Tag: book-blog

Top Ten Tuesday – Books with a high page count

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This weeks top ten is books with a high page count. I’m sometimes wary of reading long books because I hate not finishing a book so usually make myself carry on reading even if I’m hating it but here are 10 with 500+ pages

  1. Middlemarch – George Elliot – 912 pages – This was a lot better than I expected. Elliot’s prose was enjoyable and the story was fairly interesting. I’m not sure it really needed to be so long though.
  2. A Widow for One Year – John Irving – 576 pages – My second Irving and while not as good as The World According to Garp it was suitably weird and interesting.
  3. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides – 529 pages – Very enjoyable tale of three generations of the same Greek-American family.
  4. Tigana – Guy Gavriel Kay – 676 pages – A second attempt at this one. An excellent fantasy novel. I’m glad I persevered this time.
  5. 11/22/63 – Stephen King – 849 pages – A interesting time travel tale, much better than the TV show with James Franco.
  6. Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel – 653 pages. I read this last year and it was a bit of a slog. It started well and ended well but I felt a bit bogged down in the middle. Still unsure if I am going to read on.
  7. Moby Dick – Herman Melville – 720 pages – This was a bit of a slog. There are some good moments of adventure but also lots and lots of information about whales.
  8. Labyrinth – Kate Mosse – 515 pages. I really enjoyed this holy grail fantasy. It’s much cleverer than the Da Vinci Code although it’s just as absurd. I probably will read on but I haven’t yet.
  9. Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon – 776 pages – I did not enjoy or understand this one but I slogged my way through it. Not sure it was worth it.
  10. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy – 1392 pages – This was a bit up and down. Some of it was really enjoyable but I found the war elements less interesting than the personal relationships of the various characters.

Top Ten Tuesday – Genre freebie – Horror

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

This week’s Top Ten is a genre freebie. I have decided to choose horror as it is a genre I have read for a long time and one I still enjoy.

  1. Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist – I read this after watching the film and enjoyed this much more. It’s darker and more disturbing’
  2. Thinner – Richard Bachman – For some reason this book has stuck with me. I read it a long time ago but it still gives me the creeps to think about it. The way he just keeps getting thinner still makes me shudder.
  3. The Rats – James Herbert – Another book that I read in sixth form but that had a long lasting effect on me. I’m not normally freaked out by animal stories but Herbet hits the right note of horror all the way through.
  4. The Stand – Stephen King – It’s hard to pick a Stephen King book – I easily could have picked 10 by him for this list – but this is one of the first post-apocalyptic stories I read which sent me down a new reading avenue for a while afterwards.
  5. Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin – This is a masterclass in suspense and even though I had seen the film, the book was still incredibly tense.
  6. I am Legend – Richard Matheson – I recently re-read this and I had forgotten how good it is. A vampire tale with a difference. Difficult to say much without spoilers but needless to say the film of this is one of the worst adaptations of a horror film that I have seen.
  7. The Road – Cormac McCarthy – More post-apocalyptic horror from McCarthy. I had read a couple of his westerns before this which blew me away. Shame he didn’t write more in this vein.
  8. Dracula – Bram Stoker – A classic and another story that the films don’t really do justice to.
  9. Some of Your Blood – Theodore Sturgeon – This is a disturbing tale which starts with the psychological evaluation of a soldier and doesn’t reveal what he has done until the very end. Very dark.
  10. The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells – I think this is my favourite of Wells’ books. Again, this is different from the film with a dark description of one man’s descent into madness/

Top Ten Tuesday- Top Ten Titles to do with Spring

On By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

I’ve changed this weeks Top Ten a little as it related to book covers that are spring like. I’m not very good at remembering what book covers look like so I’ve gone for titles that relate to spring and nature.

  1. Hag-Seed – Margaret Atwood (2016) – One of my favourites of Atwood’s recent novels. A rewriting of The Tempest set in a prison, where Felix plans retribution for losing his job.
  2. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep – Joanna Cannon (2016) – This coming of age story started well and I enjoyed the narrative voice but unfortunately it became unconvincing.
  3. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes (1966) – A thought experiment about the effects of intelligence on the way other people treat you. An excellent read.
  4. The Swan Thieves – Elizabeth Kostova (2010) – I enjoyed reading this – I gave it 4 stars – but I admit I can’t remember much about it. It’s about art and Impressionism but it clearly didn’t make a huge impression on me.
  5. The Lost Language of Cranes – David Leavitt (1986) – When his son comes out, a father begins to question his own sexuality. An excellent family tale.
  6. Black Swan Green – David Mitchell (2006) – My favourite Mitchell – probably because it is the most straightforward. A coming of age tale.
  7. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens (2018) – Unlike almost everyone else, I didn’t get on with this book. I found it unconvincing and didn’t get on with the characters.
  8. Rabbit Run – John Updike (1960) This was a depressing read and although it was well written I didn’t enjoy it and I haven’t been able to make myself read anymore of the series.
  9. Cloudstreet – Tim Winton (1991) – An excellent family drama set from the 40s-60s in Australia.
  10. The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham (1957) – When all the women in one village become pregnant at the same time, the children are bound to be a bit unusual. As ever, Wyndham is most concerned with how people react to the children and their telepathy. Much recommended.

Top Ten Tuesday: The Most Recent Additions to my TBR List.

On By kepagewriterIn Top Ten TuesdayLeave a comment

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday, a topic is suggested. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books that are the most recent additions to your TBR list.

I have decided to try to read books that arrive on my TBR list more quickly. I bought Thirteen, Doppelganger and A Heart Full of Headstones with my birthday money and was given Faith, Hope and Carnage by my brother in law. So far I have read two of them and am reading a third. I will try to read Thirteen after that. Next on the list is Postcards from Scotland which I received for Christmas. I’ve put them into a pile on my bedside drawers rather than onto the shelves which has helped me to focus on them. It’s harder to keep track of books on my kindle but I’m hoping I can keep on top of them as well.

  1. The Human Condition – Hannah Arendt
  2. The Boy at the Top of the Mountain – John Boyne 2/5
  3. Faith, Hope and Carnage – Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan Currently reading
  4. The Peripheral – William Gibson
  5. Thirteen – Tom Hoyle
  6. Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World – Naomi Klein 5/5
  7. The Passenger – Cormac McCarthy 4/5
  8. Postcards from Scotland: Scottish Independent Music 1983-95 – Grant McPhee
  9. A Heart Full of Headstones – Ian Rankin 4/5
  10. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper