Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Dream Book by Gillian Kemp

The Dream Book, Dream Spells, Nighttime potions and rituals and other magical sleep formulas by Gillian Kemp
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I picked this book up on a bargain bin again. 30% off 14.95, and I'm a sucker for these little dream encyclopedias. I admit it, most of them turn out to be crap. But I keep buying them anyways. I think I've gotten a little pickier, but I suspect my wife would disagree. When I picked this one up she said "you'll never read that anyway, it will just sit on the shelf."
"nah-uh" I said, summoning all my intellectual powers of retort, "I'll start it tonight in fact".
So I bought the book, and I'm starting it tonight.
Here's the publishers blurb;

"Discover why you dream and the magical meanings behind your sleeping symbols. Learn how to keep a dream notebook, create dream spells and magical sleep formulas, and how to tell the future and make wishes come true. The extensive A-Z dictionary includes updated definitions for the new millennium.

Author Biography: Gillian Kemp has been telling fortunes since the age of twelve and is the author of The Good Spell Book, The Fortune-Telling Book, and The Love Spell Box. Using her experiences as a clairvoyant medium, she is a frequent magazine and cable television contributor in her native country of England.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

I've just started The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.


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I'm excited, she's always been one of my favourite authors and I've had this book sitting on the shelf for a while. I just got through the preface last night when I fell alseep (hey, it was late, and I'm not young anymore).

But here's the publisher's blurb.
When The Left Hand of Darkness first appeared in 1969, the original jacket copy read, "Once in a long while a whole new world is created for us. Such worlds are Middle Earth, Dune - and such a world is Winter." Twenty-five years and a Hugo and Nebula Award later, these words remain true. In Winter, or Gethen, Ursula K. Le Guin has created a fully realized planet and people. But Gethen society is more than merely a fascinating creation. The concept of a society existing totally without sexual prejudices is even more relevant today than it was in 1969. This special 25th anniversary edition of The Left Hand of Darkness contains not only the complete, unaltered text of the landmark original but also a thought-provoking new afterword and four new appendixes by Ms. Le Guin. When the human ambassador Genly Ai is sent to Gethen, the planet known as Winter by those outsiders who have experienced its arctic climate, he thinks that his mission will be a standard one of making peace between warring factions. Instead the ambassador finds himself wildly unprepared. For Gethen is inhabited by a society with a rich, ancient culture full of strange beauty and deadly intrigue - a society of people who are both male and female in one, and neither. This lack of fixed gender, and the resulting lack of gender-based discrimination, is the very cornerstone of Gethen life. But Genly is all too human. Unless he can overcome his ingrained prejudices about the significance of "male" and "female," he may destroy both his mission and himself.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susana Clarke

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susana Clarke

Finally! I've finished the book. This has to be the longest I've spent on that number of pages. 1 Month, 4 days. That's almost unheard of for me. Not that I'm a speed reader. But I keep a fairly steady pace.

The last 100 to 150 pages almost redeemed the rest of the book. Then ending was good. But it's where evverything interesting took places. The previous 700 and some pages were all set up. Now I know that you need set up to build up the characters, to get the reader engaged in the story, to build the tension and get ready for any plot twists. But this was a bit too much. This could have been a fun 500 page novel.

So many of the asides or little tales that were insterted were neither interesting, nor neccessary. The reviews for this book were great. The critics loved it. And I'm left feeling like maybe I didn't get something. Maybe there was some joke, or angle that I missed out on.

I know that the humor is dry, and I'm not so thick headed as to not catch sarcasm. But dry without witty just isn't funny, and ironic without purpose just doesn't get to me. Almost every critical review that i read acknowledges that it takes her a while to get up to speed. Some say it took 100 pages to find her pace, others admit that they were half-way through the book before they realyl started to enjoy it. I put it at closer to 4/5th myself. And remember, those are people paid to read and review. So they were going to finish it, no matter what. Most people find that if a book hasn't grabbed them by the first 100 pages, or heaven forbid, the first half of the book, they are either going to put it down and pick up something else, or plow through it with a sense of duty rather than enjoyment.

And I still feel like I was misled. It's nothing different. An intersting story, drawn out too long, but nothing different. The elves are elves, the faeries are faeries, and magicians recite spells like you've always imagined they would. There's nothing new there.

I've read worse fantasy. Much much worse. And if I was coming form one of those books into this one, I might have held a higher opinion. But int he last 2-3 years I've stumbled upon some really great authors and some fantastic books. And this just doesn't measure up.

Over all, I'm glad that I finished it, and the interesting ending raises my opinion of it. But it only managed to raise it to just a smidge below an average book.

I wouldn't recommend it, and had I known what it would be like from the beginning I wouldn't have started it myself.

4.5 out of 10

About Me

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I'm just a guy... pretty boring over all. Nothing all that special. Frustrated and growing older (I've hit 30, but i think i'm in denial). I work a job, middle management I guess. We are always broke though. Got a wife, and a daughter, love them both more than i've ever found the words to express. I go to church, sometimes. I bike to work, if i get up on time. I like the rain, always. But I have this nagging feeling that there should be more to life than this...