The Day of the Triffids

Hello everyone, this week I thought I'd do a very quick review of John Wyndham's 'The Day of the Triffids'. Before I start I would like to say that in order to get the full impact of this book you must go into it without any knowledge of what it is about or the events that occur within it. So if you are a science fiction fan and you don't know what I'm talking about, stop reading and go buy this book. Don't even read the blurb, just delve into it.

Now for everyone that is left, I really enjoyed it. It is a very mysterious read, it starts off in a confused manner that throws the reader straight into the story and then continues to give hints about future events without elaborating further. For some this can be a very frustrating read however I love novels that do this. On reflection I do find the beginning quite ironic. After waking up blind to a silent world, Bill Masen is incredibly hesitant to taking off his blindfolds. Despite being told that that was the day they would come off he only removes them when the darkness begins to scare him, and he still removes them slowly. It is ironic because while he is hesitant about restoring his sight the majority of people at that time would love to rip their own blindness away.

This book is overall, quite a tragic read, mainly because it provides what I believe to be an accurate picture of our society, should it become blind overnight. The taking of lives due to an inability to cope, kidnapping sighted people just to get around and starving to death when help doesn't come all seem like potential realities to me. And we don't have Triffids. Strangely enough the triffids didn't worry me until toward the end when they started overwhelming people with sheer numbers. 

The only disappointing part about this book was in fact the end. After building up mystery after mystery you would expect John Wyndham to have created an ending that provides a complete resolution to the story. However he didn't. It almost seems like this book is missing a sequel, that this story was the attempt to restart life and it's missing the rebuilding of life afterward. None the less I think that it was a fantastic read and as always I would definitely recommend this. Let me know your thoughts, did you enjoy it as much as I did? Until next time,   

Catherine.

The Wordsworth Book of Horror Stories

I know that I have done a lot of author recommendations and I have done a lot of book reviews and thus recommendations but I don't think I've ever just said 'go out and buy this book' without first reviewing it. Well, now I will. The Wordsworth Book of Horror Stories (I don't think I'm typing all that again) is an absolute gem of a book, fantastic for any true horror story fan. It doesn't feature any modern stories but it features over 1000 pages of classic story telling.

Within this wonder anthology you will find writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and it even features Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker!! I was also very excited to find Vendetta by Guy De Maupassant in there. Overall it contains 103 tales by 39 different authors. A must buy and for anywhere between $5-$15 there is no reason not to purchase this.

 

So I have been buying far to many books again, I tried to stop buying so many which lasted for a little while but I'm back again. I currently work in a large shopping centre which has book sale stands every so often. And they're placed along the route I take to work. This is bad.

Tea for You, Tracy Stern. This is a book on the art of blending and creating teas. Being a heavy tea drinker when I found this I couldn't pass it up, mainly for the fear that I would never find it again if I did. This is a delightful little book with a wonderful design. It even has a section of biscuit and treat recipes to make with your tea and a list of flavour profiles for matching ingredients for blends. Very handy.

The Day of The Triffids by John Wyndham. This was a book recommended to me by a friend but also one I would have found on my own as it was mentioned during a favourite series of mine. I am currently reading it and it is absolutely fascinating. Incredibly mysterious and is always giving me two questions for every answer I receive. I'm really enjoying it.

One of the other down-falls (or bonuses) of working in a large shopping centre is knowing others that work there and getting discounts. Like book discounts. One of the girls I know was working at the book sale stand when I came up planning to purchase just one book. She then sends me back saying 'pick whatever you want and I'll get you a good deal'. Well how could I resist? 

Of Beasts and Beings by Ian Holding. Set in Africa it tells two people's stories, that of a man forced into slavery and a school teacher struggling to survive in Zimbabwe. I must admit that it was the title that drew me to the book and partially convinced me to read it but it sounds really good.

The Mayan Resurrection by Steve Alten. My curse strikes again! I found out after I brought it that this is actually a sequel to The Mayan Prophecy. That being said I had actually wanted to read The Mayan Prophecy so I am glad that I brought this because it will remind me to buy the first. Once again I mainly brought this because of the title. It's something about Mayan or Aztec based books that just fascinates me. 

Well that's all for this week. Leave some feedback in the comments please, I would really appreciate it. Until next week,

Catherine

Jules Verne

Hey everyone, I don't know what happened this week but I just have not been in the mood to write. I think I'm going to move my post day to Monday just because Sundays are generally pretty busy after work for me and I end up really tired. But this week I just kept putting the post off for whatever reason. But now that I'm finally getting it done my author for this week is Jules Verne. 

While science fiction is not my favourite genre I do enjoy it and I am a huge fan of Jules Verne, the original science fiction author. I got my first Jules Verne novel when I was around 10 years old and I absolutely loved it. It was a copy of '80 days around the world' and somehow it got misplaced sometime in the years that passed. A couple of months ago I rediscovered him with 'Journey to the centre of the earth' which I enjoyed immensely. I am planning on buying the rest of his books and ModCloth has a beautiful hardback collection of some of his works which I would love to get. http://www.modcloth.com/shop/books/collected-works-of-jules-verne

Journey to the centre of the earth is a truly fantastic book. Here Verne introduces possibly one of the first fictional 'mad scientists' and his very reluctant nephew who find a note within a book claiming a passage to the centre of the earth that is survivable. Before and during the writing of this novel many new scientific discoveries and theories were being placed forth. Verne plays on this a lot and some of these theories made the basis for his novels. This book is not at all comparable to the movie aside from the fact that two people and their guide go on a journey to reach the centre of the earth. Otherwise most of the details are wrong and some of the story line. Got us again Hollywood! 

I do plan to read the rest of what he has written and highly recommend his books for any science fiction fan. They are not as action packed as more modern novels but they are fascinating and the language is not as dense as most 19th century writers which makes it more accessible to most people. Until next week,

Catherine

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Hello everyone, this week I thought I'd let you all know about a fantastic online Jane Austen adaptation. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries were a Pride and Prejudice adaptation created by Hank Green and Bernie Su and featured on YouTube. It formed a series of video diaries by the main character Lizzie Bennet and eventually many spin off video diaries by other characters arose. 

This is a brilliantly planned and produced idea that recreates many of the original concepts of Pride and Prejudice in a modern and relevant way. It actually produced quite an addictive viewing experience for myself and I was very disappointed to see it end. This series was so successful it won an Emmy award for Original Interactive Program. It has also began fantastic careers for many of the actors and crew involved.

Fortunately for all the fans this is not the end of Hank Green's and Bernie Su's work. The next series to be produced was a work called Welcome to Sanditon. This was based on Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon. Because it was an unfinished novel this series featured a lot more viewer interaction which did make it a bit less popular than The Lizzie Bennet series. This adaptation revolved around Gigi Darcy (who also appeared in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and featured scenes with William Darcy (also from the original series).  This series has just finished and although it has not received any awards yet I keep my finger crossed for the future!

And what's next you ask? Well currently in production is the online adaptation of Emma! So get reading fans, hopefully we'll be seeing episodes soon! To investigate The Lizzie Bennet Diaries for yourself follow this link, http://youtu.be/KisuGP2lcPs 

But be warned, addictive is just the beginning. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about some more of my addictions. Until next time,

Catherine.