If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by. J. McGregor

Hm ... well to be honest: Nobody speaks of remarkable things. Throughout 99% of the book. It's just plain boring.
The main character is a girl who becomes pregnant after a one night stand and has now problems to tell people about it. She also meets a boy who is the twin brother of a boy who used to live in the same street as her.
Now on this street something happens! You won't find out till you have reached the last 10 pages. All the pages before? Well, they introduce all the people who live there, tell their more or less 'dramatic' live stories, and show you a normal day in the suburbia of a bigger city.
The problem I had with this book (except it being really boring) is the style of the main character. I'm not sure what the intention was actually, either trying to be really artisticky or just really annoying. There are pages with every sentence starting with "I" ... there is like no flow of the story ... and as soon as someone else wants to say something there is "He/she says ...." ALL THE TIME SOMEBODY SAYS SOMETHING! REALLY? Which is weird, because the way I read it, I thought she would give us her current live as well as the story of what happened in the street some years ago ... they read very different (but both kind of annoying), so maybe I just didn't get it??
But to put it into Mr McGregors words (one of the character's): If nobody speaks of remarkable things, how can they be called remarkable?

Well ... I just finished it 10 minutes ago and am still not sure if the fight through boringness was worth the end of the story (which was good) or if I should have just stopped reading it after the 1st 20 pages.

Comments

People! Comment! 157 clicks/readers on the blog and nobody ever says something?? No way!
So feel free to leave some comments ... what do you think about the books so far? What's your best reading music? Any other topics or books you want to read here? Go on. Leave it all out.

Reading Music

Some people can't read while listening to music. Since I do everything with music in the background I can. Funny enough not with all music though.
When I read a book in German I can't listen to German music ... in some way the lyrics then interfere with the lyrics of the book and I can't concentrate. Though when I read an English book I can still listen to music with English lyrics ... as long as I don't know the song too well.
However the best thing for reading is piano music ... hmmmmm nice and calm in the background. It's just so good! Depending on the story piano music makes the mood even stronger and it is actually easier to get into the characters! I just love it!

But then I also have to say, that as soon as I am into the story I block everything out. Can't hear anything. I once left my i tunes on playlist and went to read ... when I got back to the computer the playlist was about 20 songs further and I had to click back to listen to my favorite song.

Not a big fan words?

Check out my other blog :)

Wordless

The Master and Margarita by M. Bulgakow

Wow ... how weird!
Not the easiest story to get into but once you're in it, you won't want to get out. It's all crazy images of massive sized cats, naked people in the streets and great parties with all evil people you could imagine. And why all this? The devil. Jupp that's right. The main character of this story is Satan himself.
There are of course also the man who is known as the Master and his sad love Margarita, there are all sorts of people from the the theater and of course half of Moscow. Of course none of them believe in the devil. Neither do they believe in Jesus or Pontius Pilatus, who also make a big part of the story.
You get confused already, right? So was I in the beginning ... but after a while everything explains itself and the whole story with ALL it's characters actually makes sense.

It takes some time and effort but it's so absolutely worth reading when the time allows it. There really are some images you won't get out of your head once you're finished.

(I read it in German and don't know exactly how good the English translation is ... but I guess even with a bad translation the story will be the same, right)

Let's see if Comrie is right?

So, it's Man Booker Prize 2010 next week. The BBC send this years shortlist to Comrie in Perthshire to see what the people think of the books.
Quite a nice idea I thought, although I was instantly jealous of the inhabitants; getting the 'best' books of the year for free brought to your door? How wonderful would my life be?
Anyway, Comrie decided on 'Room' and the way the talked about the book just brought me close to tears. It' a story of a 5 year old boy who spends his life locked in a room. AND it's also narrated by him.
2nd place in Comrie was 'Parrot and Olivier in America' playing in the time of French Revelotion ... a little more comical but wise and hughly entertaining, according to Comrie.

I think if Comrie says the books are woth reading, and even worth winning the Man Booker Price I'll read them too. I have saved them on my wish list, since the BBC is not coming over to give me the books for free ...


(Btw. I really don't care who actually wins the Man Booker Price now, because those people in Cumrie were just so much more honest and lovely ... they read the books with their heart and not on highly literary standards. Thank you Comrie and please invite me for next year.)

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Yes that's right! It's a book full of awesome! I love it.
There is nothing special about it really ... it just reminds you of all the small moments/things in life which are just unbelievably cool.
Do you have anything that makes you really happy but you've always felt weird for? One of my happy things are bus drivers. I just love when they pass each other and get all wavy and exited. Or the kettle in the flat makes a 'bing' noise 10 seconds after it's done ... or when I make bubbles somewhere and people get really happy instead of all annoyed.
With the Book of Awesome you'll get a reminder of all those cool simple things ... highly recommended for autumn and winter when we all need happy thoughts!

(And because simple happy things should be free check out 1000awesomethings.com)