Stacie's comments (member since Mar 05, 2009)

Stacie's comments from the 75 Books group.

96. Ill Wind- Rachel Caine (A fast, fun read. I'm really enjoying the world and magic system Cain is setting up.)

95. Wi'tch Fire- James Clemens (Despite the gratuitous use of apostrophes and a very weak attempt to create a dialect for his og're I enjoyed this one. It was a fast read and his characters were interesting. Granted they follow the typical fantasy 'party' make up familiar to anyone who has ever played or read D&D- warrior, barbarian, thief, druid, ranger, sage, mage/cleric- but it was still fun and the take on magic was interesting. There are several more in the series and I expect I'll pick up at least one more and see how it progresses.)

93. The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In- Charles Dickens (I'm discovering that Charles Dickens is not a good author to read when you're a kid- his prose is too intricate, and without an understanding of the history/ social conditions he addresses the stories and characters are so alien that they are very hard to identify with. Coming at them from an adult perspective, with a much better understanding of the framework his works are set in I'm finding that I like them very, very much. Well, some of them anyway.)

94. A Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home- Charles Dickens (This is not one of the Dickens' stories that got better with time. I did love the passage at the beginning describing the 'contest' between the cricket and the teakettle, but the rest of it... it was the worst kind of smarmy Victorian melodramatic romance.)

Kay wrote: "As we wind up this year's challenge and head towards 2010, what suggestions do you have for Andrea and me to make this group even better?"

I don't really think this group needs to change anything. I love that it's such a personal goal- no set readings, no pressure to 'keep up' with the group, and it's great getting to see what everyone else is reading (I've added a ton of books to my 'want to read' list that I'd never even heard of until I saw them here!). That said, there have been a few times where something was recommended by one of the members but, silly me, I forgot to make a note at the time and then had trouble finding the post again...

How about a section for recommendations, maybe organized by genre? That way if someone is in the mood for a certain type of book it would be easy to check and see if any of the other members had come across anything particularly good recently.

92. A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas- Charles Dickens (I realize most people only know this by it's shortened title, and I'm not trying to be a literature snob here, but if more people were mindful of the full and correct title then perhaps they wouldn't be surprised when their six year olds start screaming in the movie theatre when Marley's jaw drops off... or at least they might expect it and take said screaming six year olds out until they are no longer traumatized. Grr... Anyway... I've finally gotten to where I enjoy this book. This is one of those stories that schools love making required reading- 7th grade, 10th grade and college Freshman Lit courses in my case. Unfortunately, my teachers all had an incredible talent for sucking all the wry humor and enjoyment out of it. It's a good thing I'll listen to anything narrated by Jim Dale- it was his audio version that convinced me to give it another try and I'm glad I did!)

144 books in a year... thats 12 books a month... 3 books a week... that's almost 1 book every 2 days! =8-o I covet that achievement! That would be awesome- I probably won't even break 100 this year.

Andrea wrote: "30 days...22 books? Hmmmm prob not...lol"

There was an article in the Washington Post a couple of years ago that stated that 1 in every 4 adults read NO books... and that for those that did read, the average number was less than 10. Feel better about your yearly total? ;)

53 books in a year is nothing to shake a stick at... that's more than 1 a week. On top of school/work/life in general!

91. Under The Dome- Stephen King (A disappointing effort from an author I adore. He switches between past and present tenses, apparently for no other reason than that he can, and there is one gratuitous and self-indulgent segment where he switches to an omniscient narrator... completely breaks the flow and tension of the narrative. The premise itself is interesting- very Lord of the Flies- but the execution is mediocre, which disappointed me because King is a much better writer than that. Or at least he can be.)

Jacob wrote: "75) Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón

Hey look, I made it."

Yay! :)

Michele wrote: "12 books left to read by the end of the year. Can I do it? I'm in the middle of reading Stephen Kings new one, that won't help me get there. lol ..."

I know what you mean... I had a vague hope of maybe hitting 100 this year- I'm only about 10 away- but then I started Under the Dome (1,000+ pages) and I think that goal is shot all to pieces!

