Tag Archives: challenge

Lisa J. Smith: The Struggle

When I read the first book of the Vampire Diaries series, I already decided to continue with the it, simply because I already have the books. Besides that had I chosen it as bonus book (book you haven’t read that was adapted to a movie/TV show) for BiblioSmiles Summer Book Challenge.

What is it about?

2 of 5 stars

The story picks up right where it had left off and Elena, now aware of Stefanos secret, confronts his brother Damon in search for the other. With the help of friends Bonny and Meredith she manages to find him.

With Stefano more or less safely returned to her, they now have to face a different trial: Someone has stolen Elenas diary and the entries seem all but to prove that Stefano is the killer that prowled around their little town.

Will they be able to prove his innocence?

The reading experience

I honestly felt embarrassed while I read and more than once I wondered why I was even reading this book.

The book has somewhat around 200 pages and throughout all of them I was looking for the actual plot. When I was finished I wasn’t even sure what the purpose of the book was. Stuff happened, people talked, but nothing of importance.  What you can read above is pretty much the entire story line of the book.

Other than that was it reading wise not much different then the first part.

The characters

I still don’t like Elena and Stefano and so far I doubt this will change much.

Where I found the sinister side of Damon interesting in the first book, was I disappointed that it wasn’t really featured this time. He was still portrayed as the bad guy, but already showed signs (quite large and blinking) of become just another love-struck vampire. Though he is the creepy type that forcefully takes what he wants, which is also why I don’t understand the growing interest Elena has in him….
Interesting contrast to the main characters? Yes. Healthy people skills? Hell no.

Meredith and Bonny get a bit more screen time and they are a nice – read with more common sense – change from Elena, but it is still too little to get an actual feel of them. Though one of them seems quite dumb, but I don’t remember which one…

All in all do the characters feel kind of dull and sketchy and I didn’t really develop any kind of connection to either of them so far.

General Opinion

So far the story is far too cheesy for my taste and the characters aren’t really memorable. The fluent writing makes up a bit for this, but the missing plot is still kind of weird.
I was shortly considering to rate it even lower, but even with all the complaining above it still doesn’t feel like a one star book…

I’ll still continue, even if it is only to see if there will be plot one day. 😀

Stuff I’d like to add

As I said for part one was this books‘ title also changed during the Twilight hype. Originally it was called: Der Kampf (The Fight/Struggle), but was changed to Bei Dämmerung (At Dawn/Twilight – I’m not entirely sure which one they mean, though I suppose the later) in 2008.
This name-change subsequently causes the connection from title to content to be very, very thin and technically not existent.

PoiSonPaiNter

© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

Terry Pratchett: Reaper Man

We meet again for another Book-Week and I have a slight feeling that it won’t be the last this year.
The first book I’ve chosen to review is Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. I have read this book some years ago during my last school years and as I said before:

When Fairy posted her review on Reaper Man for her Alphabet-Challenge I couldn’t help myself but to follow DEATH on his journey to understand mortality again, either.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


In the Discworld everyone and everything gets an hourglass that symbolizes their lives‘ time and that tells DEATH when it is time to pick them up. Some sand grains run faster, others slower and some don’t run at all. Until they do. When DEATH is confronted with his own mortality he decides to live the life he now gained by leaving his realm and offering his help on a farm as Bill Door.
With DEATH out of duty the dead people of the Discworld – amongst them former wizard Windle Poons – now have the slight problem of being un-dead or unable to pass on. While every other species creates their own version of DEATH quite fast, humans take longer and the life force that accumulates in the meantime causes quite a lot of trouble for the people of Ankh-Morpork, Windle, his fellow un-dead friends and the other wizards of the Unseen University.

