90. 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac

Well you might have noticed that I've not blogged of late, and that is because On the Road is a battle to get through. I've been reading it for over 6 weeks, which considering it is just under 300 pages long, is ridiculous - but I think tells you something about my feelings on it. It did not grip me. At all.

So where to start? On the Road follows Sal Paradise- a supposedly ironic name which is too pedestrian to mention - on a road trip adventure across America, encountering a variety of characters and tedious situations, looking for fun and finding none. All funded by his poor old Aunt.

As a forerunner of 'beat' literature, at the time of publishing this was considered a groundbreaking novel. I've read beat literature before and I find it self indulgent rambling, often lacking in plot and characterisation, and this is exactly what On the Road is. There are so many characters that they are not only hard to keep track of but they are not given any background or history and you really don't care about them at all. Sal and whoever he happens to be travelling with, moan about their lives, get drunk, get high and find girls. Then drive somewhere else, zig zagging across the country and do more of the same. Repeat until end. They hit on every woman they find, occasionally marry them, then leave them for the road again. Niiiice. The way they treat women throughout is awful, they are either sex objects or a bank to fund their travels.

There are certain times and scenarios in the book which are fairly interesting, almost like short stories within the novel. But these are limited and sparse. There was absolutely no pull for me to pick this book up and I was reading because I had to rather than wanting to.

The overwhelming feeling I felt when I finished this was relief. If you are contemplating reading it I really wouldn't bother, unless you like books without a plot and with two dimensional characters. The whole book has a somber undertone to it, as the characters constantly search for fun whilst actually having very little of it. Saying that I am intrigued to see the forthcoming film, not because I want to see how this translates on screen, but to see if they actually manage to pull some sort of a plot out of the bag which I totally missed.

So let that be a lesson kids - life and happiness are not found on the road getting pissed. And novels are not good when they don't have a plot.

91. ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo

First, let’s start by saying if you haven't read The Godfather, scoot on over to Amazon immediately if not sooner and treat yourself to your new favourite book. Seriously.

This was my choice for our Book Club (yep Im in a book club, because clearly 100 books to read just isn't enough) and it was unanimously agreed that The Godfather is a fantastic read. It has everything you would want in a book; family, power, corruption, tradition, history, love, respect, murder, humour, tension. It’s amazing. It’s also littered with social references that you’ve heard of but never really understand unless you’ve read the book or seen the film – the horses head in the bed; sleeping with the fishes; going to the mattresses – all from the mafia world of The Godfather.

From the very first page you are immediately drawn into the story, the mafia underworld and the imposing character of Don Corleone, as well as the status and reputation that he holds within his society. And that’s it - you’re hooked on this rollercoaster of a book from there on out. There are two narrative climaxes within the book which made my heart race so fast I thought it was going to jump out of my chest - but there are also some slower paced parts which go further in depth into the Corleone family history. Some people in our Book Club found that this created a lull in the middle of the book, but I found that whilst the pace certainly slows it is here that as the reader you learn more of the history and the characters. This then serves to make The Godfather a more rounded novel and certainly increases your understanding of the characters and the world this is set in. I found this was not only a relief but something I was asking for and wanting to know as a reader.

I must admit, I’ve always dismissed this as a ‘boys’ book’ or as a book that people had on their shelves but never really read....I have no idea why! But it’s not at all – it’s really well written with in-depth well rounded characters that you really feel for and care about, even though to the normal outside world they are pretty awful gangsters and murderers. Yes, it’s violent at times, but it is in line with the narrative and not especially glorified.

I think watching someone read this book must be like a spectator sport - the faces I was pulling on the tram on the way to work were getting me some seriously odd looks, and the girls in book club said that many people would stop them when they were reading this in public to discuss it. And if you’ve seen the film but not read the book, read it. I watched the film after reading this and although it is very true to it, as always it’s not a patch on the book itself.

Already, I cannot wait to re-read this.

