Currently reading
I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller
Legends of King Arthur: Idylls of the King
The Norton Anthology of Poetry
Circles of Hell (Little Black Classics #25)
Dante Alighieri was a 13th-14th Century Italian Poet and Statesman. The Divine Comedy depicts Dante's own journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, guided by the Roman Poet Virgil. Fully titled Divina Commedia, it is split in to the sections; Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. This Little Black Classic is the prefect place to start if you wish to discover whether Dante is right for you. It features a selection of Cantos (verses in a poem) taken from Inferno, the passage that Dante takes through the nine circles of Hell. It features degrading, desolate and destitute imagery of all those who have fallen and left Earth to burn for eternity in damnation.
Beautifully written as most of these LBCs are, there is probably no piece of work that has so captivated and influenced writers so much as Dante's Divina Commedia.
 - Dante Alighieri)
The Maze Runner
Boring premise , though I was surprised it was not in first-person narrative. That did not help it as it was terribly written (show don't tell) and I get the feeling the plot, whilst quick, won't move along at a non-speed kind of pace. Not engaging, generic YA-twaddle.
[not sure how I feel about the book from the sample, but the premise seems okay (even though I have a few "wakes up with no memory" kind of books to read)]
The Invisible Library
Trying too hard to be funny with terrible grammar and a writing style reminiscent of my 12 year old self. A nice premise and an intriguing plot, but I can tell how it will pan out and I don't wish to read juvenile writing any more.
Shadowmancer
Written in opposition to His Dark Materials and other "atheist propaganda", Shadowmancer tries in vain to be anywhere near as good. It is terribly written, which doesn't always stop something from being popular, but the story is so droll and boring it makes getting through the 300 pages so utterly contemptible. The characters are 2D, but I will say, in some defence, that they were fairly varied and not the same Mary-Sue wish wash you usually get. The plot was barely even a plot and it seemed to have been over in a day (though it actually lasted maybe a week).It had some nice North-East location-based folklore, which gave it more credence than it deserves, but all in all it's just a Narnia wannabe, without the lyrical prowess or storytelling ability.
The Butterfly Tattoo
Chris meets Jenny on a warm Oxford night and falls instantly in love, but he knows nothing about her and can't seem to find her again in the sleepy English city. His boss, meanwhile, had acquired a love nest and is employing Chris to do it up, little knowing that it's actually a hide away from some ruthless London gangsters... Philip Pullman is a wonderful writer and His Dark Materials series is still one of my favourites, but this was a huge disappointment. It was written well, but the plot and characters were just so flat and boring it seemed the 186 pages would never end. The blurb gives you a very definite but blurred detailing of the plot, which was slow and rather droll.
I believe this was his first ever novel, however, and that kind of makes sense. There is the and writing ability shining through the murky gaps, but it's obviously the first. He definitely learnt from this, though.
Puff the Magic Dragon
Peter, Paul and Mary had a folk song in 1963 called Puff the Magic Dragon, which this book, written by two members of the band, is based on. It's a very short story with a lot of repetition; having not heard the song I can't rightly compare and contrast, but it didn't flow quite right in the book as I'm sure a song would. The art work is absolutely lovely, though, in such a vivid style that it is more captivating than the words were.
Foxes in the Snow
A short fictional tale of sibling foxes who disobey their mother to experience their first snowfall. A charming tale, but I can only imagine how lovely it would have been if it had rhymed. The art work was, however, utterly divine and so delicate.
The Whitsun Weddings
Philip Larkin, a 20th Century poet, was primarily a Librarian at Hull University, but also wrote Jazz reviews and novels. He died of throat cancer and refused the Poet Laureate position as he was a very drawn-in and private man; and not a fan of any kind of fame. The Whitsun Weddings is a collection of 32 poems that focus of the mundanity of everyday life and the small things that people barely notice. A lot of his best known poems are in this collection.
I prefer to read poetry out loud, but Larkin's poetry doesn't really lend itself to that, which may be because Larkin was a quiet, unassuming man with a stutter. As is, though their rhythm and tone can lead to some great movements of the tongue and mouth, my enjoyment was lessened and I barely felt anything as I did so. He had a way with words, but it is a different way to what I usually enjoy.
City of Bones
Terrible. I had to read every single sentence at least three times to understand what on Earth was happening. There was punctuation all over the place and missing words. Generic YA stuff, although not first-person POV which was surprising. Typical pretty boys with beautiful eyes and a girl who doesn't think she's pretty but is jealous of all other pretty girls, because being pretty is the only thing that makes you worth anything. And etc etc etc
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Time of Your Life
SEXY SEXY FUN TIME. CENTAUR-DAWN, JUST WAITING TO BE RAVISHED IN THE WOODS. OOOOH. Well, can't say I didn't try. Maybe I'll give comic books another go, but I'll probably have to do some research to find one that isn't sexist and aimed at teenaged boys. One without silly actions words splattered all over the page unnecessarily. One without silly, childish speech. One that doesn't kill the memory of my favourite characters.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate
I think I just don't get comic books. This is totally different to the TV series, I don't know why I was expecting it not to be.I don't understand why Buffy is all of a sudden a Lesbian, or a Bisexual, or whatever. As if she needs to hump the nearest thing that moves. And the way Willow wanted to know what she was like in bed... Talk about nothing like I remember any of them being.
I wish I hadn't tried these. My memory of the TV series had been ruined by this utter garbage. Pictures and speech, that's all it is. Pictures and speech, nothing else.
