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A blog in which two girls who find themselves inexplicably drawn to the world that lies within the soft paper pages of books care to share their literary experiences with the world.

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I havent written apost here since December - not because Ihaven't read, butbecuase Ifind myself fartoo lazy tocomprehensively review every book I've ever read (shock horror).

But I just finished reading 'War ofthe Worlds'  by H.G. Wells, and I need to talk about it (also, sorry if some of my words get stuck together - i dropped my keybord last weekend and broke the spacebar. Also, I made it worse when I tried to fix it. Go figure).

I have written one placid rant about how I dislike 'classics',often purely because people wax on about them. I can't help this stubborn trait, I was born with it. That being said, 'War of the Worls'didn't read like a classic. I've been struggling with '20,000 Leauges Under the Sea' by Jules Verne for about, oh, six months now. Perhaps it is Verne's overly technical descriptions, or maybe its the distictly 'classic' feeling of the way the book iswritten,but I find it awfully hard toread. Ihad the same proplem with 'The Great Gatsby' (save for the technical decriptions,ofcourse).

This is a problem I did not have with 'War ofthe Worlds'. It was written in an open, flowing and engaging way, and the flow of the narrative was aided and not hindered by the descriptions of technlogues, or the events inother parts of England. Also, the action moved quickly.

I suppose these are the proplems I have with 20,000 Leagues- the narrative is pretty much halted by the gratuituous descriptions, and the action hasn't even really got going yet (I'm somewhere between a quarter and a third of the way through). Wells and Verne are both acknowledged as early pioneers of Steampunk (which I adore), so of course I was going to try and absorb these original literatures. H.G. Wells' work is far superiour, in my opinion.

Of course, my opinion doesn't actually matter. I'm just a pretentious 15 year old girl from New Zealand with a passion for the written word and a fondness for vodka and online window shopping. But anyway, I digress.

For those that are unaware, 'War of the Worlds' is a book about the martian invasion of earth. The martians are basically a giant brain with funny tentacle hands  who feed by injecting the bloood of humans. They walk around in odd looking machines and wreak havoc in south England with heat rays and noxious black smoke.At the end,they are attacked by terrestrial bacteria and all drop dead.

My favourite thing about this book was the fact that thecharacters had no names. It was written in the first person, and the more importsant characters were refered to by their relationship to the protagonist/narator (for example: 'my wife', 'my brother', and the secondary characters by their professions (for example: 'the artilleryman', 'the curate'). It was refreshing and strangely engaging, as it took the story to the next level of personal, which engages the reader in a unique way.

Also, a lot ofthe second half of the book reminded me of Bioshock (haunting emptiness of streets,bodies everywhere...), which made me happy as I adore Bioshock.

Anyway, 'War of the Worlds' is a solid10/10 and I really do recommend it (also, bonus: it's pretty short, so can be read in a matter of hours ify ou're willing to sit down and commit).

(bonus note: I have todo wide reading again this year for school [Stupid and pointless, but it's for credits so I won't complain toomuch] and I can't waittore-writethisisa slightly more subtley condescending way to hand in for credits)

-B

[littledallilasbookshelf]

old book by marciante on Flickr.

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I've read quite a few books recently...well, three. 

(Sorry about the picture being backwards, I'm on my mums laptop and I don't knowhow to switch the camera on photobooth).

The first book I read recently is called 'Fairest' by Gail Carson Levine, who wrote 'Ella Enchanted'. this book is...okay. It's not the sort of book I would usually read, and I borrowed it off my cousin because I was sitting at their house and I was bored, so I started reading it.

I liked it at first. I liked how the writer blended this story into the world of 'Ella Enchanted', but to be honest I'm not a fan of the 'fairy tale' trope. It was good enough for me to continue reading, mainly because I wanted to see the resolution, but...it just seemed so fanciful to the verge of annoying (which is, I suppose, the point of a fairytale, isn't it?).

In this book, Aza lives with her adoptive parents until she goes to court for a wedding, and is chosen as the Lady in Waiting of the new Queen of Ayortha. The queen soon becomes a tyrant and Ava is forced to escape for her life, and she takes refuse in the Gnome Caverns. 

