library.

A D grade. It just wasn’t interesting to me.

Posted on July 4th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: A-Z Reading Challenge, D, Fiction, Swedish, Young Adult | No Comments »

This morning, when I was on the Amazon.co.uk site to send a gift certificate to Banquo, I sort of strayed onto the other sections of the site. Y’know, where they sell actual books. And, um… now it appears that, oh, nine or so of them are heading this way.

Then my family came to visit (and to bring my cats. It’s a long story) and we went shopping for a bit. Of course, since they had never been to the used book store here, I had to take them. And, um… suddenly I seem to have added another four books to my collection. I don’t understand how these things just happen! ;D

The thing about that book store is that, in addition* to selling new and used books, they also sell movie icon related stuff, most of which is pretty nifty. In other words: not only did I add to my book collection, but I also ended up with six new coasters and a tray, all with old style Hollywood stars on them. (And earlier in the day, I’d found two mugs with Tony the Tiger as he used to be.)

The books I ordered from Amazon.co.uk are:

• Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Emily Climbs by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Emily’s Quest by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Generation X by Douglas Coupland
• Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides
• Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andy Lane
• Torchwood: Border Princes by Dan Abnett
• Torchwood: The Twilight Streets by Gary Russell

The first five are all for a Canadian reading challenge I’m about to join, the last four is because of that Who kick I’ve been on/am on.

The four books I got at the book store were:

• A History of the Breast by Marilyn Yalom
• The Underdog by Markus Zusak
• Tro, hopp och burnout by Johan Unenge
• Vadå feminist? by Lisa Gålmark

I’ve been eyeing the first of these four since September, but never got it because it was a tad on the expensive side the first time, the second time because I couldn’t find it, the third time because it was too expensive. Then today I decided I would get it, and now it was half-price! Brilliant that, I thought.

I can use that book, and the other three, for the A-Z reading challenge, which is the biggest reason I got most of them (another reason I got the Zusak one is because I’ve been curious about Zusak for a good while now). They’re all for pretty tricky letters of the alphabet, which makes it all the better. The one, slightly not cool, thing is that the two first are in translation, rather than original. But I hope they’re okay anyway.

*I totally spelled addition** as addiction at first. Freudian slip?
**And there I did it again. Double slip?

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by Love
Filed under: Shopping | 1 Comment »

I am made of epic fail. This is a fact that most people know about me, but perhaps Kim L and Banquo know it more than most. See, back in April there was that quotation contest I held. Let me remind you—April. Do you think I sent out the prizes back then? Exactly. I didn’t. But today I finally did, so I’m a little less epic fail right now. (Kim L, Banquo: let me know if you haven’t received your gift certificates. I sent them to the e-mail addresses you used to comment here, so they should have got there safely, but if not, I need to try to fix that.)

In other, somewhat related news, I won the Read-a-thon post-event survey prize drawing, which is a subscription to Bookmarks magazine. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this.

I will have a post with June stats up at some point soon, maybe by the end of the weekend. I have yet to post reviews for a few books I read in June and I want to get those done first, but I have no time for it until the weekend, basically. (This is yet another reason for the epic fail.)

Still on a Doctor Who kick, which will soon also be a Torchwood kick (I’m about half-way through my last Ten+Rose book, and so shall have to turn to Torchwood for my Who-verse fixes. Well, until Saturday, that is).

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by Love
Filed under: Contests, General booktalk | 2 Comments »

Mrs S at Blue Archipelago is hosting a new reading challenge I just couldn’t resist joining. It’s called the July Book Blowout and the goal is to read as many books as you can during the month of July.

Since I’m going to be working full-time this month, I won’t set my goal very high. I’m aiming for 20 books by the end of the month (I’ve read one already—only nineteen to go!).

To kick off the challenge, Mrs S has posted a mini-challenge to get everyone acquainted.

1. Describe yourself in one sentence
A shy and quiet book geek with a Doctor Who fixation and a penchant for the slashridden.

2. What book will you start the challenge with?
Well, I already finished my first (Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker), but next up is Doctor Who: The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole. Yes, I’m on a Who kick currently. What of it? ;D

3. Where is your favourite place to read?
Bed!

4. What is your favourite book of all time?
Just the one? Oh, you are cruel! ;D Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, probably.

5. Remind us all of your challenge target
Twenty, which is kind of low for me, but then I’m back to work now, so I won’t have that much time for reading.

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 by Love
Filed under: General booktalk | 2 Comments »

It’s the 30th of June and thus ends the Here Be Dragons challenge I’ve been hosting since January. I hope everyone who participated had fun and discovered new (and old!) dragon acquaintances.

Tell me, did you finish the challenge? Which was your favourite book?

