Book 79: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Normally when I see this cover it means terror and boredom but it actually wasn't that bad. I mean, it's philosophy so it makes you think a lot and hard and might give you a few head aches but out of all of the philosophical stuff I've read thus far this has felt the least like philosophy.

I don't know if it's just the way Rousseau presents his ideas or what but I found it relatively painless to read. So much so that I'm even considering writing a paper on him. Imagine that!

I give this book 6 out of 10. It's still really dense even though it looks short but it still has that I'm easy to read factor.

Book 78: Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream

When I read this book I didn't realize that I wasn't suppose to read the first part and only the second part but that's alright.

I really enjoyed Rameau's Nephew. It was fun and somewhat lighthearted. D'Alembert's Dream on the other hand was some pretty heavy philosophy, although it was interesting. Both were written as conversations and were structured in a sort of play like fashion  (as in it wouldn't be hard to adapt it for the play) and they defiantly weren't bad reads.

I give it a 6 out of 10. Not terrible, not great, just alright. I probably wouldn't read it again but you never know.

Book 77: The Marriage of Figaro

As soon as you put a classical composer near something I'm in. I really love Mozart because he wrote beautiful music, as I'm sure you all know, but even though I rated this fairly high I was still a little disappointed maybe not by the opera but by what FYP did to it.

The opera itself is quite funny and the music that accompanies it is amazing but in FYP we didn't really talk about that. We talked about the play that the opera was based on which made it a controversial choice for Mozart. My tutorial didn't agree with me that this was a huge step because he did cut out most of the things that would make it seem class-warish but I believe that the fact that he still wrote it was pretty gutsy. Everyone knew what it was about and the social and political implications it has. It reminds me of something like the crucible only different if that makes sense.

Anyways, I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun and really great. I give it an 8 out of 10. You should all go watch Amadeus now and surround yourselves with wonderful classical music.

Book 76: Selected Philosophical Works

I cannot truthfully say I enjoyed any part of the book. For the most part I went through it doing that unconscious reading thing where your eyes are open, you're looking at the page and you're reading words but the words don't come together to make sentences, paragraphs or ideas. I found that it was very try and tedious to get through.

It might be a bit of a stretch to say that I "enjoyed" part four of the book entitled "New Atlantis" but it was defiantly the best part of the book though it was very reminiscent to Thomas More's Utopia (In fact it mentions Utopia  at least once).

I give this book 3 drinks out of 10. It could have been worse.

(even the cover is boring)

Book 75: Othello

This is probably my second favourite Shakespeare play (which isn't saying too much because I've only read 4. My favourite is Julius Caesar). Iago gets a bad rep for being a bad villain but I think he's really quite brilliant. I have similar feelings for him as I do Faustus. Faustus just wanted a friend when he felt alone and same goes for Iago. He has just had his whole life ripped out from under him by Othello appointing that jerk Cassio as his second in command instead of Iago and Iago just wanted to show Othello what it was like by making him think his wife hates him and getting him replaced by said jerk.

Ignoring my character preference and the fact that somewhere in that paragraph is a thesis for my next essay I really do love this play and because of that it gets 10 magic handkerchiefs out of 10.  Such a good villain.

Book 74: A Narnia Chronology: From the Archives of the Last King

This is a very fun and short book complete with pop ups. I received it for Christmas from one of my friends. A month prior we found it on an excursion to Chapters and I fell in love with it because it's Narnia and pop ups! What's not to love.

It only took me about 20 minutes to read but that's okay, it was still awesome. It had pully tabs and spinny disks and a mirror and a pop up Aslan at the end Wooo!

I give this book 8 out of 10! It was just really fun and I really enjoyed it and it makes me want to reread the Chronicles of Narnia.

Book 73: The Tempest

It feels odd reviewing something by one of the most influential author in the English Language.  The Tempest isn't a bad play, but as is my view on all plays, it wasn't presented properly. It's fine to say a whole bunch of things about the writing style and how brilliant it is while reading it, but I am of the firm belief that if something was written to be read out loud or acted out that is the way that it should be done. It is one of my issues with the Foundation Year Program (the other is the fact that we only have to read parts of books which I believe teaches us nothing about the piece or time but only gives us a corner of a snapshot).  That being said I did enjoy the whimsy of this play.

I give this play 6 air spirits out of 10. It was good, I just wish I could see it. I think it would grant me a better understanding of the play as apposed to the unenthusiastically  reading that went on in my head, but such is life.

Book 72: The Essays: A Selection

Yet another FYP book read and might I being by saying I can't decide whether I expected more or less from this book. Dr. Laura Penny gave the lecture on this book and because of this right before I started reading it my expectations went from "this book doesn't look very interesting" to "it's going to be the best book ever". Unforntuatly I feel a little let down.

I found that his essays were very hit and miss. Some of them, similar to Luther's, were really funny and I quite enjoyed them, whereas others were just dull and dry. But then again I was rushed when reading them and every day I am gaining better perspective for everything and a better appreciation for all literature.

Another one of the reasons why I think I rate this book lower than people might believe it to deserve is because it made me very stressed over the Christmas holiday. I went into it thinking I would get a whole bunch of reading done when I only really finished this book so it was a little bit of a let down. The essays themselves took a long time to read and involved a lot of heavy contemplation on my part and I was so driven to move forward I forgot to focus on what I was reading.

I give this book 5 treatments out of 10. It had its moments, but I can't say that I'd read it again soon. I can understand why my friend put it into the package of books he sold me for $20.

Book 71: The Titan's Curse

I really enjoy this series even though it often gets forgotten among my other books. This one sat on my shelf for some time at 137 pages in and then again at 240 pages in. It took me about 6 months to actually make it to the end because of the long breaks I took between reading when it really could have been done in a day or so.

Because my reading of this book was so spread out I don't really have a good idea about whether it was good or bad. I remember liking the beginning being uneasy in the middle and the end was mind blowing so I believe that over all that must mean that it is a good book.

I've decided to give this book 8 stags out of 10. I know that the other books have been amazing so I have no doubt that even though my memory of the book isn't all that great that it too was really good. If you've read the other books you should read this one too.