36. Quentin Crisp - The Naked Civil Servant

"All this at last I dimly saw, but an autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last instalment missing. We think we write definitively of those parts of our nature that are dead and therefore beyond change, but that which writes is still changing - still in doubt. Even a monotonously undeviating path of self-examination does not necessarily lead to a mountain of self-knowledge. I stumble towards my grave confused and hurt and hungry...." (Crisp 222)

By reading the last paragraph of Quentin Crisp's autobiography you can sense what the general feeling of The Naked Civil Servant is. It's utterly depressing. Crisp had to endure a lot of hardships during his life, because he is an eccentric homosexual in London before and during the second World War. Apparently, this accompanies bullying by the general public and even violence by the police.

This book isn't actually eye opening. I don't know what Crisp intended to accomplish by writing it. I assume that he just wanted to tell someone his story, but as he says himself:

"Of course the most obvious explanation for my total lack of success was that I was a bad writer." (Crisp 187)

There is no uplifting emotion throughout this book. It is written with so much sadness, even though the author does not, I feel, give me enough details to actually show this emotion. He even brushes the harassment by the police off as if it is nothing. I understand that he has been detached from every emotion in his life, simply because his life would have been even harder to bare, but if you want to write a book about you life you have to open up. And Crisp failed to do so.

35. Gabriel García Márquez - Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Gabriel García Márquez has finally done it. He has finally managed to thoroughly impress me! Even though Chronicle of a Death Foretold is not a long book, it is a very powerful one. I read it in two days and now it wasn't only for the lack of time, but also because I couldn't put it down. 

This book is written by a nameless person, who is a good friend of the man who gets killed in a small town. The book chronicles the events leading up towards Santiago Nasar's death. The event that sets is all off is the marriage between Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman. When Bayardo finds out his wife isn't a virgin he abandons her and she tells her two brothers it was Santiago who was her first. Bear in mind that it never becomes clear in the novel if it was actually him. What does become clear is that everyone of the small town in the space of a few hours finds out about the brothers' plan to murder him, but him. The entire book is leading up to that horrible event through the eyes of his good friend who recounts the story through the eyes of the crowd, years after the tragedy. 

This is the first book by Márquez where I found quotations that thoroughly moved me:

"But most of those who could have done something to prevent the crime and still didn't do it consoled themselves with the pretext that affairs of honor are sacred monopolies with access only for those who are part of the drama" (Márquez 98)

And the fact that in Santiago's case the phrase "Fatality makes us invisible" (Márquez 114) is very suitable, because he walks through the city without hiding and everyone ignores him, even though they know of his predicament. But the most impressive quote of all is the one at the end of the novel, where the crowd has become aware of the fact that the Vicario brothers aren't actually the only ones that killed Santiago:

"They didn't hear the shouts of the whole town, frightened by its own crime." (Márquez 120)

34. Dava Sobel - Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Now that I have read one book with a long title I might as well continue the trend. This time by another author. Dava Sobel has written a biography about John Harrison, "a self-taught Yorkshire clockmaker, who battled the establishment in his quest to make the perfect timekeeper and scoop the spoils". The blurb on the cover of Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is actually completely self explanatory. So is the title.

The book basically tells us the story of the discovery of a watch that enables sailors to understand longitude at sea back in the 1700s. It's an explanation of the whole discovery and the history of navigation. John Harrison spent his whole life designing this device and Sobel tries with her book to make us appreciate and remember him, because it is easy to forget the scientist when we take an invention for granted.

33. Gabriel García Márquez - The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor: Who Drifted on a Liferaft for Ten Days Without Food or Water, Was Proclaimed a National Hero, Kissed by Beauty Queens, Made Rich Through Publicity, and Then Spurned by the Government and Forgotten for All Time

What's in a name. This is something that Romeo & Juliet have wondered in Shakespeare's famous novel. In this case. The whole meaning of the book is basically in the title. I've ploughed through another one of Gabriel García Márquez' books. This week a biography officially and hilariously called The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor: Who Drifted on a Liferaft for Ten Days Without Food or Water, Was Proclaimed a National Hero, Kissed by Beauty Queens, Made Rich Through Publicity, and Then Spurned by the Government and Forgotten for All Time.

This book is only a hundred pages long and the title therefore really does explain it all. A Colombian sailor is left shipwrecked on a little raft in the middle of the sea between Colombia and the US for ten days. Where he survives on nothing. He later tells Márquez, who used to be a newspaper journalist, the full story and he wrote newspaper articles about it. 

For the first time I enjoyed reading one of Márquez' novels. Maybe because this is the first time he isn't telling a story he invented himself. It's interestingly told and it doesn't get boring  like his other books(how can it when it only spans a hundred pages, is what you would think but then please reread my review of No One Writes to the Colonel). The title by the way, is a sarcastic remark by Márquez who is annoyed by the fact that this story will probably only be read by people because of his own famous name as he states in the preface: 

"I have not reread this story in fifteen years. It seems worthy of publication, but I have never understood the usefulness of publishing it. I find it depressing that the publishers are not so much interested in the merit of the story as in the name of the author, which, much to my sorrow, is also that of a fashionable writer. If it is now published in the form of a book, that is because I agreed without thinking about it very much, and I am not a man to go back on his word." (Márquez ix)

For me, however, it is the other way around. As you know I'm not a fan of the author's stories but in this case I'm very interested in his subject's story. I see this as a win-win situation for both me and Márquez.

32. Gabriel García Márquez - Love in the Time of Cholera

I apologise because it has taken me forever to finish last week's book by Gabriel García Márquez. The reason for that is simple, I had to travel to London to take part in training because I have received a promotion in Edinburgh. I will live here for a month, but I promise I will keep finishing the blogs. However, I can't promise they will be on time... 

