october reads

as it's the middle of the month already, i reckon it's high time i wrote about the books i thumbed through in october. with five chick lit novels and a young adult novel, it was definitely the month of easy reads.

there are times when i feel that i sort of need to educate myself and broaden both my horizon and writing skills by reading high literature, namely 'official classics'. however, there are other times when i just want to unplug, lay back, and entertain myself with easy reads... which mostly tend to be chick lits. nevertheless, they can be both highly entertaining and beneficial in a certain way. unfortunately, in october i didn't have the luck to read too many really fun books.

• úrilányok erdélyben by ugron zsolna - although this is a hungarian bestseller published by ulpius, a publisher notorious for flooding the market with trashy, pulp fiction novels (btw, what's a really good english word for ponyva?), and hence i had my preconceptions about this novel. still, the title - something like 'ladies in transylvania' but with a slightly richer meaning in hungarian - the cover, and the synopsys on the back made me curious. i managed to hunt it down in a local library about a year ago, and jumped right in once i had my hands on it. this book is far from being perfect, or even worth mentioning among real literary pieces. it took me quite a long time  - and many pages - to get rid of my preconceptions  - as i kept thinking: this must be awful, is this awful? should i be enjoying this? nah, i cannot be enjoying this, can i? the third person narrative really annoyed me, especially the over-the-top perfection of both the protagonist, her boyfriend, her career, and basically her entire life. but once the story got going - the author's writing got better as she progressed with the novel - and the narrator started telling about the transylvanian ancestors and their arisctocratic ways of living, i found myself enjoying the book. as a matter of fact, once i finished it, i kept wondering about the story and wanted to reread the entire novel. fasting forward about 10 month, i accidentally found it in the library, took it out again, and finally reread it, this time, without negative preconceptions and a positive attitude. i still think a first person narrative - a bit more distinct, a stonger, more professional narrative - would have made the book more gunuine and realistic. nevertheless, it's a fun read, a volume that's worth purchasing, i might even say.
• in her shoes by jennifer weiner -   i saw the film this very novel was turned into many many years ago. honestly, i don't even remember whether i liked it. then a couple of years ago i receieved a copy via bookmooch, but up until october i never got around - or rather: i was never in the mood for - reading it. the story - two grown up sisters who are completely different characters, learn both to deal with their issues and get close to each other - was quite interesting, the protagonists well thought-out and three dimensional. still, i felt that the novel, with its 500 pages, dragged on way too long. a good 150 pages should have been simply and mercilessly cut out, just to make the story more tense.
• bridget jones's diary by helen fielding - ahhhh, bridget and i go waaaay back. i love her. i admire her. i worship her. she's one of my favorite literary characters. she really should deserve her own post. (she is definitely getting her own post some time soon.) but until then let me just say that every once in a while i get the sudden urge to take this very book off my shelf, and reread it for the umpteenth time. i still embrace it as it was my first time, and love it, enjoy it from cover to cover, thumb through it with a big smile on my face. ahh, bridget, you gorgeous creature, the greatest goddess of all desperate single ladies, i worship you!
• chasing harry winston by lauren weisberger - another work of lauren weisberger - the devil wears prada - is one of my favorite books, one that i have read at least a dozen times. naturally, it lead me to other novels of weisberger. these, unfortunately, have proven to be a bit of a disappointment. i am starting to think that she is a one hit wonder: she had only one truly good story in her - the true story of her internship at vogue, under the leadership of anna wintour - it made her name, earned her millions of dollars and stardom among authors. but the rest? only mediocre chick lit novels, i am afraid.
• mondják meg zsófikának by szabó magda - as i mentioned before, this book was a disappointment and bore as well. although i have only read two books of szabó magda - the door and abigél - i still consider myself a fan of her writing, and thus planning to read other works of hers. but this one? i don't think i will ever pick up again.
• fifty shades of grey by e l james - along with so many other millions of people i jumped on the fifty shades bandwagon. i had no other reason (nor excuse for that matter) but sheer curiosity. what is all that hype about?, i kept thinking. is it that bad? does it have anything to do with literature? is it really mommy porn? and what is mommy porn, to begin with? well, i got the answers to all of these questions. the whole hype is an enormous bubble (who would have thought, eh?) created by a well thought-out (?) marketing strategy. and don't even get me started on all the 'fifty shades of...' word jokes i oh-so-creatively thought out while reading this thing i wouldn't even call a novel. eg.: this book is fifty shades of f*cked up. it's fifty shades worse than anything i have ever read. and i just don't get it: how come so many people fell for this thing? don't they ever read anything else? is it because of the ridiculously detailed wet, erotic porn scenes? or that worse than awful, horrendous narrative that made me feel physical pain while reading? or the pathetically one dimensional, unrealistic characters? and finally: i just have to ask myself: wwtggs? - what would the gilmore girls say? well, of course, lorelei would say - no less than three times - uhhh, dirty, dirty dirty. and rory? well, she would turn fifty shades more crimson, then mutter: laaane, not in front of the books! euh, why would you even read that? so the eternal question rises again: why oh why?

what have you been reading lately?

do you have preconceptions about certain books? how do you deal with them? how do you get rid of them?