Member: isabelx

CollectionsYour audio library (7), Your ebook library (251), Your library (243), Read but unowned (914), To read (184), Currently reading (4), Read Soon - Next Few Books (5), Favorites (33), Read as part of omnibus (7), All collections (1,445)

Reviews1,190 reviews

Tagssf (340), ebook (242), fantasy (223), cover - blue (199), cover - green (198), mystery (198), non-fiction (196), short stories (191), humour (190), cover - brown (164) — see all tags

MediaNot set (15), Book (1,425), Paper Book (1,183), Audiobook (17), Ebook (218), Sound Recording (1), CD sound recording (1), Unknown (4)

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud, tag mirror

Recommendations45 recommendations

About my libraryMy library contains reviews of just about every book I have read since the beginning of 2003. Most of my TBRs are also here, but I couldn't face adding all my other books. so I'm adding them as and when I re-read them.

Reading Likes and Dislikes

There's nothing worse than finding a new author that you like only to discover that he writes the same thing over and over again. I was thrilled with the first Jonathan Carroll book that I came across, but although his plots are unusual and fantastic and not like anyone else's, I soon got fed up with his heroes who all seem to be very withdrawn and have bad relationships with their fathers. I prefer authors who never write the same thing twice, like Liz Jenson and Magnus Mills. So I prefer stand-alone novels to never-ending series and if you can't tell the story in less than 500 pages (preferably less than 400) I probably can't be bothered with reading it. Writing samey books is a cardinal sin in my eyes, which explains why I have always liked reading short stories and have zero interest in reading either official TV spin-offs or fan-fiction.

Of course there are exceptions. I really enjoyed the excessively long "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" and even bought it in hard-back (which I hardly ever do) because one of the reasons I don't like long books is that they are awkward to read in paperback without completely ruining the spine (although I am not one of those crazy people who reads the book half shut in order to avoid creasing the spine at all). One series I really did enjoy was Iain M. Banks' Culture Series, because the novels are stand-alones set in the same civilisation rather than continuing the same story.

GroupsBookCrossers, FantasyFans, Go Review That Book!, Name that Book, Science Fiction Fans

Favorite authorsIain M. Banks, Italo Calvino, Robertson Davies, Ben Elton, Liz Evans, Liz Jensen, Mario Vargas Llosa, Peter Luther, John Varley (Shared favorites)

Favorite listsScience Fiction and Fantasy Autobiographies

Also onBookCrossing, Dreamwidth, Facebook, LiveJournal

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway

LocationUK

Account typepublic, lifetime

URLs /profile/isabelx (profile)
/catalog/isabelx (library)

Member sinceJun 29, 2007

Currently readingThe Liar by Stephen Fry
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster by Robert Rankin
Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying by Marie Kondo