This week's novel was Love in the Time of Cholera and like the previous book I read by Márquez I wasn't charmed by it. This time, however, I understood the story and the meaning of the book. The plot basically is that a young boy (Florentino Ariza) and girl (Fermina Daza) fall hopelessly in love with each other. Fermina then falls out of love just as quickly as a girl is typically said to change her mind. Florentino, however, will never be able to let her go. He declares that his love for her equals any disease, in particular the disease that goes around Colombia when this story takes place, namely: "(...) to conclude once again that the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera." (Márquez 62).

Florentino then goes on to a life of succubus, or as he puts it: "The world is divided into those who screw and those who do not." (Márquez 183) He always keeps his sights on Fermina though, in the hope that one day her rich and successful husband Dr. Juvenal Urbino will die and that she will fall back in love with him, which he does at the beginning of the story. It seems to be a perfect romantic love story. The feeling I get from it though is that Márquez has taken it too seriously and he described all the events that follow their meeting in the beginning of their long lives in too much detail. I think this will be a common problem I have with Márquez, I simply do not seem to like the lengthy way he presents his story and characters. 

The thing that shocked me most, however, is the thing I will leave you with. The last affair 70-something Florentino has is with a 14-year-old girl. Let's see if this does not trouble your mind because this is how he describes making love to her: 

"She was no longer the little girl, the newcomer, whom he had undressed, one article of clothing at a time, with little baby games: first these little shoes for the little baby bear, then this little chemise for the little puppy dog, next these little flowered panties for the little bunny rabbit, and a little kiss on her papa's delicious little dickey-bird." (Márquez 295)

31. Roald Dahl - The Twits

Another Roald Dahl classic this week. The Twits reminded me more of Roald Dahl's style than any of his other books I've read so far. The descriptions he gives of Mr. and Mrs. Twit are absolutely revolting and the things they do to each other, such as feeding each other worms and putting a glass eye in each other's beer, are unbearably disgusting.

This to me, however, is what made Dahl famous. The ending is so disconcerting, yet he is a famous children book writer. Children adore his books, but I can't help thinking about how The Twits shrunk into themselves. That most have been such a painful experience and such a slow and tormenting process. I felt the same way about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well, although I haven't read it yet. Children must be so good at distancing themselves from the story that they find these events funny, but I find it appalling. I can imagine that his books make good grown up horror films though, why as no one picked that up yet? Maybe I should....  

30. Laura Hillenbrand - Seabiscuit: The True Story of Three Men and One Racehorse

"Somewhere in the high country that once was Ridgewood, the tree lives on, watching over the bones of Howard's beloved Seabiscuit." (Hillenbrand 399)

Throughout Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit tears were streaming down my face. I never thought horse racing interested me so much. I never really came across it anyway, apart from the time I put bets on in the Grand National. This book taught me a lot about the technical side of the sports though and a lot about the passion that accompanies it.

It may sound a bit sappy and the book really isn't that emotional, but I just can't help myself when I read a book about animals. And this one is really well-written. Hillenbrand seems to know exactly how to describe a race to make sure no one can put the book down. You probably know the story about Seabiscuit. A horse no one wanted because he seemed to be lame, until he was under the care of trainer Smith and owner Howard. He turned into an American sensation, especially with Red Pollard in the saddle. It's impossible to understand how these two went through so many injuries, yet ending up legends in American horse racing.

I don't think anyone can say anything bad about this story. Please read the book though. I know most of you have watched the film with Tobey Maguire in 2003, it's still worth reading Hillenbrand's version of the story. Please do because I think everyone will be moved by this incredible tale.

29. Jonathan Kellerman - Self-Defence

I am back to reading a crime novel again. A genre that will keep my mind off of the fact I don't understand classic literature anymore. I did not even pick this book myself, because I won it at work (I love a job where you can get books as a reward, it makes me work harder). Despite all that, Jonathan Kellerman's Self-Defence is highly entertaining.

Apparently, he has a whole series of Alex Delaware novels. Delaware is a child psychologist who occasionally works for the LAPD and I just happened to read a book right in the middle of his career. It was written in 1995, which makes it the ninth book about Delaware. I didn't feel that mattered though. I could immediately understand the important details of the main characters and, luckily, in crime novels the whole plot starts at the start of the novel because they are not often continued into the next book. 

This one is about a girl Lucy Lowell who suffers from a recurrent nightmare after she stands jury for a trial against a horrible murderer. Together with Dr. Delaware she discovers these horrible dreams might be actual visions and scraps from her childhood. While Alex tries to unravel what this girl has seen in her childhood he gets deeper and deeper entangled in the Lowell's messy family history.

It's a mesmerising story and one of those books you really cannot put down because you want to know whodunit. At the beginning I was quite annoyed by the short sentence structures such as:

"She arrived five minutes late and apologizing. Smiling." (Kellerman 16)

And

"She introduced him as her brother, Peter, and he said, 'Nice to meet you' in a low, sleepy voice. We shook. (Kellerman 16)  

I think I was just affected temporarily by Dumas' intrinsic literary writing style and after reading him Kellerman is a bit of an amateur but a highly entertaining one at that.

28. Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers

I am completely and utterly ashamed that it took me about three weeks to finish Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. I don't know what has befallen me, but not studying has not done me any good. I used to read Classic after Classic, and now I struggle to understand sentences written by Dumas. I shudder to think what will happen when I pick up another James Joyce novel one day. That is exactly why I'm doing this challenge though. I need to keep reading!

