Divergent - Veronica Roth

In the last year or so, I've read a lot of rave reviews of Veronica Roth's teen dystopian novel Divergent, so when I found a copy in Ellie's book shop, I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. In the wake of The Hunger Games, the YA market is full of dystopian futures: zombie apocalypses, corrupt governments and teenagers versus the world. Despite, or perhaps because of the hype, I was not convinced that Divergent would stand apart from the rest, but I wanted to be proved wrong.

The society of Divergent is split into five factions, each of which value and strive for a single character trait: Dauntless (courage), Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (kindness), Erudite (knowledge) and Candor (truth). I was very much reminded of Hogwarts houses, but turned up to eleven, and for life. Members of each faction have their own roles and contributions in this society, according to these values - but this view of humanity seemed too simplistic to convince me. People are complicated, and I could not believe in a world which dictated that a person can be either brave, or kind, or intellectual, that one quality must drive a person's every action, every thought, every decision, from the age of sixteen to the end of their days, or be outcast forever.

It took me a long time to get into Divergent, but my favourite segment of the novel was the middle, in which heroine Tris (Beatrice) trains for the initiation into the Dauntless faction. I was reminded of a school story, with new friendships and enemies made, learning and living together in dormitories, and facing up to bullies among other initiates and teachers alike. The famous knife scene was where my interest really started, which Tris shows real-world courage, as opposed to the daring stunts and tough fighting that passed for bravery in the Dauntless faction.

Fans of Divergent grow very tired of the inevitable comparisons with The Hunger Games, and between tough-girl Tris and Katniss Everdeen, and indeed they are very different stories within the genre. However, Divergent did not stand out from the other dystopian teen books. I enjoyed the Dauntless scenes fairly well, as a small group of characters getting to know each other and the workings of their new faction away from the hinted-at disturbances in their world's government. (How much of the world is factioned, and what happened to the rest of it?) However, I thought that the wider world, though full of potential, was quite weakly realised and unconvincing, and the final act was nothing exceptional. Sixteen-year-old heroine and a few friends-and-relations trying to bring down a corrupt regime? It's been done before, and better.

Once Upon A Readathon

Monday, 11AM

Well, hello there! Here on the Isle of Wight the sky is blue, the sun is shining and it is promising to be a hot day. The long-awaited summer has definitely arrived. As such, I am left with no choice but to take my book to the beach to take part in the Once Upon a Readathon there.

Once Upon a Readathon is an annual readathon organised by Lori at Pure Imagination, Angela and Loretta at Reading Angels and Candace at Candace's Book Blog. It takes place from today until Wednesday at midnight, and as well as the reading (lots of it and preferably with ice cream!) there will be some blogging challenges and prizes.

Today (Monday) will be my most active readathon day (if you can call lying on a beach reading "active") as tomorrow and Wednesday I will be back at work. As such, I will probably keep my updates in this one post, instead of having separate posts for each day.

My main goal for this readathon is to finish a couple of books which I've been reading for ages: Iain M. Banks' first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas and the second volume of Sandman, The Doll's House. I'd like to get those finished by the end of today, especially the Banks. My to-read pile has now emigrated from by bookshelf to a big ricketty pile beside the bookcase, so I have plenty to choose from for what to read next, but I think it will either be Veronica Roth's Divergent (because I want to see what all the fuss is about) or Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements, which promises to be a cute and fluffy and very seasonal read.

7:15PM

I complain a lot about living on the Isle of Wight - as a reasonably intelligent young person, there are few career prospects, and just as few potential romantic partners (I'd rather be single right now but it sucks that this seems to be my only option whether I like it or not.) Still, there is no denying that it's a great place to be in the summertime. Wherever you are, you're never more than about a half hour drive from the sea. As I don't drive, it can take up to an hour on buses, but I actually quite enjoy travelling on public transport. It was a close one today, though, with late and full-up connector buses, traffic lights, jaywalkers and fake-queuers (you know, when someone's standing at the bus stop, so you wait behind them, but it turns out that they don't want that bus after all, and the driver leaves without you - grrr!) all doing their best to make me miss the bus and have to wait an hour for the next one. Or, I could have got a different bus and walked along the seafront for ten minutes, an idea that did not appeal in today's heat. My beach of choice was Yaverland, a slightly less touristy beach than its next neighbour, Sandown. (It had toilets and a little cafe/shop, what more do you need?)

I was relieved to get to the end of Consider Phlebas. I'm just discovering science fiction now, but as much as I wanted to enjoy the late Iain M. Banks' first Culture novel, I just couldn't connect with it, and it has been slow work. Perhaps I'd get on better with his books authored without an "M" in his name - I remember finding The Wasp Factory fascinating, in a horrifying sort of way, and have had The Crow Road recommended by a customer. I rewarded myself with a swim - Yaverland is a great swimming beach, without much seaweed or rocks, and big, splashy but not menacing waves, and the water was glorious.

Edited to add: I understand that, although Consider Phlebas is the first of the Culture books, newcomers are better off starting with The Player of Games. Would anyone who's read the books confirm that? I didn't enjoy Phlebas that much, but am reluctant to give up on the series entirely.

