Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
I wanted to write a review of this, as it was fantastic, but I’m hopeless at reviewing books. I like reading them too much. I used to get in trouble at school for that - we had these books where we were supposed to read a story then answer questions about it, and I never answered the questions, just read the stories. I seem to remember my mum being called in over that one, but it might have been part of my general attitude problems that year. I was told off for reading the Trebizon books as they were apparantly too old and not suitable for a 9-10 year old. Im not quite sure what’s not suitable about tea and crumpets but I think there may have been boys in these too. Instead I was supposed to read Danny the Champion of the World. Don’t get me wrong, that’s an excellent book. However, at that point I’d read it many, many times and could practically recite it from memory. I was just a precocious reader I guess, and boarding school books offered valuable escapism.
Anyway, I digress. I was thinking about reviewing books on here, as I read a lot, and I’d like to keep track of what I’ve read. However, as I’m not good at actual useful proper reviews, I think I shall write very short, uninformative reviews, just stating what I thought of the book for the record.
This book: Excellent, engaging, interesting, well written, great characters. My only complaint is that the damn thing was so heavy. It hurt my (weak, girly) wrists to read it for too long, especially in the bath when I had to hold it out of the water.
I was called in because you saw no point in answering questions on stories you had read the previous term. Mrs. Kewell said you couldn’t have possibly understood them as you read them too quickly. Anyway, you stayed in luchtime and answered the stupid questions just to keep the peace. Bloody teachers!
Comment by elaine — December 20, 2005 @ 2:23 pm