Yeah, I had gotten the impression that Uglies was something like that. The Hunger Games was pretty entertaining, though not mindblowing, so I'm hoping it will be a fun read. And yeah, I had heard the sequels weren't so great, so I'll be sure to avoid them.

Also on the subject of YA: Knerd, I saw on goodreads that you recently read The Fault in Our Stars. I wasn't as impressed by that book as I wanted to be. I'm curious what you thought of it!

I would have liked The Fault in Our Stars a lot more if I had read it at age 15. These kind of books just aren't aimed at audiences like me.

I expected to be sobbing by the end, but it didn't seem all that emotional. I can understand why other people would find it sad, especially since the entire plot is centered around the main characters having cancer, but [highlight for spoilers] were we really supposed to be shocked when Augustus died? After all, Hazel is the main character. As sick as she is, you know she won't be killed off. So that leaves us with the next biggest character, the one that we're supposed to be invested in. Right from the start I knew he'd die, so it's tough to be sad when it happens. That's sort of the status quo for tragic love stories.

I also suppose that I'm not a big fan of his writing style. This was my first John Green book, but I've seen some of his vlogs and kind of understand his personality. My biggest impression was that all of his characters were not-so-subtle representations of himself. They all had the same general speaking voice, the same sense of humor, the same love of abnormally intellectual conversation. It honestly felt like a young John Green was falling in love with a slightly younger John Green, while being both best friends and parented by some other John Greens. The only unique character was Peter Van Houten and, well, he's a little impossible to like.

None of this means that it's a bad book, though. I'd certainly recommend it and I'll probably buy a copy just so that I can stock my future classroom with it. But I'm not exactly going to be daydreaming about Augustus each night.

Yeah, that's about how I felt about it too. I also felt he was trying a little too hard to be profound and poetic throughout it. All of his books do that, but TFiOS was the worst for it. I know he means to be writing smart teenagers, but it ends up coming off as sort of pretentious.

SPOILERX

I did think there was a chance Hazel could die, especially when it was told that her favorite book ended mid sentence, possibly representing the death of that book's main character. I sort of wondered if TFiOS would then end like that - though I'm glad it didn't, because that would have been... silly and obvious. But yeah, from chapter 1 I knew either Hazel or Augustus would be dying before it was over. I just didn't know who or how (I was somehow caught offguard by Augustus' remission).

And yes, all the books have the same voice. I've read almost all of his books and can concur with you completely. I'd say that the book his voice worked best in was An Abundance of Katherines. The main character is meant to be a little annoying/pretentious, so the voice works much better there instead of taking away.

Yes! I may be books and books behind schedule but I just got myself to finish one of the books I'm reading! That's a plus at least!

I really liked TFiOS, though I'm only a couple years older than Hazel, so I guess I sort of fit into the target audience. Same with Looking For Alaska. I still need to read Paper Towns and An Abundance Of Katherines, they're next on my Amazon book list.

The thing with TFiOS is now that they're making it into a film it's going to have the exact same reaction that Perks Of Being A Wallflower has. The over-populisation of that and the over-use of the quote "together we are infinite" really ruined the book for me. I really don't want the same to happen with TFiOS but I can already tell that there's going to be so many people repeating the "that's the thing about pain" quote it's unreal.

I have been reading like crazy over the last week-week and a half. I don't know how many books I've read, so i've got to put the list together and update it here, lol.

Vinyl:: Paper Towns is my favorite John Green book. You should read it next. -nod nod-

Paper Towns was my favorite until I read AAoK.

I've gone a really long time without reading any novels and am missing books in my life, so I'm going to be crazy and join you guys late this year. <3 Is it okay to make a new post here with my 2013 stuff? I do have an old one from 2010 or so I could edit too, just checking to see what the preferred method of continuation is. Isn't it funny when staff can't read the rules in the first few posts of a thread properly? ;D Just found the answer to my question, I'll edit my post now!

---------- Post added 04-20-2013 at 08:44 PM ----------

Okay, updated, sort of. Will make it look nice later. :)

Yeah, I'm always super nervous when entering any sort of thread with structure because it looks extra bad if I misread rules...

