My reading year 2007 - best of - part 3

The Kiddie Section

While I seldom read actual children’s books - which, after the desaster with “Wind in the willows” is probably a good thing - from time to time I do like to read stories that are mainly aimed at older children, teenagers and the like. When I compiled the list I was a bit surprised that there haven’t been more of those last year. So this is not really a best of list, but more of a that’s-all-there-is list.

6. Lemony Snicket “A Series of Unfortunate Events”

I had seen the film on tv and while I am not a particular fan of Jim Carrey I found it not too bad and decided to give the books a try. The book I read had the first 3 stories. But even though I liked the fact that these stories are not the usual sugary cute kiddie stories, I couldn’t really stand the narrator’s voice. I did read the book all the way through, but I know I won’t check out the other stories.
I can understand that children love the books, and they are undoubtedly original and entertaining and at times even educational. So I’m all for reading them to younger kids. My problem was that the narrator had a distinctive condescending tone to his way of talking, which got on my nerves quickly. But children probably don’t see it that way and thus can enjoy the books a lot more. For myself, I prefer the movie.

5. Stephenie Meyer “Twilight”

This book would actually have earned a place on my “biggest disappointments” list as well. Or on a hypothetical “overhyped authors” list.

I had read reviews of this book and its sequel “New Moon” on literally dozens of blogs and had accordingly high hopes for it. And that, let me tell you, is always a very bad thing to have when reading a book for the first time. Of course I was disappointed. Everybody kept celebrating the damn book as the best thing since Harry Potter or something, so reading it could only be a letdown. Also, I have a very defined notion of vampires from watching Buffy and Angel for years, so how could poor, lifeless little Edward Cullen compete with that image in my head? He didn’t have a chance in hell.

Having said that, this book is not really a total waste of time. After all, I finished it without having to force myself to read on, so I didn’t actually hate it. But I can’t say I was impressed either. It is just another trivial piece of teenage romance. I have to admit, though, the cover design for all the books of the series is stunning. Sadly, a beautiful cover alone doesn’t save the book.

The storyline is entertaining enough, if not terribly original. If you read a lot and are over 15 you probably will have read all of this before, but for teenagers it certainly is a good reading recommendation. Meyer’s take on the old vampire myths isn’t very original - except for the “glittering in the sun” thing I didn’t find anything new here. But the characters are for the most part likeable and more or less believable.

The only really annoying thing was Bella’s constant fawning adoration for Edward and this “he was so beautiful that he took my breath away”, “he is so beautiful that I can hardly look at him”, “his beauty is so overwhelming” about 5 times per page. I get it, gal, he is pretty. Now get over it and get on with the story, will ya?

I don’t know if I will bother to read the next installments of the series. I’m probably too old and jaded to enjoy such sugar-sweet teenage love stories.

4. Eoin Colfer “Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception”

Now this, as I have stated before, is a series of children’s books that really appeals to me. Everything I have said about the fourth installment, which I finished just a few days ago, goes for this third part of the series as well.
Even though I have read this one in german, which is never a good idea, I enjoyed it a lot. And I can hardly wait for part 5 to be published. And I am still undecided if I like Colfer’s or Rowling’s series better. I do know, though, that Artemis himself as a character is way more entertaining than Harry - all this troubled chosen-one attitude of Harry is getting kinda old meanwhile. Artemis is just way more fun.

3. John Marsden “The Tomorrow Series”

Well, fun isn’t exactly the word you could use for John Marsden’s “Tomorrow” series. Seeing as the books are about a bunch of teenagers trying to survive on their own in a warzone, fun is really not what you’d expect. What you get instead are realistic and highly likeable characters in an exciting, suspenseful and poignant story. This series is by far the best YA stuff I have read in ages.

I first heard of Marsden in Australia, which is were this series is set as well. It consists of 7 books:

1. Tomorrow when the war begun

2. The Dead of the Night

3. The Third Day, the Frost

4. Darkness, Be My Friend

5. Burning for Revenge

6. The Night is for Hunting

7. The Other Side of Dawn

So far, I have read the first four and they are all fantastic. I have #5 and #7 on my shelf, but #6 is still missing, so I don’t wanna go on reading before I got every book to finish the series without further interruption. Once I am finished I will write a longer review of the whole series.

