Category Archives: 30 Day Book Challenge

Aug 31 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 30!

Day 30: Favorite coffee table book

This one was an easy one for me!  My favorite coffee table book is Vestiges of Grandeur by Richard Sexton.

I first traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in 1995. For those who know me too well, you know that this trip should be a Lifetime Made For TV Movie some day. While waiting for my train to arrive so I could finally leave this city, I came across this book in the station gift shop.  I had literally no money left to buy it, but after looking through it I knew I had to have it.  I committed its name to memory and bought a copy when I got home.

The book celebrates the inside of old plantation homes of Louisiana, and presents a gentler, more beautiful side of New Orleans that I didn’t get to see when I was there. It made me appreciate being there a bit more although I didn’t at the time because of all the partying chaos.  I traveled back to New Orleans by train two years later and got to take in a lot of that beauty that I had missed before.

There’s another book in the series devoted to New Orleans which I also proudly own.

Aug 30 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 29

Day 29: Book you’re currently reading

Hmmm…this goes back to the Why I’m Going to Read Next day from a few days ago, doesn’t it?

Right now though it’s another Koontz book.

I joined an online Koontz Fan Club over at Good Reads and they read one of his books a month.  They chose Twilight Eyes for September.  Since I just finished the last book in the Frankenstein series last Thursday, I decided to go ahead and start this one since there are only a few days left in September.

After the first two chapters, I wasn’t into it as much but it’s getting better now.

And wow, there’s only 1 more day left in the Book Challenge!

Aug 29 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 28

Day 28: Last book you read

Well, this was easy.  It’s part 5 in the Frankenstein series written by Dean Koontz.

At the beginning of July I read Koontz’s book, What The Night Knows.  I loved it so much, and it was my first Koontz book ever, that I wanted to read more. If you’ve been following my blog, then you know I spent all of July and August pouring through the 5 books in the Frankenstein series.

Book 1 and 2 were awesome and kept me hooked, but the plot started to fall short by book 3 which I reviewed as being the worst in the series.  Boy was I wrong…Book 4 got even worse, and  Book 5 was a real struggle to even get through but I finished it!

And with that, I’m taking a break from Koontz and going to read something else for a book…or two…or three…

This is the first series I’ve ever read probably since grade school, and I don’t even remember what series I would have read back then.

It also proves that loyal fans will pretty much read any crap that their favorite author puts out, which is why these people become so obscenely rich.  Stephen King, you hear me talking.  Don’t believe me?  Just check out the reviews at Amazon.  The last three books in this series averaged 3 out of 5 stars overall…and as of this post Book 5 only has 45 reviews not counting mine.

Through Book 4 and Book 5, I was constantly saying to myself, “Wow!  I could do better than this.” Koontz fills pages with so many characters that don’t really have any effect on the main plot whatsoever.  They are just page fillers.  And when you finally get to the end, he wraps it all up with a pretty bow in about 10 pages with a lack luster ending, having spent too much time building up to it.

For example, there were two special under cover FBI detectives introduced in Book 4 who were in all of 3 chapters total and really served no purpose whatsoever.  At the end of that book, you had no idea what they were up to.  Granted, they come back in Book 5, but one of them is killed by his third scene and his now solo partner still had no mainstream effect on the overall plot whatsoever.

It’s like Koontz sat down and had written some scenes and didn’t know what to do with them and he found them one day and said, oh yeah, let’s throw this in this book.  It’ll work.  I don’t know what else to write in here, and I’m tired of it.  Let’s just wrap it up.  Who cares?

And people buy it and oogle over it likes it’s the best thing ever. Like I said, I’ve got to move forward and read something else and try to repair my IQ a bit. I’m sure I’ll try Koontz again.  I’d love to read his Odd Thomas series.  But he may quickly lose a short term fan forever if he keeps writing this way.

 

Aug 28 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 27

Day 27: Favorite fiction book

Do I have to pick just one?  Heck, the last 26 days have been filled with favorites.

In 2009, I got my hands on an advanced copy of Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, but I didn’t read it right away.  I finally picked it up last year and couldn’t believe I’d waited!  This book was amazing.  I shared it with a few book buddies who also loved it.  So, we all ended up reading Flynn’s other book, Sharp Objects – which was also just as amazing!!

