Read Merrily: December 2004

Thursday, December 30, 2004

The God of Small Things.

I'm sure i should have enjoyed this more than i did. I often find this with "award winning" (in this case the Booker Prize) books, they are so 'clever' that the story seems to get lost inside it all. And that is what i found with this, all the dotting back and forward and clever word play seemed to detract from the story rather than add to it, if i'm honest. I did enjoy it in that it was readable and it probably didn't help that i read it fairly disjointedly but it was that sort of book, bits and pieces of story and it didn't really draw me on. It was easy to put down again.

That said, the story was sad and beautiful and a good reminder to parents to watch their children, watch what is happening to them, never take your eye off the ball, be careful what you say and what is remembered. Its important to remember that a child hears "i never wanted you" in minute context and believes it, not realizing that what is actually being said is "i never saw myself with children and sometimes its hard to deal with the impact you have had on my life." It was a story of family misery and lies, wrapped up in honour and society values. I don't know anything about mid-twentieth century India or its caste system, but i'd like to know. So its good that i read the book.

I don't know what to read next. Everything on my shelf it thick and apart from hurting my hands trying to read it lying down while feeding Josie, its difficult to sustain interest in books when you get just short bursts of time. So if my book shop session yields nothing today, i might take a break and read some of the things i have accumulated this year. I'm going to keep journalling them though. Its been good for me. I've gone from 21 of the Top 100 to 56 of them, plus perhaps 10 or 15 other books this year, fairly slow for me really but i'll blame Josie :~) I'm really, really glad i've done what i have done though, its opened so many new interests and positive feelings for me. And well done Kirsty too!

2:00 AM 0 comments

Friday, December 10, 2004

The Shell Seekers.

(Its okay Kirsty, i'm never going to read the remaining 45 before Dec 31st anyway, so i figure order doesn't matter too much!)

This was a hot cup of Chocolate Options of a book, warm, comforting, sweet and not seriously bad for you! There is probably an optimum time for reading such things, and that time is very likely when you spend large quantities of time feeding a baby! Yet again it had all the hallmarks of a Merry favourite; war years, family epic type stuff, so predictably i enjoyed it. There isn't much wrong with this kind of fiction at all, i enjoyed every moment of it and used to read a lot of stuff like this. The good thing about this year is that i have also widened my horizons dramatically. For that i am extremely grateful. That said, i daresay i will fill some time reading others by her; i once got a few chapters into "September" but it was shortly after i had Fran and as it starts by someone being deeply traumatised by a caesarean and her marriage falling apart, i sort of gave up on it.

The Shell Seekers. I won't put it in my top 10, purely because i have read things that have made me think very, very deeply this year but this had a lot in it worth thinking about. How easy it is to become selfish and money orientated, how important family is, how important our memories are. In fact, one thing i took from this book is that it is not necessary to be exceptional to have had a life that is fascinating, we are all made of so much, so many experiences. It sort of reminded me of my soundtrack.

2:05 AM 0 comments

Monday, December 06, 2004

Brideshead Revisited.

The sleeve of this book refers to it as "the ultimate Oxford novel." Gosh. Was Oxford really like that then? All rooms and your own batman and just going for as long as you pleased. Sounds quite intriguing.

I must watch the film to this, i enjoyed the book immensely. I did find it rather sad; Sebastian reminded me of a boy i knew, someone i admired a lot but who was full of self-destructive worthlessness. Someone for whom image was everything but who had nothing underneath. Someone who made me and himself very sad and spoiled some of my life because he was too delusional to be honest with himself or me. I do hope my character judgement has improved a little anyway.

The 20-40's are acomplete draw to me - i love them so this was a great novel - i really cared about the characters, identified with something in all of them, could see and feel the places. An odd book, remote and yet intensely personal at the same time and incredibly evocative of those friendship which come and go but alway linger in your mind.

11:31 AM 0 comments

Saturday, December 04, 2004

The Magic Faraway Tree

When i was a child i spent a huge amount of time playing imaginary games on my bedroom floor, using all sorts of bits of stuff that i collected over the years. Most of them were prompted by books i read which caught my imagination.

I so wish i had read The Faraway Tree when i was that age, i would have got so much pleasure out of both the reading and the playing. As it is, i'm really glad to have read it to my children, they have sat spellbound every night for the last two weeks, begging for extra chapters on a regular basis. We had to forgo the CM reading this week to feed the desire to know what happened when Silky and co disappeared.

Loved it - fab book.

3:32 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!!!!!)

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