Indonesians Who Love English Books discussion

ABARAT! I'M READING THE FIRST ONE RIGHT NOW Oon! (Please excuse the caps, I'm way too excited!)

I'm about ... 10 - 12 chapters in? And so far me likey. So many new wonders, and I love the illustrations in the book.

EDIT: HEY, join our meet up! (Directing everyone to the Our Group Meet Ups thread)

Just finished The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton, and it was free on Kindle. Quite a good book, so please do give it a chance if you like YA :)

I'm now trying to finish a book by my friend Daniel Koeker, titled The Dream Sanctum. This isn't quite YA even when the characters are teenagers. It feels more fantasy, and so far there's no romance involved. It can be purchased from Kindle for only $0.99 if anyone's interested. :)

I am reading Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief by Maurice Leblanc right now. i like Lupin, actually, but the author seems to be ambitious to defeat Sherlock Holmes, that's the reason I love him less. Anyway, it's a good book. But unfortunately I don't understand French, which means I need to satisfy myself with the English translation.

I'm reading Immortal by Lauren Burd, and if you love reading some quality YA kindle books, you'd better stay away from this. The only reason why I'm trying to finish this is because I'm not letting my $0.99 go wasted. Now excuse me because I'm already on the verge of headdesking.

wow ABARAT...loved it..well, though I read it years ago (geez I think I read it when I still in highschool) I still remember how I like it. That time Abarat was a huge thing. But I didn't catch the next series, was it as good as the first one?

I have not finished Lolita (it's been month!!!! duh-too much books wave at me lately - hehe not complain though). I get caught with fifty shades trilogy - I was curious with all the buzz - and OMG I felt being brainwashed. Kind a creepy guys....but I like the character.

So what am I reading? beside Lolita - I struggle finishing that one - I'm in my 20-ish page of Alexander Dumas 'The Three Musketeers'. Gosh I love wordsworth classics edition.....

Adisty wrote: "wow ABARAT...loved it..well, though I read it years ago (geez I think I read it when I still in highschool) I still remember how I like it. That time Abarat was a huge thing. But I didn't catch the..."

yes! I read it in high school too :D I was so excited with the map and the illustration. I'm not quite sure if I like the second book. I have skimmed the third book too and it doesn't make me want to buy it. The illustration is exceptional, but the storyline is not so engaging, in my opinion.

The Three Musketeers: after watching the movie, I'm interested to read the book but it's hard to put it in my already long list of to-read books hehehehe

I've finished Abarat. Can't say I'm all that impressed. It's good; with the illustrations and all. But yes, I agree with Oon that the storyline is not so engaging. I'll only continue the series it if I can borrow it from my friend. I ain't paying to read it, that's for sure, lol.

And now I'm reading The Night Circus, thanks to Lynossa. And it feeeeeeeeeeelsss magical.

Hello all. I'm currently also reading The Night Circus, as well as The Inheritance of Loss.

Rachel wrote: "And now I'm reading The Night Circus, thanks to Lynossa. And it feeeeeeeeeeelsss magical. "

I know, she is so good in describing the feeling and situation. That's what I like about this book.

Still reading 1984, no progress at all (more precisely, I didn't touch the book, too busy T_T)

Finally finished with 1984 and now proceed to The Fault in Our Stars. I know this is a nominee in our March read, but A Game of Thrones is staring at me from bookshelf and if I don't start reading anything soon, I will take it and read it and no one knows when will I finish it.

So... TFiOS and I like it so far :D

my god, this has been a some of the most murderous couple of weeks. putting off dance with dragons for a while. i need something light and uplifting. any suggestions guys?

Tom Holt's is light. I'm not sure about the uplifting part though

Jati wrote: "... i need something light and uplifting. any suggestions guys?"

Anything by Nick Hornby mostly light and uplifting (for me :D), my suggestion: High Fidelity or A Long Way Down

I finally read A Game of Thrones. Curse you guys who had introduced me to it, now I can't stop reading it despite all the names make me confused.

I'm reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. She's a genius in describing things, despite all the purple prose. Recommended for YA lovers :)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Jati! Sooo good and very thin! You'll finish it quick :)

I read A Long Way Down a while ago and it was just .. meh.. for me. LOL. I've seen the movie High Fidelity though, I liked it :)

Goodluck Lynossa for the whole series! It gets more confusing, I assure you! HAHA.

Enjoy Shiver, Jane! Haven't read it myself, but maybe later on I will. Right now I'm debating which book to read first; Beautiful Creatures or The Princess Bride.

