The Help - by Kathryn Stockett

This took me a while to read. I am not sure why, as it is not too long and not particularly hard going. I guess I had distractions. But it was worth the effort. I went through the usual three stages of reading a good book: a little while getting into it; the cruise, when it is hard to put down; slowly finishing, when I don't really want it to end.

The book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963/4 and is largely centred on three characters: Skeeter, white girl from a rich family, who wants to be a writer/journalist, and Aibileen and Minny, who are both black domestic staff. Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of these three. Basically, the story is about Skeeter writing a book, which describes the lives of black maids at that time in that area. The book is anonymous, set in a fictional town and all the names were invented. The content of the book is scandalous and a backlash was inevitable, but the subtle nuances that ensue are quite unpredictable.

The author tells us that the story is "fiction - by and large". That is a very good get out and implied that there is a considerable amount of factual material. This strengthens one's feelings about the book. It is, at various times, funny, heart-warming and deeply shocking. It is hard to imagine that people ever treated their fellow man so badly and thoughtlessly, let alone these events being so recent.

All in all, it ranks among the best books I have ever read and will stay with me for some time to come. If this book makes me, and other readers, just think for a moment about how we treat others, the author's time was well spend.

What I'm reading

I have started The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Several people have sung the praises of this book and it is doing well in the Amazon charts, so I thought I would give it a go. I am disconcerted by the way the first chapter is primarily written in Mississippi dialect, but I'll crack on.

Liberty - by Garrison Keillor

This was a fun book that kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed the read.

It is the story of Clint Bunson's slightly late mid-life crisis. He has reached the age of 60 and is wondering whether he made a dreadful mistake nearly 30 years ago and has wasted his life. This is set against the 4 July celebrations in Lake Wobegon, the organization of which is a further distraction to him.

One one side, it is a serious story about getting older and wondering "what if ...", but it is written in a light-hearted and easy to read style, with sharply drawn characters and many moments of humour.

The author's use of words is always precise, with occasional moments of inspiration. At one point, he is discussing the working of a committee and says "After all was said and done, a lot was said and not much done." Elsewhere, he refers to the result of someone passing wind with a charming simile: "The smell in the air was like buzzards had died from eating rotten eggs."

I will certainly come back and read some more by Garrison Keillor in due course.

What I'm reading

I have started Liberty by Garrison Keillor. I have enjoyed listening to The News from Lake Wobegon for many years and I love his way with words, so it'll be interesting to work through a whole book. I am reading it as a Kindle ebook on my iPad.

The Pilot's Wife - by Anita Shreve

I chose this book on the strength of the "blurb" on the back, which promised an intriguing story. On this it delivered. The story starts with a pilot's wife learning of her husband's death in a crash. She then goes on to find out much about him she did not know before.

I found some of the use of language a little awkward, but maybe that is partly to do with the age of the book ('90s), where terms like "telephone receivers" were in common use. Also, it is an American book, so maybe the author can be excused when using the word "ale" to refer to the stuff we drink in pubs. I visualised the laugh I'd get if I ordered a "pint of ale" in most English pubs. Having said this, there is the occasional floweriness or odd turn of phrase that I was disconcerted by. There is a reference to someone's "sexual life"; most people would surely say "sex life".

However, overall I enjoyed the book. It kept me turning the pages, as I wanted to know what would come next, and I read it in a lot less time than the last book! I like the feeling of being engaged with a book and looking forward to the next read and it gave me that. I have no plans to methodically work my way through all the author's other books, but I'd happily read another one if it turns up.

What I'm reading

I have started The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve. I have had this book a while, having bought it when I was last in the US in April. It was my insurance against running out of reading matter on the way home. I decided that I wanted a book with a story, so this should fit the bill.

At Home - by Bill Bryson

It took me a while to get through this book! There are several reasons for that. Firstly, it's quite a big book. Second, I just don't seem to get enough time to do reading. Third, I needed to "process" the content.

The book is really a semi-random selection of fascinating social history topics, loosely themed by the rooms in Bill's house. Hardly a page went by when I didn't learn something new or have my beliefs challenged. It is an excellent book, which I enjoyed very much and it easily earns a long term place on my bookshelf.

In a way, I wish I'd read this as an e-book, because I could then have easily added annotations and bookmarks to the particularly interesting bits.

What I'm reading ...