The reading experience

I remember that when I first read it, I was quite captivated by it and didn’t want to stop. When I now read it again it wasn’t like that. I still enjoyed it greatly, but with some knowledge of what was going to happen still in mind and a different look on writing itself, some passages felt different to what I remember. I do believe I also laughed less at some of the jokes, but I’m not entirely sure whom to blame for that.
Pratchett has obviously his own way of writing – especially his Discworld novels – but some sentences bugged me quite a bit, though this might as well have been due to some translation mishaps.
The ideas, however, were quite interesting:

  • DEATH leaves and everything that is dying leaves behind its life force that creates new things that shouldn’t actually be there.
  • Unusual un-dead unite to fight for their rights.
  • Trolleys hatching from Snow Globes gathering to become a Shopping Mall.
  • Different versions of DEATH around the Discworld.

But so far I haven’t come across a Discworld book that wasn’t interesting to read.

The characters

DEATH is one of my favourite characters, both in the Discworld and across literature. His way of (mis)understanding the human nature and exploring it is just brilliant and at times quite hilarious. Seeing him face the weirdness of a mortal life as Bill Door (or Bill Tür as he is called in German) is also quite interesting, because he sees so many things quite different.
The Wizards are always a source for laughter and rolling of eyes, their just so quirky and weird. Their whole attitude stands quite in contrast to the second protagonist Windle Poons, who is rather reasonable for a(n un-dead) wizard. He brought a nice contrast into the chaos caused by the life force.
Though they get little screen time are all the side characters still interesting in their own way, with their own quirky stories. The shy Bogeyman Schleppel was quite great, just as the opposite werewolves Ludmilla and Lupine and the (fake) vampire couple the Winkings. As were the semi-self-conscious Troleys, who toyed with the wizards.
Pratchett just has a great way of creating rather unique characters that are quite likable soon.

General Opinion

Even though I roughly remembered what was going to happen, I still enjoyed this re-read.
With DEATH as main character, I cannot not like this story.
Besides that was it just interesting to read how all of them coped with their different situation (being mortal, being un-dead, being surrounded by Snow Globes, being chased by Trolleys,…).
The only down point I could see, is that at some points the story tried too much to be original, like with the crude writing on the Globes.
It also didn’t become entirely clear to me what the endgame of the Mall was and why the life force was turned into it in the first place (I know it had to go somewhere, but still…).
But it was still a fun read and I’ll probably read it again one day. 🙂

Stuff I’d like to add

If I ever get around to actually do it, I’d like to have a look at this book, Supernatural’s Death takes a Holiday and Torchwood: Miracle Day to look at how differently they handle the concept of Death’s absence.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

DarkFairys Alphabet Reading Challenge

I’ve waited and contemplated quite a while if I take up this challenge, as I am already participating in BiblioSmiles‘ Summer Book Challenge, but Fairy said I could use the same books for her challenge as well.

Like you might anticipate from the name do you chose books for this challenge, that start with a letter from the alphabet, but there are some more rules to it.

The rules

  1.  Articles are generally ignored (E.g. (The) Lord of the Rings)
  2. Numbers are written out (E.g. Nineteen eighty four instead of 1984)
  3. The letters Q, X and Y just have to be somewhere in the title, otherwise it would be to hard 😉
  4. The distinct title of a book within a book series counts. This means Harry Potter would always count for „H“ as every book starts with „Harry Potter and…“ but with other series like The Song of Ice and Fire you can take the individual titles (A Game of Thrones would count as „G“).
  5. Please create a separate Challenge-Page (Example) on which you post the alphabet with the books you have read and a couple of lines of your opinion, but you can also write a post review for each book you’ve read.
  6. Post the link of the challenge page in the comments of the original post (here) and Fairy adds you to the list of participants. You on the other hand have to link her page on your Challenge Page.
  7. The time frame of the challenge is: 15.07.14 – 14.07.15.

How I will participate

As I did with BiblioSmiles‘ challenge will I again make some variations to these rules.
The most important change is that I don’t want to be confined in a time frame and therefore pick the books and just try to finish them, however long it takes me.
The second change is that I will probably write full reviews instead of short ones on the Challenge Page, but I will still link them there.