@Rachel: Thank you! I've been enjoying the book so far. It has beautiful way of describing things, and if you can stand purple prose, it's definitely worth a read :) Most people that I follow don't really find Beautiful Creatures enjoyable, so I'm staying away from that book for now :P

I'm reading this right now. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch. It's story about some victorian english company searching for a fabled dragon which turn out to be: our own prized komodo dragon! It's exhilarating to see our own islands and places described by foreign book. I love the style of writing and so far the story look promising :D

Oon wrote: " I'm reading this right now. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch. It's story about some victorian english company searching for a fabled dragon which turn out to be: our own prized komodo dragon! ..."

That reminds me of a post on 9gag about a real dragon found in our country :D It's not komodo, but it looks very real (and very fascinating, with some splash of color).

I'm currently reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I'm coming out of my YA nest, yep.

Jane wrote: "That reminds me of a post on 9gag about a real dragon found in our country :D It's not komodo, but it looks very real (and very fascinating, with some splash of color)."

Fellow 9gaggers! Welcome, welcome! I saw that post too. What a beautiful country we have, yes? We should be proud :D

Good luck with Neil Gaiman, I read American Gods a while ago. He's good

Whoa Oon, seems like an interesting reading. Can I borrow it along with A Visit from the Goon Squad? I promise you I'll take a good care :)

Still reading A Game of Thrones though I'm thinking about taking a break from it for awhile. It requires some dedication.

@Oon: So true :) we have all the beautiful, exotic animals. Oh I've found that book in my uni library's bookshelf. Might pick that one as the next book to read from him. The Graveyard Book seems a lot like a kids story at the beginning, but I think American Gods looks far more serious?

@Lynossa: Been wanting to read A Game of Thrones for quite some time now, but there are so many books in the series and thick books always seem daunting to me, so I'm saving them for later :P

@Jane, Graveyard Book is kids book but it's good; a nice and light reading. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
The series is intimidating, I got to give you that, but I've decided I'll face it soon or later. Better soon I guess.

@Lynossa: I'm starting to enjoy it. Especially since I borrowed the illustrated one. It's a good break from reading all the YA books. :)
Oh, good luck on that! And let me know how you find them when you finish. :)

Jane wrote: "@Oon: .... but I think American Gods looks far more serious?"

Yes, it is more serious and full of symbols and deeper layers and I think if you are not really an American, you cannot fully appreciate the book. But it still enjoyable for me :D

Lynossa wrote: "Whoa Oon, seems like an interesting reading. Can I borrow it along with A Visit from the Goon Squad? I promise you I'll take a good care :)"

OK, if I have finished it :D

Everyone: Game of Thrones is worth trying and just start with the first book, if you don't want to continue after that then maybe it's not for you. But if you are hooked up after the first book, then better buy all the sequels at once, you would come to the bookstore less often that way hahaha

Just found this group. I read a lot of books previously, they kind of abandoned as I read the new ones. I WILL finish them, but just don't know when since there are so many new novels to read. They are (from the oldest to the most recent):

1. Happy Ever After (Bride Quartet 04) by Nora Roberts on page 243
2. Archangel's Consort (Guild Hunter 03) by Nalini Singh on page 70
3. Surrender My Love (Viking Family Tree 03) by Johanna Lindsey on page 78
04. The Search by Nora Roberts on page 250
05. Magic Burns (Kate Daniels 02) by Ilona Andrews on page 22
06. Night Embrace (Dark Hunter 03) by Sherrilyn Kenyon on page 50
07. Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood 04) by J.R. Ward on page 14

@Oon: I'll try reading the first book once I'm finished with all the books in my to-read pile :) how many books are there in total?

@Alexandria: Ohh glad to find out that I'm not the only one who reads so many books at once! :D I have short attention span and reading one book at a time bores me big time :(

@Jane: Yeah! Unless that book is so interesting until I can't put the book off :) I love The Search though, it just abandoned under my pile of books. :(

What genre do you like to read?

I just finished 2 books now : Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris and Before Sunrise & Before Sunset: Two Screenplays by RIchard Linklater,Kim Kirzan, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

I enjoyed Of Sound Mind a lot, because the plot is interesting. I used to read the Bahasa version when I was in junior high, and the book has been forgotten. I found a copy from bookdepository.com and the English version is much better (no doubt about this LOL). Quite a page turner. the deeper complexity about deafness that I found in the reality , which sometimes could be a bit hard to understand, somehow the author explained it very well. Lovely book , I suppose :)

Oh, for the screenplay book, I read it because I watched the movie like gazillion times and never get bored of it. I believe that the power of this movie comes from the great script, so I bought this book (finally). Read the script is really a beautiful experience, cause I could picture every scenes, the dialogues, the whole facial expressions and the meaningful conversations.

