[BOOK REVIEW] "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher

First impressions when I heard the title of book #3 for book club weren't particularly good; I thought it sounded awful, to be honest. I was at the book club get together for "The Shadow of the Wind" and we had all put our suggestions into the bowl and they were getting read out in reverse order. Naturally, my choice, "Looking for Alaska" by John Green, got picked first meaning it was not going to be the selected reading. 

When "The Death of Grass" got read off that little bit of paper, there was a slight pause followed by nervous laughter.

I'm sorry, what? That sounds... bad...

The culprit was a guy by the name of Scott who, when asked, described the synopsis in just about as many words - it's about the death of grass.

Skip forward to the book club meeting where several people, myself included, praised Scott for picking such a fantastic book. Amazing, we said. Perfect! we said. The best book club book yet! 

NEXT BOOK FOR BC: The Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl. 

No NaNoWriMo

This blog post is going to be about time management (or lack thereof)... and light. It's also going to mention the lack of natural light that Scotland sees at this time of year.

This blog post is going to be about the lack of stuff. For the record, I didn't mean to come across as quite so depressed. After watching the footage back I must admit I was sitting there thinking, Sheeeesh! Get a grip! It's just a bit of light! But there you go!

The basic gist is this: it's been just over three whole weeks since I posted my Thank You video to theclaudereads (who I absolutely adore!) and while, for the most part time was a big issue what with job/college/friends/etc taking priority, I was also having difficulty with my lighting. The video for Claudia was done using a lamp and a white bed sheet in the hopes of making things a bit less gloomy but November is a gloomy looking month in the city of Edinburgh. It was just proving to be quite difficult. And not to mention the fact that pretty much any free time I did have was spent sleeping or reading. Such is life, huh?

Anyways, the result is this: a poorly lit video moan about NaNoWriMo (see below). I just can't do it. Sucks to be me!

On a brighter note, Priscilla is now following me on twitter! Eh, what? I know. I got a little buzz from that. I'm a bit curious as to why she didn't subscribe to me on YouTube because I so very rarely use twitter but I'm still happy about that!

Anyhoos, this is my attempt at trying to keep up what I said earlier. You know, about how this blog needs a good dust down (even though no one actually reads my posts lol)

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October Book Haul

Wowzers, I look tired! This whole work/college scheduling of my life has started to take its toll, not only on my sleeping pattern but also on the time I spend reading. I get home from work and I'm exhausted. I get home from college and I'm shattered. I feel like all my time is spent doing stuff that needs to be done.

So naturally, I went on a book haul! 

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Dusty Blog

I keep forgetting I have this blog.

Basically, I wanted all my blog posts to be pretty with lots of pictures of beautiful books and witty stuff written but then I quickly discovered that Scottish weather really is as bad as we say it is and I can't really rely on natural light (mainly because we rarely get any).

Sooo, I have had to reevaluate what my posts are going to be like and I think, for the time being, until I have invested in a decent set of lighting equipment, I'm just going to post links to my videos here with a bit more of a blurb about each one etc etc.

That's the idea anyways.

Here's a heart.

[BOOK REVIEW] "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk

rating: *****

You've seen the movie right? Come on, everyone's seen the movie! And, to be honest, I reckon most people that have read Chuck Palahniuk's debut cult classic novel probably saw the film first. Fight Club (the film) is basically one of my all-time-favourites; it's just so cool! 

Now, because I'm such an advocate of "read the book" when it comes to movie adaptations, I'd been meaning to read Fight Club for some time (I mean, the film was released in 1999!) so when I saw a slightly battered copy in a charity shop while wandering through the high street in Portobello, I instantly knew I would end up owning it. 

If you've seen the film, then I can't really tell you anything about the plot that you don't already know but for those of you that maybe haven't seen it, the basic gist is this: Our nameless protagonist starts up a club for men to basically beat the cr*p out of each other to escape their "consumer driven lives". The novel is written from the perspective of our narrator and, as the book goes on, we get to sit back and watch as he slowly loses his mind. 

