Reading not writing 2007 #9
Having made a concerted effort to get reading again, I seem to be whizzing along with these ones.
46. The Tower by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. I wrote a rather scathing review of this over on my other blog so I won't repeat myself here. Suffice it to say I found it a good example of a book whose cover was extremely misleading about the subject of the book. The story was also pretty crap as well.
47. Scandal by Cosmo Hamilton. Another of these early 20th century romances beloved of my great grandmother. This was another one where the hero and heroine hate each other at first sight, so they're obviously made for one another. It also featured the idea that true romance is all about female surrender and submission, an idea I personally find completely repulsive, but which is common in a lot of the fiction dating from this period that I have read, especially that, as here, written by men.
48. Simple Genius by David Baldacci. I seem to have developed a taste for this writer over the last few months. This is a new one, featuring characters he has previously used, but which I had not come across before. The central mystery surrounds the death of a cryptographer working on a secret project, and the book was partially spoiled for me by Baldacci's sly use of names famous in cryptography and the history of computer science that I'm familiar with. For example one of the characters was called Turing. In an author's note Baldacci confesses that this is entirely deliberate, but I don't think it adds anything to the novel - if anything it detracts from it as it distracts the reader from the essential business of wondering what the hell is going on in the plot.
49. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I had never read this before, although I have seen productions of a number of Wilde's plays. The idea of the picture that ages while the depicted remains youthful is a very powerful one and has entered the cultural consciousness. The text I read was the original unexpurgated one and I can see why some Victorians had issues with it. But Wilde's use of language is gorgeous throughout and hugely evocative.
50. Trilobite by Richard Fortey. Hey, so I have a thing about fossils. My fossil collection largely consists of ammonites and bivalves. The only trilobite I have is a specimen I bought in a museum, but you do get them in the British Isles - you just have to know where to look. This was an immensely informative book, covering everything the general reader could possibly wish to know about the subject and then some. I did find it a bit wordy in places and some readers might benefit from having a dictionary to hand while reading it. Educational rather than entertaining.
46. The Tower by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. I wrote a rather scathing review of this over on my other blog so I won't repeat myself here. Suffice it to say I found it a good example of a book whose cover was extremely misleading about the subject of the book. The story was also pretty crap as well.
47. Scandal by Cosmo Hamilton. Another of these early 20th century romances beloved of my great grandmother. This was another one where the hero and heroine hate each other at first sight, so they're obviously made for one another. It also featured the idea that true romance is all about female surrender and submission, an idea I personally find completely repulsive, but which is common in a lot of the fiction dating from this period that I have read, especially that, as here, written by men.
48. Simple Genius by David Baldacci. I seem to have developed a taste for this writer over the last few months. This is a new one, featuring characters he has previously used, but which I had not come across before. The central mystery surrounds the death of a cryptographer working on a secret project, and the book was partially spoiled for me by Baldacci's sly use of names famous in cryptography and the history of computer science that I'm familiar with. For example one of the characters was called Turing. In an author's note Baldacci confesses that this is entirely deliberate, but I don't think it adds anything to the novel - if anything it detracts from it as it distracts the reader from the essential business of wondering what the hell is going on in the plot.
49. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I had never read this before, although I have seen productions of a number of Wilde's plays. The idea of the picture that ages while the depicted remains youthful is a very powerful one and has entered the cultural consciousness. The text I read was the original unexpurgated one and I can see why some Victorians had issues with it. But Wilde's use of language is gorgeous throughout and hugely evocative.
50. Trilobite by Richard Fortey. Hey, so I have a thing about fossils. My fossil collection largely consists of ammonites and bivalves. The only trilobite I have is a specimen I bought in a museum, but you do get them in the British Isles - you just have to know where to look. This was an immensely informative book, covering everything the general reader could possibly wish to know about the subject and then some. I did find it a bit wordy in places and some readers might benefit from having a dictionary to hand while reading it. Educational rather than entertaining.