Category: Regular Segments

Question Tuesday: Describe Your Ideal, Money-no-Object, Home Library

Posted July 10, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments

I’ve always wanted a little reading room with floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall bookshelves, full of great books. I would especially love a whole lot of old leather bound books to grace my bookshelves. The shelves would be made out of a nice timber and the shelves themselves will be jammed pack with books that it might even be impossible to add any more books to the shelves; this is why there are piles of books on the floor as well. In the middle of the room, I would want some comfortable reading chairs with a nice coffee table to keep my notepad and coffee while I read as well as some reading lamps and I would want this room to be cool and comfortable to read in.  This is also my idea of a man cave, maybe add a computer in the corner where I can write blog posts and book reviews and even catch up on twitter and goodreads. It doesn’t have to be a big room as long as the shelves are full of great books to read and enjoy. Even if I’m become more and more of a kindle reader, I would still want to be surrounded by books.

Here’s an example (with a chair not a bed)

Read it 1st – Coming Adaptations

Posted July 5, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Adaptations / 0 Comments

readit1stSince become a bibliophile I’ve tried to read the books before seeing the movie adaptation, but this is often difficult; there are so many books being made into movies and often I don’t find out about them until closer to the release date. There is a site called Read it 1st which sends out newsletters of books being turned into movies but sadly this site has been inactive for a while and Hank Green is just too busy doing all the jobs. So with a little help from an article from iO9 and some Google searching I’ve decided to give people an idea of the 30 new film adaptations currently in the works. Just a warning some of these movies are still in development and some may never make it to a release date.

  • All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
  • Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
  • Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
  • Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
  • Delirium by Lauren Oliver
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • If I Stay by Gayle Forman
  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  • Maximum Ride by James Patterson
  • Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
  • Neuromancer by William Gibson
  • Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac
  • Ready Player One by Ernie Cline
  • Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
  • Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
  • The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan
  • The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Hobbit by JRR Tolken
  • The Host by Stephenie Meyer
  • The Maze Runner by James Dashner
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  • The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
  • Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
  • Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
  • Wettest County by Matt Bondurant
  • World War Z by Max Brooks

Question Tuesday: Have You Ever Felt That The Story Ended Just When The Real Story Was About To Begin?

Posted July 3, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments

There are times when I feel like the book is just getting started when the book ends but then again there are times I feel a sense of closure from a book even if there is more books in the series. I haven’t read the rest of The Hunger Games series because I felt like the book ended at a good place and all I could see is an annoying love triangle if I went any further. But that might be another post; so I will head back to the original question. There are so many books I would love to have seen continued where I felt the story was just getting started or even that there was more of the story to be told. In Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, Nancy is finally happy and I would like to know what happens next. Or Looking for Alaska by John Green where I feel we can continue Miles story and explore more of his life and the effects Alaska had on him thoughout the rest of his life; even though I think John Green did end the book in a good place. Also speaking of John Green, in Will Grayson Will Grayson, Tiny is finally appreciated at the end, I’m sure there is more of a story to tell there as well.

I know authors finish a story and that’s it, the characters cease to exist beyond that, but it is really hard not to wonder what might happen to these characters that we have formed a bond with. I’m not sure but I think this is why people write fanfic. The fall in love with these great characters and they want them to keep on living in one form or another.

Monthly Review – June 2012

Posted June 30, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments

What a great month we have had; with the reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray via the bookclub. There was some interesting discussions taken place about first impressions, the criticism, the idea of Prose vs. Plot? and Style vs. Substance? as well as people’s final thoughts of the book. If you haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Gray yet, when you do get around to it, please feel free to join in on the discussions. Remember next month we will be having a look at unusual settings in Literature and reading Life of Pi.

As for this blog, we have had some exciting conversations and with Armchair BEA being hosted earlier this year we have been pleased to welcome all the new readers and commenters here. It has been such a wonderful experience and I’m so pleased to be involved. My Google reader is now full of awesome blogs to read and comment on.

My personal reading this month has been wonderful; I’ve discovered some wonderful books, but also had a bit of a rage about one book in particular. Highlights from the twelve books I’ve managed to read this month include The Last Kind Words, a book of crime and family with shades of an Noir narrative this book blends mystery with literary elements. Empire State is a fun read set in an alternative world, the book blends Science Fiction with Superhero and Pulp elements; also the publisher has some interesting ideas on expanding this world. Gone Girl was the biggest highlight of the month (review will be up next month) a novel that kept me on the edge of the sit and occupied all my free time.

June’s Books

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Posted June 28, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Classic, Gothic / 0 Comments

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeTitle: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Goodreads)
Author: Oscar Wilde
Published: Barnes & Noble Classics, 1890
Pages: 248
Genres: Classic
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I feel perplexed about The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. On one hand, the story is well written about a young man being moulded and shaped. On the other hand, this book was incredibly flowery and doesn’t really start for 100 pages. Dorian doesn’t really know about life and meets an artist and an aristocrat that help him though his journey into manhood. The artist paints his portrait, subsequently making him keep his youth. The aristocrat had the biggest influence on Dorian Gray, though Lord Harry Wotton is very annoying. He talks and talks the whole way through this book, thinking he’s so witty.

