Blog Hop - Aug 19

It’s been a while since our last hop and this week’s question over at Crazy for Books didn’t make our brain hurt too much, so....

Question:  What’s the LONGEST book you’ve ever read?

Answer: According to Wikipedia the longest fiction novel we (Evan) every read was Atlas Shrugged at 645,000 words (1,450ish pages), although A Suitable Boy FELT like the longest book we every read at 591,552 words (1,349 pages).  Les Miserables, which we just finished earlier this week was one of the best “long” novels we every read (listened), standing in at 513,000 words (1,350ish).     

Wow, 3 answers for the price of 1, talk about value.  Then again that’s what we’re all about here at Two Bibliomaniacs.... oh, and books.  Give us a follow and we’ll be sure to return the favor!!!

Top 10 Best Books Never Before Highlighted During Top 10 Tuesday!

Question: Top 10 Best Books Never Before Highlighted During Top 10 Tuesday!

Answer:  For this week’s “Freebie” we decided to take a slight turn to the right.  We pride ourselves in reading a variety of books, yet sometimes feel the same books keep appearing on our Top 10 lists.  Soooo, for this week only, our list will include books never before highlighted during a previous Top 10 Tuesday. 

Our heavily funded research department uncovered some pretty interesting facts.  Over the past 8-ish months we’ve highlighted a total of 110 different books during these always memorable Tuesdays.  The leader board includes: Harry Potter series (17 times), Gone with the Wind (15 times), To Kill a Mockingbird (14 times), Pride and Prejudice (11 times), and I Capture the Castle (11 times).  We were just as surprised to find that The Eyre Affair wasn’t closer to the top??? 

Anyway, below are some of the books we’ve ignored in the past that maybe shouldn’t have been...       

1. A Pale View of Hills (Kazuo Ishiguro) – This novel stands as our (Evan’s) most recent read.  Ishiguro is a master of revealing the plot in slow and small doses and we literally didn’t put the pieces together until the final page.  No, this wasn’t on account of our dimness, but Ishiguro’s writing....
2. Something Wicked this Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) – Seriously good Ray Bradbury, or should we say Wicked Good Ray Bradbury (phrase best used in conjunction with a heavy Boston accent).  With characters like Monsieur Guillotine and Mr. Electrico this novel is well worth your time.
3. Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren) – We must highlight this novel for no other reason than our 6 year old son laughed hysterically when Pippi had to self-punish herself for not going to bed on time.   Great children’s novel!
4. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be your Class President (Josh Lieb) – Not quite sure how this book didn’t make it onto some kind of past 10 ten list.  Quite funny and only mildly depressing.
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon) – This is another very original book with plenty to offer a perspective reader (a little heavy on the language for those who might need to cover their literary ears).
6. The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins) – For anyone interested in the classics, this is one of the best mysteries for your money.  Plenty of intrigue with a very interesting narrative and some great bad guys thrown in for good measure.
7. The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) – A great haunted house story that will give you the creeps without being too dark.  Watch-out for that tree!
8. Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein) – For anyone interested in some good old fashion Sci-fi, this one should do the trick.  A little heavy (okay, a lot heavy) on the military tactical side, but overall an interesting read.
9. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle) – Whenever we think of this book it brings a good-humored smile to our face.  Chances are it will do the same thing to your face.
10. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) – The high quality of this book is no secret, or at least if shouldn’t bee.

Have a great week and head on over to The Broke and the Bookish to join the fun!

Titus Groan

Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake

Evan’s ESS = 6 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = PG-13 (Adult Content, Violence, Scheming, Wicked Huge Castles)

Why: Anytime the librarian gives you an overly inquisitive expression for sporting a great big cheesy smile it usually means you’ve got a great book in your hands (it could also mean that your youngest child just knocked over the graphic novel display and you’re trying to pretend like nothing happened, but *gulp* something like that would never happen to us).  On this particular occasion, Titus Groan was the cause for said cheesy smile.  Unfortunately, our return trip to the library consisted of slummed shoulders, dragging feet and a crocodile tear in the corner of our left eye, though the tear had more to do with an annoyingly dry contact, but still...

