Firmin

Firmin suffers from a kind of ‘biblio-bulimia’, in a home with very little in the way of food scraps, he literally begins to devour books, and one day he actually learns to read them… he becomes insatiable and a devoted lover of all the classics and of course the bookstore owner, for whom, he imagines a life outside the bookstore.

I found this book quite sad, but also quite funny, particularly when Firmin convinces himself that he might just be able to communicate with humans,  and upon consulting a book on sign language, he attempts to gain the affections of the bookstore owner by quite hilariously performing the sign-language phrase ‘goodbye zipper’.

Don’t rush out to buy this one, unless you really like rats!

Which one should I read next? How do I choose? There are so many books…

Sometimes I grab a few books from the pile by my bed and I read each front page to see what grabs me.

How do you choose the next book?

I love holidays…. I’ve read another book!

It took me a while to get into this deeply sad, sometimes funny but mostly tragic book. The story is narrated by a nine year old boy, Oskar Schell. Oskar has his own business card “amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist” and a metal detector, which he uses to collect ‘evidence’ of a mythical sixth borough of New York’ in Central Park. Going through his recently dead fathers belongings, in an attempt not to ‘forget’ him, he finds a key in the bottom of a blue vase.

From this point on the story cleverly and humorously unfolds, as Oskar commences his investigation throughout the five, and sometimes the sixth borough, of New York city. In an attempt to find the one lock that the key opens (it has to be one of the 162 million locks in New York), while continually writing letters to his idol Stephen Hawkings, his tragic family history unfolds as family members attempt to remain close to lost loved ones.

This book is a must read! It’s deeply touching…

• And The Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
• To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• The Sea by John Banville
• Peter Pan by J. M Barrie

What’s on your bedside table? click here to tell us!

Image: www.flickr.com/photos/39601377@N00/29875570

I loved this book from the first page,  I did get a bit frustrated in parts, but it has certainly made me want to read more from Ian McEwan.

If you love words, you’ll love this book.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, Ian McEwan sure does write a poignant story, in fact you can almost smell and touch everything he describes. I love that I had to keep a notebook by the bed to write down some of his wonderfully crafted words and when I revisit the notes, I am taken back to the book. I wonder if I can give you a feel of the book with phrases, like, “soporific heat”, “a visceral dread”, “vertiginous experience”, “burnished experience”, “impetuous”, “excruciating physical reticence”, “she felt pinioned”. habitually sealed off”, “a polite disctraction”, “formidably intelligent”, “by ineluctable forces”….

Now you don’t have to read it! Ha!

Sitting here nibbling on left over Christmas goodies and feasting on Italian Joy-great Chrissie/Holiday reading – a visually beautiful book filled with photos of Italy/Florence  and text describing one woman’s discovery of Italy, life, photography and herself. One could say a bit cliched, but still an overall exquisite book to look at and thro. The thing about a book like this is that it makes me feel my own options are endless. Then again if any of us snapped pics all around us and scribbled captions the world over would envy us!!!

I might add her original life in Sydney didn’t sound so bad to me!!

http://www.carlacoulson.com/italian%20joy.html

As an example he looks at the impact of the IPod design and its progession to simplicity. Changes in organisation of the design create big differences in how we feel about complex technology and our confidence to use it.

Why do people pay so much more for the IPod mp3 players when they do less than their cheaper competitors? We are greatly attracted to simplicity and although we want the technology to do all the complex moves – we only want to access them when needed.

John has developed ten laws of simplicity to deal with technology in our lives. These are Reduce, Organize, Time, Learn, Differences, Context, Emotion, Trust, Failure, The one.

Although a non-fiction book and perhaps not everyone’s idea of holiday reading, it is written so eloquently that I feel inspired and energised by it. A beautiful book which advocates creating simplicity in our lives by engaging with complexity in a new way.

It is about four very different women all in their fifties, separated by geographical distance, but united by their decades-old friendship, each learn about themselves, their past and their future in very different ways and some life-changing decisions are made.

The book explores four very different stories which overlap, diverge and merge again throughout the book. The reader is given the opportunity to know each of the four women intimately and to witness their friendship and their growth on a first hand basis.

It you want to ‘reflect’ on where you currently are in life then this book is an excellent read.  I would rate it 8 out of 10.

Here are my top 5 suggestions

Image: ‘untitled‘ www.flickr.com/photos/50502690@N00/2228237163

1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel – for something relaxing, wonderful, universal, mystical, spiritual, it ticks all the boxes for me! I love the ending.
2. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters – I adore the way Sarah Waters writes. This book is written in three parts. A completely engaging period drama (…and I usually hate period pieces), a book that shocks you with its twists and turns, I literally said ‘oh my god’ out loud on a regular basis. It’s not your usual love story, but it will have you on the edge of your seat. I lost sleep because I just could not put it down. My Dad loved it too…
3. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre – Wow! If you’re after a modern day ‘Catcher in the Rye’ for the  holidays, this is it. This book, although a story about a mass shooting in school, is quite funny,  the black humour, had me laughing out loud, and annoyingly, reading out loud in parts.
4. Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Okay, so I’ve chosen another love story, but with a twist, the lead character is dead. When you die, who do you meet?  Was your life really as insignificant as you think? I actually read this small book through one night. I woke my partner up sobbing at one stage (okay so it was late and I was tired). This book really pulled at my heart strings. I preferred it to Tuesdays with Morrie.
5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – Don’t groan, okay, so it’s no classic, but if you haven’t read it, read it! This book reminded me that I should read more! What an adventure… I couldn’t put it down. I actually hadn’t read for ages… and then I picked up this book. Since then, I haven’t stopped reading.

I read the back which says;

“We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book. It is  a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it”

I took the bait…

“Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we’ll just say this:

It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific”

I’m hooked….

“The story starts here, but the book doesn’t. And it’s what happens afterwards that is most important.

Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds”

Reel me in!

Yes, it’s funny, sad and a deeply humanizing story. It’s a great read. So I wont spoil it for you, but I will tell you that I loved the characters in this book, particularly the four year old, ‘Batman’. I read The Other Hand very quickly, no doubt the story will stay with me for a while.