Mission statement

The purpose of this livejournal is primarily to facilitate my livejournal habit by making it easier for me to read and comment on my friends' journals.

Of course, that's what they all say, so I've set up the journal with a secondary purpose as well: I'm planning to use it mainly as a booklog. This is partly a matter of self-discipline; I'm only going to finish books so often, so hopefully it will keep me from posting obsessively. Apart from that I've been intending for a while to get back into booklogging and possibly doing a more general livre d'or. Putting it online will, I think, motivate me to keep up with it better than I would a paper version.

Before you object that you want to hear all about my life, not just what books I've been reading, don't worry, you will get plenty of background. Last time I kept a booklog (GCSE English, in fact) it turned into quite a personal diary. But much more interesting than my real diary, because the focus on books kept me from delving too far into adolescent navel-gazing. I'm hoping this will be the case again, with this electronic version.

ETA: This is a test edit from 9th Jan 2017.

Book: The Mists of Avalon

Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Details: (c) Marion Zimmer Bradley 1982; Pub Ballantine Books 1984; ISBN¹ 0-345-31452-2

Verdict: The mists of Avalon has occasional flashes of brilliance, unfortunately rather diluted.

Reasons for reading it: darcydodo recommended it. I hadn't read much fantasy before I met Darcy, and in some ways this book typifies the sort of things I find uncomfortable with the genre.

How it came into my hands: I bought it second-hand in the Berkeley flea-market when I was visiting darcydodo in January. That was some book-shopping trip! (I also got two very useful items of clothing, one purple and one velvet for $6. I don't normally get excited about buying clothes, but that was something!)

1 I've included an ISBN number so that anyone who wants to look up the book can do so easily. I don't like the increasingly prevalent custom of linking all book titles to amazon.com; why should I give them gratuitous advertising? Anyone who cares that much probably has their own favourite online book shop.

( detailed review )

I was going to do some comparing of MoA with other versions of the Arthurian myth that I've read, but this is too long already, so I'll leave it at that.

The Big Read list

Well, since everyone's blogging it, and since this is supposed to be about books, here's my take on the BBC's Big Read list. ( Read more... )