I find the books on people's shelves fascinating, basically because I imagine they say a lot about the people who own and (I generally presume, unless they are in pseudo leather-bound sets) have read them. But if books say a lot about their readers, is it necessarily in one's interest to reveal all of one's reading material? This thought crossed my mind as I considered this latest little review: frankly, I am really not going to do my credibility as a reader of (at least potentially) worthwhile books any favours by revealing I am on the eighth of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, am I? And yet, well, if I'm doing this, I may as well come clean about it: I do enjoy the odd little escapist foray into the world of Mma Ramotswe and her probably very rose-tinted Botswana.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Heading back North holiday reading: "A Week in December" by Sebastian Faulks
(Original FB note: 16 August 2010)
It's difficult not to be impressed by Sebastian Faulks, who, for me at any rate, occupies a place among the must-read British authors of the moment. I haven't read everything he has written, but what I have - Birdsong, Charlotte Gray, On Green Dolphin Street and Engleby - convinced me to pick up a copy of "A Week in December" when I happened on it some time ago. It stayed on the shelf for a while, perhaps because, though he is always good, I sneakingly felt he had never quite repeated what he did in Birdsong - a book which would be hard for anyone to surpass. Nonetheless, "A Week in Deecember" made it into the box of holiday books.
Deep South holiday reading: "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" by Stieg Larsson
(Original FB note: 3 August 2010)
A certain hesitation came over me before embarking on the phenomenally successful thriller (trilogy indeed). Would it live up to expectations? Would it grab me the way it seems to have grabbed so many others? Or would it be a bit of a let down? Similar hesitations arise now, because whatever I say partisans and non-partisans of Stieg Larsson seem to have strong views and adding to the pile of opinions seems rather futile. Still, the idea is I do these things, so here it is.
More holiday reading: "Lustrum" by Robert Harris
(Original FB note: 30 July 2010)
Arrrh, what better holiday reading than Robert Harris? Page-turning but intelligent and insightful. "Lustrum" is the second of Harris' Cicero trilogy (the first being "Imperium", the third yet to come), but it was the first I have read. This doesn't seem to matter too much, though it could have been helpful to have some prior acquaintance with the complex roll call of characters, I suppose.
Renewed holiday reading: "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
(Original FB note: 30 July 2010)
This is a book famous for many for the back-story of its writing and publication. It was finally published in 1980, eleven years after the suicide of its author, thanks (fittingly) to the concerted and protracted efforts of his mother, who discovered the manuscript. It deserves its fame on its own merits as well, of course, being original and bizarre and memorable and 60's zeitgeisty.
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