I had a similar experience with his book - 'The Liberators' by Phillip Womack. It was okay - but it was only good enough to keep me reading. The characters were poorly developed and it was written so weirdly in some parts that I had no idea what was going on. It was if the writer was trying too hard to make it seem grand and whimsical and Strange, and it just failed.

In this book, Ivo Monrieff visits London to stay with his aunt and uncle, and accidentally becomes involved in two secret societies when a man on a train gives him a strange object before being asassinated.

That being said the idea behind the plot is really quite clever, and it's not that bad of a book, really.

This book, on the other hand, I LOVED. 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' by Laini Taylor is witty and interesting with a character who is cool and different without being an annoying hipster bitch. And it's set (mostly) in Prague. Prague seems an awesome city and I almost fell in love with it just through reading this book.

In this novel, Karou attends art school in Prague and spends a lot of her time running errands for her stand-in father, Brimstone. Who is not human. When the portals to Brimstone's shop (known as Elsewhere) suddenly close, Karou tries to find out what has happened. She meets the Seraph Akiva, and he almost kills her but then the two become friends based on a strange intuition he has about her. Also, Karou has blue hair.

There was a cool plot twist that I didn't see coming until right before it happened that I really liked (although I did get a tiny bit bored reading through that, which just goes to show how attatched I was to Karou as a character).

-B

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So my fanfiction and re-reading rampage finally slowed enough for me to visit the library. I got some light reading and some heavier things, as one usually does.

This particular book, 'The Finnish Line' by Linda Gerber is fluffily light and to be honest I probably pick this up and re-read it every time I go to the library and this book is there. I had renewed interest in it this time around, however, due to recent mild infatuation with Finland, where this book is set.

The SASS books take no more than two hours to read (of course that's just me-speed, but still) and they're almost all written by different authors, but I enjoy an awful lot because of the way each book is set in a different country. Ah, wanderlust. Living vicariously through fictional characters is my ,life.

And then yesterday, I started this book:

'Arcadia Falls' by Carol Goodman, which I just finished now. It's a gripping book (obviously, since I spent the last two hours solidly reading the main chunk of it) but it is quite cliched. I speak mainly of course of that one plot twist at the end which was SO PREDICTABLE, I called it from about chapter five.

Also the author is rather too fond of just killing people off instead of sorting out things in court or whatever, which really does speak to me of simple laziness.

That being said, it's still a good book. I enjoyed the way backstory was shown through the diary (although that too is a cliched method) and I was really quite invested in the characters from the past, and the plot really did slot together quite nicely.

I do however now have a headache from reading and sunlight, so I think I'll save 'The Confessions of Catherine de Medici' to begin another day.

-B

[newblogisjacindaelena]

by Philipp Götze

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wow okay so, I forgot to write about books while reading books. The night I finished The Lightning Thief was also the night which I finished The Hobbit, which I'd been reading for months between books. 

I found The Hobbit to be, though entertaining, quite boring. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the world and the content, and the movies are phenomenal, I just found the actual writing to not be enjoyable or attention grabbing. Maybe I just like a more fast paced novel or a different writing style. 

I also finished The Last Thirteen by James Phelan, which follows a boy called Sam, who has dreams which come true, basically.

For a child's book it was good and I liked the short chapters, though I was annoyed by the ending since the second book doesn't come out until next month. 

It's well written and I think had some good ideas and content, though i wouldn't go as far as to say that it's the next big thing. I liked the idea that the characters could potentially change the future depending on what they decided to do, and I liked the use of small images here and there to help guide the story forward.

I've now started reading Numbers by Rachel Ward, and so far it's pretty good.

-J

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My fanfiction frenzy appears to be waning slightly (so maybe I'll actually get to bed before 4am now), and I decided the other day to actually read all the books I have on my shelf that I own but have never read.

I started with this one:

'The Pain Merchants' by Janie Hardy. I'm fairly sure I bought this the first time I went to stay with my friend in Auckland, about three years ago. I bought three books in the Whitcoulls at Sylvia Park, only one of which I actually read - until now.