I am just about to start At Home by Bill Bryson. I have read some reviews and heard him discussing it on the radio this afternoon. The book is sub-titled "A short history of private life", which sums it up well. His goal is to write about social history from the perspective of how we use each of the rooms of our houses.

I have been a fan of Bryson's since I heard one of his early books serialized on the radio in the early 1990s. I believe that I have read all his books and I have met him a couple of times - once at a book signing, but earlier at a recording of the Bookclub radio programme. He is about the only author whose books I pre-order, unseen, in hardback when they are first announced. I am looking forward to diving into this one.

More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea - by Tom Reynolds.

Having read the author's previous book - Blood, Sweat and Tea - and enjoyed it, I was keen to see the follow up. Like its predecessor, it is essentially a transcription of the guy's blog, with occasional update comments. The author works for the Ambulance Service in London and his blog is drawn from his everyday experiences. As such, there is really no beginning, middle and end - it just starts and eventually stops. This makes it very easy to dip into and read a little when convenient. This fits my lifestyle very well.

Overall I enjoyed the book. He is very much a people person and it is the little details of people's lives that fascinate him and which drive his writing. This is certainly an interest that I share. It is unfortunate that he often feels moved to comment on the shortcomings of the Ambulance Service and the NHS management. Generally, he is saddened by under-resourcing and too many arbitrary performance targets. He gives a lot of insight into how the service works and it would certainly influence my decision to dial 999 [or not].

I read this as an e-book and found that the format worked well for me. I will definitely be reading more books in this way, particularly if I am travelling.

What I'm reading ...

I have started More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea by Tom Reynolds.

This book is a collection of blog entries by a paramedic talking about his professional life and his observations about people. It is a sequel to an initial volume that I read a while ago. Easy, entertaining reading that is easy to dip into.

As an experiment, I am reading this as an e-book. It seems to be going well so far.

E-books

All my life I have loved books. I was surrounded by them as a child and cannot remember a time when reading was not part of my life. As a child, my ambition was to write a book. When I was 16 I started on a science fiction novel. I wrote about 30,000 words of drivel. I think I still have the MS in my attic. I finally achieved my ambition when I was about 30.

I own lots of books. They take up an inordinate amount of space and just a few in a box make it too heavy to lift. As I am planning to move house, this is an issue that is on my mind just now. In recent years, I have got better at letting them go. Now, once I have finished reading a book, if I am quite sure that I will not refer to it again, I get rid of it - either sell it or donate it to a charity shop. But maybe a better solution is coming along ...

The demise of conventional paper books has been predicted for many years, as they are replaced by electronic books of some kind. Is that going to happen sometime soon?

Of course, we routinely refer to documents on the screen of desktop computes or laptops, but that is hardly the same thing as reading a whole book. I first tried this about 7 years ago. I was a regular user of Palm devices and got one with a larger screen and wondered what else I could do with it. I read a short novel (Nicholas Sparks, if I recall) using this device. It was easy enough, but did not become a regular habit. Why not? The simple answer is availability. This has two facets. First, the number of e-books available was very limited. Second, the device did not have the power capacity to be used for hours at a stretch.

Things are changing. I have been interested in e-book readers for a while - like the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle. But I never felt that they got cheap enough for a single function device. They both made significant advances on the availability front, with quite large libraries of material and excellent battery lives. But then along came iPad.

It is not just an e-reader - iPad is many other things as well. So it's higher price is more readily justified. Battery life is not as good as dedicated devices, but not at all bad either. Availability of material is good too. Apart from Apple's iBooks offering (which I have yet to be able to sample), the Kindle app gives easy access to Amazon's products. I am sure that others are available and more will come.

I am currently giving it a try. I have obtained some Kindle books and seeing how comfortable I am with reading on the iPad screen. I have reservations about staring at an illuminated screen just before going to sleep. Only time will tell whether this is a problem. I love the way that I can litter books with notes and bookmarks and automatically keep my place in several books at once.

I have always been a big fan of Douglas Adams, who was so creative and far sighted. Some years ago, he was the keynote speaker at a conference that I was attending. I was too busy to go to his talk, figuring that I would get to see the Great Man on another occasion. I was wrong, as he tragically died a few months later. One of his most original creations was the concept of the interactive e-book, which he called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is so sad that he did not live to see this concept embodied in iPad.

