Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Bout of Books Tuesday update

To my complete lack of surprise, turns out it is hard to get much reading done when you are stuck in the house with two kids suffering cabin fever.  We also just found out the school is cancelled tomorrow too.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 

Number of pages I’ve read today: 156 + 60 + 17 = 233 (so far baring more insomnia)
Added insomnia reading: 240 pages
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Total number of pages I've read: 793 + 240 =  1123
Books today: 
The Book of Heroes by Miyuki Miyabe (60 pages so far) - a good story so far but it takes concentration to follow.  From the back of the book "When her brother Hiroki disappears after a violent altercation with school bullies, Yukiro finds a magical book in his room. The book leads her to another world where she learns that Hiroki has been possessed by the evil King in Yellow, and that only she can save him and solve the riddle of why the King is also called Hero." The first chapter is pretty deep - looking at the fallout from violence in a school through the eyes of the perpetrator's younger sister. Magical elements have been introduced, but it is somewhat slow going.  Not bad, just slow and somewhat deep. 

I finished To the Moon and Back by Jill Mansell (156 pages to finish the 429 page book).  So far this is really the Mansell book that I have liked least. Every story was a variation on "love at first sight" which ARGH is my least favorite excuse for relationships to develop. This one was not on my original list so I am not counting it as part of the three book goal.  I will be counting it in all of my totals though.

I also read the first chapter of The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker.  I picked this book up yesterday in a flying visit to the bookstore when I grabbed a few things to try to keep the kids entertained as we got froze in due to the weather.

 * and then I woke up and read some more last night.  I decided to finish reading a book that my son read last week The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (I got 240 pages in). What an odd little book.  I can see why my son liked it, though honestly if you strip out all of the self contained hype (like the entirety of chapter 17), there isn't that much going on in the story.  It was getting pretty wearing really.

Plus - the Book I Read with my Daughter during the Blizzard which I am not quite sure how to count.  Reading with my daughter is a normal thing - though I would love to read to her even more.

Challenges: 2 
Completed Reading Tactics List -- Sarah Says Read
Completed Audiobook Cast -- Geeky Bloggers Book Blog
"Cast your Book Challenge!
If you were listening to the book being acted out over the radio waves who would you want being the voices of your favorite characters!"
This one was hard!  I had a terrible time trying to think of people to fill in the roles with the right kinds of voices and ability to convey the events in the story well. 

The book I would cast is Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.

Number Ten Ox (Lu-Yu): this is turning out to be really hard! The book is told from Number Ten Ox's point of view. Eek - Jerry Tondo ? (the voice of Chien-po from Mulan) or the voice of BD Wong? (Shang from Mulan) - someone halfway in between those would be good.  The only young Asian actors I know about are also pop singers and wouldn't sound right at all. Help??? 
Li Kao (Master Li): Jackie Chan
Lotus Cloud: Michelle Yeoh 
The Ancestress: Lucy Liu  (I think she would have way more fun playing this role than one of the good girls)
The August Personage of Jade: George Takei ?

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