Books Acquired

*Rob Dunn The Man Who Touched His Own Heart

*Harlan Coben The Stranger (from overdrive library program)

Books Read

*James Angelos The Full Catastrophe: travels among the new Greek ruins (kindle)

*Kelly A. Jones Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (kindle)

*Nick Hornby Ten Years in the Tub: a decade soaking in great books (hardcover public library book; finished the first 70 pages)

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Let just start this essay off by pointing out that I only started this project a few days ago. So, the list of books I acquired and the list of books I read is rather short because it only represents about a week of literary activity.

The reason I decided to start this essay, which will hopefully become a regular monthly entry on this site is because of Hornby’s book — which is an anthology of essays that Hornby used to write for The Believer magazine describing his book buying and book reading activity each month. If you have not had a chance to read any of these essays I would strongly recommend them; Hornby is a pleasure to read. Each and every essay I have read so far contained several chunks that I was required to share with family and friends by reading aloud. Hornby’s project inspired me to start a similar one myself in which I would, on a monthly basis, catalog my reading and book acquiring activities. And, OK, let me admit here that I did seriously consider writing regular blog posts about reading before, but this is the first time I have actually done so. I also would like to have a monthly blog post about the stuff I’ve been watching on screens (television and movies).

Enough background. On to the reading.

Angelos’ book was only published a couple months ago and, so, gives a very up to date look at economic life in Greece. The overwhelming message I got from reading the book is that Greece has deep, longstanding, systemic economic problems. Greek politicians have long promised jobs in exchange for votes. Many civil servants in Greece are guaranteed jobs with little serious evaluation — one interesting point is that those who work in front of computers are given an extra six days of vacation for the hardship. Corruption is endemic — one island, called the island of the blind had an incredible number of people claiming to be blind so that they could get blind person pensions. And, as can be expected, many of these people were not blind — some of them even drove taxi cabs. To carry out such a scheme, there were not only people claiming to be blind, but at least one doctor, and several bureaucrats in on the scam as well. One question that I don’t think is asked often enough about the economic problems of Greece is how it is that the German bankers who loaned so much money to both the country and to individual Greeks did not bother asking hard questions about these loans until after 2008. It seems that everyone wanted to be part of the party and as long as the money was flowing, no one was going to ask if it might ever stop. Needless to say, things in Greece are quite dire now.

Jones’ book is much lighter in tone, being a book for young people. The main character in the story is Sophie, a 12 year old girl who has moved from a big city living in apartment to a rural farm. The novel is told in letters, which is certainly not the most dominant narrative method in children’s literature. Her unemployed father desperately searching for a job and her overworked writer mother play an important part in Sophie’s life, but they are not the focus of the story. As you can guess, the chickens are the most important part of the story. I am not sure what else I want to say about the story; I enjoyed it but it was not my favorite story or even my favorite children’s story. But there are far worse ways to spend two or three hours than by reading Jones’ book. If you want an more in depth review, let me provide a link to Betsy Bird’s review. Bird is a children’s librarian in New York City and a force to be reckoned with in children’s literature; she seems to be constantly reviewing books and writes long and thoughtful entries. Her blog is worth checking frequently.

Short month, at least as far as reading, which means this essay is short. I promise to make the next one longer.