My list:

1. A Strong and Sudden Thaw; RW Day — finished 14th June, 2008
2. His Majesty’s Dragon; Naomi Novik — finished on 3rd January, 2008
3. A Game of Thrones; George RR Martin — finished 30th June, 2008
4. Dragon’s Bait; Vivian Vande Velde — finished on 2nd March, 2008
5. Throne of Jade; Naomi Novik — finished on 22nd June, 2008

My favourite was A Strong and Sudden Thaw by RW Day, followed closely by the two written by Naomi Novik. I’m definitely going to have to get my hands on the rest of that series (as well as the sequel to ASaST, which I hear is in the works).

I’m going to be visiting all the participants in the next few days to see how you all did. ‘Cause I’m nosy like that. ;D

I’ve already got some half-formed plans for a follow-up challenge, or a repeat challenge.

Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: Here Be Dragons | 2 Comments »

A Game of Thrones
by George RR Martin

For the Here Be Dragons and First in a Series reading challenges.

English
837 pages
Bantam Books
ISBN: 987-0-553-57340-4

First line: “We should start back,” Gared urged them as the woods began to grow dark around them.

Back cover blurb:
In a land where summer can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family born as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs periously in the balance, as each endeavor to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Thoughts: I kept pushing back reading this forever, as it’s such a big book. I didn’t use to mind big books—quite the opposite, in fact—but then I got a job and I don’t have as much time for reading as I used to, so I’ve rarely got time to finish big books in one sitting, which is what I prefer to do (example: I read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, which was 1239 pages in the translation I read, in less than two days).

Anyway, I went to London and I needed to have some reading material with me, or I’d go spare, but I also didn’t want to take too much, on account of weight issues and such, so this book got to come along with me. I didn’t finish it there, but I did get about half-way through. And then I finished it today.

For the first couple of hundred pages or so, it was pretty much just confusing. It’s written in third person. However it’s not one person we follow, but at least eight (I probably forgot someone now. It wouldn’t surprise me) and they never have two chapters in a row, which means that it took a while to get to know them.

Once I did, though, things did pick up a little and the story ends up being quite good. I even had a couple of favourite characters (Dany, Eddard, Jon and Tyrion). However, I don’t feel that it was good enough that I’ll likely want to read the rest in the series. Probably not, anyway. I am itching a little to know what happens next, so maybe one day I will end up reading the other books, but right now I doubt it.

It’s a C grade, which means it was a decent read, but not awe-inspiring.

Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: C, English, Fantasy, First in a Series, Here Be Dragons | No Comments »

The Uncommon Reader
by Alan Bennett

English
121 pages
Faber and Faber
ISBN: 978-1-84668-133-2

First line: At Windsor it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into the Waterloo Chamber.

Back cover blurb:
Led by her yapping corgis to the Westminster travelling library outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen finds herself taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Duff read though it is, the following week her choice proves more enjoyable and awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours work by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen’s literary odyssey to a close.

Thoughts: This book is made of awesome and that’s a fact. I read it in just a little over an hour and I kind of wish I hadn’t read it yet, so I could read it again for the first time.

I love the ending. I think it was absolutely fab. The rest also. I laughed out loud more than once and giggled madly about three times that.

There was a paragraph—well, not actually even a whole paragraph really, but a bit of a paragraph— at the beginning of the book that made me shout with glee. This, to be exact:

[...] he was largely self-taught, his reading tending to be determined by whether an author was gay or not.

Because I have a tendency to do that. Well, not exactly. More like I tend to turn towards books that I know have gay characters, even if maybe they don’t sound terribly exciting otherwise. I am hooked on boy on boy, okay? IT IS AN *AFFLICTION, BUT I AM NOT ASHAMED! (I am, however, operating on about four hours of sleep and um, it’s starting to show?) Almost, without fail, if a book has a gay character, he will be my favourite. I am terribly predictable about this, but there it is. (And it doesn’t apply to females. Because most of the time I couldn’t care less about the womenfolk. Which is, err, not so great, actually.)

Aaaaanyway, then I finished the book and read the blurb about the author. And I realised I was well daft and that Alan Bennett of The Uncommon Reader is Alan Bennett of The History Boys, which set my gaydar off big time. Because there were certain elements in The Uncommon Reader and there were also elements in The History Boys (very cute elements. V.v. cute elements! Adorable, even! I should read the play. Like, yesterday) and sometimes I have a functioning gaydar.** After a quick Wikipedia check, I had all the confirmation I needed.

And that’s when I cracked up about the quote again. Because it shouldn’t matter, and it doesn’t, but it does. (One day I will show you the little symbols I use in my little black book of books and you will laugh at me.) HI, I’M SHALLOW AND I LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS.

I think I might have got a bit sidetracked there. Y’know, just a smidgen. The Uncommon Reader gets an A grade, because it’s brilliant, but not because it has boy on boy (it doesn’t. Really) or because my gaydar worked on the author, but because it is about books and about reading and it’s funny and quirky and I LOVED IT!

