Tag Archives: reading

Reading Together #4

To keep this one going you get another – this time belated, due to Laptop and Hobbit-reasons – instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from yesterday’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m still reading „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin, one of the books I had chosen as A book someone else picked for me for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge.
I’m currently on page 515, so I managed to read about 300 pages since last Tuesday, by mostly reading in the bus and finishing the chapters I started afterwards and on occasion reading regardless of that.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Jon was breaking fast on applecakes and blood sausage when Samwell Tarly plopped himself down on the bench.

or in German:

Jon frühstückte gerade Apfelkuchen und Blutwurst, als Samwell Tarly sich auf der Bank niederließ.

I didn’t continue to read until I published the post to make this a Jon-hat-trick, I just couldn’t resist and this way I wrote one of the last few stories for the Advent Calendar instead of reading in the bus.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I’m not sure if I like the way the tv-show changes stuff, but I mentioned that before. Besides, even if I know I should stop watching the episode after reading the chapters portrayed in it, I kind of can’t because it’s still interesting to watch. This series is just too damn captivating…
Story-wise did a lot happen in the past chapters and I’m quite certain that this was only the beginning. Neither of the Starks is in a very good situation, the Lannisters plot and maim as they see fit and the Targaryen’s have reached their destination.
I by the way really enjoy the portrayal of the characters in the book so far, especially Arya and Daenarys. I really liked how Ned handled the whole thing with Needle and I grinned while Dany gave her brother a piece of her mind upon their arrival in Vaes Dothrak.
On the other hand was I just as shocked as Catelyn when she met her sister again.
As for the men, I don’t know what to make of Tyrion.
He’s an interesting character, with good advise and clever lines, but he still seems a bit too superior to me at times. Even with his physical restraints he can do a lot of things with seemingly little effort. Of course his pain is mentioned, but it still feels a bit too much like „look at this character, he is an imp, but look how awesome he is“. Kind of like one of those imba-characters in games or role plays. I still enjoy the scenes he’s in though.
Jon on the other hand is one of those characters that I don’t want to like, due to a possible death, but still do. It’s great how he changed from lordling to tutor and protector of his Black Brothers.
I have noticed that the characters have a different view on peoples ages, but when I read Sansa’s comment on how old someone was who was closing in on twenty two I certainly had to take a moment to let this sink…
Sure she is eleven and a brat (my least favourite of the Stark-bunch by the way), but people can’t have high life expectancies if mid-thirties are considered close to death and mid-twenties regarded as old, but it does fit the context.

4. Are you reading books only once or are there books you read/re-read several times?

Generally I read books only once.
Though, when I was a teenager I re-read the first three books of the Harry Potter series a couple of times. I do believe it was something around 7-5-3 times, maybe more often, maybe the fourth one as well, I can’t say any more. I just didn’t want to leave that world and the next book was still far away…
With BiblioSmiles challenge I am going to re-read the first one again as childhood favourite.
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.
There are also a couple of other books that I wouldn’t mind re-reading, simply because I can’t quite remember them (like Waywalkers and Timekeepers by Catherine Webb), but that wont be done quite soon I guess, as I still have a couple others on my list.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
As you’ve probably noticed was this post a bit delayed, but with my Laptop being at the service and me getting some sleep before the Hobbit-midnight premier last night it wasn’t really possible for me to finish the post in time.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together #3

My Advent Calendar has started yesterday and I feel like doing this again, so you get another instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m still reading „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin, one of the books I had chosen as A book someone else picked for me for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge.
I’m currently on page 259, so I managed to read about 200 pages since last Tuesday, by mostly reading in the bus and finishing the chapters I started afterwards.
Sometimes I continued reading regardless of that, but I’ll get to that later.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Jon was showing Dareon how best to deliver a sidestroke when the new recruit entered the practice yard.

or in German:

Jon zeigte Dareon wie man am Besten einen Seitenhieb ausführte als der neue Recruit das Trainingsfeld betrat.

