Reading update

A response to Mary Tod's winter reading list on www.awriterofhistory.com

 

"Old habits of a figure’s engineer die hard. I keep a SS for all my reading to chart different genres and split between my fiction and nonfiction reading. 2014 is an interesting reading year so far. The Railwayman by Eric Lomax led to five other books about the Burma Railway and war with Japan including The Prisoners List. This book an excellent factual background written by a son Reuben supported by quotations from his father, Ben who was a prisoner of Japan.  On all the recent film awards the awful events still remain part of a forgotten war, although I see the Railwayman Book has topped UK non fiction best seller charts in January 2014. Also related fiction Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng and J G Ballard’s biography and Kingdom Come his dystopian book. The latter has poor reviews, but I liked the theme of the story all very memorable and frightening. 

Robert Wilson’s A Small Death in Lisbon as well as being a good read gave me help in structuring ideas for books over two timeframes. Kiss me first by Lottie Moggach a great idea, but too long and I found hard to read. Tom Cain Assassin probably a better book than I found it to read. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Power a disturbing book about modern warfare, almost a biography. Abomination Jonathan Holt – yawn. 

Various books about self and e book publishing and how to write also started, but they are hardly page turners. 

Current delightful reading - Little Aloud and a wonderful read - Michael Morpurgo’s biography structured nicely with a Maggie Fergusson telling his life story and Michael contributes seven stories. Even he had some awful rejection letters as a writer and apart from marriage cash did not benefit from Penguin from writing as I thought he did.

Books by Bernard Cornwall, Hanif Kureishi and Diana Gabaldon and book The Sky Wept Fire started but put down.

Most books I find too long … a bit like this post you will no doubt say!"

Alexander