By the way, I just saw John Marsden has got quite a very nice website, where you can find everything about all his books. I have read a few other ones outside the Tomorrow series and I must say the man has a great insight into teenagers’ minds. His characters are always believable (and not one of them is even half as annoying as Bella from “Twilight”).

2. Dodie Smith “I Capture the Castle”

Here is another book I adore. I had read reviews of this one as well, glowing ones, too. For some reason, though, I had formed a completely wrong expectation as to the story itself. Maybe that is why I found myself not only completely surprised and amazed, but also instantly charmed, when I finally got around to reading the book.

I mean, a book starting with the line “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink” can’t be all bad anway, but from there the story actually only gets better. Cassandra Mortmain and her family (even her bumbling father) won me over within the first few pages and I couldn’t put the book down again.

This book is like comfort food for your brain. Whenever you feel like crap, you can curl up on the couch with it and let the story envelop you like a soft, warm blanket.

1. Scott Westerfeld “Uglies”

Scott Westerfeld is one of my new discoveries of last year. You know, one of these lucky finds you stumble upon while browsing on Amazon. I have never read anything about it on another blog, which, frankly, is a shame. This series deserves at least just as much recognition as Stephenie Meyer’s, if not more.

This novel is the first of the series and it is definitely on my top ten list. As soon as I have some more money again I will order the next installments of the story. I rarely buy new books these days, what with Bookmooch and Bookcrossing I rarely have to, but for this series it is definitely worth it.

Here is the short review from Amazon:

Tally lives in a world where your sixteenth birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation which erases your flaws, transforming you from an ‘Ugly’ into a ‘Pretty’. She is on the eve of this important event, and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also fifteen - but with a very different outlook on life. Before her operation she plans to escape to a community in the forest where Uglies go to escape ‘ turning’. Tally won’t be persuaded to join her, as this would involve sacrificing everything she’s ever wanted for a lot of uncertainty. When she is taken in for questioning on her birthday, however, Tally gets sent there anyway - against her will. The state wants her to go on an undercover mission and report back about the location of the community; otherwise she will forfeit her birthday operation. What she discovers on her journey reveals that there is nothing ‘pretty’ about the transformations…

This story takes our current obsession with beauty and perfection to a whole new level. It is mainly aimed at younger readers, but this is one of those books that adults can enjoy as well.

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Did I ever mention that I am a huge fan of wedding cakes?

Not that I have been to many weddings in my life, but I very much admire the artistry and creativity that goes into the making of these kinds of cakes.

Now, when you think of wedding cakes, you probably think of something along the lines of this:

Which is very nice, but not spectacular. When I stumbled my way through the web I just found a website aptly named Mike’s Amazing Cakes where you can find the above picture, but also creations such as these:

Aren’t they fantastic? Way too pretty to just eat them. And these are just the wedding cakes. They do cakes for special occasions as well and they are equally stunning:

I for one am blown away. I even like their website, even though it’s flash-based.
What do you think? If you know of any other cake-artists I’d love it if you could leave a link to their website in the comments.

Every now and then I love to read childrens’ books, especially if they are as well-written and intelligent as Eoin Colfer’s. When I found the first “Artemis Fowl” book two years ago I had just more or less given up on Harry Potter for various reasons and was more than happy to find another world to read about.

Colfer is in his own way just as inventive as J.K. Rowling was in the beginning of the Harry Potter series. He took the old stories about fairies and elfish creatures and gave them a funny new twist. He also introduced a cast of original, interesting and likeable characters. These are definitely books I would read to my children, if I had any. At five years of age the son of my best friend might still be a tad too young to really understand the stories, but I am sorely tempted to get him the first part for his 6th birthday anyway.

One can not help but love Artemis, even now that he has turned into a good boy. That could easily have become boring, but the adventures Artemis experiences while trying to help Holly and her people - not to forget the demons - are just as exciting as the ones he had while trying to trick them. And Butler, of course, is as adorable as ever.

One thing I especially like about Eoin Colfer is that he actually managed to stay true to his target audience: the fourth installment of the series is just as much a childrens’ book as the first one. Of course, as you can see from my example, it can also be fun for adults to read, but mainly it is targeted at kids. As it should be.

This was actually one of my problems with the later Harry Potter books. HP started out as a childrens’ book, too. And it was brillant and lovely and entertaining. The second and third parts were still true to that intention, but the more successful the books became the more Rowling catered to her adult readers. Which can be seen not only from the fact that all the books were published with adult and childish cover versions (I think they started doing that around the time part 3 came out, right?), but also from the page count. Honestly, how many childrens’ stories do you know that are more than 600 pages long?

