Monday, January 7, 2013

Books 10, 11 and 12

Day 7 of 365
Hiya!

I managed to read a lot today but also have time for other things too. I hung out with my sister and ate dinner with my family. I also made time for a trip to the library. And this is the result..oy.


The two piles on the right are from the library, they no longer fit in one stack and have gotten a bit out of hand..I can be impulsive, and when I find a new book I want to read, I immediately request it, without concern for the books I already have to read and the ones I have already requested. Whoops. The ones on the left are the ones I own, not counting the 27 nook books or something...I am ridiculous.

But anyways, to the books from today!

Book 10: A Clockwork Orange



Author: Anthony Burgess
Genre: Classics/Science Fiction
Pages: 213
Series: No
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library
Date Read: January 7, 2013
Day 7/365

2 stars
Okay, so as you might have noticed, I like to read the classics. But as I am learning, the classics tend to be weird as hell, and I'm left most of the time wondering how they became classics in the first place. This book was written in a type of slang, that left it difficult to understand what the narrator Alex was saying. The premise of the book revolves around Alex, a youth who goes around committing terrible acts of violence including theft, robbery, assault and battery, rape, and murder. His crimes eventually catch up to him and he is imprisoned, but an act while enslaved results in him being the first subject in an experiment to rid the acts of violence from the minds. He is unable to listen to music, have impure thoughts, or threaten someone, among other things without becoming violently ill and needing to somehow fix things. Well, this backfires to say the least. The last chapter also really bothered me. It was not included in the original printing of the book because the publisher didn't like it, but now the author has pushed for the novel in its entirety. I believe that the last chapter is an attempt to make up for Alex's sins and behavior, but to me at that point, he didn't seem very redeemable, and the switch came out of no where. Large behavioral changes out of the blue like the author described are not ones that stick and so to me it did not seem believable. It took me a lot longer to read than a book of this size should have because of the weird style in which it was written, but I got through it and now it is done.

Book 11: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde


Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Classics/Horror
Pages: 144
Series: No
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library
Date Read: January 7, 2013
Day 7/365

3 stars
So I've heard of this book and seen them represented in movies before, and it was a quick and short read. The novel begins from the perspective of a friend of Dr. Jekyll and a man who has heard of Mr. Hyde. There have been mysterious circumstances surrounding both Dr. Jekyll, who has become very secluded, eccentric, and not like himself, and Mr. Hyde, a man who is rude, off-putting, and a murderer. You find out that Dr. Jekyll has always had a bit of good and bad in him, and struggled with dealing with the bad, and thought that it might be easier if these two entities became two separate personas, and therein his problems began. It was different than I thought it would be, but I can't exactly explain why. It was an easy read, and I liked it but it probably will not be a book that will stick with me for long.

Book 12: The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts



Author: Gary Chapman
Genre: Non-Fiction, Self-Help
Pages: 208
Series: No, but there are other versions
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library
Date Read: January 7, 2013
Day 7/365

4 stars
I had heard about the 5 love languages in my Interpersonal Psychology class in college. So when I saw it on Goodreads, I thought I would give it a shot. This book is supposed to be geared towards couples, but I found the information to be applicable anyway. There is also a singles version, but the library didn't offer that one and I saw many people say that reading this had been just as helpful for them. The five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Each person has a different love language and in order to feel as if one is in a loving partnership, be it a relationship, a marriage, a friendship, or between parent and child, you need to express love in the way that they perceive love. So if a person's love language is physical touch, which I believe mine is, they would experience love through a hug or holding hands, while someone whose love language is acts of service would feel loved when their partner helped them with the dishes or cleaned the house. I found this very interesting and informative. I had never thought of this before and it was a neat idea and one that I can see being very helpful individually, or when doing therapy. It's a quick read and I would definitely recommend it. 

Right now I'm a little over halfway done my fourth book and would just finish it, but I have a full day planned with my sister tomorrow, movies, shopping, and food, as she's going back to college in South Carolina this weekend. Mkay, time to go snuggle with my doggy!

xo,
Erin

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