Cmdr Shepard's favourite books on the Citadel
I was a much more avid reader in my youth... before the days of PCs and gaming consoles. Now I find myself working in a job filled with long, slow periods of extreme boredom (punctuated by brief spells of intense excitement) which gives me a lot of time to pick up my reading again.
The only thing that I curse is my near-eidetic memory when it comes to books that I have read which can ruin my future enjoyment and re-reading of many of my favourite books (I tend to skip the 'slow, boring bits'). As a result I find myself mentally forcing myself to read each page slowly and carefully whenever I re-read a book to prevent myself from jumping forward to the more exciting parts that I remember.
[Full Review to Follow]Re-reading this book (and series) for review purposes.
[Full Review to Follow]Re-reading this book (and series) for review purposes.
"It is often said that 95% of what happens in football takes place behind closed doors. Many of these stories I shouldn't be telling you about. But I will."So reads the blurb on the back cover.
If only the book actually lived up to it....
I went into this book thinking that it might actually 'lift the lid' and expose secrets and stories that people hadn't already heard many times over already. Instead. far too much of the book is filled with the kind of stories that you hear regularly touted as 'shattering' on various TV shows by pundits or former players.
About the only 'new' thing was the 'player agent' answering questions from fans via Twitter - something that the Secret Footballer actually lifted directly from his column in 'The Guardian' newspaper... It's not new, and it's not even remotely 'shattering'.
I did so desperately want to like this book. It is well written. You can see, as a reader, that the player (whomever he may be) is writing from the heart.
But too much of it is simply a rehash of his regular columns and fails to meet the expectations that the blurb envisions.
It is only because GR doesn't have a half star feature that enables this book to score the full 2-stars that I give it...
..and in some respects I wonder if even that is too generous.
This author plagiarized S.A. Meade. REPORT THIS PLAGIARIST.Proof is here: Hey! Waiter! Someone stole my story!
Refer also to Arthur's review, and that of the original author.
[Full Review to Follow]Re-reading this book (and series) for review purposes.
Perhaps I went into the book expecting so much more but, at the same time, there is so much more that this book could have been. I honestly wanted to love this book so much, and I'm so disappointed that it fell so flat...The opening 'Introduction from the Producer' and the profiles of both Contestants and Judges had me laughing quietly, and showed that the promise I saw in the book was there. Sadly though, from that point things just went into a steady decline to the point where I was sitting there thinking of so many quips or comments that could have been added at various points that were just completely overlooked by the writer. In the end it actually became a struggle to finish the book becuase of this.
The concept of Contestant's Personal Recipes was a great one and, on several occasions, worthy of a giggle or two... but not to the extent that book could have delivered.
In the end I've given 2 stars because there is so much promise in the idea, just poorly executed in this single effort.
P.S.: I recently noticed another review on this same book which probably enunciates how I feel about this book better than I could myself.