Incidentally, even though I love to read really long books, I always found that the last 3 Harry Potter books could have been shortened by 200 pages each without a problem. Not only because of the childrens’ book angle, but because for my taste there were just way too many uninteresting secondary characters and sidelines to the main story that could have been cut out easily. Then again, many people say exactly the same thing about The Lord of the Rings, so that’s clearly a matter of personal opinion.

Now I don’t want to dis Harry Potter in general. After all, I have read them all (am in fact just reading book 7) and generally did like them - otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered to slog my way through all those endless pages… It still is a good story, it’s just that the child-like wide-eyed wonder I felt when I read the first book kinda went out of the window with book 4 when all the hype surrounding the books really kicked in in earnest. And I just think that’s a pity, is all.

In a way I envy the people finding the books 100 years from now in some dusty, long-forgotten library. They can read them without knowing about all the crazy marketing stuff that surrounded them when they came out. I imagine they will be able to enjoy them a lot more than I did.

For this installment I didn’t want to have to say only negative things again, so I chose some books that I actually liked a lot. Here are the 9 books I liked most in 2007:

9. Lionel Shriver “We need to talk about Kevin”

Shortly before his 16th birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills 7 of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, her account of Kevin’s upbringing.

This is a fantastic book, even though the subject matter is not exactly a comfortable one. In 2002 there was a guy shooting up his high school in Erfurt, a town very close to my hometown. He killed 16 people and then shot himself. Having something like this happening so close to home makes you think, because what kind of person does such a thing?

I read this book in the hopes of maybe getting a glimpse into the mind of such an individual. But for this it was the wrong book, because it is written from the point of view of the shooter’s mother. Therefore it made me aware of things I had never thought about before. How hard it must be on the family not only of the victims, but also of the killers. I didn’t particularly like the mother in the book (nor the absent father), but I liked the book itself a lot. Also, it had a twist in the end, which I really didn’t see coming.
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8. Bryce Courtenay “The Power of One”

Bryce Courtenay is one of those authors I first heard of in New Zealand. Down there I didn’t have the chance to read one of his books, though. So when I found a copy of this one on Bookmooch I snatched it without having the slightest clue what it was about.

When I read the back blurb, however, and saw that not only was it set in 1939 (or at least the story started then) - my least favorite period ever - and in South Africa of all places, I kinda lost interest right then and there. Africa as a whole has never been of the slightest interest to me. Neither the landscape, the fascinating animals, nor the people, the culture or anything else ever aroused my curiosity in any way. And if that wasn’t enough to put me off, the main character, Peekay, is also obsessed with becoming a boxer. Now, I have nothing against boxers or sports in general, but I really don’t want to read about it. It just bores me to tears to read the blow-by-blow account of a boxing fight, a football match, hell even a Quidditch match just puts me to sleep in under 2 minutes! So I put the book on my bookshelf and intended to leave it there for a long while.

Boy, am I ever glad I picked it up again! It is one of those rare instances when the rave reviews on the cover are actually true. This is a charming, compelling, moving, engrossing and up-lifting story.

Ok, the boxing stuff really was dreadfully boring, but I just skimmed over those pages. A good part of the early story took place in a prison - another setting that isn’t all too high up on my list of favorites. It is unfortunately undeniable that some of the characters are pretty clichéd and neither exactly original, nor really believable in all their goodness/evilness. But Peekay himself really grew on me and it was an interesting journey to accompany him on his way from a frightened and bullied 5-year-old Pisskopp to a self-confident, intelligent, strong young man. I could even put up with the boxing talk along the way…

What surprised me most was the feeling this book evoked in me towards Africa. Apparently, Courtenay grew up in Africa, and his love for the continent and its people shines through every word in this book. I still can’t say that I would want to live there, but I’d not categorically dismiss the idea of taking a trip and having a look around one day.
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7. Richard Russo “Empire Falls”

Ever since reading “Nobody’s Fool”, which to this day is on my all-time top ten list, I have been a fan of Richard Russo. Sometimes one book is all it takes, right?

