The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley

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The list so far.
Right so some of ye have joined up and have been given your books to get. Each of your books is now given it's own category and it's own post. The reader of each book can make comments, thoughts, feelings and trepidations etc etc and anyone else who wants to put thier tupence in can...and is encouraged to do so. Can You e-mail me your review though and I'll edit it as part of the post rather than the main review just being a comment?

Well my fist random selection is The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862 it is a children's novel. Great...I am a child at heart and adore children's stories so am quite excited about this one!
Tis has been ordered from amazon and I am therefore gonna set my reading deadline as one month from today.....expect my review on 3rd Feb 2010
I have deliberately stopped myself from reading any synopsis or reviews of the book in an attempt to be completely unbiased...that and I don't want to ruin the surprise!!!!

"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

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Kate Visser picked "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens. Kate is a rather well read friend of mine who reads many an odd book and many a generally popular book (Twilight and our shared love of Harry Potter)I was therefore amazed that she hasn't read this timeless classic. Dickens was even on Doctor Who.
Published in 1812 and is still a wonderous piece of work. It tells the tale of an Orphan taken in by Fagan's pickpocketing gang and how he eventually escapes their clutches with the help of an amazing common woman called "Nancy". The musical remains one of my favourite things ever and I once played Nancy meself! Oh Yeah! Enjoy!

"The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe

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Daniele Simioni chose "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe. Published in 1987, the story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City and centers on four main characters.
I got excited by this point and thought "American Psycho?" but then read on and it's a Charles Dickens type thing...oh well he was still pretty cool!
The title is meant to be a reference to the vanity seen in 1980's New York (American Psycho,American Psycho,American Psycho,)...one can hope!
Anyways....enjoy Dan!

"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov

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Nay has been given "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. Published in 1955. I read this a long long time ago at an age when I thought it would be good as I'd heard it was a bit rude. I was at an age where I had no idea what I was reading or the depths of it. I wonder what I would think if I'd read it again, especially now that I work with Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Problems.
It is about a man who falls involve with a 12 year old girl and the subsequent abuse? she suffered. It is a controversial novel which I am very tempted to pick up and read again...but for the moment I shall resist. And again....reviewing the film doesn't count

"The Making of Americans" by Gertrude Stein

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Abby's choice was "The Making of Americans" by Gertrude Stein.
First thought is, if a Gertrude wrote it....it'll be old! Published in 1925. It follows four families over different generations and shifts between time frames. This has the chance to be a "Once Upon A Time In America" type epic...or "The (bloody) Hours" by Wolfe!!

The Godfather

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Our good friend and new Daddy Dominic aka "Dom" got the Godfather by Mario Puzo. The lucky bugger I was itching to get that one. It was only recently I went to see the first Godfather film on the big screen and I was nearly wetting myself with excitement. I have heard that the book is also much much better...if that could be possible!
Need I tell you what that is about? And as the great (i.e. I don't know who this is) J.W. Eagan once said "Never judge a book by its movie" that is....WATCHING THE FILM IS EFFING CHEATING!

"The Old Wives Tale" by Arnold Bennett

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Airsabas book is "The Old Wives Tale" by Arnold Bennett. Published in 1908. Overall, tis a "compassionate" novel about two sisters leading separate lives and it shows the importance of family love and loyalty and what otherwise may be seen as blighted lives that is to say...buggered and shite!
Sounds a little..."little women" romantic stuff to me. But Matt is disagreeing and saying it sounds more like "A Tale of Two Cities"...another book I aint read. Ah well we shall soon find out.
Not to keen on the cover, but you know what they say....never judge...yada yada yada

The Guiltless by Hermann Broch

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Well, Mr Matthew Bolton's book is.......The Guiltless by Herman Broch.
Written in 1950 by the Austrian writer and subsequently translated. Broch spent five months in a Nazi prison.
The Guiltless is a collection of short stories set between the years of 1913-1933 and looks at the impact of the first world war on its characters. Also some moral stuff in there too....apparently, sounds like fun!

Matt is quite excited about this one....and so he should be as it has cost us £15 to get and it's quite a difficult to get....here's hoping it's a good one!

The Plan

11:25 AM Posted In Edit This 13 Comments »

Right so here is our masterplan!

For Christmas I bought Matt (http://www.mattboltonsworldview.blogspot.com AKA, reader, writer and occasional pain in the ass) the book "1001 books You Must Read Before You Die" by Peter Boxall (ed). We have thus had a brain wave... a virtual book club if you will.
The plan is we randomly select each other a book from that book then go out and by the book we randomly selected, we then read said selected book and write our own little review on this blog.

We realised this would be a pretty sad blog if just the two of us were writing on it, so we are recruiting and advertising for erudite people who like to read. My aim is to force me to move away from; Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and other books I read over and over again as I am too narrow minded to choose anything different.

Please join up and the rules are as follows;

  • You randomly select a number between 22 and 949, you will be given the title of the book on that page.
  • Go out and buy said book.
  • Read your book and e-mail myself (leanne402@hotmail.com) or Matt (matt_bolton@hotmail.com) with your review and general comments.
  • There is a months time limit for each book (unless ye all think of a more appropriate time limit?).
  • Get out clauses;
  • 1) If you have recently (within the last two years) read your chosen book then you can ask for another random selection,
  • 2) if you can't get the book (some of em are very old) again, another one will be selected
  • 3) if you REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to read the book you were given then any members of the blog can make suggestions and recommendations for you and you can choose one of those, or we randomly select another.
  • People can't choose books from the same page numbers.
  • Reviews will then be posted on here and if anyone then reads these books based on these reviews they should be posted as a comment.

What do you reckon....lets give a whirl...it could be fun, then again it may be a pain in the arse.

My first one is: "The Water Babies" by Charles Kingsley and Matt's is: "The Guiltless" by Herman Broch.

Post your interest as a comment here and I will let you know what your book shall be.

LETS READ AND BE EDUCATED PEOPLE!!!!