For some odd reason I again stopped at a Jon-chapter, even though those are some of the most interesting ones…

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

The book is awfully captivating and there is pretty much a need to continue reading and sometimes I succumb to it, even though there are other things that I need to be doing.
I just want to know what will happen next…
And even though I know I should not get too attached to the characters, do I already have a couple of favourites. With my luck in these kind of things will pretty much all of them die.
I also couldn’t help myself watching the show after I read the chapters…
With a little search I found this chart that showed which chapters were portrayed in which episode.
From previous experiences do I know that things are changed and added in picturizations, but I was quite appalled at how different the show is from the book.
Some things are toned down („It should have been you.„), others are accentuated (the sex-scenes that are mostly only mentioned so far or don’t exist) and still others were dropped entirely (Ghost attacking Tyrion) or portrayed quite differently (Eddard using a mere dagger, when it should have been Ice).
I can’t say that the show isn’t impressive and well done, but its the little things that still bug me and make the watching less enjoyable.

4. In which perspective is your current book written? Do you prefer it when reading or does it not matter? (omniscient, personal or I-perspective)

At first I thought the book would be written in I-perspective from each character that got a chapter, but I soon learned it wasn’t that easy.
While it is a partly omniscient narrator and it doesn’t feel like a complete personal narrator either, does it mainly focus on what the current character knows and experiences, yet it is no I-perspective, as the character is still referred to in the third person.
It is an interesting perspective to say the least.

The perspective I prefer most would be the omniscient narrator that has still insight into the characters thoughts. So Martins style covers this pretty much.
What I can’t cope with is the You-perspective, the reader-include. I prefer enjoying the story as a spectator, not as a participant…
The I-narrator can be interesting, but also quite annoying at times, so it isn’t that high on my list either.
The book is written in present tense, but somehow, when I myself write I prefer using the past, though I don’t really care about that.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
By now I do believe it is highly likely that I participate again next week or some other week.
It is just too good a way to talk about my current read without adding a Goodreads Widget to my sidebar or waiting until I finally manage to get a review done.
On a completely different note: This is my 150th post. 😀
I didn’t anticipated this to happen in this year as well.
Then again, I’m not good with predictions as I  have learned.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together #2

As I’m still not finished with the Advent Calendar and feel like doing this again, you get another instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.
[Edit: I just noticed that this is the actual post I had to answer and I instead looked at the one from two weeks ago…
I added the real fourth question at the end.]

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m currently reading „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin, one of the books I had chosen as A book someone else picked for me for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge.
I’m currently on page 49, so not that far into the story, but I already met some Starks, the last Targaryens, a couple of Baratheons and some White Walkers – though they are still unnamed.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

There were times – not many, but a few – when Jon Snow was glad he was a bastard.

or in German:

Es gab Zeiten – nicht viele, aber einige wenige – wenn Jon Snow froh darüber war, ein Bastard zu sein.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

As a more or less rule I do not watch movies and series unless I know the books.
Or at least there are three categories to this:

  • I don’t care (e.g. Percy Jackson)
  • I didn’t know (e.g. Earthsea)
  • I don’t want to see it without former knowledge (the majority of things out there)

The last category was mostly created thanks to the Lord of the Rings movies, as I simply didn’t understand them, even though I watched them twice – each. (Still have to read the book though…)
So for the Game of Thrones series I decided to read before watching as well, even though I’ve heard many things about it and seen several gifs on Tumblr already.
I’m curious how Martin pulls off the different story lines and handles his masses of characters. I do believe this’ll help me to improve myself as a writer.

[Edit: 4.1] It is time for something new by … ? Which author should pretty soon write another book in your opinion? Or is there a series were you’re thinking „Man there should be another part!!“ ?

As I am rarely up to date with any books by any author is the answer to this quite difficult for me.
Last time I told you that I don’t really like series, so I don’t even know were to start there.
I do, however, know a series were I asked myself after the fifth book or so, why the author IS still continuing it, because the stories were pretty much repeating itself over and over again…. (I’m talking about Wolfgang Hohlbein’s Chroniken der Unsterblichen/Chronicles of the Immortals)
As I declared it as my favourite series and mentioned I wouldn’t mind continuations I guess the Harry Potter books seem to fall into the „there should be another part“ category…

[Edit: 4.2 This weekend is the first Sunday of Advent! What are you most excited about during the time of Advent? Christmassy books, Blog-Advent Calendars or are there any book-related topics that delight you especially in this time of the year?

