BSchultz19
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Posts posted by BSchultz19
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I really loved Divergent, but as the series went on it became more predictable and the ending was just....interesting. It seemed rushed in the last book to finish the series.
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I have heard that Heart of Darkness is a really tough read, but I think I'm going to give it a try in the near future.
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Ordinarily I don't post a review of a current Reading Circle choice, but the month is almost over, so I thought I'd go ahead and do so.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt 4/5
A twisted tale of murder, murder in the first degree. Planned, target stalked, plan executed by some of the most despicable and selfish characters I've run into. Made all the more so by their superficial innocence, extreme intelligence and youth.
Taught in a hothouse environment, secluded away from the rest of the University these students flourish at their Classical Greek studies. They slip into the dead language easily, both on paper and vocally. These are talented and brilliant young people and should have had a brilliant career ahead of them. Unfortunately they slip into more than just the language, they wish to become.....what? One with the Muses? The gods? Did they even know?
Hubris takes over and a terrible crime takes place, whether by accident or I wonder, design. In the end, I'm not sure, nor are they, I believe. But the cover up of that crime is even more heinous. And the aftermath exacts retribution from each of the participants.
Tartt is a wonderfully talented writer. She tells a Gothic tale that should take place in hot and steamy Southern forests, but is just as real and terrifying in New England. Her descriptions of grief struck parents is heartbreaking in every telling detail.
Recommended.
This was such a great review! It makes me want to read the book, and I think I will be adding it to my wishlist. Hopefully I can get some new books soon
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I am currently 250ish words into the first A Song of Fire and Ice series, A Game of Thrones. I'm really enjoying it and its hard to put down. The only struggle is that each book is sooooo long. It will be a trek to make it through them.
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I have all three books on my TBR, I'm glad to hear good reviews of them
! I recently bought the third book so now I can all read them in a shorter amount of time too.Yeah I had to make sure I had all three books before I started reading them. I heard such great reviews about the books that I knew I would have to read all three in a row.
I'm excited to hear what you think about the books
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I was just going to say, wait til you get to Allegiant. Personally, I liked all 3...can't really say much without spoilers...but ya, I read them in just a few days. I didn't even have internet when I was reading them so had to go around the corner to Starbucks to use their WiFi... I know, desperation. But I had to know what the next one held! I went at 3am Christmas morning after playing Santa to get Insurgent.
I finished Allegiant earlier today and I agree. When they are all pieced together they are amazing. I read the three books in a week or two. That was during my first week back to school too. Kind of impressed, but they were just too good to put down.
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I finished Insurgent earlier this week. I loved Divergent so much that I think it took away from reading Insurgent. I really liked Insurgent, but it didn't exactly compare to the first book, which I often find is the case. I did like the suspense in the final 1/4 of the book. I'm about halfway through Allegiant now.
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I thought the avatar was of yourself! Pray tell who is it then? I don't recognise him....
He is a character on The Office (US)
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I think you have a good plan to read some Classics ,but sprinkle in some YA since they seem to be very popular right now and would give you a nice switch -up from time to time .
Best of luck with your reading this year .
Good luck with your reading this year. Your teenage years are the perfect time to experiment with your reading, I read everything from Enid Blyton to Thomas Harris and Thomas Hardy.
Right now I have a lot of classics on my TBR because those are the ones that I know I will want to hold onto for awhile. I have read and will most likely read a lot of YA books throughout the year because my friends usually suggest them to me at random times. I also end up borrowing those books rather than buying them unless I really really enjoy them.
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I haven't read any Western genre books, but now that I've seen this thread I might look into reading one and seeing how it goes.
I can say from television and movies that the genre was popular not too long ago, but for some reason it has faded. I guess things like that come and go.
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Read Divergent today. It was so good that I only put it down to eat dinner. I am just glad that I already have the second book in my possession. I plan on starting it soon.
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Today I spent about 6 hours reading Divergent. I read all 487 pages in that time. IT. WAS. GOOD.
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Haha yes
I think that my avatar is a reaction to yours. 
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Friday and Saturday I will definitely be participating. Hopefully I can get a lot of reading in!!
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Good luck on reading this year!!
I am also working my way through the Sherlock Holmes collection. I am not nearly as far as you are, but I look forward to see what you have to say about what you read
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I think reading your lists should count as reading a book.
It felt like it!I wish you best of luck in 2014 and I hope you can tackle a good portion of your huge list of books!
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SO. MANY. BOOKS.
I hope its a good reading year for you. We share a couple of books on our TBRs. I look forward to seeing what you have to think about them, especially Uncle Tom's Cabin, Les Miserables, and David Copperfield.
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For everyone's information, there are a lot of classics because I figured that some of my first book purchases should be classics because they obviously have a lasting effect. I just recently started buying my own books because I'm a teenager and any books I owned before are children's books. My collection is very small compared to most of the people on this website, but I hope that someday it can grow to the sizes of some of the members here.
That said, a lot of the books that I will buy in the near future will probably be more towards the Young adult/romance/fiction genre and less classics. The current list has a large amount of classics, but I by no means plan on reading all of those in one long string. I have decided to read in a pattern of classic-nonclassic-classic and so on. I hope that this way I can read a lot of books this year and at the same time introduce myself to some of the great literature that is out there.
