100 Books - April

[xenith]

April got off to a good start and by the time the middle of the month came around, I'd read... 1 book. Oh noes!


The Sharing Knife Volume One: Beguilement, Lois McMaster Bujold

Here we have a naive girl of about 18 who has just left home & family & all she knows behind, and she meets up with a much older, experience but jaded man and they-- Didn't I read this a couple of months ago? Of course, unlike the other book which shall rmain nameless, this time around there's not page after page of misadventures whose only point seems to be to visit every point on the bloody map, told with too many words and the wrong ones at that. This world feels much realler & the characters are much easier to get involved with. Unfortunately, the storyline is quite straightforward. The second half of the book goes in a predictable direction and even the developing relationship loses something once it's obvious where its going.

It's a nice read, but from the set-up, I was hoping for something more. Maybe in the next book

I looked hopefully at the two half-read books sitting beside my bed but they didn't change into read books. But, not to worry! I have an overnight trip to Hobart during the week and I always get reading done.

This time it was:

The Looking-glass War, John LeCarré

The end was suprising.

Not the way it ended. From page count their operation was going to be cut shot. Nor the reasons for it. Something was obviously going on, it was just a matter of who. It was the emotional kick at the end that I wasn't expecting.

I have a bunch of Le Carre books to resell so I thought I might give one a read. I picked the shortest one. A look at the contents page, shows the book is divided into three parts, each one for a different characters. The first bit is short, a little over a dozen, a prologue. Then we follow another character around for a while. Then, almost half way through, a new player turns on up the stage and carries on the story. I don't want to start following a new character half-way through the book. I don't care about this new character, OK? I'm sure I have something else to read. Although I've only read one book this month and I am almost half way through.

It's not that bad really -- it's the same characters, with an extra couple thrown in. Then somewhere along the line I started to care about them, because when I got to end, I didn't want it end. Not like that :(

The plot is thin. It's more a story about people, and they way they are protrated is obviously effective. I'm considering reading some more of his books, but not if they have downer endings

I am noting a tendency to choose books based on length. Something a bit longer then, for the weekend trip to Hobart

Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb Apr 20

I've had the second in this series for years but put off getting the first. Why I rathered enjoyed reading the Liveships books, the handling of the storyline/s and character development left me every dissatisfied and reluctant to read anything else by the author

If I'd known this book was a first person account of the narrator growing up, I would never have picked it up even if it was just $2 at a book fair.

But this is just the sort of fantasy I used to love, and obviously still do. I kept getting lost in it, even though I was supposed to watching our table at the gun show or sister's kids were arguing around me. That's why it gets a 5.

Maybe it's because the narrative voice comes across so strongly that any faults in the storytelling seem right, because that's how someone would recount it. There's the odd place where it doesn't work, where the memories of boyhood seem unusually detailed or the jumping of events a little too convenient.

The world being presented was maybe a little too familiar (not that far from generic fantasy) but I do like the way it was presented through the narrator's experiences, which made it and the people who live in it quite real enough thank you.

10 days to days to go, and 5 more to read. There are those two partly read ones though. Maybe something quick and fun next while I'm running back and forth.

Thieves' World 05: Face of Chaos, Robert Lynn Asprin

Now there's 6 days to go and 4 books to read. No way.

Although there's two partly read and if I find a couple of shorter books, like the one for Evil Editor's Book Chat.

Homicide My Owen, Anne Argula

It's 219 pages. It took me 219 minutes to read, although that includes the time in which I spilt just made tea over myself, the bed and my spicy peanuts, so I have to strip myself, the bed and the peanuts, and recover them all, except the peanuts which I ate.

It's a fast read, and I had enough time left over that evening to read the last few chapters of

The Thirteen Problems, Agatha Christie

4 days to go, 2 books. Easy, especially as I'm halfway through

The Thirteen-Gun Salute, Patrick O'Brian

Unfortunately, I found it so slow, it took me, um, 3 days to read. So that left one day left for the remaining book. So I cheated and went for another fun read

Thieves' World 06: Wings of Omen, Robert Lynn Asprin

and somewhere around 1 am, I finished the 8th book for the month.

I can read 7 books in half a month, why can't I do that in the first part of the month? *sigh*

Totals: 8 books for April, 33 for the year