December 2005 Archives

Sitting at LHR with only my part-read copy of Allan Massie and part- read- and- abandoned- a- while- ago copy of William Dalrymple's White Mughals, and starting to feel increasingly nervous about our 13 hour cross Atlantic flight from Madrid to Santiago, I decided that I absolutely *had* to buy some more gripping reading materials.... and induldged in a 3 for 2 offer at Books etc: The Shadow of the Wind, The Line of Beauty, and Dan Brown's Deception Point. Not prizes for guessing that the latter was the first in my sweaty little palms.

I'd like to think that it was the Arctic american setting that swung it, but in fact it was a toss up between this and Digital Fortress, and I know that Hazel has a borrow-able copy of that.

Dan delivered, much to my relief. Spurred on by the prospect of some lighter fare, I ploughed on through The Evening of the World to the bitter end, and somewhere over Brazil I started on Deception Point. Dan kept me turning the pages as we changed planes at Santiago and flew southwards to Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas, and, on Christmas eve, eastwards from Patagonia to the Mount Pleasant and the Falkland Islands. I finally reached the end on Christmas Day, but only after we'd unwrapped our presents and gorged ourselves on a feast of festive food.

Buy it: Amazon link

There's been a bit of a lull in my keeping my Reading pages up-to-date, initially because we spent Christmas and New Year in the Falkland Islands, where our access to the internet was over dial-up, and subsequently because I've been busy/not in the mood since our return. And I'm sure that I would have read something between finishing Crimson Rose at the start of December and our two-day flight out to Mount Pleasant Airport, East Falkland.

Time for a catch-up.....

The Evening of the World: A Novel of the Dark Ages by Allan Massie promised much in the blurb, but proved to be a struggle to complete. I am sure that had I not been flying at 30,000 feet with only one other novel to last me to Patagonia I would have given up. It was too mystical for my taste, and I didn't click with any of the characters.

One month on, the only elements of the story that I can recall are that it is set at the time when the Roman Empire is on the wane, and that the lead was a Roman nobleman/warrior. At the start of the tale he has a strange encounter in a mysterious forest in Italy, and soon after fights one of the Knights of the Round Table.

Buy it: Amazon link

I went for something completely different (see musings at close of previous post). In Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8): A Memoir of Love, Exile and Crosswords Sandy Balfour combines travel and autobiography with an explanation of how crosswords 'work', how to decode clues and encounters with the crossword setting cognoscenti. Fascinating.

Buy it: Amazon link