Couldn't get into it and finally had to give up. I wanted to finish since I was curious how could it possibly end but for now I just can't continue. Mostly the repetitive manner irritated me and I didn't really get to know the characters that well even after 500 pages. If I feel like it I could continue it later on but now it's on hold.

The necessary research was obviously done so that's a plus. The book was just so boring. I couldn't care less what happens to the characters or do they find what they need. Everything was completely 2-dimensional and the writing was poor.

I had to read this for school and though I finished it in only one day it managed to irritate me greatly. I couldn't get into the characters since they were all pretty much the same in their voices. Quite frankly, everything was flat and meaningless. The concept itself is remotely interesting but with this execution it came out as numbing and boring.

I saw the movie first and somehow I found these book characters a little more unlikeable. However, Hoffman wrote so engagingly about the magic that I can check out more of her novels later on.

English Translation Studies
A great work about one of the most outrageous events in human history that tackles with lots of issues and also tells more about the people involved. Reading it was a mixture of bewilderment, surprise and disgust. The author tells just enough to light a spark in the reader who will most likely continue the process and think about the trials in a broader context, like what "hunting witches" really means these days.

I appreciated Villa's attitude towards travelling and life itself: travelling itself is already important, not so much the destination, and it's wonderful to just try lots of different things while trying to break free from the conventional society. However, the form wasn't appealing at all. Villa transcribed her thoughts from a dictation machine, so the entries are full of tiny unimportant details. I guess it shows realistically the sometimes monotonous environment of a cargo ship, but I was expecting a more descriptive approach to her journey. Villa also seemed quite often to be uninterested and glum, or complained about small things. The thought of an adventurous lady, who travelled around the world well into her seventies, is nice. In practice, though, the book was just too practical for my taste. Not enough descriptions of the actual places she visited.