Wow - the twentieth booklog! It really doesn't feel like twenty weeks (more if you count the ones I missed over Christmas) since I started doing this...time certainly is flying by...
This week I finished:
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn
Once more, my two book club buddies and I have proved to be rubbish detectives - we failed to identify the murderer...again! I really thought I had it this time as well! As with Murder on the Flying Scotsman this is a traditional 'cosy' whodunit - an enclosed setting (this time a small village), a shortlist of possible suspects, an official police officer assisted by an unexpected amateur sleuth and so on.
Our sleuth here is Miss Daisy Dalrymple, a young lady engaged to a Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard (handy for getting her involved in investigating lots of crimes!). This is a time when high class ladies simply Did Not Work...one generally married and became a mother while living off one's husband's income...however Daisy does work, she writes articles for magazines. This is frequently commented upon with disdain by other ladies in the books, which I feel could get a bit wearing if it carries on through the whole series. Otherwise though, they are very enjoyable - kind of 'Agatha Christie-lite', they don't have the depth of Christie but are the same style (and just as difficult to solve!). 4/5
This week I started:
* Take the Monkeys and Run ~ Karen Cantwell (strange title, I know!)
I'm still reading:
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden
If you're a Kindle owner in the UK, you might be interested to know that a new 'crop' of free books were listed this week - if you click on 'Top 100 Free' you'll see some of them in the top rankings. Buying one causes it to suggest a load of others to you, so you can find them all pretty easily. I've got about 11 or 12 already...there were no reviews yet so they might be rubbish, but as they cost me nothing I don't care!
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Showing posts with label amazon kindle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amazon kindle. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Booklog #9
Happy New Year!
As this is my first proper post (excluding the extra Book Challenge one that I did last week) of 2011 I'd like to take a moment to wish you health, happiness and prosperity for the coming year. I hope you had an enjoyable festive season - apart from being struck down with a bit of a cold, I enjoyed my twelve days off work very much. Received some nice new books as Christmas presents, including the phenomenally heavy Nigella Kitchen...seriously, it weighs a ton...I hope hubby isn't expecting me to have a go at every single recipe in it! I also got Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks, which I'm very much looking forward to getting stuck into - it includes two previously unpublished Poirot stories! *hysterical squeee*
Excitingly (for me, at least) I have at last joined the smartphone community that I have envied for so long and am the proud owner of a shiny new HTC Desire. Of course the first app I downloaded was 'Kindle for Android'! I didn't think reading on such a comparatively small screen would be enjoyable, but it actually isn't as bad as I expected - very smooth page turns and good clear text. In a pinch, if I don't happen to have the Kindle with me (though this is rare) it makes a very good alternative.
Of course it wouldn't be a Booklog post without me confessing that the Kindle 'To Be Read' category has increased (again). It's not my fault though - they had a 12 Days of Kindle sale where loads of books were either free or £1! How was I supposed to resist?! The TBR count now stands at 91, which is a good thing really as it means I'll have a lot of choice when it comes to getting through those 100 books for the challenge...
Speaking of that very challenge I should have a lot more to post in these Booklogs from now on, as I hope to get through at least one or two shorter books within each week, as well as plodding on with the longer things that I'm reading. Luckily for me, I've always been a fast reader, so it's not like I'll be skim-reading or anything (that would be cheating anyway!) - I assure you that I savour everything I read, be it 10, 100 or 1000 pages long!
Since the last Booklog I've started:
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn (this is for book club, it's an Agatha Christie style 'cosy' whodunit - hurrah!)