Dorian Gray starts off in this novel as a blank slate, an easily influenced young man. Throughout the rest of the story he gets moulded and pushed into shape. After Basil paints his portrait Dorian starts to unravel, afraid to show the picture, he locks it way in a room and never lets anyone see it, protecting it at all costs. The whole thing symbolising the way we hide our real selves from the rest of the world, scared of what they may think.

The Picture of Dorian Gray would have been controversial in its day, with strong homosexual themes. Though the book itself is more about the life and morality, Oscar Wilde did a brilliant job of capturing this element of the book. For me the biggest downfall of this book was that Lord Wotton was too loud and dominates throughout the entire book.

Question Tuesday: Books are Better than the Movies; Any Exceptions?

Posted June 26, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments

“Never judge a book by its movie” – J.W. Eagan

I’m not sure if I’ve seen a movie that I liked more than the book. I know if I read American Psycho before seeing the movie I might have enjoyed it more. I think there are plenty of examples of books I didn’t enjoy because I saw the movie first. Others include Psycho by Robert Bloch and Limitless by Alan Glynn. There are a few movies that I enjoyed more than the books, like The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson and The Hunter by Richard Stark (Payback, 1999) There are books I thought were average and I would rather invest 2 hours watching the movie than 8 or more hours reading the books. Even if the movies turned out bad, it was still less of an investment than reading the book.

Graphic novels seem to be the best at being adapted to movies. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, Sin City by Frank Miller, Kick Ass by Mark Millar and V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Watchman by Alan Moore all seem to be good examples of that. While all these graphic novels are decent, I prefer the movies over the books. I’m sure many people will disagree with this but that’s my opinion. What movies do people prefer over the books?

While we are on the topic of Movie Adaptions; one of the things I hate most about them, is when the cover of the books change to match the movie posters or even the name of the book changing to match. I really hate owning a book with the movie name or cover on it but sometimes there is just no getting away from it.

What Books Have Been Trending – April-June 2012

Posted June 25, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book Trends / 0 Comments

Back in March I did a post where I talked about what books I’ve noticed were trending for the first three months of 2012. I loved doing this post and thought it was really interesting looking at what was popular and what was been talked about. There is no real science to the books I’ve picked for this post, I looked at Goodreads and Twitter and book blogs and just picked the books that seemed to be mentioned. Sure there are probably other books that were trending but the post was just an interesting way to reflect on what was popular. Since this post I’ve had been thinking about trending books more and more and have been keeping an eye on what seems popular so I thought maybe I could do something similar again. In fact maybe I can do this every quarter as a way to look at what’s been happening in book trends. I’d like to have a better system and I hope with practice and help maybe these trending posts will become more accurate and maybe more frequent.

In the last post I tried to predict a book that would be trend in the next few months; my pick was Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.   While it seemed to do really well, unfortunately the book was outshined by the ever annoying popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey. So let’s look at what I’ve noticed trending for the past three months (minus Fifty Shades) and for the sake of not flooding the post with YA novels I will only pick one or two of the most popular Young Adult book for each month (YA book bloggers might want to focus on these books, I would rather have more of an overview from all genres).

April

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is a mostly true memoir of one of the most known bloggers of our time; Jenny Lawson, also known as The Bloggess. Her blog averages close to half a million page views a month; now that is the kind of readership I can only dream of.

 

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa looks like it has every key ingredients to make this book a popular YA novel; Vampires, Paranormal Romance and a dystopian world, so it was no surprise this book trended from the very start of publication. The Immortal Rules is a fantastical is the story of Allison who has to face the difficult choice; to die or become one of the monsters (vampire).

The Selection by Kiera Cass is another dystopian young adult romance, but this one seems to be written to be more like a fairy tale. Maybe this book would be more suited as a gateway between YA romance and chick lit, but I’ve not read it so couldn’t tell you. The Selection is about a woman named American hoping to win the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

May

Book twelve of the ever popular Southern Vampire Mysteries (or should I call it the Sookie Stackhouse series or maybe True Blood), Deadlocked was always going to trend. This time there is trouble and bad timing for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially when the body is of a woman whose blood he just drank.

 

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is book two in the popular dystopian YA; Divergant series. Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

 

Book five in The Mortal Instruments series, City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clair is another paranormal romance YA novel, this one features vampires, angels and demons. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg was released back in February but it wasn’t till May that I seemed to see this Non-Fiction novel being mentioned. This might have something to do with the #fridayreads giveaway of this book. In this book, Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed.

June

Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel is back with the next book in the Wolf Hall series; Bring Up the Bodies. This book continues the Tudor history, but this time focusing mainly on the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. Read my reveiw of Wolf Hall here.

