Hotel World - by Ali Smith

I've done well and finished this book a whole week before the Bookclub programme - makes a change, as I'm usually behind.

The book is really a set of linked stories. The starting point is an incident where a girl is killed in an accident with a "dumb waiter" at a hotel. She is one of the narrators. There is also her sister and 3 other people.

I found the book rather unsatisfying, as I'm not sure it took me anywhere. I also found it hard to read in parts. Each perspective is written in a different style, characterized I suppose by the "speaker". In one case, the result is a total lack of punctuation. This would be OK for a paragraph or two to make a point, but, for a long chapter, no thanks.

Guess you win some and lose some. I will, nevertheless, look forward to the programme to see what input other readers may have.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Hotel World by Ali Smith. The next Bookclub book ...

This is the story of a night told from the viewpoint of five people, all of whom are connected in some way with a particular hotel. It's interesting how many books there are that use the device of telling the story from several perspectives. Guess that's OK.

Weaving the Web - by Tim Berners-Lee

The first part of this book is about the history and origins of the Web. It was interesting to see that Berners-Lee didn't really invent that much - he simply brought together a bunch of existing technologies in a novel way. I'm not saying that this wasn't brilliant, as such vision is very impressive.

I was surprised to find that I was such an early adopter, as I started using the Web in around 1995 and it was really quite new then.

The latter half of the book is much more about his ideas for the future of the Web [as he saw it 5 years ago when he wrote the book]. Although a lot of this is rather philosophical [e.g. how will it affect the way we think in the future], he did foresee some of the current trends towards user interaction: Wikis and blogging.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee.

Time for a different read - non-fiction this time. Since I use the Internet - in particular the Web - all the time, I guess it would be good to understand its origins and where it might be going. Since Berners-Lee essentially invented it, this should be a good place to start.

Noughts and Crosses - by Malorie Blackman

The story is centered around two characters, Sephy and Callum. They live in a world where there are two classes of people: noughts, who have white skin and are the lower class, and Crosses, who have dark skin and are the ruling class. Sephy is a Cross; Callum is a nought. It follows their life and their relationship through their teenage years.

Since the book is aimed at young adults, I guess the age of the main characters is intended to give the reader someone to identify with. I assume the goal is to raise awareness of prejudice and injustice in society, by showing an extreme [by modern standards, but not by historic] example of what a society might be like.

The story is well written, with each chapter seeing the viewpoint alternately from Sephy and Callum. The pace is good and kept me turning the pages. There is a strong sense of their increasing maturity as they get older.

I was curious about some of the terminology. The noughts [note the lower case first letter] were referred to in derogatory terms as "blankers". I imagine that this is supposed to be about their lack of value/worth/significance, but it seems to be a play on the word for "white" in various languages [it also rhymes with "wanker" - is that accidental?]. The Crosses [with a large "C"] were called "daggers" by the noughts. On the surface, this comes from the shape of a cross, but the word does resemble "nigger". Again, is that intentional?

I am told that there are further books in the series. I may investigate them in due course, but now I need to listen to the Bookclub programme [late again!].