Trivia, Confessing, Light in Books 2016

Read since my last entry, with the exception of The First Confessor, which I’m tacking on to the end..I forgot to include it in my last entry.

I didn’t think I’d enjoy A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (338 pages) as much as I did. It’s the story of unemployed thirty something Ignatius, who lives with his mother and is happy to write in his notepads, but when there’s an accident his mother tells him he’s to find paid employment…It’s a lot more interesting than it sounds!

John Gay’s poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (56 pages) was alright - a satirical look at the hazards of eighteenth century London. Not much to say about this, it was a nice little time waster.

I can’t say I got much into Heart of Darkness and Other Tales by Joseph Conrad (225 pages, including extract from “Author’s Note”, Explanatory Notes, Glossary) The first tale, “An Outpost of Progress” sucked me in and I enjoyed “Karain”, but “Youth” and “Heart of Darkness” didn’t do too much for me. I mightn’t have been in the right mood.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (531 pages, including acknowledgements) is the story of Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six and living in Paris. Her father creates miniatures of the town she can study in an effort to learn her way around. Werner is a German orphan, destined to become a coal miner until his knack for fixing radios is discovered by the Hitler Youth. The choices that they make and those that are made for them mean that their futures are intertwined. This was a decent read - left me slightly emotional at the end, which doesn’t happen all that often. Glad I read it.

The First Confessor (The Legend of Magda Searus: A Sword of Truth Prequel) by Terry Goodkind is an incredibly quick read at 604 pages. I managed to read about two thirds of it in one sitting. It’s about the widowed Magda, whose First Wizard husband commits suicide. Grief stricken, confused and alone, Magda finds herself trying to find out why he had to die and what her role is as war looms. This was a very easy read. Lots of dialogue between characters. I was hoping to go on to read the first book in the Sword of Truth series (Wizard’s First Rule), and actually picked it up. I got a little bored after 100 pages or so, put it down and haven’t looked at it since.

Books Read This Year: 67. Total Pages Read So Far This Year: 17193