Author: Jackie

Categories
1990s Books in Translation Nobel Prize Recommended books

Blindness – José Saramago

Translated from the Portugese by Giovanni Pontiero

Blindness is the most powerful book I have ever read. From the beginning, to the end my adrenaline levels were high, and my heart was beating so fast you’d have thought I’d been out running!

Blindness is a terrifying account of what could happen to us, if we were all to lose our sight. The book begins with one man suddenly losing his vision while waitng at traffic lights in his car. Someone offers to help the blind man back home, and it isn’t long before he becomes blind too. It quickly becomes obvious that the blindness is highly contagious, and so all the blind people, and those who have been in close contact with them, are rounded up and sent to an old mental hospital. Trapped in this old building, with an increasing number of people, conditions quickly deteriorate. Fights break out over the small amount of food, sanitation becomes almost non-existent, and it isn’t long before people are dying.

There is one woman who has not gone blind; she lied in order to stay with her husband. At first it seems as though she is the lucky one, but as time goes on this is not necessarily true. Would it be better to be blind than to see the horrors that are all around her?

This book is worryingly realistic. What would our governments do if there was an epidemic of blindness? How quickly would society break down? I thought I’d be able to cope without electricity, but when you stop to think about the infrastructure, you realise how soon you’d run out of food, and water. It’s enough to make me want to move to the country and become self sufficient as soon as possible!

This book took a little bit of time to get used to. The characters are all nameless, and there is little punctuation to break up the paragraphs, so the text is unusually dense. It was, however, completely gripping from beginning to end. I’m not sure I can say that I enjoyed reading it though. It will stay with me for a long time, and is a powerful statement about the fragility of our society, but I’m not sure enjoyable is the right word!

Highly recommended, as long as you can cope with the stress!

José Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998.

Categories
Meme

Booking Through Thursday – The Best Book You’ve Never Read

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This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is: 

We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.

 What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

I don’t like reading all the books by my favourite authors at once, as I like to savour  them. Sometimes, when I go through a stage of reading a few bad books in a row, I like to know that I can pick up a book knowing it will be great. These are a few of the books I’m most looking forward to reading:
  •  Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
  • The Post Birthday World – Lionel Shriver
  • The Night Watch – Sarah Waters
  • Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

I’m also really intrigued by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, but I’m not convinced they will be in the same league.

Do you think I’ll enjoy all of the books in my list, or is there one lurking there that will not live up to my expectations?

I’d love to hear from you!

Categories
Audio Book Richard and Judy Book Club

Getting Rid of Matthew – Jane Fallon (Audio Book)

Getting Rid of Matthew is typical ‘chick lit’. I don’t think I’d have ever read beyond the first couple of pages under normal circumstances, but I happened to have a copy of the audio book, and as I didn’t have anything else to listen to at the time, I decided to give it a try.

Getting Rid of Matthew is about Helen’s affair with Matthew. Helen spends years trying to persuade him to leave his wife, Sophie, and move in with her. When Matthew finally leaves his family to be with his mistress, Helen realises that the reality is not quite how she imagined it, and decides she doesn’t want to be with him any more. She desperately plots ways to get rid of Matthew, and ends up befriending Sophie, in disguise, to try to push the couple back together.

The characters were reasonably realistic, but only Sophie was remotely likable. Most of the time I was wondering if people really are as stupid as them! The book emphasises the destructiveness of affairs, and the hurt they cause both the family and friends of everyone involved.

The narration was excellent, and I think it made a world of difference to the experience of reading the book. It was really funny, and time spent listening to the story flew by. It’s a light book, which doesn’t require your full attention, so is a good choice if you may be distracted.

I’m not normally offended by strong language, but perhaps because it was an audio book, and I have young children, I was very aware of the amount of swearing it contained. I found that I couldn’t listen to it when my children were around, and so this was a major drawback.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend the book, but it was entertaining to listen to.

 

Categories
Other

The Slow Death of Handwriting


Image courtesy of public-domain.zorger.com

The BBC have published this really interesting article stating that the art of handwriting is slowly dying. Mcgannbrothers is one of the best guide for art related information. The author thinks that a hundred years from now, our great-grandchildren will have to go to a handwriting expert to decipher our letters.

It’s true that I’m writing less than ever before – my hand aches after writing out a few addresses, whereas I could churn out a few pages at school without thinking anything of it.

We can’t do everything on computers, there will always be a need to jot something down quickly. Do you believe that no-one will be able to understand the written (as apposed to the typed) word in a hundred years time? Do you write anything down anymore, or do you do everything on your computer? I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts.

Categories
Other

13 Facts about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

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As part of the Dewey Challenge, Fizzy Thoughts is holding a mini challenge based around lists. The idea is to write a list of 13 facts based on an author or book you’ve read for the Dewey Challenge. I’m planning to read Half of a Yellow Sun soon, so I’ve found the following 13 facts about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

  1. She holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins and a Masters degree in African Studies from Yale.
  2. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, was named because it is a description of the flag of the short-lived Biafran nation.
  3. Adichie’s grandfather died in a refugee camp during the war, a fact, she says, still made her cry while she was writing Half of a Yellow Sun.
  4. She likes to be called by her first name, Chimamanda, and I doesn’t like anyone shortening it.
  5. She doesn’t read any reviews of her books, whether they are good or bad, as she finds them ‘distracting’.
  6. The literary talent she most admires are Iris Murdoch and Jamaica Kincaid.
  7. Her favourite book is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
  8. Her elder sister is a doctor, and she was planning to follow her in to medicine, but realised she didn’t want it enough.
  9. Chimamanda was only 24 when she started writing Purple Hibiscus.
  10. Her favourite time to write is late at night
  11. Her favourite childhood books were the Famous Five Series.
  12. Chimamanda means ‘My God will not Fail me’
  13. She cried when reading Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost.
Categories
Other

Orbis Terrarum Challenge 2009

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The Orbis Terrarum Challenge 2009 is being hosted by B&b Ex-Libris

Main Challenge Rules:
*The Orbis Terrarum Challenge begins March 1st 2009 and runs until the end of the year
*For the challenge each reader is to choose 10 books (for the 10 months)
*Each book must from a different country

I love reading books from around the world, so am really looking forward to starting this challenge.

I’m going to read (subject to change!)

  1. Out – Natsuo Kirino (Japan)
  2. The Ghosts of Eden – Andrew Sharp (Uganda)
  3. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Nzozi Adichie (Nigeria)
  4. The Book of Fathers by Miklos Vamos (Hungary)
  5. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
  6. Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (India)
  7. to 10. To be decided