Hello Beautiful People!
How are you doing this fine September? (countdown to October 2nd begins whoop whoop!)
As you know from the last post, over the last month I challenged myself to read 3 books over the month, those books were;
So, did I manage to read all my August TBR?
That would be an unfortunate no... However, I got halfway through reading two of the books; and I'll explain why in just a minute!
At the very beginning of August, I began to read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. This was a book that as soon as I carried it around to find a good and quite place to read it whilst I was at a festival (not a music festival though... Not like 'normal people' my age). Pretty quickly I realised however, that I was not as invisible as I thought. Everywhere I went to buy a coffee and toast, to listen to people playing peaceful guitar, hid in the corner of a giant tent just to begin reading the book; at least one person approached me to ask me about the book or rave about how well written Eleanor Oliphant is and how the plot made them shed a tear.
To say the first impression of the book was slightly marred by my increasing irritation that I wished the end of the book to come soon so that I can have my impression and morph back into my solitude - I have the flare for dramatics, can you tell?
My experience reading Honeyman's novel was strange; as it was August it was prime holiday time for most people I think on the western hemisphere. I found myself 45 pages into the novel and having to pause to unpack from my week-long festival trip and repacking for my trip to South Germany to stay with close friends. Ironically, I thought that I would have my solitude whilst staying with my friend and her family; at least enough time to finish reading Eleanor Oliphant before reaching about half-way through my holiday. In the end it took me almost an entire month to read the book and thus starting Harry Potter didn't happen until the 30th August and I hadn't started Alice's Adventures in Wonderland until I had boarded my flight home that same day!
What are my opinions of the books I read/ am reading;
well, whilst most people raved about Honeyman's novel I am struggling to see why people are calling her novel revolutionary - yes, the storyline is now a famous niche, the issue I have is that I feel that Honeyman didn't really delve into the issue surrounding the novel. I do recognise the use of audience inclusion, and it can be argued that like the characters in the novel the audience are treated equally the same.
Honeyman did leave the book with a slight cliff-hanger (what you don't see is that I spent 5 minutes trying to look for a different word - Honeyman does not disclose a second book being released); the story ends giving the readers the opportunity to imagine how Eleanor's story progresses but it annoys me that although the book is unique in its intention, it was not a revolutionary book for myself. I often found myself reading the book thinking that the read was becoming a lot better for myself and wondering how many pages I had left, only to discover that I had only read 2 pages and willing myself to carry on reading and not wish too hard for a reason to put it down.
The story was lovely and often left you worrying for Eleanor, but it was not gripping enough for me to not want to put the book down; maybe it was because I was on holiday and unlike when I am home I don't have enough relaxation time to read as I wasn't working! I did manage to get a big bulk of the book done on the 5-hour coach journey to Munich which made the journey more worth the money as I was able to experience the city without worrying about a reading deadline!
I do recommend reading Eleanor Oliphant, but I fail to see how it has become a holy grail for your home libraries... Unpopular opinion I guess. Maybe I'll reread it again and see how I feel about it then, but it joins The Sun is Also a Star in the possibly overhyped pile (I am planning on rereading both to give them a fair chance - please don't decapitate me!)
Because I dedicated so much of my rare spare time into reading Eleanor Oliphant I didn't really give Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland a fair shot. I have watched both movies and all their adaptations and side plots, but I had yet to read them both. I think my issue wasn't with the books themselves but with the fact that because I had seen the movies I had very little to no motivation to really read the books.
When I disclosed this issue to a friend of mine she suggested listening to them on Audible, but I found that the £9.99 a month fee just wasn't cutting it for me to pay and thus I decided to scour the internet for any free audiobook I could find. I had been disappointed in the only version of English Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone being read by someone that unfortunately bored me to death, and Alice in Wonderland's audiobook being missing (I think it's only for wonderland's occupants to listen too...).
So instead I decided to look for something else... Free audiobook services - that is how I rediscovered my A-Level English Literature revision resource Libby or otherwise known as OverDrive. It is a local library service that allows you to loan eBooks and audiobooks if your library have an account with them and you have a library card. Currently I am in a waiting list to get the Harry Potter audio book, but I have just finished Alice in Wonderland all for free! Thank You Libraries!
Although I cannot give you my final thoughts on my first experience of reading/ listening to the two cult classics I hope you know they are coming and from my limited experience with the books have made me draw this conclusion...
The movies have left out key things from both novels that add to the quirkiness and the key scenes people may have looked for in the movie and not seen! (I know that feeling very well #StillNotOverTheHungerGamesSeries)
That is all for now folks - I have one question for you though. As I finish up with Harry Potter what shall I go onto read next? Any New releases or one of your cult favourites? It's birthday month next month so any ideas of what I should get is never a bad idea!
Love Always,
Jess
Originally posted on 5th September 2018 at makemeshakespeare.wixsite.com/blog
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