Benny's Root Challenge

Discussão2015 ROOT Challenge - (Read Our Own Tomes)

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Benny's Root Challenge

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1benuathanasia
Editado: Jan 4, 2015, 4:56 pm

Many of my books remain unread because there's so damned many! It's VERY overwhelming to pick something to read. When I moved house, I had a library of 3000 books. I've narrowed it down to 1700 because of space constraints. Many of these are still lonely and unloved.

In the previous year, books I met with great anticipation resulted in great disappointment, whereas reluctant reads turned out to speak to my soul.

So this year, I'm letting fate take over!

I used the export function on LT to put all my books into Excel. I sorted by review and immediately deleted every row that showed that particular book had a review from me, narrowing the list down to just books I hadn't read. Then I deleted every column except title and location (LCC number).

I then printed out the list and chopped it into hundreds and hundreds of little tabs (so much cutting!):



I folded the little bastards to keep them from tearing, crumpling, or otherwise becoming messy (this part resulted in my coworkers questioning my sanity a little):



I then put all the little folded slips into the JAR OF DESTINY (this part MUST be said with reverence and in an announcer's voice, if you will):



I've been using it a few days now and so far it's given me a few good reads!
Any breaks I take from fate must be to read things other people have given me (catching up on my SantaThing reads) or reading for work.

(edit): So, to add layers to the matter, there are actually TWO jars of destiny. One is for physical tomes that I own. The other is for all the audiobooks I have wishlisted on Overdrive (I belong to several libraries, so my wishlist is rather ridiculous).
Physical books will be denoted by "*"
Audiobooks will be denoted by "%"
Books not pulled from the jar of destiny will be denoted by "&"

Also, an obvious issue with the wishlist book jar is that the book pulled might be already checked out to someone else. Rather than just re-pulling, I will put a hold on that book. Pull another slip (put a hold on that if necessary). And repeat until one is available for immediate download. From there, I will read them as they come off their holds.



2bumblesby
Dez 28, 2014, 8:18 pm

Excellent idea. So if you pick a slip and you don't quite "feel" like reading it does it go back in the jar and you pick again? What if it is a series and you pick a middle book? Perhaps you stick with the series and start with book 1 (or whatever). What do you do with a compilation? I have many Library of America books that are compilations of several books by an author in one volume. Ugggh, some people just have to complicate simple things eh? :)

3Tess_W
Dez 28, 2014, 8:58 pm

Good luck with your rooting!

4rabbitprincess
Dez 28, 2014, 9:38 pm

Great idea! Good luck with your challenge.

Also, I mentally read the name of the jar as "JAR...of DESSSSTINY" followed by a crash of cymbals ;)

5ipsoivan
Dez 29, 2014, 9:35 am

Hilarious. I love the jar. I have used an online random number chooser for the same purpose, but the jar is so much more tangible.

6benuathanasia
Dez 29, 2014, 12:41 pm

Tames - I'm not allowing myself to "not feel like it." That's part of the problem I had this year - there were many books I hadn't "felt like reading" for years and they turned out to be amazing. I'm completely letting fate take over!
As to series, if it's one that needs to be read in order, I just go with the next book in the series. If not, I go with whatever one fate decides!
As to compilations, I have a few. They'll be read straight through just like a regular book. Except for Norton Anthologies. In that case, I'll read one story a night until it's done, while continuing with my regular reading as per the jar's orders.

Rabbitprincess - Your due reverence pleases the jar :)

7Tess_W
Dez 29, 2014, 3:52 pm

>6 benuathanasia:, I'm doing a couple of anthologies also, and my goal on those are 1-2 stories per week till they are finished.

8vaal
Dez 29, 2014, 4:56 pm

awesome! :)

9Jackie_K
Dez 30, 2014, 7:36 am

I love the Jar of Destiny idea! We use something similar in our book group - when it's looking a bit empty we add in new suggestions, but then from month to month the choice is entirely down to the Box.

10cyderry
Editado: Dez 30, 2014, 9:02 am

I think that the cutting and folding should count as at least 10 ROOTs toward your goal!

11avanders
Dez 30, 2014, 9:47 am

Cool idea! I could never let fate take over, but I look forward to following your experiences over the year! Good luck!

12tuusannuuska
Dez 30, 2014, 12:17 pm

My problem is pretty much the same as yours - I have a ton of books, interesting books even, in my shelves waiting to be read, and very rarely do I "feel like" reading any of them. I think maybe I'll try your method in 2015, though I think I'm just gonna stick with random number generators and excel files. Anyway, thanks for the great idea!

13bumblesby
Dez 30, 2014, 8:40 pm

I starred this topic - this will be interesting! May the force of GOOD destiny be with you.

14benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 4, 2015, 3:17 pm

The first selections from each of the jars are as follows:
1) Epic of Gilgamesh *
Different than I remember. It was an actual translation, rather than a literary interpretation, which was both good and bad:
Good, because it was faithful and does away with flowery embellishments.
Bad, because the original is in fragments, and what does remain is awfully repetitive.
On the whole, the story was pleasant and a prototypical hero myth - a foundation of literature, if you will.

2) Cloud Atlas %
About half of the stories were mildly interesting, but on the whole, there's no reason for this book to be as lauded as it is. My theory behind it's astounding reputation is this:

Critics mistook unique/creative for aesthetically phenomenal. The literati took them at their word and didn't want to admit their own "ignorance" by not loving it as much as the critics, so they further praised it. The same happened all the way down the line till you get to the "OMG! It isn't good until it's a movie" crowd.
That's my theory, at least.

3) IT's Elementary &
A bit out-of-date at this point. Some of the sites no longer exist (as is expected for any tech manual listing sites). It's missing some core sites that were big even when this was published (bibme.org?). It also had far fewer examples of potential lesson ideas than I was hoping for, especially for tricky things like speadsheets. I know she keeps talking about how limited the tech is in her district, but to me it came across as spoiled and entitled (how can she afford to spend all her time collecting and refurbing old technology? Doesn't this woman have a job? It really didn't seem like it). Overall, the book was not what I was hoping for, though it had some decent information.

15Tess_W
Jan 1, 2015, 4:10 pm

I think you will like the Epic of Gilgamesh. I use it with my western civ class. Their complaint is of the foreign names, but at the end, they like it!

16cyderry
Editado: Jan 3, 2015, 5:54 pm

I have Cloud Atlas on my list this year too!
I see your ticker on the ticker thread but it's not here on your thread.
I hope it doesn't get lost!

17benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 9, 2015, 6:22 pm

4) Among the Dolls *
As creepy as any of Sleator's work with an unsatisfying ending.

5) Lyra's Oxford &
A bit rushed, but overall a nice nicotine patch for those of us in love with His Dark Materials.

6) Pendragon: Merchant of Death *

Don't get me wrong - it's a good book, but I just COULD NOT get into it. I have a feeling I would have inhaled this series had I discovered it in high school, but right now the book actually made me procrastinate in my reading. I suppose my only real gripe is the characters. They lacked authentic characterization and seemed to act merely as vessels for the action and plot, rather than being equal to and holding up the book as much as the action and plot (I'm using action and plot to refer to the fighting/intrigue and actual story progression respectively - I know some people use action and plot interchangeably).

7) Dance with Dragons %
Holy...This one DRAAAGGEEDD. It's not just that it was longer, it was just far less interesting than many of the others. The only places it really got intriguing was at each character's final chapter.

Also, as much as I love Tyrion, he really overwhelmed this book. There were way too many Tyrion chapters for so little happening to him. It might as well have been called A Dance with Dwarves.

18benuathanasia
Jan 3, 2015, 10:50 pm

Cyderry - fixed!

19Conachair
Jan 4, 2015, 11:01 am

I love this idea! I spend so much time planing what I might read next, only to change my mind constantly. I might try a version of this to pick my books for this year.

20connie53
Jan 4, 2015, 1:36 pm

Hello Benny! You have got quite a plan there. I have starred you!
Welcome to the ROOT group and happy ROOting.

21cyderry
Jan 6, 2015, 9:51 am

Great start!

22benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 23, 2015, 12:16 pm

8) Middlesex %

This was a phenomenal book. However, the McGuffin of Cal's hermaphroditism was completely pointless (IMO) and seemed to act as a mere shock factor or to make the book stand apart from other realistic fictions. It didn't even really become a factor until near the end of the book, despite being the point of the book. Calliope's "lesbianism" (in quotations since she is really a he) was far more compelling.

The most interesting aspect of the book however, was the family biopic. I absolutely loved learning about the trials and tribulations, successes and pitfalls of the Stephanides family. Desdemona was easily my favorite character and had the most interesting storyline. I would have preferred the entire book follow her life, rather than Cal's chronicling of the family as a whole.

(On a side note, I only added this to my library wishlist because I confused it with Middlemarch...Ooops)

9) 10 Books That Screwed Up the World %

The author's view of literature revolves singularly around how well they agree with his conservative Christian views. If they disagree with them (his views), they are wrong and are "screwing" up the world. It's almost painful to listen to. Example: Descartes' views on skepticism are evil and wrong because they require us to question the world around us and therefore cause undue confusion.

I'm assuming the "PhD" suffix Wiker has is not a doctorate of any sciences.

It doesn't even offer compelling arguments that ask one to question their own beliefs. Nope, there is no room for argument. I have a feeling if you were to attempt to discuss anything with Wiker on which he disagrees, he would be the type to stick his fingers in his ears and go "lalalala! You're wrong. I'm right. You're wrong. I'm smart. You're stupid."

One of the most interesting/annoying aspects of Wiker's arguments is that (by his logic) anything that causes you to think more broadly about the world leads to atheism and atheism is not only devoid of but the antithesis of morality.

Finally, he rendered any scholarly aspect of his thesis highly suspect with one glaring oversight tossed out as carelessly as yesterday's garbage; he spoke briefly of the slaves building the pyramids. Slaves had nothing to do with the construction of the pyramids. This is a myth originated by Greeks (long after the construction of the pyramids) and continued by the Old Testament. No sizable population of Jews even lived in Egypt until hundreds of years after the construction of the pyramids. But this disagrees with his Christian views, so he'd probably consider me screwing up the world by trying to educate people on this fact... He also brings up the acceptability of pedophilia in Ancient Greece. Nope. Sorry. Not pedophilia. Pederasty. There's a huge difference. And it wasn't too well accepted throughout Greece and it was VERY rarely penetrative in any way.

10) Technology Projects for Library Media Specialists and teachers &

I really like this book. With technology classes I have my curriculum of which aspects of technology I should be teaching at what time. I also have the regular classroom curriculum from the students' "core" teachers (the math, science, ELA, and social studies classes). I often struggle with how to bring the two together. This book really helped with that. For example, my curriculum has me teaching typing to first graders. The science curriculum for first grade has them writing an expository essay on the animal of their choosing. Yes, I could have them type their report, but that's boring and won't stick with them. This book gives ideas such as making flip book through PowerPoint, shape books, and trading cards - it allows me an excuse to teach typing as well as to introduce productivity programs other than Word.

It isn't going to feed you your curriculum (which your district/city/state should be doing), but it does give great ideas for integrating technology in more casual ways into the classroom that students will enjoy and won't rebel against (such as essays) as well as giving awesome ideas for how to showcase student learning. As the title claims, it's a *project* book and not a lesson plan book (even though each project is presented in a rudimentary lesson plan template format).

This is what I was hoping for with IT's Elementary, but did not get.

11) Pride and Prejudice %

Yeah...this is I think the...third? time I've read this book. It's a definite favorite and will remain such for the foreseeable...eternity.

23avanders
Jan 13, 2015, 9:38 am

Congrats on your great progress so far! & Looking forward to your progress on Middlesex... it's a potential TBR for me... :)

24connie53
Jan 15, 2015, 1:31 pm

>22 benuathanasia:

(On a side note, I only added this to my library wishlist because I confused it with Middlemarch...Ooops)

That's really funny.

25benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 23, 2015, 12:16 pm

12) I Am Number Four %
Many logic issues took me out of this book. Blending in and being normal is rule number one, and yet only a few days after he develops an immunity to heat, Four is already reaching into hot ovens and grabbing metal with his bare hands in front of people; Henri using being French as a cover for his accent, yet never bothering to learn any French in ten years. There were a few other such instances, but I can't think of them now.

The sheer coincidence of Four's first/only real friend being an alien-obsessed conspiracy theorist was too convenient for my taste. And despite the fact that very few people will ever experience a sizable house fire, Four conveniently has to rescue the girl of his dreams and his worst-enemy's dogs from a blazing fire that ends up causing the climax. Eff this crap. There are coincidences, and then there's lazy-ass-I-couldn't-give-a-crap writing. This is the latter.

The stereotypical school cliques that don't really exist in any normal school (I've gone to/taught at a few dozen middle and high schools and have yet to see evidence of the pop-culture strictness of cliques) was very obnoxious - especially the star-football player = biggest bully/antagonist is a tired trope.

Lore inputs "hints" of things to come with all the subtlety and grace of getting hit by a Mack truck. I'm only halfway through and already the lizard, the dog, and what happened with the elders is blatantly obvious (edit: I was right on all counts).

Overall, very "meh".

Dangerous Days of Daniel X did it better.

13) All-Audio Spanish %
(Not really a book, but the library had it with audiobooks, so...qué será, será)
Holy crap, this was terrible. It almost instantly jumps into giving long phrases that are poorly translated and only gives you the word-by-word breakdown chapters later. One of the last chapters is where you learn el, la, los, las, etc. yet on the first disk you learn "how much do you make a year?" "my salary is the highest allowed"...seriously? Telling time is taught before counting. The number of inexact translations was ridiculous (e.g. "man...'el senor'" ...senor does not mean man and where the hell is "the"? If I were a beginner, this would have confused the hell out of me.

14) Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft %

Not nearly as good as I was hoping, Lovecraft is supposedly one of the greatest horror writers, but I didn't find this scary at all (and only moderately intriguing). Very disappointing

...This weekend sucked as far as books go :(

26benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 23, 2015, 12:17 pm

15) Pathways to the Common Core &

A bit pandering to the Common Core. Also, I wish it gave better insight into how to merge CCSS with current curriculums instead of constantly repeating, "Don't worry, you can just work this into your current curriculum instead of re-writing the whole thing!" It was a bit dry and repetitive as well, though it does clear up some common misconceptions (that CCSS basically does away with the reading and writing of literature, most notably).

16) Classic Tales of Horror by Bram Stoker %

I couldn't find this on LT, hence the lack of touchstone. Anywho, this book is the reason you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, whether or not you count the title, author, and summary as part of the cover. This book was not by Bram Stoker and despite the summary being only about the black cat (from the short story Squaw), this was in actuality an anthology of short horror stories by different authors - some familiar, some I've never heard of. Over all it was good, but some of the stories - while good - don't really qualify as horror (*cough*'The Man in the Bell'*cough*).