The novel begins with a fair amount of rejoicing over the birth of Titus Groan, aka, the new heir to the Gormenghast throne.  However, young Titus quickly fades into oblivion to make way for more sinister happening at the castle and for a young kitchen servant named Steerpike.  The ambitious teen has visions of grandeur and immediately puts plans in motion to increase his relevance.  By the time young Titus is ready for his coronation, the stage is set for a battle of power and greed and deceit all against the backdrop of a really, really, really big castle.  

Okay, Titus Groan wasn’t as bad as the opening illustration portrayed (yes, we have a flair for the dramatics), but it was far too slow and wordy for our tastes in fantasy novels.  The other problem was the setting.  For whatever reason we had a difficult time visualizing the castle, which is strange considering half the novel is devoted to its description.  We appreciate the fact that Gormenghast Castle is flippin huge, but we couldn’t seem to get our imagination around the more intimate details.  Maybe we need to brush up on our castle vernacular...  To add to our dissatisfaction, we were quite appalled by a certain event that had a very negative outcome on the castle’s impressive library...  Book violence is unacceptable!!!

It would be unfair not to briefly mention the impressive writing (when it wasn’t impressively descriptive) and the fact that we did enjoy the cast.  Steerpike, Flay, and Lord Sepulchrave were all interesting and charismatic despite one of them being directly involved in the aforementioned library incident.  Yep, we’re still a bit raw.  There’s also a pair of twin sisters that bring a fair amount of intrigue and creepiness to the table.

In the end, we must get over our less than enthusiastic feelings because it’s full speed ahead...  Gormenghast appears in TRILOGY form at number 84 on the BBC big read.  We WILL triumph over this entire list... someday!

Top 10 Underrated Books

Question: Top 10 Underrated Books

Answer:  Our fierce loyalty to the BBC Big Read list means that most of the novels we read are hardly suffering for name recognition.  Yet, we feel that these wonderful titles below deserve even more appreciation within the world of literature...    

1.      I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith) – Even with J.K. Rowling’s endorsement, this novel deserves more recognition.  Quite possibly our favorite narrator of all time!

2.      Bag of Bones (Stephen King) – It’s difficult to classify any Stephen King novel as underrated, but within his body of work, this novel deserves more hoopla.  

3.      The Eyre Affair (Jaspier Fforde) – Until every single literary minded person in the world has read (and enjoyed) this novel it will remain underrated.  Sadly, one of the co-editors of this blog is still fighting the current.

4.      Magic Kingdom for Sales – Sold (Terry Brooks) – We get that the whole Shannara series was way more popular, but we think the Landover series is way more better.

5.      Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K. Jerome) – We just finished this novel yesterday and may still be basking in the afterglow, but this novel is seriously funny classical literature.  Seriously. 

6.      Stardust (Neil Gaiman) – One of the Two Bibliomaniacs will vehemently disagree, but this is our (Evan’s) favorite Neil Gaiman book, although Neverwhere wasn’t half bad.

7.      Swallows and Amazons (Arthur Ransome) – In the world of YA sailing novels, this novel stands alone.  Plus the first edition cover is seriously cool.

8.      Northanger Abby (Jane Austen) – Of all the Jane Austen novels, this one deserves more attention.  One of her more readable novels with an underrated love story.

9.      The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith) – A fantastic book with a fantastic cast of characters!

10.  A Room with a View (E.M. Forster) – We’ve said it before and we’re saying it now, but the romance between George and Lucy may possibly be the most underrated in all of literature.

Have a great week and head on over to The Broke and the Bookish to join the fun!