“Empire Falls” is the story of Mile, a divorced father of a teenaged daughter. He is the proprietor of the local diner in a quite depressing little New England town called, you guessed it, Empire Falls. Miles is an unlikely sort of hero for a book, but he grew on me pretty quickly, as did his good-for-nothing father and all the other numerous characters. I don’t know what it is about depressing little New England towns, but somehow I just have a thing for them. Russo certainly knows how to evoke a sense of place in his books and make you feel like you are actually there.

This is a book I will certainly re-read sooner or later. There is also a tv miniseries based on the book, which I intend to check out sometime, but however good that may turn out to be, I would definitely recommend reading the book first. I am very much looking forward to read the rest of Russo’s books as well.
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6. Terry Pratchett “Going Postal”

This is, of course, a discworld novel. It is one of five I have read last year. I already blogged about it back in April.

“Going Postal” tells the story of Moist von Lipwig (honestly, how do you come up with a name like that?), a con artist who gets on the wrong side of Lord Vetinari - which of course is never a good idea - and gets himself conned into reforming the ailing postal system of Ankh-Morpok. The way he goes about it is nothing short of hilarious, as usual for Pratchett’s books. This book had me in stitches numerous times (it is never a good idea for me to read a funny book in public) and I can’t believe my own stupidity in giving it away on Bookmooch after I was finished reading it. Meanwhile I have started to re-build my Discworld collection, this time with the english editions of the books. And I’m happy to say that I have 5 more discworld novels on my Mt. TBR at the moment. If it wasn’t for all those good library books here I would start right in with them now. As it is they will have to wait a bit longer. And I have to find a copy of “Going Postal” again.
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5. Neil Gaiman “Anansi Boys”

What good can I say about Neil Gaiman that hasn’t already been said a hundred times before? This was the book that sold me on him. The first one of his that I read was “American Gods” and even though I liked his ideas, the book was hard going for me. But “Anansi Boys” I loved from page one.

Surely everybody can relate to a story about embarrassing parents or pesky brothers that drop in uninvited and just refuse to go away again. Of course, with Gaiman, nothing is ever so simple and the supernatural is only ever one blink away from our normal world. Yet it never seems particularly outlandish when there are gods around every corner, or batty old voodoo ladies who can actually do magic.

At the heart of it, this book is a funny and heart-warming story about family, pure and sinple. Only some families are a bit stranger than others.
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4. Jon McGregor “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things”

If nobody speaks of remarkable things, then how can they be remarkable?

It’s hard to write much of anything about this book without giving the plot away. Well, not that it actually had that much of a plot, really. But in this case that is not a bad thing.

Mc Gregor observes life in a perfectly ordinary, perfectly average neighbourhood, where only ordinary things happen to ordinary people. Until one day something extraordinary happens that impacts on everyone involved in the incident, but isn’t even worth a mention outside that circle.

The writing itself, though, is anything but ordinary. Not only does he manage to make the mundanest details feel somehow important and interesting. The whole book felt like stream-of-consciousness writing instead of a coherent narration. The almost non-existent punctuation and all this he said she said in the middle of sentences takes some getting used to, but after a while I didn’t even notice it anymore.

What bothered me a bit was the fact that up to the end we never really get to know what horrific thing actually happened that day. I know that was done intentionally as well, it pisses me off when authors keep such things to themselves until the very end, because usually (here, too) the revelation then is somewhat anticlimactic. I was expecting something like it all the time, and I just knew one of the children mentioned throughout the book would be involved. So, in the end, the revelation came as no big surprise to me. He might as well have told the story right at the beginning and spared his readers the suspense. I think the book would have worked pretty well anyway.

That said, apart from that little gripe, I loved the book. I loved the prose, the simple flow of the words, and the way everybody seemed so real. Apart from “the thing that isn’t mentionend” I could write a book like that about the people in our street as well. I guess, everybody could. Except that most of us probably don’t know their neighbours well enough to actually do so and couldn’t weave our words as intricately as McGregor does here.
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3. Jim DeFede “The Day The World Came To Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland”

This is one of the few books last year I have actually written a review for. You can read it here.

And I have to say, even after a couple of months, I am still as much in love with the book as I was back then. Everybody who was affected by 9/11 - and who wasn’t? - should definitely read this book.

Even if you are sick of hearing or even thinking about that day because of the terrible things that happened, you should read this book. Especially in that case. Because it might give you a bit of your belief in humanity back. I know, because that’s what it did for me.
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2. Kazuo Ishiguro “Never let me go”

This is another book I have written a lengthy review for (here).

