Wednesday | October 10, 2007

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

As with all the books I've recorded on this blog (so far), I enjoyed "David Copperfield". I totally agree with Nick Hornby though - you do need to devote an entire month to read this. Being the methodical person that I am, I worked out that if I read 2 chapters a day, I could be done in just over a month - and by reading a bit extra at the weekends, I finished it in just over 3 weeks.

Anyway, more about the actual book! Dickens' novels can be quite complex, with dozens of characters. At times, I did get a little lost, but within a few pages I was back on my way again. It is said that this novel is quite autobiographical, but I don't think it should be the first Dickens novel you read if you haven't read any before. I would start with "Oliver Twist", which is an easier read. I wouldn't read "Great Expectations" again - I studied it to death in high school and Open University!
Posted by Em at 19:30:54 | Permanent Link | Comments (36) |

Sunday | October 07, 2007

Shakespeare - Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is one of my favourite authors, so whenever I see he has a new book out I have to buy it. I'm glad I bought this one, a short (200 page) biography about the playwright, which was a very light read but nowhere near as good as his travel stuff. If you want to get into Bill Bryson, read "A Walk in the Woods" or "Notes from Small Island" - classics that will make you laugh.
Posted by Em at 20:11:04 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

September's Books Read

I am aware that I am quite late with my review of the month's books read, so I'm just going to summarise the books I've read:

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
The Complete Polysyllabic Spress - Nick Hornby
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (started)
Roots - Alex Haley (started)
Posted by Em at 20:03:38 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday | September 16, 2007

Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

This was a rereading on one of my favourite novels by one of my favourite authors - and the first of Austen's works I read. It is rather self-indulgent for me to read an Austen novel - I tend to spend most of my spare time at the weekend reading them, and end up reading them in one or two days. 
Jane Austen manages to write with authority on all subjects, and her prose is perfect - written so that even in the twenty-first century, the story flows well and the reader is fully immersed. She makes you care about her main characters, and Fanny Price in this novel is no different. The story of a girl moving in with her rich aunt and uncle who falls in love with one of her cousins. If you have read Pride and Prejudice and loved it, you will see some similar plot threads running through this novel - unrequited love and misunderstanding of character being just two.
So yes, I loved it, yet again. It has awakened my taste for the classics, and as you will see at the end of the month, I bought some classics on the back of this. Sometimes you just need to read a book with a bit of meat!
Posted by Em at 19:11:18 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Nick Hornby - The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

Seeing as this is the book that inspired the blog, I thought I would begin with my thoughts on this one. I have never read anything by Hornby before, and found him very funny. He is a reader not totally dissimilar from myself - buys many more books than he can read, open to suggestions, and not restricted by genre (just don't offer him sci-fi/fantasy - he won't understand). He set himself an interesting challenge - to read a book that he wouldn't normally read - see above, and although he wasn't successful, it is a challenge I am ready to take on. Next time I go to a bookstore, I will buy a book from the fantasy genre, and not a comedic one, as Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are some of my favourites!
Posted by Em at 19:01:21 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

My Reading Log

Hi all,
My name is Emma and I live in England. I've just finished reading Nick Hornby's "Complete Polysyllabic Spree" (it may be called something else outside of the UK), which describes on a monthly basis the books he had bought, the books he'd read and his opinions of them. Essentially that is what this blog is going to be about. I'll write about each book as I finish it, and then summarise what I've read, what I've bought - and where - I can see how many books I buy on an impulse!
Posted by Em at 18:52:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |