Category Archives: Poll

Read or skip #3

Posted on by
8

READ OR SKIP

Inspired by book blogger Davida, at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog, herself inspired by a couple of other bloggers (see here for instance). I plan to post about it on Saturdays, except the 1st Sat of the month, when I usually feature another meme.

The rules are simple:

  1. Sort your Goodreads TBR shelf from oldest to new
  2. Pick the first 5 or 10 (or whatever number you choose, depending on how large your list is) books you see
  3. Decide whether to keep them or get rid of them.

RESULTS FOR PREVIOUS READ OR SKIP

READ: 6, 7
MAYBE: 9 (I created a new Goodreads shelf for this – To read, maybe)
SKIP: 5, 8

read-or-skip-2

READ OR SKIP #3

#readorskip

Reading, language, translation.

read-or-skip-3

 

 

8) Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

9) Days of Reading

  • “In these inspiring essays about why we read, Proust explores all the pleasures and trials that we take from books.”
  • Short book, great topic, nice opportunity to read a bit more by Proust, after having read all of his In Search of Lost Time
    READ

10) Hunting and Gathering

  • Long book
  • BUT I liked the first book I read by her, French Leave. I’m sure she has even more to offer. Lots of great ratings
    READ

11) Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation

  • “‘Translation is always a shift, not between two languages but between two cultures. A translator must take into account rules that are not strictly linguistic but, broadly speaking, cultural.’ Umberto Eco is of the world’s most brilliant and entertaining writers on literature and language. In this accessible and dazzling study, he turns his eye on the subject of translations and the problems the differences between cultures can cause. The book is full of little gems about mistranslations and misunderstandings.”
  • Great author, especially language, and topic of great interest to me, as a translator myself
    READ

12) Limits of Language

  • Great topic
  • BUT sounds more like snippets, the humor may bother me, plus apparently the author uses the pronoun ‘she’ by default, which always drives me nuts. I read, ‘she’, and am, wait, who is talking about>
    SKIP

So now, what do YOU think? Am I right to skip 8 and 12? Any other I should skip?
I will inform you of my final choice when I publish the next post for this meme.

HAVE YOU READ THESE?
READ OR SKIP?
I ALSO WELCOME SUGGESTIONS
FOR GOOD BOOKS ON SIMILAR THEMES

 

Read or skip #2

Posted on by
12

READ OR SKIP

Inspired by book blogger Davida, at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog, herself inspired by a couple of other bloggers (see here for instance). I plan to post about it on Saturdays, except the 1st Sat of the month, when I usually feature another meme.

The rules are simple:

  1. Sort your Goodreads TBR shelf from oldest to new
  2. Pick the first 5 or 10 (or whatever number you choose, depending on how large your list is) books you see
  3. Decide whether to keep them or get rid of them.

RESULTS FOR PREVIOUS READ OR SKIP

READ: 1, 2, 3
MAYBE: 4 (I created a new Goodreads shelf for this – To read, maybe)
SKIP: 5

read or skip #1

READ OR SKIP #2

#readorskip

Today’s batch has a lot of books about books.

read-or-skip-2

1) Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World

  • “Part travel story, part love story, and part memoir” – the part love story bothers me here.
  • Less than 4.00 rating
  • BUT can I skip a book about books?
    SKIP

2) The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

3) Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

  • “This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language… Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists.”
  • The highest ranking here for the 3 books about books in this batch
    READ

4) The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

  • “In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Buzbee, a former bookseller and sales representative, celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore… Interwoven throughout is an historical account of the bookseller’s trade”. This second element sounds attracting.
  • BUT a blogger I trust wrote “excruciatingly boring”
    Probably READ

5) Howards End is on the Landing

  • “‘Howards End is on the Landing’ charts the journey of one of the nation’s most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing:.
  • Is it really worth it?
    Probably SKIP

So now, what do YOU think? Am I right for 1, 2, and 3?
And I need your input for 4 and 5 to finalize my decision.
I will inform you of my final choice when I publish the next post for this meme.
Here is an easy way to vote.
Please feel free to also comment.

HAVE YOU READ THESE?
READ OR SKIP?
I ALSO WELCOME SUGGESTIONS
FOR GOOD BOOKS ON SIMILAR THEMES

 

Read or skip #1

Posted on by
11

READ OR SKIP

I decided to start this meme, inspired by book blogger Davida, at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog, herself inspired by a couple of other bloggers (see here for instance). I plan to post about it on Saturdays, except the 1st Sat of the month, when I usually feature another meme.

The rules are simple:

  1. Sort your Goodreads TBR shelf from oldest to new
  2. Pick the first 5 or 10 (or whatever number you choose, depending on how large your list is) books you see
  3. Decide whether to keep them or get rid of them.

READ OR SKIP #1

#readorskip

read or skip #1

Along the years, I have edited a lot my Goodreads TBR, but as you can see, we are still going back to history, as my oldest titles were added 8 years ago… So I thought this exercise would be well worth it. And I need your help!

1) The Thirteenth Tale

  • Bloggers have been recently raving about her latest book, Once Upon a River!
  • “a love letter to reading”
  • a historical mystery, it seems
  • BUT 400 pages, so it better be very good
    READ

2) Love in the Time of Cholera

3) Fingerprints of the Gods: Evidence of Earth’s Lost Civilization

  • “Connecting puzzling clues scattered throughout the world, Hancock discovers compelling evidence of a technologically and culturally advanced civilization that was destroyed and obliterated from human memory”. That’s compelling, even though I may consider it at the edge of nonfiction and fantasy, or pure madness!
  • I read his The Sign and The Seal, and was captivated by it
  • Very high rating
    Probably READ

4) The Rest is Noise

  • “The end result is not so much a history of twentieth-century music as a history of the twentieth century through its music”. That could be an interesting and original overview of the century, especially as I like music
  • High rating
  • BUT big book
    Probably READ

5) So Many Books, So Little Time

  • A book about books!
  • My friend Readerbuzz loved it
  • BUT there are tons of similar and more recent books out there, with a higher rating
    Probably SKIP

So now, I need your input, especially for #3, 4, and 5 to finalize my decision.
I will inform you of my final choice when I publish the next post for this meme.
I have created a poll on Twitter for #5. Please go and vote

HAVE YOU READ THESE?
READ OR SKIP?
I ALSO WELCOME SUGGESTIONS
FOR GOOD BOOKS ON SIMILAR THEMES