About once a year, I bore everyone with cryptic critiques of books, that really only make sense if you have actually read the book. And apparently I do not plan to learn from my errors. Here I go again.
Some very disjointed thoughts on books:
I don't know how I would have lived in a time without books. Or, in a time when I, as a girl, wouldn't know how to read. Or, in at time, where I as a regular person, wouldn't know how to read. I simply cannot fathom what life would be like without my adventures. I feel truly blessed to live now.
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I look to be entertained by literature. Sure, occasionally it is nice to learn something. But, if it comes down to it, I am not reading textbooks every day. I read for pleasure. And if a book entertains me, then I am satisfied. I may get through all the meaning and layers in one read. Or it may take me several explorations of a text. Either way, I am pretty easy to entertain.
Which is why I was shocked and disappointed the other day, when I read one of my new books from Christmas. It was terrible. Not just in, "Wow, this really could use a stiff edit," but as in, "Wow, this really, really needs a stiff edit, and the content is horrendous. Who are these people? And why are they all horrible?"
Now don't get me wrong. The best stories are the ones with the greatest antagonists. The naughtiest villains. But, what if everyone in the story is being set up as a good person and they are not. They are hollow and lack humanity and purpose. Instead they just screech at each other. This book was a lot of screeching. Uggghhhh. I still shiver from it. It had a great cover. It had a great premise. It had great reviews on Amazon. In fact there was only one review that got to the heart of the problem with the book. One. This author must have had a lot of friends that owed her favors in the form of good reviews about awful content.
So I threw the book out in the trash. Yep. That treatment is reserved for the very worst of the book world and I only do that about once a year. If a book is alright but not to my taste, or alright but I plumbed the layers in one good read, then I donate it to the library bookstore. But not this book. This book was terrible, horrible, and awful. Blech. Off it went. I sure hope the recycling people don't try to salvage it. I put it where it belongs.
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I got Four a set of books for Christmas. Well several sets but this particular series has captivated him beyond measure. He is absolutely addicted to the Michael Vey series. He read three books (with fairly small print) in a week. He is nine. And he is now an addict. He talks about the books constantly. He pines for the next book in the series to be released. He watches the book trailers online. He creates special data tables to sort the information he has learned so far.
I bought the books because I heard that they were good and interesting. But I am very pleased to see how much fun Four has had with them. He insists on me reading them and often has to say, "Oops, I almost gave you a spoiler there." So it looks like I will be reading the Michael Vey series. Yep. I am going to follow that kid down the rabbit hole.
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In other news, Three has finally finished the Harry Potter series. Took about a year. He is a much slower reader than Four. I am very proud of him. He is now on to Hunger Games.
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On my kindle, I have many books. While I just got a kindle for Christmas, I have used a kindle on my phone and Husband's ipad for a little while. So I have a small library amassed. I put them into collections to keep straight what I had read, what I wanted to read, what categories they belonged in, and so on.
I had so many for one category that I had to break in in two. I named the first Regency A and the second Regency B. All the new ones and all the ones that I felt were worthy of a second read went into the A folder. All the ones that I had read and would not read again, for whatever reason, went into the B folder. I didn't want to delete them because I read so much and I want to make sure I don't accidentally buy the same thing twice. So those books go in the B folder for informational reasons. There was one book that I hadn't read but it had been in my kindle so long that I thought there must have been a reason that I had never read it. It was 2% read which means I had started it at some point and given up. I put it in B and vowed to tackle it at some point.
Well...I don't like unfinished business, so shortly after I made this declaration, I resolved to read the book and really determine where it ought to go. Five minutes into the book and I was hooked. It wasn't perfect and perhaps because I had such low expectations, it was easy to fall under the trance of the story, but fall I did.
It was what I expected Friends and Foes to be more like. The spy in that story fell flat and insufficiently clever for me.
But, this spy was great. He was much more like The Scarlet Pimpernel. And if you know that Five was almost named Percival because I like the Scarlet Pimpernel so much, you would know what a compliment that is. On a side note, Five was not named Percival which turned out to be a good thing as he is a rather feisty kid and I would have always blamed myself for the name. Instead he was named for the Pimpernel's stalwart and trusty friend.
But, I have gotten off track. After reading the book I realized there was a sequel. I jumped right in. Both were moved to the A folder. Then I found other books by the same author and read one. Equally delightful. Not at all the tack I would have taken, but she had me convinced at the end.
So I fell in love with Anna Elliott's writing. And I loved her spy books and I am hooked on her take on Georgiana. I would have bought the second book in the series but I am waiting for the kindle price to fall. I am not paying $5.49 for a digital book. See. I have some self control. But when the price drops, I will happily fall back into the world Anna Elliott has created.
So what have we learned? Don't judge a book by it's cover. There is a beautiful book sitting in my recycle bin right now with a great cover. And try out a variety of books because you never know what treasures you might uncover.
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And all three boys threw fits at different times in the last week because I told them to stop reading and go to bed. I couldn't be more pleased. I am creating my own little army of book addicts.
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And since we live in a beautiful world, I have several books that I am looking forward to. I never know if they are going to be any good but I love the feeling of anticipation.
I am looking forward to:
I am huge fan of Sarah Eden and I am very excited that she has a new release. Some of my favorites from her are The Kiss of a Stranger and Seeking Persephone.
I really enjoy the timeless anthology series. Each anthology is released every couple of months with a theme. There are the: Winter Collection, Spring Vacation Collection, Summer Wedding Collection, Autumn Collection, European Collection, and the newest...the Love Letter Collection.
Autumn is my least favorite. I think I was hoping for more thrill and less mystery. But the Winter Collection and Summer Wedding are great, with everything else falling into entertaining and enjoyable.
I read to be entertained, remember? And these collections are filled with great short stories. Perfect for when I need a little jolt of fun without having the time for a full adventure. The newest collection will be out in February. Yippee!
I love much of what Diane Darcy writes. It is quirky, clean, and adventuresome. Easy to read and keeps me entertained. There's that word again. Plus this character will apparently have red hair. How can this go wrong?
The first book in this series The False Prince is probably on my top ten books of all time list. The second book was decent and I have high hopes for the third and last installment of the series. I'm looking forward to a great end, Jennifer Nielsen.
I really enjoyed the first book in this series by Kiera Cass. The second fell a little flat as I expected more depth and intrigue about the surrounding world. I have hopes for the third and last book in this series but I have altered my expectations so I am not disappointed if this ends up existing on fluff. Fluff is still enjoyable and has a place in my reading schedule. But, a girl cannot live on fluff alone.
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And these are my current and very chaotic thoughts on literature.
So many adventures...so many journeys.
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