Bookish Rant: Revisiting Re-Reads

Amongst all of us book lovin’ fiends around here, it’s no surprise that we all read every- and anything that looks and sounds promising. The first time you read a great book can be nearly indefinable in the emotion and excitement it engenders. But what about multiple readthroughs?

Lately, I’ve found myself reaching to the back of my bookshelves and rereading some beloved titles, from the early Kara Gillian books to the Chicagoland Vampires series and, most recently, the September BLI Book Club pick, The Iron Duke. In the middle of reading a new book recently, I even stopped suddenly, immediately grabbed up my well-loved copy of Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas, and proceeded to reread my favorite sections (read: more than 60% of the book) over the few hours that followed. A recent “Booking Through Thursday” topic got me thinking even more about rereads…namely, what’s the aim …

Bookish Rave: What Reader Species Are You?

Here at BLI, we often ask how one can differentiate between a Book Lover and mere Reader. It turns out we were thinking to small. Laura E. Kelley realized there is an entire taxonomy of Readers and Book Lovers out there, and set out to identify and distinguish each individual species.

As you do.

Today we acknowledge that our International Book Congress requires more than simple geographic and genre diversity to be fully representative of the needs of Book Lovers. We may need to bulk up our ranks. Diversity hires, if you will.

And so, without further ado we present The Linnaean Hierarchy of Readers.* (Seriously, we did not create this. It is amazing, but also requires a scientific devotion to detail and organization that we can only aspire towards.)

Take your time to properly classify yourself. The Book Lovers will self-identify below.

Jackie: I think I fit into a bunch of the …

Bookish Rant: Unconventional Endings Need Not Apply

“I don’t think man was meant to attain happiness so easily. Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it” -Edmund Dantes.

Book adaptations are a constant bone of contention for Book Lovers. Do we want to see our favorite works beautifully depicted on screen a la Game of Thrones? Or are we outraged by the humorous defilement of a definitely not humorous body of literature in School of Thrones? (Note: Regardless of sexposition in the former, and lack of Arya in the latter, I am a huge fan of both adaptations.)

I take most adaptations on a case-by-case basis. But will instantly and irrevocably transform into a flaming ball of nerd-hate when screenwriters who are essentially transmitting the story directly from page to screen, get a sudden aneurysm brainstorm and “improve” the ending. Screw things like plot, character development, …

Bookish Rant or Raves: Negative Review or Personality Disorder?

I fervently adore negative reviews.  A negative review provides the perfect framework to fully interact with a book. That pissed off reviewer hates things about a book that I loved, is outraged by something I completely missed, or shares in the absurdity of the so-called worldbuilding the author alleges to have undertaken.

DRACARYS!

On any given day, I have to listen to an abusive oil lineman convince a Judge that the wife cut the brakes in her own car, or a Napoleonic landlord claim it was a violation of the lease for a family to light a fire in the fireplace in Alaska in the winter.

I want to read something cathartic; wherein the assholes get what’s coming to them. Alternately, I’m interested in something that gives me hope for the human condition. Either/Or. When I don’t get that…..

I. Am. Pissed.

But I fly right passed …

Bookish Rants and Raves:Desperately finishing a book

How desperate have you been to finish a book?

Have you been late for work? Late for school? Late for a date?

How about late for a flight?

Recently I read The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I happened to be about to finish it on a Friday, the same Friday I needed to get on a plane to New Zealand, for a wedding. I was 40 pages out from finishing. In the morning before work I knocked over 36 pages, bad luck and potential lateness (again) left me with 4 pages to go. I was already running on a favour from my boss letting me leave early, which is why I couldn’t risk being late. I didn’t take lunch that day so I couldn’t finish it at work, but I took my book anyway.

At the risk of losing my job I subtly read two more pages at my desk when I was …

Bookish Rants or Raves: What happened with my 2012 anticipated books?