After Consider Phlebas, Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop is a very easy read, a sweet and likeable story about two sisters who inherit their grandmother's ice cream business and decide to give it a new lease of life, with a vintage make-over, ice cream van and a trip to Italy for a gelato-making course. Of course, they have their fair share of disasters, heartbreaks and family crises to deal with along the way. Vivien's is lighter than my usual reading, but contains all the ingredients for a perfect beach read - complete with an ice cream of my own, naturally! I sometimes daydream about opening my very own seaside ice cream shop with homemade gelato, so Vivien's indulges that fantasy as well as warning the reader what mistakes to avoid.

This evening, I'm planning to take a bit of a break from reading, and watch a couple of episodes of Star Trek. After watching the JJ Abrams reboot films, I've borrowed the first Original Series box set from my friend, and reluctantly, bewilderedly, I'm finding myself enjoying it a lot more than I had expected. Despite the series containing enough cheese and ham for a round of sandwiches, there are some good stories and characters in there, and I can see why people get so invested in it.

Readathon Challenge: Book BFF

The Book BFFs want to know: who is your "Book BFF*" and how did you meet? Well, I will have to go with my best friend, Judi, who I have known for as long as I can remember. Our mothers have been friends since they were kids, and we grew up together, going to the same mum-and-toddler groups, etc. We don't have identical reading tastes - she likes more non-fiction and science fiction, whereas I tend more towards the literary, historical or general fiction - but there is enough of an overlap (especially in fantasy genres) that we are always lending each other books. From time to time we decide to tackle a book or series together as a "book club" of two - which translates to reading the book and then going to the pub to talk about it over a glass or three of wine. Last year we read A Song of Ice And Fire together, which was a lot of fun. We are quite content to meet up and spend time just reading and ignoring each other. Now that's what friends are for!

Pages read today: 403

Books read today: Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks, 

Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop - Abby Clements

No. of books read (total): 2

No. of books finished (total): 1

Reading snacks: Mint Magnum, Graze "Herb Garden" nibbles, raspberries, strawberry Cornetto (Yes, that is two ice creams. Deal with it.)

Today #insixwords: Sun, sea and plentiful ice cream

Tuesday, 7:40PM

Back at work today, where it was pretty quiet - no doubt most people were in the park or on the beach, and who can blame them? At lunch time I finished Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop, which had a satisfying, if perhaps predictable ending. Certainly I found myself wanting to invest in an ice cream maker and try out some of the delicious recipes that the author was kind enough to include in the back of the book.

Coming in from work I lost myself in the Sandman graphic novel, The Doll's House. This is my second reading of the series, and this time around it was interesting to see characters and plot strands which seem at this early stage to be stand-alone stories, but which make a lot more sense when you know how Gaiman is going to weave the threads into the overall story. The story "Men of Good Fortune," which follows a man who has refused to die, meeting with Dream once every hundred years, is outstanding, showing the details of a changing world, and highlighting that, when you look at the bigger picture, nothing really changes at all. Next up is a complete contrast in story and tone, in "The Collectors," one of the more lingeringly creepy chapters of the series.

I didn't get to watch any Star Trek last night after all, thanks to my computer playing up, but I did listen to Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime," which is The Ocean At the End of the Lane, read by Michael Sheen. This evening I plan to finish The Doll's House, watch those episodes of Star Trek, and then listen to part two of Ocean in bed.

Pages read today: 101

Books read today: Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop - Abby Clements
The Sandman: The Doll's House - Neil Gaiman

No. of books read (total): 3

No. of books finished (total): 2

Reading snacks: Cadbury's Dairy Milk "Strawberries and Creme" edition

Today #insixwords: Forgotten how good that story was.

Wednesday (updated Thursday)

Not a lot of reading got done on the final day of Once Upon a Readathon, although I managed to finish off The Doll's House. The weather was beautiful, so I took my lunch and book to the nearby park. After work, I met up with friends for a last-minute cinema trip on Orange Wednesdays. We were torn between Now You See Me and Despicable Me 2, but the yellow minions won. The film is very silly, as befits a family movie, but genuinely funny (see aforementioned minions and cute orphan Agnes) and I was crying with laughter by the end.

Pages read today: Approx. 75 (didn't count)

Books read today: The Sandman: The Doll's House - Neil Gaiman

Books bought today - On Writing - Stephen King

No. of books read (total): 3

No. of books finished (total): 3

Reading snacks: lunch, iced latte and chocolate biscuit

Today #insixwords: I want an army of minions!

*BFF = Best Friend Forever

Top ten books of 2013 so far/Once Upon a Readathon

I'm really cheating here, because this was The Broke and the Bookish's top ten for last week, but I was away from my computer for a couple of days and missed it.

My blogging resolution for 2013 was to read quality, rather than quantity: to take my time reading books I could fall in love with, instead of skimming through things I didn't care in order to reach a target. So far it seems to be working. I haven't even kept track of how many books I've read, and deleted my Goodreads account, but there seem to be a higher proportion of great reads on my list.

