#27: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 1 star.
#28: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King: 1 star.
#29: Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle: 2 stars.
#30: Reality Boy by A.S. King: 1 star.
#31: Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern: 3 stars.
#32: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: 1 star.
#33: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: 2 stars.
#34: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: 2 stars.
#35: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle: 2 stars.
#36: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket: 1 star.
#37: The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket: 2 stars.
#38: The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket: 1 star.
#39: The Purloined Paperweight by P.G. Wodehouse: 4 stars.
I have read a lot of Wodehouse in my time. They are all the same; in fact, they are the same plots used in comedy in Ancient Rome. Wodehouse is all about the wordplay.
What George was thinking was that the late King Herod had been unjustly blamed for a policy which had been both statesmanlike and in the interests of the public. He was blaming the mawkish sentimentality of the modern legal system which ranks the evisceration and secret burial of small boys as a crime.
Do you know this site? http://www.drones.com/pgw.cgi
Which is precisely why I’m finding that he’s more hit-or-miss than your average author. Either his wordplay’s enough to make up for the plots all being the same or they aren’t and what didn’t bother me before suddenly becomes another reason to be disappointed in him, as if I really was going to get anything besides what I ended up getting.
Can’t say I do, but it does make me want to read more Wodehouse right away. I have PSmith in the City and PSmith, Journalist sitting on my shelf right now and should be getting to those in the next few days. Rounding out my stack are Brain on Fire (checked it out after reading the review on here), Thank You for Smoking (love the movie), Jesus Land, and Lost in a Good Book. The library’s also holding 5 more books for me until Thursday. This should give you an idea of the sort of pace I’m keeping this year.
Leave It to Psmith is a delight. I also highly recommend Quick Service and the Blandings books, such as If Pigs Could Fly (?).
Quick Service is actually one of the five books the library is holding for me!
I know you’re a completionist (and I get it, because I can be as well) because you keep making your way through all these series even when you stop enjoying them, but I would say if you don’t like the second Thursday Next book, you should probably let that series go. I read the first three because I actually liked the first one, but after that Fforde just becomes too impressed by his own intelligence, and has way too much whimsy for the sake of whimsy at the expense of a good plot.
Also, thanks for the shout out. I think that is part of what Collins is doing – showing how someone can become an unwitting symbol of something without wanting to, but I can also see where it would be frustrating to have a character at the center of the action who doesn’t want to be.
It’s part completionism (perhaps not a word, but it should be), part extreme open-mindedness. Now and then, the unexpected happens and a book I should by all estimations have hated winds up being a pleasant surprise. This happens more frequently with movies, but it’s happened with books before too. But I’ll be sure to keep your warning in mind.