Bout of Books 8.0 | Update One

Hey guys, this is my first update in the Bout of Books 8.0 readathon.

You can see the Bout of Books blog here, and my introduction and goals here.

I'm currently reading 'The Sea of Monsters' by Rick Riordan and it's brilliant! This is the second in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, a 'Children's' fantasy novel that is rooted in Greek mythology, in which the gods of Olympus have come down to earth and had children with mortals and thus creating 'Half-bloods' such as Percy.

Percy has such a unique voice through the way he words things. But he introduces everything to the reader once again, at first I thought it was just a part of Percy, now it's annoying, but I guess it is so that children who read it don't forget information and can follow the books easily. It makes me wonder if Riordan continues this throughout the series.

So, I'm 101 pages into 'The Sea of Monsters', as I finished the remaining 135 pages of 'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner. I posted a review of it here. It wasn't the best book in the world but it had its moments.

I read 236 pages yesterday so I'm on top of my goals, today I haven't read anything though and it's already 12.30pm. I better get making progress.

Hope the readathon is going well for everybody, leave your blog in a comment if you wish so we can spur each other on together. 

I'll post a shorter update tomorrow and will probably post a mid-week update on my channel. 
See you soon, 

Robert.

THE MAZE RUNNER | Book Review

Title: The Maze Runner
Author: James Dashner
Genre:YA / Dystopian
Published by: Chicken House
Originally Published: 2009
Page Count: 371

"When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas can remember is his first name. But he's not alone. He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade, an encampment at the centre of a bizarre maze.

Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there, or what's happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything to find out."

I picked this book due to the overwhelming attention that has gone with it. I first heard about it on the likes of Joey Graceffa's youtube channel, and had since been recommended to read it by my friend, Sean. I've just finished it and these are my thoughts.

I'm going to talk about this book chronologically. 

The opening. I don't think I can articulate my anger at the first, what, 100 pages of this book. Luckily, I'm allowed to type ARGHHHHHWHATISTHIS, and you will probably grasp my point. The novel is written in third person, and we follow Thomas throughout the entirety of the book, almost. When Thomas is welcomed into the maze, no one is willing to help him. This may be good writing about how tired the other boys have become with this world, but I don't get that impression, I feel Dashner was trying to build suspense. He instead drove me away from this novel. I read two other books alongside this, just to feel sane. Every character would tell Thomas things but then when Thomas asks a question he is immediately shot down and not told anything. It became a viscous circle of characters not saying anything and being annoying. 

The language of the boys in this novel is interesting, they appear to remember so much of the outside world without directly remembering the outside world itself. However, they invent names to call things, to call people. At first I thought it ingenious, a new world, a new language. Then it just seemed a little irrelevant, surely if they remember words, they remember offensive ones?

The book has many promising moments when the plot picks up, but it's through stupid decisions of Thomas, that have no real reasoning, that we are finally able to taste a slight bit of action. After that it is left to the final third of the book to convince you that what you read was worth while. The plot picks up, questions are finally going to get answered, and then it ends. It's just one big build up to the sequel and it was annoying.

The premise of this book wasn't even so original that I can praise it, we're pretty aware what's happening in the outside world if we know dystopian YA. And frankly, I'm sure I understand dystopian YA. 

I can't say I'm going to read the sequel anytime soon, but overall, even though I did rant a lot in this review. It wasn't the worst book I've read, but it's definitely not the pinnacle of dystopian YA. It has its moments where it sucks you in, it's short chapters mean it's an easy read and you pretty much breeze through it after the initial bump in its opening. 

3 out of 5 stars. 

Bout of Books 8.0

Hey guys, so I've decided to sign my blog up for the bout of books readathon, the only readathon I've done was the booktube-a-thon and that was a lot of fun and made me read so many great books. So this post will be about signing up and what is in my TBR.

"The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team"

So, what to read? 
I'm going to challenge myself to read around 200 pages per day, (1, 400 pages all together). And in this readathon I hope to read the following books:

Stephen King - 'Misery' (369 pages)
James Dashner - 'The Maze Runner' (the remaining 163 pages)
Rick Riordan - 'The Sea of Monsters' (265 pages)
George RR Martin - 'A Feast for Crows' (778 pages)

Obviously, I do not intend on finishing 'A Feast for Crows' by George R.R. Martin, however, I did place this in my August TBR and I feel this readathon will be beneficial in helping me start this MASSIVE book. 

I plan on making update blog posts on what I've read every 1/2 days. 

Robert.

Friday Reads | 16th August 2013

Earlier in the week I was faced with the daunting task (for me) of reading three books at the same time, two were the same genre and it made it quite difficult. My tiny brain isn't used to such torment and confusion. Luckily, this Friday, I'm only currently reading two books and they are as follows:

GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn

'Gone Girl', as seen on the cover is hailed as 'thriller of the year' by The Observer, as has since lived up to this claim. 

I've been reading this with my friend, Emily, and I'm just over half way through it. 

It's premise is that Nick Dunne's wife, Amy has suddenly vanished on their fifth wedding anniversary, and the novel is from his current point of view, inter-spliced with diary extracts of Amy's from over the course of the couple's relationship. 

So far it's incredibly well-written but as I'm finding out more and more, it's lexis is not for one who is easily offended. The characters so far are awful, as in, they seem like incredibly arrogant people, but that is what makes this novel and at the moment I'm becoming incredibly invested, I can't wait to see what other twists await in the last third of this thriller.

THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner

I have a feeling this is going to develop into your run of the mill dystopian novel. 

The book follows Thomas, who wakes up in a maze, with no memories or clue as to where he may be. The beginning was rather slow and has the most infuriating opening to a YA novel I think I've ever read. It is slowly developing however, and I find myself getting more and more invested into this strange world that these teenage boys have found themselves thrust into. 

I'm hoping to finish 'Gone Girl' soon, and then I shall continue on with 'The Maze Runner'.

Let me know what you're reading this Friday, and leave your blog in the comments so I can find more bloggers.

Happy reading,

Robert.