The reason I picked up this novel is not only because a new film came out, but also because I wanted to read a book by Dumas for a long time now. However, I don't think The Three Musketeers was the best first choice, as it doesn't interest me as much as I thought it would after watching all those TV series and films about it. I always thought it was about an evil cardinal who does everything to prevent the Musketeers from succeeding in any mission given to them by the king. It may be so in the television series and films dedicated to this book, but not in the original story. 

I am not completely mistaken though in remembering that D'Artagnan is not actually a Musketeer at the beginning of the book. He would like to join them though and that is how he becomes acquainted with "the three musketeers" Athos, Porthos and Aramis. 

This story is not, however, entirely about the adventures of our friends. It's mostly about the story of one of the Cardinal's devilish followers known as Milady. Most of the last 150 pages of the book are devoted to her fiendish plots. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that she is really one of the most heartless female killers in older literature.

For me to start describing the plot in detail would be too strenuous and I need to start reading the next book. So I am going to leave you with these wise words, which is the thing about this novel that will linger in the collective memory for a longest amount of time: "All for one - one for all." (Dumas 84)   

27. Roald Dahl - The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

And another Roald Dahl book and to be honest I'm starting to really appreciate his writing style. This time I read The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. Before this I thought the way he made up words was annoying, now I actually think it is quite cute. In this book he gives a whole list of candy that doesn't exist in real life but the way he says we all know it, is really nice. 

This book is about a window cleaning company consisting of a pelican, a giraffe and a monkey. They clean windows without a ladder and they can reach every window because giraffe has an extendible neck. The monkey cleans, and the pelican is the bucket. 

This book has a really cute ending. Maybe I'm just in a sentimental mood because I can't seem to finish The Three Musketeers, but I really like it:

We have tears in our eyes
As we wave our goodbyes,
We so loved being with you, we three.
So do please now and then
Come and see us again,
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.
All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it's full of your friends
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.  (Dahl 73)

 

26. Ira Levin - The Stepford Wives

This is the second novel I've read from Ira Levin for this challenge. And just like A Kiss Before Dying The Stepford Wives failed to thoroughly impress me. You probably all know the story about a little suburban town called Stepford where the housewives are beyond perfect, scarily so. Joanna Eberhart moves into this little community and she also notices straight away that something is fishy in suburbia. Maybe fishy is not the right word, maybe I should say roboty...

It could be just me, but I seem to remember that a lot more of the actual events are shown in the film with Nicole Kidman. We actually see an army of robots. Not here. Levin keeps it all very secretive (I am going on a limb here by assuming I'm not giving anything away when I'm describing this book. I feel that saying The Stepford Wives is about robots is the same as saying American Psycho is about a American psychopath). What Levin gives us is the desperation Joanne feels when she can't reveal the Men's Club's secrets and when she might be next after  all her friends have turned into those things. 

I reckon this novel was very much with the times in 1972, nowadays, it would be unthinkable that men control women. If a woman would move into a suburban town where all other women are just doing housework without any ambitions of their own, there would definitely be something wrong. The strength of this novel lies in the fact that we really don't know if that's the case here (well we do, but I'm talking about the original readers from back then) We wouldn't know if Joanne is feminist who is ahead of her time or whether there is actually something wrong in Stepford. Nevertheless, this novel is a classic and I wouldn't dare to talk it down because it is slightly outdated. 

25. Gabriel García Márquez - No One Writes to the Colonel

Gabriel García Márquez' book I don't understand at all. I'm aware that this is not the best way to start a blog, but it has to be said. No One Writes to the Colonel is a really short novel, with I believe a deeper message, but I can't find it. I don't know if I've been reading it half-heartedly or whether the story is just not that interesting but I didn't get into it at all.

It's about a colonel who is waiting for a letter every Friday by the docks and also about the colonel's rooster. I understand more of this story when I read the back of the cover where it says that the colonel, who together with his wife, is really poor, has been waiting for 15 years for a letter about the Army pension, which he hasn't received yet.

I did not get that from the story to be honest. It's probably a really beautiful book, but my heart wasn't in it. Next week I hope I can write a more passionate story because I notice that the last few weeks my love to read is slowly diminishing. I will not let this little reader's block get me down though, so I will carry on reading just like I have done for 25 weeks now.

24. Roald Dahl - Esio Trot

It was time for another Roald Dahl book. This time Esio Trot. I tried to finish a really short book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez this week, but I didn't make that either. I had friends from Holland visiting this weekend and next weekend I'll be in Liverpool so this means I have about two weeks to finish The Three Musketeers. Yes, I'm combining books these weeks. I need to get back into my rhythm.

Anyways, this week a love story. Mr. Hoppy is madly in love with his neighbour Mrs. Silver. She, however, is crazy about her tortoise Alfie. Mrs. Silver's biggest dream is that Alfie would grow though and Mr. Hoppy finds in that request a chance to win Mrs. Silver over. He buys hundreds of tortoises and in the course of a few weeks he puts a bigger tortoise in Mrs. Silver's flat. It's a simple story but for once it's just really cute. Although I feel kind of bad for Alfie who has been with Mrs. Silver for 11 years and is abruptly taken away without her even noticing. Poor tortoise... 

Luckily, my Dahl books are not running out just yet so I have some more short stories for if I get more deadline issues. Let's hope it doesn't happen too often though, I already feel ridiculed by my boyfriend who doesn't understand that Roald Dahl changed the way children's book were written. 

23. Anne Frank - Het Achterhuis

A autobiography this week, but not just one by a random famous artist. This week I was ready for Anne Frank's famous diary called Het Achterhuis. And even though it hurts me to say, I really wasn't interested in the slightest.... The only part that really got to me was the last page and the short summary of what happened after they were discovered, which wasn't written by her of course. 

