Reading in Reykjavík

Year of publication: 2000 Genre: Romantic thriller (with brief and mild descriptions of sex; some paranormal elements) Setting & time: USA (mostly), S-America, Taiwan Story: Rich and powerful John Logan forces dog trainer Sarah and her trusty search dog Monty to help him find a missing person. Unlike a previous book where the person was dead, this one is alive and has been kidnapped by Logan's arch-enemy, his former brother in law who could never forgive Logan for taking his sister away from him. There is also the small matter of having been sent to prison in a Thailand hell-hole for 15 years by Logan. (If you think this is a spoiler, think again – this all comes out early on in the story). The man is wreaking systematic revenge on Logan by destroying people and places he cares for, and once he discovers that Sarah is helping Logan, he incorporates her into his plans for total revenge. Here is where the SPOILERS start. Review: Reading this book feels like reading a story ...

Book 1: Title: Stone Cold Series detective: Jesse Stone No. in series: 4 Year of publication: 2003 Type of mystery: Serial murder, rape Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Massachusetts, USA, late 20th or early 21st century Story: Two serial killers are operating in Stone's territory and when they target his former girlfriend the case turns personal. He also gives personal attention to the case of a teenage girl who has been gang-raped. Book 2: Title: The Judas Goat Series detective: Spenser No. in series: 5 Year of publication: 1978 Type of mystery: Murder, terrorism Type of investigator: Private detective Setting & time: USA (scene setting), England (London), Denmark (Copenhagen), The Netherlands (Amsterdam), Canada (Montreal), 1970s Story: Tough P.I. Spenser is hired to headhunt a group of terrorists whose bombing of a London restaurant wiped out the family of an American billionaire and left him paralysed. In prison or in the morgue, the man doe...

Reading a newspaper's literary and cultural supplement recently, I came across this aphorism. The original is a poem, but I have translated it without keeping the poetic form: “It takes a long time to wear out a bad book and to finish a boring one” Amen to that.

Another month has gone by and this time I finished reading 13 books, gave up on one and read parts of several more, some of which I expect to finish in April. I always hate it when I have to give up on a book I had good expectations of, but sometimes even a favoured author can disappoint. This was the case with Eric Newby in his collection of short travel accounts, Departures & Arrivals . Much as I loved A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush , I was disappointed by this book. While I found some enjoyable writing in a couple of pieces, most of them were just boring and finally I decided to stop torturing myself and stop reading the book. I may come back to it later when I am in a mood to finish it, but for now it's going in the unfinished file. As for the rest, I apologise for the scarcity of reviews lately, but with this and that I have not had much time for writing reviews, what with the bookbinding (lots of homework) and travel planning (it's still many weeks until I leave, but...

(I finally gave in and cheated on the shelf challenge...) Year originally published: 1948 Genre: Novel Setting & time: England, 1940s The Story: The book is written with 17 year old Cassandra Montmain as a narrator. She is keeping a journal in which she tries to capture the character of castle she lives in and all its inhabitants. Her father once wrote a very important book, but has not written a thing in 12 years, her artist's model stepmother is wildly eccentric but also rather domestic at heart, her sister Rose is willing to sell her soul to the devil to take herself and her family out of their poverty-stricken situation (they have no regular income), and Stephen, who is a sort of servant and sort of family member, is very much in love with Cassandra, who cares for him very much but is not romantically interested in him. The arrival of two brothers in the neighbourhood bodes changes in the family's fortunes, and here I think I will say no more, as this book is hard t...

Some months ago I wrote about things I have found in books . Back then, I had not really started thinking about how finding stuff in books could become part of this blog, but I have been thinking it over and I think I will begin a new feature about it. I am not about to go into any kind of competition with the good people of Found magazine and the Found blog, as my finding things in books usually happens at long and irregular intervals, but I think it can be interesting to look at the things people leave inside books and consider what it can tell us about them and the books. My first featured find is the three items I discovered inside The Southern Gates of Arabia by Freya Stark. The first is simply a plain bookplate stating that the book is a bequest to the National Library of Iceland from Mrs. Ellen Gertrude Austin, dated 1942. Presumably the book is part of a bigger bequest of books. The edition was published in 1938, so the book was almost new when it was given to the library. Ab...

I have been doing a bit of pruning in my TBR shelves and am putting the 'cuttings' on my BookMooch trade list. When I got them, some of the books were being given away for free and looked interesting at the time, although I now can no longer remember why they looked interesting, while with others I know I can easily get them from the library and also that I will have no desire to own then after I read them. And then there are the books I do no remember being given, buying or taking from the 'free books' table. How they got into my book collection is a mystery. If anyone can give me reason why I should keep and read any of these books, please drop me a comment. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory - I am only mildly interested in it and if someone mooching it suddenly makes me want to read it, I can easily read it in 2 hours before sending it off. John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress . Not only can I get it from the library – it is also available on the net. I have mostly be...