2015

Little readingrat, have you forgotten you didn’t want to put pressure onto yourself via reading lists? Well, I can still write lists, right? Doesn’t mean I have to stick to them. Looking back, I actually never have. Those quarter lists always ended up to be largely ignored. So, just for the fun of it, here are the books I might read this spring, if I happen to be in the right mood …

Oh, your eyes are just fine! It really is “fantastical horse novels”. I could have gone with YA high fantasy, or strong female characters, or blue covers. But come one, that would have been boring! Why not talk about something out of the ordinary? …

Choosing 10 all-time favourites from the past three years (2012-2014) wasn’t as hard as I thought. The more books I read, the more choosy I become. I’m not as easily impressed as I once was which is indicated by the dwindling number of 5-star books. However, a novel doesn’t neccessarily have to be a 5-star read to become a favourite …

I really enjoyed Mistborn: The Final Empire. It made me smile, laugh out loud, scream, tear out my hair, and cry rivers of tears – and yes, these are all good attributes in a novel. And yet, I’m not as crazy about it as everyone else I know. Maybe my expectations were a little too high with all the buzz around me. Maybe I was too wary about becoming yet again the odd one out. And as much as I tried to love it, somehow I felt distant. I wasn’t able to completely immerse myself in this fantastic world and really connect with the characters. I see the beauty of the novel, I see why everyone else loves it. I can write a raving review – as an onlooker. Unfortunately, for me personally, it just didn’t click (which isn’t as bad as it sounds. It just means that it didn’t have that certain something for me).

January was awesome! I blame the Vampire Academy series for reading much more than usually – I was glued to the pages and literally couldn’t put the books down. I was also able to finish four other books that had been on my currently reading shelf for up to 10 months – and sneak in two short horsey novels to pump up my TBR pile statistics …

It’s 3 a.m. in the morning and Mama Readingrat’s paper children have kept her up telling her stories of their adventures. Now she puts them to bed and tucks them into the 21-stories bunk bed on the night stand, bids them good night, and turns to her blog, feeling tired and exhausted – because there are 21 of them, all vying for her attention. And that are only the ones closest. She loves her charges very much, all 1800-something (yes, she has lost count) – whether they are newborn babes or elderly ladies and gentlemen. As soon as she adopted them, they became her precious children and if she can help it, most will stay with her as long as she lives since she has a hard time kicking out even the ones that disappoint her. But with adoption comes responsibilities – and sometimes, those worry even the most lighthearted hamstering readingrat …

Let me tell you: it’s not as exciting as it sounds. Quite the opposite, in fact. One would think that a book with such a premise – the X-men under a vicious Professor X on a mission to protect a secret space programme set in the historical dystopia of Communist Russia – would be thrilling and utterly nerve-wracking. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. What I got was a great idea weakly executed with flat characters, a forseeable twist, and a writing style and tempo that bored me to death. It speaks volumes that I rejoiced upon finishing it after an eight months hiatus. Maybe I just shouldn’t have picked it up again . . .