Reading versus the Internet

INTERNET (Photo credit: fisakov)

I don’t know about anyone else, but i personally find that it’s harder to make myself read a book now i have easy access to the internet, whether on my laptop or my phone.

I always loved reading since i was little, and even though i’ve gone through stages of reading lots and reading very little at all over the years, i always come back to  reading a book eventually.

However, since the Internet invaded my life and became a fact of everyday life, i find it harder to open a book and read. There are so many distractions online, from social networks and instant messaging, to addictive online games and blogs. I am easily distracted these days, as proved by my frequent bouts of procrastination when i was at university for 4 years. There were days when i knew i should have been studying, but found myself playing games into the small hours of the morning. Oops.

These days, i am working 5 days a week during the day, and as i finish about 3pm, i have a lot of free time leftover. I try to read and i try to write blog posts here, but lately i find myself playing Tetris instead, determined to beat my best time and beat other people to a higher level of skill. It’s a little bit sad!

I have a large pile of books on my shelf waiting to be read, yet sometimes i find myself scrolling through the book pages of Amazon looking for ebooks to download onto my Kindle instead of picking up a physical book! And this is the girl who said she would never accept the Kindle as book replacement!

I still like physical books, but my Kindle means i can take a dozen books on long train journeys and switch between them if i get bored of one. That said, i still find myself listening to music on trains or playing on the internet on my phone. There it is again: the Internet!

Sometimes i wonder what would happen if i got rid of my phone and my laptop (and my Kindle!), and forced myself to find other forms of entertainment. I guess i would pick up a paper book! I will always return to the physical book!

Book Review: The Gathering

I have recently finished reading “Wild Talents Book One: The Gathering” by Scott Sherman.

Wild Talents Book One: The Gathering – Scott Sherman (via Amazon)

The blurb reads:

“You’d think the ability to read minds would be a gift, but, if it were, high-school student Angelica Jones would like an exchange. Being a sixteen-year-old girl is stressful enough without knowing your insecurities are justified. Thanks to her talent, she knows her mother thinks she’s a slacker, her principal has some highly inappropriate fantasies about her, and pretty much everyone thinks her football-hero boyfriend is way too hot for her. 

If not for her gay best friend, Carlos, who has a surprising talent of his own, she’d think she was going crazy. With all this pressure, it’s no wonder she has nightmares, so vivid and frightening she’s afraid to sleep. Things get worse, though, when she learns her nightmares are more than harmless dreams. Classmates become enemies, strangers become allies, and Angelica becomes the center of an ancient struggle that may determine the fate of the world. Kind of puts the SATs in perspective doesn’t it? 

Along with Carlos, Angelica joins forces with her totally hot classmate Giovanni, her mysterious and mystifying mother and some surprising others to fight the approaching doom.She doesn’t know the true nature what she’s about to face, but she knows one thing: she better figure it out quick. There’s only one thing standing in the Big Bad’s way and, heaven help us all, it may be Angelica, her improbable, awkward group of friends, and whatever wild talents they may have.”

This a great little book because the teens have fascinating powers which they are learning more about through this book. It’s interesting that the teens have so far managed to avoid being found as having these powers, because otherwise things could get unpleasant.

Angelica is a bit of an outsider and so is Carlos, but together they make a great team, keeping each other in check. They both attend a private school, with Angelica being rich and Carlos having a scholarship. Angelica seems to stay very grounded despite the wealth of her mother, who is determined to get Angelica to dress up more and act more like the rich girl she is. Angelica is happy the way she is, but all the while wonders why her mother is so protective of her(she has a house with security and a limo at their beck and call). We discover that an incident when Angelica was younger is the reason her mother is so obsessed with security, and it also turns out to be part of a bigger problem which ties in with Angelica’s powers.

Carlos has secrets of his own, and despite the two being good friends, Angelica doesn’t really know much about him. He is a fascinating character too, with his ability to talk to machines, bringing about the idea that machines have minds of their own.

They soon come into contact with another peer who has powers as well, and the three join together in friendship to work out what is causing strange things to happen, as they start to question the motives of their parents and others.

I love how they can communicate silently in their heads through a psychic connection provided by Angelica, so they can talk to each other privately. It is also interesting how one seemingly secondary character becomes the one who tells them about their purpose and the future roles they will play. We also discover that many more secondary characters suddenly reveal their own powers, and wonder just how many of these people there actually are!

I give this book 8/10 because it is a great start to the series, and gives a good background to the characters. I love the story with all its twists and the mystery underlying everything happening. I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

Note: I read this on Kindle.

 

 

 

Book Review: The Secret Intensity of Everyday life

I have just finished reading “The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life” by William Nicholson. I actually bought this ebook back in May and it’s taken me a while to get around to it, but now i decided that i fancied a less frantic paced book to my usual choices!

The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life – William Nicholson (via Amazon)

It is somewhat different to my usual book choices, but it was easy to read and fascinating with the interconnecting stories of the characters.

The central story is of the sudden return of happily married Laura’s first love, Nick. We discover the intensity of their short relationship and its sudden ending, and see that neither party has forgotten that first love. Things are more complicated now, as Laura has grown older and has her own life with her husband and children. It is interesting to see how Nick’s return affects Laura, and also her husband, Henry.

We get an insight into Henry’s life at work and his feelings towards his wife and to the star of the show which he wrote.

We also see how Laura and Henry’s son, Jack, struggles with trying to fit in with the right boys at school, even though the decisions made are potentially damaging to him and to the boys’ hero, dubbed the “Dogman”. The boy’s point of view is a nice change from the angle of the adults, bringing in his naivety to the story.

We also discover what goes on behind closed doors. In the case of the young teacher, Alan, we discover his anguish towards the many rejections he receives because of his writing, and also his growing feelings for the single mother whose child he tries to help through bullying. We also find that Alan’s old lonely neighbour has secret desires for Alan, and she is sure he feels the same, although as the reader we unfortunately know better.

Other characters who are explored include: the single mother’s mother and her relationship with her dog, the village rector and his different approach to religion, and the so-called  ”Dogman” and his little family.

I liked this book with all the facets which make up a satisfying whole. Themes covered include all kinds of love, death, grief, midlife crisis, identity, happiness, and so on.

I give this book a respectable 7 out of 10 because it is well written, with enough juicy bits to make you want to find out what happens to the characters. We get satisfactory closure on some of the characters’ stories, although a few are left unanswered. The main story with Laura and her feelings for Nick has a good ending, one which i actually hoped for because some things are better the way they are! Definitely a good read if you want something realistic and a quiet easy read.

Note: I read this on my Kindle.

Book review: H10N1

I have just finished reading “H10N1″ by M.R. Cornelius.

H10N1 – M.R. Cornelius (via Amazon)

It is a disaster novel about a pandemic which devastates most of the world but is set in the USA.

The blurb reads:

“A deadly influenza virus rages out of control. There is no easy-fix vaccine. No eleventh-hour containment. Only death.
With no workforce, power plants are unmanned so there’s no means of communication; police and fire departments have collapsed so no one is safe; looters are scavenging everything from big-screen TVs to canned peas.
When Dr. Taeya Sanchez finds herself unceremoniously dismissed from an emergency medical facility in New York, she decides to steal the hospital’s armored van for a midnight escape. 
Unfortunately, Rick DeAngelo, a driver for the hospital, has already stocked the van for his own getaway.
Thrown into an unfriendly alliance, these two must pick their way across the dangerous wasteland of America in search of a safe haven. And as the miles roll by, they discover that the living should be feared much more than the festering corpses out there.”

What is interesting is that it starts out as a pandemic with the horrible sickness, the dying, and the rotting corpses everywhere, but then it turns into a story about the aftermath when the virus has killed the unlucky ones and the lucky ones try to stay alive and keep their precious cargo of food and fuel away from others.

Sanchez and Rick steal a specially adapted van to get away from the sickness and the terrible political madness of New York and go off in search of safer places. despite their arguments and initial dislike of each other, they manage to evade the many dying and desperate souls and the decaying bodies everywhere, and find a safe haven with Rick’s friends on their commune where they are self-sufficient and cut off from the rest of the world in order to protect themselves. Soon, Rick and Sanchez’s presence draws enemies who ruin their safe haven, so the four of them go in search of the Biosphere which Sanchez’s friend Mai has started living. They find this amazing place which provides safety, food and companionship.

However, there are several unpleasant characters, with one particularly nasty one called Michael who is creepy and lazy. The four try to make the Biosphere more productive and work hard to get everyone to chip in as they all have to live there. Here, Rick and Sanchez’s relationship turns into romance, which seemed inevitable once they stopped thinking about going their seperate ways as first planned. Their separate losses bring them together and they find happiness in the midst of all the turmoil around them.

Unfortunately, things soon take a turn for the worse, and, after a devastating showdown, they end up back on the dangerous roads trying to find somewhere else. There is hope at the end of the novel when an old acquaintance turns out to be their saviour and a new kind of life begins after so many months of devastation.

I liked this book because it was terrifyingly realistic and could actually happen! It makes you think about what you would do to save yourself and your loved ones. There is a lot of death, sickness and loss in this book, and the beginning is horrific as it starts with someone being coaxed into swallowing a suicide pill to escape the horror unfolding around them.  The violence is inevitable and it shows just how desperate, greedy and unreasonable people can get under pressure.

I give this book an 8/10 because it is gripping, horrifying and fascinating! I definitely recommend it if you’re into the sci-fi, apocalytpic, dystopian theme books!

Note: I read this on my Kindle (only available as an Ebook)

 

 

 

Book Review: Starcrossed: Dreamless

I have just finished reading “Starcrossed: Dreamless” by Josephine Angelini, the second book in her “Awakening” trilogy.

Starcrossed:Dreamless – Josephine Angelini (via Amazon)

The story picks up after the cliffhanger of the first book “Starcrossed” in which Helen and Lucas discover they are actually cousins (although the reader knows this isn’t true because Helen’s mother lied about it), thus ruining the blossoming romance between them.

Helen has accepted her role as the Descender – the immortal who can descend into the Underworld – and spends her sleeping hours wandering around the dangerous and deserted Underworld alone, without any of her superpowers and unable to stop herself dying each night. She spends her waking hours exhausted from her nocturnal excursions through Hell, trying to keep her mind off Lucas but struggling to forget him.

Her friends try to help her in her task to free the Scions from the Furies, but the one person who can help her is the mysterious stranger Scion who suddenly appears in the Underworld, and together they attempt to find a way to complete Helen’s task.

Other evil forces are at work, trying to help and hinder Helen in her task, creating a new set of problems on top of her existing burdens. As she gets more and more exhausted, she stops dreaming and becomes more vulnerable. She gets closer to the mysterious Scion Orion, who shares the same experiences in the Underworld, while all the while missing Lucas, who is secretly shadowing her to protect her. A sort of love triangle starts to appear with Helen’s supposedly wrong feelings for Lucas and her growing friendship with Orion.

I really hated how Helen’s mother lied about Helen and Lucas being cousins and don’t understand why no-one has twigged that she isn’t telling the truth when it’s obvious! They are clearly meant to be together! Orion is an interesting character, with his beautiful but dangerous superpowers. He is strong enough without his powers in the Underworld to protect Helen while she tries to figure out a way to complete her task. Helen feels very lonely in her task in the Underworld and Orion is friendly face who she can share this with, now that Lucas is off-limits.

The ending is really good, with a proper showdown and yet more shocking attacks and injuries which no normal person could recover from. Also, Helen’s friends really try to help her and also start learning to protect themselves with all the Scions around them. Claire and Jason’s relationship is starting to blossom, and one old friend struggles with the strangeness of Scion world which he is unwillingly sucked into, at great cost.

I give it 9/10 because it is so full of Greek mythology, amazing superpowers and fights, great characters and a great plot. The tension is built up well, and this second book in the trilogy is really stepping the story up a gear ready for whatever happens in the third book, where hopefully Helen’s mother’s lie will be found out! I had been waiting for this book to come out since i read the first one back in February and i wasn’t disappointed! Well worth reading if you liked the first book!

Note – I read this on my Kindle.

Hello July!

Suddenly, i have found myself on the threshold of the second half of 2012, and wondering where the last 6 months has gone!

It’s been a busy year so far, what with working constantly, applying for “proper” jobs (and being rejected constantly) and reading lots of books!

I have gained rather a lot of books, both in my physical library and in my Kindle library! I have a lot to read through but i’m constantly being made aware of new books (which i don’t yet own or which haven’t been released yet) that are begging me to read them! It’s so hard to resist buying every book which i like the sound of! One has to remember that one doesn’t have a disposable income!

So now my last challenge is over (Mixing It Up Reading Challenge-The End), i’ve decided to take a break from them and just read books at a more leisurely pace than rushing though to hit the self-imposed deadline!

As for my goal of reading 50 books in 2012, i have got through 40 books in just 6 months! I may have to extend the goal!

I may also need to rearrange my bookshelves as i have gained a fair few books since i put my library into alphabetical order! (That’s just my OCD side coming out!)

I have a number of book reviews to catchup on this week (for the books i’ve read for the reading challenge) so i’ll be posting those as and when i get them written!

Keep on reading!

Book Review: New Finnish Grammar

I have just finished reading “New Finnish Grammar” by Diego Marani (translated from the Ialtian by Judith Landry). I read it because it ended up in the shortlist for the Independent Foreign fiction Prize 2012 and it sounded intriguing.

New Finnish Grammar – Diego Marani (via Amazon)

The blurb reads:

“One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can identifying him. When he regains consciousness he has lost his memory and cannot even remember what language he speaks. From a few things found on the man the doctor, who is originally from Finland, believes him to be a sailor and a fellow countryman, who somehow or other has ended up in Trieste. The doctor dedicates himself to teaching the man Finnish, beginning the reconstruction of the identity of Sampo Karjalainen, leading the missing man to return to Finland in search of his identity and his past.”

The book follows this man “Sampo” as he tries to recover his memory and his identity, and immerses himself in learning the Finnish language and trying to re-build himself with a Finnish identity. He notes down everything he learns and has help from a pastor who teaches him about Finnish history and folklore while helping “Sampo” learn the difficult Finnish language.

Most of the book is written from the point of view of “Sampo” himself, but there are notes and background information along the way added by the Finnish doctor who found him, treated him, and told him to learn Finnish. These notes are useful in filling in some of the gaps, but we also learn about the doctor and his own personal history and feelings towards his homeland.

I’m not so sure i like the doctor very much because he seems so determined that “Sampo” is Finnish and encourages him to find himself again. But, even though he was acting in what he believed is the best way, i feel a bit sorry for the doctor because of his mistake.

The pastor is a more interesting character: He talks a lot about Finnish folklore and God and so on, and he seems to lose the plot a bit towards the end where things turn a bit strange. He seems to think a lot about things and has a lot of opinions, and i thought this might push “Sampo” in the wrong direction, as he may not be the best influence on him. I’m still not sure though.

The focus on the Finnish language (the book isn’t, as the title suggests, about Finnish grammar in a technical manner) is quite interesting, especially with the book’s original language being Italian. As i’m reading it in English, i found it hard to believe that it was from Italian, because there is just so much Finnish in there. Indeed, as well as the story, we learn a lot about the language itself from this book. I was fascinated by the idea of a man with no memory of a mothertongue learning a whole new language from scratch, not even able to match a word in Finnish with one in an existing language. Especially Finnish, which is one of the most difficult languages to learn and which is rarely spoken outside Finland. Language is really important to identity because it is the only way you can communicate with others, or even inside your own head. To have no language at all can cut you off completely from the world around you, and i can’t imagine the feelings of desperation that “Sampo” was feeling during this book. He makes a great effort to create a new identity for himself by learning Finnish and exploring Helsinki and joining in with others, but he is still the outsider with nothing of his own to share.

This book is difficult to follow, maybe a bit too long as well, and having two narrators can get a little confusing at times, but it is a fascinating read. If you can persevere with it, you will appreciate how difficult it must have been to not only write, but also to translate. The ending is a bit predictable, but at the same time it is rather vague.

I give this book 6/10 because it is an intriguing subject to read about and “Sampo’s” tale is desperately sad and kind of beautiful in its own way. Difficult but worth reading if you can get through the considerable amount of brain-draining waffle in it! I wouldn’t read it again though, too much effort!

Note: I read this on my Kindle, and the ebook read very well.

Book Review: Replica

I have just finished reading “Replica” by Lexi Revellian. I found this ebook for free on Amazon and thought it sounded interesting.

Replica – Lexi Revellian (via Amazon)

The blurb reads:

“Beth Chandler, bright, attractive but unassertive, is accidentally replicated in a flawed experiment at the government research institute where she works. A second Beth comes into being, complete with all her memories. To Sir Peter Ellis, MI5 chief, the replica is an embarrassment that must be hushed up and disposed of. Overhearing him, Beth Two goes on the run. With no official existence, homeless, penniless and pursued by Sir Peter’s agents, she has to find the inner strength and aggression to survive on icy London streets. 

Meanwhile the original Beth, unaware of what has happened, becomes romantically involved with Nick Cavanagh, the spec op she believes is there to protect her. In fact, he’s hunting her double. Nick refuses to face his moral doubts about Beth Two – as far as he’s concerned, it’s not his problem. As events unfold, and the situation grows more complicated, he has to decide whose side he is on.”

The story is a fast-paced thriller with romantic elements which is really gripping! The idea of human clones is rather controversial and i wasn’t sure how i felt about it when i started reading. At first i thought Beth was a bit pathetic with a loser boyfriend who isn’t right for her but she keeps him in her life for reasons i can’t fathom! When she gets replicated, it gets interesting because we have her clone and we get to see what Beth is like when forced to go on the run to save herself. Beth Two is gradually shown to be different to the original Beth, although they share the same memories, knowledge and looks, their temperaments seem to be a bit different: Beth Two is more angry and has a strong sense of self-preservation, especially when she manages to outwit her would-be-captors.

Talking of captors, we meet Nick, the agent tasked with protecting the original Beth and tracking down her double. He develops a closer relationship with Beth while working out how to catch Beth Two.  It gets a little confusing: you wonder how he manages to differentiate between Beth who he has feelings for, and Beth Two who he wants to capture. Nick is an interesting character who seems very attractive from the way he is portrayed!

It gets complicated when the two Beths finally end up face to face and go public with their story, as we don’t get all the information about what really happened when they were received by the world. There is a rather sad element to this, but i won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t read it yet!

I give “Replica” a big 9/10 because it had me gripped from the beginning, and i got really annoyed when things happened which i didn’t want to happen (i guess they were inevitable!), which always makes for interesting reading! It is such a great plot, and it makes you question how far you can go with the ethics of human cloning. I really recommend it if you like something a bit different or controversial.

NOTE: I read this on my Kindle, and had no problems with the ebook at all. At the time of publishing this review, the ebook was still free on Amazon!