17) Cat Who Blew the Whistle %

I love Qwill and his kitties so much. These books might be a guilty pleasure, but they give me genuine happiness!

18) The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night &

I forgot to mention this one earlier, because this is a bit of an oddball. My boyfriend and I are reading a chapter (night) a day (starting on Jan 1, 2015). Lettermelater delivers one night to my email every morning. I guess I'll be back in three years to review this one...

Volume 1 Review: The "first night" was a bit of a slog to get through, but it provided all the story set-up, so that's forgivable. The first volume has a good mixture of comedy, adventure, and drama. Much of the comedy is farcical and would lend itself well to a visual performance. The adventure is more or less middling at this point, but the book hasn't yet gotten to its most famous tales of adventure (Ali Baba, Sinbad, etc). The drama is, of course, dramatic, and usual winds up with a humorous or astounding ending. I could do without all the poetry, but what are you gonna do about it? Not like I can complain to the author!

27MissWatson
Jan 21, 2015, 3:57 am

That sounds like an interesting concept for reading 1001 Nights! How are you liking them so far?

28avanders
Jan 21, 2015, 8:46 am

14 read and 4 more in process? Awesome job!

29benuathanasia
Editado: Jan 21, 2015, 1:52 pm

MissWatson - I've always adored the Arabian Nights but have never read them all the way through - there are very few "complete" collections and buying a complete collection is out of the question financially. Thank God for Project Gutenberg!
I'm loving seeing the entirety of the way the tales fold into one another. I also love the breadth of styles and genres. It's wonderful!

Avanders - Thank you! Pendragon slowed me down a bit with my physical books, but I finished that up this morning so I should be getting right back on track for physical books.

Also, if anyone is wondering what my secret is...
Audiobooks on 2x speed. Regular speed is far too slow for me. I also have a job that's me by myself half the day - shelving books, cataloging books, and figuring out what the hell my coworkers did to their computers this time (there's only so much mind-numbery I can stand while waiting for a ten year old PC to download and install updates).

30avanders
Jan 21, 2015, 2:36 pm

Audiobooks on 2x speed? interesting... do you not lose any inflection? I'd never even considered trying something like that!
Sounds like your job is conducive to lots of books ;)

(oh geez, a 10-year-old-pc at a place of business? sigh.....)

31benuathanasia
Jan 22, 2015, 11:45 am

30 - I'd say I actually get the inflection better than at normal speed. The speed and pitch make the inflections exaggerated (in my opinion).

As to the computers...I'm a K-8 librarian and technology teacher. The youngest computers in the building are five-year-old refurbished computers, but they only make up about 1/5 of the computers in the building. The rest are from the year the school was rebuilt (2004) and a few leftover MS-DOS based 95/98s I found in a closet. As we like to joke, the computers are old enough to graduate to high school.

32benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 23, 2015, 12:18 pm

19) Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde %

Hmmm...I was always under the impression that this was a horror story. I guess not. It was very interesting, but the widely-known "twist" kept me from fully enjoying this story. Had I not known that Hyde=Jekyll, I think it would have been infinitely better.

20) Diary %

Took me a long time (ummm...almost the whole book) to figure out what it was even about since my copy had no blurb - just praise for other Palahniuk books. It was interesting though. I liked the contrasting voices of the story (second person and third person). It reminded me a lot of Palahniuk's "I am Jack's {X}" from Fight Club. I don't know why.

21) Design & Knit the Sweater of Your Dreams *

Another case of why I shouldn't judge books by their covers. The pictures in this book are hilarious out of date and un-fashionable. HOWEVER, the advice, instructions, and guides are all exceptionally useful (some of the most straight-forward and useful I've seen outside of wikihow.com). Most of the sweaters are only out-dated because of color choices (most...).

22) A Conspiracy of Decency *

An incredible book. It makes you wonder, if so much good exists, how does evil continue to thrive?

I loved the way in which this book was told - a blending of chronology and topic. The last chapter was a bit of the let-down as far as style goes, but the rest was amazing.

23) Q&A: How Do They Get a Model Ship in a Bottle *

In its attempt to inject humor into the blasé writing, it became biased, condescending, and sexist. Don't think I'll be holding on to this one.

33rabbitprincess
Jan 22, 2015, 5:27 pm

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde seems almost impossible to experience as it would originally have been experienced when it was first published. I had difficulties with it as well, knowing the big twist.

You're doing very well with your challenge! :)

34avanders
Editado: Jan 23, 2015, 9:50 am

>31 benuathanasia: wow! Never thought of that... Maybe I'll try it some day ;)

that's crazy re the computers! Esp. for the "kids these days"... they're so tech-savvy!

>32 benuathanasia: ooh, Jekyll/Hyde is one I want to get to some day... it's on the shelves!

35benuathanasia
Jan 23, 2015, 11:01 am

Rabbitprincess - The edition I was reading had a foreword on the response to the novel at the time. Apparently, a big part of its allure was the Victorian morals of the time; people could read it and fantasize about being able to act on any/all of their impulses without any fear of retribution (like Mr. Hyde), but pass it off as though they were reading it for the whole good versus evil aspect or as an argument that every man is composed of virtue and sin - the sin being what he must overcome (I suppose it's somewhat similar to a modern person saying that they read Playboy for the articles...). Given that people have no qualms reading Fifty Shades of Grey in public these days, I suppose the secret fantasy aspect of the novel no longer services the general populace.

36rabbitprincess
Jan 24, 2015, 10:04 am

That's really interesting! I wonder if they would have read H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man the same way.

37connie53
Jan 25, 2015, 1:56 pm

>25 benuathanasia:. Okay, now I'm even more glad I put this book in the give away box. Thanks.

38benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 9, 2015, 6:34 pm

24) Top Secret Files World War I &

Fascinating, quick read that I'm sure my students will love.

Although, shame on the author for citing Wikipedia! If you don't know how to use the citations provided by Wikipedia, DON'T USE WIKIPEDIA!!!

25) David and Goliath %

OOOooo! My first Malcolm Gladwell book! It's like de-virginization!

I really enjoyed this book. At times, it was difficult o figure out how the latest anecdote fit with the overall theme, but everything comes together quite nicely eventually. I adore Gladwell's writing style. His voice, analysis, and organization make for a pleasant, easy to follow, and fascinating narrative-exposition-argument hybrid.

26) Unsinkable *

Really good. It shows a decent array of perspectives about the culture and climate of the time and a nice range of different classes of passengers. I could really do without the Jack the Ripper subplot, but whatever.

27) Adolescents' Online Literacies &

I'm not done with this book yet, but I could not continue on without writing my feelings about a particularly horrible chapter: "4 Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/When Social Networking Was Enuf." I can't remember the last time I read something so horrifically insulting, sexist, racist, and demeaning. The author, Davie E. Kirkland, in an effort to better understand his mother's poetical musings about her depression, suicidal ideations, and prostitution, took it upon himself to study "Black female literacy artifacts" online. First of all, he offers nothing unique from the perspective of either blacks or females to justify such a narrow scope and second-of-all, the body of his research encompasses two writers (Maya) and one unnamed "writer" who made a YouTube video about a black girl who met up with a man on MySpace and was subsequently raped and murdered.

Kirkland paints his story as though only black women are capable of expressing emotions online or are capable of having less than ideal existences: "Such artifacts have cracks in them and ruptures that my masculine mind, by itself, could not quite understand, a fragility that my hardened hands alone were not fit to handle." Apparently black women are so fragile and weak that a big strong man couldn't possibly understand or empathize.

At a later point in the chapter, Kirkland is observing Maya as she browses a boy's profile online, looking at his pictures. "I began to wonder: if she was looking at boys online, then certainly some boy was looking at her too. And if the boys are looking at girls...I began to worry!" What the hell year is this? How DARE those boys look at girls! We must put our girls in full burkas so that they may never be gazed upon. What a sexist douche. It gets better though.

He later confirms his fear that the boys are indeed looking at girls, and horror of horror, they are RATING them. God no...not that! He says of this "I paused, noticing the stitch of untutored masculinity in the room, which in years would become full grown adult perversion...Such bodies were and continue to be auctioned off by prying eye and, in this case, limited even more by an ungainly ratings system that results from stunted maturity." First off..."stunted maturity" - I believe we call that "teenager" (which is what he was observing). Second of all, the first part of that quote implies that no boy is capable of growing into a respectful young man if he ever took the time to rate girls as a teenager. Congrats men! Apparently you are ALL "full grown adult perver(ts)" according to Kirkland.

I'm sorry, but this is some of the worst s*** I've ever read. Kirkland is derogatory to his subjects in an attempt to empower them. He offers no unique view as to how either women or blacks (much less black women) are using online literacies to share/cope with/overcome their unique struggles; instead, he talks about the same crap nearly EVERYONE goes through. This...I can't even...

28) Call of the Wild %

*sigh* Story time. When my father was about fifteen, he was at his much older brother's house. His brother was helping him with his homework (reading this book). After the first chapter, my father had no idea what the book was about. His brother was astounded. No matter how many times they read the chapter, my father couldn't tell his brother a danged thing about what was going on or what the book was about. My aunt - a psychologist - got involved and began talking to my father about the book. By the end of the conversation, my aunt proclaimed that my father had textbook {insert primitive name of what would eventually be called ADD}.

Quite frankly, if anyone were to talk to me about this book, try quizzing me on it, or simply watch me reading it, they'd accuse me of having ADD. It is exceptionally boring. Painful almost. All emotion is sucked out in favor of analysis.

29) White Fang %

So infinitely better than Call of the Wild. I really enjoyed this book. White Fang had so much more personality than Buck and White Fang's perspectives of the world, his myriad interactions with everything around him, and the wonderful characterizations of the people in White Fang's life really invited the reader to truly care for him.

30) The Secret Garden %

As a child I had always adored the Warner Brothers live action adaptions of Frances Hodgson Burnett's most beloved duo (Secret Garden and Little Princess). I never read the books as a child (my time was devoted to Goosebumps and sci-fi/fantasy classics such as Journey to the Center of the Earth). When I read Little Princess as an adult I was very dismayed to find out how much was different and as I loved the movie so much, I could not forgive the book it's vast differences.

I am exceptionally pleased to announce that the Secret Garden is almost exactly the same as the movie!!! Huzzah!!!
It's as phenomenal as the movie I've adored for decades.

31) Blink %

A fascinating look at human intuition,

Long before I read this book, I read criticisms of it saying that humans cannot rely on intuition because intuition is often clouded by bias. Whoever wrote that obviously didn't read the book - that is a huge part of Gladwell's argument. This book isn't really arguing for or against human intuition, but rather an expose of how humans "read" situations in a split second and how that affects us (for better or worse).

39avanders
Editado: Jan 29, 2015, 1:25 pm

>38 benuathanasia: re 25) sounds really interesting! I've yet to read any Gladwell, perhaps I should give him a try one of these days.... :)

and re 29) lol sounds boring! And yeah, sorry, they sure didn't understand things back then! I have a friend who was raised being told he was stupid by everyone. He has dyslexia. (and is rather smart!)

40benuathanasia
Jan 29, 2015, 2:23 pm

My mother swears by Gladwell! I have a few of his books, but...you know how it goes. There's a reason we're in this group!

It was absolutely fascinating. My favorite parts discussed false logic. For example the effectiveness of the three-strikes laws some states have. Of course, stuff like this will get controversial, but if there isn't anything to argue about, no "sides" to see, then it's really poor fodder for discussion (IMO).

41avanders
Jan 29, 2015, 3:59 pm

>40 benuathanasia: ha! Ain't that the truth ;)

Hmm, sounds like a lot of food for thought! Speaking of food......... :D

42benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 23, 2015, 12:21 pm

32) Tao Te Ching %

It didn't really explain WHAT Tao is. Maybe it was just my translation, but when the whole explanation of Tao is that ~those who know about it don't talk about it, and those that talk about it, don't know about it~ isn't particularly helpful.

33) Animorphs: The Visitor *

A very decent YA story. This particular story in the Animorphs saga had a decent blend of character development, tension, action, and plot expansion.

34) Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment %

Awfully abrupt. I suppose it's good for students with short attention spans, but I found it very jumpy. It sacrificed authentic character building in favor of quick and dirty action. Meh

35) The Serpent's Children *

I'm not too fond of the ending (it left a lot up in the air). However, the story as a whole was very interesting and offered a good insight into the early days of European-Chinese relations as well as a great view of village life in pre-20th Century China.

43avanders
Fev 3, 2015, 10:45 am

"those who know about it don't talk about it, and those that talk about it, don't know about it"
lol. nice. ;)

44benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 1, 2015, 9:09 am

36) Freakonomics %

Many of Levitt's claims are fantastical, and given the amount of evidence in stark contrast to at least one of Levitt's favorite "can you believe it" topics (abortion and crime) it's hard to believe any of what he says. As others have said, little of what he talks about has anything to do with economics, so from my perspectives he's an economist trying to use his knowledge to inform topics he knows little to nothing about. I'm neither an economist nor a sociologist, but even I am aware of some of the arguments that he very blatantly ignores (for instance, his prison arguments very clearly ignore the fact that crimes that would have been a slap on the wrist or played off as "kids will be kids" years ago now carry stiff prison sentences because the prison-system has been privatized and the government has contracts with these prisons ensuring at least a minimum population.
Levitt's worst sin though is his constant inserting of news clippings tauting his perfection and insight.

37) Don't Know Much About Mythology %

This was an audiobook and the reader was just shy of terrible. Every word he could butcher, he did. The worst was when he pronounced the same word multiple ways (eg. shaman: shah-mən, shah-man, shay-mən).

The book itself was really fascinating. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I go out of my way to read about mythology, but I must admit there are many mythologies that I'm just not very familiar with.

A critique on the book itself - the author really should have stuck with discussing the myths themselves and tried to get involved in modern controversial topics (which he did significantly with Native Americans and their myths).

38) The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume 2 &

This particular volume covered (by and large) only two stories. One was an epic battle between the Islamic forces and the Christian forces. It is told largely in a military history fashion, forgoing character development in favor of discussion of military tactics, strategies, and events. It was not the most interesting of stories. The second prominent story in this volume was a romance tale - personally, I think this particular tale could easily be re-worked by Hollywood for modern audiences (a man is betrothed since childhood. His betrothed loves him with all her heart, but he's somewhat oblivious and falls for another woman. The other woman is a bit of a tease and flirt. The betrothed offers the man advice on how to court his love, even though it pains her incredibly - all she wants is his happiness. It isn't until it's too late that the man realizes that he was chasing after the wrong woman.)

