‘Stolen Reading’
Don’t you just love blowing things off so that you can read a book instead?
It’s been a while since I’ve had time just to sit and read a book for the sheer pleasure of reading it. Recently, I’ve only had time to read straight before I go to sleep, which is an awkward trade-off between sleep time and book time.
When I got in today, though, I decided to not bother doing any of the stuff I have to do (and there’s quite a pile of it!) and just read a book instead. I decided to start one of my library books, and after reading over the blurbs again and weighing them up, I decided to go with An Equal Music by Vikram Seth.
So far, I think I made the right choice. The writing style is wonderful: it’s the kind of writing you can pull around yourself like a soft blanket and snuggle into it for a while. The other thing that I particularly liked is that the main character is a musician and there are lots of lovely descriptions of music. Ever since I read Memory Slips by Linda Katherine Cutting, descriptions of playing music have been something I’ve looked for especially as hers were so stunning. Looks like this is going to be a good book (and there’s plenty more of it to go!)
The Sunday Salon
What I’ve been reading this week:
- The Prize by Irving Wallace. Still continuing with this; I’m enjoying it, but I seem to have reached rather a dull section. I’m more than halfway through, now, so it shouldn’t be that long until I get to the end. I’m really looking forward to reading about the research he did for it.
- Waiter Rant by A. Waiter. I read this book in its entirety, and while it was somewhat different from what I expected, I did enjoy it. The author is now working on a book about tipping, which I’ll definitely get when it’s finished.
- The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I’ve read this before, about two years ago, and pretty much haven’t seen it since: I loved it and lent it to a friend so she could enjoy it too, but then she passed it on to another friend, and another, and now two years later I’ve finally got my copy back! It’s a bit different to how I remember, but I’m not that far in yet; I’m looking forward to rereading the rest of it.
Time spent reading this week: probably more than usual, given that I read all of Waiter Rant, but it still doesn’t feel like much time at all.
What I’ve been blogging about this week:
- I reviewed Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton
- I got some new books from the library
- I received some nice shiny awards
- I reviewed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
What I’m planning on reading: I’ll probably start The Gum Thief, which is one of my library books, and I’ll also continue with The Prize. I have exams this week, so I can’t expect a lot of reading time, unfortunately, but I do want to try and make time for my books and waste less time on the internet!
Book review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
I first read this book a couple of years ago. A friend mentioned it in conversation and I decided to reread it.
The story is told from the point of view of Christopher, a 15-year-old autistic boy. The plot is fairly irrelevant to the book (I’ll expand a bit more on that), but the story kicks off with Christopher finding a dog that has been stabbed with a pitchfork. He decides to find out who killed the dog. Sounds simple? You’ll be surprised.
The reason this book is so brilliant is how realistic Christopher’s voice is. I confess that, like many people out there, I don’t know all that much about autism. I do know some people who are autistic, and I could probably quote some facts at you if you pressed me, but that’s the limit of my knowledge. Reading this book, though, made me feel like I understand. Quoting facts is all very well, but this book made me think about how it would be to live in a world like that day in, day out – or to live with someone who is autistic. The story is written almost entirely without emotion, but it’s easy to read between the lines and imagine the feelings of the other characters, even though only the barest facts are spelled out on the page.
To give you an idea of the writing style, here’s the first paragraph:
It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’ house. Its eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog. The points of the fork must have gone all the way through the dog and into the ground because the fork had not fallen over. I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died for some other reason, like cancer for example, or a road accident. But I could not be certain about this.
I remember reading in one of those women’s magazines some feature where someone answered questions about their life (favourite food, favourite book, marital status, best tip for saving money, etc.). They said that after reading this book, they quit their job in finance and retrained so that they could work with autistic children. That’s the kind of effect this book has on you (though perhaps not that much in most cases!). I just finished reading a post over at Scobberlotch about narrative voices that get into your head. This book is a prime example: Christopher’s voice found its way into my brain and wouldn’t let itself be forced out.
There aren’t many books I’d recommend as unequivocally as this one, but I think that this is a book everyone should read. It sold a lot of copies so you can probably find it at your local library – get down there!
(I know that a lot of people out there have probably reviewed this book as well: if you’re one of them, do let me know and I’ll post a link to your review.)
Awards
Marie from The Boston Bibliophile, one of my favourite bloggers, has given me two blog awards! This calls for champagne as these are my first ever awards 
I am now the proud recipient of the Prémio Dardos Award and the Butterfly Award. ‘The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.’
