Watcha Reading in August

[Andrew, Wound Up]

The year is going by so fast! I know summer months are slower for reading. One chapter in to Mr. Y and I'm super excited.

I started House of Leaves near the end of last month. The book is quite a trip (I'm about 2/3rds of the way through it). It's based on and plays with the idea of labrynth's, especially in text and composition of language.

The first maze has to do with the plot: the book is compiled by the auther (Danielewski), who is gathering and posting commentary on another person's (Johnny Truant) edit of some gathered documents, which were written by a blind man (Zampano), critiquing a film (directed by a man named Navidson).

The 2nd set of mazes has to do with puzzles and encryptions hidden throughout the book. Some are as simple as taking the first letter of each word in a chapter to create a new document; others get more tricky - like different length paragraphs that spell things out in morse code.

The final maze I've encountered so far has to do with footnotes that digress into further and more obscure footnotes, literally creating a maze throughout the book that leads to dead ends and infinite loops.

I'm not sure what I think of Leaves as a book, the writing varies wildly depending on who's point of view is being represented. In it's favor I must note that it is a reading experience unlike most any other.

I'll be back in a week or so with a review!

[Andrew, Wound Up]

I finished House of Leaves and my review can be found here: Oofta.

Started Battle Royale. I don't know if I've ever read a book based on a movie. Off I go!

[Michelle, Overrun By Pets]

I finished How Not To Run A B&B by romantic novel author Bobby Hutchinson. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book which started with a nice and simple concept. Each chapter involved a story about Bobby's B&B endeavor, talked about the guest(s) who was staying there at the time and ended with a recipe that had been served to the guest during their visit. As the book progressed, the chapter breaks seemed more obscure and the "recipe" portions of the book digressed into words of wisdom, self-help tips and a convoluted insight to the author's views on spirituality. I really LOVED the beginning and was very out of LOVE by the end. I would have preferred a consistent, simple concept from beginning to end.

I also finished The 2011 Book Blogger's Cookbook (The Book Blogger's Cookbook) by Christy Dorrity. This book has the strangest concept I've ever heard of. Each chapter in the book introduces a book with a short snippet of a book's plot, has a recipe developed by the main book's author and then has segments of blogs that yet other people have written about the book (i.e. Mockingjay..see brief plot synopsis, see recipe inspired by Mockinjay developed by Christy Dorrity..see partial reviews/comments from other bloggers about Mockinjay). Although some of the recipes seemed interesting and possibly delicious, the "inspirations" were often a stretch and the book synopsis were not very good. For instance, I loved Hunger Games and the synopsis for Mockingjay listed here would not have caught my attention enough to even pick it up.

I finished Frugal Gourmet Ideas: Secrets to Saving Thousands in the Kitchen. It wasn't the best book for a small family of 2, but I can see it being very useful for a larger family. There are a number of low cost recipes which seemed basic, but good. The author documented cost per portion for recipes, however she often didn't put the actual serving size or how many servings a given recipes makes which is a pet peeve of mine. I enjoyed the recommendations for a well-stocked pantry. I also appreciated the cost comparison with bought items versus homemade versions. I did not enjoy most of the tables in the book as they didn't convert properly on my kindle regardless of font changes, so they were all jumbly.

I finished Gone Girl in less than a weekend. It is a super fast and addictive read. I find I am usually a fan of books which are set up with chapters from different character's point of views. Some of my favorite examples are The Poisonwood Bible and any of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Gone Girl was awesome because I kept waffling on who I was rooting for between 2 opposing characters. It was definitely not a predictable plot. I'm super excited to read more of this author's work. Yay for Dark Places in September.