I read this as part of the Clean out Your E-Reader Challenge.
]]>My original answer to this was "the kind TLC has to come save from itself," and I still think there's some truth to that. According to the official categories I'm an anarchist and a conqueror.
I am probably also a glutton. (burp)
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So, why do I love and hate these books at the same time? The love comes from being entertained. The hate comes from the fact that these books are in many ways the antithesis of all of my values. I don't want to encourage young women to be dumb and irresponsible. I don't want to encourage them to get by on their looks and charm and think only about landing a man and a designer purse. Internal conflict! I have these feelings in a broader sense about chick lit as a genre. I enjoy reading it sometimes, and then I hate myself for it. Yes, this is absolutely a first world problem.
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So, like everyone doing this challenge, I'm finding it awfully hard to reduce this to just one author. I've chosen Agatha Christie. I'm featuring a book each day, and I don't want to duplicate any this month, so I'm featuring one of my two favorite Christies, And Then There Were None (you'll see the other one later this month).
Agatha Christie's book are like a soft and comfortable pair of pajamas. I can slide into one any time and the reading is soothing and delightful. I get sucked in right away, and I always enjoy the characters and scenery. I'm so grateful she wrote so many, I don't know what I'll do when I've read her entire oeuvre.
And Then There Were None is really a delight of rising suspense, spooky atmosphere, and surprise endings.
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I heard about this challenge from Witty Little Knitter, and I'm definitely in. I have so many freebies on my kindle that I need to get through. Hopefully this will help. I tend to download lots of mysteries and memoirs, so that's where I see this reading challenge going. I just checked my kindle and I have over 2000 free books I haven't read. YIKES!
Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge – November 2013
The Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge is hosted by Berls at Fantasy is More Fun and Michelle at Because Reading is better than real life. The challenge takes place from November 1 through November 30, and anyone can sign up and participate. You need to be reading e-books, though, and those e-books should be either eARCs you got for free, Kindlle or Nook freebies or very cheap e-books.
The Rules are really simple:
• Go through your E-readers and select the FREE OR NEARLY FREE (up to $5 will be accepted) books you’d like to read during the challenge. The book must have been free, (Kindle Deals, Netgalley, Etc.) Anyone caught not using a free book or a book that is pirated will be removed from challenge.
• Sign up with the linky on the hosting blogs letting them know that you plan to participate. Then, on November 1st create a post announcing your participating with a list of books you plan to read during the challenge. A starter post will be posted at 8am on November 1st with the review link. Link your participation blog post there. Links not live by the end of the day (11:59 PM PST) November 1st will be removed. Your book list doesn’t have to be set it stone it can change along the way, just be sure you’re still reading FREE books.
• Start reading your free books (starting November 1st) and reviewing them, either on your blog or Goodreads (blog will give you more traffic). Put the link to your review (to the review URL, not your Web Address) on the review linky available November 1st, listing your blog name and the name of the book you reviewed. When you write your review, be sure to include the challenge logo and linky at the end so that we can all check out the reviews.
• To enter the giveaway: every day you post a review of a free E-book, enter the link (to the review URL, not your Web Address) on the Rafflecopter available November 1st (1 link per blog, per day) to get an extra entry in the giveaway.
We’ll also be having a Twitter Party (Date TBD) – while your reading your free E-books or posting your reviews be sure to update us on Twitter with #COYER!
I hope I’ll be seeing you during the challenge! I really need all the help I can get, and it would be even better if someone could disable that pesky one-click on amazon for me as well
Yup that is something I desperately need to do.
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I am not generally one for self-help books, but I thought this one was particularly bad, and it's wildly popular. Using "ancient Toltec wisdom" Ruiz is going to tell us all how to be happy, or at least how to be content.
The following is from the review I wrote in 2009:
Ruiz has come up with four principles from ancient Toltec wisdom. If one adopts these four agreements, Ruiz argues, they will help bring a sense of peace and happiness to one's life. Generally the agreements sound reasonable enough: don't take things personally, say only good things about others, etc. So far, so good. But there's some serious theoretical problems that underlie Ruiz's plan. Ruiz seems to suggest that the self can determine the majority of one's experience outside of social context. He claims that society is composed of collective dreams. Even recognizing that Ruiz is infusing dreams with more importance than western culture generally does, it still strikes me that the message here is that if one has fortified one's spirit with these four principles, nothing anyone else says or does can strongly affect you. Maybe I'm too close-minded, but I just can't buy it. We all live in social and cultural worlds, and those worlds do shape our experience, whether we like it or not.
Oversimplification. It speaks to my problems with self-help books generally, but I thought this one was particularly egregious.
At the end of the day, I kind of like being a miseryguts.
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Trow is funny. His prose is witty. The chapter titles in this first volume are all take-offs of the story titles in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (see, for example, "The Blue Carb, Uncle." I'm sorry more people aren't reading this series. I find it delightfully entertaining.
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Day 5 is a book that makes me happy, so I'm looking back to a book (a series really) from childhood that made me very happy indeed. Sydney Taylor's All of a Kind Family told the story of a Jewish family in early-twentieth century New York. There were five daughters in the family (and later a son), they didn't have much money, but they were a close and loving family. As a child I learned a great deal about the celebrations in Judaism from reading this book. I recently reread this book, and it was just as delightful as I remember, and it brought back those happy nostalgic thoughts of my reading past.
The 30-Day Book Challenge
Day 01 – Best book you read last year
Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 – Your favourite series
Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
Day 16 – Favourite female character
Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favourite romance book
Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time