The Book List

Happy New Year to all! I saw in the new year in my dressing gown and toasted my family with a glass of lemonade; that's how rock 'n' roll I am these days with my dodgy foot.

I am pleased to report I have already gone through two books from my pile to read I posted about here.

The first one I finished was Eleven Minutes, by Paulo Coelho. I'd read the Alchemist and loved it, which was my sole reason for buying Eleven Minutes when I saw it in a charity shop (plus it was just before a hospital appointment and I had a feeling I would be in waiting there for hours so I needed something cheap to take with me). It's a lot less innocent and naive than the Alchemist, as it tackles quite a gritty subject (prostitution). It can be dark, but the main character's general outlook on life is hopeful so overall it feels a lot more positive than you might think from reading the description on the back. The novel has the simplistic writing style as in the Alchemist which I loved, as although it seems quite simple Paulo manages to convey complicated emotions with such simplicity and clarity it seems almost child-like.

I think if anything, I enjoyed this more than the Alchemist mostly because of its dark subject matter; I always love a book that's a bit rude! And it was addressed in a very non-judgemental way, for which I applaud the author.
 

My second book was The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. With no description on the back of the book to help me I had no idea what this was about, but the title intrigued me and I remembered hearing about it before somewhere (I realise I could have just looked up the plot on the internet but I never allow myself to do that in case I spoil it).

This book I also enjoyed. Again, I really liked the writing style, and the characters were likable; the things they went through were affecting and bittersweet, and the emotions were described extremely well. It was also interesting reading in a fictional novel about Communist rule in Prague during the 1960's onwards; while that area of history does interest me, I just cannot read non-fiction at all easily and I never remember anything so I always like it when something like this crops up in a fictional novel, it seems to stick in my head better. You really got a feel for how things must have been back then and the attitudes of people.

There were a lot of things the characters said and thought that I identified with, and there were quite a few thought-provoking statements. I have saved the more inspirational ones and copied them in my big book of quotes, and I think I will be keeping hold of this book to read again some time as I think I will get even more out of it the second time round.

Summary
The two books are quite similar in that they both primarily deal with human emotions; there is a lot more thinking and talking than real action. However, despite that they are extremely easy to read, and I would highly recommend them both equally.