Reading Habits – August 2009

Welcome to the first of my new monthly Reading Habits columns.  As the name suggests, I’m going to take you through all the books that I’ve read, and acquired over the previous month.  All books that I read are kept in chronological order, I then alternately read the book I’ve had longest (marked B.H.L.), followed by a free choice (F.C.).  For a full description of my insane book selection rules, please click here.

Books Read

There couldn’t be a more appropriate first book for Reading Habits, as The Complete Polysyllabic Spree (F.C.) by Nick Hornby was what inspired it in the first place.  OK, it didn’t so much inspire the idea as much as I completely stole it.  The book is a collection of Hornby’s columns for Believer magazine, in which he discusses the books he has read and bought during that month (sound familiar?).  I got the book through Bookmooch, primarily because I’ve read, and enjoyed, some of Hornby’s novels, and because I liked the idea of reading about reading.  It was a nice easy read, and very funny too.  As someone who doesn’t have that much contact with other readers, it was nice to feel like I was in a very exclusive book club, if only for the duration of the volume.  Weirdly, I didn’t add any of the books discussed in it to my wishlist; I wonder if I came to some kind of subconscious decision beforehand in order to save my sanity and not double the length of my wishlist.  That said, I assume that one or two of the books will stick in my mind enough to prompt a random charity shop buy.

The thing that really struck me about Polysyllabic Spree is that it focused on what it was like to read the books, rather than being a book of out-and-out reviews.  I’ve got something of a phobia about writing reviews myself, particularly when it comes to books.  I even wrote a whole blog post in which I explained how bad I am at them, so if I ever did a bad review, and was picked up on it, I could always say, ‘I told you so!’ – check out Previewing My Reviews for details.  As a book lover, I’d always wanted to write about them, but didn’t know what format it should take, and so Polysyllabic Spree came along at the right time.  By a stroke of luck, I finished reading Hornby’s book on the 1st August, which gave me a perfect starting point, and so I got my notebook and started filling it.  Nick, if by some miracle you ever read this, thank you and I’m sorry for stealing.

Full of enthusiasm for my new project, I went on to my next book, which was one I knew nothing about.  Hunting Unicorns (B.H.L.) by Bella Pollen may be unique amongst my ‘to read pile’ in that I have no inkling of how I acquired it or why.  I’d not heard of the author before, and the title didn’t mean anything to me, so I was going in completely blind.  It certainly had the vibe of being a ‘girl’s book’, although not gregariously so.  The front cover featured a washed out\scratched photo style picture of two young boys, one with the arm around the other, and a halo drawn above one of their heads.  I prayed it wasn’t going to be some kind of abuse memoir.  The back cover had some good reviews (but then, don’t they all?), and one of them compared the writing to that of P.G. Wodehouse.  This just left me more confused, and so I stopped guessing and started reading.

The novel could be best described as a romantic comedy, or as a chick-lit novel written by someone who has been asked to write a chick-lit novel without having ever read a chick-lit novel, but has had someone explain to them what a chick-lit novel is like over lunch.  I have bizarrely read a number of chick-lit novels as a result of my policy to attempt to read any book I come in possession of, and I have no immunity to them left whatsoever.  It perhaps speaks volumes then, for Hunting Unicorns, that I was able to finish it.

The story revolves around Rory, a down-to-earth English aristocrat and his inevitable romance with American TV journalist Maggie.  The chapters’ narrators alternate between Maggie and Rory’s dead brother, Daniel. Yes, his dead brother, and presumable owner of the halo.  All in all, it could have been worse, which sounds like I’m damning it with faint praise, but, since I’m guessing I’m not exactly the target audience, it’s not bad.  I’m not sure about the weird Nazi sub-plot though.

The next book was On Chesil Beach (F.C.) by Ian McEwan, a splendid purchase from the British Heart Foundation shop.  I bought it simply because I’d heard McEwan was really good, and I’d never read any of his work.  The reason I chose to read it is that it was nice and slim, and also because I knew what book was coming next and I wanted a bit of culture first.  On Chesil Beach was another book where I had no inkling of the plot beforehand, and I didn’t know what to expect.  It tells the story of two newlyweds in 1962, which might on the surface not sound thrilling stuff, but McEwan’s masterly use of the English language painted a fascinating portrait of their relationship.  At 166 pages, it is a lesson in brevity, and, in that short number of pages, he says everything that needs to be said; every word feels like it is there for a reason.  A serious book, with a sharp sense of humour, this is highly recommended.  It’s also a good job that I read this after Hunting Unicorns, rather than before it.

If I was a betting man, I would have staked my house on not finishing Dr Ali’s Nutrition Bible (B.H.L.) by Dr Mosaraf Ali, but I still went in with the intention of giving it a good go.  This is the second of two health food books that my mum lent to me a few years ago; the clear intent being that they might make me eat healthier.  I attempted the first one a few months ago, The Food Doctor by Ian Marber & Vicki Edgson, which resulted in failure.  It started OK, listing the top 100 foods for health, a fairly interesting feature that listed the benefits of each individual food.  It did seem like something of a con as it was basically just a list of every fruit, vegetable, seed, nut and grain that you could think of, but I could definitely see the use of it.  The next chapter was ‘Weight Management’, with a suggested breakfast menu of:

Glass of juice, plus one of:

Tofu Smoothie

Millet Porridge

Organic Bio Yoghurt with choice of seeds

Sugar Free Cornflakes with Rice Milk

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and mushrooms.

