February 2012 reading report

I read 8 books in February. One was an audio book I listened to while doing housework and 4 I read while laid up in bed with the flu. 4 were re-reads, and it will come as no surprise to those who have been stuck in bed sick that three of those were comfort reads I read while I was ill.

The books:

• Jennifer Crusie: Maybe This Time. Reread. Romance/ghost story.
• Jennifer Crusie: Charlie All Night. Reread. Romance.
• Michael Innes: Hamlet, Revenge!. Detective story, murder mystery.
• Mark Leyner & Billy Goldberg : Why do men have nipples? Hundreds of questions you'd only ask a doctor after your third martini. Medical/biological answers and lame humour.
• J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Reread. Audio book. YA fantasy.
• Mary Ann & Annie Barrows Shaffer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Reread. Novel, romantic.
• Patti Smith: Just Kids. Memoir. Fantastic book, recommended.
• Ben Yagoda: When you catch an adjective, kill it. Linguistics.

Silence

I woke up to a small earthquake around 1 a.m.

As I lay in bed, waiting to see if there were going to be aftershocks, I realised it was unusually bright outside for the time of night. It was the kind of cold, flat light that tells you it is snowing.

Earlier, it has been blowing hard, the wind whistling in the rooftops and occasional flurries of hail beating in salvos against the corrugated iron and window panes, but now I realised the harsh wind had died down.

The city was faintly visible through a cover of light, dusty snow that was being blown slowly and thickly back and forth between the apartment buildings, borne on a gentle wind. It was drifting so slowly that it almost seemed to hang in the air like fog.

More than that, however, the city was silent. Totally, utterly silent. The usual muted roar you don't hear except when you come back after a few days in the country wasn't there. Even the house seemed to have fallen into silence. No flushing drains, no creaking doors, no gurgling in the heating system. Just silence.


It was almost scary. But also beautiful.

List love: A baker’s dozen of childhood favourites

We all have our favourite childhood reads. These are some of mine.

Note:
Many of my childhood favourites were books written in Icelandic by Icelanders and have never been translated into English (although several exist in Scandinavian, Dutch and German translations). I am leaving them out of the list as they can’t possibly be of interest to the majority of my readers. .

1. The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. I was given his collected fairy tales as a christening present and was familiar with many of the stories before I could read them for myself. My mother used to read from them to me, but it was a proud day when I was able to read them by myself and discover all the dark stories she never did read, like The Red Shoes and The Shadow.
2. The Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson. I first discovered these on the book-shelves of some friends of mine, and later I would borrow them repeatedly from the library.
3. Enid Blyton’s Adventure books (and to a lesser extent, the Five Find-Outers and the Famous Five). Enid Blyton’s books were in the process of being republished in Icelandic when I was between 6 and 12 years old, so I got given a number of them for birthdays and Christmas presents, and they cemented my love of detective stories and mysteries at a young age.
4. A children’s version of the first two books of Gulliver’s Travels. I loved these books, never realising they were bowdlerised versions until I decided to read them in English. Gulliver’s Travels (the full, English edition) is now among my favourite books.
5. Norse and ancient Greek myths. The books I first read (and still own) in this genre are wonderfully illustrated versions for children that are (sadly) long out of print, but for adult reading I recommend the perennial Bulfinch’s Mythology, especially for the Greek/Roman myths. I also read and loved the Gylfaginning part of Snorri’s Edda, which is the main source of the Norse mythology you find in modern books on the subject.
6. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. This came out in an Icelandic translation when I was 8. I don’t think I read it until I was around 14, but my mother read it to me and my brother several times and we both love it to this day.
7. The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren. I can’t remember which I did first: read the book or saw the film, but possibly I may have read the book after I learned that they were filming part of the film in Iceland. By brother, on the other hand, was an Emil of Lönneberga fan.
8. I am David by Anne Holm. I found this in my grandmother’s library when I went to stay with her one summer, and have read it many times over the years since.
9. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I unearthed an ancient, rather antiquated translation of this in the local library, and I think I went back and borrowed it every year after that, until I moved away from home.
10. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. My mother had translations of the first four books, and I read the first three over and over as a young gild. I only read the fourth as a teenager, and didn’t like it much.
11. The Doctor Dolittle books by Hugh Lofting. Politically incorrect as they are considered in today’s society, when I was growing up I never heard anyone mention racism in connection with these books. It was the animals that interested me.
12. The Village that Slept by Manique P. de Ladebat. Based, apparently, on true events, this book about two children who survive a plane crash and survive alone in an abandoned village for many months before they are rescued, struckj a chord with me, and I read it over and over again. I recently acquired a copy and re-read it, and while I still think it’s a good story, I spotted a number of inconsistencies in the narrative and found the translation a bit stiff. Thus are the favourites of childhood revealed to be less than perfect in retrospective.
13. A Bear Called Paddington and its sequels, by Michael Bond. Someone started giving these books to my brother as they were issued in Icelandic translations, and we both loved them deeply.

Top Ten Tuesday meme: Books that broke my heart a little

It's Tuesday, and that means the The Broke and the Bookish are accepting contributions to their Top Ten Tuesdays meme. There is a little bit of an anti-Valentine's Day sentiment going on, as they are asking for books that broke the readers' hearts a little.

Please visit some of the other participating blogs. If you like books full of emotion, you may find some great reads.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

• Anne of Green Gables, Anne’s House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. All concern deaths. If you have read them, you’ll know which ones. I’m counting them as one, because of the similar themes and because the books all belong to the same series.
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book was fine - but the ending of the story of Arwen and Aragorn in the appendixes was heartbreaking.
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Not because of Beth’s death, although that was sad, but because Jo’s dreams never came true.
• The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. Because they don’t get to be together when they have saved the world.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Not because of all the deaths, but because it’s the last book in the series and it doesn’t look like there will be more.
• Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai. Because of all the tragedies in it, big and small, that echo reality.
• The Diary of Anne Frank. So full of hopes and dreams and plans, but all the time you know how her story ended.
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. If you have read it, you’ll know why. If not, I challenge you to read it.
• Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. This is a twofold tragedy. As a child I was saddened by the fact that Wendy had to grow up while Peter remained a child, but as an adult I see that by remaining a child forever, Peter will never grow up to experience the pains and pleasures of adulthood, especially the joys of parenthood that Wendy has experienced.
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Not so much because the protagonist dies by his own hand, but because he was driven to it by a society that treated him like a freak because he was different.