Time Traveler - by Dr. Ronald Mallett

Although the title of this book may make it sound like I am on some kind of theme, it is really just a coincidence. I got this book under semi-random circumstances. I had set out for a trip to the US with two reading books and read both of them on the flight over. This left me with nothing for the return flight. I figured that this wasn't a problem, as they have book stores in the US. Not in downtown San Jose they don't! I was amazed to hear that there was not a single book store within walking distance of my hotel, despite it being near the Convention Center and the University. I concluded that this was not a big issue, as I knew there were shops at the airport, but I happened to stop by the shop at The Tech [science/technology museum] and perused their selection of science-oriented books and was attracted by this one.

It is the auto-biography [a genre that I enjoy] of a guy whose father died when he was young. He began to wish he had a time machine to go back and see his father again. This was not just an idle fantasy - it became a lifelong quest. From very humble beginnings, he went on to become a professor of theoretical physics and devoted much research to the possibilities of time travel.

It is a moving and well told story of his journey. As the news has not had headlines of the form "Scientist travels back in time to see father", I am not giving anything away by revealing that he has, as yet, not built a time machine. But I think the author himself would agree that sometimes the journey is more rewarding than the arrival at a particular destination. And he hasn't given up yet.

The Time Traveler's Wife - by Audrey Niffenegger

It is a little while since I read this book. I had heard many good reports of it, but also comments about it being hard to get into initially, but worth the effort. It did take me a few dozen pages to get my head around the time streams, but I guess that many years of Dr Who, Star Trek etc. had prepared me well. I felt a little trepidation, as it is quite a large book and I had not been reading for a while, but I found that I was gripped well enough to not put it down.

It is a thoroughly enjoyable read, a cracking story, which is ultimately all about the people and their relationships. The time travel is just a very imaginative vehicle to carry the story.

Having read the book, I wanted to see the movie, which had mixed reviews, but I was too late, as it was no longer showing. I had it await the release of the DVD, which I bought and viewed recently. This was what spurred me on to write about the book now.

I felt the movie captured the essence of the book very well and we found it very moving. My only tiny disappointment was that a latter [the final?] scene was not included in the movie.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs - by Alexander McCall Smith

I am not sure where this book came from. Having read some of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, I guess the author's name must have caught my attention.

This book is subtitled A Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainment and is a collection of eight loosely linked stories covering the Professor's career. The lynchpin of the stories is the Professor's single major publication from which the title of this book is taken, which has sold as few copies as one might expect for a large volume covering such an obscure subject.

All in all, I was entertained and would happily read the other follow-up volumes, but probably would not seek them out. Entertaining.

The Road - by Cormac McCarthy

I was slightly daunted by this book. Although it is not excessively long [about 300 pages], there are reviews on the back cover suggesting it is worthy of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I tend to dismiss books that win such awards as being too highbrow and hard work for a casual reader like myself. But I was wrong ...

The story is about a man and his son making a trek across a post-apocalyptic [burnt] America. We are never told their names or precisely what the nature of the prior destruction was. Was it a nuclear war, or was it a natural disaster [like the eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano]? What we are told is a lot of detail about the world in which they find themselves, which is portrayed very graphically. Equally, their state of mind and feelings and those of people they encounter is clearly conveyed.

I found the book totally compelling and read it surprisingly quickly, finding it quite un-put-downable. It certainly helped a long flight pass comfortably. Highly Recommended.

Einstein's Dreams - by Alan Lightman

This book was a present last Christmas. It is unlikely that I would have read it had I not received it as a gift, but I am glad that I did.

It is a set of short essays, each presented as if it were a dream experienced by Einstein. The theme is that each dream takes place in a different world/universe, where the nature of time is different from what we are used to. For example, in one universe, the degree of order [entropy] tends to increase, the reverse of what we expect; for instance, a broken object reassembles itself. In another universe, each person's perception of time was different; one individual may observe a woman as rushing by, whereas another observer may see her strolling slowly.

I found this quite easy to read, entertaining and thought provoking. Each dream is described very much in terms of the people and their experiences, which brings it to life. Recommended.

Reading again

After a rather longer than expected break, I have started reading again. As I continue to be able to forget a book as soon as I've read it, I thought I'd get back into the habit of posting a few notes after I finish each book.