39) ReWind*

So, the main character Peter dies and has multiple chances to figure out what he needs to change in his life in order to not die. I'm really divided on how I feel on this book. On the one hand, Peter grows quite a bit and learns a lot about himself and his parents, but on the other hand, his parents are psychologically abusive and very neglectful and yet they are never expected to atone or grow past their ways - everything is all on Peter. He has to justify his existence, he has to learn to work with his parents' a**hole personalities, he is the one that needs to convince his parents that he's a pretty ok son. The fact that his parents blamed Peter for his death at his own funeral (he was hit by a car) goes to show you what kind of douchebags we're dealing with here.

45benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 23, 2015, 12:20 pm

40) Fire Pony *

An excellent story about a boy, his brother, and a horse. I liked the multiple types of conflict faced within the story. The ending should have been a heart-wrencher, but seemed to lack emotion. It could have something to do with my specific copy of the book, however, which went chapter 23, chapter 26, chapter 25, chapter 26, chapter 27.

41) Interworld %

The first third was desperately boring. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't "slow" to start or anything, it's just there was so much background knowledge required to understand the Interworld and multi-verse that at first it was like listening to gibberish with an uninteresting protagonist. It took Joey (the protagonist) quite a while to develop into a moderately compelling character (IMO). It ended very well and I wouldn't be adverse to a sequel - although it ended in such a way that a sequel might actually detract from the story.

edit: Oh look, it's a trilogy. Hmmm...maybe next year :)

42) Approaching the Hunger Games Trilogy: A Literary and Cultural Analysis &

This is a phenomenal academic look at nearly every aspect of The Hunger Games. The topics and discussion thereof helped unlock new layers of the story to me as well as reveal a great deal about Collins' writer's-craft. So many of the nuances of the book are dissected and analyzed in such a way as to be inviting rather than foreboding (as scholarly work often is) and has inspired me to re-read the series once my current to-read list is complete.

46avanders
Fev 12, 2015, 11:52 am

38 ROOTs read! You are blowing this challenge out of the water!

47benuathanasia
Fev 12, 2015, 12:07 pm

I know! I look at the ticker every now and then and laugh maniacally at my progress. Next year, there should be a "Beat Benny" challenge ;)

48benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 28, 2015, 8:20 pm

43) Stormbreaker %

If you ever watched James Bond Junior in the early nineties, that's what this is. It's essentially James Bond's nephew filling his shoes with MI6. I enjoyed this a great deal more than I expected to! It's fun, adventurous, thrilling, and approachable (it isn't precocious - even if the protagonist is). The antagonist's motivation was a bit...meh. It was just very juvenile motivation; that being said, if I ever became a criminal mastermind, I'd probably have the same motivation (I'll never accuse myself of being overly mature. As I tell my students, I'm 27 going on four).

44) One Hundred Years of Solitude %

Yeah, I have no idea what I just read. I'm pretty sure it's a biopic of the Buendia family, but I'm not entirely certain what the plot was. It was interesting and the characters were pleasant, but lack of plot/purpose usually makes a book less enjoyable for me. This was no exception.

note: This one got pulled from the Jar of Destiny about 2-3 weeks ago but had a 16 person queue on Library Connections. I queued up and waited patiently. Then today, while looking at my place in line for a few holds, it occurred to me I never checked LION. LION has two copies and no wait. *d'oh!*

45) Peter Pan: Little Library/Captain Hook and the Crocodile/Captured by Pirates/Flying to Never Land/Peter Pan and His Frie *

A cute little board book collection. Parts of it rhyme, which is a nice touch, but there's no (excuse the pun) rhyme or reason to when there will be a couplet, and when there won't be. The illustrations are from the Disney cartoon.

46) Uprising *

A fascinating story. The alternating perspectives was a very nice touch; sometimes a story might be great, but wrecked by the main character. With this book, if I'm losing interest in one of the characters just wait a few pages and they switch! The build up didn't necessarily need to be as long and drawn out as it was, but it was still fascinating.

49avanders
Fev 12, 2015, 4:53 pm

>47 benuathanasia: lol! That might be a good one... ;)

50connie53
Editado: Fev 14, 2015, 1:57 pm

>47 benuathanasia: >49 avanders: A real good one. And you will beat me in the blink of an eye.

51benuathanasia
Editado: Fev 27, 2015, 12:19 pm

47) Casino Royale %

The original James Bond story sets up a lot of the touchstones of James Bond lore - his infamous drink, his lovely cars, his charm, his womanizing ways. What I liked about this was you get a lot of Bond's internal emotions - he's more complex than most would give him credit for. His male-machismo and sexism is par for the course for when this was written, but he really does have a soft-spot for the women he frequently calls "Bitches." It was also nice to see his fear and uncertainty while being tortured; he thoroughly viewed himself as a failure and a dead man. Granted, he blamed it almost all on Vespa, but it was still nice to see his self-doubts.

48) Hermione Granger Saves the World &

I love the diversity of the papers in this collection. I'm absolutely adoring them! They make me reconsider my thoughts on characters and aspects of books and to look more deeply at them. They're kinda forcing me to be a more active reader and less passive.

For instance, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Hermoine is found petrified holding a piece of paper torn from a book in her hand. Since reading the HGStW, all I can think is:

Hermoine tore up a book? Really? You REALLY expect me to believe that Hermoine would EVER deface a book? Let alone one she probably got from the special stacks?!?!
She was conducting research; why would someone as bright as Hermoine not have note paper when conducting research?
Also, why would she need to write down a single word ("pipes")? There was little reason to believe she wouldn't make it back to see Harry or Ron - she had made it thus far without harm. The only excuse is that it was a convenient plot device (which I hate...).

Now, none of that is mentioned in the book HGStW, however, simply the juxtaposition of the writer talking about the scene where she is found petrified and commentary on her reverence of books and scholarship made me think of these things which, quite frankly, should have been obvious to me years ago, had I not been so caught up in the story itself.

One problem I do have though, is that the book has (most likely) been edited since it's presented as "Edited by Christopher E. Bell" right on the cover. The amount of spelling errors, word choice errors, and syntax errors is far too high for any work, let alone a scholarly one like this. Berents' article was the worst offender. After seeing the word "chose" instead of "choose" for the third time, I just start questioning the author's intelligence ("...this does not mean girls in conflict can always chose...", "found that young girls would chose 'marriage'"). She also incorrectly quoted one of the most famous (and controversial) lines from the Harry Potter series (she quotes "Not my daughter, you bitch" as "Not my children you bitch!" - screwing up the words as well as proper punctuation) without any indication that she re-worked the quote to serve her own purposes (if that was indeed the case). She also fails to cite the quote which is a BIG NO-NO!!!.

49) Ethan Frome %

So, yeah...I can safely say I have no idea why anyone likes this. Not a damn thing of any interest happened. It's about an "affair" (though not much more beyond affectionate feelings happen). As a former high school English language arts teacher, I can easily see how "classics" like this can kill a student's potential enjoyment of literature. It was just ridiculously mediocre.

50) Treasure Island %

This book does in seven hours, what could easily be said in one without any loss. Don't get me wrong, the story itself is good, but the writing is terrible. It's purple prose without any poetry to the language or any worthwhile visuals that put the reader there. The dialogue is akin to small talk - boring filler that is - in most cases - completely pointless and no one truly cares about it (I hate small talk with a fiery, fervent passion). If Stevenson had done away with the rambling passages that did nothing to improve the story, it would have been far better. All in all, this book has been done countless times in half an hour and - while I normally hate abridgments - this book really could have done well with some fat trimming.

52avanders
Fev 18, 2015, 10:40 am

>50 connie53: me too! ;)

>51 benuathanasia: fun! Love being that excited about a book... :) Looking forward to your thoughts on the Hermione one... I feel like that title sounds vaguely familiar but I know nothing about it!

53benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 9, 2015, 6:44 pm

51) Beautiful Creatures %

Not since Anne of Green Gables has a book that I enjoyed annoyed me so much. So pro and con is the only way to handle this:

Pro - it's a really good and interesting story.
Con - because it follows so many tried and true (i.e. cliched) young adult fantasy tropes.

Pro - the world is pretty detailed with histories and a multitude of characters
Con - this can make it hard to remember a lot of who's who and what's what

Pro - the setting is fairly unique from what I've seen of young adult literature
Con - Southern accents (don't know if this shows through with a print version, but the audiobook was...shoot me now)

My first con was the biggest issue for me. It follows the well established pattern of:
-Protagonist lives ordinary, mundane, boring life
-Mysterious and interesting new person shows up at school
-Protagonist and new person begin a buildup of trust
-Said trust alienates protagonist from the rest of the hum-drum community
-Protagonist and new person fall in love
-Protagonist learns about how truly "unique and special" new person is
-Protagonist is the only one who can save new person from some life difficulty
-Because it's "true love"

Also, this book did nothing to disabuse us of the stereotype of ignorant, Civil-War idolizing Southern hick. It also fell into the cliche of dumb jocks and bimbo cheerleaders. Thankfully, no other clique-tropes were highlighted.

52) Chosen for Greatness *

The full title is Chosen for Greatness: A Super Pop-up. In my world, 4 pages does not constitute "super." This is a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers themed pop-up book, which (as stated) was only four pages long. That's fine, because I got it from a tag sale and probably spent somewhere between $.05 and $.50 cents on it. However, according to the back, it's MSRP was $11.95. Ummm...eff that crap. It isn't worth a few dollars, let alone $12.

53) Not a Nickel to Spare *

This was an interesting look at something I know next to nothing about - Canadian history. It never occurred to me they had prohibition too! And they were racist? But...but they're so polite!!! That can't be!!! Everything I know is a lie!

In all seriousness though, it was a strange but good tale. The major event of the story wasn't as Earth-shattering as many of the events that different "My Story" series focus on (wars, immigration movements, political turnover, etc). But it kind of goes to show that lives (and history) are made up of many smaller events that are big to only a few people.

54) Teaching With Harry Potter &

"From Hogwarts Academy..." - exceptionally disjointed and not very interesting. It seemed like an undergrad's attempt at trying to sell their self "And I did this, and this, and then I did this..." Very long-winded for having so little content of value.

"The Nuances of Rule-Breaking" This was actually very interesting and offered lots of useful advise for reading HP with younger children.

"Harry Potter and the Child with Autism" Personally, as someone who has been diagnosed as being on the "spectrum" I found this highly insulting. She offers out-dated advice that is directly contradicted by those of us with autism (the person-first classification is a big one - it highlights the disorder, creates awkward word-usage and stigmatizes the individual. We don't say "a person with blonde hair" we say "blonde." This person-first crap is only sponsored by over-zealous PC social justice warriors who don't bother - you know - asking the people about how they feel being labeled that way). She also hides her son's autism from him, reinforcing the stigma and the idea that this is something to be ashamed of. She also detailed her intentions to have a "coming-out" party. Personally, I find this highly insulting and degrading. Similar to the "Conjoined Fetus Lady" episode of South Park (believe it or not, it's exceptionally apt for how many people with disabilities get treated in completely ridiculous ways). She also lauds Jenny McCarthy for her autism activism. Oh yay, let's celebrate a woman who claimed autism was worse than death and continues to teach the world heinous mis-conceptions about autism.

54Tess_W
Fev 27, 2015, 8:29 pm

>50 connie53:, I agree with your assessment!

55connie53
Mar 2, 2015, 12:32 pm

There is no way I'm going to keep up with your reading speed, Benny!

56avanders
Mar 2, 2015, 2:18 pm

>53 benuathanasia: just wow. 54. crazy.
>55 connie53: lol so true for me too!

57benuathanasia
Mar 2, 2015, 2:25 pm

One year I had a book a day for almost three months. Then burnout kicked in and I don't remember reading much of anything the rest of the year. I'm doing good preventing burnout this year :)

58avanders
Mar 3, 2015, 2:42 pm

>57 benuathanasia: wow... a book a day! Glad you're working on preventing burnout this year! :)

59benuathanasia
Editado: Mar 16, 2015, 1:53 pm

55) The Wanderer %

I really don't understand the moral of many/most of Gibran's stories and parables, but that doesn't make them any less interesting. And I find the words beautiful and soothing. I can't explain it, I just enjoy it.

56) The Cat Who Played Post Office *

Another wonderful Lilian Jackson Braun book. The one complaint I have is that Moose County and Pickax aren't going to have any residents at this rate!

60benuathanasia
Mar 9, 2015, 12:05 pm

*sigh*
I just pulled 3 Spanish language learning courses in a row from the Jar of Destiny. They aren't audiobooks, per se, so I'm not going to include them in my count. But they are kinda...long, so it might be a while before I post my next pulls.

Also, I was babysitting a friend's cat and she ate some of the slips from the Jar of Destiny. WTH???

61avanders
Mar 10, 2015, 7:19 pm

>60 benuathanasia: oh no! I think a sigh is warranted there! ;)
Good luck!

lol! That's hilarious about your friend's cat ;)

62benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 21, 2015, 12:51 pm

Oh god...oh god, oh god, oh god...All those holds I requested on LION and Library Connections are starting to be automatically checked out to me!!! Aside from Mango Passport (25 hours) and Learn in Your Car Spanish (3.5 hours) (neither of which I can listen to at double speed!) I also have:

57) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children % (10 hours)

This is a book as peculiar as its title. I went into it not knowing if it was historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy...no idea. Apparently, it's paranormal fantasy and (to some) horror. It's interesting, but it threw too much into too short a span for my comfort. I'm not entirely certain how to describe it without any spoilers, but it involves "ghosts," freak show characters with real powers, time travel, WWII, shapeshifting, monsters...it's just wonky.

58) Jaws % (10 hours)

I read a substantial amount of fanfiction and most fanfiction sites require the writers indicate any "triggers" the work contains. After reading this, I'm starting to think that would be a good policy for standard literature. The descriptions of rape were completely unnecessary, the graphic descriptions of sex were vulgar and disgusting (it was on the level of a Harlequin romance), the mutilation of a domestic pet was heartbreaking and (as the other garbage in this) completely unnecessary. This would be a great book if it stuck to the shark and political intrigue plot-lines (the latter of which was never resolved). The marital strife and affair was completely out in left field and nearly wrecked the book for me.
As others have said, watch the movie and skip the book. This is one of the rare occasion where the movie blows the book out of the water.

59) Watership Down % (16 hours)

This book started off painfully dull for me. It wasn't until part III (of IV) that it started getting good, at which point it good REAL good. Someday I'll probably try it again.

60) Vanity Fair % (30 hours)

Ok, I'm not going to lie, by and large I have little idea what this was about (it was kinda like shoving four seasons of a television sitcom into one weekend...). That being said, I found it hilarious. The author's writing voice was phenomenal, and the character depth and building was wonderful.

63benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 8, 2015, 10:04 am

61) 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die *

A lot of the reviews are somewhat pretentious (if not completely snobby). And in some cases you can identify the individual writers by their word choices - they have one or two "million dollar words" that they use ad nauseum. All in all though, it's a well-meaning book that's rather interesting. For one or two of the movies, the reviewer had absolutely nothing redeeming to say about the movie (so must I see it before I die?) I'd rather only one author wrote the book (the style of the entries are all over the place) but it's very interesting.

62) Molly and the Movie Star *

This book is an excellent example of what short, snappy pieces of historical fiction are capable of. It's a quick, interesting story that children can relate to (the dream of meeting a famous movie star, chores, earning money, dealing with responsibility, etc) that then goes on to supplement its lack of scholarly literacy through nonfiction background information at the end of the story and some quick (doable!) activities that can help a child "envision" themselves during the same time period.

63) Using Information Technology &

Divided topologically, this book starts at the remedial level and moves up to refresher for experts. Occasionally, the speed at which it goes from basic to advanced is a bit rushed (not a good book for the IT idiot who thinks their computer is broken because they kicked out the power cable - e.g. half my coworkers). The topics are all fairly interesting, but occasionally the book goes off on MBA tangents - many of the chapters were designed first and foremost for business managers/operators trying to understand IT better, as opposed to a general IT community.

64) Violet & Claire *

While the central conflict was a tad unrealistic, the relationship dynamics between the high school sis-mance that is Violet and Claire is dead on.

64benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 8, 2015, 9:57 am

65) Da Vinci Code %

A stereotypical scavenger hunt style mystery. It isn't particularly any better or worse than any other mainstream mysteries, but it has built a cult of fame based on the enlightenment it claims to offer readers. Sadly, for the more gullible, regardless of the author's vociferous objections, the vast majority of testimonial in this novel has been time and again proven incorrect by laymen, experts, atheists, and religious alike.

The ending is the most uninspired (and predictable, the book itself tells you the ending several times and then discounts it is as not possible or simply ludicrous) I've ever seen (it jumps the shark worse than any I've seen in any book).

The revelation of the true bad guy is completely nonsensical to anyone who bothers to actually think for half a second and serves only to set the scene for one of the most cliche villain monologues I've ever had the "pleasure" of reading.

66) How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters &

Ok, this is a perfect bathroom book given the shortness of each chapter/topic/disaster. It's a very tongue-in-cheek and self-referential work that I found hilarious! SyFy definitely doesn't take themselves serious in this and most certainly don't think of any of their SyFy original movies as being anything less than Razzie masterpieces, making this work all the more amusing. The creatures and scenarios presented are ludicrous to the point of hilarity and I was actually disappointed to discover some of the monsters/scenarios are not (yet!) SyFy original movies.

67) My Tudor Queen: The Diary of Eva de Puebla *

It's not very common to read a historical piece about the Tudors without having to be subjected to yet another tale of Henry's man-whoredom. This is a wonderful, fictional account of before Henry's reign and during his early years as monarch. Court life isn't portrayed too well (it's possibly realistic, but it really takes a backseat to everything else), but politics at the royal level was.

65avanders
Mar 31, 2015, 4:00 pm

>62 benuathanasia: LOL! I've just discovered automatic holds myself.... so exciting! (and I can imagine, it would definitely get overwhelming!!)
Also, thanks to your tip, I've started listening to audio books at 1.5x speed (I'm not (yet) doing 2x)... great idea!!!

And congrats on your continued success... almost halfway done!

66benuathanasia
Mar 31, 2015, 4:16 pm

Glad to be of service!!!

Now if only I could change the playback speed on Netflix...
;)

67avanders
Mar 31, 2015, 4:26 pm

>66 benuathanasia: lol if only... ;)

68benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 3, 2015, 8:35 am

68) The Chocolate War %

Not really impressed. The dialog is laughably outdated. The plot wasn't nearly as intense or intriguing as the summary made it out to be. None of the characters were interesting. It just really didn't hold my interest at all. It's basically a hyperbolic cautionary-tale about peer pressure.

69) The Watsons Go to Birmingham %

This was a wonderfully hilarious look at family life during the Civil Rights Movement - though unlike most works dealing with the Civil Rights Movement, it focuses very little on the actual movement, and instead does a remarkable job on focusing on how simple family-life was. The characters were all exceptionally relatable and school-life is portrayed pretty realistically instead of as a hyperbolic absurdity or a rose-tinted yesteryear memory.

70) Diamonds are Forever %

Another excellent Bond novel. His American friend seemed a bit out of place, but it WAS nice to see James relying on and trusting another wholeheartedly. Another layer of humanity for the ubermensch alpha male.

71) Strategies that Work &

The strategies (and their success) are all sold through anecdotal evidence and the occasional quote, with little to no statistical support. It's very readable as such, but significantly less scholarly than I would like. Editing could use a bit of assistance (one of the author's states that they "could care less" about something - an elementary slip-up; the phrase is "couldn't care less"). The bulk of the book is a in standard type, but the actual strategies themselves are shrunk by about two font-sizes making it somewhat painful and straining to read them (this coming from a 28-year-old with 20/20 vision...).

69deep220
Abr 9, 2015, 2:40 pm

Benny you are a genius! And what I great variety of books that fate has chosen for you. Going to be creating a reading jar of my own :)

70benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 24, 2015, 9:35 am

72) Age of Innocence %

One of these days I'll learn to dump books I can't stand. I promise.

This was painfully slow and No. Thing. happened!!! It's all about early Inter-War era gossip. It kinda made me wanna slam my head into the wall. If you enjoy perusing People, Us, and In Touch at the register check out, you would probably enjoy this. I prefer more substance though.

73) M or F? *

This story started off pretty slow, with an odd little convention of the co-protagonist Marcus visualizing everything through the concept of a movie director. Thankfully, this convention is largely forgotten throughout the book, aside from two brief re-stylizations near the end. Once I really got into the story, it got truly phenomenal and hard to put down. The characters all evolve and change naturally and interestingly. My only gripes are with Marcus (even though I love him).
-A good deal of his characterization is based on homosexual stereotypes
-He's spent his whole life in Georgia up until the past year, yet shows no evidence of being Southern (normally, this wouldn't bother me, however the authors went out of their way to exaggerate his homosexuality and corresponding stereotypes, that the lack of any Southern stereotypes was a bit blatant.
-He is a bit unreasonable. Somehow, he construes the following excerpt as the most homophobic thing he's ever heard:
"That place has gay night on Thursdays." He winked at Jeffrey. "You're going to take me there next week, right Jeffrey?" he asked in a mock-flirty tone.

He and Franny (the other co-protagonist) spend about three pages raging about how homophobic that statement was and how the speaker must be thoroughly anti-gay and that the statement was equivalent to calling someone "faggot" (even though Franny rightly points out that Marcus wouldn't have thought twice about a homosexual saying something like that). This scene completely took me out of the book, but the rest was very good.
The twist ending was also completely unexpected, though not unwelcome.

71Tess_W
Abr 21, 2015, 3:16 pm

>72 benuathanasia:, Benny, I agree with you on the Age of Innocence....I've started it 3 times an can't finish it. I've also tried watching the movie and it is just as boring! I've actually seen a soap opera that was more interesting!

72benuathanasia
Editado: Abr 21, 2015, 4:10 pm

I think the reason it is scored so high, is that it's so horrifically boring right from the get-go that the majority of readers won't even bother with it and they read so little of it that they don't ever review it. The book itself weeds out anyone who would score it low aside from those of us who are absurdly tenacious, OCD, or masochistic (I'm not sure which of the above I am).

73avanders
Abr 23, 2015, 1:59 pm

>70 benuathanasia: blech... it's hard, though, to know if you should put it down or if you'll be missing out on some grand, amazing ending.... ;p

74benuathanasia
Editado: Dez 14, 2015, 9:48 pm

74) The Encounter *

This particular installment is told from Tobias's perspective. Given his unusual point of view, the storytelling method seems slightly different and not in an unpleasant way.

While Animorphs 2 focused on the build-up of tension, this one focused more-so on emotional development.

75) Pygmy %

I love the satire on Americana and our collective jingoism and xenophobia. However, the dialogue, while initially interesting, became very tedious and the gimmick wore thin early on in the novel.

76) Crossed %

A bit more interesting than the previous book with significantly less "boy, boy, boy, boy, boy!!!" It's clinging rather desperately to the dystopian trilogy formula started by The Uglies and cemented by The Hunger Games,
From a technical and aesthetic standpoint, the writing is good. The plot is leaps and bounds better than the original book in the trilogy. Even still, it's hard to be emotionally attached to any of the characters. Despite the evolution of their motivations, they are still somewhat flat in their characterization.

77) Sense and Sensibility %

If you're a fan of Lydia and Kitty from Pride and Prejudice, you'll probably enjoy this book. It was largely about silly little nits trying to get married. It was amusing, but not nearly as good as P&P.

78) The Cat Who Tailed a Thief %

Not my most favorite of the kitty books. It was very dialogue-heavy, plot-light. I like listening to Qwill talk to people and socialize, but I would have preferred more buildup to the actual crime, more mystery, more intrigue.

*spoiler*

Qwill had everything solved within a day of the *real* crime happening. It just happened to conveniently
explain some paltry kleptomania near the beginning of the book that wasn't interesting while it was happening, much less a whole novel later.

79) Left Behind %

I read about 2/3 of this on a flight between Charlotte and Bradley. My personal setting made this far more enjoyable (though it was very enjoyable, anyway). It's a tad on the preachy-side, but not nearly as much so as you would expect given the content. It's a bit predictable, but it isn't exactly high-literature. This is just good, fun light reading.

80) Fourth Grade Rats *

The illustrations are dated, though the story is still applicable to modern students. I don't feel as though the story's "moral" was as blatant as needed by younger children. The main character's rehabilitation seems forced and not genuinely earned or felt.

81) The Deluge &

Lent to me by my boyfriend's uncle. I'm going to attempt to read a little each night. It is dense, but thus far very interesting and readable.

Update: This was picked up - read - put down - picked up - read - put down. Finally, about a month a go, I had to tell myself "No excuses! Ten pages a day minimum!" Very informative, insightful, and surprisingly readable (though very, very dense). It follows an unusual path between chronological and topical that can make different related events difficult to view in relation to each other quite frequently, but with such an enormous width and depth of information on so many differing concepts, such a problem is insurmountable without getting exceptionally repetitive. I enjoyed this quite immensely

75benuathanasia
Editado: Ago 24, 2015, 5:15 pm

82) Drita, My Homegirl *
I'm very divided on this book. The story and characters were wonderful - I truly enjoyed this unique look at immigration and it was refreshing for the person assisting the newcomer to be something other than "the great white hero".

The dialogue (internal and external) however, was... offensive. Especially coming from someone who isn't a native or immigrant to the culture. Internally, Drita spoke in overly perfected, choppy English (which makes no sense since her internal dialogue is/should be her native speech translated to English -therefore it should be natural and free-flowing). The opening line of the book is a good example of this: "For three days, before I am coming to this country, I can't eat."

Internally and externally, Maxie spoke in what could be perceived as a caricature of inner-city idiomatic ebonics (incorrect tenses, incorrect plurality (for instance, "I gots")). Her father corrects her for speaking "slang" at one point, but his language isn't much better (especially considering he's some hotshot at a bank).

83) Igniting a Passion for Reading &

My mother is a fan of this book and recommended it to me. Personally, I'm more ambivalent than her. Much of it seemed rather gimmicky and with little educational value (think read-alouds, reading corners, book commercials). I would have preferred more intrinsic value and less silly stuff (I almost expected a chapter on sandwich board spinners to get kids' attention).

84) Fifty Shades of Grey %

*sigh* I am ashamed of me...

Ok...everyone with half a brain recognizes the fact that Fifty Shades of Grey is horrible in every sense of the word (rape, ignorant and dangerous (and dangerously ignorant) representation of the BDSM community, poor editing, aesthetically terrible writing, technically terrible writing, etc, etc, etc), so I'm not going to focus on the book itself. I read the audiobook, so I'll be critiquing the reader. The audiobook (at least this particular version) was read by Becca Battoe. I won't say she's the worst reader I've ever listened to (I used to volunteer for Librivox, after all). I will say that it shocks and mildly disgusts me that she actually gets paid for this. Apparently, you need no talent to succeed in some fields. Battoe has a whiny, obnoxious, valley-girl voice with the slightest crack in her throat that makes her sound tired throughout the reading. Her ability to create different "voices" extends to her own horrible voice and deepening her voice like a little kid to pretend to impersonate male vocals - no finesse, no art, no appeal. At less than an hour into the book, I'm ready to slit her (or my) throat to shut her up.

One question though...So...um...where's all the kinky? It was very much mostly alluded, and didn't really happen other than some light spanking and tying up. I mean, I'm a huge prude in real life, but even I've written kinkier fanfiction than this.

Also, side note...I discovered how to play DVDs at double speed on my laptop without degradation of sound quality. Damn...

85) Wolf Brother *

Thus far, I have minimal motivation to really get into this book. It's starting very slowly and usurping many outmoded (i.e. racist) Native American stereotypes for the fake society in this book.

Update: This book took a LONG time to get started. It wasn't until Renn and Torak leave the village that things become endurable and at that point things start becoming far better than the beginning. The obnoxious stylization of fake Native American speak ("fast water" as the word for river and likewise) never becomes anything less than insulting and really ruined the voice of the story for me. That being said, for such a cliche on the "chosen one" trope, the story itself isn't too bad.

86) The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume 3 &

This volume started off mid-story, continuing the romance where Aziz is starting to suffer ramifications for going after the hawt chick instead of the loyal one that actually adored him. The next few stories dragged on, but after that the story returns to the frame tale and Shahryar begins inputting on the stories, making requests. He appears to favor animal-based stories that are reminiscent of fables. The vast majority of this volume is that of Kamar al-Zaman - a prince who falls in love and has one hell of a time of it. His wife (and later wives) start off really awesome, but eventually become pain-in-the-asses that screw up his life (and that of his two sons) something royally (no pun intended). Wickedness leads to bad fortune on behalf of others and bad fortune turns to good fortune through the might of Allah is the lesson of this story and it was actually really interesting (and is not yet concluded). I half to say though. Shahryar is far more patient than I. The nights get really short all of a sudden with lots of cliff-hangers. I would have told Shahrazad to hurry the hell up or I'd just say screw it and kill her like all the others.

76avanders
Maio 7, 2015, 10:43 am

>75 benuathanasia: lol! "I am ashamed of me..." ;)
and double-lol ... sounds like a terrible audio-book experience! Glad it's over for you ;)

....... that's crazy re playing DVDs at double speed. do share...

77benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 7, 2015, 11:37 am

I'm not done yet, that was just my initial impression. I'm about 1/4-ish through.

As to playing DVDs at double-speed, I use VLC and press cmd + and - to control speed. It isn't as easy as with the audiobooks for some reason, but 1.5x seems pretty good until I get used to it. And let me tell you, it's GREAT with really old movies and shows where there's no dialogue and action is slow for huge bits of time (Outer Limits and Hitchcock films come straight to mind here...)

If I could figure out how to do Netflix and YouTube at increased speed, I'd either be screwed or made!

78avanders
Maio 7, 2015, 12:35 pm

>77 benuathanasia: eek... well, good luck finishing it then? ;)
Thanks for the info!
ha, yeah.... well, where there's a will... perhaps there's a way!

79Tess_W
Maio 7, 2015, 7:27 pm

>oh my goodness--I don't watch old films alot because I think they talk so fast that I can't understand them!

80benuathanasia
Maio 7, 2015, 7:39 pm

There's an odd dichotomy with old talkies. Some, the dialogue is delivered quick and snappy (I believe Casablanca is a decent example of this). With others, dialogue is minimal and slow (Hitchcock is the worst offender of this, IMO).

81benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 25, 2015, 7:43 pm

87) Words in the Dust %

I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry!
I cried...

This is an exceptionally heart-felt story, ripe with emotion, authentic character growth, and genuine perceptions. I liked that Americans were characterized as both heroes and villains, saviors and destroyers. The author does a wonderful job of not portraying the Afghani culture as "backwards," but it does not glorify it, unduly. He accepts it as it is, without casting any judgements. The main character is free to question Afghani traditions, but she does not rebel outside of reason, and she is critical of American culture as well while acknowledging Americans are capable of both good and bad. In all, this book is a complex look at society. I was so entranced I actually stuck around for the end where the author talks about his influences (something I never care to do).

88) The Capture %

I came into this expecting something in the same vein of Watership Down or Erin Hunter's Warriors series. I was sadly mistaken. This is closer to Redwall, minus the awesome characters, action, adventure, or interest. I normally adore Kathryn Lasky, but the first half was ridiculously painful to suffer through. Once the owls escaped from their captors it picks up quite a bit, but I don't have the patience to continue the series if the first half of this book is in any way an indication of what I have in store.

The reader's voices sucked as well.

89) 26 Fairmount Ave %

dePaola's voice is a phenomenal one. The way he shares his stories is as an old friend reminding you of your own experiences around a summer fire. His stories are amusing and he builds real connection between his family and the audience.

90) 101 Secrets of Highly Effective Speakers %

It's a decent book, but it just SCREAMS mid-90s late-night infomercial ("Learn the secrets they don't want you to know!).
Let's face it - these aren't secrets. No one is trying to keep any of this from you. If you don't know it, it's because you didn't bother asking. A great deal of it is even common sense (such as being prepared - which the discussion of takes up a huge chunk of this book).

My version was the audiobook version. I don't know (or care) who the reader is (though I do hope it wasn't the author!). The reader could have mastered every single "secret" in this book and still would fail as a public speaker. You know that saying that someone "has a face for radio"? Well, this reader had a "voice for silent films." It just wasn't pleasant to listen to at all.

I was so excited pulling tabs last night. As always, I repeated the Holy Words before the Jar of Destiny ("please let it be good...please let it be good..."). As I pulled the tab, I was relieved and joyous to see I'd pulled Dune - a cornerstone and lynchpin of science fiction. As I searched through Overdrive, I was bewildered to find everything but Dune. Nearly all Frank Herbert's work aside from his most famed. Grrr...I was forced to pull again. So, next up:

91) Superfreakonomics %

The anecdotes, quotes, statistics, and experiments are all absolutely fascinating. Sadly, the conclusions the authors draw from these things are very often completely incorrect and pointed out ad nauseum by those far more intelligent and expert than myself.

82benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 26, 2015, 3:33 pm

92) Extra Credit %

This was a really good and interesting book. The friendship between Abby and Sadeed seems a bit rushed. The ending seemed a bit empty as well. There's no resolution as to who the whiny rat was that couldn't deal with the concept of there being other religions.

93) Cirque Du Freak: The Manga, Vol. 1 *

I read the real book some time ago and enjoyed it substantially more than the manga adaptation. If it were not for having read the real book, I would be greatly confused by much of what was happening. Actions are portrayed poorly and much is far too implicit to really parse together unless you are already aware of what is going on. Unless you have the attention span of a gnat, stick with the real book, and skip the manga.

83avanders
Maio 22, 2015, 11:41 am

>81 benuathanasia: lol ok, note to self (me), stay away from book-that-makes-you-cry ;) (re Words in the Dust)
And re The Capture - sounds terrible!

Very cool re Dune! That's another book on my long list of TBRs! Crazy that it wasn't on overdrive though!
So... your tabs are not books you already own? They're books you want to read? Do you plan to get Dune elsewhere to read it anyway?

84benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 22, 2015, 12:15 pm

All the tabs in Jar of Destiny 1 are books I own,
All the tabs in Jar of Destiny 2 are books I have saved on Overdrive (my library's streaming audiobook service). I don't know HOW Dune wound up in there since it isn't available through any of my libraries! Since it shouldn't have been in there anyway, I just tossed the tab :(

Also, Please, please, PLEASE, don't avoid Words in the Dust because of me! It was so flippin' beautiful!

85avanders
Maio 22, 2015, 3:53 pm

>84 benuathanasia: ah yes, you explained that in the beginning :)
Sad about Dune! :(

lol, ok I'll keep that in mind ;) (Words in the Dust)

86benuathanasia
Maio 26, 2015, 1:18 pm

94) Attack on Titan &

Not as good as the anime. It's more difficult to get into, more "jumpy" (it quickly goes from one scene to another - one place or time to another), and the characters are far less developed than in the anime. Overall, meh.

87benuathanasia
Editado: Maio 29, 2015, 10:45 am

95) Life As We Knew It %

A heartwrenching story full of diverse emotions and genuine character growth and development. The main character is whiny, but she is aware of this fact and tries to better herself. The science is realistic and the plot forces you to question your own priorities. The end bordered on Deus ex machina, but it was good nonetheless.

96) I, Freddy*

A charming story similar in vein to Guinea Dog or According to Humphrey.

Freddy is a precocious and intelligent hamster with boundless curiosity. It is a good story of friendship, family, and freedom.

The guinea pigs and Sir William were delightful characters.

97) The Body %

Overall, very "meh." It's very all over the place, with little to tie the book together. It's a disjointed collection of rambling recollections and anecdotes about a few days during "the writer's" childhood. Definitely not the best of Stephen King's works (not the worst either, though...).

88benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 17, 2015, 2:12 pm

98) Fairy Tail vol. 1 &

I'm not the largest fan of manga. I like graphic novels (mostly Dark Horse and Marvel) but I find much gets lost in the translation of Japanese to English for manga. Not only that, but there's a distinct difference between western story telling and eastern storytelling that is difficult for me to get over. That being said, this was a cute and interesting story.

99) The Amulet of Samarkand %

This was a really awesome book. The feel of it was Harry Potter meets Artemis Fowl. It took me a few chapters to get into it, but once I was in, I was hooked.

100) Prentice Hall Literature: Platinum Edition *

>>>Games at Twilight - What the hell grade level was this intended for? Every sentence was overly long and pretentious. Probably about a third of the words would need to be looked up by most proficient readers, let alone the struggling ones that make up the majority of the education system. The story was barely even interesting. I kept expecting some cool twist or something, but it turns out the story was just about a whiny little loser.

>>>Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket - Full of tension. Very reminiscent of Stephen King's "The Ledge."

>>>The Monkey's Paw - Probably the first story to ever frighten me. I remember loving this one in middle school.

>>> Leinengen Versus the Ants - A brilliant "war story" that I could picture Ken Burns directing.

>>>Old Man of the Temple - Worthy of being a Twilight Zone script. This story was somewhat depressing (in a pleasant way - if that makes any sense).

>>>A Visit to Grandmother - The writing was wonderful, but the story was kind of lack-luster. The father in the story is just a big flippin' baby.

>>>Chee's Daughter - This was an absolutely lovely story about a father's love for his daughter - a universal concept here portrayed through the lens' of modern Native American culture.

>>>Luck - I rarely read Twain's works, but I was shocked to discover how much I enjoyed this. It seemed Russian for some reason, and I do love me some Russian.

>>>Diamond Island: Alcatraz - Another Native American modern cultural perspective. This one wasn't as personal, but it was still nice.

>>>Axolotl - Another where the writing was wonderful, but the story fell flat.

>>>Mushrooms in the City - This is a fun one to practice literary hypothesizing. The ending was hilarious though.

>>>There Will Come Soft Rains - One of my favorites of Bradbury. It's very nihilistic without forcing inherent cynicism.

>>>The Streets of the Canon - "Come a little bit closer, you're my kind of man, so big and so strong..." I feel like you need to listen to Jay and the Americans while reading this Spanish piece.

>>>By the Waters of Babylon - Another that would make a nice Twilight Zone script. I really enjoyed the (obvious from early on) post-apocalyptic twist. It's essentially the short story version of "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

>>>Through the Tunnel - Exceptionally descriptive, which - in this case - isn't too great since the story is exceptionally claustrophobic.

>>>Abalone, Abalone, Abalone - The point of this story is somewhat lost on me, but it was a nice little vignette from someone's life.

>>>The Portrait - A curious story. Good characterization, but little plot.

>>>The Masque of the Red Death - One of Poe's short stories that I enjoy (I used to adore Poe until I read all his work and realized how truly mediocre he was). This story is creepy and fun at the same time.

>>> The Open Window - Even knowing the ending (halfway through I remembered having read it before), it was still a funny twist.

>>>The Machine That Won the War - A hilarious look into the pointlessness of bureaucracy.

>>> The Homecoming Stranger - A sad look at the after affects of wrongful imprisonment and forced labor.

>>>Sunlight in Trebizond Street - Reminiscent of Catch 22 without the emotional connections that Heller forges so well.

>>>Civil Peace - A sad (yet sweet) look at a "post war" African nation.

>>>The Ring - Meh. I feel like the author was too subtle in some of the thoughts and emotions they tried to convey. The ending left me going, "That's it? Ok. NEXT!"

>>>With All Flags Flying - Anne Tyler is usually my go-to when talking about completely pointless books. Apparently her voice and style is far more conducive to short stories. This was touching and pleasant.

>>>Invasion From Mars - This is the transcript from the infamous Orson Welles/Mercury Theatre production of War of the Worlds. Despite the fact that it was merely a transcript, it had me on the edge of my seat (literally, not figuratively) the entire time. My chest was tight and my fingers clenched as I read this. Now I have to find my old recording of the original production that I never got around to!!!

>>>Antigone - Not nearly as good/emotional/developed as Oedipus Rex, in my opinion. Not the worst of the trilogy, but not the best, either.

>>>The Tragedy of Julius Caesar - Shakespeare is best seen and not read. I still enjoy his work (especially the humor and the monologues), but the transcripts pale in comparison to the stage productions.

>>>The Dog That Bit People - Humorous, but it felt like a small piece of a whole that left me feeling on the outside (like looking through someone's window and only catching a snatch of what's really going on).

>>>Emily Dickinson - This biography felt...odd. It jumped all over her life without any chronology or even the bridging of themes to excuse the odd order in which her life is told. It reminds me of someone who's really bad at tell jokes - they don't put the information in an order that is fluid or aesthetically pleasant.

>>>Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer - Fascinating. I actually YouTubed videos of her after reading this. Her voice was very "meh" as far as I'm concerned, but the story was great.

>>> A Child's Christmas in Wales
>>>A Christmas Memory
>>>from In Commemoration: One Million Volumes
>>>from The Way to Rainy Mountain
>>>Flood
>>>from The White Lantern
>>>On Summer
>>>Mary Cassatt
>>>Notes on Punctuation
>>>The American Idea
>>>The Creative Process in Music
>>>The Table
>>>The Marginal World
>>>Glove's Labor Lost
>>>Alabama Centennial
>>>La Belle Dame sans Merci
>>>Two Tramps in Mud Time
>>>The Wreck of the Hesperus
>>>Danny Deever
>>>O What is that Sound
>>>Eldorado
>>>The Sonnet-Ballad
>>>One Perfect Rose
>>>To Satch
>>>Autumn Song
>>>I Am Not Lonely
>>>Making a Fist
>>>Generations
>>>When Your Face Came Rising
>>>A Blessing
>>>The Street
>>>A Letter From Home
>>>Miss Rosie
>>>Size and Sheer Will
>>>Metaphor
>>>First Lesson
>>>Night Clouds
>>>Sunset
>>>A Pied
>>>The Wind - Tapped Like a Tired Man
>>>Big Wind
>>>Loss
>>>Afterglow
>>>Reapers
>>>The Fish
>>>Pitcher
>>>The Bees
>>>My Heart's in the Highlands
>>>The Splendor Falls
>>>Buffalo Dance Song
>>>Jazz Fantasia
>>>In Flanders Field
>>>Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day
>>>Puritan Sonnet
>>>Four Haiku
>>>Letter Slot
>>>Constantly Risking Absurdity
>>>To James
>>>Auto Wreck
>>>The Old People Speak of Death
>>>The Number Pi
>>>Ex-Basketball Player
>>>Arthur Becomes King of Britain
>>>The Marriage of King Arthur
>>>Morte d'Arthur
>>>from Ramayana: Rama's Initiation
>>>from Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mail
>>>K'ung-Ming Borrows Some Arrows
>>>from Don Quixote
>>>A Separate Peace

The characters were anything but likable and the story was stale. The only amusing part of the entire book was that we read it in tenth grade, so it was forty-five minutes of "They're gay, right?" everyday. No one in my class enjoyed it (the teacher even confessed afterwards that he hated it, but had to teach it because of curriculum).

>>>The Wrestling Match

Oh god...I finally pulled an anthology. Looks like it'll be a month or two before I can pull another physical volume...

89avanders
Jun 1, 2015, 10:41 am

>88 benuathanasia: is that... a textbook? Wow! That's ambition!

90benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 1, 2015, 2:46 pm

I was quite the klepto in my school days. If a textbook had a short story or poem in it that I particularly enjoyed, I would conveniently "lose" my textbook. And given my schools' shoddy record-keeping skills, the loss was only ever once traced back to me (I happily paid the fine ($50) and went on my merry way...).

All of these textbooks are still in my possession and I occasionally teach from them! I even prefaced one of my classes by revealing to my students my dark past and telling them that the story we'd be working with that week was the reason I stole the book (best lesson hook I've had thus far).

