On mystery novels

I haven't done very well so far at my repeat attempt to read a book a week. So far this year I've finished two books...which sounds great, except I had actually started them before the end of last year. One of them I started in October...so...it's not as good as it sounds.

However, I am endeavouring to keep up the pace, and have started reading 'The Tiger in the Well' by Philip Pullman.

And wow.

Seriously. It is the third book in the Sally Lockhart Mysteries series. I hadn't realised after reading the first two how good they are. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy them. But I already had a basic undertsanding of what was going to happen because the first two have been made into TV movies which I watched, mostly out of curiousity to see Matt Smith at work. And so I didn't realise that they completely suck you in. I am only about 110 pages in to The Tiger in the Well and I'm impatient to know what happens. I want to know how it all works out and I've got about 300 pages to go...which is surely the sign of a good mystery. You want to be thinking the whole time, trying to work out what's going on and who the villain is.

Which is largely different to my previous experience with mystery novels. Because mostly I have only read the 'Bones' books by Kathy Reichs. The first few were totally gripping until you realise she writes the same book again and again with mild variations. And makes a killing doing it, so all power to her. But there's not really any suspense after you've read a few because you learn to pick who the bad guy is because of a certain pattern. The book I'm reading now, though, you think you know who the bad guy is, but you know there's something more than what it appears. There's foreshadowing to give a hint as to who might be behind it all, but you can't be sure it's not just mentioning events in previous books.

And after all that, these are meant to be books for teenagers. Seriously. I found them in the teen section of Dymocks. I'm getting old enough that it just feels dodgy to hang around that section. And it's a shame because these are not books for kids. Sure, I would have lapped them up when I was 16, but I think I appreciate them more now than I would have then.

To sum up. This was a long rambly blog post which basically can be summarised by the fact that I like this book and am enjoying reading it. Consider this sucker REVIEWED!

Welcome to the much debated new decade

Yes, that's right, it's 2010. Seems weird to write that. People are debating about whether it is a new decade. Silly people. Surely a decade is just a period of 10 years, so really every new year could be a new decade if people had a little imagination. They're also arguing about what the decade will be called. Because apparently we have left the 'naughties' behind. I'm pretty sure the term 'naughties' is not quite as wide spread as people think, and that it only caught on in the last few years of the decade anyway. And I still hear/see people refer to exactly the same years as 'the aughts'.

So, in typical Rachel fashion, I would like to tell the media to get the freak over themselves. Not that they're going to listen to one girl typing on a blog that no one reads. But I've said it. That's something.

Also, I managed not to blog for the entirety of December. Oops. I think I wrote so much in November (50,000 words, yo) that I couldn't be bothered. But it is a new year and I will endeavour to blog.

The latter half of 2009 brought about an epic fail on my part. Yes, I said I would aim to read a book a week. No, I didn't. NaNoWriMo killed whatever chance I had of reading anything in November and by December I was basically exhausted and spent whatever time I wasn't awake sleeping. Yeah. Read that sentence back, I dare you.

But, this is a new month in a new year, and I'm going to try again. I'll start again on 'The Subtle Knife' by Philip Pullman, the sequal to 'The Northern Lights' which under no circumstances will I ever refer to as 'The Golden Compass'. It's not the title of the book and there is no compass in it whatsoever. Stupid Hollywood. Then, obviously, I'll read The Amber Spyglass. Then I'll hit up Borders and find something else to read. I also want to find the last Sally Lockhart mystery plus the follow up Jim Gordon one. But that's four books by the same author and it's probably best to not read them all at once.

What else do I resolve to do this year...well...I actually hate new years resolutions. But I am going to resolve to go a whole year without drowning another phone/assorted piece of electrical equipment. I have learned my lesson on that count, I think. Phones are like cats...they keep themselves clean and do not take kindly to being immersed in a bucket of water...I should also resolve to blog more but I think we all know that's highly unlikely. Setting unrealistic resolutions will only result in total failure.

I also resolve to tidy my room in the next couple of days. God it's a mess in here.