Top Ten Books of 2013 So Far (in no particular order)

1. Paper Towns by John Green. Although Looking For Alaska, which has similar themes, has more publicity, I preferred this story of a boy piecing together the mystery of his friend and crush's
disappearance. I love a good treasure-hunt story, a mystery with clues to solve, and the interesting and little-known facts and details that make Green's books come alive and appeal to us nerdy types.

2. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. I am very much not into zombies. They Warm Bodies was the exception: Somehow Marion was able to convey just what it would be like to live as a zombie, trapped inside a mind that is almost but not quite eroded, snarkily humorous but surprisingly thoughtful and compassionate. (The book is better than the film.)
do nothing for me.

3. Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. I found this book just after the death of an old friend, and it was just what I needed to read at that time: a tale of grief and young love, family and growing up, and the confusion that comes when someone dies. I haven't seen much publicity around this book, which is a real shame. Highly recommended.

4. The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence. A story of a friendship between a bright but unusual teenager and a grumpy old man. An odd mixture of humour and sadness, this book challenged me to think. Alex Woods is a wonderful character, and I defy you not to fall in love with him.

5. After the Fall by Charity Norman. This is an odd one, because I wasn't sure I was going to like this book at all. I felt sure I knew where the story was going - and I couldn't have been more wrong. I love books that surprise me; that manage to sneak past the emotional barriers I put up, making me care for the characters more than I intended to. Challenging, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful.

6. Watchmen by Alan Moore. A dark and dismal story that takes a sideways look at the concept of superheroes, and wonders what kind of world it would be if they really did exist. An uncomfortable and sometimes unpleasant read, posing difficult questions about morality, heroics
and the human race as a whole, but one that stays with you for a long time.

7. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Did I mention that I love a good treasure hunt story? This one is set in a dystopian future, but its true setting is within the internet itself, in a virtual reality that is a geek's paradise, stuffed with references to gaming, science fiction, cult films and TV, in
particular of the 1980s. A thriller with all the adrenaline-rush of the best video game in the world.

8. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman This was my most
anticipated read of the year, and it did not disappoint. A children's tale for grown-ups and a short story grown long, this is all about childhood, magic and memory, filled with deep-down truths that I can't quite grasp, but that Gaiman has made sense of through story. As soon as I finished this book, I started at the beginning once more, a thing I haven't done since I read the final Malory Towers book at the age of 11 or 12.

9. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke I only half-watched the film, which probably demands one's full attention, but is extremely slow-paced. The beginning is bizarre, the middle a respectable science fiction movie slowed right down, starring the world's most sinister computer, and the ending both terrifying and a complete mind-screw. I didn't love it, but it lingered, and when I saw the book in the library, I took it home to read straight away. The novel and film are really two halves of a whole: the film shows, while the book explains what we're seeing. And as I read, a long-forgotten part of my childhood returned to me. When I was seven or eight, I was fascinated by the solar system; the vastness of space, the strangeness of all the planets, and the dream of space exploration. I had a space encyclopedia I could pore over for hours - but as I grew older, I'd forgotten all of this. 2013 has been the year of me discovering I actually like science fiction, but the realistic journey of the Discovery to Jupiter and Saturn gives a far greater idea of the size of space than all the fictional galaxies of Star Trek and Firefly. 

10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo This is not a book I intend to reread from start to finish regularly, the 1000+ page tome breaking from the story every few chapters for Hugo to pass judgement at great length on history, politics, life in a convent and the sewers of Paris. Of course, you can enjoy the musical without reading the book - from the comfort of your own home now it has been filmed - but the book is so much deeper and richer.



Once Upon A Readathon: Mon 8th- Weds 10th July 2013

After last month's Bout of Books readathon, I've found myself bitten by the bug. Of course, I can devote any of my free time I choose to reading, and do, but it's easy in these days of wi-fi to spend more time tweeting about books, reading blogs about books and setting off a TvTropes tabsplosion about books, than actually reading. A readathon is a great incentive to actually sit down, ignore all the distractions, and actually get lost in a good book or three. So I've decided to sign up for Once Upon A Readathon, which takes place next week. I don't expect to read more than two books during that time, as I'll be at work on two of the three days. Monday will be my day off, and so I intend to get as much reading done as possible that day. Can't wait!

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

For several years now, I've had a troubling vision of a future where the physical world is entirely forsaken in favour of twenty-four-hour internet. Where there are no shops, only online shopping, no human interaction but continual tweeting, no social gatherings but Facebook events. Where relationship status updates carry more weight that marriage certificates, and where couples don't even need to be in the same country. Instead of living life, we livetweet, and instead of seeing the world, we photograph it and post it on Instagram. We shun the friends we are with, while exchanging tweets on our smartphones with someone the other side of the world. And as I write this, I wonder how much of this is prediction and how much observation. I'm certainly as guilty as anyone else. The other day I could not be bothered to cook, so I ordered pizza without any human contact except, briefly, with the delivery boy. To this geeky, socially awkward blogger who loves escapism, there is a certain appeal to such a lifestyle, yet its very appeal sets off warning bells in my head. How long before we routinely upload our brains into the internet?

