Hello all. Here's a roundup, in words and pictures, of the books you have been reading and what you thought of them:
I'm having to read The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul for my reading group. It's really bad. So far I've consumed giant bag of Liquorice Allsorts and large glass of wine but am still only quarter of way through. My new year's diet busted on the first day.
After being given 'Excavating Kafka' (James Hawes) by a friend who was having one of her fourth-yearly shelf clean outs, I read it without having known much about Kafka beforehand, let alone read any of his writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My interest was piqued so I got the penguin classics editions of The Trial and Metamorphosis at an airport newsagent. I struggled towards the end of The Trial, so much so I began to feel the title was all too fitting. That said, I liked the way I was interested, even invested in Josef K's welfare without ever really knowing what the hell was going on. It had a bit of Bleak House about it.
Finished my Bismarck Biography by Jonathan Steinberg. I’d chosen it because my German history isn’t great, and it was a very informative read. Bismarck is an utterly fantastic character: terrifyingly brilliant and yet quite duplicitous and megalomaniac in a way you can’t imagine a current politician getting away with (mind you, I’m probably underestimating the current crop…).
Just over half way through Star Island by Carl Hiaasen, the third of his books I've read in the last two months after being given Basket Case by a relative. As I liked it so much a colleague who heard me talking about it, gave me Skinny Dip which I really enjoyed, very funny.
Trouble is, I keep bursting out laughing in the early hours of the morning when I get to bed as I always read before lights out.
Hope the neighbours can't hear me, they might wonder what I'm doing ...
Next Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods in this Bryson hikes the Appalachian Trail (with his highly amusing friend Katz) which starts in the south east of the US and stretches right up to the north. I found this to be a nice book, really light and funny yet equally informative.
I'm now roughly a quarter into Bryson's Notes From a Big Country this is really just a book full of anecdotes and musing Bryson has made upon his return to the US, pretty cool.
If you would like to share a photo of the book you are reading, or film your own book review, please do. Click the blue button on this page to share your video or image. I'll include some of your posts in next week's blog.
