Morzadec's Reading Log

Morzadec

Meant to start this at the start of the New Year, but I'll catch up now.

This is more of a reminder for me more than anything else as I don't know if many read these logs, but I like the idea of having everything in one place.

Anyway here we go, starting from 2013...

Morzadec

Ok I cheated a bit as I started this late 2012, but it was a very very long read...

Probably the most remarkable book I've ever read. Not necessarily the best, and there were times I struggled with it, but it was definitely worth it. It won't be forgotten soon anyway.

If you have the stomach for it I would say it's a must-read. It details the most devastating period of human history (World War 2) with unflinching detail. It really pulls no punches. The story is written in the first person by a French/German SS-officer Max Aue who rises through the ranks, and covers the majority of the war, from early German victories in Operation Barbarossa to the fall of Berlin.

It was clearly meticulously researched, although some of the bureaucratic toing and froing could be (for me) a bit boring and laboursome at times.

It's long - 1,000 pages. It's an investment. Some of the scenes could be hard to read. But for me you get a lot out of it, and you feel really f*cking lucky not to have had to live through that time.

Some of the passages (his erotic fantasies, the detailed bureaucratic explanations) could have been cut out I felt, and were sometimes a struggle to get through. This is the only thing that lowers my rating somewhat.

Overall though, I thought the book was a page-turner, excellently written

It wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I would say it's essential reading for anyone interested in the 2nd World War.

Really fascinating, absorbing, morbid stuff.

I think it will be remembered for years to come.

9/10

Morzadec

Got this one as a Christmas present and it was enjoyable enough.

After the previous heavy read (in both style, length and subject matter) the chatty narrative of the female protagonist here was in some ways a welcome relief.

I thought this was going to be a spy novel, as it's about a young woman working on a secret mission for M15, but it's not really anything of the sort. If you're expecting a spy story you'll probably be disappointed. You don't really get into the milieu of the Cold War or 1970s Britain beyond some surface details, and it's essentially a love/betrayal story.

There were some very entertaining detours from the main plot to describe the various short stories written by the protagonist's love interest, and I found these mini-stories within the novel more interesting than the story itself.

A decent, entertaining read, well put-together with a clever ending that I suspected was coming but was executed pretty nicely (some may not like it though I feel). But overall it was nothing to shout about, and for an author that is so revered, maybe a bit disappointing.

6.5

Morzadec

Don't read that many non-fiction books, but this is one I felt I had to read.

Using stats to dispel myths, and answer questions about the beautiful game, this updated version of 'Why England Lose' is a must-read for any fan of football.

Excellently written, insightful and engaging, with some entertaining anecdotes I really enjoyed this book. Some of the chapters were a bit wishy-washy, or not particularly interesting and I felt that some of the conclusions they were drawing were a bit of a stretch, but these chapters were in the minority and could be skipped if the reader wanted).

The majority of the book was fascinating and entertaining (the chapter on penalties, for example) , and I feel I learned a lot about a sport I love.

8.5

Morzadec

This a short book about an young American spending a year in Madrid in 2003-2004. He's supposed to be writing a poem about the Spanish Civil War but spends most of his time on a caffeine, marijuana and tranquilliser buzz, lying compulsively, and constructing a false persona to those he meets (which in the end might be more real than he first thought).

Considering many of my favourite books are written in the first person by a male in his twenties, and add the fact that the book is set in the city I live in, I was always going to enjoy this book.

The protagonist is intensely dislikeable - if I knew him in real life I could only describe him as a 'weirdo'. He lies habitually and can not be trusted. He is slefish, ego-driven and insecure, constantly playing games in his relationships with others. However this is not to say that I didn't find his narrative utterly compelling.

His experience of Madrid is quite different from mine, but some of his observations were interesting and it was fun to read a book set in a place I know well.

Ben Lerner writes excellently, and I'd expect some more good stuff from him.

