| Title |
Author |
Length |
Completed |
Rating |
Comments |
| The
Amber Spyglass |
Phillip Pullman |
518 pgs |
TBA |
2.0 |
A dissapointment. I'm having a lot of
trouble making myself read it- it's just nowhere near as interesting
as his first two in the series, The
Golden Compass and The
Subtle Knife, both of which i definitely enjoyed.
But this book has so little /action/-- so little seems to happen, just
Will's wandering around, more or less, with little that is new and
exciting. The first two were quite good- as yet, I wouldn't bother with
the third. If you do, I'd suggest as a library book, rather than buying
it. |
| Foucault's Pendulum |
Umberto Eco |
533 pgs |
TBA |
1.5 |
I'm rarely this negative about a book, but
I'm pretty sure this one gets a "I think I hated it" rating. Which
is too bad, since it is my ex-boyfriend's all-time favorite book, and
I made him fall in love with /my/ all-time favorite book, The
Eight, so I feel bad that I didn't do the same for
him. However, I supposed I should have known I wouldn't like it- I
read his Name
of the Rose as a junior in high school
for a book report, and although the ending redeemed it in part, the
first 150 pages were deadly. In fact, I only read it because "The
Eight" was cited as a female-protagonist version of "The Name of the
Rose"...Regardless. I wouldn't recommend this one. I couldn't find a
true plot or good continuation of much of anything for what I did finish
in this book. |
| Great
French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist,
Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern |
Barnes Foundation |
? pgs |
TBA |
4.0/4.5 |
A great sampling of art from the Barnes foundation, a
museum famous for it's collection of art, with over 170 Renoir's
alone, I believe, as well as a few Monets, Manets, and so on. Very
educational, with a color picture of each piece of art, and a
description of the work and its importance.Fascinating and
recommended, but a slow read, only because you can only absorb so
much of this sort of information at once. |
| The
Jungle |
Upton Sinclair |
349 pgs |
TBA |
2.0/2.5 |
Not bad, really, but not great either. The reviewers are
right when they say that this isn't about the meat-packing business
(which was regulated and investigated after this book was published),
but about society, socialism, and so on. I read it (or rather,
started) because it /is/ a classic (although I've never been one to
read classics just because others say I should), but I thought I'd
try reading it, just to see what it was like. I got about halfway
through and stopped; it's fairly depressing, and portrays a very
dismal life, and little progression/improvement (I hear that comes
later). I have no particular desire to continue. |
| The
Perfect Storm |
Sebastian Junger |
301 pgs |
TBA |
2.0/2.5 |
This book was just... odd. I haven't finished it, but got
a hundred pages in, and realized I still wasn't really interested in
the novel, so I stopped reading it. It seemed...fake, for a lack of
a better word. The characters didn't live for me (yet), and since it
would obviously be a depressing end...it didn't seem worthwhile to
continue (not having hooked me so far). |
| Mansfield
Park |
Jane Austen |
410 pgs |
TBA |
TBA |
I read a hundred pages of this book, as well, and I don't
remember a single thing about it. This is another one of those
classics that I read just because it's a classic (which is something
I always told myself I wouldn't do, since more often than not I
dislike them). Hopefully I'll finish it at some point, or rather,
re-read it from the beginning, but it wasn't particularly interesting
so far, or I would have remembered more of it. |
| Tess
of the d'Urbervilles |
Thomas Hardy |
? pgs |
TBA |
2.5 |
Yet another piece of "classic literature"
that was okay, but not great. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of
reading the Introduction, which of course gave away the ending, and
ruined the book in some regards for me. So far, it's a rather depressing
novel. |
| Lolita |
Vladimir Nabokov |
317 pgs |
TBA |
TBA |
It's okay so far. No real good comments
yet; I haven't gotten too far into the book yet. |
| Between
the Rivers |
Harry Turtledove |
384 pgs |
TBA |
TBA |
I couldn't seem to get into this book, and I couldn't
figure out why for a while, until I realized that nothing /happens/.
It seems to be basically one big struggle between the main character's
town (and their God/way of life) and the surrounding towns, gods, and
people; yet that's all there is to it. There is only one purpose, and no
actual goal or point that seems to make the book worthwhile. This book
doesn't seem to bring anything to me; I don't consider it worth
reading. |