I probably need to explain what I'm talking about. Anne Frank is a German/Dutch Jewish girl who hid with her family in a house between her father's office during World War II. Her farther's old colleagues kept them safe and made sure they had supplies. She kept a diary because she wanted to become a journalist and this was supposed to be her first publication. And her farther (who is the only one of the people in hiding who survived the war) made sure it was published after they were discovered and taken away by SS to be killed 

In this diary the 12-year-old Anne writes about everything that happens in the house all the minor clashes between the eight people who are forced to live together in a confined space for more than 2 years. Everything she writes about is not that interesting. It's basically just an observation of social interaction by a teenager. The sad thing is, though, is that she never had the chance to develop into an intelligent young woman. 

22. Ira Levin - A Kiss Before Dying

After last week's horribly annoying book it was time for something old this week. Not something I've read before but a writer I'm very familiar with. Who doesn't know Ira Levin who is famous for writing Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives? I certainly do. So this week it was time for his first novel, written in 1954; A Kiss Before Dying. 

Levin wrote about a mother giving birth to a demon child and a town full of robotic wives. His first book is relatively harmless compared to them, but so much more realistic. It must occur to everyone that Mr. Perfect might not be as perfect as he comes across. The main character in the book certainly isn't. He has blond hair and blue eyes, he's ambitious, charming and very smart, but behind all these perfect trademarks hides a vicious killer with no selfless feelings. He is intent on marrying a rich girl and seems to have found that girl in Dorothy, but her father would disinherit her if he found out she's pregnant so he slips her some pills hoping she will never wake up.

The writing style Levin adopts in Rosemary's Baby is a little bit more intriguing than here because it shows you what Rosemary's thinking and your frustration at not knowing what is going on will be just as strong as her frustration. However, A Kiss Before Dying is still very well written considering we move from the mind of the killer to the point-of-view of the soon-to-be-wife/victim. And the fact that even though we can see in his mind, halfway through the book we become aware we literally don't know who this person is. It could be anyone and that's what makes this book very exciting at first. After we find out who it is, it dulls down a bit, but not enough to stop reading. 

21. Kate Morton - The Distant Hours

I’m so happy I finally managed to finish The Distant Hours by Kate Morton.What an incredible feat! It isn’t the longest book I’ve read for this challenge, but it took me the longest amount of time. 2.5 weeks to be exact.

I can’t describe how dull this book is. Of course, it is just my personal opinion, but it would have enough to quickly describe the events in a short novel. The ending would then actually be spectacular. Now, I was too bored to death to remember what happens at the end, which I’ve only just read 10 minutes ago.

No, I’m kidding I do remember, but believe me when I say; Don’t touch this book. It is truly truly too long! In any case I need to give a short description, which is surprisingly easy for a book that’s 600 pages. It’s about a woman Edie Burchill who decides to snoop into her mum’s life when the latter receives a message from the past. When Meredith Burchill was a young girl the Second World War was raging and her parents decided to send her to the countryside in the hopes that it would be safer than London. She ends up with the Blythe sisters; Juniper, Saffy and Percy in the majestic Milderhurst Castle.

Sixty years later Meredith does not want to tell her daughter Edie anything about the events that took place during that time and she takes matters into her own hands fuelled by the novel written by the sisters’ father: The True History of the Mud Man.

I liked the ending, say the last thirty pages of the book, but the way it works up to that ending is far too tedious. Like I said before I would not recommend this book to anyone, and I’m happy it’s over and done with and I can finally start with a new book!

20. Roald Dahl - Fantastic Mr Fox

Yes I cheated again this week. This morning I figured out that I wouldn't be able to finish Morton's book I'm reading now. It's too boring to read about 100 pages a day. But that's why I bought Roald Dahl's books. I saw this film a while back and I liked it so much that I figured Fantastic Mr. Fox should be great in book form as well.

And I must say that it's a really cute read. It's not completely similar to the film, but in this case it doesn't ruin the book. It's a bit simpler and less funny, but it's still a sweet story about a cunning Fox and his family, who are stuck in their holes because the farmers he always steals from are after him. Mr. Fox wouldn't be Mr. Fox if he didn't have a clever plan to make up for there new situation.

It's nothing special, it's still a kids' book after all. But it's much better than The Magic Finger by Dahl. I finished it within half an hour and that's also part of its charm. I hope that I manage to finish Kate Morton's book next week, because it would be embarrassing to post another Roald Dahl book next week... I'll try my best!

19. Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

A short story this week by Jean-Dominique Bauby. He's the famous French Vogue editor-in-chief who suffered from the Locked-In syndrome when he was around 40 years old. He had a stroke and he fell into a coma. When he woke up all his brain function was intact but physically he couldn't do anything any more. He could only move his left eyelid.

In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Bauby describes what life is like when you can still think and hear and see, but you can't do any thing yourself; he can't even breath or swallow without machines. He describes the frustration of having to be around his kids without being able to touch them or talk to them, while he has so much to say to them. 

The book isn't a literary masterpiece. It is however an emotional masterpiece. He wrote this book together with Claude, a specialised nurse. She pointed at letters that were sorted by popularity and he blinked when he wanted to use that letter. The book isn't long but if you can even imagine how much effort it much have cost him, it is quite impressive. You would expect a robotic story but it isn't at all, the way Stephen Hawking speak for example. It is a beautifully worded summary of what it is like to live a year locked-in with only your thoughts.

18. Sharon Osbourne - Extreme: My Autobiography

Some easy literature this week to give my brain a little bit of rest after the last few weeks of "serious" novels. Sharon Osbourne's Extreme: My Autobiography is good regardless of anyone's expectations. I know that most people don't think much of this loud-mouthed woman, but after all the stories I've heard I became quite interested in her life. We all now those stories about Ozzy biting the head of a bat and Ozzy almost killing Sharon. Granted, most of these stories are related to Ozzy so maybe I should have started with his Autobiography. However, a view from a third party is quite refreshing. Although Sharon's book peeked my interest in this bizarre family, so I might keep on reading.

