Over the last few months the one thing that has felt so uncharacteristically wrong about me has been my lack of reading and when I do read, the slowness. I used to zip through books by the week, life was good, the sun was shining, bird singing in the trees, flowers dancing merrily in the breeze, all that.
Recently, that’s just not been there and I’ve worried that there’s something wrong with me and while I have been a bit lethargic and in a state of seemingly endless tiredness, and while a lot of my reading time has been taken up writing and rehearsing speeches, I felt that there had to be something more.
It was only as I read three books over the last month or so that I realised what the problem was – I just wasn’t reading good enough books. Each month I have to devote myself to a bookgroup book and either I’ve read them already or else they become a chore because they don’t excitement me. This month’s book is by the queen of happy upbeat books – Jodi Picoult and I have that to look forward to as I take my 6 hour train journey into the wilds of Germany’s borderlands….
I need to find and allow myself the time to read more good books but sometimes it’s so hard to find them, its more like pot-luck at times but I got lucky with the last three books:
The Kon-Tiki Expedition – Thor Heyerdahl
Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
Mystery Man – Bateman
Note that Colin Bateman is no longer called Colin anymore, he has made it, he is only referred to by his surname on his book covers now, the book is probably better than some of his recent books but gets a bit tired towards the end, the whole joke of a paranoid, seemingly autistic hero can only be pushed so far though there are some great moments.
The Kon-Tiki Expedition is just brilliant, reading it reminded me so much of Roald Amundsen’s book about his trip to the South Pole, very much the “let’s give it a try and see what happens” attitude, six guys get together to prove that the Pacific Islands could have been populated by a tribe from South America. They build a balsa-wood raft and attempt to sail across the Pacific – fabulous story.
Shantaram was a surprise, it reads in a lot of ways like travel literature, very down to earth, insightful and what’s fascinating is that this book is based on the life story of the author. How he was jailed for armed robbery, broke out of jail, fled to India, set up a medical clinic in the slums, joined the mafia and went to fight against the Russians in Afghanistan and so reading the book is all the more fascinating because events in it are based on real life real people.
Now I need to find more good books, and quickly!
Hard to recommend to someone who’s so widely read, but following may be worth a shot:
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (good idea to read it now before they crucify it on celluloid). Also apparently his new book Nocturnes is very good.
Two Lives by Vikram Seth
Vaguely recall you hadn’t read one of either The Kite Runner or Life of Pi from a previous listing – either are worth the read, but Life of Pi is a must, if you haven’t already.
If the first couple of pages of Sebastian Barrys The Secret Scripture is anything to go by, I like and would recommend. (P.S This is my antidote to Captain Corellis Mandolin which I am finding really hard work!)
Not sure why I never tried Ishiguro, he’s got such a reputation for fine writing, I probably shouldn’t ignore him.
I’ve been wary of reading Two Lives, I loved A Suitable Boy but wasn’t as excited about An Equal Music, I’m worried that Two Lives might fall into the latter category.
I have read The Life of Pi but I didn’t think it as wonderful as everyone was making it out to be, the ending really disappointed me.
We’ll have to disagree then – I loved The Life of Pi…. all the way through, right to the last word.
I haven’t read anything else by Vikram Seth, so I can’t comment on where it will fall (the length of A Suitable Boy is suitably off-putting). All I can say is I don’t usually read or enjoy biographies, but this had me absorbed quickly and completely.
Well, maybe I’ll give it a try then but you do realise that if I don’t like it and combined with this Life of Pi illusion of goodness that you have, I may not follow up on any of your other recommendations……
It works both ways….I’m wading through Captain Corellis Mandolin based on your recommendation (I can cope with the story but why, oh why did deBernieres have to swallow a Thesaurus??… I feel completely illiterate….and I’m not talking about the Greek words)….Be careful my recommendations maybe pay-back!