Well,  after reading that, I promptly gave up the book in disgust.  With the notable exception of the eggs option, who in their right mind would have the others for breakfast?? That’s being slightly unfair, and if you do have the others, then I applaud your healthiness.  I just get extremely irritated by healthy eating guides that immediately assume you have to give up living like a normal human being.  The phrase ‘with choice of seeds’, should never be presented as a viable option in a human diet.  Cornflakes are fine, even sugar free, but they can’t be content with that, why does it have to be ‘rice milk’ as well?  You might be able to tell that it really bugs me, and it’s with this in mind that I approach Dr Ali’s ‘Bible’.  Any lingering hopes of enjoying the book are dashed when I spot that it is dedicated to Chuck ‘People listen to my views on homeopathy because my mother is head of state, in an institution that should have been abolished centuries ago’ Windsor.  I was also put off by the fact that Dr Ali runs an ‘integrated clinic’ in which a whole third of the treatments feature conventional (ie tried, and tested by science) medicine, and this made me question any facts I subsequently read in the book.

I got to about page 30 before I gave up, and to be fair to it, it wasn’t actually that bad.  I think that the main problem was that I just wasn’t interested in reading in, and so every attempt drained a bit more of my will to read.  It seemed more sensible to bail out at this stage, and not risk being stuck with Dr Ali for the next 3 months.  I suspect that the book might be more useful as a reference tool, and so the book still lingers in the house, trying to tempt me in to picking it up.

Having a free choice next, I went for something that I was more than likely going to enjoy, so I chose Black & Blue (F.C.) by Ian Rankin.  This is the eighth of the Rebus novels, and I obtained it via Bookmooch, in my attempt to own all 17 books in the series (a task I have subsequently achieved).  This is the novel where Rankin’s detective gained a wider audience, and it’s easy to see why, it being much more expansive and assured than the previous entries.  It took me a while to get in to it, but I think this had more to with my frame of mind at the time, rather than anything to do to with the writing.  I think it took my writing genes a while to recover from the bashing that Dr Ali gave them.  All in all, an enjoyable book, and I look forward to the next.

From one popular literary detective to maybe the most popular, as I read, The Hound of the Baskervilles (B.H.L.) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Although I obviously knew the basic premise of Sherlock Holmes, it’s not something I’ve ever read before or even seen the films or TV shows.  So, when I saw this on sale for £1 in ASDA, it seemed silly not to give it a try.  It was a bit of a strange reading experience; it was a pleasant enough read, but in places it seemed almost to be a parody of a Sherlock Holmes story, and the ending was disappointingly anti-climatic.  I was fascinating by the nature of the relationship between Holmes and Watson though, and it’s made me curious as to actually what went on in Victorian London.

My final book of the month was Facts and Fancies (F.C.) by Armando Iannucci, a great Bookmooch find.  This showed up on my Amazon recommendations a while ago, but was out of print, so it was a big bonus to get it on Bookmooch.  Iannucci is a TV producer and writer behind such shows as The Day Today, I’m Alan Partridge and The Thick of It.  With a pedigree like that, it was something of a no brainer to want to read his book.  The book itself is a collection of short essays that take a look at the world in an absurd and nonsensical way. Some of the entries fall a little flat, but it’s well worth a read for those with a love of the surreal.

And that was all the reading that I did in August.  Suffice to say, I didn’t go back and read through Dr Ali’s Nutrition Bible. It still lurks on my bedside table.

Books Acquired

Women On Top by Nancy Friday – Bookmooch – I think it’s some kind record of genuine female sexual fantasies.  I must have read about this somewhere or seen it on a TV show, but I can’t place exactly where.  Also, one of my friends once had a book that featured female fantasies and had read me a particularly intriguing Alsatian\Kidnap based one, and I’m hoping this is the same book.  I’m weird, I know.

The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko – Bookmooch – I’ve got both of the films based on this novel on DVD, so I was intrigued to give it a try.

The Holocaust On Trial by D.D. Guttenplan – Bookmooch – The story of a holocaust denier, which took me ages to remember why it ended up on my wishlist.  I eventually remembered that I’d read a review of the book in Christopher Hitchens’ Love, Poverty & War (The Strange Case of David Irving, p255).

The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans – Somebody gave my mum a load of books, and she thought that this wouldn’t be her cup of tea, so she decided to give it to me.  I can never say no to a free book.

Gridlock by Ben Elton – Same reason as The Horse Whisperer.

Belching Out The Devil by Mark Thomas – Barnardo’s Charity Shop –  I’ve been to see Mark live this year, I used to watch his TV shows, I’ve read his previous book, As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela, and I saw his documentary based on Belching Out The Devil. I think that all of these constitute good enough reasons for a spur of the moment charity shop purchase. Plus, the book attacks Coca-Cola, and I gave up drinking it a few months ago, so I can read it without feeling guilty.

Reasons to be Cheerful by Mark Steel – Bookmooch – Like the previous Mark, I’ve been to see this one live this year (read about it here), and I’ve read one of his previous books, It’s Not a Runner Bean….

Result

Books Read 7 – Books Acquired 7, result – a draw.

I’m a little disappointed to end the month on a draw.  For a long time, the win was well on the cards, and then I got inexplicably stuck on Black & Blue. I was still in control of the match until the 2 books given to me by my mum and a last minute Bookmooch find, with just a couple of days left in the month.  Better luck for September.