Currently Reading | July 2014
I have a problem. I can't just pick up a book I want to read and finish it. If I'm not hooked up on the first ten pages, I pick another book. But I still feel like missing out on something, because of not reading that first book, so I read a few pages of it here and there, just to know what it's all about. And if I can't find something really engaging for a long time, I may sometimes end up with up to 20 books on my currently reading shelf on Goodreads. Of course, that makes me feel like some kind of a loser, so I start shoving them on other shelves like “on-hold” or “dropped”, until I end up with what's I'm actually reading at the moment given.
So after the last book
I've finished, I somehow managed to pick up three different books in
the course of one night.
The first book I'm
currently reading is Holes by Louis Sachar. I've picked it up because
I've already seen the movie a couple of times. The story is based
around Camp Green Lake, which is a juvenile detention camp located on
the riverbed of a dried up lake. Kids at the camp are digging holes,
hence the name of the book. The main character is
Stanley Yelnats. He's a kid from a poor family. Stanley is sent to
the camp for the crime he did not commit. He thinks that it's all
because of a family curse. And later on in the book it turns out that
the past actually has a lot to do with the camp and people there. I
like how the book gives more information on the thoughts and feeling
of the characters. I really missed that in the movie.
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It's the last book
of the Hunger Games series. I've read the first two books in Russian, and had mixed feeling about them. It was a
quick and pleasant read, but I wasn't too excited about the plot. Now
that I've started reading the third book in English, I can tell that
it's because of the translation. The original book feels like a completely different story. I will probably re-read the first two books in English
later. What I've noticed about the Hunger Games series is that they
show the side of a story that we don't usually see. They focus a lot
on preparation and presentation of the main event, showing that
everything has a lot more story to it, than what you see on the
surface. All the steps are just as important as the event they lead
to. In the first two books these were the Hunger Games, and now it's the
revolution. I was surprised, how organised the rebels are. They have
this whole structure with authorities. But the most surprising thing
was that, just like the Capitol was using Katniss to create a hero
for everyone, the same way the rebellion organisers are now trying to
turn her into some kind of a leader for the people. I've only just
started reading, so I won't be making any speculations about the
outcome of this game.
Nation by Maria Matios.
It's a collection of short stories and poems by a Ukrainian modern
author Maria Matios. It's mostly focused on the years after the WWII,
when the communists were destroying the old way of life and forcing
people to live by new standards. Taking away their land, killing and
sending away anyone who disagreed. I like how Matios puts a lot of
real human emotions in her books. She not only shows the historical
truth, but also writes a lot about traditions and superstitions.
Every one of her characters has his own little tragedy. Maria Matios
has this amazing gift of showing every single aspect of life in the
span of 200 pages.
This time I'm planning to finish at least two of the books I'm currently reading. And I will try hard to keep my Goodreads shelves a bit more neat. :3 Then I'll make a review post at the end of this month, since I'll probably be too lazy to write one for every single book I finish.
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