Hello all. Many thanks to Richard and Claire for their blogs while I was on holiday. While I was away I read Zadie Smith's NW. I'd been meaning to read it since it was published and I wasn't disappointed. What have you been reading? Here's a selection of your comments from last week's blog:
I'm reading Javier Marias' The Infatuations, and so far really enjoying it. Like all the best novelists, he manages to put down on paper the emotions and thoughts you are almost unaware you have had.
Interesting to see him mentioned above, as I have never read any of his work before, but I will definitely be checking more of his novels out in future. The only fault is that some of the dialogue seems a little stilted, as in people don't really talk like this in real life. This may be accentuated by the translation and of course real life conversations would likely be more boring and less revealing.
Having finished The Tale of Murasaki, which was rather good if only because it encouraged me to read more about the Heian period, I've begun reading HHhH by Laurent Binet.
It's fascinating. Last week's thread brought up Tristram Shandy and HHhH almost evokes it in many ways - a digressive narrator obsessed with finding the correct and most comprehensive way to depict events.
I have just finished Nightwalk by Chris Yates I liked it a lot .It has concise ,focused ,poetic style. It describes his experience walking at night; many walks but condensed into one expedition. I was predisposed to like this , his first ,non fishing book , as I have enjoyed his earlier books. With all the recent discussion on the revival of nature writing I am surprised he is so little noticed outside the angling community where he is a major figure. Somebody once suggested that angling has the best literature of any sport(I suppose cricket followers might dispute that idea). On my bookshelf his books take pride of place alongside Roger Deakin. For a change of pace just beginning, Sandrine's Case by Thomas Cook. A stab in the dark, so to speak, as I have not come across his novels before now.
If you would like to show us what you are currently reading instead of teling us about it in the comment thread, please do. You can share a photo of the cover by clicking the blue button on this page. We'll feature our favourite image at the top of next week's blog. The picture at the top this week was taken by ejmd.
I've just finished Murakami's 1Q84 books 1 and 2 and have to say the least mixed feelings. The plot interests me and grips me along, but oh deary deary me, the prose. Just when I'm getting hooked, the momentum is halted like a rhino hitting a brick wall by the leaden awkward prose. Is all of Murakami's work like this, and is book 3 worth reading - I'm tempted if only to finish the story, but might leave it a while.
Next up for me is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, and then Will Self's Umbrella is primed for my readerly attention.