At the time I read it I had mixed feelings about it, because it sure is not perfect. I had trouble with some aspects of the story (especially the cloning and the more practical parts of the whole thing), but now, after almost a year, the story still resonates with me.

When I think back I still remember being exasperated with the main character’s actions (or lack thereof) sometimes, and I still remember shaking my head at some piece of totally unbelievable science kibosh or other. But I also clearly remember being blown away and not being able to stop thinking about it for weeks even after I finished it.

And that, I think, makes it one of the most remarkable books I have read last year.
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1. Michael Marshall Smith “Only Forward”

If you ever consider following one of my reading recommendations, let it be this one. Not only is this book my absolute favorite of the whole lot I read last year, Smith has also risen close to the top of my all-time favorite authors list (funnily, I never actually compiled such a list, but if I had one he would be on it). I think, he gives the word fantastic a whole new meaning.

This book changed the way I look at fiction in general. Not only can Smith write believable and likeable characters like only few other authors I know, what really blows you away is his incredible inventiveness (is that even a word?). The world he invents here is exciting and new and real in a way that is hard to describe. You really have to read the book and discover it for yourself.

Of course, I have written a longer review of this book as well. You find it here.

Every year has its ups and downs and so had my reading selection last year. So, to get it out of the way I thought I’d start this series of posts with my list of the biggest disappointments:

7. Stephen Fry “The Liar”

I usually love everything Stephen Fry writes or does on television. I was especially looking forward to reading this book, because it is to an extent autobiographic. I admit, after reading Fry’s other books I had high expectations for this one. “Making History” was a pure delight. “The Star’s Tennis Balls” is a great story despite the stupid title. And even his actual autobiography “Moab is my washpot” was highly entertaining. So when I found “The Liar” in a bargain bin I grabbed it, even though it was the german edition. At first I thought maybe that was the problem with it, but after slogging through a 100 or so pages I had to admit that I just couldn’t get into this book, no matter in what language I read it. It was boring and the main character just got on my nerves. In the end I gave up on it halfway through.
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6. Sterling Johnson “English as a second f*cking language”

Another book I had high hopes for when I signed up for a bookring with it.

If you read my blog for a while you will notice that I love to use swear words. A lot. The subtitle of this book says: “How to swear effectively, explained in detail with numerous examples taken from everyday life.” Like with everything I like to do, I am always happy to learn something new and I really looked forward to broaden my horizon concerning new and inventive swear words with this little tome.

Sadly, this didn’t happen. I don’t know, maybe I’m jaded, but my impression was that you would have to have led quite a sheltered life for any of the stuff in this book to be new for you. And I am not even a native speaker. But then again, my approach (and I know I’m not alone in this) to learning a new language has always been to learn how to swear properly first. So this book had nothing new to teach me.
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5. Nancy Pearl “Book Lust”

For a voracious reader is there anything more promising and delicious than a book about books? I’m sure there must be, but I can’t think of anything right now.

Nancy Pearl is a long-time librarian and it would be an understatement to say she is well-read. The woman must have thousands of books in her life. This book contains more than 170 themed reading lists with books she recommends, covering virtually every topic you can think of and then some.

This point is actually one of my main gripes with the book. Not only do I have no interest whatsoever in many of the categories she mentions (like, for instance, the various types of history books she recommends, or sports books), in the categories I am interested in she often mentions only books and authors I have never even marginally heard of before. It’s fine that she wants to promote lesser-known authors, but come on, at least mention in passing the ones that actually invented that genre. The chapter about travel books, for instance, went by without even a tiny mention of Bill Bryson, which as a huge fan of his writing I take personally (not to mention writers such as Paul Theroux). Also, with fantasy and science fiction there was no mention at all of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams - I’m just glad she mentioned at least Asimov and Tolkien…

Insofar the whole book was a clear disappointment for me. Not only does the woman have a completely different taste in books, but the descriptions of the books she recommends were also way too short to make up my mind if I would like to give them a try or not.
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4. C.S. Lewis “Till we have faces: a myth retold”

A while back I read C.S. Lewis’ Narnia-stories, which, despite the overt religious overtones, I liked quite a lot (the movie is a whole different kettle of fish, but that was to be expected). I also know that Lewis was a good friend of J.R.R. Tolkien and both of them inspired each other in their writing. So, as a big admirer of Tolkien, naturally I also wanted to read some more of Lewis’ work.

