Beware…This was Bad

I don’t typically keep books on my shelves that I don’t care for. I need the room to add more books! Plus, trading books back to the used book store means credits for me.

But, since The Golden Compass is a husband book…I suppose it’ll have to stay on my shelves.

 

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Trees of Reverie June Read-A-Thon End

June is ending, so that means the ReadaThon is ending too. Sad Face.

I was able to get through quite a few books on this challenge:

1. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
2. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
3. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
5. Divergent by Veronica Roth
6. Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein
7. Aimless Love by Billy Collins
8. Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
9. Brooklyn by Colm Tobin
10. Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

I also started The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, She Walks in Beauty by Caroline Kennedy, and listened to a few more chapters of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

By reading these books, I completed quite a few challenges on Trees’ challenge list. I did way better this time than on her last prompt list, so I’m pretty psyched about it.

1. Read a popular or well-known book.
2. Read a book you’ve heard a lot of good things about.
3. Read something recommended to you by a friend.
4. Read a book from your Goodreads to-read shelf.
5. Read a book to go towards a specific reading challenge.
6. Pick out a book from your TBR jar and give it a go.
7. Read a book you’ve been meaning to read.
8. Read a book you’ve been avoiding.
9. Read a book you’ve had lying around unfinished.
10. Read a book by an author you haven’t read before.
11. Finish a book in a series you’ve not yet completed (although I ended up finishing the series by the end of the challenge).
12. Read a Classic.
13. Read a book in the Fantasy genre.
14. Read a book in the Contemporary genre.
15. Read a book from a genre you don’t usually read.
16. Read a book featured in Booktown’s Book Club.
17. Read a poetry book.
18. Read a book written by or focusing on POC #weneeddiversebooks
19. Read a book from thebookishdragon’s Book Lovers List
20. Recommend a book to a friend or a fellow book blogger.
21. Join discussions on the Treesofreverie Read-A-Thom Goodreads Group
22. Share some of your favorite quotes from the books you read
23. Write a book review for one of the books you read.
24. Take pictures of your reading progress.
25. Show off your books by taking more pictures.
26. Start a reading journal (I already had one…so this was a bit of a cheat.)

How did your challenge go?

WWW Wednesday 6/25/2014

 

What are you currently reading?

Brooklyn by Colm Tobin

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Aimless Love by Billy Collins

 

What did you just finish reading?

Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

She Walks in Beauty by Caroline Kennedy

The Golden Compass

Growing up, one of my favorite books was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I didn’t read the full series until I was in college, but that first book is just so magical, isn’t it?

As a kid, you don’t really understand the religious subtext behind it, and I suppose that’s the point, really. It’s a way to put big themes into a parable that kids can understand.

I remember when The Golden Compass was being made into a movie, how everyone was up in arms. OH NO! How dare someone make a book that challenges CS Lewis’s Christian version with atheism.

For me–I tend to take the religious subtext out of a book like this when I read it. I mean, I definitely see it, now that I’m old enough to understand the theories, but it’s not what is important when I’m actually reading/reviewing. Not compared to the fantasy aspect. I am much more interested in the story and the characters. The adventure. I can theorize later, privately.

On that front, alone, comparing it to CS Lewis, Lewis wins. I did not think Pullman’s book was nearly as well written. His character, plot, story…none of it was very interesting to me. I expected this to be a quick, one or two day read, but it didn’t hold my attention at all. I didn’t care what happened next. I wasn’t even rushing at the end to get through it–I had 20 pages left and I was procrastinating online because I just wasn’t interested in the ending.

*shrug* Next please.

Trees of Reverie ReadaThon June

For those of you who have been following the blog since the beginning (first of all, I love you!), you will remember the readathon I did back in April. It was a week long marathon reading session, where I got through 5 books.

Trees of Reverie is holding another one, beginning today (well it was midnight Monday her time, but she’s on the other side of the of the globe from me) through June 30th.

I have a stack of books to read, and I’m sure I’ll read a few ebooks as well! Here’s what is on the list:

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Garth Stein, Raven Stole the Moon

Colm Tobin, Brooklyn

Ernest Hemingway, Old Man in the Sea

Veronica Roth, Divergent (A reread for bookclub next week)

 

I started Walden today and I’m about a quarter of the way through it. Hoping to get at least halfway, but it’s a piece of work. Are any of my readers joining in with the readathon? What are you guys reading?