Katharine's comments (member since Apr 01, 2008)

Katharine's comments from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.

I am almost finished with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it was a lot shorter than I expected but I have really enjoyed reading it.

I have a problem with funny books, i just don't seem to find them funny. I think I must read things too literally and I completely miss the joke. Don't get me wrong, I love comedy and own so many comedy DVDs but I find that reading it just doesn't seem to work for me. Strange!
I haven't been able to get a copy of this book from the library so I am out of this months discussion, but I will be interested to see how others rate it, and whether it does turn out to be particularly funny!

Lyn I agree, the story was too short! But then that seems to reflect how Holly affects the people she meets, a fleeting acquaintance that leaves a lasting impression.
The website I was looking at was a link from wikipedia, I've copied it below:

http://www.gradesaver.com/breakfast-at-t...

The insinuations of their sexuality seemed so slight to me that I had to go back and check they were really there! The first description of Joe as a barman ewho watches the baseball and then turned around and aranges some flowers. Also at the party in Holly's flat he (narrator) is looking at her bookshelf and didn't like any of her books as they were concerned with either baseball and horses, she informs him that they are the main interests of men and if they don't like either then they aren't any good to her because they don't like women.

The point made about their sexuality was that both Joe and the narrator love Holly but don't feel sexually attracted to her, compared to the other men she meets that are, but who don't love her.

I really liked this book, so nice to have something fairly 'light' after tha past few. I thought Holly was a likeable character, but I did struggle to distance Holly from the book and Holly from the film version. The film was a more sympathetic portrayal of a flawed character, and Audrey Hepburn (who I think was perfect in the role) is someone who is difficult not to love. The book's Holly is a darker character, and someone who seems both lost and ruthless in her pursuit of rich older men.
INterstingly, I looked up a bit on th einterpretation of this book and was surprised that the novel insinuates that both the Narrator and the barman Joe Bell were gay! I have to say that I missed this completely, probably because the film makes it into a love story between them. Did anyone else pick up on this?

What did people think of the contrasts between the book and the film?

I'm not sure if anyone has heard of this website but you can download previews of lots of different books to see if you like the writing style before you buy them, might be useful for some of the ones on the list!
Its www.lovereading.co.uk

Hope someone finds it helpful :)

I thought this book was interesting but did find it hard work at times. Like Mara, I did have to re-read some parts just to figure out what was going on. On the whole I liked it though. I found Naomi and her mother a strange pair. The face that young ladies were sent there by their mothers to be educated in terms of society and yet she (Mme Fisher) seemed like such a poisonous person, delighting in the failings and broken hearts of the people she is meant to be helping. Naomi was completely under her control to the extent that she could barely leave the house towards the end, Mme Fisher was definately an oppressive presence in the house.
I am not sure about Nikki's question. Initially you think that he is acting out of compassion for Leopold, and perhaps that is his intention and yet when he gets there he finds himself disliking him so much as to nearly change his mind! I thought that in the end he was taking Leopold to make him feel that he had control over the situation and so that it made him appear as though he was prepared to move on from the betrayal which had dogged their marriage. It seemed that Karen couldn't contemplate having Leopold with them, and the thought of seeing him made her ill so he wasn't doing it for her. When I closed the book I was left thinking 'I hope they're nice to him, it's not his fault'!

I'm about 3 chapters into Little Women and so far its great, very easy to read and looks like it will be a quick one too! Then I have the House in Paris to read, I got it on request from the library and it's a lovely special edition from 1949, can't wait to get it started.

I saw this on the BBC website today and couldn't resist posting a link!

'Ghost Peaks' mapped under ice
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7908...

I finished the story a while ago, and I did enjoy it though I felt it dragged in some parts. Some of the suspense built up was brilliant, especially when they were meant to be heading to the camp and suddenly lost contact with the others.

I have been reading a couple of his other stories, as this one was part of an anthology. The second story I read "the Case of Charles Dexter Ward" was very different, and I have to say I enjoyed it more. It was very mysterious and based around a man delving into the past of his ancestor, whom he discovers was a demonologist. I think I preferred this as I found the human aspect of Mountains more intense and interesting than the monsters, especially when they went into the city and discovered their history, to be honest I scanned a lot of this as it didn't interest me at all!

Another of the stories centres around a man who has strange dreams when lodging in a room formerly occupied by a witch (so perhaps not for those of you who have been having strange dreams from Mountains!)
I haven't finished this yet but I am finding it just as intense, so I would encourage people that didn't really love Mountains to try some of his other short stories, there is much enjoyment to be had!

Having just finished At The Mountains Of Madness, I am reading the rest of the HP Lovecraft anthology that I got out of the library (not on the list but worth a read!) I am about halfway through The Case of Charles Dexter Ward at the moment and I am liking it much more than Mountains so far.

How is it going so far for people? I am finding it hard not to pick up the remote as a reflex of sitting on the sofa but its not been too bad so far!

I finished In COld Blood last weekend, I really enjoyed it. I found it really gripping even though the outcome was known from the start

I have started Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Hardy. Read about 30 pages so far and really liking it

The funniest one is Where's Wally! I mean how many kids would notice a tiny cartoon of a woman with no top on, surely the target age group are far too preoccupied with where wally is!
I have to say that I read some of these when I was a child, I love Roald Dahl books. It seems sad that adults want to starve childrens imaginations by not letting them read anything with any negative references, as if the slightest mention of something such as homosexuality is going make them gay! The people that ban books are just ignorant of the positive affect they can have.

I am giving up with it! I just really can't get into it and am not enjoying it at all so I have decided to call it a day. I do hate not finishing a book but I find I am creating excuses not to read, which is so pointless! I will be interested to read everyones views of it.

I agree with that, I think that some of the violent scenes were hard to follow because of the slang included in the descriptions so I didn't find it as horrifying as I thought it would be. I really enjoyed this book, I was really interested in the idea of manipulating someone's mind to change their behaviour supposedly for the better.

I liked the fact that the people that claimed to be on his side were explioting him for their own cause, and by manipulating him into attempting suicide there were no better than the doctors that they were fighting against. I found myself rooting for Alex even though he was horrible.

As for the ending, I haven't seen the film, how does it differ?

December: If Not Now, When
January: At the Mountains of Madness
February: On the Black Hill

I didn't find the film descriptions tedious, in fact I much preferred the story about Hector Mann to the story of the professor. I didn't dislike the book overall but I didn't really feel that it was anything special and definately not one that I 'must read before I die'. Maybe I just missed something!

My vote is:
September - Cryptonomicon
October - The Plumed Serpent
November - The Satanic Verses

Replying to your comment Smarti, I think I would give it 3 stars. I didn't not enjoy reading it but I think Jim was a bit too detached for me to get really into it. I don't know if this was a deliberate decision by the author to portray his shock at the terrible situation he found himself in as some of the others suggested but if it had been on a more personal level then I think it would have made more of an impact upon me.