Friday, January 30, 2015

Review: Doctor No


Doctor No
Doctor No by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Can I please have some slave-time too? No? Oh well. Blah, blah, blah full of boring descriptions and uninteresting facts blah, blah, blah skimmed a couple paragraphs. Only liked the action part of the book. Will return cause I can't, apparently, get tired of James Bond even though he absolutely infuriates me every other page. And that is that.



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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Review: From Russia With Love


From Russia With Love
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well...The usual. Skipped a lot of filling and hated and loved Bond at the same time. Same with the author. Ended up pleased with the ending. Anxious to read the next book. Well done.



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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Review: Diamonds Are Forever


Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well, as par for the course, I skipped a lot of chapters. Nothing major I can assure but still many. I swear there is no need for such quantity of detailed nonsense. Seriously. I do not need to know everything. I do not not need to know who founded which casino in Vegas, for example. Or what those decrepit ladies look like when they're gambling their money away. Super snore. I don't care. I've always focused more on the action scenes and I swear they're the only thing that keeps me going 'till the end of each book. In fact I always seem to find myself a little disappointed when said ending comes due to all that filling I have to go through first. I mean, all of that snail paced antecipation and then just a couple of shots and it's over? WTH? And Bond is getting on my nerves "falling in love" with every single woman he meets. Flirting is fine. Sleeping with them is fine. Talking about love every single time and then hook up with another woman in the next book? Not fine.



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Review: Diamonds Are Forever


Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well, as par for the course, I skipped a lot of chapters. Nothing major I can assure but still many. I swear there is no need for such quantity of detailed nonsense. Seriously. I do not need to know everything. I do not not need to know who founded which casino in Vegas, for example. Or what those decrepit ladies look like when they're gambling their money away. Super snore. I don't care. I've always focused more on the action scenes and I swear they're the only thing that keeps me going 'till the end of each book. In fact I always seem to find myself a little disappointed when said ending comes due to all that filling I have to go through first. I mean, all of that snail paced antecipation and then just a couple of shots and it's over? WTH? And Bond is getting on my nerves "falling in love" with every single woman he meets. Flirting is fine. Sleep with them is fine. Talking about love every single time and they hook up with another woman in the next book? Not fine.



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Friday, January 16, 2015

Review: Moonraker


Moonraker
Moonraker by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I don't know if I should be disapointed by the casual way the bad guy died in this book or laugh at the irony considering the bad guy was incredibly meticulous and patient and his death pretty much mocked him into his grave. Alas, I think I'll do a little of both.

So...This book was easier to read than Live and Let Die. Probably because it wasn't as focused on Britsh history as the previous or maybe because, even though I haven't seen the movie in forever, my unconscious probably caught a little thread of an idea and made it easier for me. Either way, I had fun. Now that I know what to expect my reading experience has improved considerably and I don't get a headache every time someone decides to give a lecture about some obscure subject. Hurray. Progress. James Bond continues to have incredible luck and I can't wait to see it ran out. I still love him but his adventures get weirder by the book.



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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Review: Live and Let Die


Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Quite hard to get into for me. Maybe because my memory of this story was really sketchy, maybe because the language was hard to understand or more likely for all of the above. Either way, it took me a long time to get into the story's rhythm and enjoy it. I still loved James Bond so, while I struggled a lot, I kept trying over and over just to read more about him and eventually succeeded. That being said...I can't, in good conscience, give more than a 3 star rating to this book. The writing seemed really forceful at times and the details bored me to tears. Also my history lessons did not prepare me for the convoluted way it was presented to me along the main spy story. I actually have to admit that I ended up skimming most of those parts so as not to lose hope and give up. I still look forward to carry on with this series however.



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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Review: Damn You, Autocorrect!: Awesomely Embarrassing Text Messages You Didn't Mean to Send


Damn You, Autocorrect!: Awesomely Embarrassing Text Messages You Didn't Mean to Send
Damn You, Autocorrect!: Awesomely Embarrassing Text Messages You Didn't Mean to Send by Jillian Madison

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Make no mistake, I laughed out loud a couple times. But there were a lot of duds here too and it only provided me with moderate bouts of hystericalls so I'm pretty disappointed. I expected better.



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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Review: Casino Royale


Casino Royale
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I honestly think my opinion of this book would've been better if I hadn't been bombarded with films about James Bond since childhood. Seriously. I mean, I saw the movie Casino Royale with Daniel Craig a bunch of times. Hell! I saw all of them a bunch of times. I love his character if not the actor playing him at the time.

But,

The fact is, after so many films, you form a certain understanding of the character. Your own image.

This James Bond? I honestly did not recognize him at first. His harsh behavior. His cold attitude. Nothing felt familiar and it really looked like I was reading about some other character. Not a bad one, don't take me the wrong way. Just you know...incredibly different.

Happened the same thing 1st time I saw James Bond played by Daniel Craig. I hated it. I felt like I didn't know him at all and the actor sucked (sorry Daniel #notsorry). Turns out Daniel Craig's way of portraying James was actually more accurate than I've ever seen before. I see that now after reading this book. James really is a cold-hearted son of a b*tch in this book.

(Congrats, Daniel. Turns out you don't completely suck.)

That being said...I still love him. Possibly even more. James not Daniel. I still hate Daniel.

(Yeah. I'm weird.)

So..I blah blah blah'ed and didn't really say anything right? Wait, I'm about to make sense!

This was awesome but short. I felt incredibly cheated by that ending even though I completely expected it. It was really abrupt. The language and writing takes a little getting used to. The background is amazingly detailed and, again, awesome but that also means I got bored a couple times. Not a good thing in a less than 200 pages novel. Vesper disappointed me. The actress that played her in the movie deserves a lot of recognition because her character on paper was interesting for only about five minutes. Her duplicity fooled only James. I did like Mathis a lot more though. Kudos for that.

Overall I am not sorry I gave this book a chance. I am in fact very anxious to read the rest of the series while I await the new Bond film later this year.



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