There is pretty much only one Blogg-Advent Calendar I’m excited about and that is my own…
This might sound selfish, but this is the first time I made a calendar myself and I’m just curios if people will like/enjoy it…
Though as I generally like Advent Calendars and find them a pretty good thing to get into a Christmas mood, I think I’ll check out a couple of others to see how they are done. (Like the BlogBoard Advent Calendar, where DarkFairy participates)
In the farther sense of book-related are the things I like most about the Advent time the many stories that are shared.
Be they as films on television or whatever.
I just like watching/reading Fairytales…]

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
I don’t know if I’ll be participating again next week or some other week, but maybe I’ll do. It seems interesting and could be another regular post beside my Weekend Guess.
Other than that would it also give me a way to talk about my current read without adding a Goodreads Widget to my sidebar.
We’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together

Recently I discovered several new Blogs through different circumstances, like  Clue Writing from Saturdays post. This comes in quite handy as I am currently quite occupied with the Advent Calendar. I feel that it is easier to pick up someone else’s idea instead of focusing on my own (far too long) ToDo-List (see the side-menu on the right for a small look at it).
The thing I’m picking up today is a mutual project by the Blogs Weltenwanderer and Schlunzenbücher called „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).
Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m currently reading „Doctor Who – Das Rad aus Eis/The Wheel of Ice“ by Stephen Baxter, one of the many novellas telling further stories of the Time Lord.
This is in fact the book that my local library acquired after I asked them about Doctor Who books when I was there to place my piece of paper in a Torchwood novel for Bad Wolf Day (2013). Recently I actually got the Torchwood book and this one to read them.
I’m currently on page 179 and I’m hoping to finish the remaining roughly 300 pages before Monday, as I have to return it to the library by then.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Der Seitengang war gerade so hoch, dass Zoe sich aufrecht darin bewegen konnte, allerdings enger und gröber behauen als der Hauptschacht.

or in English:

The corridor was just high enough for Zoe to move upright in it, yet it was still more narrow and less smooth than the main chamber.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I don’t think I desperately want to tell this, but I do have some thoughts on it, that I’ll probably reuse when I’m writing the proper review.
This novel is a Second Doctor novel with Jamie and Zoe as companions and as I’ve already noticed while watching „The Seeds of Death“ and „The Mind Robber“ do I quite enjoy this combination.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of them.
What bugs me most about reading this book is, however, its layout. It’s a Hardcover version and therefore quite large as it is. Still, the pages have a lot of space around what is written in a rather large font, thus creating rather short pages.
So you have this giant book, with little content to actually read on one page.
This feels especially weird when you’re sitting in the bus and to everyone else it looks like you’re reading a children’s book…

4. There are uncountable numbers of series in our Book-Jungle – are you a fan of series? Which one is your favourite?

I’m not really a fan of long running series, as it’s quite a hassle to keep track of what books you have/have read/still need to get/read. This is made even more complicated by the fact that German publishers have the ridiculous habit of splitting one English Book into two German ones.
Besides if you started buying/reading a series in one language, you don’t really want to switch to the other for the books that aren’t (yet) available or split, because it would look weird in your shelves.
I own a couple of series and one with which I have exactly those problems.
Short series aren’t that bad (three – seven books) though, as it is easier to know the things above.
Good thing I’m co-writing a Trilogy and have another project that might become one as well, if not longer…
So, in general if I buy a new book I try searching for clues if the book is part of a series and if it is, I wont buy it. But accidental buys still happen at times.
I do believe the Harry Potter books would qualify as my favourite series. They had a huge influence on me while growing up and I still enjoy learning new stuff surrounding the world Rowling created (see The Pottermore Experiment) and am going to indulge in it again one of these days as part of BiblioSmiles‘ Summer Book Challenge (and yes it states Summer, but I don’t always manage to read when I would like to, but I’m nearly half way through 🙂 ).

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
I don’t know if I’ll be participating again next week or some other week, but maybe I’ll do. It seems interesting and could be another regular post beside my Weekend Guess.
Other than that would it also give me a way to talk about my current read without adding a Goodreads Widget to my sidebar.
We’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

A special place for book lovers…

is located in the Mecklenburger Schweiz (Mecklenburg Switzerland).

As I mentioned in the beginning of and throughout the Book-Week had I planned a trip with my Mum to a Book Hotel or more precisely the Gutshotel Groß Breesen that claims to be the first Book Hotel in Germany.

We had discussed a trip to this place for quite some time now, but this year my Mum got it from me for her birthday and in the end of July it was finally time to go there.

Getting there and the first impression

Their logo

As we aren’t familiar with the region the hotel is located in, we used a satnav to find our way. Yet, even though mine has current map material, we struggled a bit towards the end.
The address of the hotel claims to be „near Zehna“ in a „Dorfstraße“ (Village Road) and my satnav was clever enough to send us into the Dorfstraße of Zehna…
Luckily it isn’t too far to Groß Breesen from there and we just needed a look at a printed map and were back on track.