It's hard to describe in this short blog what Sharon Osbourne has been through throughout her life. I don't understand how someone can be so strong when writing about Ozzy and her violent relationship, her horrible bond with her father, cancer, numerous burglaries and lies from people who she thought she was close to. The story about Randy Rhoads almost made me cry and a second later some passages make me laugh. Reading this book is like riding a rollercoaster. It's thrilling and exciting with a few stops and sad moments when it's already over too soon. 

All I can say  at the end is that I'm genuinely happy that her life has worked out the way it has, after all her misfortunes she seems perfectly happy. Good for her!

17. Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Angel's Game

Remember how positive I was about last week's book? The book Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote before The Angel's Game but which takes place after the events of this week's novel. Where The Shadow of the Wind takes your breath away in all the complicated story lines and numerous characters who appear in the novel for no reason whatsoever, The Angel's Game dulls the senses completely. 

It's translated by the same translator, Lucia Graves, so it's definitely not the language that's not great about this novel. It's still poetic as its predecessor. I can open up a random page and read a random line and it would still sound beautiful: "The train came in almost an hour late, a serpent of steam slithering beneath the storm" (Zafón 99). So if it isn't the style and the language. What is so wrong about this novel?

The story line! Like I said before The Shadow of the Wind is complicated, but it pulls you in. Also the ending makes sense. In The Angel's Game it doesn't. Remember that this book takes plays years before Daniel Sempere is born. 

It's about a young writer David Martin who is down on his luck. He is fired from the newspaper where he has worked is whole life. He is in love with a beautiful girl Cristina who is very close to his best friend Vidal. He is basically alone in this world. When his life seems hopeless he is approached by a man dressed in white who tells him to write him a book. A book which, like any religious work, should make people want to follow it. After he agrees a whole series of events unravels, which are too complicated for me to write down and I don't think it would help if I would try to untangle it anyway. The novel does not make much sense and it is long winded. Most of the characters die and at the end I still don't know why. And I don't feel like finding it out... I think Zafón should write a book that matches The Shadow of the Wind otherwise his four book series will be a complicated disaster.. 

16. Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Shadow of the Wind

Most people I know are already familiar with this this book by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I, myself, have read it before when it was just translated in 2004. The Shadow of the Wind is one of those books that literally take your breath away and reading the last line gave me goosebumps. 

Soon afterward, like figures made of steam, farther and son disappear into the crowd of the Ramblas, their steps lost forever in the shadow of the wind. (Zafón 487)

The reason I'm rereading it is because of The Angel's Game which has been waiting in my book case since October 2010. This is the prequel to the book I've devoured for this week. It is said that Zafón is planning to make this a four book series. And I fervently hope he will do so.


As I said before, I'm not a fan of translated works, but for Lucia Graves I'd gladly make an exception. She's the daughter of poet Robert Graves and she is an amazing translator. The way she uses words and plays with expressions in the novel is really exceptional and I believe it's a shame she has only translated two books, which are the two books I mentioned earlier in this blog.


The Shadow of the Wind is about a bookseller who takes his young son to a secret library which is full of abandoned books - The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Young Daniel may choose one book which he has to keep with him for the rest of his life. The book he chooses is the book that will not only stay with him for the rest of his life it will set the tone for it as well. Daniel is completely enthralled by the unknown writer, whose book he has randomly picks, called Julian Carax. The rest of his life he will be chasing the story behind this obscure author who has lived a life not dissimilar to Daniel's only then with more intrigue and betrayal. While Daniel is on a mission to find out more of Carax' life, a maimed figure is lurking in the darkness waiting for his chance to get a hold of  this mysterious book.


The language that is used is fantastic and poetic. Reading it is a trait! I don't often reread books (apart from Wuthering Heights) but it was a pleasure to do so this time and I hope The Angel's Game won't disappoint.

15. Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist

As promised, this week I changed course (dramatically) from crime scenes to philosophy and alchemy in the desert. I've never read a book by the famous Paulo Coelho and I don't know if The Alchemist is such a good book to start with because it is quite childish and language use is simple at times. Also, I'm not a fan of philosophy in general and stories about the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixer of Life don't particularly excite me. 

I don't like reading translated books anyway. Coelho of course is Brazilian so he wrote it in Portugese. If anything I'd like to read the book the way it was went to be read. In Portugese... But I swallowed my pride and I succumbed to the pull he has over other people. Since this book "was originally written in Portuguese and has since been translated into 67 languages, winning the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author. It has sold more than 65 million copies in more than 150 countries, becoming one of the best-selling books in history." (Wikipedia)

The story is about a boy from Spain who has chosen to lead a shepherd's life and travel all around Spain to find new interesting things. He has a recurring dream about a Pyramid and a big treasure within this Pyramid. At first he ignores these dreams, but when he meets a King one day who tells him to sell his sheep and be on his way to Egypt with the use of omens along the way, he does. This novel is about his voyage and the people he meets on his way.

Not very enthralling and I don't know if I'd touch another Coelho book, especially if they're thicker than this short novel. I guess the only way to find out is by looking at omens and listening to my heart.

14. Ian Rankin - Strip Jack

This week it was time for another one of Ian Rankin's books, namely Strip Jack. This is the fourth novel in the Rebus series and I quite like reading these novels two-by-two. I feel that I've had enough of Rebus for the next few weeks, but after the third book I felt like I needed more.

