Ramblings about reading, part I

One of my new year’s resolutions was to keep track of all the books I read this year. As to be expected I’m already off to a bad start. With all those papers that are due this month, I am mostly reading mind-numbing articles and insomnia-curing essays as well as my own “exhilarating” writing. Every now and them I have some time in between to seek solace in some real literature.

I decided to start the year with an easy breezy book, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It was the first novel of his that I’ve ever read and alas I won’t be reading another too quickly. It was a story full of fantastical elements like talking rats, angels, monsters, knights and what not but even though it had fairy tale allures; it was bland, predictable and a bit tedious towards the end. The style was simple and although I hardly ever read fantastic fiction, I felt I’d heard it all before but with the ruckus around Stardust these past few weeks I thought I should give one of his novels a try. Maybe I made a bad choice with Neverwhere (which was originally a televison series on BBC) or maybe I’m just not into Gaiman. Who’s to say?

The second novel I’ve read this year was Douglas Coupland’s latest expedition into postmodern paradise, The Gum Thief. The story consisted mainly of letters left by two Staples employees during their breaks in which they communicate their hopes, aspirations and even a novel to each other with some interruptive notes of secondary characters. His approach as usual is innovative and the story is sweet and simple although less wacky than we’re used to. The end was a bit disappointing but then you can’t win them all.

Now It's back to the papers for me, joy!