Reading Habits – November 2009

If I may be so bold as to paraphrase the mighty Salt-N-Pepa: ‘Lets’s talk about books, baby.’   At least I think that’s what they said.  Anyway, as always, my ‘to be read’ pile of books are kept in chronological order, and I 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

Sometimes you have to meet your fears head on and I’m definitely scared of 1000-page books.  That’s why I chose to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (F.C.) by Susanna Clarke.  It’s an alternate history novel that’s set in a nineteenth century England where there has been no magic for a few hundred years until two magicians arise (the titular characters) who will bring the art back to its former glory.  It’s a fantasy novel, so I definitely mean ‘magic’ and not ‘illusion’.

It was going to have to be pretty special to keep my interest over such a length, but, fortunately, it was.  It’s written as if it were a novel of the period and it was a delight to read.  The fantastical elements were done so cleverly that they didn’t seem at all out of place.  It was more like reading a 19th century novel from a world in which magic exists than a 21st century novel from a world which it doesn’t.

If you’re going to write a book this long then you’re going to need to make it sufficiently complex and Clarke weaves a rich tapestry.  As the story progresses, the two main characters come in to conflict, but neither is clumsily drawn as the villain.  You’ll probably side with one over the other, but they both clearly have their strengths and both definitely have their weaknesses.  After originally filling me with dread, I really enjoyed it and look forward to the proposed sequel.

The next book of the month was Kidnapped (B.H.L.) by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It was quite a short novel and I imagined it would be a ripping yarn, so it seemed like the best way to refresh my palate.  Sadly, it was like eating a musty kipper (I don’t really know where I’m going with this).  Let’s just say that I gave up after 40 pages as I found it arduous and unfulfilling.  Someone should have taught him how to write in English.

Luckily, I chose a very slim book for my next choice, Batman: Digital Justice (F.C.) by Pepe Moreno.   This is a 1990 graphic novel which was one of the first comics to be produced entirely on computer.  I was fascinated at the time, as it seemed so futuristic, but I never got around to buying it.  It was on my wishlist because it was part of Grant Morrison’s recommended reading list for The Invisibles and I bought it because it was only about £2.50 for a nice hardback edition on Amazon Marketplace.  Anyway, as you would imagine, it has dated quite badly – there is a boast of a computer having a whole 2Gb of storage – but, despite it’s relative clunkiness, there is still something about it.  It’s set in a dystopian Gotham at the end of this century and, for all its flaws, it manages to create a vivid world, that somehow just about stands up.  I wouldn’t recommend that anybody rushes out and buys it, but it’s certainly an interesting curiousity.

I didn’t really have a clue about the next book, The Speckled People (B.H.L) by Hugo Hamilton, as I got it free with a newspaper a few years ago.  It turned out to be a memoir of growing up in 1950s\60s Ireland, with a German mother and a fiercely patriotic father (they weren’t allowed to speak English).  As you might imagine, it wasn’t the jolliest read imaginable.  Despite being well-written, I thought I was going to struggle for the first third of the book.  I did eventually become engrossed in their lives and it was very moving.

I decided to finish the month with a bang and read Fight Club (F.C.) by Chuck Palahniuk.  The film is a modern classic but I only added this to my wishlist when it kept cropping up on my Amazon recommendations.   It was an excellent read and was as taut and brutal as you’d imagine.  My only regret is that I didn’t read it before I saw the film.  I kept asking myself whether I would have guessed what the twist was if I didn’t already know.  Some passages seemed to be blatantly telling you, but if you you didn’t know, then the clues might be easy to miss.  Sadly, I’ll never know.

Books Acquired

Things Snowball by Rich Hall – British Heart Foundation shop – This wasn’t on my wishlist, but I’d seen Hall live only a few days before when I saw the book, so I had to have it.  My review of his gig is here.

Eric by Terry Pratchett – Amazon Marketplace.  I managed to track down Moving Pictures, last month, and so needed this one to complete a run of about 5 books.

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby – Bookmooch – So, you’re reading a 1000-page novel and you know, as a result, you’re likely to read less books this month than usual.  What’s your best course of action?  To randomly look through available books on Bookmooch and see if there’s any that you like?  Yeah, it wasn’t the brightest thing that I’ve ever done.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle – Bookmooch – See above.

Atonement by Ian McEwan – Bookmooch – See above

The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry – British Heart Foundation shop – I really don’t understand poetry.  I don’t see that as a good thing as all those intellectual types seem to love it.  This is a book that attempts to teach you how to write poetry and so I thought it might give me a bit of an insight.

Books Given Away on Bookmooch

Billy by Pamela Stephenson – You’d imagine that a biography of Billy Connolly written by his wife would be pretty entertaining.  It wasn’t.  I was more than happy to give it away.

Result

Books Read 5 (yes, I’m counting Kidnapped) – Books Acquired 6, result – a loss.

So, it’s my first loss in the history of Reading Habits.  Annoyingly, it was completely self-inflicted