Hiphopsideproject

I finished reading book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse books last night (true blood), seems I’d gotten quite obsessed with finishing them seeing as I only started book 1 over Christmas (I picked up the super cheap 8 book box set on Amazon). They were so much fun! No great work of literature, certainly not akin to Anne Rice or any other vampire classics, but the characters are enjoyable, the stories a little silly, and the books totally easy to read. I can say without any hint of doubt that they’re 1billionmillion% nicer than that silly teen vampire series. Yes, Stephanie Meyer, I’m looking at your plagiaristic self. Ho-hum. You should read them though, they’re supreme respite.

Onwards.. I’m restarting book 1 of the Wheel of Time, that ridiculously long series with far too many characters. After reading book 1 I shall then be reading Northern Lights again (my pretty copy), then maybe book 2 of WoT… we’ll see.

What are you reading now?

My reading has taken a blow lately with all the confusion of house moving and camping out, I really haven’t had to time to lose myself in a book. Before all this upheaval started I’d spend most of my lunch hour in the library reading, however I  now spend them trawling shops looking for  new plates, curtains, kitchen ware, blahdeblah (not that I *mind* shopping, though). I’ve been rereading the Sandman comics because they’re quick, and it’s always soothing to read something you’ve read before. The time has come, however, to get back into ‘real’ books… I have a schedule to meet! I picked this out of one of the packed up boxes last night.

I’ve enjoyed all of Gregory Maguire’s books (most of you will know him as the guy that wrote Wicked), my favourite probably being Mirror Mirror (a retelling of snow white), so I’m really looking forward to reading this one. I picked it up for the pricely sum of £2 from that super cheap bookstore I’ve mentioned before (it’s brand new, too!). I’ll let you know how it goes.

This week I finished off a couple of books, one’s been hanging around for MONTHS because it was just appaulingly bad. The other, however, was finished within a few days, and was amazingly great. Read on for reccomendations & warnings.

I’ll start with the good book. I’d wanted this for a while, and got a copy as a gift for Christmas. I’m not really one for hyped up books, I always find they can disappoint and really don’t live up to expectations… This was different, though. It was a hyped book in a favourite genre of mine… hard to resist. The Time Travellers Wife, as the title suggests, is about a time traveller. It’s a very grown up account of the subject, and very much a ‘real life’ book. The story is told from the perspectives of Henry (the time traveller) and Clare (his wife), jumping from one to the other throughout the book. This writing style sits fabulously well with the subject matter, allowing you to understand the two characters deeply by the end of the book. The story isn’t very linear, well… it is and it isn’t, which must have been super hard to write, but when reading the story (apart from sometimes having to flip back a couple of pages to see what date it is, and check on ages) things are constantly falling into place. Audrey Niffenegger’s exploration of the two key characters is rather fascinating, she develops their roles (and multiple roles in the case of Henry) in their relationship throughout the book, building on things that haven’t even happened yet (for you, the reader). There are of course some faults with this book, some very… flat?.. dialogue moments, aspects of character building that went just a little too far and were left floating in the area of pointless, several character traits are a little strange too (can’t help thinking that Niffenegger modelled the characters on people she knew? otherwise some of the things that she felt needed writing into the story just seem a little pointless).

Not to put anyone off, but this is pretty much a love story. For such a hyped ‘3-for-2′ book, it really is a pretty good read, although I think it’s a book that you’ll either love or hate… try it though, you might be a lover.

Oh, man. You’ve really gotta take the rough with the smooth…

I love The Devil Wears Prada, it’s one of my guiltiest girlie pleasures. I devoured that book within a few hours, hell, I was probably spooning through a tub of haagen dazs at the same time (it’s that girlie). So cut to me last summer in WH Smith’s looking at a ‘holiday pack’ of books with the other two Lauren Weisberger books in (Chasing Harry Winston and this one, Everyone Worth Knowing) for the bargainous price of £7. I bought it there and then, ready to waste a few gleeful hours reading the book counterparts of Sex and the City. Oh, reader, it was not to be. Chasing Harry Winston was … ok, no Devil wears prada, but there was still some promise there. I liked it, at least, not as a great work of fiction, but as a happy little tale to distract me from real life. Then I started reading Everyone Worth Knowing.

…

It’s been on my bedside for around 4 months. I can read most books in a week, two perhaps. Dear me, this book reeked of name dropping, stereotypes, misuse of (what I assume were meant to be) story telling devices… need I go on? In some ways the story was very much a rehashing of Devil wears prada, without character likeability or fashion magazines. I’ve actually had to force myself to finish this book, it’s been a bloody challenge I can tell you! Basically the book is about Bette (or Bettina), who has these hippy parents, and a gay journalist Uncle. She quits her job at the Bank and starts working for a party planning PR agency, for some reason or other she gets caught up in a fake relationship thing with a famous Brit (Oh, yeh, do we all address each other with ‘Love’?). Around 100 pages of inane nonsense later, Bette falls in love with the Dashing Bouncer of bunalow 8 (who, it just so happens, is like fucking Iron Chef and reads novels). Yada Yada Yada, everyone gets what the want, The End. The ending’s really odd too, I turned a page thinking there would be another chapter, but nada… Odd. Don’t bother with this!

I’ve mentioned a few times now about Those Books, and how I obsessively read the entire series at the start of the year. To say I was addicted wouldn’t be that much of an overstatment, really. I devoured them like hot cookies, I even read them whilst in the passenger seat of a car – knowing full well that I’d get travel sick and spend the next hour or so with a nausating headmash. I am, of course, talking about the much hyped Twilight Saga.

The thing is… they’re spectacularly badly written. Now, I don’t profess to know how to write – but I do know how to read. Not to knock Stephenie Meyer, she came up with a really addictive story and must have made millions of dollars in doing so, but some of the stuff in there is just.. meh! Much of the ‘bad writing’ could have (and should have?) been picked up and corrected by an editor. Jesus, they could have just changed a few Chagrin’s around, at least!

It’s interesting to note just how many of my intelligent peers, those who read religiously, and I mean… good stuff, have become completely and utterly obsessed with these books. Many of them, like me, taking just a day or two to read each book and developing insomnical type tendancies just to see what that Edward could possibly do next in his constant internal battle between love and evil – Woe is he. Seriously, though, stop being the freakin’ anti-hero already… everyone knows Vampires are the shit.

Can anyone think of other atrociously written trash that is just unbelievably addictive? I can think of several TV shows that bring on that familiar ‘fuck… this-is-shit-but-I’m-so-addicted’ feeling (erm… yeah, I own Newlyweds on DVD… and I’m totally not ashamed to admit it).

Just what the hell is it about these books?

Some people may call us obsessed, I would call us well educated in Wizarding lore. Whatevs. 2ft of Potter can brighten anyone’s day.

So this took me a while to get photos for, anyway. My special copy of Tales of Beedle The Bard arrived from amazon a few weeks/months ago and is currently resting in my grubby mitts. For those of you who only have the hardback regular copy, you suck. Here, feel jealous of the special’s magnificence…

So, you know that it’s like a huge FAKE book with a smaller book inside, right?

Ohh smooth purple velvet pouch, what wonderous artifact do you contain?!

That’s what, the best edition ever. Loves it.

And inside… Lovely.