Katie's comments (member since Oct 29, 2007)

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

Amanda wrote: "Katie- I agree with you wholeheartedly about Bella. I'm also a fan of a nice romance, and I'm even totally fine with Prince Charming rescuing a damsel in distress. If I were in distress, I wouldn't..."

Agreed! Hey, I'll be the first to admit I'm more Damsel-in-distress than Rosie the Riveter most of the time, I like boys to open jars and kill spiders, hehe. But I also have my own life and interests, which Bella did not. She is whiny and submissive and completely ineffectual. Everything happens TO her, not BECAUSE of her, which, in fiction, is a huge red flag of bad writing. And yes, to all others who have mentioned the bad writing, that is Reason #1 why I don't like these books -- bad writing. It all comes down to that.

Alyssa wrote: "Lynn and Lorena, just wanted to agree with a lot of what you are saying. I am a high school teacher and also have an adolescent sister, so I am inundated with Twilight to say the least. I get tha..."

I'm all for a nice vanilla, fairy tale romance. All I'm saying is, even Cinderella got to the ball on her own steam -- well, with the help of another woman, which is still better.

Anna wrote: "I had read Harry Potter series and they're quite nice books. But Twilight series - those should forbidden in such a way that no one would read them ever again. I tried to them, but they're so badly..."

I agree. I was excited to read them when they came out, and even though I stopped liking them, I had to finish in order to feel okay about discussing them later. Bella is an unlikeable heroine, and so she makes the rest of the books largely unlikeable. There are definitely some aspects I like, and if you've read the parts of Midnight Sun that were leaked online -- Twilight from Edward's point of view -- you can see that Meyer actually IS able to craft believable, angry, dark vampires. I don't know why she refused to do so for 4 long novels, especially the last one, which was mostly pointless and an exercise in the author's own indulgence. But overall, I'd say the biggest problem is the main character, Bella, who's just terrible all over, and that's probably the biggest problem one's novel can have.

Finished Rebecca a few weeks ago. It took me a couple of chapters to really get into it, but I loved it. A great example of gothic literature.

I just started Rebecca. It's quite good so far, the tension is very well done.

Derrick wrote: "I just started The Thirteenth Tale. I'm pretty sure it was a book club selection this past fall. Or maybe that was the other group..."

I've had that one on my shelf for ages, I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles. So tragically Victorian. Loved it!

Just starting on Atonement, for my book club. I've been waiting to get to this one for a while, and I refuse to see the movie before reading it. That's how I've picked up a lot of books, actually. So far it's quite good.

I downloaded the spreadsheet that someone was kind enough to post a link to in one of these forums, it does the math for what percentage you've already read and how many a year you have to read to finish it in your lifetime. Right now I'm going with the ones I already own, then I'll probably open to a random page and point.
:)

I'm down in San Jose, but I love an excuse to hit the city for an afternoon. I must admit I haven't read as many of the books on the list as some of you, but I have a few of the classics, victorian lit, etc. Library Bar sounds like the most gorgeous mating of two ideas I've ever heard of!!

yeah, paperbackswap.com is a good one. I don't know why sites like that don't partner with this one, it's a great marriage. See books you want to read on here, get them for free over there. Love it! Spread the word, get more books in the network!!

Ugh, I don't know that I'll ever be able to start one of the books on this list, I have so many others that I want to read! I just finished the Golden Compass series and I'm in love with it! But I want to get through the scads of books languishing on my shelves before buying a new one. What to do!!

I vote for Rousseau as well, been meaning to read him for a while.

I love this idea. I'm deffinitely in. I got the 1001 book for xmas and haven't yet known where to start. Plus I've been reading His Dark Materials Trilogy, so I've been preoccupied. can't wait!