On the negative side it could be argued that not an awful lot 'happens'. To those who like a plot-driven narrative, this may not be the book for them.

However, I enjoyed it a lot and found it an absorbing read, with an interesting protagonist.

8

Morzadec

A very different read from the last book, this was an brilliantly plotted, fast-paced page-turner.

I've never read Thomas Harris before and as for the films I've only seen The Silence of the Lambs. Will definitely try to see the film of this book and will have a look at possibly reading some of Harris' other books as this was a cut above most stuff I've read in the thriller genre.

Excellent.

8.5

Morzadec

An interesting enough read for any football fan about what it is like the be a Premier League footballer. The author does not reveal his identity, though many believe it is Dave Kitson. It could possibly be a collection of footballers also.

Some of the chapters gave interesting insights into the game. However overall I was a bit disappointed.

There wasn't all that much here that couldn't have been described in a player's autobiography - in other words, his anonymity didn't serve much of a purpose for much of the book (and it's not a particularly long book) and I might have expected more.

The stories about how much money he had, the ridiculous ways it was spent, the parties, the girls, the gambling - none of this was particularly interesting nor revelatory.

A final criticism would be the slightly smug tone that occasionally escapes in the authors writing. The final chapter in particular - he complains that due to tax changes and failed investments he's not actually all that rich any more. I don't begrudge him (or any footballer) the crazy sums of money he earned in the slightest - that's capitalism and that's the way the world works. If someone is willing to pay that there must be good reason. But I'm not going to feel sorry for him now, when he could have put away all that money in a low-risk, low-interest savings account and had enough to live a very comfortable life several times over. He tells a story at the end of finding an old bag of shirts that he had swapped with famous Premier League stars (Henry, Fabregas, Alonso etc...) which he reckons could fetch about £50,000 at an auction (probably not much more than a weeks wages when he was in his prime). He claims that he 'desperately needed' that £50,000 (where did all his money go??!) but that instead he gave the shirts away to friends and families as presents, reminders of his career. The book ends on a cheesy, smug tone about how there are more important things that material goods and money yadda, yadda...

Coming from a man who supposedly 'desperately needs' this money? He obviously has no idea of the concept of real need.

The hypocritical ending left a bad taste, though there were some interesting, enlightening parts and it was an enjoyable enough read.

6

Morzadec

This is a collection of 12, mostly violent, short stories sent in the rural, wild, violent world of the Ozarks in the United States. I'm usually not a big fan of short stories, but if anyone could change my mind it's Daniel Woodrell.

He has a unique voice (he's even had a whole new genre assigned to his work by critics, 'country noir') and some of the prose he writes is exceptional. With Woodrell it's generally a case of style over story, but he has an incredible ability to draw interesting and believable characters with a comparative sparsity of words. I usually read on the Metro, but realised after a while that this is a book that deserves closer attention in quieter surroundings, as you get the impression that the writer tries to make every word count. The stories are short, but dense.

Woodrell writes superb and original stories and as short stories go this was better than what I've read (although I admit I haven't read a lot). However, the standard wasn't sustained until the end I felt and the last few stories weren't all that great.

I've read a fair bit of this writers work and, while his writing is excellent, he tends to only write novellas or very short novels. Also, he always writes about the same region, the Ozarks. I suppose he's following the age-old advice of 'write about what you know' but personally I'd love to see him take on a novel in a different setting (a big city for example), and try to plot out a great story that goes beyond 200 pages. Because with his writing it could be phenomenal. But maybe this is not his thing.

7.5

Morzadec

An entertaining read about Bill Bryson's childhood and life in 1950s/60s America.

It wasn't quite as laugh-out-loud funny as many of the reviews suggested (it raised no more than the occasional snigger from me), but it was an interesting read nonetheless. America in the 1950s seemed to be an amazing place to live and the author had a great childhood. Bryson strikes a good balance between trying to relive the child's experience of the world, and also giving the reader an interesting view of what life was like at that time and place. His childhood is good - in fact so good that sometimes you wonder why you are reading about it (after all nothing terrible or tragic happens to challenge our hero). The last chapter, however, when he is a teenager has a few remarkable stories and characters.

