More for myself than anything really, I thought I’d keep track of every book I read this year, month by month.
Just in case anyone does fancy reading something I’ve mentioned, I’m giving details of the books (no more of a spoiler than you’d read on the blurb) and a rating. My rating system is 1 – 5:
- 1 Awful, the writer should be banished to a far away land
- 2 Poor, I didn’t die of boredom but it was a struggle to reach the end
- 3 Average, fine but I’ll have forgotten about it in a year
- 4 Good, I enjoyed this
- 5 Excellent, hot damn this is a great book and the writer should be knighted
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January’s Books
Title(s): The Divergent Trilogy (Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant) by Veronica Roth
Category: Fiction
About: A ‘young adult’ set of science fiction adventure books. Set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago where society is divided into 5 factions based on personality traits. We follow Beatrice Prior (Tris) who transfers to Dauntless from Abnegation as she tries to conceal her Divergence while fighting ‘the system’.
My Rating: 4, Good.
This kind of combined all the things I like; I enjoy young adult fiction, love sci-fi and am a sucker for a good post-apocalyptic story. It’s well written, I cared about the characters and there weren’t too many plot holes. They’re good holiday books I think, a nice, easy read.
Read this if you like: The Hunger Games, Maze Runner etc.
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Title(s): The Bizarre of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
Category: Fiction
About: A compilation of short stories, some previously unpublished.
My Rating: 2, Poor.
I’m loathe to give my favourite author a rating of poor but I have to be honest, a lot of the stories in this book were complete garbage. A couple I’d also read before but only because I’d sought them out in other publications, but even so, I felt like this was a hastily put together jumble of nonsense – nothing like the King books I know and love. I also found his intro to each story a little self indulgent. But then this is coming from the person who is writing a blog on what she reads so hey, I’m all for a bit of self indulgence.
Read this if you like: Short story compilations, Stephen King (only because you’re a fan), Graham Masterton (writes weird stories with bizarre endings).
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Title(s): The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
Category: Non-Fiction
About: Slightly misleading title really. More about war memorials, graves and rememberance
in general. Told by the author visiting and revisiting notorious sites of the Somme.
My Rating: 3, Average.
I really wanted to like this but it was a bit of a roller-coaster. I went from enjoying the way he wrote to becoming frustrated by purple prose and clichés. Still, it was less ‘boring historian’ than other WWI books I’ve read so I got through it easily enough and probably learned some new stuff- which is never a bad thing.
Read this if you like: WWI as a passing interest (not if you’re a full on historian/expert)
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Title(s): Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Category: Fiction
About: A man’s wife goes missing and all the clues are pointing to him.
My Rating: 4, Good.
I worried that this might be either an average crime novel or worse, chick lit (sorry, I’m not a fan) but it’s actually quite an entertaining thriller. Although I’d sort of worked out what would happen, there were still some nice surprises and I enjoyed the way it was written from both character’s perspectives.
Read this if you like: Derailed (James Siegel), Jodi Picoult
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Title(s): The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Category: Fiction
About: A novella about a pearl diver called Kino who finds the mother of all pearls, which he tries to sell. The pearl buyers are corrupt and this leads Kino on a journey to the city in an attempt to sell the pearl there.
My Rating: 3, Average.
I got through this quickly enough but the story didn’t really engage me. It’s a parable telling the battle of good vs evil and the power of greed and corruption.
Read this if you like: The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck at his best)
That’s it for January – see ya’ll in February :).
I like how you lay it out here. The Pearl had the same effect on me. It was a fast read but I wouldn’t say I connected with it. Thanks for sharing.
It felt a bit like a lecture and also a lesson to not aspire to anything or you’ll be bitten! I bet it’s a hit on school reading lists though :). Thanks for your comment, really glad you liked the blog.
I have actually had it for my students on a reading list for an ESL (English as a Second Language) class, so you were right on!