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My Summer of Easy-to-Read Pool Literature


Lucas1138
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Being in law school (and business school now) I don't really have a lot of time for recreational reading from August to May. When I do get some time to sit and read I, for the most part, prefer to pick non-fiction that I can tear through in a day or so. Mindless stuff. It's me giving back to my brain for the 9 months of the year I spend reading about Torts, Contracts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Real Estate Law, and so on and so forth. I like reading stuff that will soon be turned into movies because that's another pastime of mine (that I actually can partake in during the school year).

 

Here's what I've taken down in the last month+

 

A Dance With Dragons - most recent Game of Thrones book

Divergent

Insurgent

Allegiant

The Fault in Our Stars

Wool (Books 1-5 of the Silo series)

The Maze Runner

 

Certainly none of that is too heavy, but it's the most reading I've done since law school started probably. Young Adult lit doesn't bother me (clearly!), like I said if the overall story is decent and the writing itself isn't terrible I can usually tolerate it for a few hundred pages- and given my reading speed and busy-ness level, translates to a 24 hour period of time or so generally lol.

 

ADWD doesn't fall into that category obviously. I got a little "over" the Divergent series about halfway through Insurgent and am still not sure I actually liked the series as a whole. Divergent was good though. The Fault in Our Stars was a single afternoon pool read. The dialogue was pretty terrible but the story was 'cute' enough and it gave me a conversation starter with the 200 girls I know that read the book. Wool was actually pretty good, and more "adult" in nature - and there some legitimately tense, and well-written action scenes to boot. Aside from the Ice and Fire books, I'd recommend that one first. Maze Runner was also "okay." Once it became apparent that I was being dragged along to the end of the book and we were clearly headed for a sequel with no real resolution it was a little frustrating. The characters aren't particularly great, the story isn't particularly great. I'm undecided if I'll continue on with the series or just wikipedia it to find out what happens.

 

I don't have anything on the docket at the moment (if I don't tough out the rest of the Maze Runner series), but I did pick up a few books for 99 cents on my Nook the other day including: 12 Years a Slave, Frankenstein, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice, and some large Shakespeare collection. I've got a collection of Vonnegut short stories as well as some Hemingway book as well. A little different than what I've been reading but the brain could use a break from the dystopian/young-adult monotony.

 

Oh, this was my once annual Book Club post. I'll check in on this thread in a year.

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I'm laughing a little at "easy-to-read" and Dracula appearing in the same thread. Good luck with that!

 

I've been considering picking up The Fault in Our Stars so I can see the movie someday, but it may not be soon. Unless I find a cool bookstore on vacation that deserves money but has nothing else for sale. Which may not be impossible.

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Man, I love reading by the pool. Sadly I have no access to one unless I'm at my in-laws, which is quite a trip. That won't stop me from reading though. I am taking my Kindle with the latest Outlander book and some random audio books on vacation this week. Yay for reading instead of working!

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I decided to (at least) temporarily skip out on the rest of the Maze Runner series and started reading 12 Years a Slave. That's a little different from the past month. It's not hard reading but it certainly isn't light reading. I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm only 60 pages in and I stop every 5 pages or so and just shake my head. He delivers some very powerful imagery and conveys his emotions... painfully.

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  • 2 weeks later...

12 Years a Slave was awesome, though not necessarily gripping in an "oh my gosh I have to finish this!" kind of way. It's just a powerful story.

 

I finished Gone Girl this afternoon and damn. That was terrific! Seeing the movie trailer inspired me to check the book out and once I got about 100 pages in, I cruised through the rest in a couple of reading sessions.

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Just finished up The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Loved it. At least as much as Gone Girl actually.

 

It's got a great hook and the story never once stalls. It's kind of similar to The Prestige/The Illusionist in that it deals with competing magicians (but the story is a lot more far reaching than that), so if you liked either of those movies I'm sure you'd at least like the subject matter of this.

 

 

The Night Circus is a phantasmagorical fairy tale set near an ahistorical Victorian London in a wandering magical circus that is open only from sunset to sunrise. Le Cirque des Rêves, the Circus of Dreams, features such wonders and "ethereal enigmas" as a blooming garden made all of ice, acrobats soaring without a net, and a vertical cloud maze where patrons who get lost simply step off and float gently to the floor. The circus has no set schedule, appearing without warning and leaving without notice.

 

The circus serves a darker purpose beyond entertainment and profit. The magicians Prospero the Enchanter and the enigmatic Mr. A.H— groom their young proteges, Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair, to proxy their rivalry with the exhibits as a stage.

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I really really loved it.

 

My favorite parts were back to back in the book: 1) When Bailey and Poppet reunite and spend the evening together at the Circus and 2) When Celia stays after one of the dinners and talks to Marco, both finally totally aware of the other person's involvement in the Challenge. I don't know what it was in particular about those two parts, but they were just so sweetly written.

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  • 2 weeks later...

12 Years a Slave was awesome, though not necessarily gripping in an "oh my gosh I have to finish this!" kind of way. It's just a powerful story.

 

I finished Gone Girl this afternoon and damn. That was terrific! Seeing the movie trailer inspired me to check the book out and once I got about 100 pages in, I cruised through the rest in a couple of reading sessions.

Gone Girl is awesome. The Divergent series was pretty meh. First book was great, second was schizo, third was just poo down the drain.

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