40 Books read – Reading Challenge going well.

Well here we are, end of September 2017 already, and it’s been a good year so far for me and the family.  With some lovely holidays shared and my eldest off to Manchester University and the start of his life.  All doing well and I’m proud of all of them.

So, back to that matter and blog in hand, how has my reading been going.  Well, it has slowed down, what with family commitments and other social events recently, but I’m still on track to achieve my annual target (50).  I’m 80% there.

 

Book #39 – No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Now this has turned into a difficult review to write. I watched the film, many moons ago, before deciding to read the book and I kind of regret that. I think. The film was a good one, and some of the performances by some of my favourite actors I believe have had quite an effect on me and my reading, picturing of this book and the story as it unfolds. Or is it simply that the book and narrative are that good that the film had no choice but to mirror it closely, meaning I kind of felt I was actually reading a screenplay? I don’t know.

So what I found here was a very entertaining, gritty and action packed story with three…maybe even four or five good, interesting characters. The standout three are Moss, who I’m kind of classing as the main character in the book. The reluctant hero, who isn’t and doesn’t want to be a hero, but is I believe a nice guy trying to do well, or the right thing. I’m not sure. Then we have Bell, the tired old police officer full of stories and wisdom. And then, like with the film, the baddy who steals the show. Anton Chigurh. Who is a force of nature that is somewhat unstoppable, has a chilling cruelness, whereby he operates on his own set of morals and simply cannot be bargained with. Like a human Terminator.

So how do I rate this book? Well, I’m giving it four stars. Probably a tad harsh, but found the lack of punctuation grating and sometimes confusing. When was I Being told something by the narrator or was it one of the characters talking? I would find a conversation had started between two characters without realising, so would sometimes have to go back a few sentences and re-read it now I knew what was happening. A conversation.

Anyway, this is a really good, entertaining read and I do understand why the author and the book get so many good reviews. I will be reading more of McCarthy’s stuff. Perhaps The Road next.

 

Book #40 – Armada by Ernest Cline

I’ll start off by saying that I loved the authors, Ernest Cline, first book ‘Ready Player One’. In fact I rank it as one of my all time favourite books. So with this fact, and the synopsis reading like the much loved (Although not watched in a very long time) film The Last Starfighter, I was more then excited and intrigued to read this. Surely we was on to a winner here.

And boy did I want it to be. It just…wasn’t. I at no point engaged with the main character Zack, other characters or the story. 60-70 pages in I realised I was actually bored. But persevered for Ernest Clines sake.

The story is about our hero Zack Lightman, a geek, nerd and general nice guy with some anger issues. His dad died before he was born, etc. so growing up was tough. Who loves, like all geeks and nerds do, playing video games. And like we all dream of, as does Zack and his father before him…that all these games are actually for real. It’s all training. It’s all real. And he now needs to go save the world with his gaming skills.

So a nice premise of a story, but sadly I never got on board and enjoyed the story, and I think that’s what I have to rate the book on. Did it entertain me? Did it have me rushing back to read on? Sadly No.

So it’s with disappointment I finish and review this book with two stars. It’s ok. Not three stars which is I liked it, as I didn’t.