Oh, writing this down makes me wanna watch the movie again..

Jane wrote: "@Lynossa: I'm starting to enjoy it. Especially since I borrowed the illustrated one. It's a good break from reading all the YA books. :)
Oh, good luck on that! And let me know how you find them whe..."

Yes! The illustration version is the best, although no one can beat A Monster Calls in term of how illustration supports the story.

For me A Game of Thrones is just okay, meaning until now I still haven't felt any connections whatsoever with the characters. I like some but not that much. The story gives me thrill and excitement but perhaps that's what happened when there are too many characters in a story.
But, I'm still reading it and most probably will continue reading the next books in the series, so... so far so good.

@Oon, no need to rush. I've just counted the books in my possession that I haven't read and the number reaches 20ish. So take your time :D

Currently reading Un Lun Dun. China Miville by China Mieville. I really like the phantasmgoria that Mieville built on this book.

Currently reading On Intelligence, a book on artificial intelligence topic, by Jeff Hawkins.

@Alexandria: True that. It's a rare occasion that a book can make me read it until the last page before starting to read another book. I like reading YA fantasy, mostly, but now I'm trying to read books from other genre. Trying to read some kids stories now, like from Diana Wynne Jones and Neil Gaiman. :) How about you?

@alexandria : Yay, I found romance reader here, you go girl! hehe my reading list much longer than you, books made me greedy crazy loony girl.

Nora Roberts - I loved bride quartet series, It's sad that the story have to end, but this one not my fave of the series though. What's your fave?

Dark Hunter Series - wow really loved the series. Talon and Sunshine are interesting couple. I would love to read ur review in this one. But my fave still Acheron and Tory. If u DH fan, u must check Kenyon's web, it awesome, she made the character like really living person.

J.R Ward, BDB series - another fave PNR series, I also still working out in this series. How do you like it so far?

Some author are in my to read list, except Johhanna Lindsey, she's in my never-read-again author. When I tried once again with her new PNR books, its officially made her into my blacklist.

Been reading (and writing) more fanfictions now. But I still have four books loaned from the library that I need to finish: Linger and Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (still!).

Anyway, does anyone know about this book The Raie'Chaeila or something? Has anybody read it?

@Jane: well, I like romance novel the most with whatever genre (historical, contemporer, urban fantasy, paranormal, thriller, YA, etc. Except horror. I can't stand horror). I like fantasy, mystery and fairy tales too. My first novel was Sherlock Holmes. :)

@Adisty: hahaha, yeah, I'm an avid romance reader :D I have loads of books waiting for me, but I don't really have time to read it, because it was e-books and I like hardcopy better. E-books are longer to read. Don't know why.

What are you reading now? I've finished Night Embrace, but I can't really write a review. Couldn't arrange it into a nice reading except I was really into the book :D Haven't read Acheron yet, still a long way to go since it was 24th book. Yup, I've visited Kenyon's website sometime ago, and she had a long list of characters!

About Nora Roberts, it's also not my fave book, that's why it was abandoned, cause usually I read pretty fast. My favorite was between Bed of Roses or Savor the Moment. Couldn't really remember the story though. I like them because a bestfriend-become-lover and friend's-brother-become-lover. I really like that kind of formula :D How about you?

What's PNR? Paranormal? I like it so far. My first BDB book was went with a bang, and that was Lover Awakened. What really captured me was Zsadist's personality. But I don't really like Rhage's Mary though. What's your fave book?

I like Johanna Lindsey just fine, though. It was average, though I do like some of her books. I really curious with what PNR is, cause I thought she only wrote historical novel? And some futuristics. I don't really like Mallory series though. Their age gap was too much! There's one couple who has 16-18 years gap, and another one was 12-14 years. Why do you dislike her books? Just curious :)

Woah, so many posts! Happy reading everyone!

And as for me, still reading Beautiful Creatures and man, what a bore. I have to continuously remind myself that I need to finish it; it's so unremarkable. Not even sure if I'm half-way or not. Still soldering through though; still planning (or hoping rather) to finish it before my copy of The Fault in Our Stars arrive in the mail.

@ Alexandria : What am I reading now? Hmm..it's difficult to say, because I also have loads of book waiting for me :-) But my priority now is BDB seires and Jennifer Cruise Books (if u like contemporary romance, I would like to recommended Cruise's book).

Yup, Acheron definitely still long way to go from Night Embrace. Actually I'm not read all those series, I just pick some interesting story and for the rest I read the review from the other reader.

My fave was Savor the Moment and Vision in White. I also like the friend-become-lover kind a thing, but what I like the most from Nora Roberts was her books used to focused on family and friendship value. That's why I prefer her earlier books such as McGregor series and Chesapeake series.