Other than that have I picked books that I have read so far this year (not books that were finished after the 15th July) and those that I plan to read with the SummerBook Challenge.
I also cheated a bit with a couple of titles as I switched between German and English to fit the letters and as I am reading them in German anyway. Besides I still have quite a bunch of letters I haven’t found a proper book for…
My take on this is that I want to read books according to the Alphabet, but wont want squeeze them into it and just wait until I come across the book that fits. 😉

If you want to participate in this Challenge, be it according to the original rules or your own, let me know or just go over to Fairy’s Page and tell her.

PoiSonPaiNter

Melvin Burgess: Tiger Tiger

While reading The Hunter’s Moon I decided that I wanted to read four books before they might be swapped at the Book Hotel this weekend. The first of them was Tiger Tiger, which subsequently also became the „book in a genre I don’t usually read“ in BiblioSmile’s Summer Book Challenge and thus the first one I finished (and now reviewed).

What is it about?

2 of 5 stars


Steve is fascinated by the tigers in the nearby tiger-park, he especially has taken a shine on the tigress Lila that hunts quite differently from her conspecifics. One night a group of people break into the park and cause a massacrer amongst the endangered species. A few tigers manage to flee thanks to Lila’s abilities, but not even Steve suspects anything when the young girl with the amber eyes appears in his home.

The reading experience

As the book is not even 200 pages long did it only take me a couple of bus rides to finish it. The chapter structure is quite unusual as the different narration strands switch within the chapter so that one part can be what Steve experiences, the next the hunters and the last one being the tigers.
And yes there were parts that depicted the doings and some of the thoughts of the tigers, which was in a way pretty cool, but also quite strange as the thought-process was described in a different writing style as the one for humans. Of course animals think differently, but it felt like a break of style whenever Burgess wrote from the tigers perspective.

The characters

I can’t remember ever reading how old Steve is, but my guess would be that he is between 14-16 (still in school but already attracted to girls). He has a strange obsession with the tigers – especially Lila – which makes him an unintentional ally of the fled big cats. In a way is he quite simple minded and that’s what makes reading about him quite difficult for me as I prefer character with a certain spark to them.
Lila on the other hand had at least the abilities aspect with her. Quite soon it was clear that she isn’t a normal tiger, the term „magical“ was even mentioned a couple of times, which was fitting for what she was able to do. Still, she was still an animal that thought in an animal-way and as I wrote before was it hard to fully grasp her thought-process. I don’t think writing this was easy either, therefore this is an interesting choice for the narrative. The other tigers were mostly mentioned through Lila’s eyes, so we didn’t really get any inside look into them. Still, the magical tiger wasn’t that much tiger-like, but that comes with the abilities I suppose.
The description of the girl was sometimes quite weird and mostly manoeuvred between utterly ridiculous and what-the-****.  Especially the where-did-her-clothes-go? part was quite confusing…
The hunters and remaining humans were all only briefly mentioned and described, usually when their plot line was about to connect with the one from Steve or Lila, but manly the latter one. Their – and everyone’s except Steve’s beside wanting to help the tigers – motives were pretty much obvious: They wanted money, so they killed and collected the tigers – at least they tried to do that.  Nothing too special about it.
In short: There wasn’t really a character I connected with. I pitied a few (the park director, the dead tigers) and shook my head at others (the hunters, Steve, Lila), but nothing that made them special.

General Opinion

There are three things that bug me the most about this story:
#1: The term „magical“ tiger is used so often, but it is nether explained what it even means. How can such a tiger exist? How does it come into being? What else can she do? Would her powers be passed on to others (offspring, human)? I would have liked a little more insight on that, but instead I had to just accept the fact that she is a magical tiger, whose abilities include being able to let clothes vanish…
#2: The ending is pretty open. We don’t know what will happen to the tiger park, to the remaining tigers and so forth. As it is not a continued story this is something I consider to be quite annoying – though open ends in a series can be worse…
#3: I know Lila wants to preserve her race, but was THAT (I don’t want to spoiler it, but if you read it I am pretty sure you will know what I mean) really necessary for doing so? And was it necessary to describe it in young adult fiction? That is really something I do not want to read in a book like that, even if I’m way beyond the target audience.
Other than that was it an ok read. Nothing special, but still interesting enough to continue.