Kay wrote: "LOL on wanting to throttle every character! I can related with some of the books I've read. Do you ever wonder why you keep reading when you find a book is like that?"

Well, I keep hoping that it will get better! You know, that perhaps the author is using a wonderful device called a character arc (for example, while reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, who did not want to take that surly, angsty teen-aged boy by the robes and shake until his teeth rattled?) Plus, sometimes the really annoying people get blown up in truly spectacular fashion. What can I say? I guess I'm an optimist ;)

90. The Secret Country- Pamela Dean (This was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, and several scenes and ideas from the book have stayed with me throughout the years so when I found a used copy of the book I had to snap it up. Sadly, this did not live up to a reread. The concept is still interesting and there are things about it that I liked, but the execution is clumsy and the dialog is awful. Oh, and I wanted to throttle every single character.)

89. Coyote- Allen Steel (Despite some technical flaws in the writing- the author makes some errors with his use of tenses and uses the wrong character names a time or two- I really enjoyed this story. But then I've always had a soft spot for colonization/pioneer sci-fi.)

88. Alpha Beta: How 26 Letters Shaped the Western World- John Man (There were a couple of times where the technical linguistic terms lost me (right around chapter four, which was a little daunting) but for the most part this was well written and straightforward. There is a lot of 'non-alphabet' history covered for a book nominally about alphabets, but it is interesting and held my attention all the way through. With the exception of a few pages at the start of chapter four there was nothing that put this out of the depth of a layman reader.)

Just my two cents: you should definitely count your audiobooks towards your goal. An audiobook is the same work as the written version (provided it's not abridged). It takes as much critical thinking to follow an audio format as it does to follow a written one, and at an average of 8 hours (or more!) apiece that's pretty significant investment of you time and mental energy. :)

87. Skeleton Crew- Stephen King (I really enjoyed (most of) the stories in this collection. I've seen most of the (really bad) movies based off of some of the stories included but, as usual, "the book is better"!)

86. The Lost Symbol- Dan Brown (I'm embarrassed to admit I paid money for this. I've read the other Langdon books and enjoyed them, and it looked like- once I got past the clumsy first few chapters- I was going to have fun with this one too. And to be truthful, I was enjoying myself... right up until he started to reveal the story's big 'mysteries'. Then I was just embarrassed for Brown. The last ten chapters or so are painfully cringe-worthy.)

85. The Mist- Stephen King (I had seen the movie, which I enjoyed, but never read the book... novella... whatever- at 230 pages I'm going to count it as a book- and decided that Halloweentime was a perfect time to remedy that. As if I ever need an excuse to read King :D I really like the way he uses description.)

83. Odd and the Frost Giants- Neil Gaiman (This was... cute. It was quick and easy, more for young children and without the wider appeal of some of his other children's works... say, Coraline, which is an absolute favorite of mine. I listened to the audiobook version and I love Gaiman as a narrator... at least of his own works- I don't think I'd like him reading someone else's stories though. The point of this rather disjointed ramble is that it was an enjoyable listen, but not something I'd classify as a 'run-out-and-buy-this-book-NOW' kind of story. Not bad, just a little underwhelming.)

84. Coraline- Neil Gaiman (My reaction to Odd made me want to revisit one of his stronger stories. Coraline is one of my favorites, and much better IMO than Odd and the Frost Giants. They both have a surreal feeling, but Coraline is also creepy... perfect for Halloween :) Other Mother and Other Father are as creepy as any traditional monsters!)

Jackie wrote: "50. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I started audioing this one like the others, but I had to stop. My heart just couldn’t take it. "

Actually, this is the only book of the series I don't listen to on audio. Well, often anyway ;p Jim Dale had very distinct voices for all the characters, and he kept them consistent throughout the entire series... except for the last one. I don't know if it was because there was a longer span of time between this one and the others or what, but the change in character voices drives me nuts. It's not as bad if you don't listen to them back to back (which is, of course, my preferred method of reading the series!) I guess, but I've listened to the others enough to be really distracted by the changes.