* In Search of Adam ~ Caroline Smailes
Since the last Booklog I've finished:
* Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock
If you recall, I was unsure about this when I started it. It was a free Kindle download and as such, I couldn't help but wonder whether that might be a sign of the level of quality of the writing. It's a fantasy story and there were a lot of peculiar names and places, and references to the particular theology/magic-use to get to grips with very quickly. I'm glad I stuck with it though because once the story really got going it was very good. I'll be honest - I can't remember most of the places or different 'religious' orders that were involved, but the main characters are well-written and very memorable, which is probably more important really. If you have a Kindle - and it's still free - I would recommend you give it a go, though be prepared...the ending is quite abrupt and clearly a set up for another story. Not a huge fault, but I was hoping for a bit more resolution than I feel I got. 3.5/5
* Wish List ~ John Locke
One of my Kindle sale downloads (only 49p!), this is a short thriller with an dark edge of comedy to it. It's difficult to describe how I feel about it as the idea of the story - that the main character types his wildest wishes into a mysterious website and later finds them coming true, but at an unexpected price - is good, but I didn't really enjoy the execution of it. Some unpleasant stuff happens, which is not usually a problem for me, but for some reason it made me feel quite uncomfortable, as did the ending. If you like edgy reads and this is free or very cheap then do try it (there are also others in the same series), but otherwise I couldn't say I recommend it. 1/5
* Clover ~ Susan Coolidge
The fourth (and previously unknown to me) book in the 'What Katy Did' series. I loved the Katy books when I was little and read them over and over. Something about the way everything was described was just magical, so heart-warming and homely - I very much wanted to live in olde America! I was a bit worried that the story of Clover (who is the second sister of the family, after Katy herself) wouldn't live up to my nostalgic memories of the other books, but was pleased to find that it is just as lovely. It's so nice - and very relaxing - to get absorbed in something simple, something that isn't out to shock, thrill or otherwise provoke an extreme reaction in you, just a nice tale of the lives of ordinary people from a different time. 5/5
I'm still reading:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett (Kindle says I'm 45% through it)
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (I'm up to chapter 31 of 53...was hoping to get it finished over Christmas but there were too many other more interesting things to be doing!)
Till Wednesday then, when optimistically I'll be back to doing some writing...but realistically I'll be working on the OU assignment that's due next Friday! ;o)
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As this is my first proper post (excluding the extra Book Challenge one that I did last week) of 2011 I'd like to take a moment to wish you health, happiness and prosperity for the coming year. I hope you had an enjoyable festive season - apart from being struck down with a bit of a cold, I enjoyed my twelve days off work very much. Received some nice new books as Christmas presents, including the phenomenally heavy Nigella Kitchen...seriously, it weighs a ton...I hope hubby isn't expecting me to have a go at every single recipe in it! I also got Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks, which I'm very much looking forward to getting stuck into - it includes two previously unpublished Poirot stories! *hysterical squeee*
Excitingly (for me, at least) I have at last joined the smartphone community that I have envied for so long and am the proud owner of a shiny new HTC Desire. Of course the first app I downloaded was 'Kindle for Android'! I didn't think reading on such a comparatively small screen would be enjoyable, but it actually isn't as bad as I expected - very smooth page turns and good clear text. In a pinch, if I don't happen to have the Kindle with me (though this is rare) it makes a very good alternative.
Of course it wouldn't be a Booklog post without me confessing that the Kindle 'To Be Read' category has increased (again). It's not my fault though - they had a 12 Days of Kindle sale where loads of books were either free or £1! How was I supposed to resist?! The TBR count now stands at 91, which is a good thing really as it means I'll have a lot of choice when it comes to getting through those 100 books for the challenge...
Speaking of that very challenge I should have a lot more to post in these Booklogs from now on, as I hope to get through at least one or two shorter books within each week, as well as plodding on with the longer things that I'm reading. Luckily for me, I've always been a fast reader, so it's not like I'll be skim-reading or anything (that would be cheating anyway!) - I assure you that I savour everything I read, be it 10, 100 or 1000 pages long!
Since the last Booklog I've started:
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn (this is for book club, it's an Agatha Christie style 'cosy' whodunit - hurrah!)