Stuff I’d like to add

For some odd reason I really don’t have to add anything this time…hmm…strange…
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner.

Doctor Who: 30 Days Challenge – Part 3

On my Tumblr page I participated in the Doctor Who Tumblrs 30 Days of Doctor Who Challenge and I thought I might as well give you the collected answers here as well. These are the third ten answers, you can find the first ten here and the second ten here.

The official Tumblr Gif

Day twenty-one: Name a planet that you’d like to visit in the TARDIS. Maybe you’d like to go to the planet the planet of slightly over-inflated beach balls, let us know!

Just like I said it would be the room, I spent most time in the Tardis  on Day 18, would I definitely not mind visiting The Library before the Vashta Nerada invaded it. I’m not sure if I even want to go into Earth’s future, as that would also show me what will become of my planet after I have long passed and that would be kind of creepy…
Other than that, do I not have definite plans for any planets and would be grateful for every world I’d be visiting and curious to explore them.

Day twenty-two: What songs would appear on your Doctor Who playlist? Make us a mixtape!

The songs I associate most with the series are the theme songs, the title music and „500 Miles„.
From the music I usually listen to can I only think of one song that at least has anything to do with space: Rhapsody of Fire – I belong to the Stars.
Guess the mixtape would consist of those songs.

Day twenty-three: What would your Time Lord name be? The Magician? The Carpenter?

I’m not sure if I even want to be a Time Lord as that title brings a lot of responsibilities and stuff…
But to choose a name it would probably be something like The Thinker or The Creator/Writer/Storyteller as I like to think up stories, write them down or share them verbally with those, who want to listen to them.

Day twenty-four: Take a picture with something irl that you think could be from Doctor Who?

Again the picture „with something“ that I skipped.

Day twenty-five: What’s your favorite Doctor Who art? Make sure to give the artist credit if it’s not yours!

As I have no idea which of all those many brilliant things out there I skipped this one too…

Day twenty-six: Show us your best Doctor Who cosplay but you can only use things you can find in your closet.

I don’t (have a) cosplay to show, so I had to skip again…

Day twenty-seven: Who is your favorite Doctor Who-related tumblr that isn’t us?

And another skip as I don’t know that many Tumblr who fit the bill…

Day twenty-eight: Write an episode summary for Series 8! What do you think the Twelfth Doctor and Clara will have to face?

If I knew the character of the new Doctor better this probably wouldn’t be much of a problem, but an episode like this would be interesting:
The Doctor and Clara strand in a desert and stumble upon a group of researchers. Together they find the way into a buried ancient city. Setting out to explore it they find prove that other people have discovered this before them and that none of them had made it out again.

Day twenty-nine: Who is your favorite Time Lord other than the Doctor? The Rani? The Master?

The Master is quite fun in a strange kind of way, especially John Simms version. From what I saw of the old Master – the Roger Delgado version – does he seem even stranger than Simms, as they had the hypnosis part still in his character and the shots of that looked rather silly. Other than that have I not seen that much of other Time Lords like the Rani. The most I know about her and a couple of others is from the the story „The Ten Doctors“ by Comic artist Rich Morris.

Day thirty (20 July): Make a TARDIS out of things you find in your room!

I thought about doing this, but unfortunately I don’t have fitting materials nor the patients to actually build a TARDIS I’d be satisfied enough showing…
I had fun doing this challenge and I hope you at least enjoyed it a bit as well.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the Gif lies with BBC America and the official Doctor Who Tumblr.

Doctor Who: 30 Days Challenge – Part 2

On my Tumblr page I participate in the Doctor Who Tumblrs 30 Days of Doctor Who Challenge and I thought I might as well give you the collected answers here as well. These are the second ten answers, you can find the first ten here and the last ten will be covered later.

The official Tumblr Gif

Day eleven: Name a who-ism you use irl! Do you like to run around saying allons-y? Do you tell people not to blink?

