Wot I have read…

I like a good read, and with my recent trip to the States and our holiday in Italy, I have had a chance to read the following:

The Portable Door, by Tom Holt.
This book is definitely for geeks. It has more than a few Sci-Fi (Star Trek - the Chekhov gag is great) and Fantasy (D&D and LOTR) references. The story is quite novel and diverting though it is a bit wearing at times. Not bad for a little light fun.

‘Starting a new job can be extremely stressful. You meet your colleagues and forget their names. You meet your boss and forget his name. Then, after breaking the photocopier, you forget your own name.

And the next day you get to do it all again.

But what if your new employer is not the pen-pushing, paper-shuffling outfit you supposed it to be? What if I it is an elaborate front for something far more sinister?

Not that Paul Carpenter, new recruit at J.W.Wells & Co., would even notice. He’s become obsessed with wooing the enigmatic Sophie, a bizarre angular woman with all the sexual appeal of a hole-punch.’

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon.
This is a very interesting book for its style if nothing else. It is written from the point of view of a fifteen year old boy who has Asperger’s Syndrome (a type of Autism). The book is littered with diagrams and lists and gives you an impression of how some autistic people might see the world. It can be difficult to get into at times but is well worth the effort.

‘This is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour’s dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.’

Brick Lane, by Monica Ali.
This is a lovely book where little happens. It is a well written story about human nature and our desire for self determination and freedom. I don’t know much about the cultures and places in the book, but nevertheless I found myself carried along.

‘At the tender age of eighteen, Nazneen’s life is turned upside down. After an arranged marriage to a man twenty years her elder she exchanges her Bangladeshi village for a block of flats in London’s East End. In this new world, where poor people can be fat and even dogs go on diets, she struggles to make sense of her existence – and to do her duty to her husband. A man of inflated ideas (and stomach), he sorely tests her compliance.

But Nazneen submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes her life to raising her family and slapping down her demons of discontent. Until she becomes aware of a young radical, Karim.

Against a background of escalating racial and gang conflict, they embark on an affair the finally forces Nazneen to take control of her like…’

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger
I bought this book along with 1984, which I first read in school, and To Kill a Mocking Bird, which I am currently reading, after seeing the Big Read programmes on TV. I though I should ‘educate’ myself by reading some of the ‘modern classics’. So what the hell is this book all about? Actually I did enjoy it even though nothing happens and I was totally unsympathetic to the main character. At the end I did feel as if the story was unfinished and unresolved. The detail and writing in this book is fantastic and apart from some references (value of money, slang, and famous personalities) this story is still very relevant today. There are no sleeve notes, but than you are supposed to be aware of it.

Happy reading.