I hope for 2014 to be a good reading year
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Finished the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet a few days ago. I'm slowly working my way through the entire Sherlock Holmes collection. I enjoyed the novel and look forward to reading more of Sherlock's adventures. I can tell that it's only getting started.
I finished The Perks of being a Wallflower yesterday and really liked it. I love the way it so accurately represents life in high school for a kid that doesn't really fit in. He's got a lot of problems and in the end of the book, the reader discovers why. I love how the book is so honest and not afraid to talk about the topics that sometimes seem difficult to address. I've never experienced anything quite like any of the characters in the book, but I think I understand what they went through. It was a touching book. I am looking forward to watching the movie in the near future.
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That's a lovely idea - I may just steal that to do myself!
Despite loving poetry I don't read enough of it.Happy reading in 2014, you have a great TBR list there.
I am the same way. I love reading poetry, but for some reason I don't read nearly enough of it.
I just love how poetry makes everything so relatable. The fact that some poet who might even be dead by now is going through the same joys and sorrows that I'm going through is so interesting and comforting.
Perks of being a Wallflower and Uncle Tom's Cabin are two of my favorite books. I can highly recommend Divergent, as I am on the last book and have devoured these in a matter of DAYS. Which one are you looking forward to the most?
I actually just finished Perks of being a Wallflower yesterday. I read it in two days so I'd say it was pretty good.
As far as the book I am looking forward to the most...that's a hard question to answer. I think I'd have to go with Pride & Prejudice. I've heard so many great things about it and it will be the first Jane Austen book that I read, which I am really excited about because I've heard she's an amazing author. It's a shame that I haven't read any of her books yet.
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I just bought 100 best-loved poems from the kindle store. I hope to read a good portion of them throughout the year
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Les Miserables-Victor Hugo
The Scarlet Letter-Nathaniel HawthornePride & Prejudice-Jane AustenThe Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud- Ben SherwoodThe Longest Ride- Nicholas Sparks
Uncle Tom's Cabin-Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Last of the Mohicans-James Fenimore Cooper
Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
Emma- Jane Austen
Persuasion Jane AustenA Walk to Remember- Nicholas SparksThe Lucky One- Nicholas Sparks
David Copperfield- Charles Dickens
Hard Times- Charles Dickens
Life of Pi- Yann Martel
Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
Don Quixote- CervantesNights in Rodanthe- Nicholas SparksEast of Eden- John SteinbeckThe Guardian- Nicholas SparksThe Choice- Nicholas SparksThe Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey NiffeneggerThe Iliad - Homer
Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad
Hamlet- Shakespeare
Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
Othello -ShakespearePicture Perfect- Jodi PicoultThe Vow- Kim and Krickitt Carpenter
Our Mutual Friend- Charles Dickens
This Side of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Midsummer Night's Dream- Shakespeare
The Beautiful and Damned- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Little Dorrit- Charles DickensPerfect Match- Jodi PicoultMy Sister's Keeper- Jodi PicoultThe Pact- Jodi Picoult
Alice in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde- Robert Louis Stevenson
Catch-22-Joseph Heller
The Crucible-Arthur MillerA Game of Thrones MartinDivergent series - RothThe Book Thief - Zusak
The rest of A Song of Ice and Fire MartinAn Abundance of Katherines John GreenFour RothThe Storyteller Jodi PicoultA Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
Northanger Abbey- Jane Austen
Of Mice and Men- Steinbeck
1776- McCullough
12 Years a Slave- Solomon Northup
Message from Nam- Danielle Steel
Dance with Me- Luana Rice
True Blue- Luana Rice
The Murder Book- Jonathan Kellerman
1st to Die
2nd chance
3rd degree
4th of july ---- James Patterson
The 5th Horseman
The 6th Target
This is just a starting list for the year. More to be bought for sure
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I love this show! I started watching it this summer because its on Netflix and it is the best sherlock holmes show/movie that I've seen. At the moment, I'm working my way through the entire collection of sherlock holmes. I can't wait for the next series to come out. Although, I'll have to wait until it appears on netflix to watch it.
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I love all of your stats! Now I'm inspired to try to keep the same sort of statistics throughout 2014.
143 books is also quite the accomplishment. I'm not sure that I have time to read that many books in a year. I wish I did though! Congrats!!
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I just finished reading The Fault in Our Stars a couple minutes ago and my immediate reaction after finishing the book was literally "wow" after which I just sat on my bed thinking about the reading experience I just went through.
The Fault in Our Stars is unlike most of the other books that I have read. It is a very realistic story about teenagers just like the other two John Green books that I have read recently. The only difference is that the two main characters in this novel have cancer. Now I personally have never had cancer and hope I never do although the odds are against me, but this book really makes a person think about themselves. It addresses the, excuse my language, bullshit that people say to those about to die. It's amazing that a writer can even go into the depths that Green went into. It was a great novel and I would recommend it to anyone.
Its not the best book that I've ever read, but its message is great. It also has some of my favorite quotes ever. Here's a couple:
"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once"
"My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations"
"But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he has Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves."
Read-a-thon - (2013-2015)
in Group Reads
Posted
We have had a lot of snow this week, so I'm excited that the Read-A-Thon is this weekend. Being snowed in, I will certainly have a lot of time to get reading in.
I plan on reading some of A Game of Thrones, maybe re-reading a Nicholas Sparks book, and starting The Scarlet Letter.