Book Reviews: Readathon

This weekend, I took part in Dewey's 24-hour Readathon, so I read a lot of books! I thought I'd put them all in one place rather than crowding my blog with separate entries. These will be shorter reviews than normal, as I wrote them up during the readathon.

1. The Naughtiest Girl Again, Enid Blyton.

Expectations: Nostalgia.

Positives: As expected, nostalgia. Feeling virtuous and like I want to be a better person. Crying for Elizabeth's disappointments and triumphs. 

Negatives: I can't bring myself to say anything negative about Enid Blyton. 

Rating: 3 stars.

2. The People's Queen, Vanora Bennett.
Expectations: Low. Philip pa Gregory. Lurid romance.
Positives: Nice language. Plot.
Negatives: Got a bit long-winded in the middle.
Rating: 3 stars.

3.  Who is tom Ditto?, Danny Wallace. 
Expectations: Funny. Bit weird?
Positives: Funny, gripping.
Negatives: None.
Rating: 4 stars.

Event: Readathon

Today, I'm participating in Dewey's 24-hour Readathon. I'll be updating this post as I go along, and also posting pictures and quotations on twitter. I've never done anything like this before, I'm excited. 

Nearly 1pm

Books read: 0.

Pages read: 0.

Mood: Excited!

3pm
Books read: 1.
Pages read: 163.
Mood: Positive.

12.30am
Books read: 2
Pages read: 693.
Mood: Satisfied.

10am
Books read: 3.
Pages read:  1,051.
Mood: Pleased. 

Book Review: David Copperfield

For my birthday, my parents took me on a mini-holiday to Broadstairs in Kent. I didn't know much about it before we went, but Dad happened to mention that there was a Charles Dickens museum and that we'd probably go see it. Now, I haven't read a lot of Charles Dickens. I know the stories, of course, but as far as actual reading goes, I'd read most of A Christmas Carol, the opening of A Tale of Two Cities and about a third of Hard Times. I decided I should probably try to fix that before going to a whole museum dedicated to the man, and looking through my house David Copperfield was all I could turn up. 

Expectations 

Exceedingly low. I like what I've read of A Christmas Carol, but I couldn't get through Hard Times and I knew nothing about David Copperfield except a vague idea it was the story of a man's life. Having now read it, I think I was confusing it with The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.

Positives 

I was pleasantly surprised! This is very different to Hard Times, much less bleak and depressing. I warmed up to the characters relatively quickly, and there were such a lot of different stories that it was easy to stay interested.

Negatives 

There is still something of a language hurdle to get over, and the book is really long, but for all that I enjoyed reading it. (It probably helped that I got the bulk of it read on holiday, I wasn't carting it back and forth to work for longer than a week.)

Final Thoughts 

I've been meaning to give Dickens another try. I thought I'd start with Nicholas Nickelby or The Pickwick Papers. I definitely didn't expect to start with anything this long, but I'm very glad I picked it up. 3 stars.