I think you can make a new post, though. I believe the "post your list only once" rule applies once per challenge (that is, per year). Like, don't repost the list every time you add a new book. But everyone makes a new post for the new year.

They do make new posts? Well hmph!


(I'm notoriously bad at understanding contests especially. I like to think it gives me empathy for other folks when they try to understand my threads, but maan.. Why won't my brain work when it's someone else's thread?! )

Yeah, I always feel like a numpty when someone is like "can you guys look over my contest before the event starts?" and everyone's like "looks good!" and all I can think is "i dont even know wat dis is"

I'll get Paper Towns next then :)

Omg numpty! So few people use that word haha! :')

I think I picked it up from Jelly or CK.

The things that spell check suggests for it are great. Tympanum. Yes, obviously I meant tympanum.

Most likely Jelly ha. It's a British word I love when I see words like that online it always makes me happy ha. It's really weird because numpty is in my spellcheck but I didn't add it in myself haha

I found the graphic novels to the Uglies, I was searching through for a book and found it in the new section.

Chrome is suggesting Humpty and Dumpty. I think it wants a nursery rhyme.

I bought the first of The Merchant Princes books from the library today. I haven't read any of Charles Stross' fantasy work yet, only his sci-fi/horror stuff.

Began on April 20th, 2013
Goal: 20 books* by next May
*or the equivalent in pages

Peter Pan ~ J.M. Barrie (159 pgs)
The Hobbit ~ J.R.R. Tolkien (repeat, reading aloud with my son)
Little Women ~ Louisa May Alcott (502 pgs)
A Clash of Kings ~ George R.R. Martin (770 pgs)

Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza ~ Gloria Anzaldua (300 pgs) (some repeat)
The Casual Vacancy ~ J.K. Rowling
(( Children of the Days ~ Eduardo Galeano ))
Fire: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin ~ Anais Nin (425 pgs)
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly ~ Anthony Bourdain (362 pgs)
The Magic of Blood ~ Dagoberto Gilb
(( The Ocean at the End of the Lane ~ Neil Gaiman ))
A Storm of Swords ~ George R.R. Martin (1216 pgs)
Woman Hollering Creek ~ Sandra Cisneros

The Aztec Love God ~ Tony Diaz (156 pgs)
A Game of Thrones ~ George R.R. Martin (835 pgs)
Bless Me, Ultima ~ Rudolfo Anaya (290 pgs)

.. 3 down, 17 to go!

key: have started . (( still need to aquire ))

I need to get around to reading The Hobbit

It's been fun reading it again . I read it several times when I was really young (was 8 the first time), but it's been a long while since. It's neat to see my son get captured in the magic of it like I was.

Aw that's cute! Have you read The Lord Of The Rings too?

Yep! And then I tried the Silmarillion, but choked on all the Elf names.

Added your new list to the front page!

I liked the Hobbit, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. The LoTR movies were my first exposure to Tolkien's stuff, so they gave me a very big, epic view of what his stories must be like. I was surprised to find that the books are much lighter and sillier than I thought they would be. But of course, they were written in a very different time.

Thanks, Knerd!

@Cherry ~ I'm so glad I read the books first, especially the Hobbit. I've taken to viewing those films as "a tribute to," more than the actual books in film form - I'm able to appreciate them (the movies) more that way.

kind of spoilerish ramblings on movies vs booksX

The Fellowship books were pretty epic and they do have that sense of huge all-encompassing conflicts and unfathomably large battles, so those movies weren't too much of a stretch for me (aside from a few favorite scenes or characters that they kind of stiffed).

But, I have that very same criticism with the Hobbit movie. I'm disappointed in the movie, though.

I was hoping for something more focused on Bilbo, with more unknowns, to match the feel of the book. You know, a little hobbit leaves his life of comfort to journey alone (in the sense that he's traveling with a bunch of odd beings that he doesn't know or trust) into a big world full of danger. I admit there were some cool scenes in the movie and some things that were really well done, but big effects and epic battles in the very first part of the Hobbit movie?? It made the actual sense of adventure feel less to me.

Of course, I'll still be seeing part 2 on opening day, I'm sure.