As the majority of people I’m around wouldn’t get who-ism’s as such, I rarely use any. Though there is the occasional „Allons-y“ or Cyberman/Dalek-quote around those that do get them. But the most quoted phrase is „Are you my Mummy?“ as the festivals I attend, usually have at least one booth selling gas masks…

Day twelve: Come up with a name for a Doctor Who recipe! Something like Davros donuts or Prisoner Zero pizza.

I barely cook/bake/etc. anything and you expect me to name a recipe? No, sorry, this task is too challenging for me…
Besides it probably wouldn’t be more creative than „Fishfingers and Custard“ anyway…

Day thirteen: Who would be your ideal Team TARDIS?

Puh…I liked the combination in Journeys End and it’d be interesting to see something like that happen with other companions, but I am of the belief that there is no such thing as an ideal Team TARDIS. If the combination fits, it doesn’t matter who is occupying the space ship, either as Doctor or as companion.

Day fourteen: Mods are asleep! Anything goes!

Well, if anything goes then I’ll be using this day to advertise a bit for the Doctor Who-posts on my Blog.
Instead of posting one for the series in general, my first post was about the Bad Wolf Day in 2013 and where I subsequently „hid“ the slices of paper I had prepared in a fit of nerdiness.
The next ones were then a couple of months later for the 50th anniversary and a review for The Day of the Doctor special.
Still the one that would become my most viewed post was still to come.
In the beginning of this year I wrote an analysing tale for the Elevator Meme that seemed to be interesting for quite some people and has a huge presence of the Eleventh Doctor, but when I posted my post about the 2048 Doctor Who Edition, the clicks came in like for no other post before that (by now more than 1500 have looked at it since April).  The fact that the latter post is higher than the Kasteborous version in the Google search for the topic, is still quite creepy…
Anyway, I am pretty sure there will be more Doctor Who related post (excluding the posts with the collected answers for this challenge).

Day fifteen: Which regeneration of the Doctor would you most like to meet and why?

From what I’ve seen so far I am pretty sure that each Doctor would be interesting to meet. They all have their own interesting stories to tell and their own unique way to share them. You’d have seriousness with the First, Second and Ninth (and War), lots of research and technical developments with the Third and Tenth, silliness with the Fourth and Eleventh, compassion with the Fifth and Eighth and more interesting character trades with the the Sixth and Seventh. Meeting either of them would be fascinating, but it would most likely also mean that I’m in big trouble. So, I’m not so sure if I even WANT to meet the Doctor. 😀

Day sixteen: Which episode or scene made you feel all the feels?

There were several episodes of the new era that made me go emotional, but most of all The End of Time Pt. 2 and again Journeys End, that I also mentioned as one of my favourite episodes with day five. Vincent and the Doctor also had a strong emotional grasp on me, but more for how they helped Van Gogh and not because of what happened in the episode like in the other ones.

Day seventeen: Name a crossover that you’d love to see.

Crossovers are something I really enjoy if they are made well and Doctor Who has the potential to be combined with many other series/movies/books/etc.. The one you most come across is probably (Super)WhoLock – the Tumblr-Trinity so to speak. While it sounds fun, I am not sure how that would actually work. I tried thinking up a setting regarding the semi-popular Elevator Meme where not just those two (three) meet up, but also several other Fandoms.

Day eighteen: The TARDIS has a near infinite number of rooms including a swimming pool, a library, and a swimming pool inside the library. Which room would you like to spend time in?

So many, many rooms to choose from… Aside from me wanting to explore every last one of them would I probably spent a lot of time in the library. Who wouldn’t want to have a look at all those different books?

Day nineteen: What’s your favorite Doctor Who-related youtube video?

I’m not that much of a Youtuber, but I enjoyed the 500 Miles cast video and its fan made answer. I also like the self-made trailers and crossovers, so many incredible people have created.

Day twenty: Think of the last movie you saw. Would the protagonist be a good companion? Or maybe they’d be the villain?

