Latest reads

Plenty of time on my hands these days so plenty of time to read. But it will all change on Monday when I go back to school. Spanish school that is.

Isabel Allende, City of the Beasts

Blerk. Main characters are 12 and 15 years old and reading it it felt like the book was aimed at readers of same age as well. And I don't remember Allende writing for adolescents. And even so the plot was so bad and the characters so bad and stereotypical it made you nauseous. But I finish and at the last page I read "her first novel for young readers". Excellent waste of time in other words.

Peter Mayle, Anything Considered

Never heard of the guy before, but if you can suspend your disbelief in the turn of events for a few hours it's a delightful read with great descriptions of the French countryside, way of life and gastronomy.

Jack Kerouac, Tristessa, Lonesome Traveler, From the Journals 1949-1954

Ah, beat literature, how I love ye! Can't really say that Tristessa, or the journal entries, in themselves are much worth reading, but when you take all of Kerouac in it's just phenomenal. His mad feverish way of living his life gets to you and sucks you in. When he's hanging out in Mexico City you want to be there, when he's describing a night in NYC you smell that city, when he's dashing from one coast to another you want to be on the road (bad pun) with him. And even when he takes a time out and spends two months as a fire lookout on Mt Desolation with nothing but the sounds of nature and weather and his own thoughts disturbing the peace you feel the beauty of the tranquility. Read him. And all the other beats.