My favourite cover in this series!

I have at least ten other books to read for uni but I'm low-key addicted to these ❤

Going to take a break before number 9, felt bad for rushing this one and not really feeling it but enjoying getting closer and closer to unraveling the mysteries!

Going in directions I never expected and getting more perilous and action-packed!

A marker on every page, a remarkable meditation on race, responsibility and guilt

Flying through this series now, AND have started watching the Netflix adaptation which is superb so far!

I've only ever read two graphic novels, both for university, and have enjoyed neither but the other one was 'Maus', so I think my issue is a discomfort with serious issues, in this case social anxiety and loneliness being portrayed in a form I by default associate with light more child-like lit? This was depressing af anyway. And the drawings are kind of creepy.

Just when I thought this series may get stale Snicket refreshes his formula with new humour and great secondary characters in the form of the Quagmire triplets. Can't wait to keep reading now the mystery is involved...

Second reading of this and was absolutely blown away by it this time around. Read it for uni rather than fun and with a more critical eye more and more of Ripley's deranged and dangerous psyche is frighteningly revealed!

Yes they're formulaic, yes I'm running out of things to say about them in my book journal but yes, I'm still enjoying them.
Have recommended the series to a dyslexic friend to help her get back into the swing of reading, any recommendations for simple books that aren't just for kids?

The best way is to go into this clueless, it is so much

It was refreshing to see the Baudelaire have a guardian they wouldn't be content with, added yet more melancholy to most unfortunate proceedings

Finally made it through an Austen uninterrupted! I did quite enjoy it but my one wish would be for not everyone to be called Charles, my tiny brain couldn't take it, I was confused.

"...you can't control life, you can only manage your own response to it."

My life goal is to own a pair of Zissou Adidas.

"All movies, of course, are equally artificial; it's just that some are more honest about it than others."

The end papers for this collection are to die for.

A really sweet insight into my favourite director's first seven works, through the mode of engaging and charming interviews, learning more has only made me love them more.

Despite the moral issues I quite enjoy this one, and despite his moral issues Shylock is my favourite character. I'm going to put the race and religion issues down to satire???

I feel like this is one of those series that will just get better and better as it goes on, funnier and darker than the first, take me to Lake Lacrymose ASAP!

I'm a bit disturbed by this book, it may be about children but it's probably not for children. Excitingly and unusually most of the tension and creepiness comes from what goes unwritten rather than what is explicit. Took a little time to get into but don't let insight into the mind of a cougar put you off. Brought to me by Auckland City Libraries and my cute hammerhead shark card #mylocallibrary #riotgrams

My first Poirot and overall an excellent Christie, just when I thought I knew where we were going something came along and twisted my point of view.

An enjoyably miserable day spent in the company of the Baudelaire orphans, as I continue to make up for lost time reading books my parents wouldn't buy me as a child because I would read them too quickly. In hindsight this is fair enough, I understand. I am excited for The Reptile Room but wonder just how soon I should begin it.

I love my Penguin Shakespeare editions but find unless I've studied and seen and know a lot about a Shakespeare I find it tough to get through and enjoy. I feel Othello's plot is a one-act play strung out to five but maybe I'll feel differently when I see it live at the Pop-Up Globe here in Auckland next month. I understand why people who did it at school hated it.

I'm so sorry. Austen just doesn't agree with me. It took me an estimated three and half years to read Pride and Prejudice so bailing after seven months isn't bad going. I admit defeat but I will be back for you!!

"You are not the hobbit that you were."
Even the most stubborn of us are changed by a journey and return home happily but... different.

This verse always makes me sad and even more so because my second reading of The Hobbit concludes while I'm 11000miles away from home down here in the real Middle Earth. A trip to Hobbiton movie set is on the cards very soon!

My first ever Roald Dahl, it's only taken me 20 years to read one. What a sweet and funny story.
#childrens #roalddahl #classic #fox

Hilary Mantel is a timetraveller. Or she is Thomas Cromwell reincarnated because there is no way a mere mortal could write with such convincing conviction about 16th century English history. The research and emotional understanding that are evident in this novel are incredible and frankly scary.
#england #wolfhall #history #tudors

I love Highsmith's plots and rounded, visceral characters but her spare and scarce style means it takes me an amazingly long time to get through her fairly slim novels. I was so happy when Virago released this edition as I so wanted to read the book but I'm a little averse to movie tie-in editions

#american #greece #crime #highsmith #thriller

A flawless psychological masterpiece, so much more than a sleazy creepy story, it's frighteningly clever. Like spending 400 pages inside the head of a rational madman. So much more than I expected and so much better (finished and photo taken on the shore of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand)

#lolita #nabokov #american #english #russian

A surprisingly moving portrait of human fallibility and resilience in remotest China. I love a quite hateful character and this boasts three.

#england #china #colonialism #love #sickness #vintage

Finally rolled around this modern classic, my hopes weren't high at the start but soon got involved in the story, which would have been much easier had I not seen the Swedish film adaptation. While the plot is similar the characters are much more intricate and I look forward to seeing how Hollywood handled things

#sweden #translation #comparativeliterature #modernclassic #crime