All autumn

I have been slacking. In my reading, yes, but obviously even more so in my blogging. Anyway, here is a – I believe – complete list of what’s been «going down»:

Sahara – Michael Palin
Pretty good. Informative, evocative, serious and occasionally laugh-out-loud-funny. Reminded me that I need to get hold of the follow-up to Travels with a Tangerine.

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones – Alexander McCall Smith
Quite delightful, as always.

Freedom’s Landing – Anne McCaffrey
As mentioned here, I got rather annoyed with McCaffrey for using «specimen» for «species» (twice!) and for including a couple of prejudiced, half-witted so-and-sos in order to introduce some conflict. I realise the second gripe is unfair, a conflictless book would, after all, be pretty boring, and so I put that down to my ongoing disagreement with Fiction in general. I rather enjoyed most of the book, and am looking forward to reading the sequel when Fiction and I are reconciled in the hopefully not too distant future.

Nød – Are Kalvø
In truth I only read about 50 pages, then started skimming and then I read the last few pages. I don’t know if it’s Kalvø or me, but it all seemed pretty pointless and tiresome.

Which brings the total tally this year to 45, methinks, and unless I am to fall short of the rather wimpy goal of one-book-a-week (oh, horror) I really need to get in some serious reading time over the holidays. We’ll see.

Greatest Hits Vol 1

In which we have good laughs all over again.

kalvo.jpg

I just had to buy Are Kalvø’s Greatest Hits Vol 1 when I saw it. I’ve laughed a lot at Kalvø (he’s a stand-up comedian as well), and I’d only read the second of the three books contained in this volume previously, so there was great potential here. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Social criticism can feel very dated after just a short time, but I didn’t find that to be a problem with this volume. Maybe the world hasn’t changed much. The way the tabloids present news (alleged) certainly hasn’t. Nor has the contents of the average evening’s scheduled tv-programmes. This is kind of sad. On the other hand, it made the basis for good entertainment while reading this book, so I can’t feel too sorry just now.