Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Thanks Susan & D.G. for keeping me on my toes ;p

D.G. has picked Supernatural for our October reads, what's on the top of your list?

The top of the shelf is Twilight -who has read it? I'm not trying to pick on whether you like it or not but just who's actually picked this up whether out of curiosity on the hype (or bad hype) or whatever other reason...?

Haha! No recommendation from me! I picked it up when it first came out because I actually lived in Forks (the setting) once upon a time for 8 years. I don't know why the book was so popular. I didn't care for it. I'm not a fan of paranormal and also if you've lived anywhere a book has been written, you know immediately when (ie.) geographical things don't make sense which throw off the story line.

LynnB wrote: "geographical things don't make sense which throw off the story line. "

oh, dear! I didn't know that! I have to confess that I don't read many of the reviews so I'm sure someone would've mentioned that in their reviews.

I read it though I'm really not quite sure why I did that... most probably because of a reading challenge which required some silly strategies and this filled up quite a few. I wanted to bash Bella -'nuff said!

I read Twilight because I got all the books back in the day when I used to read every book I got. I thought it was terrible and they just went down from there.

Well, I will weigh in on the other side. I am one of the few people who are serious readers,not a tweener, and loved Twilight. I read all four books and thought the first and third were the best ones, the second was good, and the fourth was just one too much. There was just something about Edward that I liked, no not the sparkling thing or anything, but just something about his personality that drew me to him. I have had several people tell me that I am sick to like Edward and that I must like abusive relationships, but I just thought he was extremely loyal and am a sucker for love stories between people who society looks at as mismatches. (I've also been told I must be incredibly niave).

As for what I will read from the Supernatural shelf:

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker is on my list for next month already. There are also a few others on the list that I have and may read:

Graceling
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
American Gods
Evermore
Anna Dressed in Blood

I read so much stuff from this shelf that I'll just post as I go. :)

Shadow Spell

I will definitely read this one. Not sure if I will have time for more this month or not. However, it appears that I really enjoy this shelf as I have read a lot of books on it.

Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "Well, I will weigh in on the other side. I am one of the few people who are serious readers, NOT a tweener, and LOVED Twilight. I read all four books and thought the first and third were the best..."

we are not judging! each to their own :)

As I said, I didn't like Bella and if I don't like the MC that would usually turn me off a book...

Tien wrote: "Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "Well, I will weigh in on the other side. I am one of the few people who are serious readers, NOT a tweener, and LOVED Twilight. I read all four books and thought the f..."

I didn't think you all were judging at all. That is one of the things that I love about this group. I know, though, that among serious readers I am sort of in a minority on the subject of Twilight. In fact, my eldest son and his girlfriend are always giving me grief over the books because they don't like them at all.

It's funny in a way, I never thought about how annoying Bella is, and she is annoying and gets more so as time goes on, until people started pointing it out to me.

I did have one person, though, on another reading site, call me sick for liking them.

D.G. wrote: "I read so much stuff from this shelf that I'll just post as I go. :)"

I could probably do the same thing, D.G.

I actually looked through 100 pages in this shelf to find something that appeals to me. But I found one and it sounds really good.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I, too, read all of the Twilight series. Def not my style and I ended up being team no one. Haha.

I haven't read Twilight and have no intention of doing ;-) Maybe I'm missing something, but I guess I'll never know - and it's all right.

As for what I intend to read, I have on my TBR pile:



and on my wishlist:

Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "Well, I will weigh in on the other side. I am one of the few people who are serious readers,not a tweener, and loved Twilight. "

I know many serious readers who loved it, specially because for some of them, "Twilight" got them into reading again.

I have the book but l`m still not in a mindset to read it yet.

For October i might read these books

Debi wrote: "I actually looked through 100 pages in this shelf to find something that appeals to me. But I found one and it sounds really good.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I, too, read all ..."

I might read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, too. I really enjoy Neil Gaiman

I read a few years ago just to see what all of the fuss was about and actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, I hadn't read a lot of vampire book then and now that I've read more, I can see how trite it really is.

I tried reading the 2nd book and couldn't get past chapter 3. I'm not a YA fan and there is only so much teenage angst I can take.

Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "I did have one person, though, on another reading site, call me sick for liking them. "

The only sick person is the one who judges other people's reading choices. I can't stand book snobs!

Was always a horror-lover until I discovered Clive Barker.

