North Pole Axed By Photos

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Before I concentrate on the main book I'm dealing with in this post let's quickly chat about the other books in my immediate reading universe first.

Finished Somebody's Luggage by Charles Dickens. Never heard of it before won't hear from it again. Really dull. The next ebook on the electronic pile in the moment is Absolute Friends by John Le Carre. Haven't read a Le Carre novel in a long, long while. So far so good.

Now the main book. Tom Avery's 2009 account of his expedition to the North Pole To The End Of The Earth.

When I was taught at school decades ago about the race to be the first person to either the North/South pole if there was a league table of importance the teachers gave it then this would be it.

1: Scott
2: Shackleton
3: Amudsson
4: (Way,way behind) Peary

The thing being of course that Scott and Shackleton were British and that though no one should deny their courage they failed.

(As a quick aside Beryl Bainbridge's short novel The Birthday Boys about the Scott expedition is a brilliant and poignant read. I'd highly recommend it)

Robert Peary was the leader of the first team to reach the North Pole. But, as I learnt in this book he was accused of cheating. The argument at it's most basic was that he was just too quick. What the author was doing was to lead an expedition basically following the route and equipment Peary and his team used to see whether he could be just as quick.

Now as a rule expeditions to either Pole have no interest to me, given that they've been reached what's the point? But this was different because it was more of an experiment than an expedition.

The first half of the book was interesting enough. Avery was a bit schoolgirl gushing over his sponsor Barclays Capital but otherwise it was OK. The expedition was just in it's early stages by the time the photos came.

Oh the photos......

Did Avery and his team complete their objective? I won't tell you. But the photos did. And reading the rest of the book was exactly like watching a football match you recorded and finding out what the final score was halfway through. This might be the greatest book about polar expeditions ever written but the photos blinded my mind to it. Rather like Brexit though I didn't know the route taken I knew what the basic destination of this book was going to be.

So if you read this tome take my advice and ignore the photos until the end.

The next book in time for Halloween is:

Dean Koontz - Hideaway

We'll see how scared I am at the end.

Until the next time.

The Barry Town Barber Was Right. To Kill A Mockingbird Is A Great Book..Shame About The Others I've Read

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well the Barry Town barber was right. For the reasons explained in my previous post I borrowed the book from the local library and as he saw the book by the sink he mentioned, unprompted, that it was a "great" book.

Now I've read it, (very quickly as well - always a good sign) I can only agree.

There are certain aspects that make this novel truly exceptional. Firstly, and I knew this beforehand, it's from the point of view of a child. Thus idealism is mixed with inexperience as the reality bites.

Secondly the trial of the Afro Caribbean man accused of rape does not occur to just after halfway through. When it is mentioned in the beginning it is slow seeping process and just part of the narrator's life until for the moment of the trial it starts to dominate. It's the skill of Harper Lee's writing that you're not impatient for the trial to start.

Finally. Given that it's set in a small town in Alabama. What it shows is that for the most part the white people were not evil. They were good people indoctrinated by a racist doctrine in their attitudes. You know you can make an argument that it's like some of  those people who voted for Brexit with regard to their attitudes to people from East European countries who moved to the UK.

And as for the use of the N word that bothered the Biloxi schools district to not teaching this book in schools anymore. Well as I said context is everything and in the context of the book I didn't see it as an issue. Indeed there is a paragraph where the book's hero Atticus Finch gives his opinion on the word, and he's not a fan. Perhaps the Biloxi school district should read that paragraph again.

In conclusion then. Unless something comes along to truly blow me away. It's not only a great book, but the best book I've read this year. So thankyou, Biloxi Schools District for getting me to read it

Sir David Attenborough's book Life Stories turns out to be one of those rare things, a book where you preferred the sequel. I'm, as I've explained before not really the audience for this type of book. Still it comes under the category of slight disappointment. It just wasn't all that interesting.

Still the Attenbourough book, disappointed as I was with it, is still a gazillions light years better than The Cake Shop In The Garden by Carole Matthews. It was chick lit cliché. Put upon woman frustrated with life (tick), handsome man with a past (tick) constraints to the woman finding happiness with handsome man with a past (tick) a crazy sidekick (tick).

What was even worse than that though is that although as a reader I've come to an age where I don't mind not being surprised.Being able to tell what's going to happen is a different matter entirely. There were moments where things were so obvious it was as if Ms Matthews had emailed the plot points to me beforehand.

A truly awful novel.

So it means I've borrowed two new books from the library. They were:

The Great King - Christian Cameron

If the cover is of any guide I don't think I'm going to like this. But we'll see.

And the other was :

To The End Of The Earth - Tom Avery

This is a book about Robert Peary being the first man to reach the North Pole. Now this seems interesting.

We shall see.

Until the next time