Holiday reading

I have a new years resolution (a real, heartfelt one, not a token one) to read more and watch less telly. Not that re-runs of The Bill at 2pm during E-chan's nap, or watching television series on dvd aren't a good way to spend your time, but I have more energy now that bub is 7 months old and have less need for passive entertainment like telly and radio.

So I thought during my recent trip to Adelaide, I should get at least one book finished. I'll get to that in a minute (above). I tried to read "The Guns of Navarrone" by Alister Maclean, which I grabbed off my parent's bookshelves, but about 10 pages in, I realised I wasn't going to finish it in time and wasn't interested enough to take it with me. Kind of a boys own adventure set in the WW2 mediterranean where the good old Allies hatch up a "daring, but it's just crazy enough to work" plan to shoot down some troublesome and strategically placed Axis guns (back then, the Axis was the Gerries and the Italians, and the Japs of course, but on the other side of the globe). Would have been good to read as a teenager, but alas that time has long past.

I'm beginning to think I'm not a fast reader. I stop and think too much, try to absorb every sentence, when some text should be skimmed over more. That must be why I've never finished epics like "lord of the rings" or dense work like that of Umberto Eco. However, I will get there one day. Perhaps I will linger less on every sentence as my reading picks up again.

The reason why I'm thinking about my reading speed is that over our holiday, C-chan got through a lot more.... Now that he isn't studying, he is really chewing through the books. I'll post about that, because I'm not sure he'll ever get around to it, despite being invited to join this blog a few times, and I'm ashamed to say, I'm to some extent living my life of books through him. He read half an Orwell omnibus ("Animal Farm" and "1984" - he's not sure he's actually ever read them before. I read them as a teenager, and remember them so vividly - talking about these books again made me curious about Orwell's less famous works, which are also meant to be good). He also read half of "1001 books you must read before you die", which he was given for xmas and any of you are welcome to browse through when you come over if you are stuck for ideas on what to read!

Before xmas, he read "Against a Dark Background" by Iain M Banks (which I also read many years ago, and remember enjoying) - a science fiction novel set way way into the future. Basically an adventure novel, in a time when people are not restricted by resources, science, or technology. Pure fantasy, I know, but Banks writes in a way that is interesting - the people and their flaws and desires are still the centre of his sci fi writing, it just happens to be in set in a fantastic backdrop. I don't read all that much fantasy or Sci fi, but read quite a few of Bank's stuff about 10 years ago. I'm hoping to read some of his regular fiction soon ("The Business", or "The Wasp Factory").

Finally, back to what I actually am reading: "A Month of Sundays" by James O'Loghlin of "the new inventors" fame and "Baby & Toddler Meals" by Robin Barker, which is a cook book I borrowed from my local library for inspiration.