I've no intention of doing any of the assignments in the book (I've done my time already!), but I'll definitely be reading all of the stories, poems, and NF explanatory intros, bios and historical perspectives.

91Tess_W
Jun 2, 2015, 2:00 am

>88 benuathanasia: When I go to garage sales (hardly ever) or to Friends of the Library, auctions, etc., I always try to buy either Lit or History Textbooks...I think they make great reading!
>90 benuathanasia: lollll @ klepto!

92benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 8, 2015, 12:01 pm

101) Watch The Skies %

Wow. This was bad. I'm a fan of the first book, but this one was horrible. The humor was exceptionally juvenile and the big-bad's evil plan is to impregnate the women of Earth with his offspring (which he succeeds at with a few hundred/thousand women) and to eat the liquefied remains of murdered humans (also a partial success). It's sickening and extremely inappropriate for the intended demographic (there're few demographics forced impregnation is appropriate for).

102) The Brothers Karamazov %

If the option is available to you, I highly recommend the dramatized audiobook version by David Fishelson. The casting is phenomenal.

Hmmmm...I'm not sure what to say about this. It had funny bits, but it wasn't a comedy. It had a bit of romantic drama, but it wasn't a romance. It had tense bits, but wasn't a horror. It kinda just was. That being said, despite my complete inability to characterize this book, it was really interesting. It was kind of like peeking through your neighbors' window while they're having an out-and-out fight. Morbidly fascinating.

103) The Idiot %

I really enjoyed this one. The prince was an interesting character that I felt bad for, but at the same time kind of wanted to just strangle. He kept introducing himself by saying, (paraphrased) "So yeah, I was in an asylum for years because I have this disease that makes people think I'm an idiot" and then gets annoyed when people perceive him as being an idiot. He's just naive and sweet.

104) The Long Walk %

What a strange and unexpected topic. Walking. One hundred boys walking. That's it. How do you make a story out of that? Well Stephen King does it, and - even after having read it - I can't begin to fathom how he not only managed it, but made it amazing. This was a great story with incredible characters, stories, settings, and emotion. I read an hour or two of it on the treadmill which made it all the better.

93avanders
Jun 2, 2015, 12:06 pm

>90 benuathanasia: lol! that's hilarious ;)
That's cool... my husband likes text books too.... I can see the appeal :)

94benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 4, 2015, 2:59 pm

I've started allowing the Jar of Destiny to permeate other areas of my life. I've been using it to clear up my Netflix queue for the past few weeks. So far, I've done pretty well following its orders (even if I have no idea how or why a movie got into my queue - Zack and Miri Make a Porno? Really? Was I drunk that night?).

Eventually, I might use it for my TV watching (behold the Netflix XLS file - the love of my life: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11E4WiAO11KBseQRRqC3aPAs1XSvq92VVBri6qWoN.... But first, I need to finish catching up on things that are currently extant. See rows 64-75...

95avanders
Jun 5, 2015, 4:00 pm

>94 benuathanasia: wow.... that's relinquishing a lot of control! Fortunately, sounds like it's working well for you :)

96benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 10, 2015, 9:35 am

105) Fairy Tail volume 2 &

A cute continuation of the story left off in volume 1. This volume introduces new characters and builds on Natsu's character (moreso than Happy or Lucy's).

106) Anansi Boys %

The first chapter of this tasted of regret. My regret. Why did I buy this? Why did I want to read this? Why do I keep giving Gaiman chance after chance after chance to live up to his reputation?

Things started to get better around chapter 3, but then went downhill again. On the whole, the book floundered between decent and mediocre. It never really pulled me in, enticed me, or offered me any diversion. I spent a good deal of the book thinking "This isn't over, yet?" I suppose I'll just never see the allure of Gaiman.

The endings (there were several) dragged liked nobody's business.

The only positive I can think of was the audiobook reader. He annoyed me at first, but I came to really enjoy him.

107) Beloved %

The style of narrative is something I could happily live without. I'm certain the story was really good, but I just couldn't get past Morrison's style of writing.

This was the audiobook, read by the writer, and all I have to say about that is, Ms...Morrison must have...gone to the...Captain Kirk...school of...reading.

108) When Kids Can't Read &

This is my second time reading this. It's exceptionally readable, varying appropriately between conversational, anecdotal, and scholarly. It offers a great deal of research alongside personal reflection and experience. Most of the ideas presented are usable outside the prescribed 6-12 grade level demographic. Within the chapters and the appendixes are many useful worksheets, assessments, word lists, ideas, etc. A very good book.

97benuathanasia
Editado: Jul 2, 2015, 3:15 pm

109) Teach Like a Champion &

This is a great deal to digest. However, the amount of simple, obvious, and ingenious suggestions are completely invaluable. This should be used more as a reference guide where you look up suggestions as needed, rather than a book where you read it once, absorb what you can, and then put it aside for eternity.

110) Fairy Tail volume 3 &

The more of Fairy Tail I read, the more I enjoy it.

111) Attack on Titan volume 2 &

This installment was all about Mikasa. She's a brilliant character with quite a bit of depth. I enjoyed this volume significantly more than the first (and not just because it followed Mikasa).

98benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 17, 2015, 2:11 pm

112) I Am Legend and Other Stories %

>>>I Am Legend - Significantly better than the movie. It astounds me when/why they take such amazing source material and water it down when translating to the big screen.

>>>Buried Talents - Intriguing, but the ending left a bit to be desired.

>>> The Near Departed - Very short with a hilarious ending.

>>>Prey - A cross between Child's Play and Puppet Master, though it precedes both. It's very good, until the ending.

>>>Witch War - A strange poem-like piece (it's an audiobook, so I can't be certain whether or not it's a poem, though it certainly read like one).

>>>Dance of the Dead - No idea what was going on with this one

>>>Dress of White Silk - The main character was a bit whiny, but the story was good.

>>>Mad House - ZZZzzz...My reluctance to go back to this story is making it difficult to finish the book.

>>>The Funeral - Reused the main elements from The Near Departed without the quirky ending.

>>>From Shadowed Places - Couldn't keep my focus in any way shape or form.

>>>Person to Person - A bit on the obnoxious side, but rather amusing on the whole.

99benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 18, 2015, 9:45 am

113) The Red Badge of Courage %

It's a bit of a boring slog, but taken in short bits, the language was rather interesting (aside from a few gems like this, "He puckered his lips into a pucker"...*facepalm*).

Update: Ok, it took me a while to figure out why this book bored me so much. Think about a battle scene from any war movie. Now, imagine that that was just about all the movie was. No matter how good it was (and let's face this, this book is no Battle of Helm's Deep), it can't be all there is! Fight, trudge to next fight. Fight, trudge to next fight.

Henry has friends, but there's no character development or interesting interactions. He has issues with some of his superiors, but he's such a personality-less blah, that no conflict develops with them. This is (IMO) one of the most fascinating wars character-wise, but the characters were just so damn flat and boring!

114) Fairy Tail vol. 4 &

Natsu, Grey, Lucy, and Happy have stepped up their game in order to take on bigger and badder challenges. The relationship development between Natsu and Grey was interesting and I hope to see more of it in the future.

115) Attack on Titan vol. 3 &

This volume focused on Eren and the uniqueness we discovered in the previous volume. This had more action and less character focus than the previous volume, but it wasn't lacking at all.

100benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 22, 2015, 6:29 pm

116) Quiet %

Interesting, but I feel like the other repeated herself quite a bit.

As an introvert through and through, I feel this book offers me a great deal of justification for everything I was told was "wrong" about me when I was younger (only my mother really appreciated how introspective I was as a child). As for the present, I kinda just want to smack people on the head with this (my boyfriend mostly) and yell "READ THIS!!! UNDERSTAND ME!!!"

117) Attack on Titan vol. 4 &

No me gusta. This one was almost entirely re-vamped flashbacks of stuff we already saw. In fact, I thought it was a misprint for a while because even the panels were the exact same as they were in volume 1 (I believe that's the correct one). It was just really lazy. I've seen other people say that it offers a different perspective, but no. I found that it's almost the exact same stuff regurgitated.

118) Fairy Tail vol. 5 &

Continuing the adventure of the cursed island we left off with in the previous book, this volume informed us a great deal about Grey and his upbringing which was really interesting. I'm a bit dismayed that a conclusion still hasn't been reached with this particular job, but it's a great story arc, so I won't complain too much.

119) The Spy Who Loved Me %

I don't like how this starts off pretending that James Bond is real and that Fleming is just communicating something he learned from other sources. I hate that trope. With the exception of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I've never seen it done really well enough to not completely disjoint me from the story.

Edit: Ugh...At least the first five chapters are the life-story of an insipid, obnoxious Bond girl as well as her adventures in being raped by her boyfriend. This is not why I read Bond.

Update: It continued in this vein. It was painfully boring until Bond's eventual arrival near the end of the book. Viv was just an annoying character (though Fleming did a pretty decent job characterizing her). She was not likable (or even pitiable). Hopefully, this was an experiment on Fleming's part and this is never repeated.

101connie53
Jun 22, 2015, 1:13 pm

119 books, WOW!!

102benuathanasia
Editado: Jun 29, 2015, 9:17 pm

120) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea %

Given this tale's reputation, I was expecting a rip-roaring adventure of man against nature, technology versus beast, maybe even a bit of pirate-style swashbuckling excitement. Instead, I got a travelogue - the diary of a scientist classifying life below the ocean. The famed squid that seems to figure so heavily in every retelling of 20,000 Leagues factors into a single chapter out of forty-seven. That being said, I still enjoyed it. I just wish it wasn't so horribly mis-sold (kinda like when someone accustomed to Boris Karloff and Halloween costumes reads the original Frankenstein for the first time. It's still great, it's just...not what you've been told to expect).

121) Attack on Titan vol. 5 &

This volume significantly made up for number 4. It didn't really favor any one character too much (even Eren got no more than his due diligence) and it took a rather unique and unexpected twist (not twist, as in "SURPRISE!" but a direction that I could not have foreseen). There was a strange and intriguing development in this volume that promises to be elaborated on in volume 6, so I'm very much looking forward to that!

122) Fairy Tail vol. 6 &

The conclusion to the Deliora problem and the cursed island was...mediocre, at best. I was particularly disappointed with Lyon's ending. It was nice to see more character building between Natsu and Grey, even if it was minimal. Almost as soon as the cursed island job was resolved, our heroes jumped into new drama and, while it'll be interesting to see where this drama winds up, I'm not as excited as I once was due to the disappointment of the S-Class job.

123) The Wrestling Match *

This novel was contained within Prentice Hall Literature: Platinum Edition. I went into not really knowing what to expect. It was preceded by A Separate Peace, so I suppose I expected some Yale-bound yuppie teens preparing for a school vs. school wrestling match. What I found was a tale of Nigerian teens on the verge of manhood starting/preventing/finishing a mini-war between boys from another village. It was a complicated, intricate, and thoroughly fascinating story. I really enjoyed the intense vision it created of Nigerian daily life during the mid 80s - not something I would ever have expected to not only read, but enjoy.

103benuathanasia
Editado: Jul 5, 2015, 12:46 pm

124) The Cat Who Went Underground *

Like most of the Cat Who books that I've read so far, the vast majority of the book is vague premonitions of a crime to come (or conspicuous hints of a crime that has already occurred) with all of the action, adventure, and intrigue occurring in one of the final few chapters with the resolution immediately to follow. This is a mystery just the way I like it. I love all the build-up and casual world-building in this series, that has little focus on what genre it is actually part of.

125) Tales From the Norse Legends %

Interesting telling of the Norse mythos, starting with the period before the gods and ending with Ragnarok. It includes (mostly) chronological tellings of the most pertinent stories, including Idun and the Golden Apples, how Thor got Mjolnir, various skirmishes against the giants, and the life-story of Loki's son, Fenrir.

104benuathanasia
Editado: Ago 4, 2015, 10:11 am

126) A Really Nice Prom Mess *

First impression:

The rampant homophobic language does nothing to draw me into the story, nor does the alcoholic date. The insane wealth of the characters is not relatable and Cameron's parents seem to be hammed-up caricatures. Reminds me of the crap you see in Pretty Little Liars and similar TV teen-soaps.

Update: Cameron is a judgmental little b!tch. He comments quite harshly about Shane's best friend's weight and stereotypes gays by saying that no gay guy would let himself get that fat, that young. He also stereotypes jocks quite frequently.

Cameron and his date - aside from getting totally trashed before prom even starts - smoke cigarettes and later Cameron and Shane's date smoke pot. Great role-models.

Edit: Oh god...Cameron's actions get SOOOO much worse. And of course there's no real ramifications for any of his malfeasance.

Cameron verbally attacks anyone that says "fag" yet never seems to shy away from declaring himself, others, and actions "retarded" on a regular basis.

Through several characters, the author regularly asserts that all gays are attracted to teens and chunky guys. Does this bother no one else?

This book creates the illusion that DC is so small the population is little more than that of the two schools involved in the story (seriously, no matter how many times he gets split up from the group, he never has any issue running into them again - I grew up in a town of 3,000 (1/2% that of DC) and never ran into anyone I went to school with outside of special activities like sports). The amount of "coincidental run-ins" in this story viciously murders the suspension of disbelief. Every gay guy Cameron runs into (which feels like half of DC) finds him irresistible. And the deus ex machina that is Sean. Oh...Dear...GOD!!! How lazy could this book be???

127) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn %

Interesting, but not exactly riveting. I had to take it in short bursts, because it was very episodic (IMO).

128) The First Days of School &

Recommended by several friends and my mother, I'm finding this book a very succinct and quick guide to really simple and easy success tools. Me gusta!

129) To Kill a Mockingbird &

Not the first time I've read this, but definitely the best reading so far!

130) Go Set a Watchman &

When I finished the first chapter, my boyfriend asked what I thought. I vented for a bit about things that didn't make sense to me (why introduce this Hank person? His backstory is more or less the same as Dill's - might as well have used Dill! Also, the gratuitous death mentioned was exceptionally gratuitous.) I kept reading. When I got to the end, I closed it up, put it on my bureau to place it on the bookshelf in the morning and my boyfriend again asked what I thought. This time, I really had no idea how I felt. There were certainly ample good bits - most of the flashbacks to Scout's childhood were pure gold. As for the actual storyline itself...I just can't wrap my head around my feelings. I'm not angry, I'm not disappointed. I'm just wildly discontented. Atticus's extreme change in personality I suppose I could chalk up to old-age dementia, but it just doesn't seem to fit. Scout's brief present-day visit to Calpurnia was beyond horrific and was in desperate need of some closure - though I suppose the lack thereof is truer to life than novels are accustomed to. All-in-all, it just felt like a fairly decent writer tried their attempt at TKaM fanfiction and truly failed to capture any of the heart and soul of Lee's original masterpiece.

