Still hot

This hot weather continues and I have done more reading this past week than I have done for a long time. It’s the pretending I’m on holiday that does it. 

I referred to the Golden Booker  thing a while ago and thought I would update my thoughts. Next weekend we are going to London to listen to some writers talking about their work and we will also be there for the final event where the five judges, who chose their book of the decade, explain their choices. It will be interesting, as it has caused a lot of debate. Of course everyone has their own view, the whole thing is so subjective, but as long as it is not taken too seriously and has encouraged people to talk about books, then I think it is worthwhile. 

I have re- read The English Patient and enjoyed it very much, an excellent book. However, my choice is still Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively. I love this book and can only thank this whole Golden Booker thing for taking me back to such a wonderful book. It’s a book about memory, about love, about loss, about how our lives are affected by the times we have lived through, about history itself on a large scale. It is the life story of one person, but told in memories and reflections. And not in linear fashion, in a kaleidoscope view – one memory jolts another, some memories are clear, ‘sparks of sunlight on water’. 

It’s a book to make one think on one’s own life, how we remember some things clearly and some things not at all, how we are affected by events, some personal to us, some shared by others. I don’t often recommend books, as I cannot say what anyone else likes, I just highlight books I have found worthwhile reading. This is one of them. And it is not a long book either.