Not reading

I just haven't been in the mood for reading much lately. I think it is just the state of my personal life: too busy - not a problem. I tend to go to bed too late to read. Also, I have been doing much less business travel, which was always good reading time.

I'll get back to it ...

My Sister's Keeper - by Jodi Picoult

The concept of this book was intriguing: A family has a child with a form of leukaemia. They have another child, genetically selected to be a good donor match to her sister. The story centers around the younger sister's rebellion against her role.

The story is written in an interesting way - each chapter from a different person's perspective - which I liked. For me, perhaps it was the wrong time to read this book. The subject matter is still rather "close to home".

The story has a twist at the end that you don't see coming.

What I'm reading ...

I have started What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe.

Another belated Bookclub selection. A complex story, with lots of characters and time streams, which keeps me on my toes.

The Mermaids Singing - by Val McDermid

Another rather belated Bookclub selection.

This is a thriller, which keeps you guessing. A serial killer is at work and everyone seems to be baffled. I did figure "who done it" well before the end, but the story is none the less gripping.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed - by Alan Alda

I often think that well written autobiography is my favourite reading matter. Alan Alda has been in my life since I was in my early teens, so to hear his story just makes sense. It's not a trivial story, even though there are some funny moments - he had his breaks, but also his set-backs, the last of which gave him a new perspective on life. We can all do with that.

The Corrections - by Jonathan Franzen

This was January's Bookclub selection - I am still very behind.

At first, I was daunted by this book, being over 650 pages - quite a tome. But, once I got started, I found it quite easy to read.

The story is about a family - an elderly couple and their three grown up children. It is really a study of how their original family life was somewhat dysfunctional and the way that this had knock-on effects. There are numerous interleaving stories, some of which are looked at from the multiple viewpoints of the various characters. This sounds confusing, but it wasn't. The style kept me turning the pages. Although basically a serious book, it is not without its comic moments and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Book of General Ignorance - by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson

I bought this book as I enjoy the "QI" TV programme.

It is a collection of little known facts, with many examples of misconceptions that it puts right. It is mostly just fun, with possible conversation pieces, but a few things actually sound useful.

It was an easy read that I completed during an airplane flight.

Miss Garnet's Angel - by Salley Vickers

This was a recent Bookclub selection - I have got very behind with these.

The story is about Julia Garnet, who has retired and after the death of her companion set off to spend an extended holiday in Venice. What she gets there is, in effect, a new life. There is no complex story line or subtexts [unless I completely missed them!]. But there is lots of description of the places and the people and references to history - in particular the history of a picture that she becomes attached to.

Overall it was an enjoyable and not too taxing read.

Malignant Sadness - by Lewis Wolpert

This book has the subtitle "The Anatomy of Depression". It does not sound like light reading, but it is quite an accessible consideration of what depression is all about. The author is a scientist who has himself experienced depression.

This is the November Bookclub selection [I am rather behind]. It is not a book I would have necessarily come across by myself, though it is a topic that interests me. I think I gained some further insights from hearing his perspective.

Bill Bryson

Yesterday evening, we went to a talk by Bill Bryson. He was primarily promoting his new book, but it was rather more than a sales pitch. He is not a natural stage presence, but he is an engaging speaker nevertheless. He talked about various things that interested him, did a few readings from his books [not just the latest] and took questions.

Afterwards, he was available for book signing. It took a while, as there were quite a few people. Many of them had armfuls of books and wanted photos, which I thought was a bit of a cheek. I have met him before, but it was good to see him again.

Old Filth - by Jane Gardam

I am still behind with my reading. This was last month's Bookclub book, but at least I can still listen to the programme.

This book is the fictional life story of a solicitor, "Filth" ["Failed in London, try Hong Kong"]. It paints an interesting picture of someone born in the early 20th Century with estranged parents in the far East. It is a sad story, in some ways, because, although he never wanted for anything materially, I had the feeling that something was missing from his life. I enjoyed the read.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - by Bill Bryson

I always enjoy Bryson's writing and this book is no exception. It is effectively an autobiography of his first 10 years, but also paints a vivid picture of the US in the 1950s. There are numerous little-known facts and humorous observations. An easy read, which suited my mood.

Hopefully I will be able to attend a talk by the author in December and will be able to get my copy signed.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson.