* In Search of Adam ~ Caroline Smailes
Since the last Booklog I've finished:
* Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock
If you recall, I was unsure about this when I started it. It was a free Kindle download and as such, I couldn't help but wonder whether that might be a sign of the level of quality of the writing. It's a fantasy story and there were a lot of peculiar names and places, and references to the particular theology/magic-use to get to grips with very quickly. I'm glad I stuck with it though because once the story really got going it was very good. I'll be honest - I can't remember most of the places or different 'religious' orders that were involved, but the main characters are well-written and very memorable, which is probably more important really. If you have a Kindle - and it's still free - I would recommend you give it a go, though be prepared...the ending is quite abrupt and clearly a set up for another story. Not a huge fault, but I was hoping for a bit more resolution than I feel I got. 3.5/5
* Wish List ~ John Locke
One of my Kindle sale downloads (only 49p!), this is a short thriller with an dark edge of comedy to it. It's difficult to describe how I feel about it as the idea of the story - that the main character types his wildest wishes into a mysterious website and later finds them coming true, but at an unexpected price - is good, but I didn't really enjoy the execution of it. Some unpleasant stuff happens, which is not usually a problem for me, but for some reason it made me feel quite uncomfortable, as did the ending. If you like edgy reads and this is free or very cheap then do try it (there are also others in the same series), but otherwise I couldn't say I recommend it. 1/5
* Clover ~ Susan Coolidge
The fourth (and previously unknown to me) book in the 'What Katy Did' series. I loved the Katy books when I was little and read them over and over. Something about the way everything was described was just magical, so heart-warming and homely - I very much wanted to live in olde America! I was a bit worried that the story of Clover (who is the second sister of the family, after Katy herself) wouldn't live up to my nostalgic memories of the other books, but was pleased to find that it is just as lovely. It's so nice - and very relaxing - to get absorbed in something simple, something that isn't out to shock, thrill or otherwise provoke an extreme reaction in you, just a nice tale of the lives of ordinary people from a different time. 5/5
I'm still reading:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett (Kindle says I'm 45% through it)
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (I'm up to chapter 31 of 53...was hoping to get it finished over Christmas but there were too many other more interesting things to be doing!)
Till Wednesday then, when optimistically I'll be back to doing some writing...but realistically I'll be working on the OU assignment that's due next Friday! ;o)
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Sunday, 19 December 2010
Booklog #8
76. That's the number of books currently in the 'To Be Read' category on my Kindle. 76! I can't help but wonder whether there'd be that many if they were physical not electronic...probably not, I suspect (there'd be nowhere to put them for one thing!). If they'd all cost me full price, then for the well-being of my bank balance I'd probably be begging someone to take the Kindle away from me before I book-shopped my way into abject poverty, but fortunately a good portion of them were either free or less than a pound.
I can't believe how quickly my buying habits have changed. It took me ages to come round to buying music as MP3 downloads instead of CDs - I always felt that I'd never be able to give up the feeling of actually owning it physically, but now it's been a long time since I bought a CD. I'm a total Amazon junkie - all my music downloads come from there, as well as my ebooks!
As I always say to people whose response to the Kindle is "ooh, I could never read on that, I like the feel of a real book too much" - well, I still like a real book too! But not to the extent that I'd consciously turn a blind eye to the benefits that the Kindle can offer me. It doesn't have to be one or the other - there's room in our lives for both, folks!
This week I've started:
Er, nothing I'm afraid - once again it's been a busy time at both work and within the Open University study camp so I've only had time to plug away with the long books that I'm reading.
This week I've finished:
Um, nothing here either. But I hope that by next week (Boxing Day!!) I'll have reached the end of Shatter.
I'm still reading:
The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt
Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock
Only one more post before Christmas...good luck with any last-minute prep you might be doing!
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I can't believe how quickly my buying habits have changed. It took me ages to come round to buying music as MP3 downloads instead of CDs - I always felt that I'd never be able to give up the feeling of actually owning it physically, but now it's been a long time since I bought a CD. I'm a total Amazon junkie - all my music downloads come from there, as well as my ebooks!
As I always say to people whose response to the Kindle is "ooh, I could never read on that, I like the feel of a real book too much" - well, I still like a real book too! But not to the extent that I'd consciously turn a blind eye to the benefits that the Kindle can offer me. It doesn't have to be one or the other - there's room in our lives for both, folks!
This week I've started:
Er, nothing I'm afraid - once again it's been a busy time at both work and within the Open University study camp so I've only had time to plug away with the long books that I'm reading.
