The Adventures of a Constant Reader

    Okay, it's been a while but I'm back!  I fell a bit behind with the holidays.  It seems like every year I decide to hand knit/crochet a few Christmas presents and then wait until the last possible minute to finish them.  I hope you had a happy holiday season, I'm looking forward to a nice clean slate in 2017.     One of the things I'd like to do this year is to work on making this blog successful.  As I was scrolling around Pinterest today I found a pin detailing various 2017 reading challenges.  One of them was the 2017 Beat the Backlist challenge at  Novel Knight .  The challenge is simple:  either make a list of books you'd like to read this year or pick a number of books you'd like to read.  All books must have been published prior to 2017, so new releases do not count.  Since this blog is about my journey through the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die I figured this would be the perfect challenge for me.  Here's my list: 1.   Dracula by B

My copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die finally came!  I enjoyed flipping through and seeing all the recommended books, and skimming some of the summaries.  The artwork is very nice too, they have a lot of author photos and pictures of some of the book covers and posters from movies based on the books.  It’s very well put together. I wanted to start with something short since I just received the book and I’m late posting.  I've also been down with a rather nasty cold this week so I haven't felt up to doing very much.  I chose Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” not only for its length but also because it’s Halloween season and the subject matter is a little macabre so it’s fitting.   First, a little background on Swift and the history behind his essay.  Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667.  His father passed away prior to Swift’s birth and his family were taken care of by his uncles.  Swift was sent to Kilkenny School when he was a boy and later graduate

My copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die hasn't gotten here yet so I'm going to review the book I just finished, The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson.  Swanson is a fairly new novelist.  His first book, The Girl With a Clock For a Heart , was published in 2014.   The Kind Worth Killing , his second novel, was published in 2015 and his next book, Her Every Fear , is due out in January 2017.  Swanson has also published short stories and poems including a sequence of poems inspired by the works of Alfred Hitchcock.  He and his wife currently reside in Massachusetts. The Kind Worth Killing is separated into three parts and each part is told from the viewpoint of different characters.  I find that Lily seems to me the main character, hers is the only point of view you read in all three sections.  The first section sets up the story.  Lily and Ted meet at a London airport, discuss Ted’s failing marriage, and begin to plot to murder his wife, Miranda.  Things don'

Hello, and welcome to my book review blog. With this blog I plan to track my progress on the 1001 books you should read before you die by reviewing each book, giving a little background on the author and/or the time period in which the book was written, and assessing whether I personally think that it is a book that must be read before you die. When possible I will also recommend similar books that you might like if you enjoyed this book or similar books that I feel might be more worthy of being on a list of books to read before you die. I also plan to review other books that aren’t on the list as I read them because, honestly, I am usually reading more than one book at a time. It’s a sickness. For this blog I will be using the 2012 edition of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Cassell Illustrated which is currently being shipped to me.  My hope is to post a new review every two weeks, be it a review of the book on the list or a review of another book I have read. If for