Respect.

Don Crandon.

92. ‘The Clan Of The Cave Bear’ by Jean M Auel

Now there are a few things in life which I don’t let myself think about too much as they make my brain hurt– it’s not that I don’t understand their concepts, I do, it just makes me feel funny when I dwell on them too much. These include space (it has to end somewhere), time travel (yes Im aware this doesn’t actually exist but the concept pickles my brain), humans growing humans (or baby making if you will) and evolution…*shudder*. Anyway, I managed to get past these evolution shenanigans while reading The Clan of the Cave Bear, but it does make you think.

The Clan of the Cave Bear is a young adult book about an ancient tribe of Neanderthal cave people. The reader learns all about their customs, traditions and beliefs through the eyes of Ayla, a human who is rescued by a woman of the clan and who is taken in by them as one of their own. Like us readers, she is an outsider within the clan, and she is referred to as one of ‘the Others’ who has to learn their ways and constantly challenges their beliefs and traditions. Even though this is set hundreds of thousands of years ago, the novel raises and questions many issues relevant in today’s society; religion, sexism, feminism, and racism – all the isms – so it’s a good moral tale for its younger audience I guess.

Now, you may have noticed that this one took me a while to get through! It is looooong, and although I quite liked it, it was just an OK kind of book. Nice to read on my commute but it wasn’t one I was eager to pick it up and read elsewhere. It also does tend to drag – Jean Auel obviously did her research into this ancient time, but there are many overly long descriptions which are unnecessary and I found myself skipping over them. Some of the storylines do drag on and the characters seem to only have one focus or purpose each. The submissive women annoyed me and the fact that the main character Ayla always went against the grain but came out on top was slightly annoying too. I probably would’ve read and enjoyed this when I was about 12, but Im not sure I would’ve wanted to pick up one of the sequels, or have read over and over and over again like I used to when I was younger.

This is an inoffensive story with interesting ideas, but just a ‘fine’ kind of a read.

93. ‘The Colour of Magic’ by Terry Pratchett

I find that readers of Terry Pratchett either really like him and have every one of his books proudly displayed on their bookshelves at home, in hardback. Or, they have read one, didn’t really enjoy and haven’t read another since.

Until this book I fell into neither camp as I’d never read any Pratchett. Fantasy novels don’t really do it for me (more on that later) and so I’d never felt the urge to pick one up. Saying that, I do quite like him as a person in interviews and have heard that the humour is quite good and so was slightly intrigued and ready to see what I was missing.

                                                    This is the cover of my first copy which I left on a Virgin Pendolino to London. Doh.

The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series. Set in a paradoxical universe not too dissimilar from the world in which we live, the novel follows the wizard Rincewind -who knows just the one spell - as he is tasked with looking after Twoflower, the Discworld’s first tourist from another world. Twoflower wants to experience and is excited by everything in this new world, which leads to him often acting like a fool and getting them into all sorts of trouble and misadventures. He finds the good in everything, even when faced with death (as they often are), and rather than see the danger, gets excited about everything much to Rincewind’s annoyance. The two characters end up on a fantastical adventure to the end of the universe, quite accidentally, and encounter everything from men made of water, dragons, barbarians, Fate and Death.

The book is quite funny and Pratchett clearly has a dry sense of humour which I enjoyed, however I just didn’t really ever connect to the narrative or the characters. I liked some of the aspects of the world in which they live, like Twoflower’s ‘picturebox’ acting with the same principals of a camera, only images are painted by a little tiny man who lives inside of the box and who happens to run out of pink meaning all pictures there on in to be in black and white. So it offers a different look at the world. But the novel doesn’t actually offer many resolutions - we don’t know what happens to Twoflower in the end, and the characters seem to move from place to place and dimension to dimension without you really actually caring….or maybe that’s just me!

