willow_25: (Default)
Lots going on the last month or so, even beyond books.  Not much to say though, I'm not quite awake yet.

Books Completed in October:
Memnoch the Devil
The Vampire Armand

Books Completed in September:
Interview With the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of The Damned
The Tale of The Body Thief

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for June and July - 7
Total for August – 3
Total for September – 4
Read in October so far - 2
Total for Year 2014 - 41
willow_25: (Default)
In order to read 12 books in 2 months, I've had to devote a lot of time to reading.  As in, I took the day off from work yesterday and read a book.

Books completed in September:
Interview With the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of The Damned
willow_25: (Default)
Finished Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth, started Interview with The Vampire by Anne Rice.  And it's now a new month!

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for June and July - 7
Total for August - 3
Total for Year 2014 - 35
willow_25: (Default)
Dear God/dess, this book took forever.  For no good reason, it just took me an incredibly long time to get interested in the story, and I don't really feel like I ever really got invested in the characters.  Beautiful use of language, is about the best I can say about it.  Fortunately, I'm almost finished with the next one I'm reading.

After I finish the next book I'm reading, I'm starting an epic re-read of Anne Rice's entire Vampire Chronicles, which I'm doing as part of a Goodreads group, so I may not have much to say about them, or I might have a TON to say, who can tell.

Books completed in August:
Taken by Jolynn Raymond
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for June and July - 7
Total for August (So far) - 2
Total for Year 2014 - 34
willow_25: (Default)
With a shorter commute, and less alone time in the evenings, I've definitely been reading slowly over the last couple of months.  Hopefully, my rate will go back up in August.  Making a start on it already.  For the last few days I've had what's either a summer cold or the early onset of my fall allergies, which is fun.

Books completed in August:
Taken by Jolynn Raymond

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for June and July - 7
Total for August (So far) - 1
Total for Year 2014 - 33
willow_25: (Default)
I'm sure you're shocked.

Books Completed in June/July:
Basilisk (Short Stories) - Ellen Kushner, Ed.
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
The King - J.R. Ward
Transformation - Carol Berg
Total Recall - Phillip K. Dick
A Passage to India - E. M. Forster


Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for June and July - 7
Total for Year 2014 - 32
willow_25: (Default)
What with moving, and the summer flying by, I forgot to track what I actually read when.  We'll just call this June and July, shall we?

Books Completed in June/July:
Basilisk (Short Stories) - Ellen Kushner, Ed.
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
The King - J.R. Ward
Transformation - Carol Berg
Total Recall - Phillip K. Dick


Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for June and July (So Far) - 6
Total for Year 2014 - 31
willow_25: (Default)
Life is progressing slowly but surely here.  We're 90% unpacked, and last weekend we finally started cooking in the kitchen, which, as BF said makes it feel more like home.  We've even had time to be social, which reduced the stress that was building up due to two crazy perfectionists moving in together.
willow_25: (Default)
So, hello interwebs.  In the weeks since I've been here last, I managed to finish packing (just barely) and move!  We're still not unpacked after 11 days in the house, but we've made a shit-ton of progress, and we've even managed to have my parents over on Sunday.  I've also managed to get a garden put in the back yard, and do laundry!

Also, I read some books.

New books for May -
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft - Zack Parsons, Jeffrey Cranor, Meg Bashwiner, and Hannah Lott-Schwartz

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 5
Total for Year 2014 - 25
willow_25: (Default)
So, another week, another book.  I finally read The Yiddish Policeman's Union.  I've had it on my shelf since it came out, and just haven't gotten around to reading it, I figured I should do that before I moved it.  I really enjoyed it, not a big shock since I've enjoyed all of his other books.  Hopefully I'll have time to read another one before I have to finish packing my books.  I'm actually holding a box open for the next book I want to read before I pack it.  After that I'll take from the end of the alphabet so I have time to pack and read at the same time.

New book for May -
The Yiddish Policeman's Union - Michael Chabon

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May (So Far) - 3
Total for Year 2014 - 23
willow_25: (Default)
So, evidently the other Agatha Christie book was a Miss Marple Mystery.  I was annoyed.