This week I've finished:
Um, nothing here either. But I hope that by next week (Boxing Day!!) I'll have reached the end of Shatter.
I'm still reading:
The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt
Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock
Only one more post before Christmas...good luck with any last-minute prep you might be doing!
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Sunday, 24 October 2010
Books, books, books - a new idea!
Hello! Yes, I know it's Sunday night and you're probably wondering why on earth I'm posting, but I was just reading another blogger's post ( The Taming of the Shelves ) and it struck me that the amount and variety of books which I read must surely impact on my writing. I thought that looking at this in more detail could be interesting, or at the very least might suggest books that you may not have tried but may like to.
I'm what you might call a butterfly reader - I flit from book to book depending on my mood, so at any time could have anything up to six or seven different ones on the go. This has increased since I got the Kindle (oops!), the way that it saves your place within each book is just so handy - and of course popping onto the site and downloading new stuff is so easy that it's hard to resist. People sometimes find it hard to understand how I can read multiple books without getting confused, but it's second nature to me. Surely it's no different to watching different TV series? I've watched Lost, Heroes and Sex And The City, but I never got confused when Carrie wasn't on the island or Sylar wasn't in Bloomingdales!
So my idea is to post here every Sunday about what I've read during the week, what I think of it, and anything else book-related that occurs to me. Of course if you have any recommendations please do post them - I'll try most things!
As it's quite late right now - and I have work in the morning - here's a quick starter for ten. This week I finished reading:
Company of Liars ~ Karen Maitland
Please Forgive Me ~ Melissa Hill
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ~ Washington Irvine
Heart of Darkness ~ Joseph Conrad
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~ Lewis Carroll
I'm still reading:
The Book of Secrets ~ Tom Harper
The Children's Book ~ A S Byatt
The Redbreast - Jo Nesbo (this is for my book club)
I'll do some reviewing and scoring next week - but right now my bed's calling me! :oD
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I'm what you might call a butterfly reader - I flit from book to book depending on my mood, so at any time could have anything up to six or seven different ones on the go. This has increased since I got the Kindle (oops!), the way that it saves your place within each book is just so handy - and of course popping onto the site and downloading new stuff is so easy that it's hard to resist. People sometimes find it hard to understand how I can read multiple books without getting confused, but it's second nature to me. Surely it's no different to watching different TV series? I've watched Lost, Heroes and Sex And The City, but I never got confused when Carrie wasn't on the island or Sylar wasn't in Bloomingdales!
So my idea is to post here every Sunday about what I've read during the week, what I think of it, and anything else book-related that occurs to me. Of course if you have any recommendations please do post them - I'll try most things!
As it's quite late right now - and I have work in the morning - here's a quick starter for ten. This week I finished reading:
Company of Liars ~ Karen Maitland
Please Forgive Me ~ Melissa Hill
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ~ Washington Irvine
Heart of Darkness ~ Joseph Conrad
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~ Lewis Carroll
I'm still reading:
The Book of Secrets ~ Tom Harper
The Children's Book ~ A S Byatt
The Redbreast - Jo Nesbo (this is for my book club)
I'll do some reviewing and scoring next week - but right now my bed's calling me! :oD
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Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Back to full strength...well, almost.
So firstly I must apologise for not posting last week...we went to Paris for the weekend, but travelled by coach with - seemingly - the sickest people that could be found en route, who spent the whole journey sounding like they were about to cough out their internal organs. I did my very best positive thinking, surrounding myself with a mental bubble to keep germs out, but inevitably something got me and I started with a cold just as we were a couple of hours from home on the return journey. Curse you germs!! It kept me off work for a full week (I went back yesterday) and while ordinarily a week off work would have been a wonderful opportunity to get some writing done, I just haven't had the mental capacity!
Today then, with a couple of symptoms still lingering, I had to kick my own butt into gear and get some words down. And I'm pleased to say that I have! Project Crunch (chick lit) is now over the 2000 word mark, at 2444. I've finished the opening argument scene that was troubling me in my last post and though I know it'll need revision to tidy it up, I'm pleased with how it's turned out. And I'm glad to have got one chapter under my belt!
