Thursday Book Challenge: Week 1

Getting your knitting and reading balanced is always tricky. One minute your obsessed with finishing your shawl, and the next you can't seem to put that novella down. Abby (Virtual Stitch) and myself understand much to well the difficulty of this balancing act, and proposed to do something about it. And thus, the Thursday Book Challenge (TBC) was born.

You can find a full explanation of this new meme, here. (If I explained it and then did my post for the week, it would be a good mile long!)

Feel free to use the graphic in your post! 

So, this week I chose to read Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, Timeriders: The Doomsday Code (Book 3) by Alex Scarrow, and, if I can get to the library this Friday, The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

I've watched the BBC Adaptation of Cranford and Return to Cranford, many, many times. And thoroughly enjoyed it. (And may be a little in love with William Buxton) The series' are actually based on three novellas by Mrs. Gaskell: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow and Mr. Harrison's Confessions. And I hope to read them all over the coming weeks.

©BBC

It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of Cranford in the north-west of England (although it is believed to be based on Knutsford in Cheshire). The occupants of the town are almost all women and they are all very set in their traditional ways. Miss Mary Smith (who, in my belief, is Elizabeth Gaskell herself) goes to stay with the Jenkyns sisters, Miss Deborah and Miss Matty. The book is really a very long letter written by Miss Smith about the adventures of the Cranford ladies. 

The different stories move like a bullet train, and you don't get to enjoy one story for very long when another one pulls in and takes over. Which, I think is a shame. The book is also a little jumbled. She relates one experience in June for example, then goes back to the November before, and then takes you to another adventure set in the August of next year. 

Despite all this, though, the book is fabulous. I really enjoyed reading it. Things are a lot different in the book to the series (for ex. Captain Brown dies in the book, but lives on in the adaptation) so you do get to enjoy new characters and stories which do not appear in the adaptation.

©BBC

My favorite character has to be Miss Pole. The free-thinking gossip of the town. She is full of wit, sarcasm and humor and the book would suffer greatly without her. 

I managed to finish the book on Tuesday morning, so it was quite a quick read. I tried to think of Cranford inspired knits, and all I could think of were these lovely fingerless mittens which I could easily see Miss Matty wear. 

I started the Doomsday Code by Alex Scarrow yesterday, and am really enjoying it. As I am not very far into the book I can't give much of an opinion other than I am really enjoying it. It's great to be back with the characters and am looking forward to seeing how they face the challenges that this book brings them.

So, now its your turn! To share you post with us, fill your information into the Mr. Linky below! (Make sure you give us the link to you post and not your home-page) All we ask is that you link back to us in your post so that we can get the word out about this meme, and perhaps read and comment on a few of the other participants posts. But mainly, have fun!!


EDIT:


Sorry about all the hassle with the Mr. Linky, it is working now, but it takes a minute or two to add your link. If you're still having trouble, please tell me by leaving a comment! Thank you, and sorry about all that!