Enchantment

Enchantment – Orson Scott Card

Evan’s ESS = 8 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = PG-13 (Adult Content, Violence, Noteworthy Kisses, Awkward Social Situations)

"The old tale of Sleeping Beauty might end happily in French or English, but he was in Russia, and only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale."

Why: As tempting as it is, we promise not to use any form of the actual title to describe the novel itself.  Instead, we’ll go in record and say that Enchantment was entrancing, enthralling engrossing, and dare we say enrapturing.   Whew, that was close...

When Ivan Smetski decides to enjoy an Enchanti invigorating jog in the woods he has no idea a parallel account of Sleeping Beauty (Russian style) is waiting right around the corner.  As it happens, Ivan stumbles across a mysterious sleeping girl and with one innocent kiss, transforms his life and her life forever.  Two very different centuries collide as the pair embark on an epic journey to bring stability to an ancient kingdom and peace of mind to a mother that wants her son to marry.  Needless to say there’s plenty of drama before happily ever after.  We mean IF there’s happily ever after...

This was our second experience with Mr. Card and following a novel as successful as Ender’s Game we didn’t know what to expect.  What we got was not at all what we expected yet in the end our experience exceeded expectations.  Make sense?  The bottom line: Enchantment is a highly intelligent fairy tale.  Philosophy, morality, cultural differences, and folklore all collide in this fun and exciting adventure.  Honestly, it felt a tad like Outlander.  Although, we really didn’t like Outlander (backlash expected) and we did like this novel, so maybe this is a bad comparison. 

We’re kind of all over the place with this review, but one of the features we enjoyed the most was seeing someone from our time period (assuming you’ve spent a majority of your life in the 21^st century) experience Medieval living and vice versa.  The reactions to each society felt real as did the frustrations and adjustments each character was forced to make.  We also enjoyed reading about the communication difficulties between Ivan and Katerina, which felt true for anyone trying to manage a relationship that spans across several centuries.  

Enchanting was in a word: Enchanting.  Sorry, the temptation was too great...

Books to Movies Challenge - August Check In

Time for the official Books to Movies Challenge August Check-in!  Yikes, that was a mouthful.  We saw some great reviews in July and it would appear Books have reasserted their natural strength.  All is right with the world again...    

We’re still stuck on review number 2, although we did complete The Help read and are anxiously awaiting the movie release.  Hopefully we’ll be able to make some better progress in August!!!

Be sure to include any of your recent reviews in the below Linky! 

2011 Reading Challenge Update - July

Another month in the books and we’re (Evan) so close to completing several of our reading challenges that we can almost taste it.  Although, if we’re honest, the flavor could also be a bit of peach cobbler stuck in our teeth from lunch.  Any whooo...

Statistically speaking, July resulted in the lightest reading month of the year.  As we typically like to pass blame onto others, we’ll highlight Jean Valjean as the primary reason for our weak stats.  Les Misérables is a monster of a book (although quite enjoyable so far) that took us half the year to finally work up the courage to start.  Jean Valjean might also be to blame for a light August.

With titles like The Woman in White, The Help, Radical, and The Phantom of the Opera July was a worthy reading month.  The jury’s still out on Rabbit, Run (possibly for awhile) though Northanger Abby was a delightful read.   

Here are the reviews that we posted in July that fit into our 2011 Challenges.

Jamaica Inn – Daphne Du Maurier

Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls

Here’s an update on our 2011 Challenge.  All the inspiring details can be found HERE.

Books to Movies Challenge – 2/6

Gothic Reading Challenge – 7/8

Back to the Classics – 7/8

What’s in a Name Challenge – 5/6

2nds Challenge – 19/20

100+ Reading Challenge – 76/100

As we look ahead to August, there is reason for considerable enthusiasm.  Something Rotten, One Hundred Years of Solitude, A Pale View of Hills, Three Men in a Boat, and Pippi Longstocking should provide us with a banner month!  How’s everyone else doing in their 2011 reading endeavors?  Send us a link so we can check out your progress!