Saturday - Ian McEwan

I found Saturday very hard going. The story intrigued me, and I wanted to enjoy the book... but!
In my Friday night book club in February, one of the members of the group said she didn't enjoy Let me Sing you Gentle Songs by Linda Olsson, because she felt like there was too much detail, and she was getting  bogged down in it. I have to say that is exactly how I felt about Saturday. One moment Henry is standing at the window looking out and then we have pages and pages of description of his work. I was a bit confused when all of a sudden he was back at the window again.

To be honest, the only reason I finished this book was because we were reading it for book club... ok ok, I didn't actually have it quite finished for book club, and I did want to finish it to count towards the 100+
challenge. It was really hard going. I had the same trouble with Atonement, but gave up on that without a second thought. I probably didn't really get into it until about 3/4 of the way through... normally I wouldn't persevere with a book that I'm struggling with for that long. I'm definitely of the "life's too short to struggle with a book" train of thought.

What about you? Do you give up when the going gets too tough? Or will you push through to the end?
Perhaps it's just my frame of mind these days that I don't want too much detail in what I'm reading. I don't want to have to struggle to read a book.

February Roundup - 100 + challenge

I'm finding that the thinner books are increasingly harder to read than the
thicker ones. I was almost managing a book every four days.
This month I read 5 books:
The Wild Things - Dave Eggers
50 ways to find a lover - Lucy-Anne Holmes
Let me sing you gentle songs - Linda Olsson
Wonders of a godless world - Andrew McGahan
The Single Man - Christopher Isherwood

It was a mixed bag of books this month. From Wild things based on the
Maurice Sedak book Where the Wild things are, to chick lit 50 ways to find
a Lover. Wonders of a godless world, which won the Aurealius Award this
year, to the Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. I really enjoyed Let me
sing you gentle songs. It generated great discussion in book club.
The Single Man was rather hard going. The perspective changed from second
person to third person and back again. The end was well developed. Although
I havent' seen the movie, starring Colin Firth, I could hear his voice as
George.
I've now saved a total of $11 for the buck a book challenge.

Wonders of a Godless World

I've just finished reading Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan. It has just won the 2009 Aurealis Award for Science Fiction. It is a bit of an unusual book.

About the book
Wonders of a Godless World is set on an island in the middle of an ocean. The main character is a retarded orphan girl who works at the hospital. Mostly with the mental patients. She has no experience of the world outside the island. One day a patient is brought to the hospital in a coma. Strange things happens to the patients he is put near so he is moved to a room on his own. The patient is called the Foreigner by the girl. Very few of the characters have names. Eventually the Orphan starts to hear the voice of the Foreigner in her head. He shows her wonders she'd never dreamt of. It explores notions of power, reality and how human interaction affects the world around them.
 
I found it was a challenge to read, and often had to reread bits to make sense of them. Some of the imagery created was amazing. I think it definitely needs a reread before I can decide if I liked it or not.

Reading Journal Challenge

So apparently these reading challenges don't have to start with the new year. Through Novel Challenges I find new challenges starting all the time. I know I should stop looking, but I'm a bit addicted. I particularly like challenges that I can use my current reading for. The Reading Journal Challenge is one such challenge. You may have to scroll down the page to find the rules for this one. All the challenges set up on the readingwithsea blog seem to be on the one page.

The idea of the Reading Journal Challenge is to keep a journal of all books bought and read between March 2010 and February 2011. The minimum information required is the name and author of the books you've bought
and/or read in each month. I already make a note of books I've read, but not what I've bought.

50 ways to find a lover

I feel like I've read some pretty serious books lately, so I decided to
read something very light. Like most chick lit books there is a serious
undertone at times, but on the whole this was a fun book to read. I had
several laugh out loud moments that caused me to get funny books from other
people in the room.
50 ways to find a lover by Lucy-Anne Holmes is about Sarah Sargeant. She
hasn't had a date in 3 years and is about to give up on love. After a close
call with being on a reality tv show she decides to start a blog and
document the challenge of trying 50 different ways to find a man.
It was a fun, light read. I am looking forward to reading more books by
Lucy-Anne Holmes.

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers

I don't know how I managed it, but I managed to grow up and do some children's library work without ever reading Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak. I think that takes a certain amount of talent. I have a friend who was mortified that a video of the book made a little girl cry.

It still didn't make me read the book. I have seen the preview for the 2009 movie, but not seen it yet although I do want to. Then I heard about a novel made from the book and the movie called "The wild things" by Dave Eggers, an author I've always wanted to read.

It is an odd experience reading a book based on another book that you've heard so much about but never actually read. I didn't really know the story... a boy comes across some monsters. Right? 

The Wild Things was quite different to what I was expecting... given that I didn't know what I was expecting. The boy, Max, was there. The monsters -Carol, Judith, Ira, Douglas, Katherine, Bull and Alexander were there. The story was a bit different to what I was expecting. I talked about reading it in Book chat and one of the members said that kids enjoy the controlled scare, and that there is safety at the end.

It was an enjoyable read. I'd be interested in seeing the movie to see how it translates to the screen. Max seemed like a normal little boy, although he seemed to act on every thought he had. That could be normal behaviour for a boy of his age for all I know. When he got to the island, he was still doing that to some extent, only he thought the things he chose to do would make the Wild Things happy. It didn't. To me the book seemed to be about the safety and security of home. As when Max went to the island everything was a bit chaotic. I could have completely missed the point though.

A Buck a Book Reading Challenge

DelGal is hosting the A buck a book reading challenge.

You put aside a dollar for every book you read between 1 January 2010 to
31st December 2010. At the end of the challenge you get to spend the money on something fun for yourself! This sounds like a great challenge and it will link in with the 100+ reading challenge that I'm already doing. I can spend the year thinking of things to spend $100 on!! I have to remember to put $8 aside so far.

At the end of my monthly reading updates I will include the total amount saved so far.


Well back to the books for me!