Well, now that I've got that confession off my chest we can do this thing properly. My reading mojo has well and truly departed but that isn't stopping me from eyeing up my "to be read" pile and thinking it should be bigger. I meant to buy just one book but then more kept creeping into my hands and they all smelt so good. Have you ever tried telling a book you're not going to buy it? It's hard! My bank account hates me.
Where was I? Ah yes...sniffing books. The one book I actually truly intended on buying/sniffing was Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. I have wanted to read this for months but couldn't find it in any bookstore so I waited and waited until my local Waterstones finally put the damn book right at the front of the store. There is a strong chance I was looking in the wrong place and all the bookstores I visited actually had it. I zone out a lot.
The Underground Railroad is about exactly what the title suggests and it was reviewed by Obama so you know it’s going to be good. I’m slowly but surely making my way through it and I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds.
Thanks to The Underground Railroad having the "buy one get one-half price" sticker on it, I ended up with Irvine Welsh's newest book The Blade Artist. I had read about The Blade Artist a few months ago and the concept just did not appeal. A story about Trainspotting's psychopath that is Frank Begbie moving to America didn't sound all that great until I listened to an interview with Irvine Welsh himself. I've skimmed through The Blade Artist and it seems to be written in English unless Begbie is speaking so maybe I'll actually understand it a lot more than Trainspotting.
Following up on psychopaths, Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith was picked up as the cover intrigued my other half and I. You can't have a book haul without a detective story and Child 44 tells the tale of an investigation into a number of child murders in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. Why do we refrain from reading nice books?
I asked why we don't read nice books and then I hit you with a book on Cristiano Ronaldo. I feel like I should be ashamed to admit Cristiano Ronaldo is on my freebie list and is probably my most searched for subject on Pinterest but I'm not. Guillem Balague's book on Ronaldo was bought for me as a joke but I've skimmed through a bit of it and it actually seems like an interesting, albeit very easy, read. It has pictures too not that I'm looking at them or anything...
A few months ago, Han Kang's Human Acts made my other half walk around for a few hours in a daze so, when we noticed The Vegetarian hiding on a shelf, we added it to the pile. My other half has since finished The Vegetarian and has confirmed it is in fact about a vegetarian. Who would've guessed!
Is there really a bit in Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis where he talks about how his dad showed him how to grow a fingernail to be used as a cocaine spoon because what? Scar Tissue ended up being purchased despite the fact we're not Red Hot Chili Peppers fans because it just seems like a crazy read and I’m down with that.
The Power by Naomi Alderman was actually recommended to me by the sales assistant in Waterstones. We were having an in depth discussion about books when she mentioned she had read and loved The Power but didn’t have anyone to talk about it with yet. The Power is a Malorie Blackman Noughts and Crosses sort of deal but rather than reverse skin colour privilege, it’s reverse gender privilege so the women have the power. I’m curious to know how this story is going to play out as, from what I’ve read online, it seems rather hardcore at times.
I really wish I had read more of these books by now but I'm still sitting pretty on page 46 of The Underground Railroad. I've been too distracted by drawing recently to dedicate time to reading and when I do pick up a book, I get distracted by crisps. If I haven't made a dent in this haul by the end of September, I won't buy any more books...we all know this is a lie right? Don't hold me to a lie.
Post a Comment