Over and out...

going walkies

Yesterday I walked the 6 km city-to-bay fun run/walk in just over an hour. I am close to being the world's slowest walker on a normal day, so that time impressed me. My shin splints and hamstring cramps impress my slightly less, but they weren't really caused by the walk, they are a recurring issue.

Also the reading isn't going so well. It wasn't helped by picking two books that bored me to death. Neither had any charcters that I liked very much, and thus I didn't care what happened to them and so didn't really bother reading much. But, thanks to my super friend Ingrid I have copies of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, so hopefully that makes for more compelling reading. Also, in about 10 days I am having a mini holiday so hopefully I can get a bit of reading done in that time too. Still, I've managed 8 books in the last 11 weeks which is much better than I've averaged in the last few years.

failings.

I fail at blogging. Also, as I suspected might happen, I fail at being able to read books and work full time simultaneously.

So I am a week or so behind on my reading. It's not entirely my fault. The library took a week to get the book I reserved to me. But I could have gotten it read before now, if I didn't watch so much stinking TV...

But work is good, and interesting, and full of good people. That's about all you're getting from me on the work front, as reading other people's blogs has informed me that if you blog about work, you're liable to get fired. I think that this isn't something I want to have happen.

I also think that last sentence might be a grammatical nightmare. Meh.

Books

The whole 'read a book a week thing' is going well. Except that I think I accidentally keep reading children's/teen's books...

My third book was 'The Princess Bride' by William Goldman. It was hysterically funny and clever. But is it really a proper grown up book? Probably not. But then again I don't consider myself a proper grown up so I guess it's not a big deal. I'd rather read lighter amusing books and keep reading them than get bogged down in the middle of a heavy story. It's probably a bit like my taste in TV and movies. I hate big dramatic Oscar winning movies. I want movies with laughs and explosions. You can make something that is funny, light and still occasionally has a message, or rips your guts out. Don't believe me? Watch a season of Scrubs or Doctor Who and tell me that it's not both hilarious and gut wrenching at the same time.

My current book is 'The Ruby in the Smoke' by Philip Pullman. I have seen the made-for-TV version of this and thought I should read the book. I was very put out to not be able to find it anywhere, until I realised that it was because it's in the 'Teen' section. Which is rubbish. Sure, the heroine is only 16 but it's Victorian England, 16 is practically middle aged.

Still. I'm sure it's 10000000000000000000 times more intelligent than that Twilight rubbish, and since people my own age and older rave about those book, I feel justfied in reading something supposedly aimed at the same age bracket. I might even get really adventurous and read the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy that people debate over at length. Just to see what all the fuss is about. For those that don't immediately see the connection, they are by the same author as 'The Ruby in the Smoke'. Just thought I'd clarify that.

The first of many, hopefully...

So, last wednesday, the 1st of July, I decided that for the next year I will attempt to read a book a week, seeing as I have lost my love of reading and that bugs me. Unfortunately, my plans to start were somewhat hampered by a nasty cold which prevented a visit to the library. Thus, I started on the only book I could find which I knew I would finish but that I hadn't read. It was one of the Kathy Reichs books, as predictable and formulaic as they come. Thus, I can summarise a whole review in one word.

Meh.

I have now started on my next book, 'The Graveyard Story' by Neil Gaiman. I believe it's actually considered a children's book, but it was included by a Pajiban in their attempt to complete the Cannonball Read (100 books in a year, not something I'm prepared to try just yet) and I figured I'd give it a go.

I figured I'd at least start my reading with a few books I haven't read yet. Later on, if I get really busy and can't get to the Library or just don't have a lot of time to read, I may hit up the Harry Potter books again just to keep my numbers up. I don't consider this cheating, because re-reading them is better than not reading anything.

I'm prepared to take suggestions, but only to a degree. Anyone suggesting I read the 'Twilight' books with be taunted with words such as 'twatwaffle' and 'douchenozzle' and trust me, you don't want to be associated with people I label as such. Also, nothing in Old or Middle English. Late 19th century English is about as foreign as I can take.

I'm really hoping I can stick with this. I'm hoping the fact that I start work on Monday a) doesn't get in the way and b) helps establish a routine that might actually help my stick with this.

I'll also try to post some reviews, etc, but I'm not very good at writing such things so don't expect too much.