There are some pretty funny anecdotes and it's a book that anyone who remembers what being a child/teenager is like will identify with to some degree.

It's not a book that has you racing to get back to it; nor is it a particularly illuminating, life-changing book.

But it's a nice, enjoyable read nonetheless.


7

Morzadec

Was delighted to stumble across this book in a friend's apartment. I read Laurie Lee's previous book, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, a year or two ago and I thought it was outstanding. It details his youthful experiences walking the length of Spain during the 1930s, with nothing but his violin on his back, busking for a night's accommodation, a bit of food, whatever the locals could give him. The book ends with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Lee's return to Britain and his eventual decision to return to Spain and take up the Republican cause.

A Moment of War takes up where the previous book leaves off, as a 22 year-old Lee sneaks through the Pyrenees into Spain (at winter of all times) and joins the international brigades.

It's a short book, but as excellently written as his previous. He manages to paint a very clear picture of the people and places he encounters with a simple turn of phrase or simile.

It's not quite as good, not quite as interesting as As I Walked Out but still a great read

8

Morzadec

First time I've read Philip Roth, who is seemingly very highly rated, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. The plot and characters only grabbed me in parts and I found myself struggling through it at times.

It certainly wasn't all bad. Parts of it were interesting, for example the issues of race and political correctness in America.

But I also the narrative framing was strange and loose and didn't come together well in the end - the book is 'written' by a minor character in the story, a friend of the protagonist Coleman Silk. When done right, this type of narrative (where the narrator(s)/author(s) are characters in the novel, and are writing the novel in your hands for a reason) can be excellent and immensely satisfying (for example in Paul Auster's Invisible). But I didn't think it was done well here, not all the bases were covered and an omniscient narrator should have been used. I didn't see the point in using this character who was not involved in the story.

It was interesting and thought-provoking at times, but the story didn't grab me, and the disparate plot strands made it hard to get into.

At the end of the day, for large parts I just didn't enjoy it all that much and the feeling when I finished it was more one of relief than satisfaction.

6

Morzadec

First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.

From the first line of this novel Richard Ford had me hooked, and he reeled me in slowly but surely.

This was the first time I've read Richard Ford and I was not to be disappointed. This is a fantastic read.

It is narrated in the first person by Dell Parson's, a 60 year-old looking back on a series of formative incidents which took place in his life as a 15 year-old. The narrative is measured, but there is something incredibly absorbing and engaging about it, and though the story moves slowly enough, you still find yourself turning the pages quickly.

Dell is a pretty innocent 15 year-old. It's a funny age to be - some can still seem like children whereas others appear to be already adults. Dell falls into the former category, though his twin sister is much more street smart than him, and his innocence and his simple desire to go to school, learn and be a normal kid make him a sympathetic protagonist, particularly when his life gets thrown into turmoil the way it does.

All the characters are well-drawn and interesting. The plot is engaging and Ford drops in big pieces of plot information to come later in the novel quite casually, which some might see as 'spoilers' but which for me worked excellently and only stuck the hook in deeper. The prose is also excellent, highly readable and engaging.

All in all a superb novel.

9

Morzadec

A really interesting novel that definitely gets you thinking.

The book is set in the inter-war period, and jumps between several locations, but is predominantly set in Paris. The story's central character is the fascinating and charismatic Larry Durrell, a young man from high society in Chicago who has just returned from the battlefields of World War where he flew as a pilot. Upon return he questions and rejects the value of getting a job and living the life of the American wealthy classes, and instead travels the world in search of the 'Absolute', some sort of spiritual truth and fulfilment. Because Larry and some of the other characters are of a similar age to me at the start of the novel, I found the question posed by the book (and the differing answers of its characters) of 'what do you want from life?' or 'how important is money/status/success?' interesting and relevant.

The characters of the novel are fantastic and are brought to life brilliantly by the writer. Each one has a different purpose and attach importance to different things in life, which makes the reader question what they themselves value most.

The narrative was very good too, as Maugham places himself in the text, flitting in and out over the years in which the story unfolds, hearing what each character has to say and relaying it for us. You could make the criticism that it's strange that all these characters so freely open up to him, but Maugham addresses this giving the explanation that, as a writer, people tend to reveal things to him more readily. Overall I thought the narrative worked well and came together nicely.

Finally, I would say that despite this book being written in 1944, and addressing a span of years 20 years previous to that, the motivations of the characters, the themes explored, and ultimately the questions asked of the reader are incredibly current. This is by no means an outdated, old-fashioned book (in fact there were parts that I thought might have been seen as risqué and controversial for the time) and has easily stood the test of time.

8.5

Morzadec

I read At Swim Two Birds a few years ago so I knew (sort of) what to expect from a Flann O'Brien novel. However, I was hoping that The Third Policeman would be slightly more accessible, slightly more comprehensible, and, above all, more readable than At Swim, which I liked at parts, but found tiresome in many others.

The first line led me to believe I had got my wish. It's a fantastic opening line, and in fact the whole first chapter (while strange, as I expected) was very good.

But then the book got more and more surreal. At first I stuck with it believing it was going somewhere, and it was interesting to have literally no idea what was coming next.

But I need to have some idea that the book is going somewhere; that it has a thread you can follow. By the time I was about a third of the way through the book I was asking myself - what am I reading and what am I getting out of this?

There are some good things about this book - there are occasional humourous exchanges of dialogue; there are some turns of phrases and descriptions that are really exceptional; it is undoubtedly imaginative and sometimes witty.

But ultimately I wasn't able to fully enjoy these moments because I found the book so laboursome to read. Nothing made sense and I felt like he was writing down the first random thought that came into his head, like nothing was planned. I suppose this is the appeal of the writing for those who like it, but for me he lost my attention after 50 pages or so.

Particularly difficult to read were the long-winded, bizarre footnotes about de Selby, a fictional philosopher/scientist/'thinker' that the protagonist is an authority on. I really had to struggle through these ramblings.

Ultimately, if I had to describe this book in one word it would be 'tedious'.

It had some good points to it, but overall I just didn't really enjoy reading it that much, it didn't immerse me, and my feeling upon finishing it was 'thank god that is over and I can get onto my next book'.

5

Morzadec

This is a book that has received very high praise, hailed as a 'masterpiece' by many. I wouldn't quite go that far but I did enjoy it.

The representation of American suburbia in the 50s is completely different from Bill Bryson's depiction in The Thunderbolt Kid. Here, it is seen as a dull, repetitive, soulless place, where the ultimate goal of the people is complete conformity. The life of Americans is described by one of the two main characters as 'hopelessly empty'. It presents a bleak critique of a time where we often hear Americans were at their happiest.

The narrative flows well and the characters, their motivations and actions are very believable. I'm watching Madmen at the moment, and I'm wondering if the Drapers and their relationship aren't influenced by the Whealers from this novel.

Perhaps at the time the critique of this type of the ideal American suburban family life was seen as revolutionary, but for me there wasn't too much about this book that made me 'stop and think'. Perhaps because this critique of consumer-capitalism, conformity, the dullness of suburbia has been repeated so many times since.

It is however, a very engaging narrative, with well-drawn characters that interact in a very believable way. (Although there was one plot point which I found a little unbelievable in some ways.)

I suppose too that it is very 'of its time' - written in 1961, it was critiquing the America of then, not looking back with the benefit of hindsight, so I can see why some have labelled it a seminal novel.

However, in the 21st century, it perhaps reads a little more like a suburban melodrama, and a little less like the revolutionary book it was at the time.

