Book Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Macmillan Classics Edition by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I understand that this book is a classic, and I'm glad to say that I've finally read it. However, I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I know wonderland is a very fantastical place with many out of the ordinary circumstances, but I felt that this book was lacking in terms of plot and character development. It was very jumpy and not an enjoyable read for me.

I gave this book 3/5 stars because I thought it was so/so and I could take it or leave it.

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Book Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This books has been on my TBR list for such a long time, like a decade or more. I'm glad that I finally took the opportunity to read it. This was also my first book in my challenge to myself to read the Great American Read list. I have to say I'm not disappointed by my first choice.

I loved the author's ability to build the characters and the world. Sometimes I have a hard time visualizing what the author is saying, not so with this book. I felt as if I was walking with Victor through the story. I could vividly see the beautiful landscapes and homes. I could see myself in his various labs as he was creating his monsters.

I also enjoyed reading about the inner struggles of Victor as he wrestled with himself and what he had done to the world. I enjoyed being in the monster's mind as he is teaching himself to read and interact with the human world. It was all very fascinating to me.

I loved the plot of this book. It was a wonderful story of creation, horror, love and revenge. This book would entertain a wide audience and I believe that is why it has stood the test of time and become a literary classic.

If you have an opportunity to pick up this book, you should. You won't be disappointed at all.

A challenge to myself and a shift in the blog

It's been well over a full year since I have posted here. There are many reasons for that, but the one I'll talk about is the fact that I haven't found anything to spark my reading interest. I've picked up and started 5 different books and put them all down without finishing them. It's been a rough reading year to say the least.

Having said that, I believe that I've found a project that I want to take on in terms of reading and I'm actually excited about it. I'm sure many of you are aware of "The Great American Read". If you aren't familiar with it, you can click here to go to the website. The basic gist of it is that there has been a list compiled of the 100 greatest american reads. It's actually closer to 200 books since they count entire series as one entry on the list. My goal is to read this entire list. I'm going to be realistic about this project. I'm guessing it will take me 4 to 5 years to get through this list. I like to think I read more than that, but I usually don't. If I've already read a series on the list, I'm going to read it again. There is one series on the list that will probably not get read. I have no desire to read the "50 shades" books.

What this means for the blog is that I will not be taking books for review right now, but I will be reviewing each of the books and the series that I read on this list. If I'm reading a long series from the list (such as "The Wheel of Time"), I will post updates on how my reading is going. That way there shouldn't be any long drawn out spans with no content on the site.

I've already chosen my first book on the list and I'm about halfway finished with it. I'm kicking off this challenge by reading Frankenstein. It's my hope that this list gets me jump started back into the reading world.

For those of you that have stuck around to read this after such a long break on the blog, thank you so much.