Recommended Reading

18-02-2007

Its amazing how you can plan to go away for a relaxing break to get away from it all, and then you end up packing everything you were probably trying to get away from in the first place. This is what happened last Thursday as we packed to go away for a short break in a Norfolk period cottage where we intended to just chill out with a few good books and some good food and wine.

I started by packing the essentials like my toothbrush, soap, shampoo, but not my shaving kit this time as I have decided to grow a beard (again). In moments of boredom I decide to do this, don't ask me why. It probably has a lot to do with my father not being able to grow one, so maybe I'm trying to prove I can. Anyway, I'm packing the 'essentials' which also includes the wine, beer, food, and books that I mentioned earlier. Then I start packing my laptop. I reason to myself that if we get bored we could play a few games on it, or I could write a few articles, or maybe work on some comic strips. Then I go and pack my mp3 player loaded with the latest downloaded tech podcasts. I then pack my earphones for my FM-enabled mobile phone. Hmm.. when am I going to get time to just read my book?

We managed to get everything in the MGF surprisingly, maybe it was me not packing a shaving kit that freed up some space, although I like to think it was more Emma deciding that she would only take two pairs of shoes this time. I mean, come on, what girl buys a two seater convertible and still thinks she can take more than four pairs of shoes with her when she goes away in it?

What did happen I am glad to say, is that my laptop and all my gadgets got left in a cupboard at the cottage and I spent the entire time reading a book, drinking wine, and going for walks. Ok, when I say walks I actually mean to the local pub (Nelson's Revenge ale!) and to the car and back. I'm sure the exercise did me some good though. I read the book over two days which is a record for me. It never used to take me that long but then its been a while since I've come across a book that I just could not put down. You know the sort of book I mean, you start reading it, the story grips you and each chapter demands that you start reading the next chapter immediately. James Patterson books are great examples, but he's starting to get to formulaic and farms out his book writing to co-authors so he can release a new title every three months. Incidentally, I did figure out the plot twist after the first few chapters of this book and still had almost 400 pages to go before proven correct but the story was ok and it was a pleasant read so I did finish it. (The book was called The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum)

When I was a kid I was well known by all the librarians where I lived. I wore out my library cards as I worked my way through the local collection. Remember those little folded cardboard sleeves with the insert which was your library card? You started with four and later you could have up to six library cards before they started using computers and everything switched over to barcodes on plastic cards. Well back then I used to go through books like it was nobody's business. I always had my head in a book. These days I still read a lot but I'm lucky if I finish one book a week, and they are usually text books, history books, technical manuals or travel books. I remember discovering that you could actually suggest books that the library did not have in its collection and it would order a copy. One time I ordered some Boris Vallejo, Chris Achilleos and Luis Royo graphic art books. I was learning to draw at the time and they served as useful inspiration. Then another time when I returned to the library one of the librarians whispered to me that they had to move those 'books' I had ordered to a higher shelf in the library. It seems that a few of the younger library users were found giggling in the art section looking through the pictures of revealing warrior women wearing very little armour, or riding dragons wearing only a smile. It made me smile too. Who said libraries are not for learning?

So this was my first work of fiction that I have read in a while and finished within a few days without having to pick it up each time I had a free half hour. It was nice to be able to sit down and just read with a glass of wine and some peace and quiet. I used to have a list of authors that I could just reel off whose books I liked to read. Whenever they released a new novel I would go get it and read it. However over the last few years either my tastes have changed or the authors I read have lost that certain something that made me read their books. Now I'm down to just two authors, Terry Pratchett and Lee Child and they only release one book a year. I keep checking out the Amazon Bestsellers List to see what books are proving popular in the hope of discovering a new author, one whose work just grips you and you then read other works by the same author to see if it was a one-off, or if they have written more books that you might like. So far I've discovered a few so-so titles but nothing worth adding to my watch list. According to my LibCat listing for the last 12 months I have read a lot of books, but all I discovered was that if a book does not grip me within the first twenty pages, I have the ability to return it rather than to just continue reading it for the sake of it.

Have you read any good books lately that you just could not put down?

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