Books (chapter five)

Part of me wishes I’d never started doing this. It should be easy to write a couple of sentences about every book you read, but for some reason it seems to be really hard and I end up leaving it for months before I actually finish it, by which time there’s another list waiting to be written.

On the other hand, another part of me wishes I’d started doing it when I started reading. If nothing else, it’s really nice to be able to look back for a reminder when you forget what a particular book was, so I’m going to keep doing it. Here’s the latest batch (or at least, it was the latest in August):

Under Western Eyes – Joseph Conrad: Continuing my mission to read everything by Conrad, whether good or bad, came this – similar to The Secret Agent in that it’s set in a world of plotting and scheming revolutionaries, but very different in geographical setting and style. This goes in the “brilliant books by Conrad pile”. (The only other pile I have so far, and it’s smaller, is “brilliant but a bit tedious”.)

The Secret Sharer – Joseph Conrad: A short story, back in the more familiar Conrad territory of sailing ships. Somehow I got a hunch right at the start that this was a story in which nothing whatsoever would happen. Sure enough, nothing did happen, but it didn’t need to. If you can write like that, you don’t need a plot.

The Falls – Ian Rankin: Yet another tale of Inspector Rebus. Still reliably readable.

The Steep Approach to Garbadale – Iain Banks: It’s been a while since I read Iain Banks without the M. (For the uninitiated, he writes his science fiction stuff with the middle initial and the other stuff without.) I wasn’t disappointed by this.

Consider Phlebas – Iain M. Banks: Talking of Ian with the M, here he is. You can’t go wrong with these. Or at least, I can’t. You might hate them. But I doubt it.

Arms of Nemesis – Steven Saylor: The second in the series, following on from Roman Blood that I enjoyed last time around. Not quite as good, but that would be pretty difficult. More than good enough that I hope the third will be on my next list. In the meantime, I read somewhere that Steven Saylor’s alter-ego writes gay erotic fiction, whatever that is. Even if I hadn’t have known, I’d still have suspected something at a couple of points in this book. It all adds to the Roman atmosphere though I suppose, while making you look at the name of the hero of the series in a new light – Gordianus.

A Gladiator Only Dies Once – Steven Saylor: Not part of the main series of novels, but a collection of short stories that slot somewhere in between. Saylor is a fantastic writer and story teller, and at the same time a knowledgeable historian and diligent researcher. It’s hard to be sure if you’re being entertained or educated. As with all reading, the answer is both, but particularly so with these books.

The Legacy – Lynda LaPlante: I’ve said it before, so I’ll just quote myself here: “I thought the writing was completely uninspired and tedious, but the storytelling side of things was good. Reluctantly, I enjoyed it.” I hate to write bad things about people’s writing in case they read it and get offended, but I’m very confident that Lynda LaPlante couldn’t care less what I think. I hope that’s true, because I told my Mother-in-law that I’d enjoyed reading the first one I read, since when she has been steadily filling our house up with what seems to be LaPlante’s entire back catalogue. Consequently, I might have to repeat that quote a lot more times in the future.

The Diamond Hunters – Wilbur Smith: This was good, if a little preposterous in places.

Nineteen Eighty-four – George Orwell: One of those books that needs to be re-read periodically, I think. You can look more closely at the copy in the picture (click it for the full gory details) to confirm this has been happening.