131) Enclave %

An interesting take on the post-apocalyptic/dystopia genre. It's nothing ground-breaking, but neither is it a penny-a-page hack attempt at cashing in on the hype surrounding these two genres. I enjoyed the growth and progression of the protagonist, Deuce, even though her male-counterpart (Fade) perfectly fit the tall, dark, handsome, brooding stranger trope(s). The addition of Stalker was nice, until the decision to kill him came up negative and his transgressions were quickly forgotten (here we have a violent gang-leader who regularly rapes women, and hunts and kills men for sport...why the hell would you ever trust him/let him live?). His character development was far from realistic and, in retrospect, pisses me off. He switches from enemy to ally more quickly than one can flip a light-switch. Even Tegan ends up not caring so much about his past, even though she had been forced into pregnancy twice by him (both children were lost).

105avanders
Jul 17, 2015, 10:58 pm

>104 benuathanasia: oo, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman... I haven't read the first yet (that is, yes, completely insane)... I really have to get on that! But am looking forward to what everyone has to say about the very belated 2nd .... :)

106benuathanasia
Editado: Ago 6, 2015, 12:19 pm

132) The Green Mile %

An incredible story. The method of storytelling (non-chronological) makes it feel as though you are really listening to the tale of an old man in a nursing home. I adore the buildup of character backgrounds and identities, the slow unraveling of the story of John Coffey, and the occasional "rebuilding" of already experiences episodes near the beginning of each "book." Some of Stephen King's works truly suck, but books like this keep him near the top of the literary pyramid.

133) Simon's Cat in Kitten Chaos &

The book is shockingly dynamic given the static state of the images. I wasn't too certain how well the amazing YouTube show would translate to a wordless comic book, but it did quite a decent job. The story is linear and episodic, the animals all thrive with large personalities, and it's nearly as cute as the show (it can't be *quite* as cute given the lack of vocalizations and mannerisms).

134) Invisible Monsters %

Fairly run-of-the-mill for Palahniuk. Not his best work, however. It all begins with a murder - and I suppose you could say it ends that way as well. Like everything Palahniuk writes, it's a critique on modern society. This particular book asks readers to critically examine our concepts of and perverse obsessions with physical beauty. Not my favorite of his. Kinda boring at parts.

107connie53
Jul 28, 2015, 9:42 am

You are so far past your target! WOW

108benuathanasia
Editado: Ago 24, 2015, 4:50 pm

135) Clara's Grand Tour *

Thoroughly unreadable. It's like an awkward, dry dissertation. Though unlike a dissertation, the author employs the laziness of middle schoolers everywhere trying to pad a word count - say the same damn thing over and over again in as many ways as possible. Thoughts are disjointed, one paragraph usually does not lead into the next with any smooth fluidity, and train of thought frequently derails killing all passengers. It references many out-of-copyright paintings, engravings, and carvings but doesn't bother to include about half of them (despite how much it presses the importance of them). The author often follows false logics (because "x" happened, "y" must have happened - regardless of lack of evidence). There are frequent jumps in logic such as: because there's no evidence that Clara's coach ever broke down, it must not have broken down. Each chapter more or less follows the same formula: Van der Meer needed to take Clara to (prominent city) but had difficulty moving such a large creature; everyone rushed to see Clara regardless of station in life; disjointed information about the political climate of the current city; local celebrity who loved Clara coupled with quotes about rhinos (that may or may not fit the current topic of discussion), how Van der Meer advertised Clara; unrelated discourse on the social climate of the current city; Van de Meer was brilliant for X and Y reasons; on to the next city!
It's just really boring!

136) The Host %

A whole lot of "meh." I never got particularly attached to any of the characters. They were kind of just *there*. The most interesting aspect of this book is the crisis of morality. Is what the "souls" are doing ethical given how horrible humans are to one another? Are souls all that much better? They find it repellent for one soul to harm another or one sentient being to harm another (for example, the fire eaters destroying the walking flowers), yet they never really seem to question the fact that - while they may be preserving the bodies of their hosts, they are destroying their very essence - their minds. In fact, it appears as though Wanderer (later known as "Wanda") is the first to ever really think of this. Neither do they ever question the ethics of eating meat. It seem like Meyer had an interesting idea for a species, without fully fleshing out how such a species would operate after lifetimes of developing a strict moral code.

109benuathanasia
Editado: Ago 26, 2015, 6:47 pm

137) Heroes vol. 1 &

Ugh. Boring. For the most part, it follows characters that appeared momentarily on the show coupled with side tales for characters that we know and love with little to no character growth for the latter. Almost half the book follows Hana Gitelman who appears in one episode of the show and I don't believe was even given a name in the show. If you haven't watched the show, it's nearly unreadable. If you do watch the show, it adds almost nothing of substance.

138) The Killing Joke &

I don't get the allure of this comic. I get that it's supposed to be a staple. I get that it's supposed to be gritty. I get that it's supposed it be controversial. I just see it as being boring. I don't see anything particularly interesting, ground breaking, or disagreeable about it. It was bland and boring.

139) Touching Spirit Bear %

This is essentially Hatchet, if Brian had been a reprehensible juvenile delinquent sentenced to exile, rather than an innocent victim. Even by the end, Cole really isn't all that likable, going from straight up A-hole, to push-over pain-in-the-ass. The hardest part for me about this though is that the victim of the story (Peter) who Cole viciously beat to within an inch of his life, is portrayed as a total douche-bag. Honestly, he got to the point where *I* wanted to slam his head into the sidewalk.

140) Pygmalion %

I'm a huge fan of My Fair Lady, so this was an interesting experience. The two are very similar, though MFL added and expanded on scenes and left some out. The ending of Pygmalion was far more ambiguous than MFL, however Eliza appears to have become more independent than in the musical. I still prefer MFL, but this was pleasant.

110benuathanasia
Editado: Set 10, 2015, 3:35 pm

141) The Sixth Sense: Secrets from Beyond: Survivor *

Shockingly decent! Not something I'd expect from a book that was obviously a work assignment (one of those concepts that the publishers have lying around and then ask an author to crank out). The editing was a bit on the sloppy side, but the writing was overall acceptable for the intended demographic. The amount of scare-factor was just right, without any unacceptable levels of gore (from the perspective of an employee who will get yelled at by parents over censorship BS). The ending wasn't fully satisfying, but que sera, sera. That's life. A completely satisfying ending would have required a dubious amount of deus ex machina, IMO.

142) The Fountainhead %

An epic love story between the most selfish, self-centered, egotistical people in the world and their own bloated senses of superiority.

Howard Roark is essentially Holden Caulfield grown up: an arrogant, misanthropic, "fuck expanding my horizons because I already know it all," "fuck everyone else because they aren't me," douche-monkey.

Domanique Falcon seems to be a flaccid author avatar of the conservative mortal-goddess Ayn Rand. She's a cardboard cutout of a human - seemingly an android masquerading as a human - and completely devoid of any real or even seemingly genuine emotion beyond a corrupt fixation on the only other human as incapable of the intimation of affection as herself.

Gail Wynand appears to be a conflation of the infamous newspaper tycoons of the early twentieth century such as Hearst and Rockefeller. All he seems to care about (until meeting the married Falcone) is his ability to create and destroy whomever and whatever he so chooses.

And finally, an attempted pseudo-contrast to the contemptibility of these "heroes" of free-enterprise and industrial libertarianism is Peter Keating.

Peter Keating is a boring, flat, facsimile of what Ayn Rand considers the average person.

All in all, the story as a whole is enjoyable, as would be a biography of Lex Luthor, though there's no Clark Kent to truly stand in contrast to the foulness, nor is there a Lois Lane to at least distract us.

111avanders
Ago 25, 2015, 11:54 am

>110 benuathanasia: lol I was told I would hate that book... nice when I find words to support my confirmation bias ;)

112benuathanasia
Editado: Ago 26, 2015, 1:22 pm

143 The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night vol. 4 &

So on Monday, my boyfriend asked me if I had stuck with ToTAN and was still reading one night each day and I affirmed that I was still reading it. Later, I was wondering which volume I was on since I had been on volume 3 for quite a while, so I looked it up and, lo and behold, the last night of volume 3 was the next day! So, now I start volume 4 today (as soon as I'm done watching this week's episode of Scream, in fact). Update: Scream's penultimate first season episode...OMG!!! EEEEP!

144) Molly Moves Out *
A cute story in the art style of Rosemary Welles (with a bit more depth to the backgrounds). I enjoyed the unexpected way in which it concluded - Molly maintains her independence, rather than moving back home, in the vein of most "run away from home" type children's books. This is a cute book that can help children identify different possibilities in conflict resolution (although some of Molly's ideas may not be realistic for most children).

113benuathanasia
Editado: Nov 12, 2015, 8:15 pm

145) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol 2 &

The last one was a bit high on itself. This one was downright snotty in its high opinion of itself. I feel as though characters I have loved for years were cornered in a dark alley, beaten into submission, and black-bagged into this boring, pretentious, crap. There was rape, graphic sex between Mina and Quartermain (eye bleach! EYE BLEACH!!!), mentions of consensual bestiality...and almost no action of any interest. Then it kinda just...ended. While I'll never complain about this GN ending, I WILL complain about the lack of almost anything happening to facilitate the end.

146) The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing *

This book started out very interesting. Octavian's circumstances were fascinating in part 1 and left me clinging to the story to see how things progress. Part 2 began evoking my pity for the princely and privileged boy who grew up with the education I would murder for. Part 3 and part 4 effectively killed any interest I had in his story. It became very boring and mundane at that point - it simply became yet another escaped-slave narrative - a dime a dozen in the word of YA literature.

147) Shiver %

Meh. More Twilight rip-off crap. At least this simple book doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is by using pretentious language. The romance was stale and cliche and the his/hers perspectives made it even more nauseating (image if Stephanie Meyer really had gone through with writing Edward's perspective *involuntary shudder*). This book is redeemed entirely in the fact that it's a quick, low-level, no-brains-required read - perfect for lower students and reluctant readers.

148) The Power of Six %

The addition of perspectives from multiple characters makes this book far more interesting than the previous one. Six and Marina were nice additions to the Lorien tale.

149) War of the Worlds %

I enjoy the Orson Welles' Mercury Theater radio transcript quite a great deal, but this was boring in comparison. It feels more like a scientific observational record written in a poetic manner (think the British Romantic poets - Keats, Wordsworth, Blake, Byron - all reserved, yet flowery observation) than a personal/emotional memoir. The Romanticism style is great for an actual poem, but tedious and pretentious for prose. Either way, it's certainly a far cry from that soulless, brainless, action-piece Cruise and Spielberg crapped out a decade ago.

114benuathanasia
Editado: Nov 3, 2015, 9:04 pm

150) Master and Commander %

I'm not in love with this book, but it was rather relaxing to just sit back and let the words wash over me. The action and characters were bland, but the language and the setting and culture of the time was rather interesting to read about. I don't know if I'll continue the series, but at least I don't feel my time has been wasted.

151) Messenger %

This was an incredible merging of the characters and themes explored in the predecessors The Giver and Gathering Blue. It was rather short and abrupt with the main conflict(s) remaining very shrouded in mystery, but even still, I'm glad to have continued the journeys of Jonas, Matty, and Kira.

152) School's Out Forever %

Slightly more interesting than the previous one, however it revolves around a "twist" that was as easy to see coming as a tractor trailer on a desert highway (BTW, authors out there, "twists" suck when the character suspects it, discounts it, suspects it, discounts it, forgets it (and hopes the reader does too) and then Ta-Da, they were right all along! I think I'll dub this the Da Vinci-code plot twist.

153) Luna *

I feel like Luna/Liam reinforces some negative stereotypes about transgenders; many of them negative. I wouldn't want THIS to be a teenager's first encounter with transgenderism.

154) Gentlemen of the Road %

Well this was a boring, steaming heap of...absolutely nothing. Nothing of any interest happened in this whatsoever. I'm starting to think that the only qualifier to be a Pulitzer author is to write stuff that shows life as mundane as possible.

115benuathanasia
Editado: Out 28, 2015, 12:24 pm

155) Insignia %

Initial reflection: This is a really fun story. The writer has a great "voice," the pacing is phenomenal, and there's an awesome harmony between character building, world building, and action.

The work is insightful (it's a very realistic dystopia) - I like how it's foreshadowing/paralleling what's going on with Monsanto; their mutated, patent-protected crops are cross-pollinating with normal plants and Monsanto busts in and sues the crap out of anyone whose crops got cross-pollinated (naturally) with their frankenfood.

Final reflection: One of the best books I've read recently. I look forward to the continuation of the series!

156) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: A Graphic Novel &

An awfully abrupt rendition of one of my favorite books - many events are completely re-tooled to allow for the short space resulting in ideas being glossed over (why Edmund hated Peter, for instance).

In the process of abridging, it would have been nice if the adaptor had adjusted the language to make it more suitable for the intended audience (let's face it, this particular adaptation is probably meant for readers of a bit lower level than the regular novel is intended for). Much of the language simply isn't suited for a modern audience - especially not an American one.

The illustrations were nice, but nothing to rave about.

This was more of a glorified picture book with clever placement of text as opposed to a "graphic novel" in the truest sense.

157) The Picture of Dorian Gray %

Took about half the book for me to "get into" it. Even then my enjoyment was a bit wishy-washy. The homoerotic under/overtones are the only thing really keeping my attention in the earlier chapters.
The ending was wonderful and the last third of the book was when things really got good. I greatly enjoyed the story. I'm not a big fan of overly moralistic stories, but Wilde handled everything really nicely.

158) The Rise of Nine %

A phenomenal addition to the series; however, Nine made it almost unbearable.

159) Thunderball %

Well the first third of it was "James Bond takes a spa trip because he's getting out of shape." Not exactly the dashing womanizer we all know and love. It got much better once the nukes were nabbed.

Most of the action was sub-aquatic, which made it a bit awkward (the narrator admits that their fighting was anything but orthodox and I image the force probably wasn't the wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am we're used to with James).

Felix Leiter played a large role in the book, and I rather like Leiter, so I'm happy with that :)

116connie53
Out 12, 2015, 9:13 am

You are reading a lot of books, Benny!

117benuathanasia
Out 12, 2015, 8:23 pm

I'm only in the middle of four five right now!

118avanders
Out 13, 2015, 11:40 am

>117 benuathanasia: lol I like the strikeout ;)

119connie53
Out 15, 2015, 1:59 pm

And now I wonder how you make them!

120avanders
Editado: Out 15, 2015, 4:18 pm

<strike>and</strike>

which looks like: and

:)

121connie53
Out 16, 2015, 1:23 pm

>120 avanders: Thanks, Never to old to learn new things stuff!