Strip Jack wasn't that interesting. It's about a Scottish MP Gregor Jack who is possibly set up when he visits a brothel. Not only does the media catch light of this event, his wife also disappears. That's another task for Rebus who must work himself through a web of famous Scottish people and their friends. It's something different from the life-threatening events from the previous books. But it's still Rebus and he's still my favourite modern detective (of course Holmes is higher on my favourite detective list).

I will pick Rebus up another time, but for now I think I might leave the whole detective genre for what it is because I've had my fair share of it. Also, I'm aware of the fact that I'm late. I'm on a holiday in the Netherlands. Bad excuse, I know. I will try to finish the next book by Sunday.

13. Ian Rankin - Tooth & Nail

Not only was this an amazing crime novel (I might actually get addicted to these) it also helped me to appreciate Edinburgh and loathe London a bit more. Even though I was considering moving to London for a while, not any more. Ian Rankin paints such a horrible picture of it in Tooth & Nail that it doesn't appeal to me at all after this novel. Job well done!

This novel is about Rebus who moves down to London to help the MET police hunt down and kill The Wolfman. A killer who mainly focuses on women, he or she stabs his victims in the throat and then takes bites in their stomach. Due to his previous succes in Edinburgh the Metroplitan police reckon Rebus would be perfect for the job. He himself is not so sure...

The passage that speaks to me most, is the short paragraph about his books. I fully agree with him and I feel I have met a like-minded soul. 15 more Rebus books to go and I mean to read them all:

So many books. One man could not hope to read them all in a lifetime. He tried to walk through the aisles without focusing. If he focused, he would become interested, and if he became interested he would buy. He already had over fifty books at home, piled beside his bed, waiting for that elusive weeklong break when he could concentrate on something other than police work. He collected books. It was just about his only hobby. Not that he was precious about it. He did not lust after first editions, signed copies and the like. Mostly, he bought paperbacks. And he was nothing if not catholic in his tastes: any subject matter would do. (Rankin 154)

12. Stephen King - Under the Dome

Wow... I'm still completely silenced by the fact that firstly I managed to read this humongous book in one week (877 pages) and secondly by the epic quality of it all. Stephen King started writing Under the Dome almost thirty years ago, but last year he finally managed to finish it. A lot of hard work has gone into writing this novel and it shows. 

This is literally a novel with an epic scope. It's about a tiny village which is suddenly covered by a big invisible dome and the effects it has on the inhabitants. It doesn't help the situation that the main man in the village is a idiot who is on the edge of losing all his common sense, Jim Rennie, and the fact that most of the town are set to follow him in every stupid decision he makes. And it really doesn't help that the town's temporary visitor who after a fight wants to flee the town, Barbie, becomes encased by the Dome and promoted as Colonel by the people on the outside.

I must say that I thought the ending was kind of weak. But it's not about the last 10 pages. It's about the full novel and the build up to the main event. And King has done that in a very King-esque manner.  

I know most people will wait for the mini series to come out. And I'm certain it will be good, but please try to read this book. It's a sensational read and it really doesn't stop anywhere it just keeps going with a "foot on gas narrative" as the Washington Post calls it. Just be aware that you shouldn't be eating anywhere near the book, lots of scenes are really gory. In the way that only Stephen King can do it. 

11. John Grisham - The Confession

Sometimes a book is so good it just grips you and you can't put it away. I had it a while back with Larsson's Millennium trilogy and now John Grisham did it to me again with The Confession. 

In this book, he does not beat around the bush. He takes us straight to the main events. An innocent black man is awaiting execution in Texas for a crime he did not commit. Donte Drumm has been in prison for nine years and the needle is only a week away when the man who did commit the crime, that of killing and raping a high school girl, confesses to a priest in Kansas. The man is a well-known felon in three states and the priest Keith decides to help Travis Boyette jump parole to confess his crimes in Texas to make sure the execution does not take place. The reason Travis wants to confess after nine years is because he is dying of a brain tumour. 

This is the first time I've written such a lengthy summary, but this novel really needs it because it needs to be read. I'm not a stranger to Grisham's books. I've read A Time to Kill and The Client. I've read these a long time ago but I still remember how much I loved them, especially A Time to Kill. For some reason unknown to even me, stopped picking up his books. Maybe it's because I didn't like my studies in Law as much as I thought I would and I stopped reading the author who inspired me to start it. 

In any case, this book is a definite must-read. I can't even describe the sentiments that went through me when reading about the long and impossible task of getting Boyette in Texas on time for the execution. I felt with Keith and I felt for Robbie, Donte's lawyer, who had been trying for years to point out to the jury and the court that evidence in the case against Donte was seriously lacking. Very frustrating. But such an amazing book and Grisham describes all the events with such detail that it just reels you in and for a week you feel like you're in Sloan, Texas.

10. Roald Dahl - The Magic Finger

I have to admit that I'm cheating this week. I'm going to Sweden for the Midsummer Festival this weekend and I'm not sure how much I can read there. That's why I picked an extra short book that arrived by post today. I ordered the full box set of Roald Dahl's children's books and this week's pick was The Magic Finger. 

There's not much to say about this book. It took me ten minutes to read it. It's about a girl who, when she's upset, can use her magic finger to change the situation. In this story she is upset by the Gregg's because they shoot animals. This enrages her and she changes them to geese. It's a cute little tale, but nothing more than that. I wouldn't say it has a happy ending though and that's why I always kind of enjoy Dahl's books. They're cute horror stories for kids. To be honest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory still scares me. I think I should start reading that one soon as well... 

9. Stephen Fry - Moab is my Washpot

For this week I had the idea to read Fry's first autobiography because his latest the fry chronicles amused me a lot, but when reading Stephen Fry's Moab is my Washpot I suddenly remembered how much I loathed reading his non-fiction book The Liar. This novel he wrote around the same time as his first autobiography, in 1997. Fry's language can be so pompous, which is often enjoyable in real life.

However, in this case, in book form, it's terribly tedious. I am so used to reading about English boarding schools because of my Literary education. And to read the same story again only then by Fry's hand is nothing short of annoying. I had to read half of the book in one day simply because I kept dreading to read more at the beginning of the week. I even started displaying SOG (study evasive behaviour as we used to call it at uni) and I almost started cleaning the whole house because I didn't want to continue reading. 

He sums himself up in such a great way that I almost feel I don't need to add anything to my little article:

"No. I was Stephen. I was always going to be Stephen. I would always be that same maddening, monstrous mixture of pedantry, egoism, politenes, selfishness, kindliness, sneakiness, larkiness, sociability, loneliness, ambition, ordered calm and hidden intensity. I would cover my life with words. I would spray the whole bloody world with words. They were still all that I had but at last they were getting me places." (Fry, 432)

Don't get me wrong I love Stephen Fry. I love watching him on television and reading his tweets. But I don't know if I fancy 500 pages of him in one go. For me it's now 1 - 2 for Fry. And only future will tell if I will ever pick up one of his books again.

Mo Hayder - Hanging Hill

I missed my deadline by one day again, but you can't blame it on me this week, my mum and her friend came to Edinburgh for the weekend. So I was busy showing them around. 

It's not because I was procrastinating reading this book. As I may have pointed out before I'm not the biggest fan of crime novels, but I have been a big fan of Mo Hayder. Ever since I read Tokyo I bought all her books the moment they came out. Even if they were only available in hard cover. I did the same with Hanging Hill this year. However, I'm sad to say that for the first time in a long long time, she has disappointed me. 

Firstly, by not  writing another Jack Caffery novel, since I want to know how he is doing after Gone. And secondly, by not making this book interesting or surprising in the slightest. Tokyo wasn't a Caffery novel but it packed a punch. This novel does not overwhelm you at all. If anything, it's boring. The story of the two sisters who grew apart due to an incident (which is never really clarified), never really appeals to me. It's almost as if Hayder as made writing about solitary characters her trait, but when she has to write about familial situation, she fails. It's a pity, because this means I'll probably have to wait another year for a new book. Please let it be another Caffery novel then, because I don't particularly enjoy these deviations. Thank you.

Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

This week the challenge was even harder than last week. Stieg Larsson's third book in the Millennium series The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is considerably lengthier than it's predecessors. In this case, that wasn't bad at all, because you get the desire to finish it as soon as possible since you want to know how the events that started in The Girl Who Played With Fire come to a conclusion. 

It's hard to say anything about the book because it literally continues the story that ended abruptly at the end of the second book. I can't tell you whether I find it more or less enthralling than the second one, because it's as if Larsson wrote a book that 1300 pages long, only he decided to sell it in two different covers. The only problem is is that the first book in the Millennium series does not really fit in with the other two books. So I don't think of it as a trilogy. It's a pity Larsson is not among us to continue the series of Herr Blomkvist and Fru Salander because even though things come to a good conclusion in the third novel it would be good to stay with the main characters for a bit longer. Larsson is someone with such a good writing style, for example the passage in the court room; we already know all the details of the story, but he makes it interesting for us to read again. And someone with such a good eye for detail, should have written more books than only these three. 

As I said before, there is not much I can write about detective novels, so I'll skip most of the book talk and start reading the book for the next week. I'm quite impressed with myself that I've been keeping this project up for at least seven weeks now. To be continued....

Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played With Fire

This week's book was a real feat, it is the first time in this challenge that I've attempted to read a book that's 600 pages long. As you can see, I have failed. It's Monday and I'm too late writing the short report, but I have finished the book and I can't wait to get home from Liverpool and find the third novel in this trilogy on the door mat. 

After reading the first book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I wasn't too keen to continue reading the other ones. That's why I kept Stieg Larsson's - The Girl Who Played With Fire untouched on my book shelf for over a year. I was not impressed by Larsson story-telling skills in the first book and the way he describes the characters and the ever changing narrative really put me off. In this next novel, however, we already know most of the characters and the narrative is less awkward and jumpy. Larsson does not have to explain in tiring detail what is going through Salander's head, because we remember from the first book. I don't know how he did it, but unknowingly I remembered a lot of details from the first book and the characters stuck with me even after reading countless books and watching numerous films in between these novels. 

At most times I really could not put the book down, because the story is told from so many point-of-views, that every time you finish a passage you want to continue on to see what happened to the other characters. I will write a more extensive blog when I have finished the last book. Since this novel has an open ending, I feel that I would not do it justice by going in too much detail about the story. And who knows... Maybe Larsson will fail to impress me in the last one of his magnus opus.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Prince of Mist

The book for this week is Carlos Ruiz Zafón's first book that has recently been translated into English; The Prince of Mist. It is a young adult book, but Zafón was really clever by making it interesting for adults as well. This novel has a lot in common with old horror stories, where the suspense is bigger than the actual scary passages.

The book is about Max and his family who move to a small seaside town in Spain to flee the war. There they uncover a story about the old residents of the house and about the boy and his grandfather who live in the lighthouse. It's a very suspenseful novel about keeping your promises and what happens when you don't.

Andrea Levy - The Long Song

I'm not proud of this, but I must say it. This week I struggled to finish a book that is only 398 pages long. I can't give you the reason for this. I don't think it was because I wasn't interested in the book because it was quite entertaining. I think my desire to participate in this little challenge is faltering. Nevertheless, I rejoice in the fact that I did finish it and I'm ready to get started on next week's book.

But let's have a little peek at Andrea Levy - The Long Song first. It's a book written by a British author whose roots are in Jamaica. The novel is set in Jamaica in the last years of slavery as told by the narrator July. We skip back and forth to July writing the story while being supervised by her son Thomas to the actual tale where we read all about July's struggles in Jamaica before and after the abolishment of slavery. 

The narration of the actual tale is interesting, but the pieces in between where Thomas talks to his mother are tedious. Luckily these aren't long passages, which makes the book perfectly bearable. This is the most striking part of the book where older July does not want to admit the story is actually about here:

 "This tale is of my making. This story is told for my amusement. What befalls July is for me to devise. Better that my son save his wrath for those parts of his household which deserve to see the anger he can raise, was my reply. 

'Mama,' he say to me, 'do not take me for a fool. This is the story of your own life, not of your creating, I can see this.'

'No it is not,' I tell him.

'It is,' him say.

'It is of my making,' I tell him.'" (Levy, 185)

And in that same passage she stubbornly persists in referring to July in the third person, never really relating to her and thus keeping a safe distance from her past. It's a good book. But this distance ruins it in a way that we can't really feel for this character, which to me is one of the most important elements in books about slavery. It's an emotional subject and not something you can describe dryly. 

It's time for bed now though. Let's see if I can meet next week's challenge. I have yet to pick a book though, which is the most exciting thing of doing this challenge. Buying and picking books on a weekly basis.

Hide & Seek - Ian Rankin

I am so happy I don't give up on authors after one book. Knots & Crosses wan't very good. It was generic and even a bit boring. Ian Rankin's Hide & Seek however is much more confident and interesting. You can see that Rankin feels more comfortable with Inspector Rebus. He even feels confident enough to add other characters. In Knots & Crosses Rebus was the complete centre of attention. In the sequel this centre switches from him to Constable Holmes.

The book moves completely away from Rebus’ personal issues, because they were mostly covered in the first book to other crimes. In this case the crime involves a boy who overdosed on drugs with rat poison. At the same time Rebus has to set up an anti-drugs campaign with the richest of the city because he acquired fame after his brother was jailed for drug trafficking. There isn’t much more to say about this book. I will definitely read more of Rankin’s book, but for now it’s enough Rebus and it’s time to move on to another genre altogether. 

Knots & Crosses - Ian Rankin

I'm not a big fan of crime novels. Up until now the only two detectives that truly interested me are Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and Jack Caffery (Mo Hayder). Both characters spike my interest for different reasons; Sherlock because he's an expert in deductive reasoning but also a drug addict. What's even more fascinating about him is that his creator hated him because readers didn’t want anything from him but Sherlock Holmes. That's why he attempted to  kill his character off, but the public didn't let him and he had to resurrect him. The interaction between the character and the creator is fascinating in that sense. Caffery is interesting because he has experienced a horrible trauma when he was a child and he has never recovered from it. He’s a Byronic hero and I like my men to be as Byronic as possible.

Detective Rebus can now be added to my favourite detectives list. Not because he is such an enthralling character, not in the first book at least. It’s because I have something in common with him and that’s our love for books:

"His eyes beheld beauty not in reality but in the printed word. Standing in the waiting-room, he realized that in his life he had accepted secondary experience -- the experience of reading someone else's thoughts -- over real life." (Rankin, Knots & Crosses)

Also, it's because I love reading references of the city I live in. Ian Rankin's novels are famously set in Edinburgh. The city I've called my home for the past six months.

There’s not much to say about the story itself. It’s very simple and not very refreshing or different. For next week I’m reading Rankin’s second Rebus novel to see if he can hold my interest for more than one book, but I especially hope he manages to come up with a really good story. 

Room - Emma Donoghue

The first thing that came to mind after I finished reading this book was a short story I had studied in my English Literature Ode to Fear MA course. It's by Richard Matheson:

X — This day when it had light mother called me retch. You retch she said. I saw in her eyes the anger. I wonder what it is a retch.
This day it had water falling from upstairs. It fell all around. I saw that. The ground of the back I watched from the little window. The ground it sucked up the water like thirsty lips. It drank too much and it got sick and runny brown. I didnt like it.
Mother is a pretty I know. In my bed place with cold walls around I have a paper things that was behind the furnace. It says on it 5CREENSTARS. I see in the pictures faces like of mother and father. Father says they are pretty. Once he said it. And also mother he said. Mother so pretty and me decent enough. Look at you he said and didnt have the nice face. I touched his arm and said it is alright father. He shook and pulled away where I couldnt reach. Today mother let me off the chain a little so I could look out the little window. Thats how l saw the water falling from upstairs. (Matheson, Born of Man and Woman)

It's a short story about a boy who is locked away in a cellar by his mother and father. Similarly, Jack the protagonist in Room is locked away with his mother by a kidnapper who has kept Ma locked away in a tiny room for seven years. The difference between the boy in Matheson's story and Jack, is that Jack is growing up with no sense of the real world, he does however develop perfect speech and his mother teaches him everything about what she calls the "television world". Jack is the narrator in the novel, it shows that he is a very smart 5-year old, but that he is struggling with grammar, for example: "I know who brung it" (Donoghue, 54) However this young boy is quite clever for his age. The only concept he is struggling with is the vast amount of things living and going on in Outside.

It's a very intelligent book about a boy and his Ma who have lived most of their lives in solitary confinement and who had to live with each other in one single room for most of their lives. The only other person Jack knows is the evil Old Nick who comes by every now and then to "make the bed creak" with Jack's Ma. It's definitely a book I would recommend, because it's a very touching story about a small boy who is learning about life within the confines of a single room.