Books completed in May:
The Wolf Gift - Anne Rice
The Body In The Library - Agatha Christie

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May (So Far) - 2
Total for Year 2014 - 22
willow_25: (Default)
So, welcome back.  For those who have been wondering when it would happen, the massive moving anxiety finally kicked in.  Starting to feel like I don't have nearly enough time, or boxes, and I still haven't had the chance to measure the new place, so I can't really picture where anything is going to go.  Also, I'm going to need to buy new bookshelves.

*hyperventilating*

I started packing my books, which means this isn't home anymore in some weird way.  My books are going to another place, and my books live at home, so now I feel like I'm really moving.  And it's scary.  What if I need something and I can't find it?  What if something I love gets broken?

And this move has the added bonus of moving in with someone, after 4 years of living on my own.  This will be the first time I've lived with a significant other.  It's a lot to deal with.
willow_25: (Default)
I finished my first book of May, though I'm not entirely sure that it counts.  Anyway, today is when I finished it, so there is that.

The book I read was 'The Wolf Gift' by Anne Rice.  I love Anne Rice's writing style, and I've read almost all of her 30-something books.  This was one of the few I didn't care for, or thought it would have been more interesting if she'd gone in another direction with it or fleshed out some of her ideas more.  Frankly, I could have used another 30 pages of conversation between some of the characters, (or just to hear some of them talk, which they don't) and lost a lot of the meandering thoughts of the narrator.  Also, I didn't like a couple of the major characteristics of the wolves, I feel like it would have been more interesting if she'd tightened up a few things in the mythology and done some other things differently.  On the whole it was extremely enjoyable but the kind of well-crafted world I expect from her was lacking.

Books completed in May:
The Wolf Gift - Anne Rice

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for May - 1
Total for Year 2014 - 21
willow_25: (Default)
Hello all,

My living room is full of boxes!  And it took me over 2 weeks to read one book because I couldn't get engaged with it, so I just fought my way through!  And then I finished a book in a week!

Life is freakin' weird.

Books Read, April 2014:
Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare
Burr - Gore Vidal
Claimed by Shadow - Karen Chance

Total for January - 6
Total for February - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April - 3
Total for Year 2014 - 20
willow_25: (Default)
So, my first April book is finished.  I picked this book up at a book swap, based on the fact that I read some of another series of books by the same author in 2013.  The other series was very derivative, and I had heard this one was better, so when I had the chance to read the first book of the series for free, I took it.  It was somewhat less derivative than the other books, but I found the problems with the author's style I had in the other books even more pronounced in this one.  Mainly, that there is supposed to be a teen romance subplot, yet none of the teenagers seemed to be really into one another.  The narrator/main character especially seemed to neither realize nor care that two boys were mildly interested in her.  The sub plot did more harm than good being there, it was so poorly executed it should have just been removed.

Also, there were a bunch of loose ends and a few plot points that the narrator and the reader knew that no one else did, that later were brought up to other characters very awkwardly.  And then the plot holes...Oh, the plot holes.  At one point a character makes a point about saying that if you have one of these things, then you fit into a certain category of people.  Then another character shows up with one of those things, and it's like suddenly no one knows that previous thing.

On the whole, not worth pursuing the series.  I don't know why I'm going out of my way not to spoil this, I'd bet that anyone on my flist who was interested in reading it had read it last year.

Books Read, April 2014:
Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare

Total for January 2014 - 6
Total for February 2014 - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for April (So far) - 1
Total for Year - 18
willow_25: (Default)
Just a quick note, I trashed the Koontz book and read another Agatha Christie.  Finished it just under the wire, and haven't gotten around to posting until now.

New March book:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Reread) - Agatha Christie

Total for January 2014 - 6
Total for February 2014 - 5
Total for March - 6
Total for Year - 17
willow_25: (Default)
So, hello all.  I finished another book, the aforementioned Dean Koontz book of my last entry.  I have a few friends who are big fans, but I'd never read any of his books before.  At a book swap I had a while back, a friend had a bunch of his books she was giving away before moving, and I mentioned that I hadn't read any.  She chose three for me to read, all set in the same location.

