Read Merrily: June 2004

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Lordy

Hmmm.... looking forward to this now!!!!

Monday, June 14, 2004

The Alchemist

I thought i would read this to bump up my total a bit and as a quick read before starting on Great Expectations.

I can't decide what it reminded me of; it was a bit like a book called The Red Pony by John Steinbeck that i read when i was about 16, a bit like an Aesoop's Fable and somehow a bit like parables in the New Testament - i really can't quite define the flavour or nature of this book.

I suppose it was a journey of self discovery and a mixture of the mythical and the real with a feeling of being from a long time ago but also set in a place where it could have been modern just as easily. Its about a boy growing up, the flavours that make the world, how things mean different things to people and most of all its gently about the discovery of God in the World but in such an understated "all things are one" "your god is my god" type way that it really appealed to me and the difficulties that faith has always provided me with.

I loved it. In my top ten i think.

And now on to Great Expectations - after feeling really negative about reading this, seeing it mentioned in "Matilda" has made me feel much more positive about reading it as has the fact that i have enjoyed most of the books i was nervous of reading.

2:21 AM 0 comments

Friday, June 11, 2004

Memoirs of a Geisha

Wow.... what a novel novel! I'd say thats probably my fastest reading of a big book since HDM! I loved this, it was like a window on a completely different world to me and yet again i am inspired to find out more about a place and time now, namely pre-war Japan and what happened there after the war.

I think this is just one of my favourite types of book, like Gone With the Wind it invites you into the mind of a person and the place and time they exist in and i just felt like i had been taken on a guided tour of Geisha-land. In lots of ways it was similar to the "impoverished girl becomes tweeny in large Victorian house and changes her life forever" type book but with a different setting, a clever use of trickery to blur reality and fiction, clearly deeply researched and meticulously written. It wow'ed me.

I don't want to warble on because i know Kirsty is planning to read it, but i loved the style of writing - i loved its "first person-ness" i loved how it almost became narrative during darker times as if she was really glossing over a boring and painful part, i loved the coyness of referring to characters and the characters themselves we SO believable, even though it almost had the feel of a pantomine to it.

It will definitely make it into my top 10 of books i read this year (or if it doesn't then i have some gems to come!)

Now... off to hunt out some websites... (and i am SO glad i did a bit of Japan with Fran earlier in the year because bits of it made a lot more sense thanks to the BBC Learning is Fun mag!)

2:21 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

1984

I am so very glad i read this. I've never wanted to, mainly because i once caught a glimpse of the "Room 101" scene of the film and it really horrified me. I imagined it would be highbrow and depressing and haunting but in reality it wasn't really any of those things.

The love story was uplifting and believeable even in its end, the political slant has of course been slightly skewed by the change in our political atmosphere but was nonetheless thought provoking. I suppose some might say the "nanny state" was sliding that way, but its clearly based on European Communism i suppose, or intended to remind people of that, so i suppose the sting has been somewhat removed. It was the first of these books that i really thought "I'd like to do this at Degree level and spend more time disecting it" iykwim.

So of course, the obvious question would be "what would be in your Room 101?" What would be so bad you would betray your lover? My first thought would be my children being lined u pto be murdered but tbh, in those circs Max WOULD want me to betray him, so i think i have to count that out. I shall have to think - i really don't know what i am that scared of....

Kirsty - if you haven't read it, do this one :~)I'm definitely going to get Animal Farm and read it now.

10:08 AM 0 comments

An attempt to get through everything i haven't already read in the BBC Big Read Top 100 during this year (hmmmm... maybe a little longer than 2004 actually... didn't bargain on the pregnancy and baby!!!!!)

: Name:merry

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