I’ve utterly loved this book, reflected in how quickly I’ve read it!
This is a book about a guy who is sick of pouring his money down the drain in rent, and has no steady income, and so, inspired by a game called “Bigger and Better” from his childhood, tries to trade up from a Red Paperclip, up to a house he can call his own.
I really doesn’t sound possible does it? The book works you through each trade and how it came about, chapter by chapter. It’s a real story, the website and blog he wrote at the time all still exist! There’s not too much of a spoiler in them either as the introduction to the book says pretty much exactly where it’s going to end up!
The guy behind it all is really quite inspiring. It’s not about trading up for something of higher monetary value, it’s about the journey, about the people, and the idea that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Definitely worth a read!
We were given copies of this book at work when it was published, but unfortunately at that point I wasn’t reading much at all and it just went on my bookshelf. But when I was looking for my next book to read, I put a couple of options I had out on twitter and had a reply from Mr Wess Stafford himself! After that I didn’t really have an excuse to read anything else 🙂
Wess has been the President of Compassion International for a long time and is just in the process of retiring and handing over to his successor. He’s a great man and brilliant speaker, his first book was called Too Small To Ignore and is his story of his childhood in an African village, and how we must invest in children.
Just a minute carries on his theme of caring for those children around us. It’s a whole load of short stories of different people’s “minutes” that changed and influenced their lives, something someone said or did that affected them. Most are uplifting positive stories which inspire us to do the same, but be warned, there’s a handful that show how damaging a minute can be – Hitler’s childhood actually gets a mention….
I found this book challenging and motivating to really think about how I treat and talk to the children I know and come across regularly, how is a passing comment I make going to potentially affect them long term?
A great read, and not a tricky one either, just pick a story or two in one sitting if necessary!
I’d seen the film of this a long time ago, but as books are so often better and I’d picked it up cheaply in one of those bargain bookshops years ago I thought I’d knock it off my list.
I found this a bit tricky to get into. The first chunk of the book time jumps around a lot, and it was pretty hard to follow. However, once the book reached a point where there was a bit more flow to time, as in you were at least watching one of the characters timelines chronologically, it got far easier to understand what was going on!
The book got a bit dodgy in places, but only really 3-4 times max, most of it was clean or I’d’ve given up far earlier, but really it was only a couple of scenes that I could get past and move on.
Once I got into it the narrative got stronger and stronger until, as so often happens, I couldn’t put it down! I knew what was coming having seen the film, but still it’s very well written!
If you can get past a bit of smut (what a great word!) and confusion, then worth a read. I don’t know if I’d read it a second time now I’ve done it the once, especially as the film is a cleaner version! But it’s a lovely story 🙂
Boggis and Bunce and Bean
One fat, one short, one lean.
These horrible crooks
So different in looks
were none the less equally mean.
While working out what to read that could compete with The Hunger Games, I thought I may as well do another Roald Dahl! It’s only 82 pages so I did it in about 2 sittings over Sunday afternoon, but still a great story! Yes it encourages stealing and drinking…. but only in a sense of finding something to eat when your whole family is starving – the book tells us that it’s ok to thieve in that case!
A couple of years ago a film was made of this book. I don’t know if it’s just me but I really didn’t like it – the animation style made the film look like it was 20 years old! They also added a lot to the plot – although I suppose you have to for such a short book… here’s the trailer, if you’ve read the book, see what you think!
The final Hunger Games book! As a trilogy these books are phenomenal!
This book I’d say was the weakest of the three, but that does NOT make it bad! The speed of time jumps around a lot which gets a bit confusing. There’s a lot going on, but I just didn’t feel it flowed as well as the first couple, the plot was a little more juddered.
This doesn’t mean I still didn’t exclaim out loud at some bits, and yesterday afternoon as I finished it I think I read about 150 pages straight, it’s still one that’s hard to put down!
Again, don’t want to put any spoilers here so won’t discuss the whole outcome with the various elements – but do read it!!
This book definitely fell into the category of can’t-put-it-down; I read the first half in 2 days, and 3 days later had finished it!
Following the first book we’ve moved on a little while, and deal with the fall out of the events. There are so many twists and turns, I don’t want to write anything for fear of giving away the plot, but just to say, in places this book actually made me gasp audibly – very highly recommended!
I picked up this book because it was half price by the door in WHSmiths, the film had just come out, and it felt like it was one of those books I “should” have read. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I thought it’d be very difficult and complicated and ye olde English, but I’d heard it was meant to be lighter than Lord of the Rings, and a bit more aimed at children, so thought it was worth a shot!
