Books i have finished in the last few days…

Up until now when I’ve written about books I’ve focused on one specifically. But this time I’m going to talk about a few books. The main reason for this is my laziness, as I didn’t update this each time I finished a book. Anyway, I’ve read three books in the past week or so, and I’ll talk a little about each one and what I thought of them.

The first book I read was ‘After Dark’ by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is one of Japans best known and biggest selling authors, and widely considered to be one of the best as well. This is the first novel I had read of his after finally shelling out for a couple of his books, I had wanted to check him out for a while. This book focuses chronologically on the events of seven hours of one night in Tokyo, as you might have guessed from the title.

Matt Groening- Will and Abe’s Guide to the Universe

 

When I first started writing a review of this comic book, I thought that despite being a huge fan of Groening, this work wasn’t up there with his most notable achievements. The Simpsons and Futurama are two of my favourite programmes ever, to the extent that when I was 13/14, it was my ‘thing’ to be obsessed with The Simpsons. Life in Hell in itself is actually a very successful strip on its own merits, being carried by over 250 weekly newspapers, and predating both of the above TV shows, as well as being popular amongst fans and critics alike. This was the first time I had actually read at any great length the strip, and as I said, to begin with I was distinctly underwhelmed. But the more I thought about it when writing this review, the more I realised that my initial conclusions were wrong, and this was a far more successful strip than I gave it credit for.  

Kurt Vonnegut- Slaughterhouse 5

 

‘There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.’

Probably the best known of Vonnegut’s work, this is the first of his novels that I have read. It’s not difficult to see why it is held in such high regard, transcending boundaries in a way which cements its status as one of this century’s classic books. Whilst it is a complex multi faceted novel, with true depth, it is often simplified and attributed as having two main purposes. The first, probably the most commonly mentioned of the two is as an anti war novel. It’s not quite what you might expect though based on this assumption, as the points made which are interpreted as ‘anti-war’ require some elucidation on the part of the reader. It’s not simply a book which says ‘war is bad and this is why.’ The second obvious message that underpins the book as a whole is Vonnegut’s questioning of the nature of ‘life’ as we see it and the incomprehensibility of time and the human condition, which often intertwines with the anti war aspects.

The Road to Wigan Pier- George Orwell

So before I get into talking about this book, I thought I might explain why I am talking about a book in what, up to now, has been a music blog. Well…  I use a facebook application called ‘Visual Bookshelf’. On there I update what I have read/am reading/want to read next pretty regularly, and review most books that I have read, occasionally writing 500 words, sometimes writing 50. But not many people read them. So I thought people might be interested here. It’s also a good way of making this look like I regularly update it without doing much work.

What i am reading right now