Wednesday 18 March 2009

Classics Challenge

Audible is having another one of its $4.95 sales, so I got 5. How could you possibly pass up that price? I wound up with:

I Claudius by Robert Graves (One of those I've always heard of, yet have never read)
Middlemarch by George Elliot (Have never been able to get through this in print. I have hope for audio format)
One Step Behind by Henning Mankell (I realized later that I'd just read it. Doh!)
The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Lieber (read by Niel Gaiman and since I like Gaiman, I'm hoping to like Lieber. It's a good price to try new authors out.)
A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett (I've never read Follett since I'm a bit afraid of him being another Dan Brown (overrated, undertalented imho) but again, it's a good price to try out new authors)

I know I had already set my books for the challenge, but I'm changing them already. I'm going to substitute one of the Dickens books for either Middlemarch or I Claudius, possibly both. Acutally, it might be more of an adding on to the list, but we'll see when we get there.

I finally finished Undead and Unwed. Ugh! Never again. It was truly funny in places, but otherwise, a complete waste of time. Again, this is my humble opinion, but I thought it was poorly written, the language was unnecessary, the sex scenes were just bad and the whole thing had an incongruous feel to it. The protagonist didn't stick to a single thing she said, except for the shoe fettish, and the constant flip flopping made me want to smack her. It's too bad really, because the basic idea had potential. Again, I'm sure the author cares all the way to the bank.

Coraline - now this was another story. Yes, it's a children's book, but a good one and I'm sure I would have adored it as a child. I have to admit that The Graveyard Book was much better, but then I think Coraline might have been meant for a slightly younger audience. Whichever way you look at it, it was entertaining and a cute read.

4 comments:

Jeane said...

I haven't read Coraline yet, but I did enjoy the movie.

postJazz said...

I Claudius is one of my favourite books ever, I loved it. Middlemarch drives me spare...

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I'm thinking about Middlemarch for the challenge, but I'm dreading every second. That's not a good sign, huh?

Thanks for signing up again!

Mari said...

I loved I, Claudius. I read it in high school. I think it is time for a reread.

I still have to read The Graveyard Book.