Christmas Books!

SO my amazing friends Kelly and Michelle bought me two penguin books for Christmas - The Witches of Eastwick and Tales of the Unexpected. They are so great! ^_^

I have a 30 hour flight tonight, so I'm taking Fabric of the Cosmos, Lolita and my DS with Pokemon Pearl. Should be enough entertainment! Hopefully I'll finish them both and be able to review them when I get home in late Janurary! On that note, I wont be here for a while, so Merry Christmas and a Prosperus New year!

Emma
Curently reading Fabric of the Cosmos

My current Collection!

I'm going to update you all on what I currently own by way of Penguin books, so you can get as excited as me when I buy new ones!



So thats mostly it:
Empire, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Delta of Venus, Dracula, Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, Perfume, Pride and Predjudice, Jane Eyre. Plus Breakfast at Tiffany's that I leant to a friend in eachange for Anime, and Fabric of the Cosmos, which I am currently reading.

Hopefully my friend Michelle will be buying me some Penguins for christmas, and maybe someone else will too!

PENGUIN SPEEDBUMP
Uh oh, yes, a speedbump is going to slow me down - its called a bookclub. And although I strongly suggested a penguin classics theme for 2010, the theme was decided as Books Published in the 1980s. So, I have to read non penguin books! The first one is Mantissa by John Fowles. I have to go buy it today so that I can read it on teh flight to Ireland tomorrow. Hopefully I'll also finish fabric of the Cosmos while I'm over there! Its an epic read.

Emma
Currently reading: Fabric of the Cosmos

Book Review : Pride and Prejudice

For some reason Prejudice never looks like it's spelt right to me. Anyways.

My rating: 4/5

Although its one of those books all girls are meant to read and get all "ooh Mr Darcy" about, I never had. Granted, I had seen the movie staring Kira Knightly (also known as "The Killer of Films") and was loving the story but hating the film. (Thankyou, Miss Needs-a-hamburger).

So the book was what I expected really; a delicious tale of a girl who's a bit too smart for her own good and her slow falling in love with the very odd Mr Darcy, who doesnt like the silly girls that surround him and much prefer a conversation with Elizabeth. Awww. Yay for smart girls! haha. Don't we wish there was a rich, moderately handsome gentleman coming calling for all us smart, moderately handsome girls :P

The reason it doesn't get 5/5 is because I felt that some of the characters were very annoying (Lord Wickam) in a I-dont-want-to-read-this-because-he's-here kind of way. I felt that, although there character is very important to the story, they needn't come in so often and say so much. Also, it was a little long winded and there were moments of self indulgence that went on a little too long for my liking. Otherwise, a great book that needs to be read by all!

NOTE: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is on my list to read after the penguin challenge! It looks great!!!

Emma
Currently reading Fabric of the Cosmos

Book Review : Jane Eyre

My Review: 2/5

When I was at uni, we put on Jane Eyre the musical, and it was so long and boring. Costumes were great though. So, when I went to read the book, I was hoping that the story would be more detailed and more interesting. It wasn't.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Perhaps it was because I already knew what happened that I spent half the book going "when the hell is he going to ask her to marry him?". Once he did though, it was an exciting revelation of the wife in the attic and they can't get married (I actually felt sorry for her there) before she runs off for another 3000 pages of looking at stuff and wallowing in her own boringness. Okay, I understand that Plain Jane Eyre isn't real;y the exciting type, but I almost threw the book in the bin when she went on about Lady Ingram's hair for 5 pages, or when she went on about learning German for ten pages. It seems to me that the beginning and middle of the book are boring, drawn out and mostly uneventful (the major events being made crummy by the fact that they're drawn out over 100 pages). The best part - the end, where they're finally together, was short and sweet.

I think it could have been a much better if the beginning and middle of the book were shorter, to match the end. I think then it would have been an enjoyable read with a succinct story and a well rounded ending.
In short: too much faffing about.

Emma
Currently reading Fabric of the Cosmos

About the Penguin Challenge

What is the Penguin Challenge?

It all started one Christmas when my mum wanted me to buy myself inexpensive presents for the family to give me. I had $10 from each fo them to spend. Not much you can get for $10, so I wandered into Borders for a look. The I discovered the Popular Penguin Classic Collection.

The Penguin Challenge is a way of me forfilling one of my goals to "read more". When the Popular Penguins were first released there was 50 of them, and I hadn't read any of them! So I decided I would make it my goal to read all of the Popular Penguin Classics before I was 25. Now, there's 100 of them. >_<

Is there any order to your reading?

No, not really. I always have a top 5 books I want to read, and I usually try to buy the books on my top 5 while I'm reading another. So, I'll be readin 1, while I actively try to locate 2,3,4 and 5. So far, I've gotten at least one of them before I've finished one, and it has been shuffled up and another brought in. So really, I'm reading them in the order I'm intersted in them in and I can find them in.

What are you reading right now?

I've started signing my posts with what I'm currently reading.

Can I do the Penguin Challenge too?

Sure, don't see why not.

How do you have so much time to read?

I don't. Thats what makes it such a challenge!

Will you read xxxx and review it for me?

If its a Popular Penguin Classic, I've either done it already or I'll do it in the future. If it's not, then I might read it after. That won't be for a while though.

No I will not read Twilight.


Hope that explains it all!

Emma xxx
Currently reading: Fabric of the Cosmos

Book Review: A Clockwork Orange

My Score: 4.5/5

I was really excited to read A Clockwork Orange, because its so famous. I'd always heard people going on about the movie and how freaky it was, and so I was a bit tentative in just going and hiring it out. But when I found out it was a Penguin - I just had to read it.

I was a difficult read at first: I read before going to sleep, and the weird slang took me a while to get used to. So, I was reading slower than usual. However, I thoughroughly enjoyed the plot, the characters, as well as the message. I didn't find the tourture scenes overly confronting; I think it's the combination of the slang and the fact that it is literature and not visual (like the film). I was able to comprehend the situation, and the actions, with adequite distance. I actually found it quite interesting how bashing someone's head in wasn't so bad because it had a different word associated to it.

Overall, I think this is a must read for anyone above the age of 15. Its possibly one of the most challenging and enjoyable books I've ever read. But I'm definately not watching the movie :)