122benuathanasia
Out 16, 2015, 9:45 pm

You should check this out Connie - https://www.librarything.com/topic/59470 - It has lots of amazing tips on how to do remedial HTML programming in LibraryThing.

123connie53
Out 17, 2015, 6:36 am

>122 benuathanasia: Thanks for the link, Benny

124avanders
Out 18, 2015, 3:42 pm

>121 connie53: lol exactly!

>122 benuathanasia: ooooh nice :)

125benuathanasia
Editado: Nov 6, 2015, 9:39 am

160) Revenge of the Witch %

Ugh. The audiobook of this is ridiculously quiet. I have everything volume-related maxed out and it's still hard to hear if there's ANY ambient noise whatsoever.

An interesting amount of potential. World-building was a bit lackadaisical with information offered only as needed, preventing any reader enjoyment of any real hypothesis or foreshadowing. I would have liked the Spook to talk more about the different types of creatures and give the audience a bit of time to think "hmmm...I wonder what the main enemy is going to be (instead of spelling it out in the title) and how the conflict will evolve" rather than right from the beginning introducing Alice, letting us know she's a witch and her family sucks, etc.

126avanders
Out 29, 2015, 11:26 am

>125 benuathanasia: oh I hate that... I had one of those a while back and it's so frustrating!

127benuathanasia
Editado: Nov 16, 2015, 8:10 pm

161) The Message *

A Cassie-centric book that introduces Prince Ax (Elfangor's little brother). Cassie's moralism was an interesting insight into her as a person (as well as her growth throughout the book as she has to balance the greater good with individual rights) and Ax's illustrations of exactly what the Animorphs are fighting for added heightened tension to the underlying conflict.

Despite the amount of thinking about greater issues that went on in this book, it was very action-heavy at its climax (both the major and minor climaxes), but stilled allowed quite a bit of time for fun and games and just messing around with morphing.

162) Brave New World %

This book is interesting enough to not need a plot or characters, so far. The world-building is positively fascinating.
Update: And then they added plot and characters and it went downhill. *sad*

163) Slaughterhouse-Five %

It feels like Vonnegut was trying to accomplish what Heller succeeded at with Catch-22: illustrating the ridiculousness of war through non-chronological episodes of absurdity. The difference is, Vonnegut does not succeed nearly as well as Heller at humor, character depth and building, creating an intriguing plot, or creating any kind of mystique that leaves the audience on the edge of their seat. Vonnegut just fails spectacularly compared to Heller.

164) Witch Child *

Ugh. It started decently enough - intriguing (though I hate the "this is real, I swear it is!" trope); however, it descended into yet another Salem witch trial derivative. So much so that some scenes appeared to come straight from The Crucible. Oh well...

128benuathanasia
Editado: Dez 8, 2015, 9:07 pm

165) The False Prince %

The problem with much of the YA literature I've read lately is that characters simply aren't likable. Disagreeable, whiny, tantrum-y little brats are being presented as hidden heroes. They don't overcome any of their negative traits. Not only do they set terrible examples for children, but they're simply not pleasant or anyone a normal person would ever root for.

That being said, the story itself was great, until the horrible, obnoxious, deus ex piss-me-off machina twist. I will likely not be continuing the trilogy (why does everything have to be a trilogy!?!?!).

166) Y: The Last Man 2 &

Ugh. Just ugh. This is exactly what extreme meninists fear a women-centric world would be like: nearly all women are psycho man-haters, even though all of the women are woefully inept at anything and everything that isn't man-hatred. Society has completely collapsed and reverted back to medieval life - women were apparently completely incapable of maintaining any of the public works or emergency necessities and formed "Warriors" style pseudo-terrorist gangs. Fuck this shit.

167) The Predator *

This one follows my least favorite of the Animorphs - Marco. The one person on earth who refuses to enjoy his powers; who has no respect for the fact that the fate of the world trumps his own little crappy life; who whines about everything.

168) Goldfinger %

The movie bored me, so I wasn't looking too forward to this particular installment of Bond, however I was very pleasantly surprised! World-building was phenomenal. I particularly liked the character development of Goldfinger himself. He started off as something of a sympathetic character - it was hard for me to see him as being a "bad" guy simply because he wishes to reap the full benefits of his own endeavors. As a huge endorser of First-Sale Doctrine, I felt it was his right to what he chose with his own gold that he had lawfully purchased. To me, his morals became exceptionally questionable when the incident with the cat occurred (I won't spoil it, but...poor kitty...). He then became thoroughly reprehensible once we find out what happened to his assistant Jill. Finally, he become irrevocably hell-bound once his ultimate plans are revealed. It was a gradual, brilliant unfolding. I was very pleased.

My favorite part of the novel was when James believed he was dying/dead and starts pondering what heaven would be like - how would the various dead Bond girls feel about each other once they had James with them in heaven? It was rather amusing.

169) A Matter of Trust *

A favorite series of my lower-level readers in middle school, this is the first time I'm touching Bluford. The amount of divergent, yet related, plots encompassed in such a short book was admirable. Given that the book is classed as hi-lo, the language was fairly standard with a good smattering of more complex sentence structures and a decent amount of higher level vocabulary. I can see why this is so popular. Darcy was a relatable character with exceptionally relatable issues. None of the solutions to her issues are spoon-fed to the audience fable or parable-style, instead allowing the reader to find their own solutions. The ending was ambiguous, but in such a way that it's actually kind of fulfilling.

129Tess_W
Nov 15, 2015, 4:28 pm

>127 benuathanasia: I read about 50% OF Slaughterhouse Five and quit because it was all nonsense....I couldn't even get a feel of what the author was going for.

130avanders
Nov 16, 2015, 1:18 pm

Hey you way passed your goal and I haven't yet said Congrats.... so Congratulations!!

131benuathanasia
Nov 16, 2015, 2:11 pm

Thanks Avanders!

132connie53
Nov 16, 2015, 2:13 pm

> Me too, Ava

Congrats, Benny

133benuathanasia
Nov 16, 2015, 4:31 pm



Thank you, Thank you!

134benuathanasia
Editado: Nov 30, 2015, 6:36 pm

170) Christine %

I thought I knew what to expect from this book. I thought I knew the overall plot - Christine, a sentient car, becomes a homicidal vehicle. It's so much more than that. I'm rather shocked at the amount of depth given to the characters, the development of personalities, the unfolding of the plot, the subtle nuances...it's somewhat incredible.

171) Golden Compass &

I'm re-reading this to mark it up to hell for school - I plan on doing close reading and associated/comparative/companion readings with my students. If anyone has any suggestions for companion pieces (articles, short stories, poems, etc to read alongside this in class, let me know).

172) Drita, My Homegirl &

I suppose I probably should have mentioned this one as well. I'm working on it with my fourth and fifth grades (so I'm reading it twice at once, really...). I really enjoy this book, and given the amount of "oh, no she di'int!" I hear during reading, my kids are enjoying it as well.

173) Dr. Franklin's Island *

A derivative of The Island of Doctor Moreau, this book explores the realm where science fiction crashes headlong into body horror. Not for the faint of heart, it offers some graphic depictions of two girls unwillingly mutating into animals (think the vague sensations given in Animorphs, amplified times a hundred) thanks to the efforts of a mad (yet brilliant) scientist. If it pushed the boundaries any further, it would be sliding into Jeff Goldblum's "The Fly" territory.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and frequently found myself incapable of putting it down! I enjoy gore (though understand it isn't for everyone). I also enjoyed the very relatable and realistic character development of Semi and Miranda.

135avanders
Nov 20, 2015, 10:42 am

>134 benuathanasia: hmm that's an unread Stephen King.. will have to check it out!

136Tess_W
Nov 20, 2015, 10:43 am

Congrats

137benuathanasia
Editado: Dez 15, 2015, 10:54 am

174) From Russia With Love %

An intriguing story with a lackluster ending. Not my favorite in the Bond series.

175) The Capture *

The inevitable has happened - one of the Animorphs is a controller. It was facsinating to see the process, what it's like having a Yeerk in the head, and how the Animorphs took care of the situation. It also gives some more character development to Tom - which was nice.

176) Fallen %

So. Much. Mediocrity. Ugh. If you're a Twilight fan, you'll probably like this. Luce is a boring, personality-less girl who happens to see these evil shadow things that screwed up her life. Luce kind of just exists as a cardboard cutout with no real personality, yet everyone instantly loves her! - Aside from the inevitable character who hates her more than life itself for absolutely no reason.

Her teachers also all seem to love her because she just "seems like that type of girl who likes to read" (not an exact quote, but close enough), even though she's behind in all her classes, forgets assignments, passes notes in class, gets in fights, is believed to have murdered a boy, is a suspect in a second murder, etc. *headdeskheaddeskheaddesk*

She spends half the novel bemoaning the fact that she likes this boy for this reason, but this boy for that reason, and she's inexplicably drawn to this boy but feels she'd be a better match for that boy. Holy Crap. Get your head out of your ass.

I don't even care if the author has some BS explanation to explain why all this is (maybe the main character unknowingly emits powerful pheromones that everyone is pulled towards other than conflict-girl and brooding-boy, but I honestly couldn't give a crap, because it's so much BS).

Update: *headdeskheaddeskheaddesk* Yep...the author explained it all away with the most goddamn, clichéd crap ever. At least Ms. Sophia voiced everything I hate about this book in Chapter 19 (if you create a character that voices and questions the very parts of your book that suck, you might want to rethink some artistic choices...).

138benuathanasia
Editado: Dez 14, 2015, 3:18 pm

177) Beautiful Darkness %

I wanted to say I'm not liking this, but the truth of the matter is, I just abhor the southern accent that the audiobook reader is using (though it is accurate to the piece) - I'm just very prejudiced against southern accents.

The story is intriguing, the characters are engaging, and the relationship between Ethan and Lena is pretty realistic, IMO. Amma is my favorite character, hands down; though Link amuses me as well. I'll probably be continuing the series.

It got a bit annoying when it turned into Harry Potter (the savior who has no business being the one chosen to fix everything, the know-it-all girl who insists on reading/writing about everything, and the comic relief best friend who is essentially useless.

178) Choke %

In my younger and more vulnerable years (i.e. when I was young, stupid and immature), I rather enjoyed Palahniuk's writing. Now I see it for what it is - shock for the sake of shock. It's no different than a middle schooler scribbling dicks all over everything while saying "DEEZ NUTZ." It offers no real insight or interest beyond trying to get the audience to go "He can't say that! OMG, I can't believe he just said that!" What a snoozefest.

179) Indian in the Cupboard %

White guilt made this hard for me to read. Everything just felt so...wrong: so insulting, stereotypical, and offensive. Once I got past that, it's a rather good story with interesting characters and a thoroughly wonderful plot (a harbinger of Toy Story or a review of Where the Toys Come From). Pretty enjoyable.

180) I am Pusheen the Cat *

Pretty damn cute. I love Pusheen.

139benuathanasia
Editado: Dez 30, 2015, 12:40 pm

181) Dream Dark %

A Linkubus-Linkcentric-Linktastic Tale. Quite enjoyable!

182) Atlas Shrugged %

First impression: from a technical and lyrical standpoint, Rand is pretty talented writer. She's also exemplary at building characters. It's too bad the vast majority of her characters are as whiny and egotistical and heartless as spoiled little toddlers who were never taught to share or otherwise view every other child as inherent competition for mommy's love.

Update: Goddamn. Is Rand capable of writing any characters who aren't a political mouthpiece? Characters seem incapable of speaking unless it is to make a speech of some kind.

<sarcasm>This book serves as a cautionary tale of the slippery-slope fallacy we are most certainly going to face if the government is allowed to regulate industry and labor. The slippery slope of what happens when you don't regulate industry and labor at all isn't even a possibility in Rand's world because the capitalists of the world are all stern caretakers of human civilization, while the workers are parasitic leeches any time they are given the opportunity. </sarcasm>

183) Irish Fairy Tales *

The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the Bum-Clock - It's Jack and the Beanstalk's beginning with Rumplestiltskin's ending.
The Sprightly Tailor - Somewhat humorous, but mostly WTF?.
Conal and Donal and Taig - A rather funny (and clever) pissing match.
The Black Horse - I have no idea what was going on here.
The Field of Boliauns - A trickster tale of the leprechaun. Cute and amusing.
Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary - A clever and lucky man tricks the enemies that want him dead.
The Old Hag's Long Leather Bag - Similar vein as The Talking Eggs, but not as good and ridiculously repetitive.
The Giant's Stairs - Meh.

The author/editor/compiler explained some Irish words and turns of phrase, but not all, making comprehension a bit spotty for me - a 28-year-old. I doubt my students would do much better.

184) The Language Construction Kit &

Ugh...this book is not meant for actual reading, but just referencing as you're doing something. ZZZzzz...

It offered lots of interesting ideas about language and its various building blocks, but it was rather dry and bland.

140connie53
Dez 15, 2015, 2:56 pm

Your ticker say 131 (31 past target) but you are soooooooooo far past it (like 84), it's awesome!

141benuathanasia
Dez 16, 2015, 7:15 am

The ticker is blocked at my work, so when I'm updating this during breaks, I always forget about the ticker...

142connie53
Dez 17, 2015, 1:20 pm

I hope Chèli knows that too, Benny! We need all the ROOTs to complete the group goal.

143benuathanasia
Dez 17, 2015, 2:06 pm

I'll be updating it at the end of the month so I don't have to remember any numbers - just throw up the ones that are actually there.

144connie53
Dez 19, 2015, 12:35 pm

>143 benuathanasia: Okay, thanks!

145benuathanasia
Editado: Dez 31, 2015, 2:39 pm

185) Swindle *

Rather common trope as the lynchpin on the story: an adult screws over kids because kids are idiots who are easy to use, kids prove to be clever and get their revenge. Meh. Boring. The characters were all pretty one-dimensional, never growing beyond their own notable trait. Not sure if I'll continue the series or not.

186) Describing MorphoSyntax &

187) Hellsing vol. 1 &

Snoozefest. Chapters are eaten up by stale action panels. There's almost no character building. Personality is replaced with craptastic accents. It's almost entirely protestant v. catholic bullshit (and shockingly few vampires). I can do without this series.

188) Fables vol. 1 &

By now, the idea is played out (Once Upon a Time, Sisters Grimm, Grimm, etc), but it would have been fairly original during its heyday. It still holds up rather well, even against all its competition. I'm enjoying this.

189) Skulduggery Pleasant %

These took me a while to get into, but it proved worth it. It was entertaining, though Mr. Pleasant wasn't nearly as humorous as the book blurbs professed him to be.

190) Because of Winn-Dixie *

Very adorable, heartfelt, and swift.

191) Robinson Crusoe %