Um, I think I should go to bed now…

*Being hooked on it, I mean. Not the boy on boy. Never!
**Which would be useful, except it only works on authors and fictional characters, more’s the pity.

Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: A, English, Fiction | 3 Comments »

The Read-a-thon’s over and I’m sitting here with pasta with blue cheese, a cup of tea and my little black book of books.

I enjoyed the whole experience ever so much and next time I intend to participate again, only that time I hope to be able to do the full twenty-four hours (why must there be such a thing as work? Why, oh why?). And next time, I hope my blog doesn’t die on me right in the middle of it. Do you have any idea how excruciatingly annoying that was?

I wish I’d had more time for visiting all the other participants. I did try at the start of it, but then I hardly got any reading done, so I stopped after a while. There were a couple of people I did check in on regularly, but I was a poor commenter to be sure.

Let’s have some numbers then!
8 books finished
2 books dabbled in
1,550 pages read
12.4 hours spent reading
6.5 hours spent sleeping/watching Doctor Who
4 hours (approximately) spent blogging/visiting other people’s blogs
10 cups of tea consumed
1 cup of (shoddy) coffee consumed

Next time I want to spend less time sleeping, more time reading, and hopefully break the 2,000-page barrier. I wasn’t that far off this time, all things considered. (Eva kind of scares me, though. I think she must be superhuman…)

In the photo below you can see eight of the books I picked up and read at some point during the Read-a-thon. Only six of those I finished, though. The other two of my completed reads were e-books, which makes it a tad difficult to include them in the photo.

Post-event survey from Dewey:
1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 22 and 23, definitely. I wasn’t very tired, exactly, but my eyes were finding it a little hard to focus on the text.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
My last hour I spent on The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, and I wish I’d started it a little earlier, because it’s a very fast, very fun, read and I would’ve liked to have finished it during the Read-a-thon.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Not really, I think it was fab the way it was! What do you mean, next year, though? ;D

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I really loved the mini-challenges and the cheerleading. I know I didn’t participate in many of the mini-challenges (I meant to for a lot of the later ones, but then my blog stopped working so I couldn’t, and some of the earlier ones I missed because I’d gone to bed), but they are a very nice touch to keep people interacting with each other. And the cheerleaders were gold!
Another thing is I read a lot of kid’s fiction/YA, which helped move things along (even though I felt a bit like I was cheating at times, reading such “simple” stuff).

5. How many books did you read?
I finished eight and read parts of two more.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Finished: Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman, Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune, Good Luck to the Rider - Joan Phipson, Melka: The Story of an Arab Pony - Joan Penney
Dabbled in: A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin, The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
See my answer to question 2. I really liked Travels in the Scriptorium too, though, as well as Gaiman’s The Kindly Ones.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
I liked them all, or I would’ve put them straight down. I can say that A Game of Thrones was perhaps not the best choice for the Read-a-thon. I was already more than half-way in by the time the ‘thon started, but I felt it was a little heavy and really slowed down my pace, so I didn’t read that much from it.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
n/a

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I should like to participate again very much! Same role as this time, except I hope I’d be able to stay awake the full twenty-four hours.

Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: June 28th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

Title of book(s) read this hour: The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Number of books read since you started: 8 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman, Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune, Good Luck to the Rider - Joan Phipson, Melka: The Story of an Arab Pony - Joan Penney)
Pages read: 94
Running total of pages read since you started: 1550
Amount of time spent reading: 47 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 12 hrs 25 mins

I ended up not going with the Hitchcock short stories after all. I had it in my hand and everything, but then I glanced at my copy of The Uncommon Reader, tried a page and just had to go on. I didn’t quite finish it, but as I’ve only got about twenty-five pages to go, I dare say I will later tonight.

And that’s the end of that. I had heaps of fun and will be posting an entry summing things up in a tick.

Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: June 28th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Title of book(s) read this hour: Melka: The Story of an Arab Pony - Joan Penney
Number of books read since you started: 8 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman, Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune, Good Luck to the Rider - Joan Phipson, Melka: The Story of an Arab Pony - Joan Penney)
Pages read: 95
Running total of pages read since you started: 1456
Amount of time spent reading: 53 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 11 hrs 38 mins

One measly hour to go, but it does look as though I’ll manage my not-really-set goal of 1500 pages. My eyes don’t feel as tired now as they did an hour ago, which is certainly nice. I think I’ll round off with some Hitchcock short stories.

A big, huge thank you to Dewey for arranging the Read-a-thon. She’s brilliant!

Another big, huge thank you to all the cheerleaders! Your comments have really brightened the whole experience, and if I had gone for the full twenty-four hours, I’m sure I would have appreciated them all even more.

Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: June 28th, 2008 | 3 Comments »