With Ready Player One, Ernest Cline makes a far better job of portraying such a world than I possibly could. In the not-too-distance future, the internet has been swallowed up by a massive, sprawling virtual reality called the OASIS. More than just a video game, the OASIS spans universes, with planets, books, virtual schools and workplaces, shops and restaurants, and of course games galore. Users have an avatar to traverse the OASIS, with headsets and gloves that allow them to experience the virtual worlds as though physically present. A few years before the novel begins, James Halliday, the OASIS' designer died without an heir, and his multi-billion dollar fortune has been left to whoever is first to unravel the clues hidden within the virtual worlds. For a long time, the clues yielded no results, and by many the "Easter egg hunt" has been dismissed as a hoax. Until eighteen-year-old Wade Watts stumbles upon the first key...

 I've never been much of a gamer, and so it took me a long time to be persuaded to read this book that has had such rave reviews. I needn't have worried: it was wonderful. Both the story and the world of the OASIS were utterly engrossing, and I would forget that I was reading about a kid sitting in the remains of a car in a junkyard, plugged into his computer. The OASIS seems more real than Wade's reality, which is in a sad state of being: overpopulated with all the world's resources running low. There's no real future for a kid who lives in a stacked trailer park. No wonder he finds refuge plugged into the internet, where he can be whoever he wants. Problems in the OASIS seem to affect Wade more than real-world catastrophe, and at times it would take me a moment to get reality and OASIS untangled. The OASIS, a computer programme made entirely of 0s and 1s, is as convincing a setting as any.

One of my favourite things in fiction is a good treasure hunt; not that I'm ever any good at solving the clues, but I enjoy watching the characters work them out. The hunt for Halliday's fortune lies in geek culture, especially from the 1980s: in science fiction, early computer games and cult movies. Though many of the references passed me by, many more made me smile - Firefly, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Discworld, Star Trek, Doctor Who... all these are name-dropped, and I had a big goofy grin all over my face through the final test. (Clue: he's using coconuts!)

Ready Player One is as thrilling as the best computer games, with enough real-world peril to keep the reader really caring. Solving the clues is more than just about winning the money: once the first key is uncovered, the big corporations get involved, their ultimate goal to privatise the OASIS. This is not just a case of Yahoo buying Tumblr, or even Amazon taking over Goodreads. For underprivileged kids like Wade, the OASIS is what makes life worthwhile. And the corporation plays nasty. Wade and the other competitors pose a threat to their ruthless ambitions, and must be stopped by any means.

I could not get enough of this novel, and it came as a real shock to reach the end. An outstanding science fiction novel: engrossing, geeky and a lot of fun. I wanted to eat that book.

What I Did On My Summer Holiday by Katie (aged twenty-mumble and a bit.)

Fifteen years ago, I went on a year 7 school field trip to the Peak District, and this year my best friend and I decided to return, as, erm, responsible adults, to visit some of the same places without an itinerary set by the teachers. Our base was Matlock, being easily accessible by train, and we found a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called Sheriff Lodge. (If you are looking for a B&B in Derbyshire, I highly recommend this one - the owners are friendly, the bedrooms cute and cosy, and the breakfasts delicious, catering for vegetarians and people with gluten intolerances, and having a good selection of food for people, such as Judith, who are both.)

We arrived last Tuesday, and Wednesday was spent at the Heights of Abraham, a country resort about a mile or two down the road. One reaches the top of the hill by travelling in an alpine-style cable car. Once at the top, there are guided tours into disused mines, and with the damp, the dark and the glittering of the walls, I couldn't help thinking of the Fellowship of the Ring entering the Mines of Moria. Thankfully we found no orcs, skeletons or balrogs while underground. Afterwards, we deviated from the main path, scrambled up a hill away from the main resort to have our picnic.

 

Thursday we visited Ellie's bookshop, where I went wild, buying a gorgeous notebook and seven books, which may have been a mistake, considering I had to carry them around with me for the rest of the day. Having just missed the bus to Chatsworth House, we ate ice cream by the river and I worked out that if we took a certain short cut, it would not be a much longer walk than the walk from the bus stop. It was a beautiful day, and we didn't much feel like taking two buses. Alas, we missed the very first turning, and ended up walking four miles along a busy road with no sidewalks, but plenty of nettles.

Still, we got there in the end, some time after three and after buying another ice cream, we decided to paddle in the Cascade, a watery staircase, before going into the house itself. There was a warning to supervise children as the Cascade was not designed for walking, and a bit slippery. Perhaps they should have added that grown ups ought to take care too. Judith decided to walk up the Cascade, but when she made the return journey, she ended up flat on her back. You'd think I'd have heeded her advice, but five minutes later, I ended up doing the exact same thing. We took our time walking around the grounds in soggy frocks, unwilling to drip all over "Pemberley." We made it inside just before last entry, and were followed around by staff closing all the doors behind us.