Flynn is now one of my all time favorite authors and I can’t wait to read what she writes next.  If you love a good, dark mystery then you should definitely check out her books.

Absolutely brilliant!!

Aug 27 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 26

Day 26: Favorite nonfiction book

I rarely read nonfiction.  I admit it.  I’m just not into biographies.  I like cookbooks but have never read one cover to cover. I’ve read a few travel books these past two years, but they aren’t books I’d read twice. In looking back on my lists of books read the past 3 years, I found a memoir about an ex-stripper in DC which got tons of praise but I hated it.

So, my choice for today is actually a book that I read in 2008 called Babylon’s Ark. It was written by Lawrence Anthony and is the story of how he went to Iraq at the beginning of the war to try to save the Baghdad Zoo. That might sound a bit simplistic, but take into account everything you’ve heard in the news about these people.  During a time of war, poachers stole a lot of the animals to sell for food or money – or they took the animals to use as food.  It was a very dangerous undertaking for Anthony, and he had very little help.

If you are an animal lover, I highly suggest you read this book.  It’s very emotional, and yes, you will cry.  Parts are very upsetting, but overall I thought it was a great book and I’ve never forgotten it.

Aug 26 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 25

Day 25: Favorite book you read in school

Looking back, the curriculum my English teachers followed wasn’t all that good. We never read To Kill A Mocking Bird, A Cather in the Rye, or any of the other classics besides Shakespeare.  And if we did read something, it was always that condensed version that came in your Reading Textbook. A Southern Literature class in college was the first to really expose me to good classics like The Color Purple and more.

But I wanted to picked something from “school” for today, so I’m going with Great Expectations. I think we read it in 7th or 8th grade, and yes it was a condensed version in our textbook.  But it was really good.

I had never actually read A Christmas Carol from Dickens until this past December.  Sure, I’d seen all the movie versions, but I finally sat down and read it when it was free for the Kindle ereader.

I’d like to know what classics you missed out on in school.  Have you read them since or do you plan to?

Aug 25 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 24

Day 24: Book that contains your favorite scene

Again, there are too numerous to name here.  I had to take a few days to think about it – and not pick books that have already been represented on a different day of the challenge.

I finally picked The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson which actually contains numerous scenes that I found to be just haunting and beautiful.  It’s about a man and a woman who meet under odd circumstances.  The woman is a sculptor of gargoyles, and the man is a bit of a gargoyle himself after suffering a horrific motorbike accident that burns most of his body.

The book is about their story together as they fall in love, and you actually discover its numerous stories as they knew each other in another life – several lives in fact.

Take my word, just pick up the book and discover it for yourself.  I’ve suggested it to numerous people and not one of them have been disappointed by it.

Aug 24 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 23

Day 23: Book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)

I’ve seen the play more times than I can count.  Actually, the first time I ever saw it was in St. Louis.

I own a hardcover and a paperback copy.

But, sadly, I have never read Les Miserables.  I never claim to have read it either, but as much as I talk about the play and the music sometimes, you’d think I would have read it by now.

It’s on my list.

And lately, I’ve been thinking about trying to read a classic a year.  So, maybe next year I’ll read this one.  It’s like 10 million pages long – Hugo was in prison while he wrote it.  So, I’ll probably have to read like a 1,000 pages a day just to finish it in one year!

Aug 23 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 22

Day 22: Book you plan to read next

Here’s a list that never grows short!

Since I’ve been hooked on Dean Koontz the past two months, I’d like to dive into his Odd Thomas series – but its 4 books.  Having just finished his Frankenstein series which was 5 books, I’m going to probably take a break from a series for a while.

One of my online GoodReads groups is going to read Koontz’s Twilight Eyes for September, and I’d like to get in on that so I will definitely read it in September.

But I’ve been eyeing a book called Probation by Tom Mendicino which I might pick up to take a break from Koontz.

Then again, I did just receive an advanced copy of Legacy, the 2nd book in a series by C.V. Hunt.  I loved the first one, so I definitely want to read it soon.

So many books….did I answer the question yet?

Aug 22 2011

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 21

Day 21: Favorite picture book from childhood

Remember Little Golden Books? Remember when you could get one with your Happy Meal?

Bambi, Rudolph, the Pokey Little Puppy, Micky Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny…

They were my all time favorite childhood picture books!

I remember turning the book over and looking at the back at all the characters on the train and counting how many of their books I had read.