 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn seems to be the first mystery/thriller to trend since last year’s Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. Amy’s disappearance leads to a gripping and chilling book of love, hate and revenge. I’m currently enjoying this book at the moment.

 

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead is the second book in the Bloodlines series; which is a spinoff of her popular Vampire Academy series. This is another vampire, paranormal YA novel that always seems to be popular and dominate the book trends.

 

Nick Harkaway does make it into the book trends but not with the expected Angelmaker but with is non-fiction book The Blind Giant. The digital age;an age of isolation, warped communication, disintegrating community. Where unfiltered and unregulated information pours relentlessly into our lives, destroying what it means to be human; or an age of marvels.

I did try to cover both fiction and non-fiction book as well as adult and young adult books. I hope I didn’t flood this post with too many YA novels. While I’ve not read any of these books there is a few that look interesting and I’m looking forward to checking out. Like the last post, I feel I should try and predict a book that will trend next quarter (not a YA novel, as they are a little easier to predict. So my pick for next quarter is The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. This Post-Apocalyptic novel follows the story of Hig a pilot that has survived the flu that killed everyone he knows and loves. I’m expecting it to be a book of love, loss, risk, rediscovery and battling against the odds. I would love to know what other thing of the books that have trended, which books did I miss and what should we keep an eye out in the next three months.

Question Tuesday: Do You Remember Learning to Read and How You Were Taught?

Posted June 19, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments

I don’t really remember learning to read, but I do remember being read to a lot when I was young, there were books that I knew all the words from repetitive reading. When I was a little boy, my favourite book was There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards about an imaginary Hippo on the roof eating cake, it turned out to be ‘special’ cake (whatever that means). This seemed to progress and my father use to always read books to the kids and as we grow up the books got more complicated and more interesting stories. I think this might have started my love of audiobooks; I just love being told a story, it’s very relaxing. My father read us the Spirit Flyer Series by John Bibee and The Cooper Kids Adventures by Frank Peretti. Even during primary school I remember story time and listening to Roald Dahl books.

These were my first memories of books, but I don’t really remember reading much back then. I do remember when my little brother and sister been born and reading children’s books with them, I remember In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak seemed to be a favourite of my little brother. To this day I remember the entire story of There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake and In the Night Kitchen, that I probably could recite the entire books by heart. Given the fact that I loved books and stories back then, I’m really surprised how long it took me to become a reader. I remember starting off as a very slow reader but I think I read at a decent speed now. Sometimes I wish I could read faster and retain more of the information but I’m happy that I found joy in reading. I really wish I knew more about learning how to read, I might have to ask my parents about that.

Question Tuesday: Should Taxpayers Subsidise Writing Programs and Awards?

Posted June 12, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments

Yes.

For the sake of a blog post, I better expand on this answer. I think the government should set money aside for the arts and when they get neglected, I get very upset. See my post about the Queensland Government Cutting Literary Award in order to save $244,000 of a $47,000,000,000 budget. I don’t think taxpayers should be subsidising every writer but I do believe there is a need for state and national writer awards that would bestow unpublished authors with a publishing contract and publicity.

I think that Australia does a great job in helping writers get a start in the industry. With programs like state writing centres which helps train writers into refining their arts, and the Australian/Vogel Literary Award which recognises writers under the age of 35 with unpublished manuscripts. Even though the Queensland government has cut funding to the Queensland Literary Awards, this award will continue to run, even if they are unable to give some prize money to the winners.

I’m sure there is more money being put in to developing writers within Australian that I haven’t mentioned. It does surprise me just how much our government does for the arts. Sure, I would like to see more money put into the arts but I’m sure many people within Australian would object to that. I’m not sure what it’s like for writers in other countries but I think I truly live in a great country.

There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either.” — Robert Graves

Monthly Review – May 2012

Posted May 31, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments

What a great month we have had here at Literary Exploration. The site was officially launched on the 1st and we have been releasing a new post every one to two days. I really hope we can keep up this momentum and I’ve been working hard to get more and more content on the site for your enjoyment.  You might have noticed some older books being reviewed on the site as well as some new releases and ARCs. I hope you are enjoying the mixture of old and new as well as the different genres because we plan to read books and put up content of all types of books. We are proud to have a guest post up already as well as two books that I’m hoping people will enjoy when they are released in June.

On the forums on Goodreads we have been reading the classic detective novel; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. This was the first time I’ve ever read this book and I’m still trying to work out why it took me so long to read it. Next month we will be reading another classic novel, when we read the Victorian novel; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I hope you can join in the discussions on Goodreads and have your say on what books we will read in the future.

My reading has been going really well this month, from trying out my first book in the popular Harry Hole series, to the laughs of the weird things customers say in bookstores. Highlights for me included the Russian classic Crime and Punishment which may be a massive book; it was just a beautiful crime novel and a real joy to read. Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan which will be released on the 26th of June is an exciting follow up to The Last Werewolf; it’s dark, gritty, over sexed and I highly recommend it. As well as Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell and Drive by James Sallis which are both great crime novels.

May’s Books