Thursday, 19 February 2009

Reading for Relaxation

One other notable point that occurred during my trip away: I have now read my first P.G. Wodehouse. I had been strongly recommended to try something from him, and so whenever I was in second hand bookshops, I always had a quick look to see if I could pick anything up. It's a testament to his popularity, I suppose, that his books seem to be quite rare, but I did finally find a copy of Ring for Jeeves in the Blackwell's second hand section. 

I'm pleased to say I quite enjoyed it, and I think I've found a pleasant source of fairly lightweight reading (in the best sense of the term, as in not too heavy when you are looking for a little revival). The humour seems to be quite similar to that of Jerome K. Jerome, that I had the pleasure of sampling near the end of last year - rather focused on the charmingly absent minded. It does, however, make for embarrassment in public reading, randomly laughing out loud on a train is not considered the done thing in Britain...

I'm now back into the cycle for the reading group that I attend, after missing a couple of meetings, first due to illness then down to not hearing which book early enough to read it in time. The book this month is Nada by Carmen Laforet, a translation from Spanish about a teenager coming to study in Barcelona in the years after the Spanish Civil War. Quite a change in tone from my holiday reading, but the first few chapters seem promising, and shall be nice to be able to join a discussion again.

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