You can't go on holiday in the Peak District without at least one hilltop walk, so on Thursday, after visiting Ellie once more, we took the bus up to Calver, before making our way to the designated starting point: Curbar Gap car park. Again, this was about a mile from the bus stop. Fine. What the walking guide neglected to tell us was that it was about a mile up a very steep hill road. For us non-drivers, getting to the starting point was the hardest part of this walk. It was worth it, though - a proper scramble across a varied terrain: rocky cliffs, fields, woodland and streams, in a six-mile round trip across White Edge, Froggatt Edge and Curbar Edge - a walk I had not done when I was twelve and thought walking was boring. Alas, the pub which marked the half-way point was closed when we reached it. It was a scorching day, but with a cool breeze that made it bearable. At the bottom of the hill, we stopped off for Pimms, before returning to Matlock to have takeaways in the park.

  

What I read:

The Magician's Nephew is a forgotten favourite in CS Lewis's Narnia series. I don't read it as often as The Silver Chair and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but when I do, I love it: the magic of the Wood between the Worlds, the gloom of Charn, the dead world, home to Jadis, the White Witch, and the beauty of the new Narnia. Even Polly's hideout in the attic is an exciting place, with plenty to explore and adventures to find without going out of one's front door. I'd love to see this one made into a film, but only if done well.

Never The Bride by Paul Magrs is the story of Brenda, a middle-aged bed-and-breakfast owner based in Whitby, who alongside her friend Effie, is drawn into investigating the weird goings-on in her town. But are any of the dodgy shenanigans she uncovers as strange as her own past? Never The Bride is simultaneously light and dark: gothic and macabre in places, but an easy and comic read, packed full of references to cult classic literature. The setting of Whitby has its own, very specific, literary heritage, which helps to shape the mood of the novel alongside the Christmas Hotel, the sinister beauty salon and the pie and peas evenings for the local pensioners. I took my time getting into the book, but as soon as I'd figured out Brenda's mystery, I knew it was going to be brilliant! The title is relevant to the story, but not in the way you might expect. There's very little of the mushy stuff to be found here.
A cross between Alexander McCall Smith, Ben Aaronovitch and... spoilers! You'll have to read it yourself to find out more. I was very pleased to discover there are other books about Brenda and Effie.

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst was one of the many books I bought at Ellie's shop. The book follows Nick Guest, a young, optimistic gay man living with the ridiculously rich family of a university friend in the mid-1980s. I could not help but be reminded of Brideshead Revisited, contrasting Nick's idealism with the cynical world of fame, wealth and Thatcherism that he finds himself in. In many ways it feels far removed from the 80s as I think of them, and you can't ignore the shadow that hangs over Nick, his lovers and friends. A pensive, literary novel, heartbreakingly sad and yet beautiful in surprising places.

What I've Watched:

Last Monday, the day before we travelled up to Matlock, Judith and I went to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre. It was so much fun: packed full with classic disco songs, outrageous one-liners and ridiculous costumes. I had a big goofy grin all over my face the whole time.

My new favourite TV show is The Returned, (Original title Les Revenants, in other countries, Rebound) which is a French thriller exploring the effects on a small mountain town when the dead start coming back to life. Only one episode has been shown in the UK so far, but I can't wait for the next one. The main focus was on the family of Camille, a teenager killed in a coach accident four years previously, who just walked home as if nothing had happened, and helped herself to something out of the fridge. There is something unnerving about these people, seemingly unchanged, but all hungry, and none can sleep. They seem harmless, no flesh-eating zombies here, but it is the effect on their loved ones that is telling. How would you act if the dead came back to life? M. Costa's response to his dead wife is heartbreaking and horrifying. Adele's late boyfriend (or so we infer) comes after her, but now she is married with a child, a teacher at the high school or college, and her terrified cry of "It's happening again!" hints that perhaps these "revenants" might be revealed to be more dangerous than they appear. Far more than a zombie horror, this is a character study, a slow-building suspense, and possibly a crime drama as well as a tale of the supernatural, with beautiful cinematography and an atmospheric soundtrack. Don't be intimidated by the subtitles: if it continues as it began The Returned promises to be one of the best dramas of the year.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Settings I Want to Live In.

This week, The Broke and the Bookish have left the subject of Top Ten Tuesday up to us. I've chosen to list the top ten book locations that leave me aching to pack up my bags and board a plane/TARDIS/reality hopper.

Top Ten Book Settings I Want To Live In (or at least visit)

1. 19th Century Prince Edward Island - Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. 
2. Narnia, circa the time of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis. This seems to be the best time to be a Narnian, when the land is at peace and adventure is for adventure's own sake.
3. New Zealand - After The Fall by Charity Norman. Even if the story emphasises that you can't escape from your own life, it still makes me want to start a completely new life - and with such a background!
4. London Below - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Complete with Croup and Vandemar and certain death around every corner? Perhaps not. Yet in many ways London Below seems more real, more alive, than the London I can visit on the train.
5. Middle Earth - The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Yes, even with the deadly, hopeless quest.  It would certainly show what a person is made of. I'd love to see the Elves in Rivendell and Lothlorien, and visit the human lands of Gondor and Rohan, but ultimately I would be most at home with the Hobbits in the comfort of the Shire.
6. Botswana - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Mma Ramotswe has such a joyful approach to life, and such a love of her country.
7. 1920s Lake District - Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Childhood seems so much freer in this era, with the children camping on a lake island, sailing, mountaineering and adventuring to their hearts' content. And ginger beer and corned beef sandwiches taste so much better when eaten outdoors and called "grog" and "pemmican."
8. Hogwarts - Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Of course. Who doesn't want to learn Transfiguration, Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts instead of maths, science and geography?
9. Beszel/Ul Qomo - The City and the City by China Mieville. Two cities, that live on top of each other like two pictures on different sheets of tracing paper, where you may not even acknowledge something going on the other side of the street, if it is technically in the other city. Perhaps this would be a place to visit rather than to live in - but I'd like to see exactly how it works.
10. Australia - Down Under, by Bill Bryson. 