Lists are fun. Unless they are lists of housekeeping chores, and then, well, never mind. (Move along, nothing to see here)

Book lists are fun. How many “best books of 2012” lists have you checked out? If you haven’t gotten your fill yet, Largehearted Boy is collecting every “best of 2012” book list he can get his virtual hands on. The list is positively ginormous, and guaranteed to do major damage to your wish list and/or TBR pile.

As I created my own “best of 2012” list at Reading Reality, I did a couple of other things. The natural thing is to create the accompanying list of “most anticipated books for 2013”, which yes, I also did.

Then I had this horribly guilty flash. How many of 2012’s most anticipated books did I actually read? Oops. I didn’t do very well. Actually, …

Holiday Rants or Raves: My (Love)/Hate Relationship with New Year’s Eve

Hey Everyone!

By now you all know how much I love the holidays and what a big Christmas-aholic I am, so it may come as a surprise, but I absolutely HATE New Year’s Eve.

Why? Because it irritates me that everyone *must* party and have fun on December 31st and waving goodbye to the year is an excuse for many people to act crazy/irresponsible/dangerous or outright stupid. Why can’t I have fun on Dec 29 if I feel like it? This whole mandatory have fun just grates on my nerves. *grinds teeth*

And sure, fireworks are pretty, but people getting excited and starting their own home explosives 2 days prior to the big day, scaring all cats and dogs in the neighbourhood, which result in loud barking making it quite impossible to enjoy the holidays or sleep for 3 days non-stop makes it much less …

Reading and Knitting: When the two meet!

Hello! My name is Caroline and I’m a knitting Addict. Well, I’m also a book addict but that was a given *wink*. At first I thought these two passions would be  two different things, I was either reading OR knitting.  Oh but I know better now *g*. I won’t even talk about this great invention that is the Audiobook. Nope today I’m here to talk about books!

When I’m looking for pretty patterns to knit I often find patterns inspired by  books I’ve read. And THAT, makes my geeky self happy. It started with the Jane Austen Knitting magazines. I’m fascinated with anything Jane Austen. I love that these magazines give you Austenian patterns with a modern touch.

 (You can see the Table of Content when you click on the pics) 

Sometimes whole Pattern Books are just about celebrating your favorite classics. Literary Knits is the new shiny …

Bookish Rants or Raves: Turkey Thursdays, Black Fridays

Painting, “First Thanksgiving” by Jean Ferris

Ah, Thanksgiving. The day of turkey, pumpkin pie, parades, football, and James Bond marathons. This particular North American holiday, notably secular amongst several religious observances in the season, is quite fascinating to me. It’s origins are interesing–and though I won’t go into detail here and now, historians might describe its pragmatic establishment from the Protestent Reformation, and school children will speak of Pilgrims and native tribes playing nice with one another and sharing harvests in merriment.

Celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the U.S. (and the 2nd Monday of October in Canada), Thanksgiving is, of course, about giving thanks. It represents many delightful elements, and some curiously oxymoronic aspects. (More on the latter in a bit.) For those who enjoy food, it’s all about the cornucopia (pun intended) of rich, abundant, delicious dishes. Turkey, cornbread, greenbeans, corn, cranberry sauce (a must!), …

Bookish Rants or Raves: Why do I read horrible books?

 

“Why did you bother finishing that if you hated it?”

I get asked this question quite a lot, and it is a fair one. So why do I read horrible books?

I have many reasons:
 I don’t like feeling my time was wasted
This seems contradictory but if I’ve spent a couple of days chipping away at a horrible book, I can’t just leave it. I have put in the time and effort to get this far and now I want to just finish and be done. I hate leaving books unfinished because I feel I still owe them an obligation. (I never claimed to be sane)

I want the right to have my say
I’m a book reviewer! I want to tell people about the books I read and I don’t make a habit of reviewing DNF’s. If I’m halfway through a book and I’ve been rolling my eyes and audibly sighing then I want …