An awesome horror-writer, he wrote a book called Weaveworld, and a number of other similar fantasies that changed how I looked at the "fantasy/supernatural" genre, and realised there actually are some non-YA writers doing some incredible stuff, that isn't dragons-orcs-and-elves, or vampire stuff like everyone else.

He also wrote The Abarat, Imajica, and The Great and Secret Show, three independent novels each in the same fantasy universe.

If you're already a fan of fantasy, read Weaveworld.
If you like more innocence in your fantasy, start with Abarat.
If you're a horror reader looking for something different, try Imajica first, but for anyone bored with the same-old-same-old of modern fantasy, Clive Barker is an interesting step in a different direction. I loved every page, so much so that I never read horror any more, as I feel like I've grown up a bit, and need something more, if that makes sense.

Rory wrote: "Was always a horror-lover until I discovered Clive Barker.

An awesome horror-writer, he wrote a book called Weaveworld, and a number of other similar fantasies that changed how I looked at the "fa..."

Welcome to the group, Rory, & to GR!

I've never tried Clive Baker & not really a fan of horror... though your comment reminds me of Justin Cronin's The Passage which I've really enjoyed and I reckon probably counts as supernatural too.

Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "Debi wrote: "I actually looked through 100 pages in this shelf to find something that appeals to me. But I found one and it sounds really good.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I, t..."

I am having one of those, "have I read this before" feelings about this book or author. That's what happens when you read a lot. Ha. If I like this book, I am sure I will read more of what he has written but it/him sound sooooo familiar...

Rory wrote: "Was always a horror-lover until I discovered Clive Barker.

An awesome horror-writer, he wrote a book called Weaveworld, and a number of other similar fantasies that changed how I looked at the "fa..."

I have a lot of friends who read Clive Barker and love him. I have not read him yet, but he is definitely on my radar. Maybe I will start with Weaverworld.

I read Twilight because the goal of our faculty book club is to read the things the students are reading, so we can talk with them about it. In fact, it was the book we started our group with. I didn't expect to like it at all, but I did, at least enough to read the entire series. It's true, Bella is not the kind of model we'd like our teenage girls to emulate. But I did get absorbed in the story.

Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "As for what I will read from the Supernatural shelf: ... Graceling ... ."

Lyn, I loved Graceling. Gave it a rare (for me) 5 stars.

I discovered a lot on my TBR that fits here. I think I'll try for City of Lost Souls, from a series I'm in the middle of, and Sabriel something new that I've been considering.

Susan wrote: "Lyn (Readinghearts) wrote: "As for what I will read from the Supernatural shelf: ... Graceling ... ."

Lyn, I loved Graceling. Gave it a rare (for me) 5 stars."

Susan - I have had it on my bookshelf in the bedroom forever. I really need to get it read.

Loved Graceling & Sabriel! Garth Nix is Aussie, of course, & such a lovely man :)

I will read The Girl with All the Gifts
and Quintana of Charyn

I read the first Twilight book when I was 13, so didn't really think about its contents deeply. I was more like: "vampires, romance, yay!"
I read the second book, but I was never able to finish the third one. Something about the story just didn't draw me in anymore when I was 16. And I was a bit annoyed about some aspects of the book at this point too.

I think I may be reading Dracula and American Gods. Dracula seems to be one of the books you know thousands adaptions of, but you never actually read it (for me it is anyway). So I will try to tackle it until Halloween ;)

I'm looking for the review section for Supernatural?

I haven't posted in this group for a while, but I miss reading all the reviews, so I'm back and will try to participate more this month!

For Supernatural, I'll be reading:
Iron Kissed, book #3 in the Mercy Thompson series. I just started reading this series last month, and my library has all the audiobooks available for download, so they've been keeping me entertained during my commute.

Jackaby, BOTM for another one of my groups. I had never heard of this, but the blurb makes it sound interesting, a mystery investigation with some supernatural events thrown in.

I might read some of these if I can get to them:
Outlander - I have started and stopped this book 50 million times. Why can't I finish you!!!?

Days of Blood & Starlight - The first book in this series was interesting and I was glad to finally read it since I keep seeing these books around Goodreads.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - The length of this book is intimidating, but I watched the first couple episodes of the BBC's miniseries a few months ago and was intrigued.

Dead Witch Walking - I don't usually read books about witches, but this series seems so popular that I might make an exception.

Debi wrote: "I'm looking for the review section for Supernatural?"

My apologies!! It's now set up, here