READING LADDER
♥= NOT GOOD
♥♥= DEBATABLE
♥♥♥= AVERAGE
♥♥♥♥= PRETTY GOOD
♥♥♥♥♥= LOVED IT
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FEBRUARY 2019
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 269/550
Average Number of Pages Read Per Day: 9.6 pages/day
I didn’t read much in February. I have lost the habit of reading everyday over the past year or two and I’m hoping to improve on this. I only read one book this month (and I didn’t even finish it!). But it is a book that I’ve read many times. It is a truly incredible book written by Markus Zusak. It is set in Nazi Germany and follows the life of a young girl, Liesel Meminger, as she tries to understand the world around her. I am always a sucker for literature set during this time period, so naturally I am attracted to this book. The author does a fantastic job telling this heart wrenching story. Zusak does a unique thing and makes ‘Death’ the narrator of this story, which is partly the reason the novel is so captivating. Reading this book is such an emotional rollercoaster. I often find myself relating to the main character and I really feel for her. I definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even though I’ve read this book many times, I am certain that I will come back to it and read it again many more times. Also, this book has been made into a movie that does the book justice. The atmosphere and mood set by the movie is absolutely incredible and is also consistent with that of the novel.
For next month, I am set on reading the Divergent series, by Veronica Roth. I first read all three books in the seventh grade. I remember instantly falling in love with them. Over the years, I forgot more and more of the book I once loved so much. And seeing as I am feeling nostalgic, I plan on rereading all three books.
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March 2019
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 281/550
Paper Towns by John Green
Rating: ♥
Number of Pages Read: 168/305
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Rating:♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 107/487
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Rating:♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 332/332
Frostbite by Richelle Mead
Rating:♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 336/336
Average Number of Pages Read Per Day: 39.5 pages/day
Compared to February, my reading drastically increased from about 10 pages to about 40 pages a day. The reason for this is most likely the break. I definitely had more time to focus on reading. As for what I read, I finished The Book Thief. The ending was as emotional as the first time I read it. This is one of those that I can read multiple times without ever getting tired of it. Again, I highly recommend this book.
The second book of the month was Paper Towns. I read The Fault in Our Stars, which is also by John Green multiple times and many people have recommended Paper Towns to me. However, when I first started reading it, I couldn’t get into it. However, this is usually the case for me and it takes me a few chapter for me to gain interest in a book. A few chapters in, I realized that no matter how much more I read, I just didn’t find this book interesting. But for the sake of finishing what I started, I tried to push through. Eventually I gave up. The book is written in cliches, which I suppose is how John Green writes, which makes the whole story predictable and boring. This book seems childish and completely uninteresting and falls short of my standards. I don’t really recommend this book.
The next book is one of the books I set as my goal for March. 2019 has been filled with nostalgia for me so far, so I decided to read one of my all time favourite childhood novels, Divergent. The book was slightly less than what I remember it to be, which was pretty disappointing. However, I will definitely finish the book. Even the actual storyline of the book is relatively known and somewhat unoriginal, I think Veronica Roth wrote the book beautifully. This book isn’t for everyone. I recommend it for people who are fans of dystopian type books.
Continuing with my nostalgic trend of the year, I started reading Vampire Academy. I was a fan of the series when I was in grade 5 or 6. Rereading it almost made me cry! Although the way the book was written wasn’t quite as advanced as what I usually read now, I quickly got caught up in the story and completely blew through the entire book in less than a day and a half. This book had a lot of high school drama as well as some supernatural elements, which was refreshing and highly entertaining to read. I had completely forgotten why I fell in love with the book in the first place. However, now as I’ve grown and moved onto more advanced literature and don’t usually read young adult non-fiction anymore, I still stand by this book. Reading it though, it bothered me that the language and the way it was written seemed kind of childish. Clearly, I’ve become used to more advanced writing. Despite this, I highly enjoyed this book, if not for the bitter sweet nostalgia it bought me. This book was also made into a movie, which naturally I watched, however the movie is nothing compared to the book. Even though most movie remakes of movie are generally a disappointment, the level of disappointment the movie bought me was off the scale. The casting was terrible and the set was terrible and overall, I was quite upset after watching the movie. I recommend this book to people who like a light read and are into fantasy and supernatural genres. But I definitely don’t recommend the movie.
Since I loved the first book, Vampire Academy, I decided to read the sequel. I started reading this book immediately after reading Vampire Academy and I finished it just as fast as I finished as its predecessor. This book is similar to its prequel in that the way it is written is kind of childish. Perhaps childish isn’t the correct word. I mean to say this book isn’t written to the standards of advanced literature because of the syntax and how the author chooses to write her story. The vocabulary isn’t very advanced and doesn’t make me ponder the story like how other, more advanced books might. Reading this series is simply a guilty pleasure. It’s the type of story that you read only for the story. I don’t think there’s much to learn or analyze about the story. However, the book is whimsical and childish in a way that I actually kind of cherished. Later in the book however, things escalated and it was action packed, which I also appreciated. Despite my embarrassment in reading such childish and YA books, I will grudgingly admit I am hooked on the storyline and the characters and that I will finish the series. Fortunately, this book has not been made into a movie. I recommend this book, if you’ve read the first and liked it.
My goal for April is to finish Divergent and its sequels, Insurgent and Allegiant. I also want to finish the entire Vampire Academy series. There are six books in total, so I have 4 more to read.
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April 2019
The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 119/310
Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
Rating: ♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 448/448
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Rating: ♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 503/503
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 328/328
Average Number of Pages Read per day: 36.9 pages/day
I started reading The Hobbit for the millionth time, but I never got to finish it. It’s still pretty great, even after reading it so much. It’s timeless.
I also read two more of the Vampire Academy books. Shadow Kiss was as good as I remember from when I first read it. Blood Promise was disappointing, though. I’m hoping to read the rest regardless.
Another series that bought about some nostalgia was The Selection. I completely forgot about it until later this month and I blew through the book in a day. I absolutely love love love it. I’m definitely going to read the sequels.
Unfortunately, I haven’t touched Divergent from last month. My goal for next month is to finish either the Vampire Academy series, (I still have to read Spirit Bound and Last Sacrifice) or to finish the original Selection trilogy (I still have to read The Elite and The One.)
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May 2019
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Rating:♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 489/489
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 594/594
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 384/384
Average Number of Pages Read per day: 47.3 pages/day
I finished the Vampire Academy series. And the last two books definitely made up for the fourth book. The end was satisfying and I enjoyed it very much.
I also read A Thousand Splendid Suns. I had to read this book for English, so I don’t know if it counts but I did still read it so I’m counting it. I read another of Khaled Hosseini’s books, The Kite Runner, and I loved that book so much I finished it in less than a week. Just like the The Kite Runner, I almost instantly loved A Thousand Splendid Suns and I finished it very quick. I really want to read Khaled Hossein’s third book, And the Mountains Echoed.
My goal for next month is to finish Divergent and The Selection books.
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June 2019
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 336/336
The One by Kiera Cass
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 328/328
The Heir by Kiera Cass
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 342/342
The Crown by Kiera Cass
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Number of Pages Read: 278/278
Average Number of Pages Read:
Obviously, June isn’t done yet, but I stayed true to my goal and finished the rest of the Selection series so far. I loved them just as much as I loved the first one. However, the best books in the series were definitely The Selection, The Elite and The One. The Heir and The One, which have a different main character are ok. But the main character can be quite frustrating, whiny, self-centred which made the reading experience kind of lacking. But I still loved them and would definitely recommend if romance is your thing.