50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Thread four of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2016, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

First thread of 2016 is here, second thread here and third thread here.

How're you getting on so far?

I think he's not as simple as that, and it lets him off the hook somewhat. He is not, we are to suppose, completely blundering or revolting. He is not socially incapable. For instance, James Mason's portrayal is of an elegant, educated man with dark impulses. Also, he does to an extent, charm Lolita and her mother, the authorities, various people later on as he largely successfully perpetrates the lie of their relationship.

That is not to say he is a master manipulator either; rather he acts impulsively, and manipulates as the need arises. He is selfish, desperate, without empathy, and yes, bungling at times, but where he acts foolishly it is as a result of everything, including his intelligence, being called into the service of, or being subsumed by, his obsession. Which happens to be Dolores Haze, but is really the idea he calls 'Lolita'; and he is imprisoned by it.

Thanks for info on the Paperwhite. I'm in confusion, and I am resistant to change so it might be my Keyboard breaking which is the decider. Though it is five years old and hasn't had a problem yet. I can't help feeling I would prefer the Voyage for page turning but seems too expensive really. I read on the app on the IPad in the dark and find it annoying turning pages and strains my eyes, but it works enough to not force my hand as yet. Hmm.

Satsuki, I love my Paperwhite and don't mind it not having buttons. It doesn't get dirty either and I love the way I can share books with DP and my DD. I couldn't find it the other day and massively panicked. I felt The Fear.

Cote, my kindle got really slow so I did a complete reboot and it went back to normal.
And also Cote, I noticed they have Anatham as an ebook to borrow from my library but it is 1008 pages long! He's an author you mention a lot so I thought I would have a look, but 1008 pages. That's a lot of pages. A LOT of pages.

Ooh I know that Fear of not being able to find my Kindle! DH knows it too, in his own way - if I can't find it before bed, I don't let him sleep either until we have found it

This is one gadget that I get a lot of use out of, so might eventually be tempted to get the new one. The only possession I use more of are my contact lenses, and those I change every month.

Anathem is outstanding. Yes, it is very long. Fantastic worldbuilding and also very brainhurty

Satsuki Yes to all of that!

I have 15% left of the spy crap. Reviews say the final hunt is brilliant - I hope so because the rest has been horrifically bad. And none of you lot care. At All. Places hands on hips and stares defiantly at you all discussing sexy new Kindles.

Remus I care because I bought that book too I did enjoy one of his earlier this year, so I know I won't hate his style (quite as much as you clearly do). And by the time it's got to the top of my reading list I will have forgotten how much you hated it.

Sorry remus - Erm, "there, there"?

If it makes you feel better my Kindle is currently deeply unsexy. It has a picture of Jules Verne on the screen. Has Jeremy Irons ever written anything of note?

I think I might be starting to covet a Paperwhite. That is just like me to take a tentative step to the one everyone else has already got when an even better one comes out.

I'm going to finish the damn thing if it kills me, but I won't be reading another one of his. I should have known better - I read the first few pages in Waitrose and thought it was clunky; should have paid attention to my first instincts.

Yup, totally don't care Remus

Just kidding! Line something really fun up to read next. Cote recommends Anatham, and at over 1000 pages, what's not to like?

Aw Remus

It's so tough trying to find the brilliant bargain still waiting patiently for Sevenses to come down

Satsuki, go for it, I had a keyboard and I much prefer the paperwhite. I don't care about the button page turning though, just not an issue for me. Love the lit screen though. LOVE it

Anathem vg. I recommend too. There's is a lot of made up language though. Download a sample and see how it works for you. I found you get into it but it does mean you have to focus quite tightly on it.

I may never trust Cote again.

I couldn't live without the lit screen now. I've been reading a few library books lately and have to have a kindle book on the go for early hours/insomniac reading. I only find the screen gets dirty if I'm eating crisps while reading

I've got Anathem on my Kindle. Bit intimidated by its length. I read Reamde at the end of last year and thought it could have done with some serious editing.