When I first read this question the last movie was X-Men: Days of Future Past and I doubt the mutants would make either good companions or villains, simply because there abilities are too different to what exists in the Who(ni)verse and the whole setting would be quite strange…it would be one of those Crossovers that wouldn’t really work without much thought put into it.
The actual last movie I’ve seen is „The Intouchables“ and I guess you could put Driss and Philippe in a setting with The Doctor as one time companions. It’d probably be one of their strange adventures, in a way like „Vincent and The Doctor„, and I can see that one happening better than the X-Men one.
In ten days you will get the last set of answers for the challenge. If you want to get them on time just follow my Tumblr page: Poisonpainter
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the Gif lies with BBC America and the official Doctor Who Tumblr. I also do not claim any rights for the song and video.

Doctor Who: 30 Days Challenge – Part 1

As one challenge isn’t enough I also participate in the Doctor Who Tumblrs 30 Days of Doctor Who Challenge on my Tumblr page and I thought I might as well give you the collected answers here as well. These are the first ten answers the other twenty will be covered separately.

The official Tumblr Gif

Day one (21 June): Who was your first Doctor?

For this one I’d like to simply quote my Post for the 50th anniversary of the show:

The first ever episode that, I think, I watched was “Tooth and Claws” with David Tennant as The Doctor. I decided to watch this episode because it had werwolves in it and as I am actually not that much into Sci-Fi and more into Fantasy stuff I just wanted to see how they did that. Needless to say I was pretty confused by it and didn’t watch more of it for quite a while.
But as I still also had enjoyed watching it and some other snippets from flipping through the TV channels and I later wanted to know what all these quotes and pictures on Tumblr pages were about, I gave it another try.
And what can I say? I’ve been hooked ever since.
Christopher Eccleston‘s Ninth Doctor with his grinning in the face of danger just made me keep watching. It’s a pity he’d only been with the show for one season, but it was a fantastic season.

In short: Even though Tennant was the first I actually saw, do I consider Eccleston to be my first Doctor, as he was the one that got me hooked on the show.

Day two: Who is your favorite companion, either full time or one off?

As I still haven’t seen that much of the classic series can I not include every companion in my consideration, but from the new series my favourite companion is definitely Donna. I not just like her comebacks and attitude, but also the fact that she is an everyday woman with a none-en-vogue stature (aka not skinny). It’s also quite nice to see someone disagree with The Doctor in such a fun way and so often. Of course the other companions argue with him as well, but so far none of them made it to the „Donna, Human, No“-Level she set. Her leaving was a horrible moment for me and I really like the fanmade ending where The Doctor one day returns her memories, when she is about to pass away.
Other great companions that I like include the highly underrated Martha and of course Sarah Jane, as beautiful bridge between the old and the re-newt series.
Recently I watched a couple of classic episodes and from them and some other stuff I am pretty certain that Ace will become a character I probably like nearly as much as Donna. Just like Jamie and Liz also seem to become some of my favourites and Zoe, whom I already admire for her skills.

Day three: Invent a new feature for the Sonic Screwdriver. We know it doesn’t do wood, but can it clean up spilled drinks?

As I’m not that inventive and far too logic driven, I guess the new feature would be one that actually had something to do with emitting sonic waves. It would be good for sending understandable messages to species that use those to communicate and not for destroying their ear drums. 😉

Day four: Who has been your favorite historical appearance? Was it Madame de Pompadour? Maybe Winston Churchill?

There were so many interesting ones already that I don’t really want to decide. Though the one that got me emotionally the most was Vincent Van Gogh. It was just such a brilliant moment when The Doctor and Amy brought him to the exhibition in the future and the curator said all those wonderful things about him.
My other favourite appearances would be William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens as I really enjoyed their episodes; especially the „Expelliarmus„.

Day five: What’s your favorite episode?

