Thursday 25 September 2014

The Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon Non-update

Sign up for the Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon!!!In the spirit of remaining positive on this blog, I am just going to state that there will never be a final progress report on this read-a-thon. Onwards and upwards right! Maybe I will kill my TBR pile when I find another job in the next read-a-thon - or during the short holiday coming up!

Toodles!

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon Progress Report

Sign up for the Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon!!!I wish I had good news to add here. I don't. My read-a-thon has become a work-a-thon.

My already tight schedule has become tighter than JK Rowling's lips were while we were still waiting for the end of the series.

For this entire week, we have compulsory staff development for 3 hours after school each day. Next week the tests begin. I still have to prep lessons for the week. Anyone can do the maths. My goal at present is to get more than 4 hours sleep a night. And no. I didn't leave this all for the last minute. I have been working on it for weeks already.

But, just because this is an update post, I will update my pathetic progress.

I have finished 1 book. (That was on Day 1)
I have read a grand total of 220 pages.

Yeah.

Well, so much for the procrastinating. Back to work I go.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon Progress Report and Challenge

Sign up for the Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon!!! I am pleased to announce that I have FINALLY finished The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. I have been wading through it as though it were a marsh made of glue: very slowly and with great effort and little enjoyment.

I am glad to say, though, that it improved as the book neared the end. Enough for me to buy the next one? Nah. There are other books that are out there that I would rather read.

Day 1: Progress
Pages read: 112 (Excellent for a work day!)
Books completed: 1

Now reading: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett.

Challenge: Day 2

Paij at My Love for Reading Keeps Growing  has been kind enough to host today's challenge.

Random Page Challenge

For this challenge, you must pick a random page from the book you are reading and share it, without giving anything about the book away.




This is from pg. 12 of Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

'Inhume?'
'I think it's like exhume, O flooding of the waters, only it's before they bury you.'

Saturday 6 September 2014

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

It is strange. I am sitting here, having just finished reading Brave New World, and I don't know what to think. I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved the language and the story line kept moving. I would pick the book up and, in what would feel like no time at all, I was chapters ahead of where I had started. So why didn't I like the story? Because clearly I did?

Aldous Huxley creates a utopian world where everyone is happy. People are made (yes, not born) to be satisfied with their jobs, they have soma to make them happy and are conditioned from a young age to not fear death. Also in this world, recreational sex is encouraged. There are no lifelong partnerships, no Gods and no unpleasantness. As a reader though, I could not help but feel that all this happiness was frivolous. There was no value to any of the lives being lived. People were like bees in a hive, each performing their tasks and doing what they were told, their existence falsely sweetened by honey. It was definitely thought-provoking especially as we live in a society that equates freedom with happiness. There was no freedom. There was no art. Even their entertainment was shallow and meaningless. But then, in a perfect society, one cannot have people asking questions as a result of independent thought because questions lead to change which leads to imbalance which is an imperfection. Excuse the slippery-slope; I did not write the book.

Half way through the text, a character is introduced that really highlights these points. I thoroughly enjoyed his debate with the leader. While I might not have agreed with his methods, I could clearly see his motivation behind his actions. He provided an interesting contrast to what had been shown of civilisation before. He was also the character the reader was most likely to identify with - at least in some ways. I also appreciated that while he was questioning civilisation, the reader was made to realise that his views were not perfect either (and in that way, perhaps being 'perfect').

This review is proving more difficult than I had imagined to write. I feel I am trying to sprout a poor literary essay while trying not to give any spoilers - a pointless task. I am going to leave this here and sit and ponder my thoughts on my own. I have a feeling that this book is going to continue floating through my head for quite some time.

I gave it a 5/5 star rating on good reads.



Friday 5 September 2014

Tackle your TBR Read-a-thon

Sign up for the Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon!!!If there ever was a read-a-thon I should do, it is this one. Can the timing be any worse though? I have a gazillion tests to finish setting for this term, and only 5 weeks before the kids start writing their final exams for the year, so I have all those exams to set too - and all the assessment tasks for that term!

But, I need to take some time out for myself and I have promised myself that I am going to do just that. And that is why I am going to sign up for this read-a-thon. It will encourage me to take breaks from working and spend some time reading instead.

I have a few books on my TBR pile that I am strongly considering reading for this.



Come hell or high water, I am going to finish The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter! The pace has definitely picked up, but the boredom I felt during the first half is still very vivid in my memory. And even though the pace has picked up, I still can't say that the story is exactly thrilling. I don't see myself continuing with this series. One was enough.


Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the book for the month of September for The Little Book Club. I feel that I should read it, but some soul on the internet (I can't remember who it was) said that if you enjoyed Twilight, you will love this. I DETESTED Twilight. So, I suddenly find myself not very keen to read this at all.


A really good friend bought The God's Trilogy, a collection of three Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, for me. I have loved the Discworld, and am looking forward to diving into this as soon as I can! I have not read any of the gods books before, my favourite are the City Watch books. I am confident that this will not disappoint!

I have read all the Cherub books by Robert Muchamore in the series up until this one. I read them so that I could give the boys I teach a few very gripping reviews that would encourage them to try out the series. I have two left to read that I have purchased, but I have been putting them off, because, well, let's face it, I am not a 14-year-old boy. Brigand is the next for me to read, and at least, they go very quickly. I can kill two a day. Maybe this would be a good option for a read-a-thon after all.


Look familiar? Yes, Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo was on my TBR for Bout of Books. Maybe I will get past this one in this read-a-thon? I am not racing to read this. The first book was ok, but I am missing where all the hype is. Perhaps the series improves? There is only one way to find out.


Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi was an impulse feel good buy - not because romance is my genre, but because I like books. I had heard of the book before, saw it on special and bought it. I have also been trying to read outside my favourite genres, and at the time I had bought this, I think I could only notch two or three Sci-fi books to my reading post. Maybe I will enjoy it, maybe I won't. Won't know until I read it.

Cassandra Clare... I read the Mortal Instruments series and thought it was ok. I thought that some of the girls I teach would enjoy it, and lets face it, at least the female lead has more important things to do in that series than just get a boyfriend. One of the ladies at my favourite bookshop assured me that The Infernal Devices series is even better, and hence I bought this one so that I could give it a try. (The kids I teach HATE reading, and I try everything to get them to change their minds.) As a result, Clockwork Angel is on my TBR again. Maybe this month I will feel inspired to read it. Actually, considering the amount of work I have to do, maybe some light reading would be better.


My actual TBR pile is quite a bit larger than this. I have some books set aside for the holiday (coming up in a few weeks) because I don't want anything to get in the way of the reading experience. I also have more books that are to my taste and not selected for reluctant readers.