Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A good read

Look what I found today!
How odd. I'm sure I've written about this book before but I can't find any mention of it on my blog. ah well.

This was one of my favourite books when I was a young girl. A few months ago I checked on ebay and found it but at quite a cost. Today I happened upon it in a charity shop on top of a pile of books. When I took it to the cash desk the woman exclaimed, 'Oh, there it is! I was going to take this home for my grand-daughter as we're not allowed to sell books that are brown around the edges.' (As this one is.)

When I explained my deep desire for this book she let me buy it - for 49 pence!

Exit Lizzie, one happy bunny.

* * * * * * * *
A friend recently recommended We Need to Talk about Kevin. It's a book several people have mentioned and I'd vaguely thought I should read so I borrowed it from the library. 

I've managed about one third of it and I'm giving up. The narrator annoys me too much and my life is too short to waste on reading because I should.

However I am also fed up of chick lit type books so I'm back in the Young Adult section where I found and enjoyed The Shell House. Telling two similarly-themed stories set in different times it considers developing spirituality and sexuality; it's different, doesn't fit in to any genre and there isn't a single vampire in it, which must be a bonus. My only grumble is that it finishes too soon. It also leaves the reader dangling I suppose, wanting to know what happens, but yet it doesn't matter either. The pleasure is in the creation rather than a result.

4 comments:

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

We are not allowed to sell books with brown edges either , well done for getting it at that price too .. one happy Liz ,

Nothing wrong with giving up on a book , when that happens to me , I give it away to charity straightway. On this other book , I had to be left dangling ,, I WANT to know what happens, the book does need to be a people pleaser too , not just created :-)

Mauigirl said...

I have gone through a phase of acquiring all of my favorite books from when I was a child - most of my favorites we got from the library so I never owned them. Regarding the book about Kevin, I downloaded it on Kindle awhile back and have never gotten around to reading it. Now I'll have to try it and see if I feel the same way as you did about it.

CherryPie said...

I want to talk about Kevin is a very dark book. I read it when I was in a reading group.

I think you made the right choice giving up on it.

Liz Hinds said...

That's the benefit of the library, anne: I'm less reluctant to give up if I've not had to pay for a book.

We lived just up the road from the library, mauigirl, so it was my second home. But Wish for a Pony but one I must have been given as a Christmas present I think.

I think I could have coped with the subject, cherrypie, but not the narrator.