Already when we entered the entrance hall we were met with the sight of up to twenty boxes, completely filled with books of all kinds. A sight that already let a grin spread across my face in anticipation of what lay ahead for us.

After we picked up our key card and found our room we had a look around, before settling in.

The Hotel

The room we had was a nice double-room that had already two books lying on the window sills. One by two pastors telling stories from their sheep and the another describing funny situations. I didn’t read either, but my Mum picked the comedic one.

You could get jealous of all these owls..

You could get jealous of all these owls in the hotel…

Just beside our room was the first library, but also three more shelves in the different hallways. In the library you had a couch and two armchairs to get comfortable in and if you wanted, you had also the possibility to listen to music from a player in the corner. Alternatively you could sit on the terrace right outside the room. We used the chance to sit there a couple of times in the evening and in the morning, before it got too warm/too cold out there and we moved to the garden or the arm chairs/our room respectively.

Next during our exploration we looked through the book boxes on our way to the vaulted cellar with the restaurant and already picked up a couple of interesting looking ones. We also discovered that there seem to be two more buildings containing the guest rooms and another, a bit larger, library in the cellar of one of them. Outside you had chairs and tables from the restaurant, but also many more possibilities to sit in the garden.

Catering

During our stay we enjoyed the awesomeness that was the restaurants food. It was always delicious, always an enormous amount of food and did I mention delicious?

Aside from that were there three things that stuck with me like the taste of the food:

During our first breakfast I had an encounter that I would have not expected to have. When I turned around from picking up a role (Brötchen 😉 ) I saw a man standing there that looked awfully familiar and he recognized me as well.
A hotel in the middle of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern isn’t really a place you expect to – or rather want to – meet a former professor/student…
At least my Mum was highly amused by this and I was surprised how much he remembered about me…

On our second evening we sat outside to have dinner and my Mum had ordered a bread-plate and as it was still warm the insects still flew around or more precisely: The wasps. They were pretty annoying, but it was really interesting to see one of them slowly cutting off a slice of meat from Mums cold cuts and fly off with it…

When we sat outside on Saturday the waitress came up to us, asking whether we knew English and were good at it, which I replied to with „I like to think so“. When she next asked if I’d be able to translate the menu, I told her that I’d try, but wouldn’t promise anything. Not long after this she brought me a tiny Langenscheidt dictionary, a pen and scribbling paper alongside the menu and I started working. With my own vocabulary, the dictionary and the waitresses mobile phone (aka Leo.org) we managed to translate the meals. If it hasn’t been changed then the translation of the menu is still by me. 🙂

Read where ever and when ever you want!

The best thing, however, was that no one judged the place you chose for reading. Or the time.
The hotel provides you with a variety of different chairs, benches and couches to get comfortable in/on, both in- and outside. Even when food or drinks were served they would make sure to place them were you could still read your book. Everyone passing by just gave you a smile, instead of the scowl you occasionally get elsewhere. The overall lovely and welcoming atmosphere was even more heightened by this. And just look at some of the places outside:

A couple of sitting/reading places outside

Benches, canvas chairs and many more

Luckily I'm not afraid of angels ;)

Luckily I’m not afraid of angel statues 😉

Who wouldn’t want to spent time with a good book there?

Everything in this hotel simply allows you to enjoy your reading experience just the way you want/like it.

Except, for example, a Mum that teases you with a „Still not finished?“ when she is done with her first book, while you’re still stuck with yours….thanks Mum…
To be fair did I pick a rather heavy piece with Jack London’s John Barleycorn and she had the comedic one I mentioned before.

Books as far as the eye can see

Even more impressive than the vast collection of sitting possibilities were the numbers of books you saw wherever you looked.

They lie in piles, in boxes or suitcases, on shelves in the different hallways, in the library room with the terrace or in the two rooms of the cellar library and a huge barn containing about 250.000 books alone…
Even though we had planned to take a look at the latter we were soon overwhelmed by the books we already had at our disposal, so we shelved (pun intended) that experience for our next visit.

This huge collection was brought there by the guests and other donors and will probably continue to grow and change as besides providing a place to stay and read, they also offer you this trade:

Leave two books with us and take one with you in return.