And this is the problem I mostly have with fantasy novels - they are pretty easy. I don’t mean this in the sense that they are easy reading, I mean that without the restraints of the actualities of the world in which we live, the author is able to make anything up in order to aid their narrative or get the characters out of a tight spot. Rincewind and Twoflower at one point are facing certain death (well this happens a lot actually) and are free falling off the back of a dragon, plummeting to their death from space, when without warning they find themselves inexplicably on an aeroplane in the real world and on their way to America. Then, just like that they are back and then they happen to be out of their little predicament….!

I just it frustrating that anything can be changed or happen at any time. It’s just unrealistic….’Well obviously,’ I hear you cry,’ its fantasy, that’s the point!’ and I know, I know but it just doesn’t float my reading boat. Just as well there aren’t loads of Pratchett on this list eh?....oh…wait…there are….maybe they get better as we move on!

94. ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho

I’ve read The Alchemist once before when I was about 20 or 21. I remember reading it on the bus on the way to work, getting off at my stop with one page left to read and thinking that I was so fed up with it I wasn’t even going to bother reading the final page (and therefore actually finding out what is actually discovered) and so I didn’t. Looking back I think the reason I disliked it so much was the importance people gave it - how life changing it was and soul searching, which basically just encouraged lots of eye rolling from me.

However, I must be getting less cynical in my old age or something as this time around I quite enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say I would read another Coelho but there was a definite decrease in the eye rolling and I even read the final page this time, so much better second time around already!

This is such a simplistic story, yet does grapple with the larger aspects of life (I can feel your eyeballs starting but stick with me here). It’s basically about a young boy who has his life as a shepherd pretty much sorted, but he discovers that whilst he is good at his job and likes his life, he yearns for more. It is about following your dreams and hopes in life and encourages the reader not to give up on these at any age, or fall at the first hurdle. He overcomes his struggles and continues in his quest to make his life changing discovery.

I can certainly see why people would read this and find comfort in it, especially if they are changing their life in some way, but it does tend to err on the side of the self-help at times. I however was just reading it for entertainment sake and it was not too bad! Yes it was quite puke inducing airy fairy twaddle at times, but if you just go with it and understand that this is what it is, then it’s enjoyable. Characters do talk to the wind though, and the soul of the earth and the soul of the sun which was a bit weird, and there was definitely still some eye rolling at this - I mean I’m less cynical, but I’m still me!

But all in all this was a good simple story which is quite encouraging and about living life to the full.

And there’s not much wrong with that.

95. 'Katherine' by Anya Seton

Urgh. What can I say? There was many a reason why I didn’t want to read this book from the offset:

1) Can we please take a moment to look at the cover?

I am aware that there are rules about judging books by their covers, but we all do it. The soft focus, the insipid look on the girls face, THE ROSE!! Not a cover that draws me in!

2) Still on the cover – can we please take a moment to notice that this is billed as ‘A Romantic Saga’? I can’t say this genre really floats my boat.

3) This is the first book on the list I’ve never heard of. And no one I spoke to whilst reading it had heard of it either, which in a list of people’s favourite books did not bode well for me!

4) As a buyer of second hand books (thank you Charity shops and Amazon marketplace – yes I’m saving the planet one book at a time) the telling tale of a less than enjoyable  read by the previous owner is a bookmark/corner turn on an early page. Or look at where the creased spine stops to see how far Mr Previous Owner got in their reading. In this case it was a measly page 45 out of 573 pages (I know the amount of pages off by heart as I kept looking to see how much I had to go – not a good sign!)

So, with all these points in mind, I was less that thrilled to have to read this. But I did. And I got much further than page 45 thankfully, and actually finished it. But it was a hard slog and I couldn’t wait for it to end.

