Saturday, May 2, 2009

First 10 down!

Project Fill in the Gaps is going well! Since I started on April 1st, I've knocked 10 books off my list. Here they are, with links to the full reviews and a short sentence or two about what I thought:

1. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - Not my favorite Austen, but more well-rounded character development than the other books.

2. The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton - This one left me completely bewildered, and I no longer marvel that, until recently, I'd never heard of this classics author.

3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Fabulous book, mystery and intrigue! I can't wait to read more of his.

4. Stardust by Neil Gaiman - My favorite Gaiman book so far, fast and easy to read, far superior to the movie.

5. PEEPS by Scott Westerfeld - Westerfeld continues to impress me. Who knew you could learn so much about biology from a vampire book?

6. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - A disappointing graphic novel memoire about Bechdel's sexuality and her relationship with her father. I was expecting much more from this, and it didn't deliver for me.

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Don't hate me, but I didn't love this book. It felt too gimicky to me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

8. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev - Better than most Russian literature I've read, but still not superb. The second half is much better and faster than the first.

9. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg - Written along the same lines as The Bell Jar, this one didn't deliver. I could never feel connected with the narrator. The Bell Jar is highly superior.

10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel - My first casualty of the Fill in the Gaps project. I didn't get beyond page 36 of this one. Sorry. It's just not my sort of book. I have a nice copy that I'm giving away here.

So, 10 down, 90 to go, and I'm only a month in! Not bad.

22 comments:

moonrat said...

dang!! you go, girl!

clearly, your list should have been 500 books long.

Crystal Posey said...

Awesome.

Anonymous said...

I would have to hate you now, except that I didn't like Book Thief, either, so I feel we should unite on that front.

(Well done!)

Leslie said...

Great job! I only have 2 down. It doesn't help that I'm perpetually sidetracked by reading material that's NOT on my list ;-) Anyhow, you are doing so incredibly that I think you will have to increase your list length as Moonrat suggested.

Amanda said...

Ah! 500 books?? Holy cow. I think I'll stick with 100.

PurpleClover said...

I have nothing nice to say.


:P


*sulks*


Congrats. Or whatever.

;)

Bee said...

well done! I have read the woman in white by Wilkie Collins and I really enjoyed it, it's a brilliant read!

Amanda said...

Woman in White was one of my favorites!

Jen A said...

I'm curious about what specifically you expected from Fun Home that you didn't get. Just because I love that book :) And I also love Life of Pi, so maybe we just like different kinds of books (though I love Gaiman, too...).

Amanda said...

Jen, if you follow the link to my review of Fun Home, it's got more specific reasons for why I didn't love it. As for Life of Pi, the narrator (and author) just came across so arrogant that I couldn't stand it.

moonrat said...

Leslie--good for you for reading things not on the list!! it was my intent to be temperate, hence giving myself FIVE years for the hundred, so my contemporary reading wouldn't get totally derailed, but there's just such satisfaction in crossing stuff of the list that i'm not very good about reading any of the other books i buy. poopy.

moonrat said...

oh yeah--I didn't like THE BOOK THIEF either!!

Amanda said...

Oh, I'm definitely reading books NOT on the list, too. In April I read 9 on, 8 off, and quit the 10th.

moonrat said...

Are you, like, some kind of demon? Hahaha. It takes me an hour to read 20 pages (when I'm concentrating) so a (shortish) book a week is usually the best I do!!! unless, you know, i set aside four solid days to read. i'm SO jealous!

Amanda said...

Haha, no, just a stay at home mom who's very OCD about books right now because I've had writer's block since I finished writing my two books last year. So I'm reading way more than is good for me.

Leslie said...

Moonrat, you took the words out of my mouth! Amanda IS a reading demon... Amanda, will you please teach your fellow gappers your speed reading methods? That is incredible. I take forever to read a book. Ugh.

Amanda said...

*blush* Really it's not so impressive. I tend to neglect my house and read instead, that's all...

PurpleClover said...

You are unbelievably gifted! I can't read that fast. I'm perplexed since I used to read really fast a long time ago. Now it takes me forever to absorb a single line.

Amanda said...

Purple - how strange! Do you think you're perhaps reading harder things now?

Unknown said...

Go Amanda! Dust keeps, books .. uhhh. ummm. Well, they do keep in the strictest sense of the word, but they don't do much good if one never applies eyeballs. Far as I'm concerned you have your priorities in the right place, girl. ;-)

Totally great: most everyone reads at the same approximate pace as I do.

And, best of all, several people even hated 'The Book Thief'! I loved it, but I love diversity even more. I think it's about the most hope-filled thing in the world.

Gosh, this is the best thread I've read in a long time!

Alyssa said...

Nice work!

I'm totally with you on The Book Thief and totally against you on Life of Pi. Did you get to the stranded in the boat bit? But I guess if tigers with human names don't charm you it is probably just not meant to be. :)

Amanda said...

I was fairly neutral on The Book Thief. Not good, not bad. Meh. As for Life of Pi, I didn't even get to the boat. I think he'd just talked to his teacher about religion in the zoo, and then announced as an adult that all agnostics are idiots too afraid to choose. That irritated me enough, on top of the other irritations, that I put it away. Ah well. :)