PNR = paranormal romance
I loved Zsadist. Definitely my fave.

My first book of Lindsey was Mallory series, and I didn't like it at all. Her PNR book I read was Until Forever, and I have to say, it was the worst PNR book I've read so far. Why I dislike her books? I don't like the lack of her characters development, and also despite the great storyline but the execution was very poorly.

I am now reading Divergent by Veronica Roth as an addition to the pile of books I'm reading. Actually, I have not much interest left in Linger because even with the beautiful writing, there's no plot I can follow. So I'm juggling between Divergent and The Graveyard Book.

Enjoy Divergent! I had such fun reading it, I hope you'll do too. One of the superior YA dystopians I think :)

Yes, Divergent is one of the best dystopian YA I've read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Slow progress with Game of Thrones and so many books in my TBR list. I'm tempted to leave it for awhile and pick other book...

Hang in there, Lynossa! You knew going into it that it would require much, much, MUCH commitment. But maybe a break would do you some good. However, you might forget the characters once you get back into it. lol.

What's on your TBR list? I've got lots on my pile too, except I really need to finish Beautiful Creatures first. And The Fault In Our Stars has not arrived yet T-T. Oh, I ordered The Night Circus too, Lynossa. For collection purposes, haha.

C'mon Lynossa! *draw sword* Winterfell!!

On the other hand, IMO a good reader knows when to hang on and when to let go. No shame to put it down if the book is simply not for you.

@Rachel & Reza, I decided to keep going because, like you said Rachel, I might forget who's who and who does what if I take a break from it.

My list consists of Monsters Of Men; How to Steal a Dragon's Sword; Knees Up Mother Earth; The Girl of Fire and Thorns; An Abundance of Katherines and.... the list goes on, lol.

Well, it's worth the money, Rachel. Did you buy the hardcover or softcover?
Btw, how's Beautiful Creatures?

@Rachel & Lynossa: You guys are right! One of the best dystopian books so far... I have trouble putting it down. My hands are glued to it :( I'm neglecting my assignments. Better finish this fast :)

@Lynossa: I'm curious about Monsters of Men. It's been on the display rack in my uni bookstore for a while now. Wondering if it's a really good book or just a hyped one :P

It's the final book of Chaos Walking. You should read the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go. Awesome!

i've finished Stories by Al Sarrantonio and Neil Gaiman. got it in the surabaya airport while waiting for my plane, and it was GOOD. it's a collection of short stories by so many authors with those two guys being the editors. i never thought i'd like a compilation of shorts, but these being on a thriller/fantasy genre, it was unexpectedly(for me at least) very enjoyable.

the thing is, since the stories are each really short, the thrill just never lets up. and with the twist on the end of every story, it was just crazy. highly recommended.

@Lynossa: I bought the soft cover; but same artwork as yours. Only because the other artwork costs so much more! >.< And I FINALLY finished Beautiful Creatures. That book is a completele and total MEH. Nothing special, nothing exciting. Had to really push myself to finish it. Not continuing the series, unless the movie turns out to be uh-maz-ing.

And now I don't want to start anything new, until I get my copy of The Fault In Our Stars. TBD is sloooow.

@Jati: I don't have a very good relationship with compilations. They tend to bore me.

@Adisty: I like all kind of romance. Do you have series to be recommended from Jennifer Cruise? I'd love to read it~

What books did you read from Night Hunter series?
Oh, yes. I also like Roberts' MacGregor series, especially Playing the Odds & Tempting Fate. Don't know why though. What's your fave book? I've yet to read Chesepeake. It'd be on my list then.

Yes, my first Lindsey's book was also Mallory series, and I didn't like it much. I agree with her having a great idea and storyline, but the execution was not good enough. Sometimes, I felt disappointed because previously I was so eager reading her book because that looked promising, but it didn't match up my expectation, or like you said, the execution was poorly made.

@Alexandria : I think u should read "Bet Me", it was the most popular installment of Cruise, though others was also well written. And I would like to recommended Susan Elizabeth Phillips's "Match Me If U can", the book was my fave of hers (I said it with the fact that I loved all her books). Ups, I put another notch on your "to read" list :-D

It's hard to decide which one of the McGregors I loved the most, because I loved them all. I adore McGregor clan, so I guess the answer is : no favoritism.

Night Hunter = Dark Hunter??? Hmmmm 1-5, 10, 15, 20, and some their side story. DH was totally forgotten, right now I absolutely engross with BDB. My finger itch to pick BDB #10, Tohrment story was so heartbreaking it made me shed a tears for him, but I give vow that I would read the series with properly order.