1/15/15 - A Book My Mom Loves

Guess who got lazy about writing reviews during the first week of the semester?

I finished Goodbye, Mr. Chips on the 9th. It was a pleasant, very short read - it took me about forty minutes - and I get the appeal. It's very third-person omniscient, going over the anecdotal incidents of a very popular English professor that, in a longer book, would have been tedious in the extreme. But since this is a novella, with a distant, thoughtful air, it's much more entertaining. Mr. Chips sounds like the kind of professor I'd like to have. He also reminded me of such professors as Professor Keating - kind of like their more conservative prototype. I'd like to know Mr. Chips's influence on other "life-changing teacher" stories.

I finished three of my five books last week. A little sad, a little good. Improvements can always be made (unless I won like last week) and hopefully this coming week will be better!

The War That Killed Achilles and Hannibal are crossing over - I just didn't get to them soon enough. (I did, however, finish The War today and it seemed like a well-researched analysis of a few of the broader aspects of the Iliad. A good beginner-level book, which I am. A beginner, not a beginner-level book. That's also why it's not in the picture - I had to return it today.)

I splurged and bought the book I've chosen for the category of A Book With Magic, to wit, A World Without Princes, because it'll probably take my library system a year and a day to get it. I don't want to wait a year and a day for it because I am very excited for this book. So expect either a deliriously pleased review or a deliriously disappointed review sometime between tomorrow and next Wednesday.

Hopes for this week: that Paper Towns isn't as eye-stabbingly painful to slog through as Looking For Alaska, that Hannibal is even better than Red Dragon, that The One isn't as upsettingly drab as The Elite was, and that A World Without Princes is as beautifully characterized and drawn as The School for Good and Evil was. Lots of sequels and lots of expectations for this week!

Joyous Reading!

The Second Week

The first week of January was massively successful, not only in my 2015 Reading Challenge. Aside from that, I also have a generic reading journal. It's a goal-keeping mechanism: for every week in which I read five books, I get to buy one full-price book. In no other case do I get to buy a full-price book (bookstore sales and used bookstores are highly discouraged; library sales are less discouraged but still frowned up). Since I started this system back in September '14, I have not been able to allow myself a full-price book.

Until the first week of January. Which I think is a pretty good omen!

(The line-up for last week, if you're interested, was Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney, Storm Thief by Chris Wooding, The Gates by John Connolly, Showdown by Ted Dekker, and The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare et al.)

So I was able to satisfy a long-lasting lust for this book, Antigoddess by Kendare Blake. I've heard nothing but good things, Blake's writing was quite nice in Anna Dressed In Blood, and this synopsis so up my alley it might as well be the alley. So I'm excited to read this.

I have a couple items I could check off this week - nonfic, graphic novel, thriller, female author - but the one I'm going with is A Book My Mom Loves, which in this case is Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. I have absolutely no idea what it's about, but the cover looks cute and it's pretty brief so it should be enjoyable! (My mom also says I remind her of Mr. Chips. We shall see.)

So that's the upcoming week in literature. I doubt I'll make my quota this week - first week of the spring semester and all that - but here's hoping!

Joyous Reading!