Bill Bryson is one of a very few authors whose books I buy immediately upon publication. This is an autobiography of his early life and starts out with some good background on life in the US in the early 1950s.

Rum Punch - by Elmore Leonard

This was a Bookclub selection. I have been reading it for over a month! I don't think this is a reflection upon the book itself - just my frame of mind.

It is a crime novel and has very strong characterization. But I'm afraid that I found the story rather hard to follow and I'm not at all sure that I understood the outcome. This is probably because I spent so long reading it. I will listen to the Bookclub programme - maybe that will help ...

BookCrossing catch

For some time, I have been interested in the concept of book crossing. The idea is that you register a book on a special Web site and then leave it somewhere for someone to find. Then they can register its "capture" and may add a review to the site and "release" it themselves later. Books thus travel around and develop a life of their own.

I have released quite a few books and had the odd one found. But today I made my first "catch". I registered to get "release alerts" for books left in Cheltenham, where I happened to be going this afternoon. We went to the right spot and there it was.

The only downside is that the book was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown - a popular author, but not one of my favourites! The registration was 126-4363000.

The Invitation - by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

A good friend shared a prose poem with me, called The Invitation. It seems that the author went to a party and realized that she was very weary of the trivial conversation and questions that people pose in that context. She wrote about what she would really want to know. I have reproduced the text of the poem below.

I was quite taken with it and got the book, which gave more background. It was an easy enough read, but she struck me as the kind of person who just beats herself up all the time and makes some dumb decisions. Well, each to their own. I still enjoy the poem.

---

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - by John Berendt

This book is billed as being about a murder and its investigation. It's fair to say that the murder is a thread running through the book, but hardly makes for suspense. The true value in the book are the beautiful descriptions of the people and places of Savannah - the glimpses of the social hierarchy and stories of ordinary and extraordinary people's lives.

As an inveterate people watcher, I enjoyed the book. It made me curious about the place. Maybe I should investigate. A friend told me about the movie - perhaps I should check that too.

I am really not reading fast enough at the moment - life is too full ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

This is the next Bookclub selection. It is quite long, so it might take me a while, but it seems easy enough to read. It is set in the US Southern states, which is an area that quite interests me.

Time to Depart - by Lindsey Davis

It took me a while to get through this book - mainly because my personal circumstances just didn't allow much reading time. I enjoyed it. The story progresses well, even though I can easily get confused with all the Roman names. I always like the author's style, combining good descriptions with wit. Here is a piece that I rather enjoyed:

Normally I like widows. They are women of the world, often without guardians, and frequently adventurous. This one was different. She did not know she was a widow yet.

Now I must listen to the Bookclub programme.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis.

I have read and enjoyed a few of the Falco books. So I was glad when I heard that Lindsey Davis was going to be on Bookclub. I had planned to attend the recording, but, unfortunately, that didn't work out. But I look forward to hearing the programme next month.

Sunbathing in the Rain - by Gwyneth Lewis

I would say that this book "delivered". It gave me some insight into what depression is all about and how a depressed person sees the world. And it did that in a reasonably light- hearted way.

There were a lot of insights, some of which were disconcerting. For example:

One of the classic symptoms of depression is sleep disruption, which usually means waking up early or being unable to sleep when you're exhausted.

I know exactly how that feels.

I thought that this was insightful:

Depression happens to people who won't listen to the messages that their subconscious is sending them.

At times, the author's poetic background is very apparent:

When I was young I remember seeing a film about Helen Keller, who was born blind, deaf and dumb, and her teacher who brought her out into the world. At the start, the deeply introverted child didn't want to leave her familiar isolation and learn sign language. But her teacher forced her, pressing the words into her palm like money she didn't know how to spend.

Beautiful!

Another great observation:

The British love of pets is, therefore, highly misleading. It's a spiritual matter in heavy disguise. What people in the park are really doing, as they throw a ball for Tyson or Slipper, is taking their own souls for a run.

A great metaphor about surfing:

We were each given a surf-board, like a personal headstone to carry down the beach.

I often wondered what meditation was all about:

Prophylactic doses of boredom and depression together in the form of meditation are very helpful in building up a resistance to them in your emotional immune system.

I think this book will stay with me for a while ...

I though that the author sounded familiar. I remembered a series of talks on the radio last year and wondered if she were the same person. A quick exchange of emails confirmed that she is. Isn't the Internet wonderful.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Sunbathing in the Rain by Gwyneth Lewis.

