I had an outstanding January 2014 reading experience. Overall I finished 15 books and abandoned 2! I made my mind up to abandon a book if I just wasn't into it or if I thought is was not for me. Although my best intention is to keep on top of blogging entries a little better, and include some recipes, I wanted to at least do a recap of my books from this month.
As much as I hate to, I want to mention my abandoned books for this month first, and in later posts I will rate my other reads.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. by Richard Holmes
I wanted to read this book for a long time. Published in 2009, this one lanquished on my wish list for a couple years. Finally, I discovered it on the library ebook list and put it on hold. I am glad to say it was not terrible, or even bad. I was just not in the right mind to read it at the time it came available. I did read the first two stories and they were fine. Good information presented in a casual manner. I just got bogged down in the minutiae of the descriptions. I abandoned it in search of something lighter. I will probably revisit this one later.
My rating: will revisit
The Abominable by Dan Simmons
In spite of the promising setting on Everest with 1920's British explorers and a Yeti for crying-out-loud, this book defeated me. It started out intriguing; a old, mysterious gentleman (Jake Perry) bequeaths his personal notebooks to our faux-documentary writer. But the entire ride quickly degraded into my wondering how anyone so completely stupid would have survived climbing the smallest of hills, much less survived Everest and being stalked by a Yeti. At one point our intrepid explorer congratulated himself on noticing the oxygen delivery system had 3 instead of 4 tanks, although he was surprised when someone pointed out the valves were attached on the bottom rather than the top of the tanks. He remained astonished at most of the equipment and I wanted to slap him. I made it 30% of the way through this 600+ page book before I mentally threw it across the room, and he hadn't even made it to Everest or the possible Yeti at that point.
My rating: 1 out of 10 and only because it was an awesome idea for a book
Thankfully these 2 books were the 'worst' books I read this month. Look for upcoming posts dedicated books I enjoyed including 1 book that earned 10 stars.
