Feature: Why You Should Read This Book #12 – The Name Of The Wind

Five Reasons Why You Should Read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

1. The book has just the right mix of the fantastical and the familiar to make it more accessible to many types of readers.

2. The university is amazing. You can’t go wrong with a magic school! It’s not just for magic, there are so many other things taught there that sound fascinating.

3. But the magic system is so different from anything you’ve ever read. It’s also not referred to as magic, but ‘sympathy’. The user has to work hard, mentally and physically to manage anything; it is demanding, unlike magic systems in many other books and series. More of a scientific take on the usual wands and broomsticks type of magic, often it requires some sort of sacrifice.

4. Fantastic and very well done world building, which is essential in this sort of epic fantasy novel.

5. There are so many mysteries in the book – who Kvothe really is, who Bast is and what he means to Kvothe, what the Chandrain are… and you just have to keep reading to find out. The excuse of ‘one more chapter’ doesn’t work well on this book: chapters are short so you’ll keep telling yourself that until you finish!

I read this book as part of my bookgroup in July 2013. I summarised our thoughts on the book in a post at the end of July, and it was very well received by the group!

Have you read The Name Of The Wind? What did you think?

Feature: Why You Should Read This Book #11 – 1Q84

Five Reasons Why You Should Read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

1. Everyone should read a Murakami book in their lifetime. He has a very unique way of story-telling, very usual but absolutely brilliant. I’ve read several of his books; they’ve all been very different from one another and anything else I’ve read.

2. They tend to be very cerebral reads. The subject matter often makes you think and he is a master at keeping things hidden.

3. If, like me, you often seem to end up reading books set in either Europe or North America, it’s nice to read some fiction set elsewhere. I believe that all of his books are set in Japan, although there may be a couple of exceptions.

4. He has a very detailed writing style (and has therefore written several hefty volumes), which easily conjures up some fantastically detailed images.

5. The lives of both Aomame and Tengo are cleverly and strangely entwined, the book being somehow both realistic and unrealistic  in its portrayal of human lives. The occasional odd event makes it clear that not everything is as it seems.

Murakami is not necessarily to everyone’s taste, but I urge you to try at least one of his books in your lifetime! Norwegian Wood might be a good place to start, as it is shorter and a bit less obscure than some of his other work.

Feature: Why You Should Read This Book #8 – Ready Player One

Five Reasons Why You Should Read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

1. It’s a rags to riches story with a futuristic, cyber twist.

2. The pop culture references are fantastic – often that can be a pain in books, but here it works so well! They don’t just feel shoved into the text for the sake of it – more often than not, they are an integral part of the story.

3. If you are a gamer, or a particular fan of early gaming, you need to read this. It’s so beautifully geeky. It also has plenty of sci-fi references from all eras. Plus trying to solve the clues is fun – I managed to solve one and felt so proud, haha!

4. Despite constant pop culture references, Ernest Cline has managed to fit in some wonderfully rounded characters, some that you really wouldn’t expect. Wade really develops over the course of the book, and meets many fascinating people along the way.

5. The world-building is well executed. Both the real world and the virtual world – the OASIS, as it is known.

Feature: Why You Should Read This Book #6 – The Knife Of Never Letting Go

Five Reasons Why You Should Read The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1) by Patrick Ness

1. It is one of those series that completely grips you, that makes you so attached to the characters that you can’t bear anything to happen to them.

2. It is fantastically written. I also love the use of various fonts to show different types of Noise.

3. You can’t help but love Todd and Viola, and Manchee. The characters are so real, complete with their flaws.

4. Patrick Ness has a way of completely shocking the reader. And he will manage it multiple times.

5. This series deserves more recognition. It is a fantastic light sci-fi series, that not enough people have read. If something like Twilight has achieved international success, a multi-film franchise etc, then why has something of this quality still not achieved that same status?