Category: Lockup Library

What are your quirky reading habits?

Posted on by Shawshank

Can you only read whilst death metal plays softly in the background? Or does Mars have to be in retrograde?

What are your quirky reading habits? I want to know. I don’t think any of my book habits are quirky.

When I read, it has to be quiet. Quiet. If the TV is on, I can’t read. I’ll sit and watch TV. I’m very easily distracted. So I usually read at night. Shady Acres goes to bed pretty early, so that’s always a bonus.

I rarely use a book mark. I’ll just fold over a page, yet I won’t crack the spine. Some of you are probably fanning yourselves right now at the mention of folding over a page. The next point will give you the vapours!

If the book is begging for it, I’ll write/highlight, whatever. You should see my copy of House of Leaves. It’s been well loved! I also randomly added stickers too.

4 books I’ve discovered while blogging

Posted on by Shawshank

Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve tried to stick to new and interesting books. Books out of left field, like Ship of Theseus, House of Leaves, etc. I’m trying not to just go back to the old comfortables, like the Dresden Files, random, mysteries, etc. I like to be challenged. Make me work for it! I don’t choose them for the look at what book I’ve read, I’m better than you. Homie don’t play dat.

So in searching for the new and strange, I have come across books that look like they’d be really interesting, here’s a few of them. To wet your whistle, so to speak.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

From what I can tell, it’s a Romeo one Juliet retelling in 1920’s Shanghai. I think it sounds pretty interesting for sure.

The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski

I think I’d call this more of a short story, and I’ve been keeping my eye out for it at the second hand stores in hopes, of one day finding it.

If On A Winters Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino

It’s a book where you’re actually a character reading If On A Winters Night A Traveller. That sounds pretty cool to me for sure. Of course, you had me at book!

Demon Theory by Stephen Graham Jones

On Halloween, after a crazy call from his mom, Hale and six friends return to the house where his sister disappeared 6 years ago. It’s a psychological tale of cinematic horror, and it sounds really really awesome.

Have you guys (and gals) found any off the wall interesting books out there? Tell me!

Book Review: The Raw Shark Texts

Posted on by Shawshank

Welcome to my book review of The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. As I was gathering a couple pictures, and reading the synopsis of the book to refresh myself on the book, I could swear that I’d done a review on it before. So I went to my site, and looked, I couldn’t find anything, but then again, I didn’t look too hard. It want checked off on my list, so here we are!

Imagine waking up in a strange house, with no memory of being there, no memory of yourself, no memory of anything. That’s what happened to Eric Sanderson. There’s a not to call this number, and it signed by himself, or so the note says. He calls the number and it’s his psychologist, and she tells him he has a condition.

Following a trail of clues and notes, Eric finds that he’s being hunted by a conceptual shark called a Ludovician.

I really liked this book. You can really identify with Eric, as you are going into this as blind as he is. You, like him, don’t know if you can believe the Eric that’s writing the notes. You even start to feel a little paranoid as Eric explores his past with the help of some mysterious characters that help him a long the way.

Like House of Leaves, this has some interesting printing in it. Some pictures formatted from words. At one point you actually turn what you’re reading into a flip book.

This book really does need to be on more people’s to be read lists. I really enjoyed this book, and more people should as well.

First Line Friday

Posted on by Shawshank

So did everyone guess correctly? Was it too difficult? Will this one stump you or not?

Ok, last weeks book was: House of Leaves. Quite possibly my favourite book. If you haven’t read it, you probably should.

And now this weeks:

The naked child ran out of the hide-covered lean-to toward the Rocky beach at the bend in the small river. It didn’t occur to her to look back. Nothing in her experience ever gave her the reason to doubt the shelter and those within it would be there when she returned.

Until next week my friends!

Book Review: Midnight Sun

Posted on by Shawshank

The book I didn’t think I needed to read! It’s not secret that I loved the Twilight Saga (although, I haven’t finished any other Twilight book since I got here), I didn’t think I needed to read a, and let’s be honest, a retelling of Twilight.

I was wrong.

This book is pretty much all Edward, all the time. He’s so far in his head, that I don’t think he’s ever be able to claw his way out of it.

There is one funny scene that I remember. It’s shortly after he’s met Bella, and he’s imagining/day dreaming of killing everyone in the class, especially Mike Newton, whom he just hates on a visceral level, just so he could drink all of Bella’s blood undisturbed.

While Edward’s side of things was very interesting, I loved learning more about his family. Alice is amazing in this book.

Just wait until you get to the “Phoenix Incident”. It’s glorious, and makes the whole book a show stopper.

Now, I want a book from Alice’s POV.