July/ Book-tube-a-thon Wrap Up

I am shamed.  During the seven day Booktubeathon I read only 3 books:

 7/12 stars

The Murders In The Rue Morgue

Challenges applied: finish a book in a day, hyped in Sherlockian lore, people in the distance.

I kinda regret reading this so fast because there is so much logical detail, but I am thankful it propelled me to read it fast because the second story..ugh.

read my marginalia here

 

     A Spell For Chameleon      8/12 stars

 

 

Challenges: person on the cover, Bink is different from me.

So sexist, but the story was great and the magic detailed. Review coming!    

 

 

W Juliet  

10/12 stars

Challenges: Finish a book in one day, people on the cover, characters are different from me.

Does manga count?

This was a cute romance. The transvestite twist and it’s immersion in their drama club gives it an interesting difference from most r/c manga. The artwork was beautiful without being overly detailed, an uncommon asset in manga.

My only problem is how one dimensional the rivals are. They are there only to serve the plot and have no human complexities.

So that was the week of Booktubeathon, but in July overall I read 8 books. Ok, 2 others are manga. Need opinions! Does manga count? Highlights include Game Of Thrones and Strange The Dreamer.

Blog wrap up:

Snakes In Fiction  Inspired a few creative comments, with Summer Book Quotes following.

Other blogs that caught my attention:

H20 Book Review, book RW Directory: This sounds like a great book, but how exactly does it work? Every living thing has water, every living thing needs water to survive. What can they eat when the water is poisonous? 

Awkward Blogging Moments, Ilsa@ A Whisper Of Ink: People talk about their blogs? Blogs are for internet. People are for…Maybe a few have uses, but I’m not sure what the general human populace is for. She has real points that bloggers experience. 

Holly Visits Willa Cather’s Grave Call me creepy but I love graves. I love Hitlers’ scattered ashes. I love…stopping now. Seriously, visiting such a historic site would be an amazing experience, as long as you gave me time to read her books.

And seriously,I love graves.

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The Murders In The Rue Morgue Marginalia/ Booktubeathon #1

The Booktube-a-thon is an annual event hosted by Ariel Bissett that encourages people to read as much as they can in seven days. This is my first year participating but it’s well timed for me. Beren and Luthien is due this week, I was captured by A Spell For Chameleon while in the library, I’ve been wanting to read Murder On The Orient Express… So many books, so little time.

This year the Booktube-a-thon is taking place from July 24th to July 30th. The challenges are:

1 || Read a book with a person on the cover.
2 || Read a hyped book.
3 || Finish a book in one day.
4 || Read about a character that is very different from you.
5 || Finish a book completely outdoors.
6 || Read a book you bought because of the cover.
7 || Read seven books.

My first book is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders In The Rue Morgue:The Dupin Tales.

Challenge(s) applied: Err…The people on the cover are seen at a distance, it’s somewhat hyped in Sherlockian lore, I will probably finish it today, as it’s wonderful and has only 100 pages. Not so wonderful, but easy consumption for readathons. 

My marginalia (written in a notebook, not on library book)

pg. v -vi: Oh, vey. Married (Poe) his cousin when she was 13. Have I read Annabel Lee? It sounds familiar.

pg.3-5 This sounds like Sherlock, but he doesn’t put in this much detail. He hates chess but likes droughts. What is droughts?

pg.6  Here’s where it begins! “Books, indeed, were his sole luxuries, and in Paris these were easily obtained.” Exact same living arrangement as Sherlock and Watson. 

Pg. 8 Sherlock Holmes is a work of plagiarism.

pg.10-11 “Terrific Shrieks”? “Wildest disorder”? What a terrible impersonation of a newspaper.

pg.12-14 This is a long newspaper article… so gruff voice french, shrill voice disputed… probably exotic or muddled accent.

pg. 19 “In investigations such as we are now pursuing, it should not be so much asked ‘what has occurred,’ such as ‘what has occurred that has not occurred before.'”

pg. 24 They see but do not observe.