Nonetheless it is a good read, though I would probably place it more in the 'worth-a-read' category rather than the 'must-read' one.

7.5

Morzadec

An interesting novel depicting a world far removed from most settings in literature. At the centre of this book are the tunnels of the New York metro.

The novel has two strands which swap intermittently each chapter.

One follows 'Treefog', a homeless man with some type of OCD living in the tunnels of the New York subway. It depicts his everyday life amongst the other homeless people of the tunnel; the rats, the filth, the cold, the danger and the ultimate hopelessness, loneliness and despair of homeless living.

The other follows Nathan Walker, a young black man from Georgia who comes to New York in 1916 to become a 'sandhog' (one of the men hired to dig a tunnel under the Hudson river), following his life story over the majority of the 20th Century.

The two strands inevitably link up at the end of the novel.

The depictions of the dangers and horrors of both Nathan's work as a sandhog, and Treefrog's life amongst the derelict of society are excellent. This is another one of those books that make you feel pretty lucky to be where you are and will put your complaints and trivial problems into context.

It is, at times, not the most engaging narrative - perhaps because for most of the novel it is segmented into two seperate stories. For a long time in Treefrog's narrative, little 'happens' and it is more about describing the conditions and the everyday struggles in his life - which is interesting in itself, but can be a bit disengaging at times, especially because the chapters are quite long. Certainly at the start of the book, I was desperate to get back to Walker's strand which initially was more interesting. Treefrog's narrative seemed like an interruption.

However, the book comes together very nicely and by the end I was fully engaged in the story. It is a great exploration of a subset of society that we often prefer to forget about. Another thing I would say is that the dialogue was excellent and (at least to me) seemed to be very authentic and convincing.

I also found the descriptions of the digging of the tunnel's fascinating. I take the metro in Madrid everyday - one line I take seems so far underground I wonder how the hell they constructed it. At another point the book one of the characters works on the construction of the skyscrapers in New York - another engineering feat that often boggles my mind. It was interesting to read depictions of the men behind the construction of these works.

7.5

Morzadec

This is a book I'd recommend to just about everyone.

This book is divided into very short (about 3 pages) easily digestible chapters, each one dealing with a different cognitive bias, common flaws in our thinking process, or situations in which our logic often fails us.

The chapters are highly readable - intelligent and cohesive, but very easy for the layman to read. There is no complicated jargon. He often uses a simple analogy or example which nails the problem, and then backs it up with examples from real research conducted in the social science/behavioural science field. Also, he is not smug in any way. He gives many examples of his own cognitive failings throughout the book, reinforcing the point that no matter how rational we think we are, it is very natural and common to fall into these thinking traps.

One criticism that might be levelled at the book is that it is not wholly original - after all we can read about various cognitive errors we me make (e.g. Gamblers Fallacy, Sunk-Cost Fallacy, Fundamental Attribution Error) on Wikipedia. They are not his ideas. So is he just regurgitating them and making a new book out of it?

Not really. The fallacies are explained brilliantly without exception in a really easy and fun way. He also adds some of his own ideas (though some of them overlap to an extent). This is not a self-help book, but each chapter does contain a paragraph of practical advice about avoiding these thinking errors and it certainly could change your life for the better (while also enabling you to spot the errors in others).

If you are an expert in the behavioural/social sciences and are an expert on rational thinking, then perhaps this book is not for you (even I had a casual understanding of some of the ideas discussed).

However, for anyone else I would say this is a fascinating book, which is great fun to read and really makes you think.

It's a book to keep too. Buy it, don't borrow it, as you'll want to consult it again. Perfect toilet book as you can dip in and out and read a chapter here and there to remind yourself of how to avoid these common lapses in judgement.

A really great non-fiction book.

9

Morzadec

This book has been very highly praised by critics and fellow authors alike, many naming it as the best novel of 2012.

I can't really agree with the lavish praise that was heaped on it - for me it was nothing particularly special, though certainly worth a read, a unique and important book in many ways.