Now this re-telling of the story of Cupid and Psyche (which, truth be told, I remember only the tiniest rudiments of from school) was definitely not the right starting point for me. Not only did the preachy tone of the book raise my hackles, I also had trouble connecting to any of the characters. Additionally the dialogue was awful and all in all the book was just beyond boring. I slogged through it stubbornly, but I think this was the book that finally convinced me that finishing a book I don’t enjoy is just a huge waste of time.
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3. Andre Bernard “Now All We Need Is a Title: Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way”

Another one of those books I saw a bookring for on Bookcrossing and signed up for it just because of the title. Ironically, the title is the best thing about this book. It’s just a wee little book, but I couldn’t get halfway through it. I just flipped through it backwards and forwards in the vain hope to find mention of any books I liked or at least had heard of before and would be interested in learning more about. And even the stories about the few books I did actually know where not really interesting.

This is one of those books that could have been good, but turned out to be a complete waste of time, because they were made in such a half-assed way as to be totally useless. I’m just glad I didn’t actually spend money on it.
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2. Robert Pirsig “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

Ok, if you have read this book and actually liked it maybe you could let me know what the last two thirds of it were about, because I gave up after a hundred pages or so.

The thing is, I really like motorcycles, and I think the idea of taking a trip to find yourself and using motorcycle metaphors to describe your insights is as good a way as any other. Insofar I was quite looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, even if I hadn’t hated Pirsig’s guts after a couple of pages, his writing style just drove me up the wall. Here is clearly a guy who loves to hear himself talk and his endless blathering bored me to tears.

His philosophy as such is quite sensible, if a bit obvious, so my problem was not so much that I disagreed with him. It was rather that I kind of figured out what his point was around page 30 or so and just couldn’t go on reading about him waffling on about it for 400 more pages. On the whole, this book is not quite as bad as another one I read 2 years ago (Dave Eggers’ “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”, which alternately made me scratch my head and gag), but it’s not much better either. To see it hailed as “a brillant and original book” on Amazon really pains me.
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1. Kenneth Grahame “The Wind in the Willows”

Ok now, I know that some of you who read this book as children will probably want to slap me when I say this, but this is by far the worst childrens’ book I have read for, like, ever. I seldom really hate books, mostly I tend to just forget about the ones I didn’t like, but this one is such a load of crap that I only wish I could purge it completely from my mind. And because I don’t want to get all worked up about it again, I will just give you the review I wrote about it on Bookcrossing:

” This is it. I’m giving up.

I really tried to find this book charming and it’s probably my own fault that I failed completely. I don’t know what exactly I expected, but this book rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. I don’t generally have a problem with anthropomorphized animals - up to a point. There still has to be some sense to it. I’m usually pretty good with the suspension of disbelief, since I read a lot of fantasy stories. But it just doesn’t work for me if there are such glaring logical errors in the story.

Here, you have animals of all kinds that would be food for each other in the real world, interacting as friends. You have a toad who puts horses to his gypsy cart - never mind that horses are like a hundred times bigger than your usual toad. Don’t even let me get started on the motor-cars! Then you have a rat and a mole eating bacon and eggs - so where does the bacon come from, Mummy? Well, they’re probably keeping some really small pigs out back somewhere. At the same time the rat and the mole are afraid of dogs and cats in the village - why exactly, if they’re strong enough to handle a horse? (Or are we talking about really really small horses here, and really really big cats?) And where exactly are all the humans and why don’t they ever notice the animals racing around in cars on their streets? And then, of course, you have the toad who gets imprisoned in a castle, forchrissake. And I don’t know what other bullshit was still to come, because at this point I decided to stop wasting my time with it.

It’s just a total jumble of things that don’t add up und don’t make sense at all. And moreover, it’s all done in such a cutesy way as to make me gag. Now, I don’t have kids myself, but if I had, I would surely want them to read cute stories, but this one certainly wouldn’t qualify in my eyes. I may be overcritical, but in a time when city-kids often do not even know what a real cow looks like anymore, I find it a bit counterproductive to let them read a book that tells them absolutely nothing whatsoever about what real animals are like. I could never bring myself to read that to any child with a straight face.