I actually really enjoyed this book, and I really should have read it sooner. It is set in the (city? country? city-state? Not 100% sure but probably the latter) of Geveg, which is controlled by the Duke of Baseeri (a neighbouring...city-state?). In this world they have healers, who take pain and injuries out of people and transfer it into Pynvium.

In this book, the main character Nya has the ability to shift pain between people, but not in Pynvium, so she's pretty much of no use to anyone. She publicly shifts pain and ends up being pursued by various people, whilst at the same time apprentice healers are mysteriously disappearing.

Pretty much everything to do with the plot happens within two or three days  and takes up most of the book. The speed at which these events occur (there are riots involved. And rapiers. And roofs) is almost unrealistic, but it's still quite gripping. Very much a light read (although perhaps only for me - I am War & Peace girl, after all), I was able to read half the book in about an hour (I read the other half of it slowly, but if I sat down to read it all in one go it would only take me a few hours).

So yes, a light fantasy book that's really good if you just want to take a break from the world.

-B

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So, since I finished 'A Star Shall Fall', I've been doing an awful lot of reading...but not of books. Although, over the course of the last week, I've probably read more than several novels worth.

For the week I have been obsessively drinking in fanfiction. Since Thor 2, my obsession with Loki had returned with a vengeance, so I went in search of some (you guessed it) Loki fanfiction. And then I found tasertricks - the ship between Loki and Darcy Lewis. I am so hooked on this ship, it is unbelievable.

The best part however if that, on the whole, the quality of the fanfition is excellent. I know that I, as a writer, have written far more than my share of shitty fanfiction in the past. In fact, I no longer call myself a fanfiction writer, having accepted that my talents do not lie in the realm of other people's characters, plots and settings. That being said, I still love to read fanfiction, and appreciate it as it's own individual literature.

The first fanfic I read for the ship was incredible - AU, for sure, and incredibly dark and dystopian, but addicting in a way that I rarely find with actual novels. Since then, I've inhaled smut and fluff, dark and light, long and short fanfictions and so far I've only come across two bad ones. Two, out of the twenty or so I've read. Quite a remarkable track record.

That's all that's going to be in this post - just an update of my latest reading adventure's, because let's be honest: I won't be pursuing or posting about any actual original fiction novels any time soon.

-B

[livros-books]

[littledallilasbookshelf]

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Okay so I've been reading this book for about 8 million years and I finally finished it. I've been enduring the dying days of year 11 and the first segment of exams of late so I haven't dedicated all that much time to reading, but this afternoon I decided it was time to sit down and dedicate myself to this book.

It is in fact the last book a series, that much is obvious. That being said, it was still pretty darn great as a stand-alone novel. I may not be as obsessed with 'paranormal whoooo' as a lot of people my age were during the 'Twilight Era' (which no one likes to talk about, but remember: there was a time when there nothing but paranormal romance in the bookstore! I know. Those were dark times, indeed), but I still enjoy a little bit of supernatural fantasy magical things in my literary pursuits.

This book isn't written for teenagers, and it's a little bit challenging to read. Now when I say that I don't mean it's above my level or anything like that - because come on, let's be honest, I should be doing university level English and I've been reading adult books since I was 12 -, I simply mean that it's dense.

So much happens in this book, and there are an awful lot of characters that are all doing more or less the same thing. It's a long book anyway, but it seems as if, plot-wise, it just never ends! This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just makes for slow reading.

Density aside, it's still a very good book. There are good variations in characters, and lots of interesting things happen. The best part about it, however, is the ending. It is the conclusion of books that leave a lasting impression on the reader. The ending of this book was not happy - it was, as every good not-light-reading book should be - bittersweet.

There was a brief epilogue which was a lot cheerier and did lighten the mood somewhat, but that bittersweet mood still clung to the pages and the mind of the reader like a resistant cobweb.

But yes - 'A Star Shall Fall' by Marie Brennan is a very good book and I recommend it to all who are looking for a bit of a commitment in a book. However, I would recommend to others that perhaps they seek out the prequel/s beforehand.

