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What Are You Reading? pt. II
I finished
and I couldn't help but be disappointed by the ending. I should have expected it because Eva Ibbotson's done it to me before with A Song For Summer but a lot of important stuff sort of...happened offstage and then we were just...presented with it at the end. Maybe the way everything was happily resolved was meant to be a nice surprise for us but I'd rather I'd have been there to see it unfold - (view spoiler).Maybe this wouldn't have bothered me if it hadn't been so long. At 508 pages it was much longer than necessary I expect but I think I mentioned I was really enjoying the length as something to savour - yet, if I'm going to read a book that long, I'd rather not have everything rushed in at the end; I'd happily have kept reading for another 508 pages if it meant I actually got to be there for all the most exciting and dramatic parts of the story (for that was what it was all building towards!).
Today I read
and
all in one sitting in the shop and they were cute but I think a lot of it went over my head (esp in the second volume) because I was trying to read it so quickly.Now I'm trying to push on with finishing
and
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and I couldn't help but be disappointed by the ending. I should have expected it because Eva Ibbotson's done it to me before with A Song For Summer ..."The Lumberjanes books are so cute! I know what you mean, though ... I read one of them in a single sitting and I feel like I forget most of what happened in it, haha. And I'm not sure if I've actually read the whole second book. I should probably do that. I think a third one is out, too.
Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Tesni wrote: "I finished and I couldn't help but be disappointed by the ending. I should have expected it because Eva Ibbotson's done it to me before with A So..."I feel like you've read every single book ever, Brigid. You ALWAYS know what someone is reading hahaha
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WELP I finished
and read
in a single day, and I highly recommend it. On to
, which I'm already almost finished with due to a long car ride yesterday! WOW I FORGOT HOW GOOD IT IS
@Are you excited for the Cursed Child?
FINALLY. My wonderful mom drove to a library 45 minutes away twice to get this for me and it is so worth it. I don't want to stop reading !!!
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Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "FINALLY. My wonderful mom drove to a library 45 minutes away twice to get this for me and it is so worth it. I don't want to stop reading !!!"
YAY RAVEN KING GO MEGAN (i expect updates)
Stephanie wrote: "@Are you excited for the Cursed Child?"
Yeah! I'm not really sure how I'll feel about accepting its plot developments into HP canon, but we'll see how it goes.
I FINISHED MY HARRY POTTER REREAD! And it was amazing once more and just confirmed my love for the series. Wow.
Finished
and I'm glad I read it because I'd never read anything written by or about trans women. It was valuable for me to read from that perspective, and I learnt a lot, but the writing style itself didn't blow me away. One thing I really appreciated was how many of the stories were centred upon the rural experience, which is something very close to my heart that I'm always thinking about and wishing I could read more of in LGBT lit.I also finished
because I'd like to read more 18th/19thc lit this year but it's hard to tell what I actually thought of it because I feel so unused to the style + conventions of the day that it probably makes it hard work; so I will push on in my quest to try and read similar things because I know that once I get used to the style my enjoyment of the actual content will increase. I'm currently reading
and it's not at all what I expected - I reserved it from the library so I hadn't seen it before it arrived for me, and I'd sort of assumed it was a novel. I've never read anything quite like it; it's nonfiction, essentially, but the author in his preface describes it as 'literary history' and it reads very differently to our history books of today; it reminds me of Victor Hugo and those tangents he always goes off on, more than anything else. That it's nonfiction doesn't bother me, but I still feel so...worn out from my exams that I hadn't planned to go back to reading anything 'serious' so soon after them and I'm probably not in the best mindset for it. I'm enjoying it, and I will continue - it will do me good, I'm so interested in the Bourbons but I've never properly read anything about the necklace affair so this will be the foundation I need to understand it and everything that came after.I've also just started
which I'm excited about because I found the kindle edition on amazon reduced from £10 to £2. I never normally buy Peirene books (unless I find them in charity shops, which I basically never do!) because they're too expensive for their short length so I can never justify it, but seeing it so cheap I couldn't not get it (the other discounted one was
, though I haven't read that yet).
Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Tesni wrote: "I finished and I couldn't help but be disappointed by the ending. I should have expected it because Eva Ibbotson's done it to me before with A So..."Yes, exactly! Another thing was that I couldn't really tell who it was written for? Is it a teenage series? Is it for adults? Is it for everyone? Who knows? Even for the former it seemed to be pretty 'young' with the stories etc being as simple as they were, and though it's not a bad thing that it was so...fluffy and wholesome, I was kind of hoping for more depth.
I'm absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter. My mom painted my room as the Gryffindor Common Room when I was 8. Harry Potter was what brought my best friend and I together (despite our initial hatred of each other) when we were 9.So then, why am I not totally excited for:
Is it really in script format??? :( I think that's the main reason I'm not as excited as I would've been for one of the older books. And not only that, but I read from a press release that this book/script is written by someone else entirely, and that the plot was what JK Rowling created. So she didn't even write it???
Granted, I'll still read it and buy it, of course. But am I the only huge fanatic of Harry Potter that isn't counting down the days???
@Jayda for me the fact that it's a play we get to read gets me more excited for it. But that also cuz I study theatre, and the directing 1 final is that you get to pick a scene and direct it yourself and you bet I'm gonna try to use Harry Potter when I take the class. :P
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@Jayda - Oh my gosh it's so awesome that your mom did that for you! But yeah I don't know, I don't feel much excitement for The Cursed Child. I read a leaked synopsis of it––and I'm not sure how legit it was, but it sounded kinda dumb honestly, like it was someone's really clichéd fanfiction AU. :P On top of that, I feel like JK Rowling should maybe just ... let things be?? I don't know, I tend to be annoyed when an author tacks on extra stuff to a series that's already finished.
Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Tesni - I kinda see what you mean, it is a little hard to tell what the target audience is. I think they're intended for kids, though? My younger siblings have gotten them out of the library befor..."OMG I also read a leaked synopsis of the plot and my first thought was that it sounded like a terrible fanficiton. Seriously. It sounded like what some teenager would have written, making all their fantasies about the future of the world come true. I wanted it to be a joke so badly and a fake plot. I've decided to ignore the play and pretend it doesn't exist because I don't want to ruin Harry Potter for me. Rowling shouldn't have messed with it. It ended on a high and she just ruined it. I was so mad when I read the summary. And I dont plan on reading the 'book'.
I'm also annoyed that she decided that a (two part) play was the best medium to tell this story in. There are so many fans of Harry Potter and this is literally the least inclusive thing she could have done. Plays are exclusive. They're expensive. They only exist in one place in the world. Very few people can see it at the same time. Even if this was going to be preformed in different countries, it wouldn't be everywhere, it would probably only be in a few giant countries. And it would cost so much. The percentage of people who are actually going to be able to see this is so tiny compared to the people who read and loved the original series. And who the hell splits a play into two parts??? I've had the privilege to watch plays in big theaters, and on broadway, and to have to pay twice to get the whole story is ridiculous. I think that this is a way to manipulate people to spend a ton of money they dont have, because the people behind the play and Rowling herself know that there are fans crazy enough to blow through savings just to be able to see the play. It really feels like a ploy to make a bunch of money off people who loved the series and would do anything to continue the story.
And the script being published is also ridiculous. Reading a script is very different than reading a book or watching the play and it's taking advantage of the enormous amount of people who will buy something as a consolation to not being able to watch the play.
Sorry about this long rant-y post. I'm a little pissed off, if you couldn't tell. There's just such a loyal fan base and I can't think of a worse way to continue this. And the plot also sounds terrible. Ok. I'm done.
Colby wrote: "Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "YAY RAVEN KING GO MEGAN (i expect updates)
..."
EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING. (view spoiler)
Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Tesni - I kinda see what you mean, it is a little hard to tell what the target audience is. I think they're intended for kids, though? My younger siblings have gotten them out of the library befor..."Naomi wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Tesni - I kinda see what you mean, it is a little hard to tell what the target audience is. I think they're intended for kids, though? My younger siblings have ..."