Pg.35

Overall, Sherlock plagiarized Rue Morgue in method and detective-biographer relationship, but the plot, the mystery was unique. I have no desire to type the rest, for this is long enough already. I recommend this to any Sherlockian, for this is obviously Sherlock’s second father.

Goodreads Monday:Dupin

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners . To participate, choose a random book from your TBR and show it off. 

So I found this weekly meme some weeks ago and decided to participate. 

The Murders In Rue Morgue

Edited and with an Introduction by Matthew Pearl
Includes “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” and “The Purloined Letter”
 
Between 1841 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with three mesmerizing stories of a young French eccentric named C. Auguste Dupin. Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune. Years later, Dorothy Sayers would describe “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” as “almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.” Indeed, Poe’s short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners.

 I’ve been wanting to read this for a while, as it inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. I got it from the library and it’s been sitting atop my TBR pile, waiting for me to finish Sherlock and Game Of Thrones. I’ll start it this week!

 

 

Fresh-Pressed Ends

It stalks the edge of this dream                                                                                       curling the fresh-pressed ends                                                                                                  wake up before you get                                                                                                             to tired, must sleep

You’re flying on a dragon                                                                                                        searching for the path                                                                                                                 the sandy ground shining heat from your bed                                                               leave the dragon to sleep
The fresh-pressed smell of the distant city                                                                   beckons your eyes awake                                                                                                         the light flickers off, turn on your torch                                                                                     you land, you must sleep
The dragon scales hurt your thighs as you slide down                                                                           into sleep

Summer Book Quotes

 

So, halfway through the year and halfway through summer. I’ve been getting though my last batch of library books before having no library books for over 24 hours while trading my hometown library for my depressingly small college library.

 For the first half of summer, I’ve been reading a mixed batch of the great and disappointing. 

 

Strange The Dreamer

7/12 stars; The beginning built up a tower of magic, and the second half brought in graffiti artists. 

Lazlo “‘Beautiful and full of monsters?’                                     Calixte ‘All the best things are.'”

 

 

Sherlock Holmes

12/12 stars; I love the deductive logic and the humor.

Sherlock  “Would you be afraid to sleep in the same room  as a lunatic, a man with a softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost it’s grip?”

Watson “Not in the least.”

Sherlock “Ah, that’s lucky.”

Game Of Thrones

4/12 stars; I began it after seeing several episodes of the show, and the book, while the same plot, is not well written or has as much detail as the show.

Tyrion “Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side?”

 

 

What A Writer Needs

12/12 stars It takes the approach of a teacher instead of a writer, offering student examples to explain his writing mindset.

“Teachers must be wary of imposing the ‘correct’ interpretation to a poem or book…The author has created for many different readers to climb inside of it, to make it their own. An ambiguous ending…will challenge the reader to take a more active stance toward the book,…will challenge students to defend their interpretations.”

Sorry if some of these are too long. Here’s a hot Englishman.

 

What, What, Why?

What makes me                                                                                                                                sane right now                                                                                                                        separates me                                                                                                                                      from my                                                                                                                                           insane                                                                                                                                                inner ring?

What makes you think                                                                                                              that the book                                                                                                                              you read right now                                                                                                                         is not the same                                                                                                                              exact copy                                                                                                                                        as the one                                                                                                                                      you lay down                                                                                                                                    a year ago?

Why should thoughts                                                                                                                not be real                                                                                                                                         when what is real                                                                                                                            cannot be known?

Writing Reluctantly

  I thought you love writing                                                                                                writing is torture                                                                                                                           I know you love reading                                                                                                            The author disappoints me                                                                                                                

You had fun with essays                                                                                                          but I do not want to                                                                                                                 But you will be happy                                                                                                                     I like being sour                 

Darling, why do you need me                                                                                                         Because you make me happy                                                                                                   But so does writing                                                                                                                           So? I need you both