I feel it important to point out that this is definitely not an "easy read". If you're wanting something lighthearted, this might not be the book for you. Yes, it has lots of humorous elements but on the whole, Fight Club is a dark book filled with heavy messages and, at points, deeply depressing. Also, the narrative style itself is like nothing I've ever experienced before; fragmented and disjointed, it was quite difficult to "go with the flow" as it felt extremely turbulent with several elements overlapping one another. 


But never mind all that! Go read it and make up your own mind!


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"The Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling

I'm not going to lie, I'm gutted that J.K. Rowling's new book isn't another Harry Potter book. I'm not one of those people that thinks more Harry Potter books would ruin the original series (hell no, the more the bloody merrier!) but that being said, I'm still REALLY EXCITED about "The Casual Vacancy" getting released later this year. Life will probably be put on hold till that bad boy is read.

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Thank You to AurasBookBox!

Christ! I never thought keeping up with a blog would be such a challenge for me! Turns out, that once I've scripted, recorded, edited and uploaded my video, I can't be bothered doing anything else and I always think, I'll write the blog post soon/later/during the week/next weekend/never.

Sigh.

Here's a video for AurasBookBox. It's the first booktube giveaway that I've won 

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[FILM FOX] "The Hunger Games" book to big screen review

I have a slight issue with going to see films on the day they are released simply because, for the most part, it's quite stressful: You always have to pre-book your tickets and stand in long queues so you don't get shafted when it comes to picking your seats. And let's not forget how noisy the general public are - all that munching and crunching! In saying that, I ended up going to see the film adaptation of "The Hunger Games" a week and a half after it was released and still ended up in a sold out screening. 

Back to the point. 

I originally read "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins last year as part of my first ever attempt at the 50 book challenge (I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I failed that challenge with flying colours). In a nutshell, I thought the book had great potential. I had been drawn to it by the synopsis and on the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. However... am I the only one who found Suzanne Collins' writing to be a tad flat? Never mind, the girl done good with the story and I still gave it *****

Now the film. 

Oh. My. God. I loved it. From start to finish, I loved every second. Even the parts that I didn't love, I still loved (haha). Basically, it was exactly what I was looking for. I mean, the book is action packed but nothing can really show action like a film can and this film managed to pull it off with style. I thought the actors were perfect, the script was perfect, the sets were phenomenal... I can't really elaborate.

The few criticisms that I have of the movie are nothing major. Firstly, Peta's character comes off a little too thick at the start which made me giggle. But most importantly, the games are just not gory enough. 

I explain more in my video but all in all, I like this film a lot more than I did the book!

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[BOOK REVIEW] "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest" by Stieg Larsson

rating: *****

Oh boy.

Ok, so this book is the third and final in the massively successful "Millennium" trilogy which, if you've read my reviews for the first and second in the series then you'll know that this is a series that had me hooked, albeit after the first 200 pages of the first book ;-)

And let's get serious for a moment; this book is a mammoth! I take the bus to and from work and reading is basically my favourite part of the day. Having to drag this book around was slightly frustrating (not to mention a little painful on my wrists as I tried to support its hefty weight) but, considering how much I loved loved loved the second book, I was fairly confident that it wouldn't take me long to get through this bad boy. 

Now, I'd heard from a couple of friends that Hornets' Nest gets a tad boring but I had high hopes going into the story as it pretty much picks up exactly where the second book left off! But sadly, this didn't last long and soon I was having to persuade myself to read on the bus instead of listening to my iPod (which suddenly became a lot more appealing).

I have several issues with this book (aside from its slooooow plot) and they are:

1. Characters' names There are too many characters with ridiculously similar names which caused a lot of confusion
2. NEWS FLASH! ERIKA GETS A NEW JOB AND I REALLY COULDN'T CARE LESS There is this entire subplot about Erika and her new job which takes up way too much of the book, and my time. I personally think I would have enjoyed the book a great deal more if this whole part was cut out. Actually, just get rid of Erika, she's a waste-of-space character as it is.

So then the book gets alarmingly close to being over and I start to panic because I'm really not enjoying it when all of a sudden, Larsson piles in all the conclusions and ties up all the loose ends in a neat and tidy way. I was relieved to tell you the truth because I was starting to feel as though he had strayed just a little too far from the original plot. 

Phew! 

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LC's Birthday Giveaway

One of the great things about long weekends (apart from sleeping in!) is the fact that I get to spend as much time as I please just trawling the internet for book related things. Most of this time I undoubtedly spend on YouTube catching up with the BookTube community and discovering fellow BookTubers such as Libraryland84. After watching several of LC's videos back-to-back, my eyes were inevitably drawn towards words such as "giveaway" (my luck for such things are shocking but I do have a few prizes which I will boast about in due course!). Sadly, as Lady Luck would have it, I'm not on the correct side of the Atlantic for LC's most recent giveaway but I am eligible for her Birthday Giveaway which is, thankfully, international!

Anyways, enough from me, I know you just want to check out the goodies so click here to be taken down the rabbit hole to LC's Adventures in Libraryland 

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[BOOK REVIEW] "Of Mice And Men" by John Steinbeck

rating: *****

John Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men" is just one of those books you have to read. Despite its arguably miniature size (this particular edition being a smidge over 100 pages long), I find it incredible that something so small can be so powerful. 

Along with "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill, I ended up breaking my book-buying-ban resolution in order to possess a copy of this book, justifying it to myself because (a) I've read it before, and (b) the stage production came to Edinburgh's Lyceum and I simply had to read the book again to refresh my memory before watching the show.

I originally had to read this wee gem at school (along with millions of others) and, if my memory serves me correctly, I enjoyed the story back then as well. It's a smart little story about two ranch workers, George and Lennie, who travel together looking for jobs during the Great Depression in America. George is small and shrewd while Lennie is large and dimwitted. They're the best of friends and they care a lot about each other but Lennie is dependent on George who basically looks after him. Even though I'd read the book before, the ending was still a shock and I admit I cried quite theatrically!

There are two major themes in this book: Dreams and Lonliness. It seems as though every character is lonely and dreaming of a better life for themselves - George and Lennie share a dream where they will one day live off "the fatta the land" but in the meantime, they combat their loneliness by travelling around together.

I could go on, but I'll just finish here by saying that I give this book five GOLD stars. If you haven't read it, I strongly urge you to do so.

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The Stephen King Book Haul

I have an addiction to buying books which I thought I'd try and squash by making it my New Year's resolution to STOP BUYING BOOKS! First and foremost... have not stuck to that resolution but am still making a conscious effort to slow down (lol). I bought "The Woman in Black" (this was essential... I promise......) and "Of Mice and Men" (also essential....) which I kinda made allowances for as (a) I've already read both of these and (b) both purchases were in preparation for watching an adaptation (film in the case of "The Woman in Black" and play in the case of "Of Mice and Men"...)

But yeah, I also decided that if my dad feels compelled to buy a bunch of dirt cheap second hand books for me in the name of charity then who am I to stop him?

Oh dear...

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[BOOK REVIEW] "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Stieg Larsson

rating: *****

I'm finding it difficult to put into words how I feel about this book. I mean, it's the second in the Millennium trilogy and follows on from where "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" left off. Now, after the first book's tediously slow start, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and especially the character of Lisbeth Salander (who doesn't?) so I was in two minds before starting the second book as it had a lot to live up to.

In a nutshell, this book was so much better than the first. I actually find it a bit hard to believe that the first book gets so much attention while "The Girl Who Played With Fire" rarely gets a mention. It's just incredibly. The first book took its time getting the plot in motion whereas this one jumps right in at the deep end and I was hooked from start to finish. I'm honestly finding it difficult to pin point anything that I didn't like about it (I mean, apart from the usual not being able to pronounce all the Swedish names but that's hardly a fault when the book was originally published in Swedish and set in Sweden).

Again, we follow Mikael Blomkvist, this time after he's published his earth-shattering book about  Wennerström when he gets approached by a journalist called Dag Svensson who has been working on a book about sex trafficking in Sweden. Just before the book is due to be published, Svensson and his girlfriend are found shot dead in their apartment and Salander's fingerprints are on the weapon. The book thereafter primarily focuses on the police hunt for Salander and it's just brilliant. Plus, it ends on such a cliffhanger that it left me itching to read the third.

