Well, it's almost the end of October, and the Spring Challenge I taking part in on Good Reads; with one more month to go. I have read some great books over the last two months; reviewing them as I finished them (just enter them into the Search Box on the side bar and they'll show up).
The first book I got my nose into was one that had been offered up at high school (in year 10 actually) but I didn't read it. It's 'Old Man and the Sea' by Ernest Hemmingway. I loved it from the very beginning to the very last page. It was brilliantly written and had me on the edge of my seat - especially when he was fighting the fish. Actually, there was a stage where I was sitting outside and I found that I gripping the book so hard that I had to stand up and begin walking around or I might do the old edition I owned some damage by accident (I was reading a 2nd edition of the book; and it was brilliant! The publishers used two artists in the book for illustrations purely because they couldn't choose between them! How great is that?).
The second book I read for the Spring Challenge was 'Red Dog' by Louis De Bernieres. Now, I went and saw the touching film this book was turned into before I read this book; which is something I don't normally do. However, not a week later, Mum showed up at my door and gave me a new copy of the book for me to read before she read it. Well! What a great book! I couldn't put it down! I laughed out loud and I cried my eyes out too! And like the critics said about E.T. when it came out: if you don't shed a tear, you've got a heart of stone.
I did have some problems with my third book I chose to read for this challenge: 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I had heard some brilliant reviews about this book and thought I'd try to tackle this book... well, this was my third year on trying out this book - my third time. However, each time I tried to get into it, something stopped me and the whole thing turned into one great big haze - kind of like the ocean spray that was taking over the castle that was hanging over the cliffs in the book! I felt as though my mind turned in a haze too each time I picked up this tome... so it never got finished.
The fourth book I read was 'The Bee-Loud Glade' by Steve Himmer. This was somewhat of a challenge within itself that I received in the mail. It was something where I was invited to read for a book discussion early in October; and I accepted. Seeing I don't normally go in for these, I thought it would be good for the Spring Challenge. So, once it arrived, I dove straight in and knocked over 40 pages or so on the first day (as there was nothing else to do on that day). Then, I was reading up to 30 pages a day until it was finished just this Monday gone at around 1am when I was kept awake by the beginnings of a dreadful cold. This book is something completely different to what I'd normally read - a narrative - and yet it kept me interested the whole time. I took part in some of the discussion on Goodreads and enjoyed the banter... enjoying the talks about how the book was written and the characters in the book and the nuts and bolts of this book as well as the back-story and other things about it. When this book does come your way, don't hesitate to read it, as it's brilliantly written and will keep you thinking well after you've closed it.
With another month to go, you never now how much more there is to be read during this challenge. Well, until my next post, happy reading!
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