So, I read "Fear Nothing" this week.  I am seriously torn about it.  I have gathered from friends that his books are supposed to be along the lines of Stephen King, kind of creepy and mysterious.  I was not creeped out at all, and I basically knew what was going to happen after the first few pages.  The only thing that was even vaguely surprising was how and why some of the secondary characters acted.

That said, once i got used to the writing style I was fine with it.  Not itching to sit there and finish the whole thing instantly, but interested, anyway.  I'm going to try the sequel, and if it's not better I'm going to give up and move on, and throw these three in the swap pile.

New March book:
Fear Nothing - Dean Koontz

Total for January 2014 - 6
Total for February 2014 - 5
Total for March (So far) - 5
Total for Year - 16
willow_25: (Default)
I read another book.  *Shock and awe*

I like Agatha Christie, rather a lot.  I don't have many of her books, and for some reason I own two that I've never read, from the period when I was buying/borrowing Hercule Poirot books so that I could get through all of them.  So, anyway, I read one of those.  "Funerals are Fatal"  was typically Agatha Christie, in the best way.  That's basically all I'm going to say about it.  It was one of the "Poirot comes out of retirement" books, so there's that.

Next up, I'm going to try one of the Dean Koontz books I got from a book swap in the fall.

New March Book:
Funerals are Fatal - Agatha Christie

Total for January 2014 - 6
Total for February 2014 - 5
Total for March (So far) - 4
Total for Year - 15
willow_25: (Default)
Went to DC last weekend to see the Veronica Mars movie and see some old friends.  It was an awesome weekend, the movie was great, I got a lot of rest and had a lot of fun.  Saw some amazing art at the National Portrait Gallery, and didn't even cry at the Challenger stuff at Air & Space!

Also, I borrowed the sequel to the Karen Chance book I read last week from one of my friends.  Because friends are awesome.
willow_25: (Default)
Hey, I read some new books!  Also, I have things to say about books.

So, I picked up "Touch the Dark" years ago, it was rec'd by someone on LJ, I forget if they had read and liked it, or if they knew the author.  Either way, I finally finished it.  I'd read the first couple of pages years ago, but I wasn't engaged at all so I put the book down.  This time I was also not particularly engaged at first, but I pushed through.  On the whole I enjoyed the book, but it had significant issues, such as:
SERIOUSLY, you were raised by vampires, and you don't recognize when your roommate is a vampire?

Every famous person WAS NOT made into a vampire.  I could have bought Cleopatra, or the Man in the Iron Mask...But by the time we got to Kit Marlowe and Jack the Ripper, I'd had about enough.  The story would have been enhanced about 330% by renaming all of the characters whose back stories were not germane to the plot.  Rasputin (yes, Rasputin was also a vampire.  Also Dracula's brothers) I could have understood, there's that whole legend about him surviving being killed 5 or 6 times before he actually died, I could get vampire from that.  But, really, WHY would Raphael have been a vampire?  Also, what was the point of bringing that up?

If I had magical powers, and my 'guardian' had told me my whole life that it wasn't safe for me to experiment with them, and then I learned that he'd killed my parents, the FIRST thing I would have done when I ran away was learn about my powers. If only to find out if I could use them to protect myself.

Despite all of that, it was well written, and had some interesting mythology.  After I'm off book purchasing restriction in June, I may get the sequel.  Maybe just from the library, though.

The Vintage Bradbury, I got at a book swap from a friend, and I really enjoyed reading it, even the stories I have in other books or that I've read before.  That's about all I have to say about that.  Bradbury has that very distinctive style, so regardless of whether it's a story from Dandelion Wine or The Martian chronicles, you can tell whose it is.

New March 2014 Books:
Touch the Dark - Karen Chance
The Vintage Bradbury (Short Stories) - Ray Bradbury

Total for January 2014 - 6
Total for February 2014 - 5
Total for March (So far) - 3
Total for Year - 14

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