Bel's Summer Reading (Create)
Created | Updated Aug 12, 2012
So, the Create challenge for August is Summer Reading. Personally, I'm not at all sure what differentiates summer reading from reading in any other season, but then maybe the idea is that what you read in summer is more the lighter stuff because all the outdoor activities don't leave a lot of time for reading, whereas in winter, with nought else to do, you're more inclined to read 'highbrow' stuff? Be that as it may, my summer reading probably fits the bill of 'light' reading.
I don't need to go on a holiday to read (although it helps to have enough leisure time). Reading a good book ('good' in the way that it entertains me) is a holiday in itself for me. If a book draws me in, I'm no longer in this world. I don't hear the phone, don't care for the PC and emails, or TV. I'm gone. You can find me in the pages of the book in front of me (most likely in e-ink). And currently, I need these 'holidays', so I've read a fair bit recently.
If you have a certain electronic device (i.e.a specific ereader) you'll probably know that a specific online store gives away ebooks for free on a daily basis. And so it came that I downloaded a 'Historical Romance Boxed Set' the other week. The first book, of the set: Of Noble Birth, contained everything you may wish for: an abduction of a virgin (the 'wrong' virgin, naturally, a common seamstress and not the aristocrat she was taken for), pirates, a mean duke, conspiracy, etc.
As is often the matter with this sort of novel, it is all entirely predictable, yet I enjoyed it. It is well written and the editor did a good job, because I didn't stumble over lots of typos etc which so often mark ebooks, unfortunately. The second novel in the set: Honor Bound isn't marginally different, only this time there are no pirates (it's the Royal Navy) and the virgin is an aristocrat. If you like this sort of stuff for very light reading, you can find it on the author's homepage. If you prefer similar stuff but another genre, there's always the scifi Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which you can download for free from Project Gutenberg. It is more 'martial' – literally, but just as predictable as the Brenda Novak books mentioned above.
Next up was Final Passage by Timothy Frost, another gift from the aforementioned store. As coincidence would have it, this is another book where most of the plot is set on a ship (a yacht, in this case). There are lots of nautical terms in it, but I've read all Horatio Hornblower books (by C.S. Forester) several times, so this didn't put me off. Final Passage drew me in right from the start. I couldn't really say which genre it's in, it has got elements from many genres. Maybe 'adventure' comes closest, but I'm not sure. It is totally unpredictable and so kept my tension right through till the ending. The protagonist is about to lose everything he's worked for hard for many years. He acts so stupidly that instead of rescuing his skin he digs himself into an ever deeper hole. If you know whether he'll manage to come out of that hole, you'll have to read it. Let me just say that there are many twists and turns and that I had a couple of very late nights because I couldn't put it down.
The next book I started reading is an actual paper book, and boy, I woulkd have preferred it as an ebook because it is so heavy (it's a large hardback copy). It is called Partitur des Todes (Score of Death) by German author Matthias Altenburg under the pen name of Jan Seghers. It is a crime story, set in my home town Frankfurt am Main. I had only just started reading it, when I learned about the death of one of my beloved authors, Maeve Binchy. This news saddened me deeply. I don't recall when I came first across one of her books, it was many years ago. I've kept on reading her books ever since, and I occasionally gave them away as birthday presents. I felt that I would like to read a Maeve Binchy book now, so I bought Dublin 4. It is a collection of four short stories, but I didn't grasp that, so I waited for the connection between them – which never came. I enjoyed the first aqnd the last story most, and thought the one about the country girl in Dublin was weakest, but that's because I cannot imagine somebody could be that naive. However, it made for a good (albeit short) read, and I'm sorry there won't be any new books in the future any more.
Back to Partitur des Todes. It's quite a fast-paced book and kept my attention (once I had finished reading Dublin 4, that is). As a Frankfurter I had the impression that the author was generous with the distances (or lack thereof) between some of the locations, but I couldn't be bothered to check that. It doesn't really matter, and anyway, my knowledge of geography is poor at best. Lots of people die in the book: five right in the beginning, and a few more before the case is solved. I'm always a little wary with so many deaths in a story, it just is something I can't really imagine, so it doesn't entirely convince me, but that's probably just me. There are a few more things which aren't entirely convincing, but I've read worse books, and as far as a light summer reading goes, it is perfectly fine.
In case you wondered: I read all these books within the past three weeks. That's quite a lot for me, because I hadn't been in the habit of reading any more for quite some time. However, it keeps me sane at present and is a perfect escape from the real life worries and sorries.
So if you can recommend some light reading (preferably available in ebook form), why don't you start a thread below?