We have by the way left a couple of my Mums book just as well as Tiger Tiger and The Haunted Glass from the four that were initially intended to go there.

The thing I was wondering about most regarding the books I saw, was that there were barely any of the Fantasy genre, but I guess we Fantasy readers are simply too much like dragons and hoard our preciouses unwilling to give away any of our treasures (The Hobbit sends its regards for this metaphor…).
The book I did find was Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin where up until now I only knew its story from the movie version and I managed to read the first book (A Wizard of Earthsea) during our stay and picked this one to take with me when we left.

And even though there is now an English menu have I not seen that many English books, but a few are there. You just have to look a little longer or you bring your own and leave them there to enlarge their collection. Alternatively there might me more in the barn, but you’ll have to explore that one yourself. 😉

Simply put: This trip was an incredibly relaxing experience and both of us really enjoyed it. We already are looking forward to staying there or visiting again one day and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in books. You won’t regret it. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter

© I obviously don’t own the rights to the logo.

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

One Hundred

In regards to the Book-Week I put a few touches to the list of books I’ve read over at Goodreads.When I started adding the books a nagging feeling rose from the back of my mind: ‚No, it can’t be that you haven’t read a hundred books, yet…‚  With this thought in mind I sat down and thought of the books that were missing in the list and indeed: I have already read more than a hundred books in my life.

From a mathematical stand point this means that I’ve read 6,25 books a year (assuming I’ve started reading on my own with eight), which isn’t really true as I had years were I haven’t read a thing or barely any books and years where I’ve read more then ten.

Anyway, if you’re interested what I did read, have a look the the shelf below, maybe you find something interesting too. (Note: As I can’t remember the names of a few books they are still missing, but there are at least six, so even without the displayed Manga would it be a hundred)

And even though I tried paying attention to it when I was around 94, did I only notice that the re-blog of my Extremis article became my hundredth post afterwards…
I’m also close to having a hundred people following me via WordPress, which is pretty cool in a way and would be way more awesome if you guys would participate a bit more. 😉 (I do unfortunately believe that a couple of my followers aren’t really interested in what I am writing, but instead of me having interest in the stuff they have to sell on their Blogs – feel free to prove me wrong on this.)

With a word count similar to the three hundreds I now leave you to the books below. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter

© For the covers belong to their respective owners. I just read the books.

Diane Howells: The Haunted Glass

The last review for the Book-Week and I am now quite certain that a daily posting schedule is something I can’t pull off for long. Well, at least not with proper preparation beforehand, as my sleeping time gets reduced to a rather small amount without that.
Anyway, let’s have a look at The Haunted Glass or The Green Glass , as the German title (Das grüne Glas) translates.

What is it about?

2 of 5 stars


Francey is the complete opposite of the shy and polite Cam, yet they still managed to become friends, as they share an interest in spooky things. When Cam is invited to her friends home they try to communicate with the spirit world.
But it soon seems that it might not have been the best idea to use the cursed green glass Francey got as present from her uncle Gayelord for it.
The game of figuring out the story behind the glasses becomes more serious as Cam falls seriously ill and it is Francey’s task to find out how to break the curse and what role her brother Robert plays in this.

The reading experience

If you read a book with interruptions over a couple of days you soon forget layout aspects. So when I reached the page that read „Francey“, I skipped to the beginning of the book to see if there was such a thing as well and indeed it was titled „Cam“. Having read her part I had an assumption as to whom would be titular for the third part. Let’s just say: It’s not that hard to guess that part three is called „Robert“.
As the names would suggest is the focus on each character within the chapters of their part, even though the narration is still third person. The writing style changes in the way the character thinks, therefore Francey’s rude and highly colloquial attitude translates into the most difficult part to read.
With more than two hundred pages this one was also the longest of the four books, but still a relatively short read.

The characters

I kind of have trouble properly describing what I liked and disliked about the characters, as most of the stuff I want to say would be complains, but I try it anyway.
While Cam and Robert were bordering on acceptable, was Francey a whole different story. Her rudeness and general behaviour was as off-putting as I hadn’t had it with a character in a while and I am close to putting her on the same list as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, though I’m pretty sure he is still worse. I just can’t stand this kind of character that is always complaining, always pushing people to do what they want, always so annoying and facepalm-worthy.
Still, the other ones weren’t that much better. I know there are people that are submissive, but portraying a young girl like Cam being shoved around by someone like Francey, with little insight on this not being the standard, this not being the right thing to do, just puts me off. Still, Cam’s view on things was always interesting to read.
I don’t really want to get started on the ridiculousness of every ones reactions (especially not from Cam’s mother) and behaviours. Let’s  just say: The only characters that seemed interesting had a too small part in the story (Francey’s uncle Gayelord and the guy who helped them with finding out about the glasses‘ history.)

