I used to be an avid reader, totalling quite well move 10 books read an year, but that was when I was in high school, and I glided over stuff that I think my classmates called “homework”, but I’m sincerely not sure (I never had a particular liking to homework, with the exclusion of resolution of arithmetical expression during the Italian equivalent of Junior High school). In those days I had sincerely much more time than I have now especially if I consider that I’m working almost 18 hours a day, and almost never sleeping.
Took me almost three months to read this book now but I totally enjoyed it and I might actually look for it in audiobook one day to give it another go; the book in question is “The Gone-Away World” by Nick Harkaway , probably one of my favourite books in recent years, certainly a lucky discovery.
I say discovery because it’s the author’s début book, it’s not part of any series, not even in my usual reading habits range, since I usually read either fantasy or mystery novel or stuff like that; and nobody suggested it to me before, I came to it quite randomly through BBC’s podcasts, in particular the Simon Mayo Book Panel podcast. I actually had to listen back to the review tonight to remember what did catch my attention (and it has probably been the references to Douglas Adams and the way the author describe it as “two guys in a truck who save the world”); I just typed the title on my cellphone after waking up (I listen to the podcast to sleep), and at the first chance I had I bought it.
I don’t repent having bought it at all, as I said. Fun, quite thought-provoking, and quite fast paced for a book; I think the last time I read with such a pleasure has been when i have been reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I don’t usually go around writing about the books I read (also because I don’t read nearly as much as I did), but this one I really want to recommend to anybody who’s up for a good novel.
I have already noted down, from an earlier podcast, the title of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” even though I never went around to get it; I guess I should, and see if the podcast’s reviews are really getting out the important juice of the books; and I guess I should resume listening to it; with one thing and the other I didn’t listen to it in so long that iTunes decided to stop syncing it.