And 5 settings I'm happy just reading about from the safety of my armchair:

1. Westeros - A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.
2. High School - Every YA novel ever. Once was quite enough for me, thank you very much.
3. Panem - The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
4. The Arctic Circle - Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Brrrrr. I do not like the cold.
5. The Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. I love the idea of this boarding school in the Alps, but I suspect it would not be as much fun as the stories lead you to believe, with the taboo on slang, having to be trilingual in English, French and German, and the earnestness of the Real Chalet Girls.

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Picture a world where superheroes are real. Really picture it. Pretty cool, huh? Now really think about it. A world where anyone can put on a costume, fight crime with complete anonymity, take the law into their own hands. Where these costumed heroes - for they don't have any superhuman powers - play judge, jury and executioner all at once. Where groups of masked vigilantes are the terror of the underworld. What sort of people would choose that lifestyle, and should they be trusted with the responsibility?

These are just some of the questions posed by Alan Moore in his masterpiece, Watchmen. The title, of course, is a reference to the age-old question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen? - Juvenal, Satires) Interspersed between the chapters of the graphic novel are pages supposedly from historical documents, charting the rise and fall of the superhero. The world is not quite the world as we know it, and it is indicated that superheroes had a lot to do with altering the course of history - and not for the better. In the 1985 of Watchmen, America has won the war in Vietnam, Richard Nixon is still President, and the world is on the brink of nuclear war.

Superheroes are now outlawed, having arguably done more harm than good. They came into being after the comic books soared in popularity, but the reality was something quite different, and now the costumed heroes have disappeared from the public eye - both from the streets and from the comics. But one remains, if one can call him a hero by any stretch of the definition. Rorschach: bitter, repellent and hate-filled, but driven by his unswerving moral absolutism and crusade against the murkiest specimens of humanity, fighting them on their own terms. The story opens after the death of a former masked crusader, with Rorschach warning his old comrades of his suspicions: that a serial killer is targeting them one by one.

Watchmen is an incredibly dark novel, the two characters with the strongest voices having contrasting but equally bleak views of the world. Rorschach is bitter, violent and horrifying, not at all a likable character, and yet almost sympathetic. His journal entries form part of the narrative, giving a fascinating but unsettling insight into his mind. On the other hand, Dr Manhattan, the only "hero" with superpowers, has a gods-eye view of history, with past, present and future equally visible. He has also all but detached himself from the human race to whom he used to belong. It seems that Manhattan's extra knowledge of Earth has caused him to give up on the planet and those who inhabit it. The two anti-heroes provide a sobering commentary on humanity, all the more so when coupled with the impossible moral dilemma posed in the final chapter of the book. But there are other, quieter voices in the to balance these two harbingers of doom, suggesting that all is not completely hopeless.

Despite the reputation of comic books as a genre, Watchmen is not an easy read, but it is worth taking time over. You benefit from reading the pictures as well as the words, and some mysteries can be figured out before their revelation, if you pay attention to detail. Watchmen is also an excellent deconstruction of the superhero genre. I did not find any of the characters particularly likable - as well as the anti-heroic Rorschach and emotionally disconnected Dr Manhattan, I found the more conventional heroes a bit insipid - and yet the storytelling and world-building kept me hooked. An exemplary work of literature, and one which I suspect will get better with every subsequent reread. I borrowed this from the library, but would consider buying my own copy.

There has also been a movie, which I found to be very faithful to the original work; although it differs significantly in one particular instance, I felt that this was more of a detail rather than a change to the plot or the spirit of the story.

Bout of Books Wrap-Up Post

The Bout of Books readathon finished on Sunday night, and yet it's taken me until now to write a brief wrap-up post. My apologies!

So, how did I do?

I read a total of 860 pages, which averages out as just under 123 pages per day. Not too shabby, considering that I was working full-time, spent one evening watching Star Trek and another in front of the TV, and was too ill to read on one of my days off. Of the three books I had set myself to read, I have read one and a half, plus one that I had not planned for.

The highlight of the week was definitely The Universe Versus Alex Woods: A charming, funny but sad coming-of-age tale with a narrator you can't fail to love. It's a book that inspires, challenges and gently educates the reader, and I would recommend it to anyone. 