YOU GUYS HAVE RELIEVED MY MIND. I thought I was being a horrible fan for not being excited :(
Naomi wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Tesni - I kinda see what you mean, it is a little hard to tell what the target audience is. I think they're intended for kids, though? My younger siblings have ..."Just read the
Done with The Raven King. Oh my goodness. So many feelings. Also I finished it last night literally five minutes before I had to leave to go babysit 6 kids and so I don't think I had time to properly process my emotions. But it was just so gooooooooooooood. My favorite of the series, I'm pretty sure (although now I want to read them all again).Anyway, next I'm moving on to
. My little brother already read it while I was too busy with school so my goal is to finish it before he gets home from camp on Friday so that we can talk about it.
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@Naomi - That's another reason why I'm annoyed with it. It's really unfair to have canon material that is so inaccessible to a majority of the fanbase. And they only seemed to agree to publish the script as an afterthought once people started complaining.
@Jayda - Lol, right?? It's just ... WHAT.
So I looked into it, and found some quotes from JK Rowling that kind of remove the possibility of the whole "plot" of that play. This whole thing is taken from a thread on the subject.(view spoiler)
I dunno about the inaccessibility of the play. Yes there are many people who won't get to see the London play, but since the script is being published that gives people the opportunity to perform it themselves. Yeah, the original performance will have a pretty limited audience, but the cool thing about theatre is that it almost doesn't matter. No play is performed the same way twice, even with the same set of actors. Publishing the play gives other people the opportunity to interpret and be apart of the play themselves, and I dunno, I find that exciting. I also have absolutely no opinion on the plot. I never looked it up. Who knows, Voldemort's love-child could be written really well.
Shoot. Forget about spoilers. Sorry!
I'm so glad I'm not alone in my disgust. It's just so aggravating! Although the plot sounds so bad that I almost don't care that I'll never be able to see it in the proper medium. Though knowing me I'll probably pick up the 'script' eventually. I don't know which pisses me off, the complete disregard they have towards (literally) of millions of fans or the terrible fanfiction plot.
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@Stephanie - Well like I said, I believe the script is only being published as kind of an apology, since lots of people were clamoring about how it wasn't fair. You're right that it's not completely inaccessible, but ... ehh I don't know, I still find it a little alienating.
Also I'm not sure exactly what the rights of this specific play entail, but with most published plays you have to pay a lot of money for some kind of license to put on a production of it––and there's a lot of weird hoops to jump through in terms of when you can perform it. Like, if a professional production of the play is running (on Broadway, for example) then it's illegal for, say, a high school to perform it at the same time (which is completely ridiculous, but yeah don't even get me started).
And yeah, I'll try not to pass too much judgment on the play since I haven't read it (and I'm not sure I'm going to), but ehh the plot doesn't sound all that promising to me.
was excellent. It took me a little while to get into - just because the style took some getting used to, I think - but I'm so glad I stuck with it, it was so rewarding, and such a 'me' sort of book. I'm just about to start a re-read of
. I finally have a copy of Powers, the third book in the trilogy, and I'm so excited for it! - but as it's been eight and seven years respectively since I read Gifts and Voices, the first two, a re-read is certainly in order if I want to make the most out of it. I hope it's as good as I remember!
Read Macbeth during a camping trip and I really liked it. A little confusing at times, but pretty cool. I noticed that I definitely enjoy reading Shakespeare more now than in high school
Continuing reading
and hopefully I'll finish it before summer ends. The one I'm reading is my sister's though so I'm planning on buying my own copy with my next paycheck because I'm dyingggg to highlight and annotate it but I would actually be dead if I did it to her book.
I finished my
and
re-reads and I'm so glad I went back to them! Interestingly, when I read them aged 11/12 Voices was my favourite, but this time it was Gifts I much preferred; it's the sort of book I wish I could have written.I went to London yesterday and read
on the way; it was the perfect length for the train. It wasn't what I expected, but it was excellent and I learnt lots. I really appreciated that it seemed to be composed of vignettes and short chapters almost like sketches instead of having a plot, because it's something I worry a lot about with my own writing - that I write 'scenes' instead of 'stories' that won't be 'exciting enough' or w/e for anyone to want to read - but if Kamal Ben Hameda can do it, so can I, I hope. I'm about halfway through
and that's good too but other readers have touched upon the lack of depth Streatfeild gives the adult characters and I can kind of see it as well. Other things I've started lately but am too early on to have an opinion on yet:
I finished
, which I adored -- it's the first time I've really read it through, rather than flipping it, and this is the kind of gorgeous book I'd love to own because of the breathtaking photographs in it. And I love how the poems adapt fairytales to issues modern teenage girls face (talks a lot about feminism, body image, sexual harassment, etc). Quite interesting. And then I finished
, which I wasn't wowed by but it was a pretty light read and definitely entertaining.Recently I've been reading
which honestly I feel kind of meh about and
which is really interesting so far. I feel like I never enjoy celebrity memoirs that much (I didn't really like Tina Fey's Bossypants either) but I keep reading them because I hope they'll turn out good :/ Eh. We'll see.
