Zaz’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2014)

Zaz’s comments from the 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] group.

What's the translation for the #12 book title? ^^

Haha it's funny to see how some of you are excited about the book. I succeeded to read 10pages in 2 days. I think I'll finish the book in time for the "book you never finished" week :D (I'm at 700p, so 300p to go...)
I'm really not in the war stuff so it's not a good book for me, the previous one was easier to read. I already skipped many pages in this one :(

Really I don't know. I like dystopias, the idea there is good and, as I read Saga, I'm pretty sure it's well executed. Maybe my point of view of what I could do in this situation is too different than the path chosen by the writter. In Saga, nothing is realistic and the characters are all weird, so it's more enjoying the fun and the crazy ideas than thinking about how evolves some post-apocalyptic situation.

I think the idea is properly executed in fact. Problem for me is the characters! Most of the time, writers try to build them so they'll seem real, even if they are "good" or "bad".
Here I've the same feeling than when I'm in a train and a group of male teenagers is near me: they say stupid things, insult themselves, etc. I don't think it's "who" they are, it's just some boring social interactions. The author did that: putting you in the maze and let you watch people like they are some sort of annoying aliens :p

The hero has some little character development but it's all about complaining and changing his feelings every two sentences, so good luck to find this realistic!

It fits for a movie, but for a book it seems a failure. Maybe teens who are more in action than character development can enjoy that. I'll watch the movie this year anyway, I want to see if it's better :)

(Good thing with bad books: I spend time trying to understand where the problem is, it's interesting and add value to the time used for the book)

I didn't enjoy Y the last man, but I like a lot Saga by the same author. Both stories are interesting!

Oh the cover is nice! The summary seems interesting too, I'll add it in my reading list :)

Some of my readings come from "oh this trailer is nice, I want to read the book". The Giver serie was a great choice for me this year (hard to put away the books). For The Maze Runner, I didn't see the trailer but a story with a maze seemed unusual, so I wanted to try it.

The reviews for this one are mostly hate or love. For the 1st half, I was more in the loving part as I liked discovering the tiny world even if I wanted to kill half of the characters (no wait, all of them :p), the 2nd half is a lot less pleasant, so maybe it will end with a bad rating.

I find the writing... hum... concise, which is a good thing when you don't like never ending descriptions. Clearly it's a problem when you have characters! The story could improve a lot without conversations or with real ones (most of the talks are something like "I don't like you" and "Shut up *add some handmazed insult*"). At 75%, I don't like anybody and with a survival story, when you don't care, there is a problem (maybe the problem is that I'm not a teenager?).

I'm looking forward to finish this one (and to write a stellar review for it :p).
Are there some "loving" readers here? I'm interested to understand how the book can succeed to have so high ratings. "Haters" are welcomed too, of course :)

I'll have a hard time with the scary one too. When I look at the horror lists, I see a lot of Stephen King (often disturbing, but I never found it scary), some Anne Rice (Lestat will never be scary, sorry) and old books which were probably frightening for their release, but now... I'll follow the different books chosen to see if something seems interesting :)

I'd no problem with the Mis beginning, the other parts of the book were less entertaining but I didn't remember being bored.

I read mainly in english since 2 years, so my next step will be to read in english the books I love in french. The Tolkien's books will be for 2016 (movies are too fresh) but I'm pretty sure I won't resist to put Peter Pan somewhere in this challenge. Oh wait, Peter Pan is written by James M. Barrie, a good way to read an english classic with your initials (I'm a Neverland fangirl so I can't resist recommend it ^^).

I've read Price & Prejudice too, found it a little boring (I'd a lot of more fun with the zombie version... don't hit me :D). Anyway, I really want a "classic romance" for this week, this one is short and I'm interested by the story. I hope I'll enjoy it more than P&P :)

The Mis and LotR on the same year! You're aiming high!

The hobbit will be a nice introduction to the paper middle earth and I find it helps a lot to understand all the Bilbo parts in LotR. For The Fellowship, it's a hard one in french (translating songs is BAD), a friend of mine just read it in english and found it a lot better (maybe the translation is just bad). The 2 towers and The Return are a lot more interesting :)

For Ava, you'll read it before me, so I'll follow you thread. I count on you to tell us if it's boring :p

I think I read almost all the Roald Dahl books when I was child, my mom likes them a lot so she fed me with them :D I don't remember reading Revolting Rhymes, so I'll be happy to discover it :)

Some new ideas, as I've a hard time to choose/find one :)
Maybe it will help someone if they are available in his/her country.

Three Bags Full a "thriller" with detective sheeps which wants to discover who killed their shepherd.

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear and all the Zamonia serie. It's fantasy and each book has an animal point of view (this one is about a bear, in others you have a dinosaur, a cat, etc).

Fantastic Mr. Fox for the Roald Dahl lovers :)

I'm enjoying a lot choosing all the books and discovering new titles. Maybe I'll change some of them.

52/52 weeks completed.