The book has the interesting novelty of being written by a former US soldier who served in Iraq. He has taken his experiences from that war and used them for this novel.

I wonder if this novelty, this sense that the story you are reading (though fiction) is more genuine and real, has been a reason for its success.

The story is written in the first person by Private Bartle, a soldier serving his first term in Iraq. It switches intermittently between his time in Iraq and his experiences back in America as a veteran.

Powers is described as 'a poet', but I found some of the lyrical prose and descriptions of skies, landscapes etc... a bit tedious and repetitive. I have nothing against lyrical prose - for example I absolutely love it in Laurie Lee's writing. I think he absolutely nails it and it works so well in his books. While at times it was good in this book, other times I found it forced, tiresome and overdone. The same can be said of some of the descriptions of his mental state, his guilt etc... - I don't know maybe I just didn't 'get it'.

There was some good stuff in here as well. It described the senselessness and horror of war well, as well as the mental state of the soldiers and it's maybe one of the first fiction books about the war in Iraq so it's in many ways an 'important' novel. It does hit home at the end emotionally - a very very depressing book in many ways. Also you do feel a sense that you are reading a first-hand account which makes everything more believable and authentic, so it's interesting to read about this war from the perspective of someone who really was there.

However, I expected more (maybe my expectations were so high due to the amount of praise it attracted) and I can't say it really grabbed me or drew me in too much.

As far as war books go, in my opinion it falls way short of the likes of The Kindly Ones.

6.5

Morzadec

This is a novel written in 1993 that has been rediscovered and rereleased recently after initially being unsuccessful. Unfortunately the author isn't around to see the new found success his book is achieving.

This is a great read. It had me hooked from page one. This is ultimately what I want from a book, that feeling that you have been grabbed, and this book succeeded in doing so.

Susan is a 40-something year-old housewife who receives a package from her ex-husband (from a short and unsuccessful marriage in her twenties) Edward, whom she barely keeps in contact with - he has written a book, would she like to read it?

The large majority of this book (probably about 3/4's) is Edwards manuscript - Nocturnal Animals, an excellent, dark thriller. So this is meta-fiction I suppose. A book within a book. And it works well. It's not useless post-modern wankery.

The book (Edward's book) would've worked as a short thriller in itself (the plot is fast-paced and dark, some of the characters are excellent, as is the dialogue) but the added layer of Susan reading it, the repercussions on her internal world, knowing that Edward wrote it, what that means to her, is very interesting as well.

8.5

Morzadec

I remember reading Freakonomics many years back and absolutely loving it. This is a similar book - fun, insightful and informative.

8

Morzadec

A pretty interesting book about the importance of football off the pitch - historically, culturally, socially and politically.

The writer travels the world to see what football means to different countries and the important role it plays.

Obviously it's an interesting read for a football fan, but it could also be revelatory for a non-football fan who doesn't understand what the all the fuss is about. The fact is football is a global obsession and as such has an impact that far exceeds the remits of the sport itself. Kuper investigates and explores this in an interesting way.

In a way the book is a little outdated as it was written in the early 90s, although in a way I liked this aspect of the book. It seemed the scars of the Cold War and the Wall, as well as even the hangover of WW2 (and various other conflicts), were still really relevant at this time (a time I don't think of as too long ago), compared to now where they seem much more forgotten about.

7.5

Morzadec

A decent generic police procedural novel (I don't use the term generic disparagingly, I really like the thriller/detective genre) set in Edinburgh.

First Ian Rankin I've read and while I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to read another, it was a good enough read that kept me interested and came together pretty well in the end.

6.5

Morzadec

To start off, this isn't a sales book. 'Sell' as a more far-reaching meaning in this book.

It's an interesting read about how we can 'move' people better, something which the author claims almost everyone now needs in their working life (as well as their personal life).

