Book list

[hope_calaris]

I decided to start a list of all the books I've read for no other reason than that I feel like it XD.

(Beware of book spoilers in the comments!)


Starting October 2o11

1. Or Is That Just Me by Richard Hammond -- Richard is approaching 4o and apparently that's reason enough to slide straight into a midlife crisis. It's quite funny, actually, to read about his body slowly falling apart (which really, is not that funny, but the way he writes about it is), his adorable akward attempts at acting and whatever else comes to his mind. Richard is the King of Randomness if you ask me.
2. As You Do by Richard Hammond -- It's mostly the stories behind the big Top Gear specials. The one with the famous love story between him and Oliver (a car) in Botswana, and the Polar Expedition. Not that I thought the Polar Expedition was easy in any way before, but reading about it made me realize how difficult it really was (and I felt really, really cold reading about it ^^).
3. On The Edge: My Story by Richard Hammond -- The story about his jet car crash and its fallout in 2oo6. Very touching and moving. And Mindy, Richard's wife, has earned my eternal admiration for her strength.
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- Tumblr is FULL with The Hunger Games and its fandom, and since I'd never heard of it before, I decided to give it a try (it's the same with twitter and tumblr, if I don't get the hype, I'll have to try it for myself). To be honest, I hated the first book. Not the writing or the characters, but the whole basic idea of sending teenagers into an arena to fight to the death. Completely and utterly disgusting, and I still don't get why there's such a huge fandom for it. These books shouldn't be advertised as YA in my opinion. I wouldn't want my imaginary 13 years old to read these. Anyway, there were some scenes (especially towards the end) when I could barely stand to keep reading.
5. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -- I still kept reading, and voila! I liked this book so much more than the first one (contrary to popular fandom opinion as it seems). Apparently, I'm not a fand of gladiator fights to the death, but give me a rebellion and I'm all set.
6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins -- Collins still has problems with pacing and describing really boring details for a really long time, but otherwise I liked this book a lot. The characters get more depth (Finnick! ♥) and I really liked the ending. The high body count, however, was really unnecessary.
7. Mary Tudor: The First Queen by Linda Porter -- Highly informative and well written, I liked it a lot. It also shows a bias to portray Mary as a nicer woman than she's usually pictured by historians, which I also like because I'm in turn influenced by Sarah Bolger's acting in The Tudors which made me like Mary a great deal. Win-win all around.
8. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare -- I liked it better than the first part of the Infernal Devices Trilogy, so that's a good thing. I think the plot was a bit slow moving and not all that important to the overall arch, but it's the first time ever I couldn't decide which male character I wanted to see with the female protagonist. And I love Gideon and Sophie.

Comments

[herzausglas.livejournal.com]

Yay für Bücherlisten!

Mir hat die ganze The Hunger Games Trilogie ganz gut gefallen, allerdings kann ich schon nachvollziehen, dass es einigen Lesern zu brutal ist. Finnick ist auch einer meiner Lieblingscharaktere ;)
Nächstes Jahr kommt ja die Verfilmung vom ersten Teil raus (und irgendwann nächste Woche der richtige Trailer dafür), aber es ist mir ein Rätsel, wie sie den Film ab 12 hingekriegt haben bzw mal sehen ob er in Deutschland nicht eher FSK16 wird.

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

Normalerweise macht mir Brutalität nicht so viel aus, ich glaube das Hauptproblem bei den Büchern war einfach die Idee an sich die ich so furchtbar widerwärtig fand. Und dann wie Cato umgekommen ist im ersten Band -- da ist mir beinahe das Abendbrot wieder hoch gekommen.

Und Finnick ... hach, ich liebe es wie er erst so der oberflächliche Obermacho ist und dann nach und nach mehr Tiefe bekommt und er und Annie(?) sind einfach nur unfassbar entzückend und als man dann noch erfährt was Finnick alles passiert ist ;___;

Ich glaube der Trailer kommt am Montag.

[tuppeny.livejournal.com]

I adore book lists!

Definitely agree about The Hunger Games... apparently Suzanne Collins tried to get it published as an adult novel, but editors told her no and suggested she try it as a YA novel because its characters are teenagers. That makes me less upset with the author but reconfirms my opinion that parents need to be careful what they let their children read and make sure to be ready to have conversations about these books. Oh, and yeah, I think Mockingjay was unnecessarily brutal, too.

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about her publisher's decision, but it's a bit stupid to classify it as YA only becvause the characters are teenagers. *eyeroll of doom*

What I'm most upset about in Mockingjay is that all these deaths were totally pointless. They didn't help in any way to achieve the main goal.

[tuppeny.livejournal.com]

ITA. Especially Prue. Was that really necessary? No.

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

This may be stupid, because I've just read the books and should remember, but who's Prue?

[tuppeny.livejournal.com]

Prim! Whoops. It's Prim, right? I think I was mixing up the little girl who dies in the arena with the little sister...

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

(I love your icon.)

Oh, Prim. Yes. That was totally uncalled for and basically killed the reason for the books as well. She didn't save her in the end, so it was all for nothing. And it's not like Collins needed further proof that everyone is fair game in the books, she'd already killed nearly everyone else (Finnick! ;__;)

[tuppeny.livejournal.com]

YES! I'd already gotten the point that war is brutal, people are awful, life isn't fair, blah blah blah. Katniss was damaged enough already; killing off Prim was just gratuitous pain. And honestly, Finnick didn't need to die, either; it was frustrating that she developed him just enough for you to like him in order to make it hurt when she killed him off. Hmph.

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I wouldn't have cared so much for Finnick if she hadn't bring in the stuff with Annie (who turns out to be pregnant? Collins is an evil, evil woman) and what he had to endure even after winning the Games.

And how Katniss was still alive after all of this is beyond me.

[diapadme.livejournal.com]

Viel Richard Hammond :D Interessant.
An die Hunger Games habe ich mich noch nicht herangewagt, aber ich höre immer mal wieder was davon. Konnte mir aber bis zu deiner Beschreibung eben, noch nichts darunter vorstellen.

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

Wenn ich eine Obsession hab, dann aber auch richtig ^^