Non-book-related highlights of the week included the Star Trek movie, both the film and the spending time with my friends beforehand. There are a few of us who have formed a sort of unofficial coffee and film group, specialising in science-fiction, superhero movies and kids' films. Several of us work in shops in the town centre, so we go to a late-opening coffee shop (or the pub) for snacks and hot beverages, (or wine) before heading down to the cinema. 

I spent quite a bit of time on the #boutofbooks hashtag on Twitter, participating in the first getting-to-know-you Twitter chat. (The second took place at 2AM here, and the third was while I was at work. I stayed up to date with some of my favourite book bloggers (such as Ellie and Hanna) and discovered others who were new to me (notable mentions go to Riv and another Ellie.) 

So, that was Bout of Books 7.0. Another readathon has been scheduled for August this year, and you can be sure I'll be taking part once more. Here's to a glorious summer, so I can spend my reading time on the beach, in the garden or in the park!

Bout of Books: Saturday and Sunday

This is how the readathon ends:
not with a bang but a whimper.

Saturday:

Saturday was never going to have a huge page count. I read a few pages of Watchmen over breakfast, before heading off to work. On my lunch break, I popped into Boots and realised that I couldn't focus on the words on any of the packaging. I'd been feeling a migraine brewing for a few days, and had just been relieved that it hadn't ruined my day off. But the time I'd got back into the open air, everything was a grey blur. If I concentrated really hard I could make out words, but forming those words into meaning was another matter entirely. It was terrifying. So reading was out of the question.

I powered through the rest of the day on sheer willpower, and by the end of the day I'd perked up a bit, which was just as well because my friend was coming over to watch the Doctor Who season finale and Eurovision, while eating takeaway pizza.

DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS, SWEETIE. Scroll down to black text if you don't want to read.

I'll be honest, I haven't been overly impressed with this season. After the last series, since the series' return in 2005, the plots have been getting bigger and bigger, whereas the latest season has been a bit more understated, with only single-episode stories, and the big mystery of "how can the Doctor's new companion have lived and died in different times and places?" being the only connecting plot-thread. This mystery hasn't really been grown or developed through the series, just left hanging there, a loose thread for the Doctor to wrinkle his brow at when he thinks to do so. 

But the finale was impressive, with clips and moments involving all the previous Doctors, scenes sliced and reused right back from William Hartnell's days. That was the moment for the nerds, and we loved it. The episode was called "The Name of the Doctor." Because no one knows the Doctor's real name, only the name he chose for himself. And whatever that name is, whether it be Fred or Slartibartfast, it can never live up to the mystery surrounding his identity. 

"The Doctor has a secret; one he will take to his grave. And it is discovered."

I figured out the tricksy wording just a few split seconds before the Doctor said it. (Steven Moffat, you cunning devil.) It is not the secret that is discovered - but the Doctor's grave. Because even time lords don't live forever, and somewhere, somewhen, the Doctor dies and is buried. The series' final confrontation between the Doctor and his foe The Great Intelligence takes place here - a creepy place, even for a graveyard. The mystery of why Clara keeps on turning up in his timeline, not just in the past series, but throughout his life, largely unnoticed by the Doctor, is resolved, and far more satisfactorily than I expected. And then, while the duo are trapped in the wildernesses of the Doctor's timeline - "Everything around you is me." - their attention is drawn to a solemn sillhouette, terrifying even while standing with his back to them. Even the Doctor is afraid.

"He's me. There's only me here; that's the point, now let's - get - back."
"But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. Eleven faces, all of them were you. You're the Eleventh Doctor."
"I said he was me. I never said he was the Doctor."

Because the Doctor is the name the Time Lord chose for himself, the name that he has taken as his identity. This other man - played by John Hurt and credited as "The Doctor" - has done something so terrible that The Doctor has disowned him from himself. Theories abound, but mine is that this person, this non-Doctor Doctor, was a previous regeneration, between Paul McGann (8th Doctor, 1996) and Christopher Eccleston (9th Doctor, 2005) - during which time the infamous, appalling Time War destroyed Gallifrey, the race of Time Lord and many, many other planets. We know of the Time War only from details let slip by the only survivor, the Doctor. The next episode, due to be aired in November, is the show's 50th Anniversary special. It has long been a theory of mine that this episode's topic will be the Time War in the missing years. The cliffhanger supports this theory. But we have six months until then.

After Doctor Who came the Eurovision Song Contest. How does one describe Eurovision to one unfamiliar to it? From a British point of view, at least, it is just a chance to shamelessly make fun of the TV - a European musical competition. Well. I say "musical." It is generally considered a poor evening if there is actually much musical merit in any of the performances. There is a mixture of cheesy pop, dance music with a heavy beat, big inspirational ballads and a few strange acts. The most memorable acts of last night were Finland's song "Marry Me," an infuriatingly catchy ditty ending on a kiss between two women; Romania's falsetto-singing Dracula lookalike (pictured above) and Greece's "Alcohol is Free," which was just plain ridiculous, but had us all grinning all over our faces. The UK always does badly, whether because we are isolated from the rest of the European countries who like to vote for their neighbours, or because our songs seem to be trying too hard. I suspect the British pop industry has been ruined by being dominated by talent shows, (X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and the Voice) whose theme is pursuing one's dreams, and churns out very earnest songs on that subject.

