Library Loot

Here is another entry about books. I visited a book blog recently and the blogger mentioned her "Library Loot" for the week. So I thought I do the similar thing. I am going to steal her idea. :-P

I go to the library every single day to study for CPA. CPA has taken a toll on my life. I don't have a life anymore. No more having fun. I am out of shape (not that I used to work out or anything before). But it is not all that bad. Being at the library gives me more chances to checkout books. So the average number of items of my cards are usually 10, which includes books, audio books, magazines, and movies. I am listening to more books and hopefully my reading will also get back on track once I am done with CPA. At the same time, I hope my reading/listening continues as my library stops won't be as frequent.

Back to my library loot. I went to the library yesterday and got three audio books. I am almost done with Her Fearful Symmetry. I am going to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand next and I have my own copy. I got the following:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - This is a classic read and I have been meaning to read it for a while now. Yesterday, I saw the audio book and checked it out. Now I am contemplating if I should read this next.
  
  
• The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs - According to the author's website, The Know-It-All is the story of one man's quest to learn everything in the world. His method? Reading the encyclopedia from A through Z.
  
  
• Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga - I read Mr. Adiga's first novel The White Tiger and I enjoyed it very much. I am looking forward to this novel. The reviews have been okay so far. And the reader is Harsh Nayyar so hopefully the experience will be better than last time.

That is all for today. I don't know which book will be next. Time to get back to work.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was one of the most intriguing book I have read in a longest time. The book is dark. First of all, here is the summary and then I will write about why I liked the book.

Set in WWII, Death meets a 9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger as he is there to pick up her younger brother's soul, and he cannot resist knowing more about her. She steals the first book at her brother's funeral and goes on to steal many more as indicated by the title. Narrated by Death, the book is about her life with her new foster family on the Himmel (Heaven) Street in Munich. He talks about her fascination with the books, Jews' lives in Germany during Hitler's reign, her best friend Rudy Steiner, and her foster-dad who loves to play an accordion and teaches her how to read.

Here are the reasons why I enjoyed the book:

• The story is told by Death; thus, the reader's get an idea of author's perspective of Death (who doesn't carry a scythe but gets a kick out of the idea ).
• The story does not leave any loose ends. It closes all chapters and doesn't leave the readers wondering about different characters.
• Since Death is narrating the story, he is quite clear about the timing of a person's death, such as (I will be meeting him 2 months from now). So throughout the book, the readers get the gist of what is to come. However, it keeps them interested as to how it happened.

Overall, it was an excellent book. The writing style was excellent. The reader Allan Corduner did a wonderful job as Death. I will have to look into his other works.

I was disappointed to learn that all the books mentioned in the novel are fictitious and do not exist. I was really looking forward to reading The Whistler and The Shoulder Shrug. I think the author should actually write these books as supplements to the novel. I would read them.

I will give this book 9.5 out of 10 and will definitely recommend the book.

Speak by Laurie Anderson

I finished this novel 17 days ago (as per Facebook Visual Bookshelf :-P). The book was so-so. I had heard that this was among the best, but I disagree. I picked this up from Young Teen section and it was truly a young teen book. The writing style was simple. The book is narrated by a teenage girl named Melinda Sordino. She is hated by the entire school body because she busted the end of the summer party by calling the police. However, she needs to speak and tell the truth.

The book reminded of me of school days. The narrator, Melinda, talks about her classes and pep-rallies, which were somewhat similar to classes and pep-rallies in my high school.

Overall, it was an okay book. I would give this book 7 out of 10. This is not much of a book review, but I am almost done with "The Book Thief" and can't wait to write about that.