Reading Report for January 2012

I read 14 books in January, in a number of genres. Out of those 14, six were e-books and five were books I had started reading before the beginning of the month. I have at least 20 more books I started reading at some point and then either decided to save for later or forgot about, and now I want to try to finish some of them.

Among the books I started and finished within the month was the first book I have read in its entirety on a mobile device. I decided to review that experience and will discuss the device, the software and the overall reading experience in a review within a few days.


The books were divided between fiction and non-fiction as follows: 

Of the 6 fiction volumes, two were myth-based fantasies, one was a science fiction novella, one a romance, one a mystery-suspense novel and one a collection of cartoons. 

Of the 8 non-fiction volumes, three were about fashion, two were biographies, two history books and one was about the natural sciences.

As I mentioned in my last post I have stopped, for the time being, writing detailed reviews, but I have included a bit of information about the January books in the list below.

The Books:

• Shoichi Aoki: Fruits. Fashion photography. Fabulous and wacky photographs of Japanese youngsters showing off their creativity and colourful fashion sense. Originally from a Japanese fashion magazine.
• Jaycee Dugard: A Stolen Life. Autobiography/Memoir. Fascinating and sad. It‘s not particularly well written, but it doesn't have to be, not with this kind of story. Dugard gives a clear-headed account of her 18-year captivity and an insight into the mentality of a survivor.
• Noël Riley Fitch: Appetite for Life: The biography of Julia Child. Child‘s life was fascinating, especially her years in Asia during World War II and her life in France and the work on her first cookbook, but the whole book gives a detailed (sometimes too much so) account of her life and character.
• Richard Fortey: Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. Popular science. Very interesting, informative and gossipy tour of several departments of London‘s Natural History Museum, by a long-time employee.
• Hadley Freeman: The Meaning of Sunglasses, and a guide to almost all things fashionable. Fashion advice, opinion and anecdotes. Freeman is a journalist who writes a fashion advice column for The Guardian. Not afraid of calling a spade a shovel, she takes the reader on an often funny tour of fashion do's and dont's. I didn't agree with all of her advice, but I found it very entertaining.
• Neil Gaiman: Odd and the Frost Giants. Fantasy for young readers. This playful book for children about a young boy who helps Odin, Thor and Loki regain control of Asgard will entertain not only kids but also adults who know and enjoy the Norse myths.
• Michael Innes: The Daffodil Affair. Suspense mystery. Weird and surreal as usual, this time Inspector Appleby is on the trail of a counting horse, a girl with multiple personalities, a haunted house and a man with a strange and evil plan. All right in the middle of World War II.
• Paola Jacobbi: I want those shoes. Fashion advice and opinions. Insubstantial and entertaining, Jacobbi discusses different kinds of shoes and why we love them.
• Robin Kaye: Romeo, Romeo. Contemporary romance. A sexy story of two people who just wanted a commitment-free fuck-buddy relationship, but got much more than they bargained for.
• Lea Korsgaard & Stéphanie Surugue : Bókaránið mikla - Saga af ótrúlegum glæp (The Great Book Theft. Translated from Danish: Det Store Bogtyveri). True crime. Incredible and detailed account of one of the largest library book thefts in history.
• Jan Morris, ed.: The Oxford Book of Oxford. The history of Oxford University in the words of its students, teachers and visitors. Fantastic and informative collection of epigrams, epitaphs, quotations and passages from letters, essays, poems, novels and autobiographies.
• Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief. Young adult fantasy based on the Greek myths. Action-filled adventure, full of characters from and allusions to Greek mythology, but with a modern twist.
• Ronald Searle: The Terror of St. Trinian's. Humour, cartoons. Funny classic cartoons about the wicked students of St. Trinian‘s School for Girls.
• Connie Willis: All seated on the ground. Christmas sci-fi novella with a romantic flair. A funny and heart-warming story about first contact between humans and extraterrestrials.

Putting on the brakes

I have decided to cut down my blogging time considerably until spring, in order to be able to continue to read for fun alongside my studies. I will not be suspending this blog completely, but posting is going to be even more irregular than usual until I have turned in all of my academic assignments.

"Dictionaries"
Snapped on my cell phone and edited using the PicSay app

I am taking two university courses this semester, in Terminology and Literary Translation, both at the master's level, 15 ECTS-credits altogether. In addition, I am taking a course in French for international relations through my workplace. That course amounts to 10 ECTS-credits, meaning that I am doing an almost full academic schedule as well as working full time. Even though I am not studying for a degree, this still needs to be taken seriously and most of the time I have devoted to blogging is now going to be taken up by studying and assignment work.

I do have a couple of reviews I'm working on, as well as one essay, some photo posts, several lists, and a shorter-than-usual Annual Reading Report, but I can't say when I'll post them (probably during fits of procrastinating from my studies...). Other posts will generally be shorter than usual.

Ideas I have had for keeping the blog going while I am busy with other stuff includes quick, short reviews instead of my more detailed reviews, adding more links to book stuff I want to draw attention to, and maybe (but just maybe) more photo posts. I'll also continue to post the monthly reading report. I have also considered starting doing giveaways when I return to full schedule, but we shall have to see about that.

Review: The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. This is the final review repost.

In 1886, Edgar Drake, a specialist in tuning Erard pianos, is sent by the British War Office to the wilds of Burma to tune an Erard for Surgeon-Major Carroll, a man who has managed to become perhaps the most important British officer in the whole of Burma by making himself indispensable for the peace negotiations between the British and the Burmese. The piano plays some mysterious part in all this, but has unfortunately reacted badly to the extremes of the climate and is out of tune. Drake, shy, thoughtful and eccentric, finds in himself an unexpected adventurousness as he sets off from England to tune the piano. Once he gets to Carroll’s stronghold in Mae Lwin, he is enchanted by the place, charmed by Carroll, and seduced (not in the physical sense) by a mysterious local woman. All of these unite in holding him there, and he loses all sense of time and sinks into a kind of dream. When reality finally invades, it becomes doubtful if he will ever return to England and his beloved wife.

