Book Logging
Feb. 8th, 2014 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckDoctor Who, Series 2, volume 4: As Time Goes By - Unlike other volumes, this one was just a single story. The Doctor, Amy and Rory visit WWII era Casablanca and have to save the world. There was nothing spectacular here, but it wasn't awful.
Doctor Who, Series 3, volume 1: The Hypothetical Gentleman - This volume has two stories with the Doctor and Amy and Rory. Neither were anything spectacular, but the second one seemed a bit out of place-- It should have come early in the run of stories with Amy and Rory in them, not this late, because the focus is on Rory and the Doctor not quite trusting each other or knowing what to do with each other.
LeGuin, Ursula. Catwings - This took me about ten minutes to read. Somehow, I expected something more substantial before I saw the actual book. The library has two sequels (I've heard that there are three), so I may go on with the series. The book's basically what it says on the cover-- It's about four young cats with wings. They start out in the city and end up in the country.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted - I've been meaning to read this for years and just never got around to it. Then Mark of Mark Reads picked it to read and discuss at a rate of two chapters a day. That, I thought I could do. I think it's just as well that I was doing this as a read along. Otherwise, I might well have found it too painful to keep reading. Things just kind of pile up on Ella. She's never less than engaging as a heroine, so it's hard to see terrible thing after terrible thing happen to her. Her curse-- that she must be obedient-- is all pervasive and puts her in terrible danger.
Started but not finished:
Castle, Jayne. Desperate and Deceptive - Usually I breeze right through this author's books, but this two-in-one volume stopped me dead. I think it was at least partly because these were mysteries rather than romances and at least partly because these are older works being reissued. Castle/Krentz/Quick currently writes books that I enjoy, but her early work tends to repel me. She has a thing for heroes who take away the heroine's agency 'for her own good,' and I hate that passionately. I wouldn't mind so much if the hero weren't invariably right. Anyway-- not for me.
Columbus, Chris and Ned Vizzini. House of Secrets - Cordelia remarked several times on this book because there's a character named Cordelia in it. Unfortunately, I didn't really connect with any of the characters, and I wasn't intrigued enough by the set up to stick with the book.
Edwards, Julie Andrews. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles - GoodReads kept recommending this one, so, since the library had it, I thought I'd try it. I read about three chapters and felt that the whole thing was dreadfully self conscious and trying too hard to be a children's book. I've got plenty to read, so back this one goes.
Grabenstein, Chris. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library - I actually read about three quarters of this. Then I realized that I wasn't having any fun. I was sort of grimly forcing my way forward. The book is obviously intended to be fun. It's just that, in spite of it being set in a library, it's not my sort of fun. The games the characters in the book are playing are things I'd go out of my way to avoid, and I can tell that a big part of the fun of this book is meant to be figuring out the puzzles as the characters do. Once one takes away the puzzles, there's not much left to the book. The characters aren't well developed or particularly interesting. The stakes aren't very high, either.
Stewart, Paul and Chris Riddell. Fergus Crane - I read the first four or five chapters, and I thought I could see the shape of the story from that. Looking at the end proved me correct. I decided I didn't care enough to read the middle. I don't think there was anything wrong with the book. It just wasn't what I was looking for right then.
Stroud, Jonathan. The Screaming Staircase - I gave this one sixty pages just to be sure it wouldn't catch me. I knew from the start that it probably wouldn't-- It's too close to horror. The highly dangerous ghosts didn't excite me, and I didn't find the characters compelling enough to keep me reading. I don't think there's anything wrong with this book. It certainly seemed well written. It's just not my sort of story.
Doctor Who, Series 3, volume 1: The Hypothetical Gentleman - This volume has two stories with the Doctor and Amy and Rory. Neither were anything spectacular, but the second one seemed a bit out of place-- It should have come early in the run of stories with Amy and Rory in them, not this late, because the focus is on Rory and the Doctor not quite trusting each other or knowing what to do with each other.
LeGuin, Ursula. Catwings - This took me about ten minutes to read. Somehow, I expected something more substantial before I saw the actual book. The library has two sequels (I've heard that there are three), so I may go on with the series. The book's basically what it says on the cover-- It's about four young cats with wings. They start out in the city and end up in the country.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted - I've been meaning to read this for years and just never got around to it. Then Mark of Mark Reads picked it to read and discuss at a rate of two chapters a day. That, I thought I could do. I think it's just as well that I was doing this as a read along. Otherwise, I might well have found it too painful to keep reading. Things just kind of pile up on Ella. She's never less than engaging as a heroine, so it's hard to see terrible thing after terrible thing happen to her. Her curse-- that she must be obedient-- is all pervasive and puts her in terrible danger.
Started but not finished:
Castle, Jayne. Desperate and Deceptive - Usually I breeze right through this author's books, but this two-in-one volume stopped me dead. I think it was at least partly because these were mysteries rather than romances and at least partly because these are older works being reissued. Castle/Krentz/Quick currently writes books that I enjoy, but her early work tends to repel me. She has a thing for heroes who take away the heroine's agency 'for her own good,' and I hate that passionately. I wouldn't mind so much if the hero weren't invariably right. Anyway-- not for me.
Columbus, Chris and Ned Vizzini. House of Secrets - Cordelia remarked several times on this book because there's a character named Cordelia in it. Unfortunately, I didn't really connect with any of the characters, and I wasn't intrigued enough by the set up to stick with the book.
Edwards, Julie Andrews. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles - GoodReads kept recommending this one, so, since the library had it, I thought I'd try it. I read about three chapters and felt that the whole thing was dreadfully self conscious and trying too hard to be a children's book. I've got plenty to read, so back this one goes.
Grabenstein, Chris. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library - I actually read about three quarters of this. Then I realized that I wasn't having any fun. I was sort of grimly forcing my way forward. The book is obviously intended to be fun. It's just that, in spite of it being set in a library, it's not my sort of fun. The games the characters in the book are playing are things I'd go out of my way to avoid, and I can tell that a big part of the fun of this book is meant to be figuring out the puzzles as the characters do. Once one takes away the puzzles, there's not much left to the book. The characters aren't well developed or particularly interesting. The stakes aren't very high, either.
Stewart, Paul and Chris Riddell. Fergus Crane - I read the first four or five chapters, and I thought I could see the shape of the story from that. Looking at the end proved me correct. I decided I didn't care enough to read the middle. I don't think there was anything wrong with the book. It just wasn't what I was looking for right then.
Stroud, Jonathan. The Screaming Staircase - I gave this one sixty pages just to be sure it wouldn't catch me. I knew from the start that it probably wouldn't-- It's too close to horror. The highly dangerous ghosts didn't excite me, and I didn't find the characters compelling enough to keep me reading. I don't think there's anything wrong with this book. It certainly seemed well written. It's just not my sort of story.