It got tough in places – got pretty confused towards the end with all the different groups of people, but I actually did enjoy it! There was humour and drama, and not too much of all the battly stuff, which I always struggle to follow! And of course it was written in relatively normal English – I forget this was written by a guy who was friends with C.S. Lewis who wrote Narnia which again is ‘normal’ language – I shouldn’t have been so apprehensive! Of course there’s all the crazy names of people, creatures and places, and way too many of them to keep track, but that normally happens!
Obviously the first film for this has just come out and there’s two more to go, but I couldn’t help but wonder given it’s format of lots of mini adventures within a greater adventure, whether it wouldn’t have worked really well serialised for TV? I guess budgets are lower for that sort of thing and you don’t get the epicness of the big screen, but it definitely felt like it would break down into chunks quite nicely!
I’ll leave you with my favourite quote, which comes early on in the book:
“He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of The Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole, and in this way the battle was won, and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.”
I’ve leant my other Hunger Games books out, so grabbed the next Roald Dahl book in the series while I wait! This one is so short, only 50 odd pages, and lots of that is illustrations! I thought I’d never read it before, but as I got about halfway through I realised I definitely knew the story.
Utterly brilliant, hardly about the finger at all, but about a family that shoots ducks, and how they are punished by the finger…. Easy to read in one sitting, definitely recommended for a quick laugh!
Wow, I don’t know when I last read a book this quickly! I saw the film earlier this year, and it was great, but the book (as always) just tells you so much more.
The whole concept behind it is truly horrific. Twelve districts, under rule of “The Capitol”, each year, a girl and boy are taken from each district and put in an arena to fight to the death. All for TV.
And yet it’s told so well, I literally couldn’t put it down. It’s written in the first person, and so it’s just like she’s chatting to you, telling you her story. It makes the relationships and feelings infinitely more believable.
Just a fab book – can’t wait to read the next one!
This is the second book I’ve finished this week! Although I guess you can see why…!
Such a classic though, it deserves to be read lots! And as happened when I read James and the Giant Peach last year, I found bits I couldn’t remember in the slightest! There’s a fantastic chapter about square sweets that look round:
[from chapter 23 – Square sweets that look round]
On the table there were rows and rows of small white square-shaped
sweets. The sweets looked very much like square sugar lumps – except that each of them
had a funny little pink face painted on one side. At the end of the table, a number of
Oompa-Loompas were busily painting more faces on more sweets.
‘There you are!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘Square sweets that look round!’
‘They don’t look round to me,’ said Mike Teavee.
‘They look square,’ said Veruca Salt. ‘They look completely square.’
‘But they are square,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘I never said they weren’t.’
‘You said they were round!’ said Veruca Salt.
‘I never said anything of the sort,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘I said they looked round.’
‘But they don’t look round!’ said Veruca Salt.’ They look square!’
‘They look round,’ insisted Mr Wonka.
‘They most certainly do not look round!’ cried Veruca Salt.
‘Veruca, darling,’ said Mrs Salt, ‘pay no attention to Mr Wonka! He’s lying to you!’
‘My dear old fish,’ said Mr Wonka, ‘go and boil your head!’
‘How dare you speak to me like that!’ shouted Mrs Salt.
‘Oh, do shut up,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘Now watch this!’
He took a key from his pocket, and unlocked the door, and flung it open … and suddenly … at the sound of the door opening, all the rows of little square sweets looked quickly round to see who was coming in. The tiny faces actually turned towards the door and stared at Mr Wonka.
‘There you are!’ he cried triumphantly. ‘They’re looking round! There’s no argument about it! They are square sweets that look round!’
These days it’s hard to read it without picture both of the big films that have been made of it.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – 1971
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – 2005
It’s rare for a remake to ever live up to the original, but in this case, in so many ways, the newer film is much closer to the book than the old film. I guess the other film changed it’s title but it’s still the same story. In the newer film, the Oompa Loompas use the ‘correct’ words for their songs (although the classic oopma loompa doopa de doo from the old film will remain a classic!), and Veruca Salt has the same story as in the book, whereas they changed the squirrels for geese in the old film! The old film also had a scene where Charlie and his Grandpa were caught breaking rules, which just isn’t in Charlie’s character, or the book, and a whole plot with Arthur Slugworth trying to get each child to steal a recipe. Not that the newer film was perfect! Willy Wonka seemed high as a kite for half of it, and there was a whole plotline about his relationship with his father who was a dentist, which was totally surreal.
At the end of the day though, they’re both fab films – the old has some beautiful songs in it (other than the oompa loompa songs! (check out pure imagination and the candyman can) And I’d highly recommend watching both of them – and reading the book of course!
But really, one film has a chocolate waterfall and river that look like thin hot chocolate, the other that looks like proper melted chocolate – which would you rather?!
ineke.co.uk 