The Farm
Richard & Judy's book club is in its third bookboosting year, and today they were discussing another book I haven't read yet:
The Farm
by
Richard Benson
And I probably never will read it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't not-read-it for any snobby reasons: I've been impressed by the quality of the books chosen for the show - although there are always one or two books that no bloke would ever read, given the choice. It's just life on a farm ain't my scene, however well written.
Of the ten books on this year's list I have actually read three of them already. Yes, really. Three! I bet you thought I spent all my time blogging and not-reading didn't you?
I enjoyed The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. At times it reminded me of one of my favourite books of the last ten years: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, as well as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Impressively, The History of Love came recommended not just by Richard and Judy, but by two of my favourite writers: JM Coetzee (who described it as "charming, tender and wholly original") and Ali Smith ("a beauty of a book, totally alive...") It certainly is a beautiful book, in a similar vein to The Shadow of the Wind from last year's list - not as atmospheric, but certainly more poignant. How can we not take Leo Gursky to our hearts when presented with such a lonely existence: "All I want is not to die on a day when I went unseen," he says.
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes was on the Booker Prize shortlist last year and the real life events it depicts were the subject of a recent BBC2 documentary. To be honest, I think anyone who saw that documentary will be frustrated by the slowness of the book. Fascinating as the story is, for me it fell rather flat compared to his previous work. But I'll come back to Barnes when I discuss not-having-yet-read A History of the World in 10½ Chapters.
In its characters' quest for a long-missing stuffed bird, The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies has echoes of Barnes' classic Flaubert's Parrot, but is much more in the page-turner mould of a Robert Goddard thriller. On the literary spectrum it lies somewhere between AS Byatt's Possession and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. But then, what doesn't?
And talk of The Da Vinci Code brings me to Kate Mosse's Labyrinth - another book involving a quest for the Holy Grail - which shifted 52,000 copies after being featured last week (when Richard was particularly enthusiastic). It's usually good fun to try and predict the winner of these literary contests, but this year it looks like a foregone conclusion to me. Even before the first book was opened Labyrinth looked the obvious front-runner. I expect it will be my featured book-I-haven't-read-yet when it is announced as the winner a couple of months from now. However, the bookies disagree and you can get odds as high as 7-1 against Labyrinth at the moment. I might just go and bite their hand off...
The other 9 books featured on Richard & Judy's Book Club are:
Have you read any of the books I haven't? Feel free to tell me what you thought of them.
Better still recommend some that you haven't read either!
The Farm
by
Richard Benson
And I probably never will read it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't not-read-it for any snobby reasons: I've been impressed by the quality of the books chosen for the show - although there are always one or two books that no bloke would ever read, given the choice. It's just life on a farm ain't my scene, however well written.
Of the ten books on this year's list I have actually read three of them already. Yes, really. Three! I bet you thought I spent all my time blogging and not-reading didn't you?
I enjoyed The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss. At times it reminded me of one of my favourite books of the last ten years: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, as well as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Impressively, The History of Love came recommended not just by Richard and Judy, but by two of my favourite writers: JM Coetzee (who described it as "charming, tender and wholly original") and Ali Smith ("a beauty of a book, totally alive...") It certainly is a beautiful book, in a similar vein to The Shadow of the Wind from last year's list - not as atmospheric, but certainly more poignant. How can we not take Leo Gursky to our hearts when presented with such a lonely existence: "All I want is not to die on a day when I went unseen," he says. Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes was on the Booker Prize shortlist last year and the real life events it depicts were the subject of a recent BBC2 documentary. To be honest, I think anyone who saw that documentary will be frustrated by the slowness of the book. Fascinating as the story is, for me it fell rather flat compared to his previous work. But I'll come back to Barnes when I discuss not-having-yet-read A History of the World in 10½ Chapters.In its characters' quest for a long-missing stuffed bird, The Conjuror's Bird
by Martin Davies has echoes of Barnes' classic Flaubert's Parrot, but is much more in the page-turner mould of a Robert Goddard thriller. On the literary spectrum it lies somewhere between AS Byatt's Possession and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. But then, what doesn't? And talk of The Da Vinci Code brings me to Kate Mosse's Labyrinth
- another book involving a quest for the Holy Grail - which shifted 52,000 copies after being featured last week (when Richard was particularly enthusiastic). It's usually good fun to try and predict the winner of these literary contests, but this year it looks like a foregone conclusion to me. Even before the first book was opened Labyrinth looked the obvious front-runner. I expect it will be my featured book-I-haven't-read-yet when it is announced as the winner a couple of months from now. However, the bookies disagree and you can get odds as high as 7-1 against Labyrinth at the moment. I might just go and bite their hand off...The other 9 books featured on Richard & Judy's Book Club are:
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