a quill and vellum

August 2012 Book Reads

For the month of August, I have 6 wonderful books in my book bag which have been recommended by the booktubing community.

First, I will usher the month in with Caleb's Crossing by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Geraldine Brooks.  I decided to read this book based upon a review by Carol Bue of New Zealand.  Ms. Brooks is an author of whom I am familiar and I am looking forward to this historic novel about the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University.

Secondly, I will be reading a debut novel by Rachel Hartman called Seraphina.  I learned of this new YA book from an advertisement on GoodReads and decided to read it due to the most excellent reviews it is geting from the fantasy book world.

Next, I will be reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak which was recommended by Priscilla at TheReadables.  My interest was kindled in this book due to Priscilla's description of the characterization within the book. PLUS....apparently everyone has read this book with the exception of me.

Then, Kaaterskill Falls will command my attention.  This is not a book I will be reading due to a recommendation, but is a book by Allegra Goodman, whose writing I love.  In July, I read her book, The Cookbook Collector. 

Fifthly, I will be attempting to read....wait for it.....A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  I stumbled upon a review by Ingred and she made the book sound very interesting through her video synopsis. 

Lastly, I will finish up the month of August by reading The Last Kingdom, the first book in the Saxon Chronicles Series, by Bernard Cornwell.  This book has not been recommended to me but is a book I discovered while perusing the shelves in the public library. 

If you have any recommendations for my September 2012 Read, please be sure and post a comment or email me at josephdquinton[at]gmail.com.  Happy Reading!

Inaugural Saturday Spotlight

I have just recently discovered the wonderful world of booktubers, who are people who post video book reviews on their YouTube channel.

I am beginning a new weekly feature, called Saturday Spotlight, which will celebrate one booktuber each week.  This will not be a blog post of random booktubers but will be someone who I find to be insightful, intelligent, and interesting in their reviews.

My first task at hand is to choose who to feature as my inaugural spotlight.  There are many youtubers who I admire and love; Ophelia Dagger, Priscilla at TheReadables, Tiernan aka TheBookTuber, Casidy at cassjaytuck; Joseph aka TheBooktubenator, Ariel at BooksUnbound, and Les and Becks at GetBookish.  So many ones I love to watch, but who should be my first spotlight?  After much deliberation, I decided to feature someone with whom I share the most reading interests.  Also, if I could only watch one booktuber, who would it be? 

Therefore, my inaugural Saturday Spotlight is shining brightly upon James at PureDragon100.  James is a fourteen year old young man from Austalia who is one of the most intellectual and well spoken young men that I have had the pleasure of listening to in quite a long time.  He is well-versed in literary terms and devices which make a book either readable or nonreadable, and communicates a book's attributes quite well in his video reviews.  Although he is well read across many genres, his interests lie in science fiction and fantasy; two genres that I truly love.  Some of his favorite authors include the following:  J.R.R. Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, John Green, George R.R. Martin, and Patrick Rothfuss.  If you are in the mood to watch a highly intelliegent youtuber with insightful reviews then you can't go wrong by subscribing to PureDragon100.

 

Day Zero Project Update

I have just completed #35 on my 101 in 1001 Days List.

37.  Make a list of 100 books I would like to read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my completed list:

The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova

Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe

You Can't Go Home Again, Thomas Wolfe

The Princes of Ireland, Edward Rutherfurd

The Rebels of Ireland, Edward Rutherfurd

The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy

King's Ransom, Jan Beazley

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon

The Genizah at the House of Sepher, Tamar Yellin

The Book of Abraham, Marek Halter

The Wind of the Khazars, Marek Halter

Ireland: A Novel, Frank Delaney

Trinity, Leon Uris

Redemption, Leon Uris

The Sin Eater, Francine Rivers

The Fifth Mountain, Paulo Coelho

Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman

Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett

World Without End, Ken Follett

Paradise Lost, John Milton

The Family Markowitz, Allegra Goodman

The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

The Lacune, Barbara Kingsolver

Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks

People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks

Brooklym, Coln Toibin

As the Earth Turns Silver, Alsion Wong

Seraphina, Rachel Hartman

A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell

The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

The Wise Man's Game, Patrick Rothfuss

The City of Dreaming Books, Walter Moers

The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books, Walter Moers

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

The Healing, Jonathan Odell

The Snow Child, Eswen Ivey

A Separate Peace, John Knowles

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Divergent, Veronica Roth

Insurgent, Veronica Roth

Twilight, Stephanie Meyer

Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Lightening Thief, Rick Riordan

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

The Shadow of the Wind, Carlof Ruiz Zafon

The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Source, James A. Michener

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

The Maze Runner, James Dashner

Dune, Frank Herbert

Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert

Children of Dune, Frank Herbert

God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert

Heretics of Dune, Frank Herbert

Chapterhouse: Dune, Frank Herbert

My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult

City of Bones, Cassandra Clare

The Prisoner of Heaven, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian

River Town: 2 Years on the Yangtze, Peter Hessler

Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler

Country Driving, Peter Hessler

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Colvino

A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipul

The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster

The Thorn Birds:  Colleen McCullough

The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan

Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd

Booked to Die, John Dunning

A Morbid Taste for Bones, Ellis Peters

Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen

Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

Fall of Giants, Ken Follett

A Passage to India, E.M. Forster

Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien

Hidden Empires, Kevin J. Anderson

The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

Eregon, Christopher Paolini

Shogun, James Clavell

Redwall, Brian Jacques

If This is a Man, Prino Levy

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia, Marquez

Narcissus and Goldmund, Herman Hesse

 

The Evolution of the Book Within My Lifetime

Today, we have an overabundance of books from which to choose. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, books came in two versions: hardcover and paperback. If you wanted to purchase a book, it either came from the local five and dime or you ordered through the Weekly Reader Foundation. I have fond memories of carefully clipping out the book order form from the back of the Weekly Reader, making my selections, begging my mother for money, and giving the completed form, with the appropriate money, to my teacher. We all loved the day when the big box of books was delivered to our classroom and she passed out everyone's purchases, with our order form paper-clipped to the front of one of our books. I also have fond memories of earning $2 per week for allowance and using that to purchase Hardy Boy Mysteries in hard cover at the Ben Franklin Department Store. These books came with no flap so you made your purchase selection based upon the title or the cover illustration of Frank and Joe in some new mysterious setting.

