ramblereads

[ramblereads]

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

This book came recommended and, as I currently have plenty of reading time, I thought I would try something a little different. I read it in a day, but I must admit I pretty much skimmed the second half. I enjoyed the adventure/fantasy side of the story as I love Arthurian legends and I enjoyed the more thoughtful side too. Kazuo Ishiguro has a wonderful way with words but I became frustrated as the book couldn’t seem to decide what it wanted to be...wanting to hear more about the adventure I found the more thoughtful passages about memory and loss getting in the way but once I became absorbed in the discussion of the bad/good sides if forgetting memories I became frustrated when the adventure intruded once more. I did find the circular conversation of the old couple interesting at the beginning but they quickly annoyed me as they became repetitive and didn’t really add anything more to the story. 

I did like that I had no idea what would happen and the abrupt ending continued that theme. I did enjoy parts of the book but I’m uncertain if it was enough to read any of Ishiguro’s previous books.

[ramblereads]

Just finished reading So Anyway...by John Cleese and Demon Summer by GM Malliet. I enjoyed both books but didn't love them...

I drove my poor husband mad when I first started reading John Cleese's autobiography as the prose was just so funny and the start of the book was very interesting and I enjoyed reading about him growing up but the second half felt a lot like then the "and then I did" writing that happened every Monday in class while we all wrote about what we did at the weekend. It was still interesting but ironically not as funny...

I enjoy GM Malliet's series of the ex-MI5 now country vicar protagonist but I am beginning to find the long Hercules Poirot type expositions at the end a poor excuse for not giving us enough information to work it all out, plus I wanted to be there when he told his bishop about the hand-fasting ceremony...

I do like learning new things though and I did with both these books, John Cleese went to school in my hometown of Bristol, England and supports the same soccer team as my dad. GM Malliet writes about herbs and berries I have never heard of and glad I never ate as a child.

I do worry about being critical of someones writing as they have spent many many hours writing and, having just finished my first novel, I totally understand  how the words you write are part of who you are but I guess none of us can help what we like and don't like...

[ramblereads]

I read...a lot and I have opinions on what I read (on everything actually but talking about the books I read will be way safer) so I thought why not share them...this won't be a serious review blog just my impressions on the books I read.