Wednesday, February 29, 2012

February Reading Wrap-up

Books Read: 13
Difference from previous month: - 2
Avg Rating: 2.92 Stars
Difference from previous month: - 0.35 stars
Pages Read: 4,563
Difference from previous month: + 967 pages


I didn't have any 5 star books this month! :( That makes me kind of sad. Oh well... nothing to do about it now. Here's the wrap up, sans all the formatting and pictures this time, because I'm feeling kind of bleh at the moment.

The Great:
Tie: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe & Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
Both of these were great in their own way. I didn't really expect to like The Hum and the Shiver, so the fact that I was drawn into the world and the writing as much as I was made for a very pleasant surprise. I had issues with the book, but maybe, just maybe, if this is the start to a series, or if there's a sequel, those will go away. ;)

Flowers for Algernon was great, and definitely made me think, but it was not nearly as emotional as I would've liked, and that's the main reason I couldn't give the book 5 stars. It was a bit detached... I wanted more humanity. I really did enjoy it though.

The Good:
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
I was pleasantly surprised to like this one as much as I did! Very funny, sweet and very readable!

The Bad:
Tie again: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness & Genesis by Bernard Beckett.
Ugh... Sorry, fans...I really, really, really wanted to love this book, especially after loving A Monster Calls... but there was just a lot that I did not like about it at all. Very disappointing.

Genesis was interesting... in the way that advanced placement school history lessons are interesting to non-AP students. Which is to say, not very. That's how the story read, felt, and was presented. Original? Sure. Fun? Not so much. And then the twist at the end made the whole thing moot for me, and I was left wondering what the hell the whole point was in the first place. Bah. No good.

The DNF:
Coupla these, too: World Without End by Ken Follett & Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
World Without End was just too, too long... Soooooooooo long. And so similar to Pillars of the Earth that it was practically the same story. I quit about 80% through that one. So much time wasted that could have been spent doing something else.

Guilty Pleasures just didn't do anything for me at all. The writing didn't work, the story didn't interest me... Just nothing happening for me. That's pretty much all there is to say.
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Soooo... How was your reading month? Anything good? Want to vent about a total wall-banger that you wish had never come into your life? Leave me comments! :)

2 comments:

  1. You're one of the few people I've heard of who didn't like the Patrick Ness book. I still haven't decided whether to pick it up for myself or not...I'm curious to know the titles that make up the rest of the 13 books that you read this month--that's pretty impressive!

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  2. I really wanted to like it, but there was just something about it that didn't do it for me. :(

    I have all of my books listed here: http://escapismthroughbooks.blogspot.com/p/read-in-2012.html :)

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