Pink suggests that 'we're all in sales now', but he tries to redefine the meaning of sales, away from the traditional negative image of a pushy, slimy, used-car salesman towards something new. Something that he claims almost everyone (from teachers to doctors, and from bottom of the rung employees to company CEO's) need - the ability to move others.

He describes how the selling landscape has changed radically in the last 50 years, and that the traditional salesman and his techniques are now obsolete. In the information age, the salesman no longer has an information advantage so there is little to be achieved by trying to trick a customer or push a sale onto him - he already knows everything as soon as he walks through the door.

He stresses that selling (or better described, moving others to act) is not a zero-sum game, and that those who treat it as one will not succeed in the modern world. It should be approached as mutually beneficial to everyone involved.

Other myths, such as assuming that extroverted people are better at moving others, are dispelled (apparently a healthy balance between extroversion and introversion is what produces best results).

Overall an interesting read about what it means to move others today, backed up with a lot of evidence from the behavioural economics which I find very interesting (some overlaps with 'The Art of Thinking Clearly which I read a couple of months back.)

7.5

Morzadec

Set in New York and New Orleans, this is a thriller which packs in a psychological serial killer and the police procedural hunt alongside numerous gangsters. As you can guess, it's an action-packed read.

However this is one of my main gripes with it. There's death after death, a lot of them gruesome, and none of them come as shocks, none of them made me feel much. I didn't find it in the least bit scary or disturbing or shocking (as described in many of the reviews), which meant the book probably failed to fully immerse me in it's world and the world of its characters.

Maybe I've read too many best-seller, page-turner thrillers, or maybe this one is just particularly cliché-ridden, but this felt particularly like a 'by-the-numbers' work. Didn't get interested by any of the characters.

The writing's not bad, and some of the dialogue works well, but overall this was not a novel I got engrossed in.

With the big final twist at the end, my reaction was a shrug and a disinterested 'oh really?' rather than any shock and amazement. The twist just kind of came, it wasn't done particularly cleverly with references back to something that happened previous in the book.

Wouldn't have minded it as a quick read, but it was very, very long for a book of it's genre, which meant it felt like a bit of a time consumer.

Not a bad book, I could see why some might like it, and if it was shorter I'd probably put it in the 'worth a read' pile.

But it was a bit too clichéd, a bit too packed with characters (a bit like he couldn't decide whether to write a psychological thriller or a mob story so just went for both). Also, an important part of the plot is based on a 'vision' or 'dream' that an old New Orleans woman has about a young girl dumped in the Bayou and I didn't really like this - not believable and just a bit lazy.

6

Morzadec

It's always a bit daunting taking on a book that's 1000 pages plus, but it had been a long while since I had read a fiction book I liked and Pillars is considered a bit of a classic, so I decided to take the plunge.

In the end it was a far lighter read than I expected. It's long, yes, but not dense and a combination of the light prose and gripping story made me go through the pages pretty quickly.

The story is based in 12th Century England and centres on the fictional town of Kingsbridge, spanning 50 years or so. I like historical fiction, but would usually be much more interested in modern stuff. However, I found the setting very interesting - life in 12th Century England would obviously be completely alien to the modern day man, and I though Follett did a good job of bringing a different time and place to life.

The story is gripping, entertaining and absorbing - like I said it's not a heavy read at all, so don't be put off by its size.

If I was going to criticise it I would say that the themes of Good triumphing over Evil were a little clichéd and you kind of knew that eventually the bad guys would have their plans thwarted. It has this very 'humanist' feel running throughout (the type of book Oprah would love if that makes sense), which may not be to everyone's tastes.

Some of the prose too could be cringey at times and also repetitive. He also frequently commits the crime of 'telling' instead of 'showing' (a lot of 'William thought', 'Philip felt' etc... which could be termed as 'lazy' writing).

But to be honest I was too caught up in the story to care too much about these flaws. It is excellently plotted and the writer draws you into the world of it's characters brilliantly.

