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Personal Challenges - 2015
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Chase's 2015 Reading Progress
I see, thanks Chase. I hope you'll find something that you like soon
69. Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir - As far as comedic memoirs go, this one is the funniest one I've read. Probably because if I were to write a memoir, this is the style my writing would end up taking.
70. Station Eleven - I really liked this one, but I downgraded it a star because I felt like it needed to be longer. The story is there and it ties together well enough, but I didn't get enough time to truly appreciate how it tied together.
71. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame - I liked the story overall but I'll admit the long pages about the architecture of Notre-Dame were just not my thing.
73. All the Light We Cannot See - I'm so glad I liked this one. I've been avoiding it since it came out because I was very undecided if I would. My only complaint is that it was a little too slow at times.
74. The Taming of the Shrew - Not my favorite Shakespeare considering it's a comedy about taming a woman by starving her and depriving her of sleep.
75. The Glass Magician - Not so much better or worse than the 1st book, but I finished it in a day.Finished my goal of 75 books for the year!
77. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - This was good but considering how much hype this book seems to have, I thought it was a bit overrated. I loved the concept of telling the story through the eyes of someone who has autism, but at times I felt it was gimmicky.
78. Villette - This book is genius. I loved it, and I think if I read it again, I would fall in love with it again because I could appreciate more of it the next time around. I find a little bit of myself in a character like Lucy Snowe. The downsides: Fairly complex writing and a character who doesn't always show her hand. Also, a lot of untranslated french, although you can usually infer what the conversation is about from Lucy's reactions.
79. The Savage Heart - This was for the "A book your mom loves" pinterest challenge. My mother only reads very, very occasionally, and claims to not have any books she loves. Some people are just not book readers. So, I settled for picking a genre she likes: western romances. Well, the one I picked was no good, but since it's not my genre, I was never planning on finding one I liked. At least it was quick.
80. Cloud Atlas - This was good but it took me forever to get into it. I think the layout of the concept and layout of this book is fascinating, but I think it falls short of its goals.
81. The Martian - I get the hype now. I couldn't put this book down and I can't wait to see the movie.I appreciate that the author did his science research (from what I know). It was refreshing to see a book where every character was fairly competent at their job. I downgrade so many books that use idiotic character behaviors as a way of advancing the plot.
82. The Night Before Christmas - I feel like this is a bit of a cop out but I only needed 1 book left in my 50 book challenge and it was the christmas one. I didn't want to wait until Christmas to read one and I didnt want to read a long christmas book off season. So I settled for a children's book. BUT hey, I didn't know the whole story, so I don't know if I've ever actually read this fully one anyways, so it counts.Anywho, I'm DONE with that challenge.
83. The Master Magician - Last book in the Paper Magician series. Overall, it was okay. The plot wasn't great, but the magic in the series was original and interesting.
84. The Catcher in the Rye - I'm not really sure I would have identified with this book even when I was a teenager, let alone as an adult.
It's probably because of the setting. I love this book, but I never identified with Holden as I live in Europe where schools are quite different, and my life is different.Did you enjoy it though?
86. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Overall, charming and noteworthy, but I probably would have liked this one more in my teen years.
87. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Cute concept, but you kind of get the idea after the first few chapters.
89. The Accident Season - I liked the idea, not a fan of the execution. It felt like a few plots going on at once. They were interesting plots but they didn't mix well. Unnecessary love story. The characters started out interesting but fell a little flat on the end.
90. It - Whew! I am feeling accomplished with this chunkster. It took me so long to get into it at first. I enjoyed it in the middle, but I was ready for it to end.
92. At the Water's Edge - Not a fan overall. Flimsy main plot, character development felt forced, unnecessary WW2 history thrown in that adds little to the story overall, the romance was not handled well and leads the plot into a different direction than the first half of the book suggests.
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things - The 1st book was better, but I still liked this one a lot. Also, now I have a lot of fun facts to share at parties! and with coworkers in select situations...
95. Bad Feminist: Essays - This is a mixed bag of essays. There is a lot of relatable material in what it means to be a feminist in today's society. Then at times I felt like her points didn't add anything new. Overall, I liked it because she articulates her points well and I think she has many agreeable points regardless of how much one self-identifies as a feminist.The book relies heavily on pop-culture to tell the story though, and if you don't know the references well enough, or just don't have any passion for the references, the essays are a bit difficult to slog through.
You are a Fast Reader, I am jealous. :)I've read a few books you have, love to see your take on them.
Thanks! It helps to have an hour long commute by train each day.
Lol, yes that would help. That would be the very bright side of that situation. Have fun :)
96. The Nightingale - This is one that I wouldn't have picked up on my own if it weren't for goodreads, but I'm glad I did. I really liked how the author uses the opposite lives of two sisters to show different perspectives of women in France during WW2. At times the book does get a little off track. There's a few areas where the book reads more like a love story.
98. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Another book where it's interesting to see the original story rather than the movie we all know.
101. The Silver Linings Playbook - This one was a nice quick read. I liked the movie, but I think I liked the book more.
102. Shadow and Bone - Ho-hum. This one was your stereotypical Young Adult book which includes the self-described average looking female that all the men love and all the women are jealous of, a love triangle, and a plot devoted to pining over a man over any actual action. Nothing new that I haven't read before.
104. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - An interesting adventure story but a little dry and confusing overall. There's a chapter where it's a narrative of latitudes and longitudes that really drags the story down.
Chase wrote: "99. The Constant Princess - I grew tired of this book after awhile."Philippa Gregory is rather dire.
107. Snow Like Ashes - Started out like any other young adult novel, but the ending had a twist at least. I wish it had carried that theme a bit more.
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Then I had more difficulties after that because it falls into 200 pages of backstory that really could have been edited out.
About 400 pages in, the plot does pick up a bit more, but at that point, I was already ready to move on to my next book.