The Sunday Salon: Reading is beating me

Very quickly, today is the last day to enter my draw for a copy of The Blind Assassin over here.

I'm really struggling with my reading at the moment, I'm either in a grump so just not enjoying great books, its either that or I'm not picking great books off my tbr pile.
I started mid week reading Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I was hoping that I'd enjoy this as everyone raves about him (although I didn't really enjoy The Great Gatsby which everyone else seems to love).
The book is meant to be partly autobiographical and charts his relationship with his wife - which bizarrely started off with her having a breakdown and he was a pyschologist used to flirt with her through letters to bring her out of herself. He moves on to detail the affair he had and his struggle with this affair.
I didn't get on with the narration of this book, or his clear lack of love for the women he had an affair with. The whole thing felt like he was trying to explain his behaviour.


After this I moved onto Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas, another 1001 read which has been on the TBR pile for many years. The 4 star rating on amazon, the synopsis and the gorgeous cover all had my hopes up high. But this was another book which floundered for me - it was a 'true tale' which the author spent a large percentage of the book describing how he discovered the story and the events after publishing this story.

Both these books I believed would be novels and both turned out to be based on true stories and had fairly dry narration. I've read a few pages of my next read, thankfully it looks like a real novel this time.

This afternoon I'm off to Colchester, one of the oldest towns in England. I'm taking my camera to get a few snaps of the cobbled streets and then meeting some local bookcrossers to chat and swap books. The pub we are meeting in is an OBCZ (official bookcrossing zone), so hopefully will have a set of shelves with free books that I can browse and leave some of my own books on.

Giveaway

Just a few more days to apply for my giveaway.

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G Wells

This month I'm trying to focus all my reading time on 1001 books in the attempt to reach my target of 40 for the year. I started with The Island of Dr. Moreau as it is a bookring which I need to get moving to the next reader.

THE STORY:
Prendick accounts his time on an island of nightmares. He finds himself turfed out of the boat he is travelling after the captain is scared off by the other passengers on board. These passengers help Moreau to an island which they inhabit.
Trying to be secretive about the happenings on the island they attempt to keep the truth from Prendick, but he begins to notice small anomalies, like the hairy pointed ears of one of the servants and the howling of animals.
Exploring, Prendick discovers animals who can talk, walk like men and obey the orders of the man who brought him to there.

MY THOUGHTS:
I'm not a sci-fi fan, but having read and enjoyed Wells at university I was expecting to enjoy this - and in places I did. However there were many times when I was tempted to give up, if it had been a longer book I doubt I would have read to the end. I was often confused as to what was happening, and didn't really get along with the dry narrative voice of the tale, which never managed to strike in me the horror of these animals.

World Book Night Giveaway

It's World Book Night tonight, and as a way to encourage reading 1,000,000 books are being given away. 25 titles have been picked and volunteers have been given 48 copies of the title they selected to give away.
I was lucky to be selected and picked up 48 copies of Margaret Atwood's fantastic 'The Blind Assassin' to give away. I'm offering mine to some of the more able readers at school, the teachers and a few bookcrossers. I will also be wildrealeasing some of these novels and handing some out over the next few days.



PLUS I have 2 to give away through my blog. One to a UK blogger and one to an International blogger. For a chance to win just leave a comment below with your email address.

Top Ten Books I just had to buy....which are still sitting on my shelf unread.

1. Love by Toni Morrison, I read one of her books and just has to have a few more..a good 5 years ago.
2. The Peacock Throne, Loved the cover and couldn't resist buying it but have had no compulsion to read it since.
3. The Mad Woman in the Attic, Gilbert and Gubar because I wanted to feel like a university student again.
4. A Human Being Died that Night, Eva wrote a great review so I ordered it straight away.
5. Affinity, Sarah Waters once I read one of her novels I had to read them all. I've since read 2 of her books which she has published since this purchase.
6. Don Quixote a desire to be more 'well read'.
7. Peter Pan, J.M Barrie because I just 'had to' have this edition.
8. The Bible, because I was told literature students would need one, never used in the 12 years since then.
9. Yellow Dog, Martin Amis because I thought he was an author I should read.
10. The Brothers Karamzov because I thought as a literature student I should read Dostoevsky.

This meme can be found over at The Broke and the Bookish

Room by Emma Donoghue

This book has been all over the blogsphere, booksites and bookshop windows for ages I am starting to wonder if there are many people left who haven't read it!

For those handful of you who haven't, the novel is narrated by 5 year old Jack. His whole life has been spent in one single locked Room. His world is created by Wardrobe, the place to sleep, TV where his bestfriends live, Rug where he does his PE lessons, and his mother who works hard to create as normal life for him as she possibly can. Kidnapped, his mother is determined that her son will not know that he is missing out on life outside Room. So much so, that she doesn't tell him about the world outside.
Yet one day he discovers the truth. From then on we see how he processes the information and deals with the reality of his life.

I loved many elements of this novel, the 5 year old narration and view point, the mother-son bond and the little shell of a world in which they exist. In a few places the story is dubious - his language skills are just too far advanced, and in one or two places the narration stutters and an anonymous narrator seems to slip through for just the breifest of moments.

As much as I enjoyed the book I'm surprised that it got so far in the Man Booker prize as I read it as a light read (my plane read) and wouldn't consider it literature. I also can't see it hanging around for a long time, and would class it with Jodi Picoult style novels.
What did you think about it's Booker nomination? Did you think it deserved its place?

Trash by Andy Mulligan

I got sent this book as my first read for UK BookTours a site which allows those in the UK to read YA ARCs.

THE STORY: Set in a slum the children and adults on the site make a poor living sifting through moutains of rubbish in search of plastic to feed themselves, and the hope of finding some new clothes. Each has a dream of one day discovering treasure which will save them from this life of misery. One day Rapheal does. Yet the discovery doesn't lead him down the yellow brick road but rather leads to a chase to discovery against the will of the police.

MY THOUGHTS: I would aim this book at children aged 10-12 and think for them this would be great, its like a modern day Famous Five but without the glitz and sugar coating. The book opens us up to a world we rarely see. I enjoyed the read, their journey and the mystery of what was going on. You have to accept that these boys are some how educated and pretty quick witted despite their lack of education and knowledge of the world.