The novel is historical fiction based on the real events of a girl of lowly stock who falls in love with a Duke. They can’t marry for whatever reason(s) and she ends up marrying someone who is awful who then dies (murdered! Gasp!) And then she basically lives in sin with the Duke. Everyone knows about it but no one really cares as this was the norm in the 14^th Century apparently. Thank god I was not a woman in these times. Basically nothing of note happens FOR AGES. There is a lot of swooning and longing glances and well to do people at court and forbidden love and what not. Then at about page 400 some interesting things happen involving rampaging, bloody gruesome murders, heads on sticks and exiles. This part is actually pretty grim but eventful! You do however have to put your time in to get to the good stuff, and had I not had this challenge to do, I would not have made it this far.

The novel covers many 14^th century politics and events, which if I was interested in these times, I would probably have found interesting. But sadly I’m not. The character of Katherine is two dimensional, she basically has zero character flaws even though she is not really the best human being around, but she is forgiven everything by the characters she encounters as she is very beautiful. Although she does represent a pretty strong woman for the 1300’s which is kind of refreshing at times. Although at others I found myself rolling my eyes – a lot.

So although I was not overjoyed with this book, it was readable but I often had to force myself to read it. I would not recommend this I have to say. But hey, if historical romantic sagas are your thing, then perhaps this is the book for you…

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Two rather exciting things happened during the last month with concerns to this blog – first, my lovely ladies Liz, Sally, Kate and Jo all got me a Kindle for my birthday. Exciting! I must admit, I was a total naysayer about e-readers, however sat with one in my hand that was actually mine I was SO EXCITED! I have already started my next book on it and its sooooo good and very handy! It’s light so I don’t have to break my back lugging around my massive tomes and you can read with one hand! At any angle! Oh I love love love! And there are so many free books available too. I still love the touch and feel of a real book, and I will still continue to buy books I love which I want on my bookshelf, but I also love the ease of this for everyday life.

And secondly, my lovely sister came to visit and gave me 45 of the books on my list which had been dutifully scoured from the charity shops of Whitchurch. Take a peak at them below. Phew wee! I better get reading! And this isn’t even half of them! So my future reading adventures will be a mix of both Kindle and books. Hurrah!

Happy reading!

x

96. ‘Kane and Abel’ by Jeffrey Archer

Well who knew?! Jerry Archer writes a good read! And here I was thinking he wrote mind-numbingly boring political sagas for what I like to call the ‘Dad market’. And other than the whole perjury thing, and of course the Bridget Jones’ cameo (like our old friend Mr Rushdie – what is it with that film?!) these were all my previous thoughts on Mr Archer.

Well, that is until I read Kane and Abel, which I don’t mind admitting I loved! Funny things happened when toting this book around with me - people were actually interested in my reading it – none more so that the lady on the tram who one day into reading it on my way to work, stopped me to tell me she’d read it four times before, the first time being when she was 13 and that it was amazing. Yikes. Combined with the fact it’s had 30 imprints or something, I began to think early on that this one couldn’t be too bad!

Spanning a lifetime and covering many countries, Kane and Abel follows the lives of two characters (go on, have a stab at their names…) from very different backgrounds whose lives firstly mirror each other, and then in the later years begin to intertwine and affect one another, often unbeknownst to them. From birth to death, the reader shares their fortunes as well as misfortunes and although the supposed twist is pretty glaringly obvious, I often found myself reading this open mouthed at times. Yes, even in public.

I also happened to be reading this on a pretty awesome California road trip (shout out to the lovely Misses Nisha and Mirielle and of course lady of the moment Jessica!) and whilst Kane and Abel is mostly set between Chicago, New York and Boston, being in America and on holiday certainly enhanced my liking of this book. Not least the fact that during my trip I was staying with a family, whose ancestors had emigrated to the US from Europe, much like Abel.

So all in all I really enjoyed this one, and I would say if you’re heading on your hols this year and haven’t read it, it’s definitely worth packing.