1. a book with more than 500 pages: A Clash of Kings [✔] M

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2. a romance
# a classic romance: Persuasion [✔] W

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# a modern romance:Playing for Keeps [✔] W

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3. a book that became a movie: The Maze Runner [✔] M

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4. a book published this year:
# 2014 Lock In [✔] M, Hollow World [✔] M

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# 2015 The Girl on the Train [✔] W

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5. a book with a number in the title: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August [✔] W

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6. a book written by someone under 30: Fairytales for Wilde Girls [✔] W

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7. a book with nonhuman characters: Three Bags Full [✔] W

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8. a funny book The Invisible Library [✔] W

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9. a book by a female author: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender [✔] W

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10. a mystery or thriller: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [✔] M

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11. a book with a one-word title: Genesis [✔] M

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12. a book of short stories: Through the Woods [✔] + The Lottery and Other Stories [✔] W

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13. a book set in a different country: The Mango Season [✔] W

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14. a nonfiction book: Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter [✔] M

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15. a popular author's first book: Elantris [✔] M

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16. a book from an author you love that you haven't read yet: I Shall Wear Midnight [✔] M & Funny Girl [✔] M

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17. a book a friend recommended: Toby Alone [✔] M

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18. a Pulitzer-prize winning book: The Snow Child[✔] W & The Road (re-read) [✔] M
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19. a book based on a true story: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl [✔] W

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20. a book at the bottom of your to read list: The Borrowers [✔] W

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21. a book your mom loves: The Ax [✔] M

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22. a book that scares you: Bird Box [✔] M

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23. a book more than 100 years old: The Phantom of the Opera [✔] M

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24. a book based entirely on its cover: Black Feathers [✔] M

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25. a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't: Animal Farm [✔] M (I read all my school books. I never heard about this one, but it's in lot of "must read in high school", so here we go)

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26. a memoir: Steve Jobs [✔] M

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27. a book you can finish in a day: Stargirl [✔] M

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28. a book with antonyms in the title: Big Little Lies [✔] W

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29. a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit: The Annotated Peter Pan [✔] M

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30. a book that came out the year you were born: 1981 (re-read) The Wave [✔] M

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31. a book with bad reviews: The Magicians [✔] M

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32. a trilogy (the first): Theft of Swords [✔] M

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33. a trilogy (the second): Rise of Empire [✔] M

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34. a trilogy (the third): Heir of Novron [✔] M

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35. a book from your childhood: Niourk [✔] M

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36. a book with a love triangle: Parallel [✔] W

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37. a book set in the future: Sand Omnibus [✔] M

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38. a book set in high school: Eleanor & Park [✔] W

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39. a book with a color in the title: The Picture of Dorian Gray [✔] M

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40. a book that made/makes you cry: The Fault in Our Stars [✔] M

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41. a book with magic: Uprooted [✔] W

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42. a graphic novel: Nimona [✔] W

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43. a book by an author you've never read before: The Emperor's Blades (#1) [✔] M

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44. a book you own but have never read: The Neverending Story [✔] M

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45. a book that takes place in your hometown country: Blameless [✔] W

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46. a book that was originally written in another language: Ruby Red (german) [✔] W

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47. a book set during Christmas: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus [✔] M

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48. a book written by an author with your same initials: The Cloud Hunters [✔] M

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49. a play: Romeo and Juliet [✔] M

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50. a banned book: Revolting Rhymes [✔] M

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51. a book based on OR turned into a tv show: How to Train Your Dragon [✔] M

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52. a book you started but never finished: Old Man's War [✔] M
(jeez, war topic, bad language... everything I dislike, I don't know why I picked up the book :p)

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Based on your books as I don't see it & your tastes, for the Pulitzer, you can try The Road (post-apocalyptic). I'll re-read it for the challenge :)

For the graphic novel, the choice is huge. If you're interested in something which feels like a book and has fantasy, Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is sweet. The graphics are great and you'll read the full Wizard of Oz story.
I can recommend too I Kill Giants, I love it a lot :)

Thanks, it's a nice idea :)

I'll read it too for the "1st book" week. I thought I didn't know this author but in fact I read the 1st Infinity Blade book and he wrote it! What a pleasant surprise :D I'm looking forward to Elantris and if the story is nice, I'll read some others titles which seem interesting.

I read it a long time ago, just after discovering Pratchett. He made a great team with Gaiman, even if I think the book is more Pratchett than Gaiman. It was an easy read with a good story and I remember that the 4 horsmen were fun.
I hope you will enjoy reading it :)

My first idea was Little Women as the translators named it "The 4 Dr Marsch's daughters" in french but well, there is no number on the original title, so lets find something else.

Harry August with all his lives are in my to read list since the Choice Awards and it has number in the title, so I'll read it :D
I usually like movies where a character lives the same day over and over and it seems something like this happens to the hero (even if he dies). Maybe I'll like this type of stories in a book too.

As my favorite female author, Diana Rowland, won't publish a new zombie-girl book in the next months, I decided to try someone new and go for Leslye Walton.
The Ava Lavender reviews are intriguing, I'm curious to read some "lyrical prose" and I found the cover interesting when I first saw it during the Choice Awards 2014. I hope I'll like this book :)

Other thread about it: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...