Lastly, just a quick update on my relationship with Mr A. Mazon-Kindle...it's true love! The hardest part is holding myself back from buying book after book with just single clicks on the website (I find it easier to browse online rather than through the device. I've got quite a good mix downloaded now - some fantasy, some historical, crime, chick lit and a mixture of modern fiction, as well as a selection of blogs (I love 'Overheard in New York - so funny!). I think that in a year's time or so, when it's much fuller, it will have become one of those 'how did I ever live without this?' kind of things. If you like reading - get one!
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On the plus side though, Paris was amazing - I love it and I want to run away and live there!!
Today then, with a couple of symptoms still lingering, I had to kick my own butt into gear and get some words down. And I'm pleased to say that I have! Project Crunch (chick lit) is now over the 2000 word mark, at 2444. I've finished the opening argument scene that was troubling me in my last post and though I know it'll need revision to tidy it up, I'm pleased with how it's turned out. And I'm glad to have got one chapter under my belt!
Lastly, just a quick update on my relationship with Mr A. Mazon-Kindle...it's true love! The hardest part is holding myself back from buying book after book with just single clicks on the website (I find it easier to browse online rather than through the device. I've got quite a good mix downloaded now - some fantasy, some historical, crime, chick lit and a mixture of modern fiction, as well as a selection of blogs (I love 'Overheard in New York - so funny!). I think that in a year's time or so, when it's much fuller, it will have become one of those 'how did I ever live without this?' kind of things. If you like reading - get one!
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Wednesday, 1 September 2010
A Great Day
Why a great day? Well, there are a number of reasons!
Firstly, I am in love with my newest gadget - my Amazon Kindle. Yes yes, I know it's for reading and not for writing, but it's just so amazing that I can't not mention it! I could harp on about all its features, but it would be easier to recommend that if you love reading, go to Amazon and get one. Now! I was dubious about reading off a screen before I got it, but I needn't have worried as it's actually really good. I actually keep catching myself looking at it and thinking "but surely that's ink printed onto it?" even though I know it can't be...
Secondly, I have had a productive day and got over a thousand words down towards what I'm going to call Project Blake, which is a 'police procedure' crime novel. Ages and ages ago I had a random idea for an opening scene for a book like this (fortunately I wrote it down at the time), and recently an 'investigator' character started clamouring inside my head to be let out, so the two ideas have been put together into one project. It's early days of course, but I'm pretty excited about it. The old adage 'write what you know' seems a good place to start - I work in the forensic department of our local police force so there is a lot of research material and people's expertise sat right there on a plate for me. (NB Of course I would never use real-life cases, people or details in my writing. It's just handy that I can check how things would be done in various scenarios.)
Thirdly, well, it's sunny. And that's always nice! :o)
"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them" ~Walt Disney
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Firstly, I am in love with my newest gadget - my Amazon Kindle. Yes yes, I know it's for reading and not for writing, but it's just so amazing that I can't not mention it! I could harp on about all its features, but it would be easier to recommend that if you love reading, go to Amazon and get one. Now! I was dubious about reading off a screen before I got it, but I needn't have worried as it's actually really good. I actually keep catching myself looking at it and thinking "but surely that's ink printed onto it?" even though I know it can't be...
Secondly, I have had a productive day and got over a thousand words down towards what I'm going to call Project Blake, which is a 'police procedure' crime novel. Ages and ages ago I had a random idea for an opening scene for a book like this (fortunately I wrote it down at the time), and recently an 'investigator' character started clamouring inside my head to be let out, so the two ideas have been put together into one project. It's early days of course, but I'm pretty excited about it. The old adage 'write what you know' seems a good place to start - I work in the forensic department of our local police force so there is a lot of research material and people's expertise sat right there on a plate for me. (NB Of course I would never use real-life cases, people or details in my writing. It's just handy that I can check how things would be done in various scenarios.)
Thirdly, well, it's sunny. And that's always nice! :o)
"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them" ~Walt Disney
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