I Love Starting a New Book!

It’s lovely to start a new book isn’t it?  I always look forward to it with relish.  I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and I’ve started listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  At first I thought I was reading it out of order, the beginning in the Prime Minister’s office threw me a little bit until I realised it was a recap of previous events. 

Fred and George have their own shop in Diagon Alley now, which the gang visit whilst picking up requirements from their book lists.  Hermione finds a charm that guarantees day dreams – the side effects however include ‘vacant expression’ and ‘minor drooling’.  I love it!  Harry has been made Captain of the Quidditch team, which gives him the same rights as Prefects, so………so far so happy. 

The Time Traveller’s Wife has finally started to get my attention so now it’s been elevated to my lunchtime book and I even managed to read a few pages today.  I still have to stop and think sometimes, especially with lines like “I met Clare for the first time in October 1991.  She met me for the first time in September, 1977; she was six, I will be thirty eight.  She’s known me for all her life.  In 1991 I’m just getting to know her.”

Thank You Jeeves was a great disappointment – it was only 4 discs long and I wanted MORE!! I loved it of course.  Another one off the list – that’s two already this week. Actually I’ve had a bit of a panic attack as I only realised last night that it’s now mid September and I still have to knock off another 8 to reach my yearly target (as well as read my other books!).

Still reading through the Matheson short stories, my favourite from this batch I think so far is Disappearing Act. The narrator is finding that all the people he has known in his life are being erased from existence one by one……..will he or won’t he be next?

For my drive to and from work I’ve just started listening to Carry me Down by M J Hyland.  It has an Irish narrator which really lends a ‘feel’ to this book as it is set near Dublin.  It’s obviously going to be quite sinister, and there is a shocking murder scene involving kittens at the beginning.  I had to keep repeating to myself ‘it’s only a story, it’s only a story’.  It was quite graphic and upsetting (especially for a cat lover like me).  Yes, I could have skipped it but it may have some relevance to the story later on so I had to bear it.  Basically so far we can ascertain that the story is being narrated by an 11 year old boy.  His mum is 37 and his dad 38, both of whom (he tells us) are very good looking people and he believes that they must feel disappointment with him as he is very tall for his age, with a large nose, and his voice has already broken.  When talking with his parents he likes to study them and his mind will wander a bit only to be brought back to attention by the parent wanting to know what he is staring at.  His mother admonishes him a couple of times in the first chapters that this staring is unnerving.  There is also an underlying inference that the boy and his mum may be unnaturally close….?

The boy’s father doesn’t work, but he is apparently studying for the Trinity entrance exam, and as such they all live together with the boy’s grandmother in her home about two hours from Dublin.

The boy is fascinated with The Guinness Book of Records; he has every copy except the 1959 issue, and refers to it all the time.  I don’t want to Google the premise as it could ruin the plot line for me, but it appears that the boy will do something that he hopes will get him into the book….and it may not be very nice?  M J Hyland wrote How the Light Gets In which is on the 1001 list, so I may have to book a copy of that soon as so far I like the way she writes.