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.

Some books I've been reading recently

I hope I've not mentioned these already - that's reasonably likely to happen!

Nicholas Evans - The Divide. I spose you'd call this family drama, as it centres around a family. Missing daughter, eco-activism, and a mystery associated with the finding of a body. Family intrigue, secrets and all kinds of things like that. Good. Not exceptional, but no waste of time.

James Siegal - Detour. Imagine going to Colombia to adopt a child? You're bound to be kidnapped and blackmailed, being double crossed at every turn. Still, you might enjoy it - I did!

Giles Milton - Edward Trencom's Nose. Like cheese? Like the smell of cheese? See a Greek connection? Neither did I, but there is one. This is a very unusual book - slow to start and slow to end, but very nicely written. You can forgive this for the front 2/3rds of the book, but on completion you feel something else might have been more rewarding. Meh-ok.

Terry Pratchett - Strata. Nah, don't bother. It's not a Terry Pratchett book, well, not one you'd want to read.

HG Wells - The first men in the moon. The moral of the story is, be careful if your neighbour invents an antigravity metal, it will only lead to trouble. That said, it's an imaginative tale, told in a Victorian kind of style. Readable, and well written considering it was probably one of the pioneers of offworld travel writing.

Frank Miller - The Dark Knight Returns: Graphic Novel - a proper dark Batman tale. It's a long comic, read it with that in mind, and it has a good story. Recommended.

Sssssh

Yes, quiet, isn't it?

I was in Chapters today and didn't buy any books. Something is wrong. Very wrong. I must prepare something about the holidays we're just back from too.

That's about it for the moment.

We're not closed yet....

Some more books and walks and stuff.

Some more recent conquests in the book world have been "Amo, amas amat... and all that" - How to become a latin lover, by Harry Mount, and A Book Addict's Treasury (yes, very fitting, I know).

The Latin one was very interesting, it's like a basic introductory course to Latin. The good thing about it is that even if you don't learn any of the verbs or declensions or nasty grammar stuff, it's full of amusing and interesting anecdotes about where some of our English words came from, and Roman emperors and contributions to society. I recommend it as a nice light read, and if you want to take it seriously you can refresh your Latin as well! Good stuff. 3 thumbs up.

The Book Addicts treasury is a collection of quotes and writings and tips on how to keep your books, catalogue them, lend them, find them, buy them and borrow them. Great to dip in and out of in between other books, and fantastic for finding arguments for keeping books! (Though you have to keep it under lock and key, as there are arguments against keeping books too....sssh don't let the Book Police find it)


Speaking of finding books, I found my first book from www.bookcrossing.com (tell them I sent you - prenderb there too). For those of you that haven't heard of book crossing, the principle is that you register the book on the website, and it's given a unique identifier. You make a journal entry, maybe review the book, then flag it on the website when you leave it somewhere public for someone to find (called releasing). People who look in that location (say it's Naas, or Newbridge) will then get an email notifying them, and the hunt is on! When it's found, in theory the finder should log it on the site as found, so you can follow the book on it's journey.

I got the email on a Sunday evening, saying that a book had been left in a large DIY/Interior shop in Newbridge-with quite specific instructions that it was in a drawer on a furniture display. So Monday morning (gotta love flexitime...) I was opening drawers in the furniture display at 9 am. I opened about 15 different drawers and presses before I found it - excellent! So it's being read at the moment, and I'll naturally tell you about it in due course. I plan to release it, and hopefully follow it onto the next reader. (I released a book before, but nobody logged it on the website awh....)

And I've been walking again in the Slieve Blooms. Another fairly serious 10-miler, at Hundredacre and along the Crumlin river. Great scenery and the weather was very kind to us - it didn't rain till I'd started the engine when we were finished! More details on www.slievebloom.ie/walking