Started reading
for college (wow I'm so grown up now, can you believe I joined this group when I was still in middle school) and I'm actually very glad this book was chosen. I've been waiting to read it until I got book tabs (sigh, why am I terrible at starting things) but with all that just happened here in the USA I started reading it today. Looking forward to it.
Hayden wrote: "Started reading for college (wow I'm so grown up now, can you believe I joined this group when I was still in middle school) and I'm actually very glad..."Dude, so was I! I think I was 14 or something when I joined, and I'm turning 23 in less than a month!
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That seems so wild.... Goodreads has really documented me growing up.
Hayden wrote: "Started reading for college (wow I'm so grown up now, can you believe I joined this group when I was still in middle school) and I'm actually very glad..."I've never heard of that book before but it looks so important. What class are you reading it for?
Hayden wrote: "That seems so wild.... Goodreads has really documented me growing up."I feel this way too! From 13 to turning 20 in October..... :O
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for about 6 years and am finally getting around to it
Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "I've had this book sitting on my shelf for about 6 years and am finally getting around to it"
That's one of my favorite books of all time. It made me fall in love with Jodi Picoult.
Finished
, which I'm glad I read but which I would have loved much more if Lena wasn't so two-dimensional. Then it was
. I first started it like 2+ years ago but left it because I hadn't read Jane Eyre yet, but now I have so it was high time I came back to it. I liked it, but that was all, and not as much as I'd hoped; Part One was my favourite, but it was so brief and it sort of went downhill after that. Now reading
. Persephone Press is my new favourite (I visited their shop, my true mother ship, in London this week & it was a true religious experience) and it's stressing me out that there's like 110+ books in the catalogue and I've read or am currently reading only four of them! I don't know how I'm ever meant to catch up.
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... There weren't enough dragons in it. Plus there was a love triangle and the main character was annoying, so ... ehh.
Now I'm reading:
I'm trying to get through my huge "books I've bought over the past couple years that I haven't read yet" pile, and this is one of those. Plus I need to read more Dickens. Anyway, I like it so far!
Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "Hayden wrote: "Started reading for college (wow I'm so grown up now, can you believe I joined this group when I was still in middle school) and I'm act..."Oops, just saw this. It's not for a specific class, it's a book for the entire campus to read because it'll be brought up and used in multiple classes, which I think is pretty neat.
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Hayden wrote: "Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "Hayden wrote: "Started reading for college (wow I'm so grown up now, can you believe I joined this group when I w..."That's really cool! I wish my school did something like that. Maybe when I transfer. *crosses fingers*
Never gonna get tired of Sarah Dessen. I don't care how formulaic she can be
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It was:
Basically it was just a really dumb "technology is bad!!1!" kind of book that was just ... really poorly researched/argued.
Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Hayden wrote: "What was your book?"It was:
Basically it was just a really dumb "technology is bad..."
Yikes, that sounds awful. I would have been mad about it.
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Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~
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Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "Never gonna get tired of Sarah Dessen. I don't care how formulaic she can be"
<3 i just reread
over the weekend because i missed it and her books and i feel you, bro. so much. i will be reading sarah dessen books when i'm eighty years old.
Young Writers
Books mentioned in this topic
Scrappy Little Nobody (other topics)Once and for All (other topics)
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride (other topics)
The Prince of Mist (other topics)
The Republic of Thieves (other topics)
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@Stephanie - That book was also a pleasant surprise for me! I didn't know very much about it going into it, but it was a fun read. :)