I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump the last few months, but I’m slowly getting back into it.
April … May … June
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
- I’ve been meaning to read the James Bond series for ages, so I finally picked up the first book, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Fleming’s Bond is a little more vulnerable and real than the movie Bonds, although the latest movie has taken a step towards trying to stay truer to the books. I’m looking forward to making my way through the rest of the series, eventually.
- Squee’s Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors by Jhonen Vasquez
- I read this graphic novel for the first time while in high school, at a friend’s house, I believe. I love it back then, and it was a lot of fun to revisit. It was interesting reading this after having watched Invader Zim a few years back. I knew he wrote both, but I hadn’t noticed just how much of that cartoon was pulled from this comic.
- Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman
- I tore through the Long Way Round when it came out a few years ago, so I was really excited when I heard they had done another trip. This time it was from John o’ Groats, in northern Scotland, down to Cape Town, South Africa. It’s a fantastic trip, and while it didn’t capture my imagination quite as much as Long Way Round did, I still really enjoyed it. I’ve always wanted to travel through Africa, as I’m sure many people do, and reading this really strengthened my resolve to do that one day.
- Can-cans, Cats & Cities of Ash by Mark Twain
- Part of Penguin’s Great Journey’s collection, this is Twain’s account of his sailing travels through the Mediterranean, specifically Portugal, Morocco, France, and Italy. I love travelogues, and there’s something incredibly romantic about traveling before the time of Lonely Planet, audio-guided tour buses, and planes. Twain is hilarious, politically incorrect, and a joy to read.
I really want to read those Ewan McGregor books. Thanks for reminding me about them.
They’re both fantastic, definitely pick them up. I really enjoyed the television series for both trips as well.
If you’ve never read Life on the Mississippi, I highly recommend it. And not just because I live in one of the towns he mentions. We get … three whole paragraphs, I think, where he talks about the Normal College (burned down, replaced by the university campus) and St. Vincent’s Seminary (condemned, later became a satellite campus to said university). Not that this burg was much to talk about in the early 1800′s … not that that’s changed much either … HAW!
I actually haven’t read anything else by Twain, apart from a couple of essays. I’ll put Life on the Mississippi on my to-read list, though. I really enjoyed his style.