-B

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After I read Perks I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

and let me tell you, it is one of my favourite books now, right beside The Fault in our Stars. It's just so gosh darn good okay. (Side note: can we just laugh at Spock's face on my shirt ^^) It's about a girl called Cath who is a huge fan of the Simon Snow series. I have never connected so much with a character as I have with Cather. She's the perfect embodiment of a writer and I could relate to her so well, regarding fandom wise and writing wise. I'm not going to go into a full review of this book, but I will give it a nine out of ten, simply because when it ended I wanted more. 

I also started reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief which I'm about one hundred pages away from finishing. I really like it so far and I regret not reading it earlier

-J

[jokerphilia-deactivated20140708]

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So Great Gatsby and A Star Will Fall aside, this is my current read:

It's clever and subtly funny and so far, I like it. I  saw it in a bookshop in town on Saturday, and I took a picture of it so I could reserve it from the library later.

I might actually finish this one.

-B

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So after I finished Envy, I made a quick leap at The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I got given this in January for my birthday and it's been on my shelf for months waiting for me to read it.

  I fell in love instantly - all through part one I cried. I felt so connected in a way I wasn't even sure was possible, and even though I couldn't connect to the feelings or the things that were happening to Charlie, I still found it in myself to relate.

I went in with the mentality that this book was so overly quoted and, yeah I was right. The quotes "I swear we were infinite", "we accept the love we think we deserve" and "I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be" are thrown around on blogs and picture captions like they're nothing, and I found that they had completely lost their meaning. However, reading them in the context of all these other completely awe inspiring words, I felt like they were sent specifically for one reader at a time - meant to touch not only everyone, but each individual person who took the time to read this book.

I knew from the get go that this book would forever leave an impression on me, and by god it did. I could probably spend hours raving about Stephen's fantastic writing style, or his gorgeous choice of words, or all the characters story arcs - Charlie's, Sam's, Patrick's, Marry Elizabeth's, everyone- but I won't because it will never do it all justice.

The only true way this book can be 100% appreciated is by being read, and if you haven't read this yet, I would highly recommend it. This book deserves all the praise it's been given and it's probably the only book of our time which has been glorified in an a way which is appropriate.  

-J

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On how I treat books:

I, unlike Bethany, am very into keeping my books as looked after as possible. I want to be able to keep my books for as long as possible and in my mind, it means I can spend more money on books which I hadn't yet got, instead of replacing the ones I loved too dearly. 

I love the feeling I get when I finish a book and it's in near perfect condition, simple because it's still in it's original beautiful state. Then again I also really enjoy the smell/feel/appearance of a well loved, second hand books. 

I always use a bookmark or remember the page number of a book, simple because I hate dog tagging pages. I respect my books in a way I would a child - I'm not going to go break its spine to show how much I love it. If I take a book anywhere with me I carry it in my arms, pressed to my chest because I wont bring it with me unless I'm really into the world.

I often find myself reading while walking between classes or in cars or on buses so a lot of my books are bent, twisted and some even torn. In the end, I think that's why I have multiple copies of books. 

However, I don't at all have anything against people who highlight their books or bend the pages, etc, etc. If you love books that's enough for me, and who am I to say how you treat your books. 

-J

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On how I treat my books:

I'm sorry to say that I am one of those people who believe that the tattier a book, the more well-read and well-loved it is.

I bend the corners of pages to mark my place, I bend the spine and put books down in all manner of places for extended periods of time, I carry books around with me in bags full of other things which inevitably results in bent covers and crumpled pages.

When I was younger especially but still now, I eat whilst reading and sometimes crumbs get caught in between the pages. Whenever I take books outside to read, sand or grass inevitably get stuck between the pages, too.

More and more recently, I have begun to highlight parts of my books that I think are well-written, profound, or just plain beautiful. I'm wouldn't ever hesitate to annotate them, either.

For me at least, reading is a whole experience. Books are extension of my soul, and I want to show that through my reading I have given them life.

That being said, I do own an absolutely beautiful copy of 'Catching Fire' that is so pretty, I read it a weird angle so as to prevent the spine from cracking too much.

-B