Today, with the advancements in technology, purchasing a book is quite easier and can be done almost instantaneously. You can get audio books and eBooks, as well as hardcovers and paperbacks, although I have an aversion to audio books and do not consider them real reading.

I have, for as long as I can remember, had a personal library, and have amassed quite a few books in 48 years of living. And while I am very proud of my personal collection of books, in November 2010, I became fascinated with eReaders which were beginning to populate the television with fascinating commercials demonstrating the wonders of the tablet. At first, I considered purchasing the Kindle from Amazon; they had always been my mail order supplier and it just seemed right to purchase an eReader from them. After I determined which model Kindle I was going to order, my wife suggested I should just purchase an iPad because of the extra features it contained and the versatility of reading apps that it had. Easily convinced, I purchased one for her, as well.

When I unpacked my iPad, I was delighted to begin using the iBooks app and adding books to my electronic library. When the books I wished to purchase were not available in iBooks, I could readily use the Kindle and Nook apps available on the iPad to aid in my search. I loved always having my library available regardless of my location. I so delighted that I could increase the font, change the resolution, highlight, annotate, and bookmark all so easily. I could even read in low light or no light at all!

Beginning last month, however, the pendulum began to swing back to the other side of the fulcrum: there grew within me a nostalgic yearning for printed books – their heft, their smell, their feel. I had been courting eBooks for quite some time and my printed books, remained ever faithful, waiting for me to return to their waiting arms. I love books, all books, no matter be they hardcover, paperback, or eBook, and I consider myself quite lucky to have books available to me in so many formats...and yes, I omitted audio books on purpose!

Inside and Out Tag

MathomBooks created a wonderful reading tag using Inside and Out as an acronym that most of the book vlogging world is responding to.    I have yet to begin vlogging, so I will be responding via my blog.  I would like to tag Bryan Sherwood and Doug Phelp's daughter, Rachel to complete and post this reading tag.

Inside and Out Reading Tag

1.  The inside flap of the book cover - too much information or not enough information?

The books that I tend to select are generally recommended by friends or by reading communities of which I am a member, so I generally do not read the flap for a synopsis of the book.  However, if I am browsing in a bookstore or library, I find the flap to be most helpful in helping to determine if it is a book I would enjoy.

2.  What format of new books do you prefer - hardcover, paperback, eBook, or audio book?

Several years ago, I purchased an iPad and was delighted to be able to purchase eBooks instantaneously and to carry around my library with me on my tablet.  But, within the last few months, I have made a swing back to tangible books.  I just love the feel and heft of a harbcover and the tactile sense of turning pages.  I have always had an aversion to audio books (I do not consider it reading) and paperbacks do not provide me with the longevity I wish for my library.

3.  Scribble while you read?  Do you like to take notes, scribble in the margins, underline, and make annotations as you read; or, do you keep your books clean, clean, clean?

Rather than mark up a book, I prefer to write quotations from the book, as well as thoughts on my reading, in a journal.  I like to keep my books as pristine as possible.

4.  In your best reading voice, read your favorite opening line from a book.  (Obviously, I cannot read it, so I will quote it, instead)

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, has one amazing prologue that draws you into an awesome read!

It was night again.  The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence in three parts. 

The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking.  If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn's sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves.  If there had been a crowd, even a handful of men inside the inn, they would have filled the silence with conversation and laughter, the clatter and clamor one expects from a drinking house during the dark hours of night.  If there had been music...but no, of course there was no music.  In fact there were none of these things, and so the silence remained.

Inside the Waystone a pair of men huddled at one corner of the bar.  They drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news.  In doing this they added a small, sullen silence to the larger, hollow one.  It made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint.

The third silence was not an easy thing to notice.  If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar.  It was in the weight of the black stone hearth that held the heat of a long dead fire.  It was in the slow back and forth of a white linen cloth rubbing along the grain of the bar.  And it was in the hands of the man who stood there, polishing a stretch of mahogany that already gleamed in the lamplight. 

The man had true-red hair, red as flame.  His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things.

The Waystone was his, just as the third silence was his.  This was appropriate, as it was the greatest silence of the three, wrapping the others inside itself.  It was deep and wide as autumn's ending.  It was heavy as a great river-smooth stone.  It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.

5.  When deciding upon a book to read, does it matter to you if the author is male, female, or sex unknown?

Certainly not; Lewis Carroll wrote a fanciful tale of Alice and J.K. Rowling created the wonderful world of Harry.  The sex of the author has no bearing upon what I select to read.

6.  Be honest - ever read ahead?

Most definitely not; this would spoil the story.

7.  Organized bookshelves of outrageous bookshelves?

Not public library organized.....but organized.

8.  Your under oath - have you ever chosen to read a book based solely upon the book's cover?

Not really.  The book cover may pique my interest, but it is the synopsis of the book or a recommendation from a friend or blog that propels me to read the book.

9.  Take it out or keep it in?  In other words, when reading, are the the type of person who likes to read outdoors or do you like to be inside when you read?

I read everywhere....in the car, on my lunch break, on the back porch....but my preferred reading spot is in my recliner in my home.