Book Review – Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

books, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

One of the biggest problems with buying so many books in a year is that I tend to forget about them. I put them on my shelf with every intention of reading them later but, inevitably, they get lost amongst the rest. In some cases, I end up buying the book again but, thankfully, that’s a rarity. Mostly they just sit there gathering dust. In order to get my every increasing TBR down, I’ve taken to buying or borrowing the audiobook version as well. I’ve grown to really enjoy listening to an audiobook at work, so it means I can cross a few off in a particularly good week. In the case of this book, I ended up listening to it by accident. I knew that I’d bought a book a few years ago that had “of London” in the title. Turns out, that book was The Ashes of London instead. Ah well, I borrowed this one and might as well give it a listen. It’s one of those books that I see everywhere but didn’t know much about. Maybe it would be a new series for me?

Book Review – Tyger by S.F. Said

books, reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I’d seen this book all over but didn’t pay attention until Foyles named it their Children’s Book of 2022. I know, I’m fickle. There are so many books published each year, so you need to be discerning about what I pick up. Unless a children’s book is really making waves then I don’t tend to think about reading them. When I actually looked into this book, it just sounded like my kind of thing. I’m not a massive fantasy lover but I think children’s fantasy might be my ideal for the genre. The world-building tends more engaging and fun. A lot of the adult fantasy books I’ve read recently have been too ambitious and I haven’t connected with them. Children’s fantasy books tend to keep things a bit simpler which means they don’t get too tied up in knots.

Book Review – The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

books, reviews

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I hadn’t read anything by Erin Morgenstern when I bought a copy of The Starless Sea. I had owned a copy of The Night Circus and figured it would be something I enjoyed. It was just that constant struggle to actually read it. So buying a copy of The Starless Sea could have been slightly foolhardy. However, once again, I was drawn in by a gorgeous edition. Waterstones released special editions of both books and I had to have them. Guys, they had sprayed or stencilled edges. How could I not? As I’d treated myself to them, I was a bit worried about how much I would like them. I decided it was better to just never find out, so they remained unread. Until this year when I found the audiobook on my library app. I decided it was finally time to cross it off my TBR.

Book Review – And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

books, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I’ve only ever read 3 books by Patrick Ness before. I liked A Monster Calls but really didn’t like The Rest of Us Just Live Here or Burn. Still, a lot of people seem to really like him. When this happens, I always wonder if I’m missing something. So, when this came up on my library’s online catalogue I decided to give it a go.

Book Review – Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’ve said it plenty of times before but I do worry about super hyped books. I know that everyone was raving about Piranesi when it came out but I still wasn’t ready to give it a chance. After all, I’ve read so many supposedly flawless books that just disappointed me. It didn’t even matter that Susanna Clarke had been nominated for so many literary awards. We all know that’s not always a mark of quality. The Testaments is proof of that. However, I was looking for an audiobook to keep me occupied during work and this one grabbed my eye. Why not try it now?

Book Review – Stardust by Neil Gaiman

books, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I’m don’t really read a lot of romance books. Not because I think they’re bad. It’s just not something that I’ve ever been bothered by. When I was younger, I used to say that I was too cynical for rom-coms and the like. Now, I think I’d probably say that there are just a few tropes that I don’t really get along with. Being on Instagram and TikTok, I regularly see people praising enemy-to-lovers narratives and I just don’t get it. It just all seems too ridiculous to me. Why do we need to make love this insanely difficult and life-changing thing? Surely, it’s actually quite a simple thing in reality? I know romance novels are an escape for many but they’re often a step too far for me. Although, I will occasionally make an exception.

TBT Review – The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

films, reviews, TBT

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is old. How old? So old that we used to own VHS copies of all of the films. Also, it turns 20 this week. It’s been a while since I last sat down and watched any of films in the trilogy. I used to watch them all the time. Well, I used to repeatedly watch the scenes where Aragorn was a full-on hunk repeatedly. It probably didn’t do the videos any good, so I quickly upgraded to the DVDs. As tomorrow is the official anniversary of the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, I decided that it was a good time to go back to Middle Earth.

Book Review – The Tenets in the Tattoos by Becky James

books, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Last month, I won an ARC of this book from the Book Network and I was pretty excited. I’m not normally a YA fantasy kind of person but this sounded really interesting. I love fantasy that also situates itself in the real world, so this sounded like it could be perfect for me. Of course, my super busy schedule meant that I didn’t get around to reading it until the end of end of last month and it took me a lot longer to read it than I’d expected. Mostly because I’ve been feeling pretty bad lately. Thankfully, I managed to push through it this weekend and finally got it finished.

Book Review – Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

There’s nothing like realising that one of your childhood favourites is celebrating its 20th birthday. Talk about being forced to come face-to-face with your rapid aging! I decided to make life even harder by actually rereading the book that I first read 2 decades ago. I’ve been meaning to pick it up for a while actually. I had plans to read it last year before the film adaptation came out. But I didn’t. Then I was going to read it after the film came out so I would be able to compare the two. That never happened either. I think it probably worked out for the best as it means that I can read the first book in Eoin Colfer’s series and watch the Disney+ adaptation during the anniversary year.

Bookish Post – The Avada Kedavra of the Author

books, rants

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In his essay The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes argued that the only way to read a book was to separate it from its author. According to Barthes, authorial context and intent wouldn’t provide insight into the meaning of the text. Instead, it would limit the amount of meaning a reader could take from it. For Barthes, the meaning of a book wasn’t dependent on who the author was but on who the reader is. As we can never really be sure of what an author intended, trying to understand a novel based on who they were as a person would always be flawed. The author, thus, becomes not a God but merely a “scriptor”. They aren’t imposing meaning but merely transcribing the message on paper for the reader to untangle themselves.