Now for a gratuitous pic of my holibobs (sans book sadly)

97. ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I was asked by a friend a couple of days ago, (shout out here to the lovely Goz), whether I’d ever received a love letter. After thinking about it a little while I concluded that No, I hadn’t. So lets bypass how unromantic this is for me (a boo hoo!) and tell you that this made me think about the latest book on my list - which is ALL about the love letters, with the main character writing one at least everyday. Love in the Time of Cholera in fact could probably not be written by Mr Marquez if he wanted to write again and set it in the modern day, as I’m not entirely sure if love letters are still even written these days? This is not a rhetorical question, if any of you readers have either written and sent a love letter, or received one, I’d like to know. And I mean letter letter, not a love ‘email’, or a love ‘text’, or any other form of written romance via a social media network. Anyone? Or have you all received hundreds and its just little old tragic me?!

So anyway, I seem to digress. Yes, this book is in its most simplistic terms, all about love. First love, married love, illicit love, lost love, fast love, old love, new love, and of course everyone’s old friend, unrequited love. Love is at the very heart of this tale which follows three characters over a span of more than 60 years, as they experience love in all its lovely deliciously heartbreaking forms. Florentino is the epitome of a hopeless romantic, which at different times is sweet, disturbing and annoyingly frustrating. He is besotted with Fermina and basically lives his life to love her but is denied the opportunity and so often looses his way.. As long as we bypass the bordering on paedophilic relationship he has at one point in the book (which is somehow not as disturbing as it sounds), he is painfully romantic, and just a little bit OTT. Set in the Caribbean, this book takes you on a wonderfully vivid journey through the lives of these characters as they grow and change along with the world around them, and into their different roles throughout their lives.

If I am learning anything as I make my way through this reading list, its that the old adage that ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’ is proving quite true, although in my case I shouldn’t judge on its title. I wasn’t looking forward to reading Love in the Time of Cholera at all - thinking that it would be epic, dusty, heavy and for some reason full of soul searching and death. And it’s not. It’s poetic, wildly romantic and even funny. I can see why so many people voted for this one – I’ve literally just finished it on the train (see pic below – wonderful lighting courtesy of Arriva Trains Wales) and as I write I’m already looking forward to reading this again in the future. I expect as it covers all forms of love, as the reader you’d enjoy and identify with different aspects of the story at different milestones in your life making it one to keep re reading until you can no longer find your old lady reading glasses. So, a good one. Hurrah!

98. 'Girls in Love' by Jacqueline Wilson

This is the first of four books in the top 100 by Jacqueline Wilson, which goes to show how influential and much loved children's books are! I adored her books when I was younger, particularly The Story of Tracey Beaker and The Bed and Breakfast Star and I read Girls in Love when it first came out when I was about 12.

Having just read The Princess Diaries, it was difficult not to compare the two books, as they are so similar. They both begin a series of teenage novels, and like The Princess Diaries, Girls in Love is a story about Ellie and her two best friends, as they navigate their way through their first boyfriends and the troubles of high school. It also deals with the usual teenage issues; boys, friendship troubles, absent parents - but also more interesting and applicable issues like going clubbing for the first time, drugs, drinking, lying to parents and (shock horror) having sex. These issues are not dealt with so frankly in The Princess Diaries, and I think this is more to do with Wilson being a British author, and therefore dealing with issues more appropriate to British teenage girls, with both a frankness and warmth. As a reader you really like Ellie as a character, as well as her friends, and you want them to make the right choices which I suppose is the moral for the teenage audience.
The narrative was a little weaker than that of The Princess Diaries however, but they were both good and I would recommend them both to young teenage girls.

What strikes me most about these two books however is who exactly voted for them?! Not because I think they don't deserve to be in the top 100, but as these are relatively new novels they would not carry the nostalgic vote of the adult audience which a classic like The Secret Garden might have, and these are not aimed at ages in which a parent would read these books to their child, and I doubt 12 year old girls were voting in the Big Read...so with this in mind its interesting that they appear in the list at all - but I'm glad they do. I certainly enjoyed these more than Salman Rushdie...but maybe that says more about me!