I know that childrens’ books are mostly not supposed to be too realistic, and I know that the point the author was trying to make was more about friendship than about the life of real animals. But I don’t see a reason why you couldn’t at least get your facts right and try to apply a little bit of logic to even a story for children. I know there are lots of childrens’ books that manage to do that. And I’m sure, if I had read that book as a 7- or 8-year-old, I would have asked the exact same questions and my mom probably would have tossed the book out before long, because I would have driven her bonkers with my cries of “but that doesn’t make sense!”. ”

In short, I have to go with Ms. Dorothy Parker on this one: “This is not a book to be put aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force.” (I know she didn’t say that about this particular book, but it applies nevertheless.)

In 2007 - the second year I managed to keep a list - I have read 146 books. Initially the plan was to write a review here about each and every one of them. As is normally the case with my plans I didn’t go through with it in the end (which is the reason I gave up really making plans long ago).

Mainly this was because whenever I finished one book I had already started another one, or two, and so never really got around to write a review about the last one because in my head I was already inhabiting the world of the next one. Another reason, it goes without saying, is of course my unbelievable laziness when it comes to doing anything even marginally useful.

Now, obviously I won’t ever get around to write proper reviews of all those books (some of them are not really worth one anyway), but I came up with an idea to at least showcase some of them here in some form. So I decided to do some best-of lists with short reviews of the respective books. I will post then as I make them up in the next couple of days.

I just returned from the local library and once again I am amazed at how good their selection is. Since I am reading mostly books in english nowadays, I usually have trouble finding enough reading material in libraries. In Weimar they have 2 relatively short shelves of english books. Here in Leipzig they have a whole room.

And even though they do have lots of stuff I wouldn’t touch outside of a reading emergency (like Danielle Steel, John Crisham or all this chick-lit crap), I am constantly surprised at how many really good - and sometimes really new - books there are as well. And I love it especially when I stumble upon books on their shelves that I have just read something about or for which I have signed up for a bookring on Bookcrossing. Or other ones that I have had on my wishlist for ages and just haven’t got around to ordering yet.

Last time I was there shortly before Christmas I found John Grogan’s “Marley and Me”, about which I had heard lots of good things on Bookcrossing and which turned out to be just as lovely as I had hoped. I also found Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust”, which once more confirmed my belief that Gaiman is on my list of favorite authors to stay (btw, I just got the movie and I am very curious to watch it soon and compare it to the book).

This time it went even better. Here is what I came home with:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I am not a particular HP fan anymore (the series kind of lost me around part 4 or 5), and meanwhile I more or less know what happens anyway, but I had hoped to read it one day, just to get some kind of closure.
• Margaret Atwood “Oryx and Crake” - Atwood’s books have been a bit hit-and-miss for me so far, but this one is set in a post-apocalyptic world and I have a particular liking for such stories. I did sign up for a bookring on BC for this, which I can now cancel.
• John Banville “The Sea” - This is one of those books I have had on my wishlist for a while now and I can’t even remember anymore why I put it there in the first place. I must have read a good review or something. But I am glad to have found it in a library, so even if I don’t like it, I will have at least not wasted any money on it.
• Jose Saramago “Blindness” - Another one from my wishlist. Saramago in general was recommended to me by a portuguese bookcrossing friend. And when I read a review of this book I knew I had to find it.
• Tim Parks “Cleaver” - Tim Parks is one of those authors I discovered while in New Zealand. I used to hang around in every bookstore I could find there, same as here, really (only much more fun because all the books there are in english, LOL). And there were a couple of authors, which I had never heard of in Europe, but whose books caught my attention over and over again. Jodi Picoult is one example, Bryce Courtenay would be another. Tim Parks belongs in the same category. Funnily I had totally forgotten about him until I just saw his name on this book. The back blurb sounds interesting enough, so I will give it a try.
• Will Self “The Book of Dave” - This is a book I wouldn’t even have picked up if I hadn’t just read a review of it a couple of weeks ago somewhere. The only other book by Will Self I have read so far was “How the Dead Live”, and it was, to put it mildly, a very strange and depressing read. I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t very keen on finding other books by the author either. But since this story is about the dangers of religion in a way, how could I pass it up? Also, its title reminded me a lot of “The Book of Fred” by Abby Bardie, which I loved.

So now, once I finish my current read (”Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony”), I will start in on Harry Potter and then work my way slowly through the stack. Did I mention that I should actually be studying for an exam I will have to take by the end of next week? Ah, well. The key to success is in prioritizing, right? LOL