There are so many great episodes that I like to re-watch on occasion and that I always enjoy, but I think my most favourite episodes are „The Stolen Earth“ and „Journeys End“ due to all the companions participating and saving the day together with the Doctor. The feeling I get from those episodes is also present in the incredible anniversary special „Day of the Doctor„. I guess I just like it when different aspects of a story come together. Other episodes I like include „The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances„, „The End of Time„, „Midnight„, „The Eleventh Hour“ and „The Lodger„.

Day six: If you were the Doctor, what would your catch phrase be? Ahoy, mateys? To infinity and beyond?

As I don’t want to be the Doctor I can’t imagine having any kind of catch phrase, I don’t even have a phrase I regularly say in everyday conversation and even if I had one I’d probably be annoyed by it after using it a couple of times…
Surprisingly the Doctor’s catch phrases never bothered me while watching the series, it’s rather the overuse within the Fandom that’s bugging me.

Day seven: Take a selfie in front of a TARDIS! It could be a poster, a toy, a drawing, anything! Just make sure to tag it with #infrontofthetardis!

I skipped this one. Apart from the fact that I don’t have a Tardis nearby, do I generally not post pictures of myself online.

Day eight: What’s your favorite Doctor Who audio adventure? If you don’t listen to the audios, click here tell us which summary you think sounds exciting!

I’m not that much into audio books, but I guess the one that would interest me the most would be „The Light at the End“ as anniversary story.

Day nine: Which Doctor Who alumni would you like to bring back? This could be either a character or an actor, your choice!

I wouldn’t mind if The Doctor would meet some more of his old companions, like he did with Sarah Jane, Liz and the Brigadier. It is so very unfortunate that we will never see Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney reprise their roles as Sarah Jane and the Brigadier again…
It’d be interesting to see if they recognized each other and how they would interact. I’d also like if some of his newer companions would return again, like Martha and Jack for example. And of course Donna, as she is – like I wrote for Day Two – my favourite so far.

Day ten: What’s your favorite piece of music from the show? Did you like Vale Decem? Or perhaps Rose’s Theme?

The theme for Eleven (I am the Doctor) was fun and exciting, as it always started when the action was about to climax, but in general do I not really know the names of the themes and simply enjoy them. Though the song that stuck with me most beside that theme was „I can’t decide“ by the Scissor Sisters that was ordered to be played by the Master in „Last of the Time Lords„. It was just so fitting and fun to watch.
In ten days you will get the next set of answers for the challenge. If you want to get them on time just follow my Tumblr page: Poisonpainter
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the Gif lies with BBC America and the official Doctor Who Tumblr.

BiblioSmiles' Summer Book Challenge 2014

A couple of days ago the BiblioSmiles literature Blog posted a reading challenge for the summer that really sounded interesting:

When I was little, every summer my town library would have a summer book challenge to keep our young brains from turning to mush from all the sunshine and lack of schooling. Or video games. It might have been video games.
For every book you read, you logged it, and you accumulated points, earning little trinkets like those erasers in the shapes of ice cream cones, or wacky pencils, or puntastic posters. Being the little budding lit nerd I was, I was all over that.[…]
So, for summer 2014, here’s the 10 Book Challenge that I’m going to attempt to accomplish between June and August. Ten books has us at 3.3 books a month, which may be ambitious depending on the sort of books we choose. But that’s why it’s a challenge! Based on what books you pick, this can either be really difficult or fairly whimsical and easy.
From: Summer Book Challenge 2014

In short: The challenge consists of 10 categories to choose a book from (and a bonus category) and to read them in the months from June to August.
As I recently started to properly read again (as in: not starting a book and letting it lie somewhere for years) is this challenge also interesting for me to read some of the books that still wait in my shelve(s).
Even though I am a relatively fast reader (200-400 pages are a short read for me), if I would actually try to read ten books in three (by now two and a half) months I wouldn’t really be able to finish the challenge as this time of the year is also the festival season and I’m also otherwise occupied at times.
The beginning of the month was already covered with my Journey Through a bit of Germany and the Metalfest, for which I will add travel logs and report later.
The next one (Rockharz) will follow mid July and maybe another one in August (M’era Luna), taking away time on the weekend that I would otherwise spent reading.
Therefore I picked a book fitting for the category, but I will read them in my own pace and not within the set time limit and post a review linking back to the challenge afterwards.
This way I’ll do some proper reading and be able to add a few book reviews to my Blog.
But let’s have a look at the