This is a beautiful and melancholy story. Mason has a talent for describing landscapes and people in flowing and evocative prose, and it has been a long time since I read anything as cinematic as this book. In some strange way I can not quite define, I felt this was a very English book, although the author is an American. He perfectly describes the attitudes and arrogance of the British towards the Burmese people, for example in the chapters about Drake’s journey and the British officers he meets - especially a very tragic tiger hunt he unwillingly joins. The first half of the story is about Drake’s journey from England to Mae Lwin, and the second is about his stay there and the tuning of the piano. The story is very slow and flowing, right down to the last chapters, when it suddenly picks up, with unnecessary suddenness, and becomes a thriller. There is hardly any build-up to the action, and the ending, although apt, is too abrupt.

I did feel that I couldn’t quite sympathise with Drake, or indeed any other character. They are all described from the outside, as if the author was describing something he was seeing on a movie screen in front of him, rather than actually being there. There is always a distance between the reader and the characters, a distance you want to bridge, but can’t, because there is something lacking in the telling of their story. This distant, at times almost clinical viewing of the characters, is a big flaw, and prevents the book from making my favourites list.

All in all, I would say this is a very good first novel, but has flaws that Mason will hopefully not repeat in his next novel.

Rating: A beautiful and tragic story of one man’s adventure of a lifetime. 3+ stars.

Excerpt from The Piano Tuner.

Reading challenges to tempt you, part V: Geographical challenges

Travelogues are my very favourite genre, but I also like to read other genres, both fiction and non-fiction, that feature locations that are well described and important for the story. If I know the location I can picture it in my mind. If not, I can imagine it and dream of visiting it some day (or make plans to avoid it all cost).

Here are some challenges dedicated to countries, areas and continents around the world, starting small and ending big. I found so many challenges with this one theme that I decided to dedicate a special post to them.

As before, you can click on either the link or the badge to be taken to the sign-up page.

First up is the Ireland Reading Challenge, hosted by Carrie of Books and Movies.

This challenge runs from January 1 to November 30, 2012. I did not see a deadline for signing up.

There are 4 levels. Crossovers and re-reads are allowed.

The challenge is to read "Any book written by an Irish author, set in Ireland, or involving Irish history or Irish characters, ... – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, audiobooks, children’s books – all of these apply."

Reviews are not required, but there is incentive to do so: A prize. There is a further twist that offers an increased chance to win the prize - check the host blog for more information. 25 people have signed up so far.

The Library of Clean Reads is hosting the I Love Italy reading challenge.

This is a year-long challenge and can be joined at any time.

Books must be "set in Italy, written by an Italian author or about Italy or an Italian person".

There are 4 levels. Reviewing is not required but is encouraged.

9 people have signed up so far.

Tasha of Book Obsessed is running The 50 States Reading Challenge.

This is a big challenge: To read books set in all 50 of the United States, although it doesn't say whether you must read one book for each state or if you can read books that cover several states.

It lasts all year and I didn't see a deadline for joining, although you would have to be a pretty prolific reader if you join any later than, say, August.

Crossovers are allowed, you need not have a blog to enter, and reviewing is encouraged. There are 27 participants already.


The following challenge is about a region close to my heart:

Swapna Krishna of S. Krishna's Books is hosting a South Asian Challenge. 

 This is a year long challenge, and I did not see a deadline for sighing up. 

The aim is to read books (the number is up to you), relating to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and/or the Maldives.

To qualify, a book must either be written by a South Asian author or be about South Asia or South Asians (i.e. "the subject matter focuses on the region, peoples, or cultures in some way").

You need not have a blog and reviewing is not mandatory, but is welcomed. Crossovers are allowed. 32 people have signed up already.


Kinna Reads' African Literature Challenge -  tilkynnt í vikunni. http://kinnareads.wordpress.com/

 Rose City Reader is hosting a European Reading Challenge.

In her words: "The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour."

The challenge runs between  January 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013. I did not see a deadline for signing up.

There are 5 levels, 3 alternative variations, and 4 prizes. Reviewing is not mandatory, but you can only win prizes if you review and post links to those reviews (one review equals one ticket for the prize drawing). Go to the sign-up post to read the complete rules. 39 participants have signed up so far.

Last but not least:

Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise is taking over from Dorte and hosting the third Global Reading challenge this year.

The challenge runs throughout 2012 and you can sign up at any time.

There are three levels, and the challenge is to read fiction from or about countries on the continents of Africa, Asia, Australasia/Oceania, Europe, North America, South America, and a seventh continent that can be either Antarctica or, in Kerrie's words: "eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it". 19 participants have already signed up.

Review: Dead Heat by Linda Barnes

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog.

Third of four books about former private eye, now actor, Michael Spraggue, scion of one of Boston’s moneyed families, who prefers to live on his own rather than at the family mansion and to earn his own living instead of spending the family riches. The city of Boston is just as much a characters in this book as the people are, which is cool, because so often places are just used as interchangeable backgrounds for stories that could happen anywhere.

This book was published in 1984 and appears to be out of print. Best place to find it would probably be a library or second-hand book store (or abebooks.com).

The story: Collatos, a former cop, now a bodyguard, and a friend of Spraggue’s, asks him to help him find the writer of anonymous threatening letters that his boss, a US senator, has been receiving. When the senator and bodyguard take part in the Boston marathon and are poisoned by a “woman” who gives them water laced with an overdose of speed, with the result that Collatos dies, Spraggue begins to investigate the death. He leaves no stone unturned, and discovers an insurance scam Collatos was investigating before he left the police force and which seems connected to his death. This leads him to think it was Collatos who was the target of the poisoning, and not the senator, and the anonymous letters were either a subterfuge or unrelated to the murder. But how did the killer know Collatos would have an allergic reaction to amphetamine?

I have previously mentioned how I hate books that are so dependent on other books in the same series that they can’t be read without having read the others first. I wouldn’t exactly go as far as to say this is one of those books, but it did leave me with several unanswered questions about Spraggue’s background that the author obviously assumed the reader would know about. It would therefore be a good idea to read the first two books in order, before reading this one.

Rating: An entertaining crime thriller with a twist in the tail. 3+ stars.

Books having fun

Enjoy!

Reading challenges to tempt you, part IV: Types of books

Next up in the challenges list is types of books. These are books defined by something other than their subject matter. I have found challenges for listening to audio books, reading free e-books, long books, library books, translations and books of short stories. I am not counting short stories as a genre because they can be about anything as long as they are collection of short stories.