29. On Beulah Heights - Reginald Hill. This is a detective book in the Dalziel and Pascoe series. 3 girls disappeared 15 years ago during a very hot summer, in a valley that was about to be flooded to make a reservoir. No bodies were found and no-one was arrested. It's another hot summer, water levels at the reservoir are falling and another girl has gone missing. Great book, I think Reginald Hill is one of my favourite crime authors for his mix of comedy and literary allusions, along with a satisfying story.

You know I'm starting to wonder if the page turning would really be an issue for me, or if it's just an idea I've got in my head. It's my imp of the perverse stopping me having nice things yes I realise I sound deranged

I picked up Anathem when it was 99p ages ago and somehow it never seems quite the right time to begin it. Its hour will come, good to hear it's recommended.

Poor Remus I would care if not for the fact that we have been down this road many times before and I'm now used to you hating novels I have enjoyed.

Charles Cumming doesn't write sublime prose or even literature, but his books are good, solid, realistic spy stories that take place in the 21st Century. Unlike Le Carré, for example, who doesn't seem to have heard of data mining, cyber terrorism, or even email.

"I may never trust Cote again."

When have you ever?

I think your recent appreciation of Red Rising and The Janissary Tree may have lulled us both into a false sense of security. Let's remember that we almost never like the same fiction books

Anathem is brilliant but it's not quite what I would call "fun" and I really wouldn't recommend it to someone who has not appreciated the problem-solving, sciency side of The Martian.

His writing is so boring though - even when terribly exciting things are happening, it's like reading paint dry. :)

I did read one good phrase tonight though (before I gave up in disgust again a few lines later) - 'An old man with a corrugated nose' - about the only sentence that has made me think he actually might have read a book or two in his life, in the entire novel.

Anathem deffo doesn't sound like I'd like it. I may re-read some Nabokov instead (waves wooden spoon). I'd like to read some more of the 'Janissary' series at some point too, but they don't seem to ever come down price-wise.

"Has Jeremy Irons ever written anything of note? "

Wouldn't that be great?

Next best might be films like Damage and Dead Ringers where he is not young but still incredibly fit and sexy. There was also a Die Hard movie where he was the sexy villain. There was a sex scene iirc.

"might have read a book or two in his life, in the entire novel."

Don't care. He is barely 40 & was recruited into MI5 (6?) in the not-so-distant past so knows what he's talking about re intelligence business in the 21st Century. That's more than I'll ever get from Le Carré et al.

Hmmm. Perhaps he should have stayed there, instead of wasting his time writing crap.

I've just finished it in the bath. I now feel like I need another bath to cleanse myself of it.

Book 46
A Colder War by Charles Cumming
Dreadful. Boring. Clunky. Dull characters, written about in spectacularly dull prose. Predictable rubbish. I’d sooner read a trainspotter’s notebook than read another of Cummings’ novels.

I didn't have a modicum of sympathy for a single character in it (actually, I lie - there was one: he was in it for about a page and a half before being blown up). This was another book that felt as if it was written by a spotty teenage boy with inch-thick glasses, who has wet dreams about Lara Croft and wishes he was James Bond whilst writing lists about who he'd like to kill (good looking boys) and who he'd like to screw (good looking girls).

I detested this book. I'm going to go and soak myself in bleach now.

6. Seizure - Kathy Reichs 2nd in her YA series. The virals (4 kids and a wolfdog with altered DNA) find out that the island they live on and the island their parents work on are to be closed. Desperate to stay together they go in search of the bounty of a female Pirate. Along the way they come up against others out for the prize and of course deal with teenage issues.

I found this book much better than first in series and if you're able to see past the supernatural powers and they way these kids seem to end up with adults trying to kill them in every book they are good thrillers. Only complaints are ones i'd make about the Temperance Brennan series.

Not sure about book 7 either shakespeare by Bill Bryson or Code by Kathy Reichs.

If only it could have been YA, right? I love your rants, Remus

Shakespeare is okay only imho. If you know much about him already, you probably won't learn an awful lot from it.