Couple of books recently read

Including: 

• Lego: A Love Story (Jonathan Bender);
• Labyrinth (Kate Mosse); and
• Paula Spencer (Roddy Doyle)

Lego: A Love Story is an interesting book. Jonathan Bender spent some time with AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego), attending their conventions, building their challenges and just generally falling back in love with Lego (though not quite to the same extent as some of the others described in the book). Nicely written, it's a really intriguing and at times puzzling story about how grown-ups still play, model, and build with what is traditionally seen as a child's toy.

He describes the model Titanic built for a convention, the input that the AFOLs have on the kits that Lego develop and the obsessive compulsions suffered and enjoyed by collectors and builders as they buy and sell individual bricks and pieces over the internet. I recommend this for anyone who is still a little bit of a child, and for anyone who isn't (yet) still a little bit of a child. Enjoyed, 4/5.

Labyrinth is a Grail tale - 2 stories set centuries apart in and around Carcassonne in Southern France. One woman is a modern day archaeologist, another a mediaeval woman living in the time of the Crusades. I read this, and I think you might like it if you like the grail legend type of thing, but it was just too long for me. I had stayed attracted to it for about half of it and so I finished it but it didn't leave a lasting impression on me either way. So, I suppose 2.5 out of 5. 

Paula Spencer - fans of the Van, the Snapper and the Commitments might be surprised by this book, as it doesn't quite have the same style as those. An excellent character study, it watches Paula (a recovering alcoholic who's just got out of a difficult relationship) for a year of her life. Really astute dialogue between the characters (mostly Paula's children and sisters) builds their personae into something really believable. This one was well able to keep my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 4/5 

I'm finally reading Catch-22, and enjoying that. It's superficially zany, but I think there's a deeper commentary on madness in there. I can see how it's such a classic, and I love finally understanding the phrase! More on that later.