Saturday 18th May:

Books read today: Watchmen - Alan Moore

Number of pages read today: 25

Number of books read in total: 3

Books finished: 2
Today #insixwords: little reading, pizza, Doctor Who, Eurovision

Worst lyric on Eurovision: 

If you don’t know I’m in love with you

When summertime falls it becomes untrue

Because of the shoes I’m wearing today

One is called Love, the other is Pain...

(Culprit: Andrius Pojavis from Lithuania)

Sunday:

7:15PM 

I've only read a handful of pages today - worse than yesterday. It is my mother's birthday, so we went out for a meal in a lovely little pub in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, the migraine came back in double strength around that time, and knocked me out completely for the entire afternoon. Probably writing up this blog post is a bad idea. Feeling a little better now, but not great. I expect I'm more likely to spend the evening watching Les Miserables than reading, though I will try to get a little more in before bed.

Books read today: Watchmen - Alan Moore

Number of pages read today: 67

Number of books read in total: 3

Books finished: 2
Today #insixwords: not a bang but a whimper

Bout of Books: Friday

11.25AM

Good, errrrr, (checks clock.) morning, people. As it was my first day off work in readathon week, it was some time after 10 when I stumbled out of bed - too late for breakfast, perhaps, and too early for lunch. CAKE TIME! (with a small cup of coffee, naturally.)

My plans for today are few: first off to finish Alex Woods. It's clear how this story is going to end, in broad terms - after all, it started at the end, and as soon as it was revealed which country Alex was returning from when he was stopped at Dover, I knew why. But this is a character story, rather than a plot-centred one, and I'm enjoying spending time with Alex and Mr Peterson. The Universe Versus Alex Woods is by turns funny, heartbreaking, intelligent and inspiring. Alex has such a strong narrative voice that you get to see the world from inside his mind, feel what he feels and get very indignant when everyone else misunderstands his motives.

I've set up my old "book chair" book stand so that I can read and knit at the same time. Double productivity! (or it will be if I get off this wretched internet.)

1.30PM

I finished The Universe Versus Alex Woods just in time for lunch. There were moments in the last fifty pages or so which felt like a nail-biting race against the clock, which was a completely inappropriate way to think of what was going on. Author Gavin Extence combines serious subject matter with a sometime uncomfortable humour, which I suppose is what life is - neither comedy nor tragedy, but both, side-by-side. It was interesting to compare my impression of Alex at the beginning of the book (and end of the story) with its ending. He is a fairly distinctive personality even in the first chapters, but the bulk of the book fleshes him out more fully to demonstrate how he became who he is.

Memorable quotes:

 I tried to look up 'celibate' in the dictionary, I couldn't find it. It certainly wasn't where I expected to find it - in between 'seller' and 'sellotape.'Rest assured: by the time I was ten, I had managed to find out what my mother meant. She meant that as far as our family was concerned, only the cat had a sex life.

I knew how many zeroes there were in a quintillion, but I thought that algebra lived in ponds.

Order and chaos are slippery concepts. They're like a set of twins who like to swap clothing from time to time.

We tolerate a certain amount of incompetence in our politicians and public servants, but we should not tolerate it in the death business.

Challenge: Resummarise a cover - hosted at Queen Ella Bee Reads

Today I've decided to take part in a challenge to decide, based only upon the cover, what a book is all about and write a blurb for it. I chose The Age of Miracles, because I had already thought that the hardback and paperback designs gave off different impressions of the book's genre. Personally, I thought that the hardback was a better representation of the novel, while the UK paperback looked more like a Jodi Picoult novel. So here is my new version of The Age of Miracles based upon that cover:

For Nancy and Joe Jennings, the move to a new town is the start of a new life, an escape from a past that threatens to unravel their perfect family. But for their eight-year-old daughter Dana, it is the beginning of a nightmare. Painfully shy, she is plunged into the centre of attention on her first day at a new school, after a playground prank goes horribly wrong. At school, Dana dreams of disappearing, but at home all she wants is for her parents to notice she's there. So she makes a plan...








8.30PM I took advantage of the bright if patchy weather this afternoon to wander around the town, where I avoided the bookshops and bought groceries, socks, knitting wool and more chocolate than I care to divulge, especially since I ate it all. Before starting the walk home (I live uphill from the town) I settled down near Sainsbury's, where there's a friendly green space and a duckpond, and made a start on Watchmen.

It's a bleak story, that much is clear from the start. A lot of the narration comes from the diary of a character named Rorschach, a masked and hate-filled figure in a universe that is subtly but significantly different from our own. Superheroes have come out of the pages of the comic books and into reality, but that's all in the past now. They - more like costumed vigilante figures than the likes of Superman and the Avengers - have fallen out of favour and retired, for the most part. But many have come to sad ends, and Rorshach is convinced that someone is targeting the former costumed heroes, to destroy them all.

Books read today: The Universe Versus Alex Woods - Gavin Extence

Number of pages read today: 175

Number of books read in total: 2
Books finished: 2
Today #insixwords: