January TBR

In case you were wondering, in the land of Booktubia, "TBR" stands for "To Be Read". It is, in essence, a reading "to do list", usually for whatever month we happen to be in (you will notice that this video is called "January TBR" because, after all, it is January). 

I've never done a traditional "TBR" video because, what with my general backlog of review videos, I just know that I will end up saying "I'll read this, this and this" and either read "that, that and something else" OR simply not finish any of them... and then the following month's TBR will end up being an embarrassing repeat of the previous month.

Ramble, ramble - point is, as much as I would love to be able to say with confidence "These are the books that I will read this month!", I just have to accept that I am not that type of reader... especially when I go ahead and take a bazillion months off and let the backlog of reviews pile up!

All four of these books were read in 2013. I know. Ridiculous. For some of them, I can hardly remember what actually happened in which case, I may possibly wind up winging the "review" or maybe have a sneak peak at Wiki before I start jotting down my thoughts. Regardless, it dawned on me that "TBR" could also stand for "To Be Reviewed". This is quite a happy coincidence as now there is no pressure to complete the book before the end of the month! Woohoo! 

Anyways, here is a handy list of the books I shall be REVIEWING in the month of January:

• The Silent Land by Graham Joyce
• The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil
• The Demon by Hubert Selby Jr.
• Little Children by Tom Perrotta

All bar Little Children were picked for the book club I was a part of back in 2013 and, not to give any spoilers, but Little Children was the only one that I actually enjoyed reading (I enjoyed reading The Silent Land but I'll get into that in more detail in my next post.).

As always, you can CLICK HERE to purchase any of these books and kindly give me a penny or two worth of commission :) 

Speak soon.  

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey [BOOK REVIEW]

If you would like to purchase your own copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, CLICK HERE to be taken to my affiliate's page on bookdepository.com!

This was yet another Book Club choice, only difference here was that I had (thankfully) already heard of this book and was relieved that someone had selected something that actually had some merit. No offence, but I was getting a little irritated having to plough my way through mediocre books.

Obviously, the Jack Nicholson film of the same name is based on this book and what with that being such a classic (being one of only three films ever to have been awarded the "Big Five" Academy Awards!), I've not only seen it but own a copy. If you haven't seen it yet, then go do so now! If you have, then it's basically the same in the book. 

That being said, I'd be lying if I said I was over-joyed at the choice. Sure, I was happy that we were getting to read a "modern classic" but I wasn't predicting that it would really add anything that the film hadn't already mastered on its own. In some ways, I was right but in others I was wrong.

Like I said, the story is almost identical - psychiatric hospital run under the tight control of Nurse Ratched (an apt name for such a bitch of a character) turned upside down after a new patient arrives, McMurphy. But I've always found the film to be slightly without depth if that makes any sense whatsoever. I suppose that is supposed to be the point with Jack Nicholson as the happy-go-lucky McMurphy bringing some form of emotion in this warped environment. The book, however, was a lot more entertaining and, despite the overall plot structure to be the same, Kesey's writing was a joy to read. 

I'm not going to get into all the fascinating questions of insanity and the perception of power in such a tiny blog post (mainly because I read this book a while ago and I can't remember most of what I thought!) but maybe one day, if I ever get a chance to look at this book under a microscope, I will return with super insightful observations and we can get a discussion going.

But here are the answers so some other very important questions: 

Would I recommend it? YES

Would I read it again? MAYBE 

Stars out of five? Solid FOUR 

But here, if you don't want to take my word for it, check out these interesting visual rating statistics:

Goodreads: overall 4.17 out of 5

Amazon:

Until next time, happy reading! ^!^

Here we go again...

I'm getting some serious déjà vu here. Didn't I once before come on here professing to never abandon this blog and my YouTube channel again? Well, looks as though my last blog post was to accompany my review of Life of Pi by Yann Martel... and it appears I completely ignored to write about my review of The Road to Jericho by Steven J. Carroll! 

And what about that time I took that beautiful copy of The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan and literally destroyed it? 

Whichever way you look at it, I've been a poor YouTuber, let alone Blogger! So why on earth should anyone believe me when I say that this time it will be different? 

Well... you'll just have to trust me ^!^

[BOOK REVIEW] "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Click here if you wanna buy some Pi

Ok, not sure if you the thumbnail you're seeing is the same thumbnail I'm seeing but I'm desperately hoping no! 

Anyways, enough of my insecurities. Today's book review is brought to you by Pi (side note; I love pie. However, I like Pi, and only as a friend). I was quite particular about this book in the sense that for ages I thought, I'll read it one day when truth be told, I had no intention of reading it. And then, when everyone was going on about what a visual orgasm the film was meant to be, I was desperate to buy the blue cover (as in, the one I'm holding up in the video). 

But in both cases, the film's release made me go on a scavenger hunt for this specific cover as there seemed to be a plethora of movie-covers out there to confuse. Also, I really needed to read this bad boy, and fast. 

We all know what it's about, right? Boy + boat + tiger = Life of Pi. 

Well, yes and no. 

The first half of the book was difficult. Boring, to put it nicely. I couldn't give a crap, to put it plainly. There was a heavy emphasis on religion and zoos and such a strange combination that made. Hmm, I struggled. 

Thank God for the boat!

Overall, would I recommend it? Perhaps not. I can completely understand if you've read and enjoyed this (I mean, come on! Everyone seemed to despise "The Casual Vacancy" whereas I loved it) but no, I won't be gifting this to anyone anytime soon.

*****

[BOOK REVIEW] "The Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling

Last year, J.K. Rowling made a lot of people happy, a lot of people skeptical and a lot of people indifferent towards the fact that she was releasing a new book. After the moment of disappointment at it not being a new Harry Potter book had dissipated, I allowed myself to get ridiculously excited.

Then it arrived. Well, actually, it was too big to fit through my letterbox so I had to wait just a little bit longer but then I had it! It was mine!

The story is intricate and expertly woven. Rowling manages to keep a keen eye on each of her characters and what I took away more than anything is how alive the characters were. This is a character driven book and to quote Hagrid, "a thumping good one at that."

Here's the video and if you want to buy a copy, you can do so here. Interesting fact: within an hour of this video being uploaded, I had received two "dislikes". I wish these people would tell me what they dislike; my opinion?; my choice of book?; my face??

I WON!

I like to enter giveaways. I like it even better when I win!

Thank you so so so so so much to Greg at greggliesreads on YouTube for the giveaway

^.^

One Whole Year

So it's been a whole year since I sat down and created my "thebookfox" channel on YouTube. That's just crazy! One whole year since I decided my old channel just wasn't doing it for me and I needed something, something different if I was going to make it work.

Happy First Birthday to me!

To mark this wondrous occasion, I am, once again, hosting a giveaway. I know. I seem to be giveaway mad! But Stephen J. Carroll kindly sent me a copy of his new book, "The Road to Jericho" sometime last year and it really is about time I did the giveaway I promised him!

If you'd like to enter, just comment on the video below (but like, be a subscriber yo) and I'll announce the winner on the 1st of March.