The Categories and the Books

I have chosen.
1. A book you always meant to get around to
As my list of unread books is just as long as BiblioSmiles‘ Gabrieles, this one isn’t really an easy choice. But as I am tired of not properly understanding the movies have I chosen „The Lord of the Rings“ for this one, though I am not sure if I’ll also add „The Hobbit“ and „The Silmarillion“ to get the complete grasp of the story.
2. Reread a childhood favorite
This one is actually easy as I just picked the one that first came to mind when thinking about books I read when I was a child/teenager: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I’m curious already if I’ll like the book as much as I did back then or if I’ll ruin the memory with this. >_<
3. A book someone else picks for you
As many people have recommended it for me I’ll actually start with the „Game of Thrones“ series. The alternative suggestion I got from DarkFairy would be the first book of James Barclay’s „Chronicles of the Raven„, but as I am still missing most of that series this is more difficult to read than the other one.
4. A book in a genre you don’t usually read
I hope young adult fiction counts for this… It still has some Fantasy elements, but it is aimed at a far younger audience. The book I’ve chosen is Melvin Burgess‘ „Tiger, Tiger“ that I’m already reading as it is one of four books I wanted to actually read before they might be swapped in the Book Hotel I’ll be staying at with my mum towards the end of July.
5. Something originally written in another language
Well, so far every book I’ve chosen was originally written in another language (English). We do have a couple of good (fantasy) authors here in Germany, but the majority of books are still translated into German. Nevertheless have I chosen a book that I will also read in English (just like GoT, but that’s mostly because the German versions are all split into two books) and whose special edition I have borrowed from Nazgul: „The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“ (which incidentally was Gabrieles suggestion for 3.)
6. A book in a different format
This one I have also already started reading before knowing about the Challenge. It’s an Anthology (collection of short stories) that was created for the anniversary of The Forum. It’s called „Unter dem Weltenbaum“ (Underneath the World Tree) and contains stories about the roots, trunk and branches of the Arbor Phantastica or Yggdrasil by different authors. I sent two of my stories (Unterwelt and Erde), into the competition as well, but they weren’t chosen.
7. A classic
As I already have mentioned a couple of times, do I really like Goethe’s „Faust“ (see: Mephisto), but as it stands have I never finished Part Two of the tragedy. But this will be changed by the end of the challenge. 🙂 I might even reread Part One as well, if I can find it…
8. A book by your favorite author that you haven’t read yet
This one is tricky as I don’t really have an author I consider my favourite. There are three of whom I at least have more than one unread book: Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and Marcus Heitz. I am still not sure which book I will choose, but it is highly likely that I will finally finish – more likely begin anew – King’s „The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla“ as like „Kinder des Judas“ this one is still unfinished for quite some time now.
9. A nonfiction book
A couple of years ago we had a secret Santa at work and the present I picked was Stephen Hawking’s „A Brief History of Time“ and I think it’s about time I get around to reading it.
10. A book either published or a bestseller from the year you were born
This one is tricky as the most books I found in the list for my year aren’t that easily available for me – or simply didn’t sound interesting enough. The one I picked is Ray Bradbury’s „A Graveyard for Lunatics“ that is actually available in my local library. (And now you all know my year of birth and subsequently my age >_<)
Bonus book! 11. A book you haven’t read that was adapted to a movie/TV show
As I am already planning on continuing the series I’ll probably continue with the second part of „The Vampire Diaries“ – the review for the first one is still on my to-finish list though.
Now you know which books I have picked and I will give you a review after I finished them (though maybe not for 8. as that would seem odd without the other ones).
Maybe you want to try it too? Just pick a couple of books and make sure to actually read them. 😉
PoiSonPaiNter
Edit: You can find my current reading (and review) status here: Summer Book Challenge