Saturday, July 10, 2004

books books books

Nothing much happened today (I went to the gym, we had lunch at a noodle house, we went to Spiderman 2), so I've decided to write about books. These are some of the books I've read recently:

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley - it took me quite a while to get into this book, because it's really quite wordy. To me, it's about the arrogance of mankind in attempting to interfere with nature, our irresponsible attitude towards nature, and how easily a creature who is full of good feelings, thoughts and intentions, can be coerced into becoming someone scary and murderous, through ill-treatment. I liked it.

Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, by Phillip Pullman - I convinced the boy to buy me a copy of Northern Lights after hearing great things about it from kids in the library, a co-worker who's a fan of Young Adult fantasy, book reviewers and bloggers. We were both hooked after reading the first in this trilogy, and went on to buy the other two. I haven't yet finished The Amber Spyglass, but I know this - the story is really really good.

There's dark matter (the stuff which astrophysicists know must exist everywhere in the Universe but can't find), witches, the Church, bears who wear armour and talk, multiple worlds and people whose souls exist in the form of an animal (like a witches familiar).

Pullman's story could be interpreted as a thinly-veiled attack on the real-life Church, since they are the principle villians in the story. For another example, the heroes, two 12-year-old children, visit a world of the dead and find that there is no Heaven or Hell - when people die their ghosts simply exist in a grey, bland world of the dead forever.

It seems pretty damn sophisticated reading for children - though I suppose they are more sophisticated nowadays than when I was at that age (I read the Narnia stories, for instance, and they weren't so dark). Several of the characters are not clear-cut heroes or villains; in fact, the 'bad' guys do 'good' things and vice versa. I've had a hard time in the third book trying to figure out whose side certain people were on.


Heating Update
Meanwhile, I have a temporary, partial solution to my heating problem - I've rearranged some of the stuff in my art/computer/storage room, which is away from the kitchen and under an insulated ceiling. Now I have room to study in here as well as paint or use the computer. The more time I spend in here, with the little fan heater on, the less time I spend in the hard-to-heat lounge/kitchen. It'll do.

2 comments:

Casyn said...

I recently bought His Dark Materials, which is all three books in one BIG hard cover edition. It's on my 'to read' pile. Am very glad to hear it's not a dud!

Violet said...

It's really very impressive. You may not like it if you're very religious, as it comes across as being quite anti-Christian, but if you're a librarian I'm sure you're too broad-minded to fall into that category...