General Opinion

In a way was this story a mixture of quest and romance, but it kind of failed on both ends, as either isn’t really followed through and quite silly (to say it lightly) at times.
While the glasses have an interesting background story, is the actual story kind of boring and – especially in Francey’s part – annoying. All this „I’m so in love, I even love his armpit hair“ from Cam and the glasses‘ original owner is just as awful as Francey’s „You’re so stupid. I need to smoke.„, as I don’t know which attitude bothered me more (Note: These are exaggerated semi-quotes and aren’t exactly like this in the book).
The topic and story line has a lot of potential and the tale starts rather good in Cam’s part, but becomes worse and worse throughout the chapters, with the highlight being the history-digression.
So much is left unexplained, while other things get the focus and occasionally sound over the top.
With semi-suspense building up towards the finale the resolution was just awfully anticlimactic.
In short: Regardless of the many character-flaws was it still an ok read as the style wasn’t too bad most of the time and the glasses‘ history was interesting.

Stuff I’d like to add

This is nothing on topic, but I’m glad I don’t have to write another book review for a while…instead you can finally expect the Wacken 2013 review and probably one for its movie-version Wacken 3D next week.
But first I’ll be enjoying my stay at the Book-Hotel. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner.

Ann Halam: The Haunting of Jessica Raven

The Haunting of Jessica Raven (German title: Schattenträume – Shadowdreams) is the third book from the four I planned on reading before this weekend and the second one by Ann Halam amongst them, as part of the Book-Week it’s also review number four.

What is it about?

3 of 5 stars


Jessica’s older brother Adam is fatally ill and every little bit of time they have, is spent together with the family. On one of their trips to France she meets the mysterious Jean-Luc and the scary, shoddy-looking children that follow him wherever he goes. On this meeting she acquires something he had lost.
Back in London she nearly forgets this first encounter until one evening she sees him again and it is like a dream. With each meeting she sees glimpses into his memories in France and finally she learns what she has to do with the treasure she had found. A treasure whose meaning is way more important than she had initially imagined.

The reading experience

Like the other one from Halam did this book have rather large chapters – I would even go as far as to say, it had even longer ones -, but proper endings of sentences at the end of the page made it another well fit bus-reading-book.
The narrator this time wasn’t the main character but a third person narrator, which is my preferred narrator and made the whole read even more enjoyable. Most of the things Jess came across (a crown, the people, etc.) were described pretty detailed, while other things were left to the imagination. I don’t agree with every time a description was or wasn’t given, but I can live with that.
As a huge part of the story takes place in France are there a bunch of French phrases included. Unfortunately did this book not come with an attached glossary of what they mean, but most of them were translated right away, but there are still a few where I have no idea what it translates to.

The characters

Jessica was again a female character that knew what she wanted. Studying hard and striving to look for a cure for her brothers‘ disease and not even the mysterious young man could drive her away from that. She had her moments of „I want to see him again“, but it didn’t stop her from pursuing her dream to become a Microbiologist. I always consider this to be a good trait in a female lead.
Jean-Luc most of the time felt like a ghost. Sometimes he acknowledged Jessicas presence, on other times  he dragged her along without realising who she is. His affection for her didn’t feel like forced romance, but more like genuine sympathy and joy to see her again.
Adam is a bit more present, even if it is just Jess talking about him and his condition at times. Still, the supportive older brother in a wheel chair isn’t really something you read in every novel you come across. With wits at least as good as his sisters a worthy counterpart for her.
Similar to The Fear Man were other characters mentioned and portrayed (their brother and parents, friends, etc.), but not as much as the thoughts and doings of these three were described – though thoughts only for Jess.