Both of these awards are ones to pass on, so I’m also going to hand both of them on to ten bloggers:
- Bookgirl’s Nightstand
- 1330V, who has already had the Prémio Dardos award but deserves it again
- Things Mean A Lot
- Monniblog
- The Bluestocking Society
- Restless Reader, which was the first book blog I ever read
- What Was I Reading?
- A Reader’s Journal
- The Book Lady’s Blog
- Maw Books Blog
Library finds!
For a good few months, the library catalogue in my county was offline. That meant that I couldn’t get any books from the library, as I reserve them and get my mum to pick them up (I can’t get to the library myself because there’s no public transport and I’m too young to drive). Just after the new year, though, they put it back online, so I promptly dived in to look up all the books that have been accumulating in my bookmooch save for later list.
I proceeded print out the entire list, highlight all the ones that are available in the county and write on which are available at either of the two local libraries. I waved this list at my mother in the vague hope that she might take pity on me and get me some books, but I didn’t hold out much hope.
But today, my wonderful mother went to the library with my list and found me three of the books! This is the first time I have had books out from the library since probably some time over the summer. I am now the proud borrower of:
- An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
In addition to these, I’ve reserved Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions by Dan Ariely and Plus Ca Change: The Story of French from Charlemagne to the Cirque du Soleil by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. I’m looking forward to both of these, especially The Story of French, which I saw mentioned by Marie over at The Boston Bibliophile not too long ago.
And do add to my embarrassment of riches, Waiter Rant arrived on Monday and I’m closing in on the finish already. Ain’t life just dandy sometimes?
Book review: Madame de Treymes
Gosh, it’s been a while since I read this. Maybe I should make an effort to actually get through some of the books I’ve been meaning to review so that I can review ones I can remember!
This book was given to me as a ‘free gift’ with another book I got from bookmooch. The first thing that struck me about it was that it was small. This book is about the side of a pad of post-its, only thinner! Still, it was quite nice to have such a small book when I was reading it because it’s very easy to carry around.
I’ll be brief because I can’t particularly remember a lot of it, but the plot is that a man wants to marry a woman who can’t get a divorce because her husband will object. Madame de Treymes is part of the husband’s family and is the instrument through which the divorce is obtained – with a twist.
The writing style was nice; plain, but still nice. If I were going to make notepaper to match Edith Wharton’s writing style, it would be the posh kind with scalloped edges: plain in the middle and pretty at the edges but good quality all over.
The plot held my interest, but only because I had nothing else to read (I read this book on a train journey). I think my main problem with it was that the plot wasn’t big enough: all that drama and intrigue was crammed into a short book, and something was lost because of it.
Still, this wasn’t a bad book, and I did enjoy reading it. If it sounds interesting to you, you can download it for free here.
The Sunday Salon
What I’ve been reading this week:
- The Red and the Black by Stendhal. I have been reading this book ever since about March last year, and i’ve finally made a determined effort to get through the rest of it. I’m now over halfway through (believe me, I’m surprised) and rather pleased to find that I’m actually enjoying reading it. The first part of the book is like reading gossip about people you don’t know in another time period. Sound interesting? I thought not. However, I ploughed on (at roughly monthly intervals) to see if it got any better, mostly because it looked like it would from the blurb. Also, the main character, Julien, is incredibly interesting and I’d like to know more about him. Things have picked up a bit now, so hopefully I’ll get this book finished soon!
- The Prize by Irving Wallace. I’m surprised to say I’ve been enjoying this, too. I chose this book because I bought another of his books, The Writing of One Novel, in Hay-on-Wye. The Writing of One Novel is about his experiences writing The Prize, so I figured I’d best read The Prize first to see what it’s about. It’s easier to read than I thought it would be, and even though it’s not really my kind of book, I’m enjoying it. I don’t know that I’ll go straight on to The Writing of One Novel after this (The Prize is almost 800 pages long, which should be enough Irving Wallace for a while!), but I certainly will read it as it would be interesting to hear about the ‘behind the scenes’ processes.
Time spent reading this week: More than I would in a regular week, but not as much as I normally do in the holidays, as I’ve been busy revising for exams and getting things completed for going back to school tomorrow.
What I’ve been blogging this week:
Yeah, that’s it. Ah well; hopefully I’ll be able to post a little more this week. I do know that I neglect my posting, and that’s something that I really need to stop doing.
What I’m planning on reading this week: Probably more of the same. I don’t see myself finishing either of the books I’m reading this week, so I guess I’ll just continue. I also started watching the film Chocolat this afternoon, which should be interesting to finish as I enjoyed the book but found it a bit hard going. Also, I’ve ordered Waiter Rant, so I might start that as a bit of light relief if it arrives.