The subtitle of this book is "A Cheerful Book About Depression", which I have to admit seems an unlikely prospect. However, this is a topic that interests me, as where ever I go I come across people who have suffered from depression. I stumbled across a recommendation for this book in a magazine article. So, I thought I'd give it a go ...

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!].

What I'm reading ...

I have started Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

Another Book Club book and I running late again - the programme is only a week away. Still, it seems to be a reasonably straightforward read. It is described as "fiction for young adults" and my daughters assure me that it's a good read.

Teacher Man - by Frank McCourt

As expected, this was a good read. McCourt is a fine story teller and the best story is always one's own. Here he's relating his years in New York, with a brief sojourn in Dublin, when he embarked upon his teaching career. His perception of what teaching is - or can be - is quite inspirational. Kids reading recipe books, as if they were poetry, accompanied by improvised music - and all that in an English class!

The book is serious, but not gloomy, and has its humorous moments. He paints very vivid pictures and his powers of observation make you feel like you were there.

I'm left hoping that there's more to tell. Will there be a 4th book?

What I'm reading ...

I have started Teacher Man by Frank McCourt.

I needed something a bit lighter to read and though this would fit the bill. I read McCourt's first book - Angela's Ashes - before it became really well-known. Then I got his second -'Tis - as soon as it came out. So I have been looking forward to this, the third volume of his autobiography, for quite a while.

It's a nice read, so far. I do like a well-written autobiography - the reality of it just works better than even the best fiction.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - by Lionel Shriver

This is a remarkable book. It basically tells the story from Kevin's birth up until a while after he committed the massacre. The mechanism of telling it by means of a series of letters is not totally original, but is very effective and, by the end of the book, seems the only way that it could have been told.

The book is beautifully written and well deserved the Orange Prize.

The author is very observant and puts things into words that one may have thought, but never been able to express, for example:

We have explicit expectations of ourselves in specific situations - beyond expectations: they are requirements. Some of these are small: If we are given a surprise party, we will be delighted. Others are sizeable: If a parent dies, we will be grief-stricken. But perhaps in tandem with these expectations is the private fear that we will fail convention in the crunch. That we will receive the fateful phone call and our mother is dead and we feel nothing. I wonder if this quiet, unutterable little fear is even keener than the fear of the bad news itself: that we will discover ourselves to be monstrous.

Her descriptive prose is very evocative:

As ever, I marveled at your appetite, recently revived; you may have been the last WASP in America who still regularly breakfasted on two eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. I could never manage more than coffee, but I loved the sizzle of smoked pork, the fragrance of browning bread, and the general atmosphere of relish for the day ahead that this ritual fostered. The sheer vigor with which you prepared this feast must have scrubbed your arteries of its consequences.

Her skill with metaphor is outstanding. Instead of using them for effect, they are always used to say something that would be harder in "straight" text, for example:

For about five minutes no one said anything, and then we gradually resumed the pretense of an ordinary morning, making no mention of Kevin's outburst the way polite people are meant to pretend they didn't notice the release of a load fart. Still the smell lingered, if less of gas than of cordite.

This book has the key elements that make me enjoy reading: it has a beginning, middle and end; the characters are well drawn; the pace is just right and keeps me turning the pages; there is a very unexpected twist at the end that really makes you draw breath.

Although this is a shocking story, it is not the stuff of nightmares. It's a tale which will stay with me for a long time.

What I'm reading ...

I have started We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

Straight on to the next Bookclub book - I am getting behind, as I don't read fast enough.

This book is about a kid who carried out a high school massacre in the US. It is told in the form of a series of letters from his mother to her estranged husband.

I was surprised to discover that the author is female - the name would suggest otherwise.

Holidays in Hell - by P J O'Rourke

I enjoyed this book. PJO's cynicism and occasional outrageous statements amused me. But at the same time, he paints vivid pictures of the places he went and the people he found there. The destinations were various political "hot spots" and other places in the news at the time of writing [mid-1980s]. My only problem is trying to remember what all the politics was about back then - a lot's happened in the world in the last 20 years.

I am bemused about the title. He's an American, but he's using the word "holiday" in the English sense, where they would normally say "vacation". Perhaps it should have been "Vacations in Valhalla".

Time to listen to the Bookclub programme now ...