This reminds me of a challenge I thought up and was going to host in 2012. I was going to call it The Long and the Short of it. It was meant to be a challenge to read books under 150 pages and over 450 pages long. Level 1 was to be 3 long and 6 short ones, level 2 was to be 6 long books and 12 short ones, and level 3 was to encompass 12 long books and 26 short ones. An extreme level was to be offered, with 12 long books and 52 short ones but as you'll know if you stop by here regularly, I got fed up with restrictive challenges and decided to take it easy in 2012. I am putting this idea out here in the hope that someone will be willing to host it instead of me.

As in the earlier posts, you can click either on the link or badge for each challenge to go to the sign-up page.

The Book Garden is hosting the Tea & Books Challenge.

Join up if you're planning to read some really long novels this year, 700 or more pages long.

No re-reads or large type books, please!

There are 4 levels, and the challenge runs through the whole year. Crossovers are allowed and reviewing is not mandatory.


This next challenge could be incorporated into the previous one - as long as the rules are  followed ;-)

The Chunkster Reading challenge is being hosted on its own dedicated blog. It runs throughout 2012 and the challenge is to read books of 450 pages or more.

There are 4 levels. No audio books or ebooks are allowed. They can be both fiction and non-fiction, and essay collections, short stories and poetry are allowed (perfect incentive for those who want to tackle one of the Norton Anthologies).

Blog ownership is not necessary and you don't need to list the books ahead of time. Reviews are not mandatory, but are strongly encouraged.

Visit the hosting page for some suggestions for what to read, and to read the rules in full.

It may be possible to cross part of this next challenge with one or both of the above, especially if you can fit The Lord of the Rings and/or A Game of Thrones into it.

Martina Bookaholic is hosting the Book2Movie Challenge.

This one is a bit involved, but might be well worth doing if you are both a bibliophile and a movie buff.

Whole year. Each month you commit to reading 1 book and watching the movie based on it, in one of 12 given categories (plus a bonus category).

Reviews must link back to the originating blog, but don't otherwise seem to be mandatory.

I did not see a deadline for signing up.


This challenge can be crossed with any of the other challenges in this post and, for that matter, all the challenges listed in this whole series of posts except the TBR challenges.

Jamie of The Eclectic Bookshelf is hosting the Support your Local library Challenge.

The challenge is simple: Read books from your local library.

There are 4 levels and anyone can join.

You don't need to have a blog, but you are expected to link to at least your book-list even if you don't blog.

Audio books and ebooks are allowed, but re-reads are not.

I did not see a deadline for signing up.

The Library of Clean Reads is hosting a Short Story Reading Challenge.

It runs throughout the year and there is no deadline for joining.

It can cross over with other challenges as long as short stories are involved. Books for all ages are allowed, and both fiction and non-fiction.

There are 4 levels (and boy, would I have finished this one in style in 2010...)

Reviewing is assumed but you don't need to link to them.

Missie of The Unread Reader and Kelly of Reading the Paranormal are hosting the Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge.

As the name implies this is about reading free books. But not just any free books - they must be ebooks, offered for free and legally downloaded.

The challenge runs throughout 2012, there are three levels with a minimum limit of 12 books, but no maximum number. Cross-overs are allowed. 

If you link your reviews back to the hosting page you are eligible to win prizes, with monthly drawings, so sign up as soon as possible!


 If you are one of those people who never have time to read but do have a long(ish) commute or a job that doesn't demand your full attention (fish factory, anyone? I wish mp3 players had been invented when I was doing that kind of work), this challenge is perfect for you. Simply grab your smartphone or mp3 player and download some audio books and join: 

The Audio Book Challenge, which is being hosted by Teresa of Teresa's Reading Corner.


There are 4 levels and the challenge goes from one end of the year to the other.

I did not see a deadline for joining, but there will be a special monthly challenge as an incentive to stop by every month.




  
This final challenge is special to me, as I am a translator myself, and I am tempted to join, but I'll probably pass now and (maybe) do it next year.

The Introverted Reader is hosting a Books in Translation Challenge.

The goal is self-explanatory: Read books in translation.

Choose one of four levels. 

Challenge runs from January 7 to the end of the year.

Any genre and format is allowed, as are crossovers. You need not be a blogger, but reviewing seems to be required.




If you know of a reading challenge covering types of book and you would like me to cover it in the follow-up post to this series, just leave a link in a comment to this post and I will take a look at it.

Review: The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods by Mark Larson & Barney Hoskyns.

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog.

This is a humorous tribute to that much maligned hairstyle, the mullet (ape drape, mud-flap, neck warmer, etc.). For someone who remembers when it was actually cool to sport one (yep, I was a teenager in the 80’s - I even had a mini-mullet for a couple of weeks until I realised it wasn't a good look for me and had it chopped off), this was a great discovery. The book manages to be both affectionate and mocking, and I had a good laugh at all the pictures of famous people that I once thought were incredibly cool and cutting-edge but now, in retrospect, just had really bad hairstyles and a lousy dress sense.

Rating: A funny book for both admirers and enemies of the mullet. 4 stars.

Reading challenges to tempt you, part III: Theme challenges

Last time I covered genre challenges, and now it's time for some theme challenges.

As in the earlier posts, you can click either on the link or badge for each challenge to go to the sign-up page.

First one I am seriously considering joining:

The fifth What's in a Name challenge, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
I finished it last year and have a mind to join again this year.

It runs throughout 2012 and you must read six books, each of which has a particular type of thing in the title (see the host site for a list). You can join at any time.

Any one book can only be entered in one category. Overlapping with other challenges is permitted, you need not make a list beforehand and you need not read the books in the order the categories are given in.

This is a very popular challenge: When I wrote this, 179 people had already signed up.

The Library of Clean Reads is hosting a Time Travel Reading Challenge.

It's a year-long challenge and you can join at any time.

There are 4 levels and the theme of the books must be time travel.

26 people have already signed up.

Melissa of Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf is hosting a Witches and Witchcraft Reading Challenge.

The challenge runs throughout the year 2012 and the sign-up deadline is December 15. There are a number of rules but the main ones are that the books must have a witchcraft theme and can be fiction or non-fiction, but no reference books are allowed unless you read them from cover to cover. There are 4 levels.


You need not own a blog, but reviewing seems to be required.
Re-reads and crossovers are allowed. There is a prize.
 54 participants so far.

Books in the City is hosting the second Immigrant Stories Challenge.

The challenge is year-long and you can join at any time. There are three levels and the books can be of any kind, both fiction and non-fiction, as long as the theme is immigration.

Re-reads are allowed and so are crossovers with other challenges.

10 participants so far.

The team at Bookish Ardour are hosting a Dystopia reading challenge.

