The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

Nobody lives in the graveyard........except someone does, and his name is Nobody (Bod for short).  

After his parents are murdered, Bod finds himself growing up within the confines of the graveyard, protected by those who come to love him - even if they've been dead for many years.  Bod is raised by the ghosts who enhabit the graveyard, and watched over by a guardian, Silas (neither dead nor alive he is able to leave the graveyard to get food and clothing for young Bod).

The story tells of Bod's childhood, his friends and family within the graveyard, and the slow dawning that there is a world outside the gates that one day he (as living person) will have to re-enter.

I really enjoyed this book, which wasn't much of a surprise as I've enjoyed other Neil Gaiman books (particularly American Gods).  However this was the first of his children's books that I've read.  We gave it to my step-daughter for christmas, and after she'd read it she insisted that we did too!

The story is original and imaginative, and despite the obvious potential for gloom (Bod's parents murdered in the first few pages, and 90% of the story set in a graveyard!), the book is uplifting and fun.

As a quick and enjoyable read I'd certainly recommend it, I have Coraline to read at some point too, but think that will actually be even darker!

March 2010

Lent to me by Caitlin.

Howards End is on the landing, a year of reading from home - Susan Hill

When Susan Hill describes her house it sounds a little like mine - not that mine is a large farmhouse in the Cotswolds, as hers is - full of books, books in every room.  And many of them either unread, or not read for many years.

Whilst looking for a book amongst the hundreds Hill realises that there are many that deserve revisiting, or in some cases, visiting for the first time.  So she embarks on a year of reading the books that she already owns instead of buying new ones.

I could easily do this with the books in my house, and I've thought it doing so many times - but then I think about what I'd miss!  Anyway, this is the reason I liked the idea of this book.

Hill takes you through the books of her childhood, reminises about the authors she's known, the places she's been and the associations that many of the books have for her.  She reads popup books, childrens book, novels, non-fiction, biographies and short stories - many of the authors are familar to me, but few of them I've actually read.

Despite the fact that Susan Hill and I are obviously from a different generation of readers, and she has a background steeped in reading (studying English Literature at Kings College), I still found the wander around her house of books interesting.

Although I'm sure she'd be disappointed to find that it didn't tempt me to go in search of many of the books she discusses; I did enjoy the style of the book and found it enjoyable to read.  I've never read a Susan Hill book; I believe there are many, I might try one of the crime thrillers........at some point (i've got no shortage of books that need my attention!)

Bought on Green Met.

A week at the airport – Alain De Botton

Despite my dislike of the expansion of airports, and the over use of cheap travel, I had been looking forward to reading this little book.   Not least as Terminal 5 is very much part of my history, despite never having been there – back in 2002 I worked for a few summer months on the large archaeological site which was to become Terminal 5, but at the time was a very loud patch of mud that still smelled of the sewage treatment works which were there before.

I've always been fascinated by transport hubs, airports, railway stations, bus stations – they are the best possible place for one of my favourite past-times – people watching!  Nowhere else is so fantastic for spying on the comings and goings (literally) of the general public.

I imagine that part of the reason the author took up the offer of spending a week with unlimited access to the airport and it's travelers had something to do with this.

Asked by BAA to spend a whole week solely within the confines of the airport; staying in an airport hotel, eating in airport restaurants and wandering at will.  He was given a desk at which to work, but also passes to go airside and into non-public areas – I'm jealous!

Using the process as titles for each section; arrivals, departures, etc – De Botton gives an entertaining and enlightening glimpse into a world that never sleeps.  Facts and figures are kept to a minimum, it's the human stories behind the luggage, vending machines and duty free shops that fascinate.

In a way it seems very brave of BAA to allow him free reign on what he wrote, even granting him an interview with the chief executive, Willie Walsh – something that De Botton admits wasn't as interesting to him as meeting the staff and customers.

The book in no way makes me want to visit T5, but it does confirm my interest in people watching!

Bought on Green Met.

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

It would spoil none of the enjoyment of this book to tell you that one of the main character 'Bunny', is murdered by his posh college friends about a third of the way through - the narrator (one of his 'friends') reveals this in the prologue.

To be honest, my one main gripe about the book is that it take so bloody long for them to get round to bumping him off, I'd began to give up hope!

Set in a fictional Ivy League college in the US, and narrated, years later, by one of the main protagonists, this is an astounding first novel - one I'm glad I made the effort to get into (it took a while).

A misfit group of classics students descend into drug and alcohol fuelled chaos, encouraged by their enigmatic tutor.  The story follows their time at the college, and the strange relationships and interactions between them.

John recommended this book, and it is excellent, however I did spend much of the beginning wishing that they'd just get on with  the inevitable murder.

What is most interesting is the way the author manages to make a dispicable act seem completely normal, natural and justified - as if it's perfectly acceptable for friends to murder and get away with it.

For me one of the weirdest aspects of the story wasn't the relationships, or the murder itself; but the complete timelessness of the story.  Not only were the characters ambiguous, but so was the time period in which the story was set.  Tartt gives few social markers, and I found myself searching the internet looking for a clue to when the action was supposed to have taken place.

Music is mentioned at times, but most of it obviously from the past.  Since the students are studying classics most of the references to culture are from the past, the long distant past (in time and geographical location).

I'm left with a yearning to know what happened to the students, and in particular the classics tutor - he obviously had an interesting back story - one that I'd love to read about.

26th January - 22nd February 2010

Recommended and lent to me by John.

Twilight and Philosophy, Vampires, Vegetarians and the Pursuit of Happiness - (ed.) Rebecca Housel & J Jeremy Wisnewski

I've always been interested in philosophy, not in an academic way, but the broad ethics and ideas involved; so this book certainly looked of interest.

Part of a series of philosophy and popular culture books, this volume draws together 18 articles from leading academics around the world to look at the philosophical themes within the Twilight series of books.

The articles are short and easy to read, and they certainly added depth to my reading of the Twilight series and their characters.

Themes such as whether immortality is something to be desired, what can the books tell us about god, is Carlisle really compassionate and the morality of Edward.

A number of the articles explore the theme of feminism in the Twilight books, even going so far as to discuss the similiarities between Bella Swan and Sarah Palin!

Actually when I stop to think about it Bella is very much not an empowered young woman; she moves to Forks so that her mother's new husband can move in, she has few interests or hobbies (other than Edward), she is able to walk away from her life both in Pheonix and Forks with no-one appearing to be bothered (friends?), and the only things she seems capable of doing are the laundry and cooking for her father - for everything else she asks a man (vampire or werewolf). It is as if Bella has no purpose or meaning except for that bestowed on her by the men who surround her.

As the article points out; her mother on seeing Bella and Edward together comments - 'the way you move - you orient yourself around him without even thinking about it ..... You're like a .... Satellite'.

I've never really been one to read 'notes' about books, or to study the stories in much depth, but these articles were really interesting and in my opinion added to my enjoyment and understanding of the series. I certainly came away from this book with a changed view of the characters that Stephanie Meyer's book - many of them not very flattering!

There are a number of philosophy and pop culture books available, I will be ordering some more (House, Alice in Wonderland, and possibly The Simpsons!).

Bought in Blackwells
12 - 26th January 2010

Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

So, for the first book of the year I decided on something reasonably light, but also informative and interesting - not to mention extremely funny (Adams' writing, not the subject matter which is, of course, very serious). I've been meaning to read this book for years but never quite got round to it. I haven't seen the recent BBC programmes by Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine revisiting some of the species from this book - but it's on my Amazon wishlist now!

The basic premise of the book is that a writer and a zoologist travel around the world visiting very endangered species in order to make a radio programme (for the BBC) and raise the profile of the animals in danger.

Animals such as the giant Komodo dragon of Indonesia, the helpless, flightless kakapo of New Zealand (the descriptions of their mating techniques had me crying with laughter!), the white rhinos of Zaire and the blind river dolphins of the Yangtze River in China (which they never did get to see, and I'm sorry to say now never will).

I've always been a fan of Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of the few books I've read more than a few times, and The Meaning of Liff is a work of genius. Although the book is obviously about the loss of species across the world, and the fact that humans are to blame for the plight that many find themselves in; this book is more of a travel journal recounting the trials and tribulations met by Douglas Adams and Mark Carrardine as they try to visit the animals.

The book has also certainly met one of it's aims, my interest has been sparked enough to make me go and look for further information on each of the animals featured.

Had in my library for sometime (think it might belong to an ex-boyfriend!)
1st - 7th January 2010

At the beginning of last year I decided to keep a record of the books I read, so that I could count them and also see what the breakdown would look like. So I set up this blog to record them.

I actually had no idea how many books I was reading (although I knew it wasn't as many as a few years ago when I was getting through at least one a week), and also I wanted to review them (partly so that I could remember them!).

So, since January last year I've read 26 books, above shows that the majority were fiction (17), below shows a genre breakdown. Remember that some books fall into more than one catagory.

Now, I must point out that the 'teen' and 'vampire' books are one and the same, and they predominate as I've read two 'series' of books, namely Twilight and the Sookie Stackhouse novels - both very different!

I've really got into popluar psychology and will be exploring more of that this year. I think I'll leave off the vampires for a while, and I want to try some more autobiographies too (not a genre I've read before).

John says that I'm being completely anal about this, but I think it's really interesting - and a natural extension of my blog and reading.

If you are interested at all there is also my LibraryThing, a great cataloging site for book lovers.