Celebrating Book #100!I finished my 100th book of the year, today, so it's party time! Here's the champagne ------>
Go ahead, have a slurp. I promise it won't make you trip and break your nose on the pavement. What more could you ask for?
#100 was Lying With Strangers by James Grippando, a gripping suspense novel full of tense moments, marital conflict, infidelity, and kidnapping, with a dead body here and there. I'd give it a 4.5/5 with addendum: it's no literary masterpiece. It's always difficult rating books that are a great deal of fun but which have no beautiful sentences worth sharing, so I have to throw in that mild disclaimer that one shouldn't expect anything brilliant - just an exciting ride. In fact, some parts of it were pretty predictable and other portions were just flat silly, but that didn't bother me, either, as I needed something Brain Light and Lying With Strangers did keep me entertained without any real exertion of brain power. I don't feel like reviewing it, for some reason.
Thanks to Queen Barbara of Pennsylvania (so named because she is a reading queen) for sending me this book!!
What's up next . . .
Bookwise, no idea. I keep picking books up and putting them down. I'm supposed to read Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult as a group read but am currently not in the mood to read a Picoult novel. However, nothing else seems to be really calling to me. I might attempt one of my fatties. We shall see. Even though Lying With Strangers required little brain power, I still found myself occasionally rereading entire paragraphs, so I think indecision and fatigue may be interconnected, here. Thus, this Bookfool is off to bed. I may post a bit less this week as I have hidden from housework for a few too many days and the clutter is attacking me. Wish me luck. As my mother likes to say, I'm "not very domestic".
Hi Bookfool! I love "an exciting ride", so this one will be added onto my TBR list. Thanks.
ReplyDelete^5 to you on reading 100 books this year!
Nancy, sometimes the brain-candy reads are tough to review. They're light and fluffy, but don't give you much to write about. I've felt that way about most of the thrillers (particularly in a series) I've read lately. And then there are days when I just don't have much to say about a recent read (as I discovered this weekend). Especially if I don't take the time to write up a review before moving on to other books. Oh, and congrats on your #100!! My numbers are down this year, I think. I'll try to remember to add 'em up tonight.
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ReplyDeleteCongrats, that is awesome! I set my goal at 50, which was a far cry above what I read the last few years and I'm only 4 books away from that. At this pace I should hit between 60 and 70 for the year so I'm pretty happy.
ReplyDeleteJoy,
ReplyDeleteIt's Give A Friend a Book Week and I'd be honored to send you my copy, if you don't mind a dust jacket with a couple of bent places (think "free" - always a favorite word of mine).
Thanks, for the ^5 - slapping you right back, here. :)
Les,
You're so right. Thrillers are often hard to describe, partly because to do so will often ruin them for other readers. Since I went off Ambien, I'm having a terrible problem with fatigue, so that's probably part of the difficulty I'm having with doing a review, this past week. Thanks for the kudos.
Incidentally, I write down the number (in a little circle), title, author, and number of pages of each book finished on the day completed in my calendar. I've been doing that for at least a decade and I save my calendars (I get the monthly kind, so they're thin). It's a nice, easy way to keep track of how many books you've read. I've kept a running total of pages, this year, also. It's kind of fun and maybe a little anal - makes me yearn for my days as an accounting intern.
Carl,
My annual goal used to be 1 per week or 52 books a year. As far as I'm concerned, anything over that is worth partying over. LOL Good for you on having such a great reading year!!
I've only recently bumped my goal up to 100. I think hanging out with other readers (first in online reading groups and now blogs) has really provided incentive, as well as way too many titles to add to my wish list!! Love your avatar, btw. :)
Way to go, Bookfool! That really is an awesome accomplishment. Now I want to go back and count mine. I'm sure it's not anywhere near that high.
ReplyDeleteI love mysteries and thrillers. This is an author I've not read before so I look forward to it.
May I ask why you are going off Ambien?
Thanks Booklogged. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I'd ever heard of James Grippando before the ladies in one of my book groups began reading Lying with Strangers, so he's new to me.
I'm going off Ambien for a couple of reasons. I think it may be causing a yucky side-effect (although I am unfortunately stuck taking several meds year-round, so I can't say for sure) and I figured that stopping it will either reverse the problem or clue me in that it's caused by something else. Also, my neurologist is dead-set against long-term use of knock-out meds and is trying to talk me into trying another prophylactic for the migraines because they've gotten way too frequent. Since he loudly railed against the use of Ambien, I sort of haven't mentioned, ahem, that I was still taking it. I figured I should stop before trying another preventive med, just in case of interaction problems.
I may give up, though. The lack of sleep really makes me a nutcase!
Bookfool - being in the middle of a brain candy break myself, I have to agree with what Les said.
ReplyDeleteI love thrillers too, might have to add this one to The List :-)
Congrats on reaching 100!
I keep track of my books in an excel spreadsheet on my palm pilot (I'm such a geek!)
Oh, SuziQ, you're so organized! I want to be a geek like you, when I grow up. :)
ReplyDeleteI just finished another great book that was quick and enjoyably Brain Light, so watch for the upcoming review.
Oops, forgot to say thanks, Q!!
ReplyDeleteWow! Congrats on your 100th book! I haven't even reached 40 yet. You'll have to post about your favourite books of 2006 at the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteSo...do you have a list of these 100 books we can peruse? (Or did I miss it?)
ReplyDeleteI've never kept track of books I read in a year. I probably should.
What do you do with books you start, but don't finish?
I added up my totals last night (own vs. library; female vs. male; quit vs. read; fiction vs. nonfiction). So far I've read 57 books. I'll save all the other info for my yearly synopsis. :)
ReplyDeleteNat,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're about on track for a book a week, which I think is fantastic (esp. since that used to be my annual goal and I didn't always succeed). Yes, I'm sure I'll end up doing some kind of year-end summary or favorite books of the year post.
Colleen,
If I can squeeze in the time, I'll try to write up the 100 I've read so far. My husband keeps saying, "Oh, and could you also--" Grrr.
Usually, when I set a book aside I just leave the bookmark inside and return to it later. If I keep picking it up and it doesn't "take", I'll swap it or give it away. And, sometimes I'll have to start over, but usually only if I don't get very far into a book. I don't count unfinished books. Actually, I don't pay much attention to what I've set aside, although I thought A Long Fatal Love Chase was worth mentioning.
Les,
You're a natural list-maker, aren't you? I never even think about male vs. female, myself. I just grab whatever appeals to me. 57 books sounds like a pretty good number to me!
Yep. That's me. I'd be lost without all my lists. :)
ReplyDeletespeaking of "grrr"'s.. trying to leave a comment on here lately, keeps giving me errors..
ReplyDeletejust wanted to say congrats again.
Thanks, Angela. Sorry about the error messages. I'm getting those periodically, also.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on reading a 100 books this year, it's no small feat! I haven't counted how many I've read, but I'd be very surprised if it's over 30! Here's to your next 100, bookfool!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lotus. :)
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