Sunday 4 March 2012

Cosmic Child [LIFE?]

So I was reading through Immie/Clare's blog and she talked about all the reading she's been doing lately. So I thought I would talk a little about the books I've picked up recently, a little about them and what I thought of them and that'll be that. Nothing too long I would think haha. I've been buying a lot of books second hand because I love second hand shops. The books are always left with this intriguing, musky smell.


These are the books I've either read or I am currently reading at the moment bar 2 - 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green which I've actually given to a friend to read and my collection of Bachman Books which is under my pillow since I'm ploughing through it right now. I will be talking about these as well however. Onwards!
The first book I'll talk about is The Fault in Our Stars. I was very curious about this book given that Clare was raving about it on twitter amongst a few others. I had recently gotten into the vlogbrothers and John would be my favourite of the two (sssh, don't tell). I really enjoyed this book. I want to try and saty away talking about the plot and characters too much - I don't want to give away any spoilers of any kind! I really enjoyed, however, the humanity of the piece but also the lead character shared my name. That's always a plus. I wasn't able to get a signed copy but I will be trawling the bookshops to get one! (Actually, I think Walmart has some signed...). Prepare to cry, a lot. Rating: ★★★★★

The second book I'll talk about is the Bachman books. I got these at a second hand shop and they smell delicious! In this collection are four 'Bachman' books i.e. books Stephen King wrote under another pen name for a little experiment. There is even an explanation at the start 'Why I was Bachman.' So far I've completed Rage and the Long Walk, starting The Running Man last night (I kind of skipped over Roadwork... only because I'm dying to read The Running Man). Rage and The Long Walk are typical Stephen King fares and very enjoyable to read since they're not so long. Rage is about how a show-and-tell session at High school takes a nightmare twist and The Long Walk is about this group of 100 who just... walk across state. The last one to keep walking wins the Prize. If you haven't had a chance to read any of the Bachman books I'd do it! In the past I've also read Thinner, which is another awesome one. Rating: ★★★★☆ (Rage) / ★★★★★ (Long Walk)

Now I'll go on to talk about the books I've read and then the books I'm in the middle of reading.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This was a book that Kate gave to me to read. She was shocked I hadn't read it before since we had been talking about the movie coming out soon. I truly enjoyed this book. At first I was a little wary, especially about the character of Charlie who is writing the letters. I kind of wanted to know who he was writing to and how much of it was real. Overall, it's a book you can easily finish in a few settings. It took me a few days to read since I was reading it before I was sleeping at night and was only managing 10 pages a night. Once I had a free day it was easy to fly through it. I would have to say now, I can not agree with the cast choices for the movie and wish it was being done as an Indie movie. Rating: ★★★★☆

Rosemary's Baby. I have seen the movie and I was curious how close it strayed to the actual book. This was one that was so easy to get into and was one of those real page turners. Sometimes I get distracted while reading a book and just want to read the end and throw it to the side. This was not the case for Rosemary's Baby. Plus, I love horror! If you're not into the supernatural, put this book to the side. Ira Levin does a wonderful job of building up the cast of characters and making you want to doubt everyone! The ending is fantastic and reading it is satisfying. Rating: ★★★★½☆

Murder in Amityville. I was excited to read this book and it's a factual book, so there isn't much made up here. I really enjoyed it until I hit the court cases? And then it was monotonous script to read through from then on and it just draggggged on. I liked learning about the Amityville murder that took place but I wish it had been in a more... easy to digest format I guess? Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The Haunted. God, reading this book was freaky. Every night when I would try to power through it I was feel ill or start to hear weird noises. Freaky right? Despite this, I continued reading. This is a 'true' tale of what happened to one family who lived in a haunted house. I was really with the family and felt sorry for them the whole way throughout. I do believe in supernatural stuff so it was certainly a fascinating book to read. This took me longer than usual to read due to how terrible I felt while reading it... Rating: ★★★★½☆


Now I'll talk about the books I've started to read or about to read. I've already touched on the Running Man so I'll leave it for now.



Papillion. I dropped this book in favour for Perks of Being a Wallflower and Bachman Books but I'll be picking it up again. So far, what I've read, is truly fascinating. I spotted this book and immediately thought of the character Seungho was portraying for MBLAQ'a Mona Lisa album. I wanted to know more. And people think Kpop doesn't educate us! I really love listening to the tale that Papillion has to tell and can't wait to finish it! I think everyone should pick up this book and learn about the life of the infamous criminal! Speculative Rating: ★★★★☆



Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This is a book I've picked up time and time again and I have yet to finish it. Don't get me wrong, I love this book. I'm just carefully picking my way through it. The action is a little on the slow side but I'm close to being done. I suspect that if I picked it up today I'd have it finished in no time... Maybe I should do that? I have been enjoying the ride, currently they're on a ship under the earth on a giant ocean. Go imagination! Speculative Rating: ★★★★☆



11/22/63. The latest Stephen King book. The only reason I'm taking so long to power through it is because it happens to be a rather large hardback (I was too impatient to wait for the paperback version...) and it's difficult to read in bed. I will be picking this up again once the Bachman books are over and done with. I've just gotten to the point where he has 'crossed through' into the past. Fascinating stuff. Stephen King has a gift for weaving these worlds. Speculative Rating: ★★★★★



The only book shown or mentioned that I haven't touched yet is Wuthering Heights. Marie convinced me to get it and it only cost $1 so I thought, why not. I've been curious about this book for a while though and it'll be nice to finally have it under my belt.



Thus, concluding my talk about books. Have you read any of the books I've mentioned? If so, what did you think? Also, do you have any books you could recommend for me to read? Comment below, I do love a good chinwag.

No comments:

Post a Comment