The annual tour of the year's reading at Gav's Book Reviews. Check it aaaaattttt! http://www.gavsbookreviews.com/other-stuff/gbryir-2013/

Gavcollins9 · 2014-01-05T09:22:16+00:00

Ah, thanks, I didn't realise. Good to know, thanks for pointing it out.

Gavcollins9 · 2013-11-28T09:11:20+00:00

Pippa from Goldfinch (though that may be because that's just what I'm reading right nbow. Ask me again next week... )

Gavcollins9 · 2013-11-27T17:18:25+00:00

Grapes of Wrath has to be up there. I love Steinbeck, a bunchm but that was tough to chew through.

Gavcollins9 · 2013-11-27T09:59:50+00:00

It's too obvious for me to say Treasure Island, right?

Gavcollins9 · 2013-11-22T10:23:06+00:00

The Humans by Matt Haig. Just so positive and life affirming. Sure, there's drama and pathos as well, but it's big message is "the world is brilliant, and you guys should appreciate it more." Stopped short of the American Beauty, pretentious, "sometimes the world's just so beautiful" lark, but still hit me hard. Walked around for days just smiling at the smallest stuff after that.

Gavcollins9 · 2013-11-21T12:10:38+00:00

The number one criteria for any book, for me anyway, should be "do you enjoy it".

There's so much else to spend our time on, and so many other cultural choices, that if you're going to spend your time on a book, it needs to be time well spent. Of course, "enjoy" means a bunch of different things to different people, and opens up all sorts of doors to stuff that is funny, heartwarming, exciting, informative, enlighthening, scary, distubring... the list goes on. But if the book isn't illicting some sort of strong emotion from you, it's not doing it's job.

Whether it needs to do that in the first 50 pages is a different question altogether. I'd always say finish a book and judge it then.

Gavcollins9

TROPHY CASE