This is another year-long challenge and you can sign up until mid-December. There are 7 levels and to make it more challenging there are extra challenges you can join to narrow the field of choice.

Crossovers are allowed, you can change levels, and you do not need to have a blog or write reviews (although they are encouraged), but some kind of commenting seems to be expected. 74 participants so far.


Finally, here are two double theme challenges with no fixed theme. The aim of both is to read pairs of books that share a theme or are somehow joined:

One Librarian's Book Reviews is hosting the Classic Double Challenge.

It's a year-long challenge and there is no sign-up deadline.

There are 4 levels. To join, you must read books in pairs: one classic and, to quote the host: "a newer book that relates to the older one in some way". Example are given if you need inspiration.

Comments/reviews are encouraged, but you need not do it on a blog.

18 participants already.

Amanda of Fig and Thistle is hosting the Truth in Fiction challenge.

It runs throughout 2012 and no deadline is given.

There are 7 levels and the challenge is to read pairs of books, one fiction and one non-fiction, that are related through an easily discernible common thread.

Overlapping with other challenges is allowed.

Reviews are expected and must be jointly about both books in any given pair.

 If you know of a theme reading challenge you would like me to cover in the follow-up post to this series, just leave a link in a comment to this post and I will take a look at it.

Reading challenges to tempt you, part II: Genre challenges

I had originally written a considerably longer intro and worked on the list for a good half hour, but despite the periodic autosaving Blogger still managed to eat the original post. So here it is, with a much shorter intro, and as for you, Blogger: If this happens one more time I am taking all my blogs and migrating them somewhere else.

I own books on many diverse subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, and like to read in many genres. Apropos of this, here are some genre challenges being offered by and for book bloggers in 2012:

Clicking on the link or the badge will take you to the sign-up pages for the respective challenges.

Yvonne of Socrates' Book Review Blog is hosting the Cruisin' thru the Cozies Reading Challenge.

 The challenge runs all year long, and no sign-up deadline is given. The challenge is to read cosy mysteries and there are three levels.

Books need not be chosen in advance, crossovers with other challenges are allowed and you don't need to have a blog, but must leave comments so others can see your progress. Reviews are encouraged.

There are 60 participants already.

It wouldn't take much ingenuity to combine the above challenge with this one:

Bev Hankins of My Reader's Block is sponsoring the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge.

This is a year-long challenge and the sign-up deadline is November 30.

The challenge is to read 8 mysteries (thrillers, espionage novels, crime fiction, detective novels) in one of 10 categories posted on the hosting blog. More than one category may be finished.

Overlaps with other challenges are allowed. Blogs ownership is not necessary and reviewing is not mandatory, but is encouraged.

There are prizes to be won, and 36 people have signed up already.

The team at Historical Tapestry are hosting a Historical Fiction Challenge.

It's a year-long challenge and no sign-up deadline is given.

The challenge is to read any kind of historical fiction.

Reviewing is expected, and non-bloggers can post their progress information on the blog.

There are five difficulty levels, and 79 people have already signed up.

Reading Romances is hosting the Reading Romances challenge.

The challenge runs all year and the sign-up deadline is December 15.

This challenge is not about number, but variety. Each month the host blogger will post a list of romance sub-genres and themes to choose from. Reviews are expected, but can be posted on review sites, bookseller sites or blogs.

There are 20 participants so far.

Margot of Joyfully Retired is hosting the second Foodies Read challenge.

The challenge is a year-long one, and I didn't see a deadline for signing up. There are 5 levels and you must read food books. To quote Margot:
"A food book is a book which is centered around food and/or drinks. That could be a cookbook, a food biography or memoir, a non-fiction book focused around a specific food, wine, chef or restaurant. Also allowed is a fictional story in which food plays a major role."

Reviews are expected, but you need not be a blogger to participate. 19 have signed up so far.

Melissa of The Betty and Boo Chronicles is hosting a Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge.

This is her definition of what goes for this challenge: "for this challenge, we're going to define memoir as a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation. Published letters, diaries, journals, autobiographies, nonfiction books on the craft of writing memoirs ... in my book, they all count as Memorable Memoirs for this challenge. (Generally, biographies don't, but I could always be convinced.)"

It's a year-long challenge and you can sign up at any time. Re-reads and overlaps with other challenges are allowed, and blog ownership is not required. There are 3 levels, and 19 people have signed up already.

If you detest memoirs or just don't want to participate in the above challenge, maybe this one is better suited to your tastes:

Julie of My Book Retreat is hosting a Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Reading Challenge.

The challenge runs through 2012 and the sign-up deadline is November 30.

You can choose from 4 levels. You don't need a blog and reviews are not required, but you do need to post about your progress.

The books must be non-fiction. Not allowed are memoirs, journals or autobiographies. Also not allowed are children's books, books that are not meant to be read from cover to cover, essays and articles, and re-reads. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed. At least one giveaway will be held for the participants.  30 participants have signed up so far.

 If you know of a genre reading challenge you would like me to cover in the follow-up post to this series, just leave a link in a comment to this post and I will take a look at it.

Reading challenges to tempt you, part I: TBR challenges, and one more

I said in an earlier post that I was only going to do one big reading challenge in 2012, the already ongoing  TBR (read or cull) challenge. I also said I might consider some smaller challenges that could be done alongside the big one. The thought was to maybe find a couple of challenges to help me choose books within the TBR challenge, rather than ones that would necessitate going outside it for reading material.

With that in mind I have been looking at what challenges the members of the book blogging community have come up with for 2012. However, I haven't just been looking at challenges that will suit my criteria, but also reading challenges in general, perhaps in the subconscious hope that I might find a really fantastic one to tempt me. I thought it appropriate to first take a look at bloggers who are inviting others to join their TBR challenges, because, as everyone knows, misery loves company ;-)

Click on the links provided or on the challenge badge - either will take you to the sign-up page.  Before I take you to the TBR challenges, there is one special meta-challenge I think every challenge crazy reader should know about:

The Reading Challenge Addict challenge! By signing up for this challenge you can enter giveaways and win prizes and declare just how hardcore a challenge addict you are.

This challenge is exactly what it says on the label: to join and finish reading challenges. There are 4 levels and it runs throughout 2012. There are mini-challenges to be entered, giveaways for participants and special prize drawings.