In all these ways it actually reminded me a lot of Harry Potter. Imagine a more adult Harry Potter set in the Middle Ages without the magic and I think that's a fairly accurate description of the type of book Pillars is; the writing is not exceptional, the metaphors can be somewhat cringy or clichéd, the humanist themes are somewhat sentimental, predictable, overdone and therefore not particularly 'fresh' or interesting, the qualities of the characters sometimes a bit too black and white.

However, it is very, very entertaining and for a book that is so long it kept my attention and interest throughout.

If you're really into literary fiction and want a ground-breaking novel give it a miss.

If you are looking for a good read, an entertaining story and a book to get lost in, I would highly recommend it.

8

Morzadec

An excellent thriller set in Britain's Great Smog in 1952, in an alternate reality where the British Empire have surrendered and collaborated with the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

I read C.J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid a couple of years back, and enjoyed it and this was another very good read.

I find the whole alternate history idea fascinating, especially when relating to World War Two. It could be argued that he is overplaying Britain's role and Churchill's role in the way the world ends up in the mid-20th Centruy. However it is all more or less explained and presented plausibly. I'm no expert but for me it was explained well enough to be acceptable as a possible scenario.

It starts slow enough, the first two-hundred pages or so given a reader a sense of the milieu of pro-Nazi authoritarian Britain and introducing the characters. Then the story really starts to gather momentum and it had me hooked.

Well-plotted, great characters, and an interesting idea, I enjoyed this one.

8

Morzadec

I'm a big fan of most of Auster's writing. J.M. Coetzee I had heard of but never read.

This is basically a series of letters over a few years between two writers that became friends.

Because of the letter format, it was a good book just to pick up and read, without having to dedicate a long sitting to.

They converse about a wide array of topics, mostly interesting, thought-provoking and always well written.

An enjoyable read.

8

Morzadec

A great collection of short stories by Kevin Barry. Read the first few stories a couple of years back and somehow forgot about this book, so picked it up again from scratch.

I read his novel City of Bohane last year and thought it was an absolutely brilliantly imagined world he created.

There's no doubting that he's an excellent writer - the prose if fantastic.

Some of the stories here are a bit surreal, a bit strange, but always excellently written.

One or two of the stories at the end weren't great, but well worth a read nonetheless.

7.5

Morzadec

I'm a big fan of Paul Auster, the way he writes and the things he has to say.

This is a very honest memoir, written as he begins the winter of his life (Auster is 64). It is written in the second person (which was interesting), and he tries to tell his stories through the perspective of his body, where his body has been, what it has done etc... which sounds a bit strange but for the most part works well, and is an interesting vehicle for him to use to eventually do what he does best - tell stories. Overall it was an interesting and at times moving read.

Some parts of it were a little repetitive (for example, a list of everything he has done with his hands), but for the most part it was engaging, and as storytellers go few are better than Auster in my opinion.

For me, a memoir well worth reading.

8

Morzadec

After reading JM Coetzee's letters with Paul Auster, I said to myself that I'd try one of his novels.

Disgrace was mentioned several times in the letters (it was being made into a film at the time) and is seemingly his most well-regarded work so it was an obvious choice.

Set in South Africa post-apartheid, David Lurie is a slightly pompous University professor who falls into disgrace after an affair with a student and goes to live with his daughter in the 'outback' (if that word can be used outside of Australia) of South Africa - a setting he is totally unfamiliar and uncomfortable with.

The novel is excellently written, the plot moves a long nicely, and the characters are all very well-drawn. The protaganist is the type I often like - deeply flawed, maybe even not a particularly nice person, but one you somehow sympathise with nonetheless.

One negative point would be towards the end, a few pages dedicated about towards Byron, whom the professor is writing a book about (which he ends up changing into a sort of musical/opera). Found this a bit tedious and not particularly pertinent, though I suppose he was trying to make a point about growing old and the death of the romance of youth etc...

Overall an excellent novel I would certainly recommend, though maybe I wouldn't gush about it to the same extent as others

8