General Opinion

All characters had a look into their emotional depths. The despair, anger, fears, exhaustion and what not were always shown and not even the nasty details were skipped. As I said early is Adam the sick wheel chair – or crutch – using big brother. I can imagine the general take on this would have been to show the good things, but Halam went on and showed the bad things, like reactions within the family whenever Adam felt worse. It felt like a proper look into a family like that, without everything being glamorised.
The story line was quite interesting, not captivating, but an interesting concept. I really enjoyed that it wasn’t focused on the romance, even though Jess did have an obvious crush on Jean-Luc. But I guess everything else would have been difficult to explain with the conclusion, which by the way was a nice twist.
It was clear that there would be a connection to Adam’s illness, but the how was nicely done.
On occasion the (detailed) descriptions became repetitive and after the third time reading that the children are „evil“, the thought of „I know…“ became more and more prominent.
Jessicas meetings with Jean-Luc are like dreams, according to the German blurb and it is heavily hinted at it throughout the story. Regardless of the the connection being somewhat explained in the finale would I have liked a little more about how that actually worked. Not even the epilogue gave much away on this and on the other happenings.

Stuff I’d like to add

Thanks to the narrator and the other things I’ve mentioned did I enjoy this one more than the other by the authoress. After reading and pretty much enjoying two of her books, I guess I wouldn’t mind reading more by Ann Hallam/Gwyneth Jones.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner.

Ann Halam: The Fear Man

The Fear Man (or The Nightwindow – Das Nachtfenster) is the second of the four books I wanted to finish before the weekend and the third review of the Book-Week.

What is it about?

3 of 5 stars

Andrei is an ordinary boy, that just wants to live an ordinary life, but it has something else in mind for him. His mother is constantly on the run from something she is not telling her children, but this time she tries to settle down and provide them with a proper home. Her plan might have worked if it weren’t for the Fear Man and his garbage-monsters that keep following them, since Andrei and his sister Elsa explored an old house with a hidden secret…

The reading experience

Again I read this book in the bus and was finished quite soon as it didn’t hit the 200 pages either.
The chapters were rather long with little spacings for stops, but many sentences ended with the page end and the stopping problem I mentioned yesterday, wasn’t that bad through this.

Most of the story was rather slow, but the pace picked up whenever there was a threat to the children and during the finale. This was probably due to the first person narrator, which was a bit odd at the beginning, but I soon got used to it.

The characters

Andrei is the narrator of the story and the slow pace kind of resembles his thought process. He is far from being stupid, but he has his moments of stupidity single-mindedness. Though the decisions he makes are explained through his upbringing, it’s not always understandable why he is being so stubborn.

Elsa on the other hand is open minded and seemingly knows the things she needs to do without much thinking about them. This, however, also made her quite an arrogant person, but one of those that kind of have the right to be, thanks to their abilities. I enjoyed it when she – and the other female lead, Dita – confronted Andrei with what he didn’t want to think about. His reaction was most of the time unsatisfying, yet understandable for his kind of character.

Those three are pretty much the whole cast. We learn about the mother, Andrei’s father and other adults (and kids), but even if they play a plot-related role they don’t appear that often.
Still, there was some kind of sympathy for the mother and aversion towards the father, on my part.

All three women (Elsa, Dita, mother) were a nice change to the lovey-dovey girls/women I had to read about in The Awakening and The Hunter’s Moon. They were strong, stubborn, independent and simply women who don’t let anyone tell them how to live their life. Of course they also had their issues, but they were still a nice variation of the most common interpretation of the gender.

General Opinion

This one was definitely better than Tiger Tiger, even though it also follows a boy – this time even his point of view the whole time.

From quite early on it was clear that there would be another element in the mix. The creatures attacking them let you think as much already in the blurb. Elsa later gave it a name: Magic. And this time it was explained how it works, who is able to use it and how this gift is inherited. All the information I missed in the previous novel. I enjoyed the descriptions of the magic and its user. It was nice, something different, something phantastical, yet still a bit sciency and rational. I like that, but there still could have been a little more of it. Like how did Elsa know which spells/enchantments to use? Is the knowledge inherited as well or did she read something? It was only described as her being a natural talent, but I still would have liked a bit more about it.

The story was really an improvement and made me wonder whether I should really give the book away or simply keep it until I have or know kids in the proper age that want to start reading. It seems to me like a nice start into more elaborate fiction.

Stuff I’d like to add

As I learned while looking for the book on GoodReads is Ann Halam the pseudonym of the authoress Gwyneth Jones.

And I cheated a bit with the posting date as I wanted to post a review a day, but right now it’s already the 24th and I wasn’t finished. After attending the advanced showing of Wacken 3D we spontaneously decided to have a drink in the English pub and well, one drink became two and bam was it close to midnight and after midnight when I arrived at my place…

PoiSonPaiNter

© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner.