6/4/11

48 hour reading challege update--Anansi Boys, The Last Dragon, and The Boy at the End of the World

4 hours and 46 minutes more of reading since I last checked in....I'm on my own with the Dear Boys this weekend, and there were things they had to do.

But boy, I just read a great book (one that caused me to almost, but not quite, burn the children's supper--isn't it handy how pasta starts to spit noisily when all the water's boiled away?). Said book being Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaimen. In particular, I appreciated the lime. The lime is now my favorite fictional citrus fruit (does anyone else have one?)--it was so utterly random, but so full of quiet power, in a lime sort of way.

But the rest was pretty darn good too, and I am awfully pleased to have this one in my mental library (when I'm out in the garden, weeding, my mind plays books back to me quite often....)

I also read The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, which was good too! I'll be writting this one up nice and proper like since it's a review copy.

So what I didn't have in quantity, I made up for in quality.

Edited to add: Yoiks! I actually spent another hour and ten minutes reading The Last Dragon this morning...I wasn't sure I was going to like this one (annoying child elf as main character? no thanks) but in the end I did, mainly because there were two stories, one a sequel to the other, and in the sequel the elf was much less annoying, and there were orphans (who ate eggs raw, which reminded me of Bonnie and Sylvia, for any Joan Aiken fans), and it made me cry rather broken heartedly for the pity of it at the end, which took me by surprise.

Stats:

Pages: 963 more pages. Bothering realization that I haven't been writing down page numbers for other books read, and will have to re-find them.
Hours: 10 hours and 25 minutes reading
Blogging: Two hours and 33 minutes blogging and commenting
Books read: seven completed, two abandoned, and one still in progress.
Number of books that have made me cry: 2

6 comments:

  1. Anansi Boys is a favorite of my husband's. Have you read American Gods? They're connected.

    I don't think we actually have to keep track of pages read, though I do.

    I think I've had two make me cry too. Another good thing to keep track of. :-)

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  2. I haven't read American Gods--but want to. Someday.

    I want to keep track of my pages just to see if I beat the number I read in previous years....which I haven't gone back to find yet...

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  3. You go, Charlotte! That's a good idea to keep a record of pages read.

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  4. Hahahah! Oh, Charlotte. Only you would add tears to your stats.

    I'm always surprised these days when a book makes me cry, and it's actually a ... good surprise, in a way. I never expect to -- when the emotion just rips into me, I know the author has done a good job. Well, "good" for a given value of "yay! I wanted to have a good cry!"

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  5. I've read American Gods, and thought it was a bit meandering and not as good as some of his other ones (but then, I've liked Neverwhere best). But I've heard nothing but good about Anansi Boys. I really ought to pick that one up, especially since you enjoyed it; I don't think I've read a Gaiman yet this year.

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  6. I'm so with you on the lime. Team Lime forever!

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