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[BOOK REVIEW] "The Woman In Black" by Susan Hill

NB: This post has pretty much been lifted straight from my old blog. I'm posting it here as this is now my book blog :)

rating: *****

At the start of this year, I made a resolution to stop buying books as I have a ludicrous number of unread books gathering dust in my room. Well... I kinda went and failed that by purchasing my very own copy of The Woman In Black by Susan Hill. I originally read this donkeys ago in secondary school where we also got to watch the film adaptation from the eighties. I vaguely remember the film being a little on the silly side (the part that really stands out in my memory is the woman in black flying through Arthur's window with a manic grin on her face... this never happens in the book and whoever decided it should happen in the film should be slapped) but I absolutely loved the book. So much so that years later when I saw that the play was coming to Edinburgh, I rounded up some friends and convinced them it would be good. You have no idea how sceptical people can be of going to see a horror on stage ("But it won't be scary!").

But there we go. It's a short book, my edition has bang on 200 pages, but it certainly packs a decent punch! In some ways, it's quite a typical ghost story; the woman in black is always kind of floating around at a distance so our protagonist can't quite decide if she's dangerous or not. A lot of the spinetingling is due to Susan Hill's writing which I found to be absolutely fantastic despite the fact that I needed the Dictionary.com app glued to my hand. At least I learnt a lot of new words!

One of my favourite aspects of this book has got to be the setting: Eel Marsh House is isolated, impressive, daunting and you get a real sense of coldness at the thought of having to spend the night there. I also love the fact that the villagers of Crython Gifford exhibit traits typical of a little farming village with their apparent suspicious attitude towards the house and the woman in black.

It's true that not much happens but I personally liked this about the tale as it added to the suspense. The only negative thing I will say about this book is the stupidly long sentences as I would get lost half way and have to restart.

The main reason why I read this book was in order to refresh my memory for the new movie starring Daniel Radcliffe. Since finishing the book, I watched the film and was sadly disappointed. Good for the scares though.

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[BOOK REVIEW] "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

NB: This has basically been lifted from my other blog. I've decided to repost it here as this is now my book blog :)

rating: ****/*

Despite being an avid bookworm, my mother isn't the easiest person to please when it comes to books and I have often told her that I've never met anyone as cynical as her. That's why, when she thrust her copy of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in my hands instructing me to read it ASAP, I knew it must be good. Of course, everyone else in the whole world seemed to think the same thing and I had several other books to read last year before I could get around to this one. I took so long (have I mentioned I'm an incredibly slow reader?) that I got instructed to lend the copy to my sister. Almost a year later, I can now finally exclaim that I have read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The book tells the story of Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist hired by an elderly business man to investigate the disappearance of his great-niece Harriet from over forty years ago. Blomkvist then ropes in the help of one exceptionally strange individual by the name of Lisbeth Salander. While the investigation into Harriet's disappearance is interesting, the star is without a doubt, Salander and I thought it was a shame that she wasn't focused on as much as Mikael.

If it wasn't for the atrociously slow start to the book (200 frikkin pages before anything interesting happened!), I would gladly assign 5 shining stars. However, 200 pages is a helluva lot to wade through but I still give this book a respectable 4/5.

Be warned though, there are some seriously brutal sex scenes that explain why the original Swedish title is Men Who Hate Women.

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New Booktuber on the Block!

Alright gang, here's the drill. 

I've gone and started a YouTube channel to accompany this bloggarama so feel free to check that out. My first video is just an introduction to who the heck I am and a daft explanation as to what I intend to do... mainly upload videos about books :) 

There is a whole community of "booktubers" on YouTube and I've finally decided to get in on the action and create one for myself! 

www.youtube.com/thebookfox

Hello! My name is The Book Fox

Hi!

And welcome to my new blog, The Book Fox. My name is Claire, I'm currently 24 years old and I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I love reading but after only managing to complete a pathetic 14 books last year, I've decided to try my hardest to wade my way through the mountain of unread books that are gradually gathering dust in my bedroom.

This blog will document my attempt at the notorious 50 book challenge. I read all sorts of books and aim to review each and every one of them; the good, the bad and the down right awful!

So, if you like reading, and reading about reading, then stick around! There's a lot more to come

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