And now for the TBR challenges
I don't see why you couldn't join all of these and thus accomplish the first level of the Addict challenge with no more effort than what is required to finish the easiest level of the hardest TBR challenge ;-)

The Tales from the Crypt blog is hosting the 2012 Read Your Own Books challenge.

It runs throughout 2012, anyone can join and blog ownership is not required, nor is reviewing. Not allowed are re-reads, library books, books acquired in 2012 or books you have been asked to review.

There are four levels, you do not need to post a list beforehand, and crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

When I last checked, 22 participants had already signed up.

Bev Hankins of My Reader's Block is hosting the Mount TBR Challenge.

The challenge is to read or listen to books from your own collection that you acquired before the beginning of 2012.

It runs throughout 2012, has 6 levels named after mountains and the sign-up deadline is November 30th, 2012. Cross-overs with other challenges are allowed. Blog ownership is not necessary, but bloggers can sign up and non-bloggers can leave comments announcing their participation. Bloggers do seem to be expected to post reviews.

 There are already 145 participants.

Bonnie and the team at Bookish Ardour are hosting the Off the Shelf 2012 challenge.

The challenge is pretty much the same as the above, except the sign-up deadline is mid-December and there are 7 levels.

If you own very few books you can still join and read books from your TBR list instead.

Reviewing is optional. Participants already number 104.

C.B. James of Ready When You Are, C.B. is hosting the TBR Double Dare.

This challenge runs from January 1 to April 1, 2012.It is left up to you how many TBR books you read in that time, but you must make a pledge to the number beforehand.

50 people have taken the dare so far.

Jen of The Hopeful Librarian is hosting the Unread Book Challenge of 2012.

This is all about finishing books you own and reducing your TBR stack.

The deadline for signing up is until the end of January and blog ownership is not required.

There are no levels, but prizes will be awarded for the number of TBR books read, for most progress made, and there will be an end-of-year giveaway open to the participants.


 If you know of a TBR reading challenge you would like me to cover in the follow-up post to this series, just leave a link in a comment to this post and I will take a look at it.

Review: The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog.

When wealthy Lord Rule offers for the hand of the eldest Winwood sister, she knows she must accept, even if she loves another man. Her brother has sunk the family into debt and the only way of extricating them is for one of the sisters to marry a rich man, and Elizabeth is by far the prettiest. However, the youngest sister, 17 year old Horatia, is determined that her sister shall marry her beloved Edward, and so goes to Lord Rule to explain and offers herself in her sister’s place. To the family’s surprise, he accepts. It appears to Horatia that Rule does not love her (he has a mistress), and that bothers her, especially as she begins to fall in love with him. This leads to several misadventures, especially when Horatia becomes determined to conquer the heart of Lord Lethbridge, an old enemy of Rule’s, and thus make her husband jealous. The plan misfires and Horatia finds herself in deep trouble. Lord Rule, however, has an ace up his sleeve.

Most of Georgette Heyer’s historical romantic novels are Regencies, i.e. they take place during the years 1811 to 1820. It is therefore refreshing to find one that takes place in the 18th century (more precisely in 1776), when fashions were - to our modern eyes - rather silly: wigs, hair powder, towering hairdos, panniers, beauty spots, etc. Those fashions play a part in the story. Heyer’s attention to detail is amazing and she describes clothing styles, hairdos and accessories with gentle mockery of both fashion and wearers. The cant and slang expressions are probably genuine, considering how thoroughly she researched all her books. The story is deliciously frothy and silly - not that there is anything silly about the plotting, but the story is a farce that hinges on characters being silly.

Rating: Another delightful confection from Georgette Heyer. 3+ stars.

Excerpt from The Convenient Marriage

End of year pondering: Thoughts on personal libraries, collecting and decluttering

It occurred to me, as I was preparing to add my e-books to my library database, that library size really doesn‘t matter any longer, at least where space is concerned. You could have a library with the same number of volumes as America‘s Library of Congress (over 22 million volumes), and yet you could carry it with ease in your pocket. In terms of the sheer number of owned books this is a great big opportunity for bibliophiliac one-upmanship. 

There are a little over 800 titles in my e-book collection, mostly free books downloaded from Project Gutenberg and other websites that legally offer e-books for free, plus a few I have bought or been given. Altogether they take up about 650 megabytes of hard drive space, which is enough to fill the largest hard drive available for the type of laptop I own, and then some. That hard drive takes up about the same amount of space as a small powder compact.

The 2 gigabyte external hard drive I use for backing up the contents of the computer and to store stuff that doesn‘t need to be immediately accessible in the computer is the size of a thick trade paperback and could hold a library of 25 to 30 thousand volumes. You can get a more capacious hard drive into a box that size, how big I‘m not sure, but with modern technology being what it is, we  keep being able to store more and more information in less and less space all the time. Just look at SD cards - they are already offering ones with a storage capacity of 64 gigabytes, so the Library of Congress example I mentioned above is no science-fiction. It may even be possible right now, or if not, it will become possible within a few year‘s time, to store all that information in a box the size of a packet of cigarettes, or more likely on a memory card the size of a fingernail. 

The thing is, however, that if you want people to be impressed by the number of books you own, it is a lot easier to do so without being suspected of being a brag or a liar if you own a lot of physical books. All you have to do is bring into your home a non-bibliophile, by which I don‘t necessarily mean a non-reader, but, let‘s say someone who reads books without feeling the overwhelming bibliophiliac urge to possess as many of them as possible. Then all you have to do is wait for them to notice the numerous and impressively overflowing bookcases. This will almost certainly lead to the question „How many books do you own?“ and that, inevitably, will lead to the follow up: „Have you read them all?“

This way, you don‘t need to work the contents of your Kindle or your hard drive into a conversation to get the desired awed or envious reaction, which can be difficult in any case, since non-bibliophiles tend not to like talking about books in general, only the books they are reading or have recently read (if any).

Among us bibliophiles I foresee this development: a few non-discriminating collectors, and by that I mean people who collect books in general as opposed to specific books, will start scouring the Web for all the free books they can find, regardless of whether they will ever read them or not. When they feel the collection is sufficiently large, they will begin one-upping each other left and right in a modern version of the Battle of the Books, in which the war will not be waged between the armies of the Ancients and the Moderns, but will instread be fought in a series of duels in which the last bibliophile standing will be the one with the biggest number of books.

As a collector, you see, I know how easy it is to lose control over the collecting urge. I am currently in the process of decluttering my home by throwing out, donating and using up several of my collections which have gotten out of hand. They include quilting fabrics, paper, yarn, craft supplies and, yes, books. I hasten to add that I do not collect any of these things indiscriminately, but merely what I plan to use. Unfortunately I operate on the „out of sight, out of mind“ principle, which means that rather than buy and use I buy and store for later, for that near-mythical time known to most pack-rats: when I have the time to do the project or read the book. Now, however, I am in a situation where I find it necessary to be careful with my money (the house is being repaired – again – and a large bill is looming) so I am now, finally, spending my time making and doing rather than buying and storing.

Phase one of this unusual situation is to try to use something from my pantry and/or freezer every time I cook something, instead of constantly buying new stock and ending up throwing out the old because it has expired. Phase two is the TBR challenge. Phase three is to use up some of the colourful paper scraps and leftovers from my bookbinding projects, and to finish at least one partially done craft project. I am turning the paper into beads, bowls, baskets and Christmas decorations, and the craft project is to finish the granny square crochet afghan I started making 5 years go. If I keep this up, by next spring I will have a nice pile of paper crafts  to sell through the handicrafts co-operative I am planning to join next summer, and an afghan to curl up under next winter while I continue the TBR challenge and get going with watching – before the technology becomes obsolete – all the DVDs I have accumulated. There still remain the quilting fabrics, but I‘ll climb that hill when the paper mountain has finally been conquered.

You might think that adding all those aforementioned e-books to the library database will destroy the TBR challenge, but no, that challenge is specifically to make room on my shelves for more TBR books and to prevent the necessity of buying more shelving. The e-books are a blissful extra, a bonus and a guarantee that I will not  run out of books to read even if I have to spend the next 20 years under house arrest. I just have to be careful not to start buying e-books unless I have definite plans of reading them. 

Reading report for November 2011

I had this ready at the start of the month but have only just realised that I never published it, so here goes:

I finished 9 books in November, of which 4 were TBR challenge books. I have now reached the TBR goal for this year: to get the TBR stack below 800 books by reading and/or culling. I took a long look at my bookshelves yesterday (make that December 5th) and made a drastic cull, bringing the TBR down to 791 books. I plan to continue with the challenge in 2012, and will probably begin with a goal of going below 750 TBR books.

This almost became the first month for a very long time in which I did not finish one mystery or thriller, but because the journey covered in The 8.55 to Baghdad was inspired by Agatha Christie and her journey on the Orient Express, I decided to reread Murder on the Orient Express. Knowing what the outcome of the mystery would be allowed me to concentrate on other things about it, and it struck me how brilliant Christie was at drawing, with a few deft strokes, a menagerie of diverse and interesting characters.

The Books:

• A Season in the Highlands. 5 romance novellas, comprising: Jude Deveraux; Unfinished Business (contemporary, paranormal); Jill Barnett: Fall From Grace (historical); Geralyn Dawson: Cold Feet (historical, paranormal, Christmas); Pam Binder: The Matchmaker (time travel); Patricia Cabot: The Christmas Captive (historical, Christmas)
• Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express. Murder mystery. Reread.
• Andrew Eames: The 8.55 to Baghdad. Travel.
• Justine Hardy: Bollywood Boy. Travel, film.
• Nora Roberts: The Bride Quartet, comprising: Vision in White; Bed of Roses; Savor the Moment; Happy Ever After.Contemporary romance.
• Kevin Rushby: Children of Kali. Travel, history.

Down Under by Bill Bryson

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog.

This is the account of Bill Bryson’s (broken up) journey around Australia, to visit its biggest cities and some interesting sights, natural and man-made.

Bryson is obviously an australophile. This book is a virtual love letter to Australia, especially its natural beauty, and in a lesser way to its people. Even though he writes in his usual humorously mocking style, and criticises certain things, especially environmental policies and the less than helpful staff at hotels in a certain city, the book is for the most part a very positive and affectionate, sometimes glowing, account of this interesting country. Besides covering his impressions and travel experiences, Bryson gives some account of Australian history and the country’s attractions, and the book can, in fact, be used as an informal guide to some of the places he visited. He seems to have been very diligent in hunting down and exploring unusual little museums and sights, some of which may not even be mentioned in guide books.

I have previously read four of Bryson’s other books: Made in America and Mother Tongue, both of which are about the history of the English language, and two travel books, Notes From a Small Island and The Lost Continent. I liked the language books - they were funny and good reads, even if some of the etymology was a bit suspect, but I didn’t particularly like the travel books. I found them to be so overloaded with Bryson’s signature self-deprecating humour that it went over the top and started sounding like whining. I would also have liked to read less about him and more about the country he was supposed to be writing about. There was also something, some spirit or spark that was missing from The Lost Continent (not to mention the hostile, almost sarcastic, undertone) and I had to force myself to finish it.

The American title

Here, finally, is a travel book from Bryson that deserves all the praise that has been heaped on him as a funny travel writer. He writes about the country and people and has toned down the self-deprecation to an acceptable level so that it is actually funny instead of “here-he-goes-again” tedious, but it is rather sad that he should feel the need to make some rather mean-spirited comments about people who are supposed to be his friends. Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes couldn’t help laughing, but I still think they are mean. Of course, I don’t know what the people in question are like - maybe they are mean right back at him, but it doesn’t feel very friendly to me. But these are minor faults in an otherwise good book.

Rating: A great and sometimes funny introduction to Australia, its people, cities and sights. 4 stars.

A useful link: Excerpt from Down Under

The Imps with the Bags

Swearing is said to feed the Devil, and swearing during Christian holidays must be extra nourishing for him. Here is a moral tale of just that:

It is said that a long time ago, in a valley in the north of Iceland which is no longer inhabited, there were once seven farms. It happened that one Christmas Eve the farmer who owned the farm nearest the mouth of the valley was guarding his sheep while they grazed. In the twilight he noticed seven half-grown boys walking on the bank of the river and heading towards the valley. All were dressed in black, with caps on their heads and carrying folded-up bags. They were moving very fast and running with a strange and grotesque gait. 

The farmer felt very uneasy upon seeing this sight and stared after the lads until they disappeared around a hillock. He wondered who they could be, and finally came to the conclusion that they must be imps, come to collect all the swearing people did over the Christmas holidays, to feed their master and themselves. 

When he came home that night the farmer spoke to his people and told them to avoid all swearing until Twelfth Night was over, promising to give them a nice treat if they were able to do this. The people promised to behave and everyone watched themselves carefully over the Christmas season and no-one swore at all. 

But on the morning of Twelfth Night when the milkmaid walked into the cow byre everything was topsy turvy in there: the cows were all loose and tied together by the tails and so wild that she could hardly handle them. During her struggle to get everything settled she got angry and said: “What a damned mess!”

That same day the farmer was tending to his sheep in the same spot as on Christmas Eve, and in the twilight that night he saw the same seven lads coming down the valley. Six of them were fat and glossy-looking and ran down the river bank with much noise and laughter, carrying very full bags. Behind then stumbled the seventh, skinny as a rake and sullen-looking. His bag was empty except there seemed to be a little something in one corner of it. His companions teased him relentlessly and laughed at him. 

That night the farmer told the people what he had seen and gave everyone a nice, big extra serving of food.

Copyright notice: The wording used to tell this folk-tale is under copyright. The story itself is not copyrighted. If you want to re-tell it, for a collection of folk-tales, incorporate it into fiction, use it in a school essay or any kind of publication, please tell it in your own words or give the proper attribution if you choose to use the wording unchanged.

Cover Her Face by P.D. James

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog.

Such a gorgeous cover!

When a conniving and secretive young housemaid at the Maxie mansion is murdered, the local constable immediately calls in the Scotland Yard. The Yard’s representative is Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, who goes about his job of investigating and interviewing suspects and witnesses, in a thorough, calm and apparently unemotional manner. He uncovers seething emotions, hatred and passions that bubble just under the surface, and finds that most of the people who were at the mansion the night of the murder had good reason to dislike or even hate the murdered woman.

This, the first of P.D. James’ popular Chief Inspector Dalgliesh books, is a rather Christiesque story. Dalgliesh uses Hercule Poirot’s preferred method of gathering together the suspects to unveil the killer, and the story is a country manor mystery in the Golden Age style, as so many of Agatha Christie’s books were.

The characters of the main witnesses and suspects are developed in depth before the crime takes place, only the victim’s full character is left to be uncovered as the story progresses. Dalgliesh is very much in the background all the time, and it is his implied rather than actual presence that drives much of the latter part of the story.

Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh

Just as I kept seeing George Baker in my mind when reading the Inspector Wexford book I reviewed recently, I pictured Roy Marsden, who played Dalgliesh on TV, in my head whenever Dalgliesh was mentioned. This is the unfortunate thing about knowing a character from the screen before ever reading about them - you find it difficult to separate the on-screen representation from the character on the page. Not that it mattered, Marsden was the perfect choice to play Dalgliesh.

Rating: Another good beginning to a mystery series that I plan to pursue further. 3+ stars.

Off on a tangent

Yesterday, a barely remembered comment from a Terry Pratchett novel about a professor at Unseen University sent me to google to look up from which book it came. The professor in questions was commonly referred to as the "reader in the loo" or something similar, but the results that came up for that sentence (sans quotation marks) sent me off on a tangent. Among the search results on the first page was the following Wikipedia entry, which has to be one of the weirder ones to be found in that estimable encyclopaedia (not that the entry is in any way silly, but it's weird that the subject made it onto WP in the first place). It's a long entry, too:

Wikipedia: Toilet paper orientation



Apropos of this, here is a challenge for you, Dear Reader: To find a more unexpected or strange Wikipedia entry and post it as a comment to this post.

List love: A funny dozen

I present you with a dozen funny novels I have enjoyed through the years. Indeed, some of them are on my perennial re-reading list, e.g. nos. 2, 6, 7 and 10.

Some will have you laughing out loud while others might have you bubbling with barely suppressed laughter through the read. Not all of them may appeal to all of you, as they range from dark satire to  airy parody to pure slapstick, but there is something in there for almost everyone. In no particular order:

• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Satire. About the absurdities of army life and war.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. All of the books in the series, but especially the first one. Very good science-fantasy and a parody of the genre, and also very funny.
• Three Men in a Boat, to say nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome. A funny collection of the travel misadventurs of three men and a dog on a boating holiday in the Thames.
• Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. The adventures of the unflappable Auntie Mame as seen through the eyes of her nephew.
• Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer. A Short stories about a canny old lawyer. If you can find a more humorously cynical old codger than Rumploe, please let me know.
• Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Actually, all of Pratchett’s books are funny to some degree, although the humour has become darker as the Discworld series progresses. I decided to pick this one. Because. No, just Because. Oh, all right, I if you must know, it was all the movie references and twists. And the talking dog. And the …. Look it’s a funny book, all right?
• Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Parody at its best. Gibbons took every cliché from the rural novels so popular at the time and molded them into a classic humorous novel.
• The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend. Teenage angst has never seemed so funny.
• Bellwether by Connie Willis. Two scientists investigating trends collide with the assistant from Hell and comedy ensues.
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. His descriptions of people and animals sparkle and he had a wonderful eye for the absurd.
• The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. The chase scene is classic comedy gold that I would love to see in the big screen.
• Appleby’s End by Michael Innes. Innes wrote wonderfully quirky detective stories but this one is probably the strangest of them all, and quite funny in a rather surrealist way.

From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog.

Margaret Parsons, a dowdy housewife, disappears from her Kingsmarkham home, and is found murdered the next day. During the investigation, suspicion fall on several people, including her husband, a former boyfriend, two former school friends, and their husbands. Finally, when Wexford and Burden discover a cache of inscribed books from “Doon” to “Minna”, they begin to piece together a story of obsession and desire, going back more than a decade, and make a startling discovery as to the identity of “Doon”.

This is the first book in the Chief Inspector Wexford series. Like many other readers, I first became aware of Wexford as the leading character in a series of very good TV films based on the books, starring George Baker as Wexford. For some time I wasn’t even aware they were based on books, and even when I did realise it, I still was not very interested in reading them. Then I started becoming interested in crime mysteries again, literature I had mostly given up reading in my late teens. Now that I have finally got round to reading the first in the series, I definitely plan to continue.

George Baker will always be Wexford to me

The book is deftly written, has some interesting and intriguing characters, and presents a motif that is common in Rendell’s other stories: obsession. (I may not have read any of her other Wexford books, but I have read some of the non-series books). I quickly figured out certain relevant facts about the killer, and if I had not had to divide my attention between the book and other matters, I would in all probability have realised who the killer was rather sooner than I did.

Rating: A good beginning to a series that promises hours of reading pleasure. 3+ stars.