Books
Again, I'm forgetting to write stuff down as I read it. At least I have an excuse for not managing to read many proper long books in April, because I had so much other stuff to read as well. And all I read was for uni. Go me!
1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (reread)
2. Drums of Autumn Diana Gabaldon (reread)
3. Brotherhood of the Blade Diana Gabaldon
4. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (it was really pleasant to read and interesting, but.... damn, I just like long books better. I can't help it. But of course that was not the point of it.)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (fascinating, terrifying and disgusting at the same time)
6. Assassin's Apprentice
7. Royal Assassin
8. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb (goooood! Need to read more of hers.)
9. Needful Things by Stephen King. (for some reason, it didn't grip me as much as other King books. The fact that I constantly had the feeling of having read it before, even though I know for sure I had not, didn't help it.)
10. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Nice, though the slapdash ending was not convincing at all.)
11. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (it could have been amazing, it was unfortunately less than mediocre. The second half was better than the first, because it had something that might have passed for a plot. What a pity and waste of a brilliant idea.)
12. Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson (Liked it. It was short, fun to read, gripping and satisfactory for such a short book.Though I did kind of have the feeling I'm reading a novel about 19th century characters who were for some reason pretending to be in the 18th century. I don't know if it is always the case of 19th century historical fiction, but this didn't feel like the 18th century, somehow.)
Additions:
13. Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Ignatius Donnelly (I doubt anyone here has heard about it. It's a utopian "novel" from the end of the 19th century. Or at least it supposed to be. To me it read much more as a dystopia, because it was all about destroying a horrible state and society by violence. As a socio-political essay it was very interesting, as a novel it disappointed.)
14. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (Also a utopia from the same period. The story element was just as simplistic as in the first one, though the writing style was decidedly different. I enjoyed it much more. Again, lots of socio-political and economic talk. Though this one was *really* a utopia, as the word is commonly understood: it's about a guy from the 19th century who is hypnotised into sleep and wakes up 100 years later to find that the world has changed into a socialistic utopia and then the family he stays with goes on explaining it all.)
15. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald (I suppose you all know it. It was... interesting. Not the kind of book I'd read for my own pleasure, but perfect to be ripped apart in school or uni.)
I've now started on Le Guin's The Dispossessed and until now it's great. In case you're wondering what's with all the utopias: I'm taking a lit seminar on American Utopias.
1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (reread)
2. Drums of Autumn Diana Gabaldon (reread)
3. Brotherhood of the Blade Diana Gabaldon
4. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (it was really pleasant to read and interesting, but.... damn, I just like long books better. I can't help it. But of course that was not the point of it.)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (fascinating, terrifying and disgusting at the same time)
6. Assassin's Apprentice
7. Royal Assassin
8. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb (goooood! Need to read more of hers.)
9. Needful Things by Stephen King. (for some reason, it didn't grip me as much as other King books. The fact that I constantly had the feeling of having read it before, even though I know for sure I had not, didn't help it.)
10. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Nice, though the slapdash ending was not convincing at all.)
11. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (it could have been amazing, it was unfortunately less than mediocre. The second half was better than the first, because it had something that might have passed for a plot. What a pity and waste of a brilliant idea.)
12. Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson (Liked it. It was short, fun to read, gripping and satisfactory for such a short book.Though I did kind of have the feeling I'm reading a novel about 19th century characters who were for some reason pretending to be in the 18th century. I don't know if it is always the case of 19th century historical fiction, but this didn't feel like the 18th century, somehow.)
Additions:
13. Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Ignatius Donnelly (I doubt anyone here has heard about it. It's a utopian "novel" from the end of the 19th century. Or at least it supposed to be. To me it read much more as a dystopia, because it was all about destroying a horrible state and society by violence. As a socio-political essay it was very interesting, as a novel it disappointed.)
14. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (Also a utopia from the same period. The story element was just as simplistic as in the first one, though the writing style was decidedly different. I enjoyed it much more. Again, lots of socio-political and economic talk. Though this one was *really* a utopia, as the word is commonly understood: it's about a guy from the 19th century who is hypnotised into sleep and wakes up 100 years later to find that the world has changed into a socialistic utopia and then the family he stays with goes on explaining it all.)
15. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald (I suppose you all know it. It was... interesting. Not the kind of book I'd read for my own pleasure, but perfect to be ripped apart in school or uni.)
I've now started on Le Guin's The Dispossessed and until now it's great. In case you're wondering what's with all the utopias: I'm taking a lit seminar on American Utopias.