04.Aug.2010 Toys and Booker
With so many toys coming into Mee’s headquarter in the past few weeks (MacBook, XBox360, Wii), something gotta take the backseat. Reading doesn’t, but I guess blogging does. Coincidentally I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude which takes a while to read, while I only have one book review in the backlog. What can I say, the universe just seems to conspire for me not to write anything.
Meanwhile, have you checked out the Booker longlist? This year I have read 1 book, which is a great improvement from the usual uum.. nil. I read The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas earlier this year and I’m glad to see it there, just so we have another Australian apart from Peter Carey (hasn’t he won enough?). There are some brilliant bits in the book and some boring bits, but all in all, a rather worthy read. Most Australians are quite surprised that the book gets so much attention overseas (what with Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and now The Booker), because it is soo Melbournians… I am too. I lived in Melbourne for 6 years before so it is a book I’m glad I read, but I’m not sure how other people relate to it. Perhaps UK’s contemporary suburban life is not that far off than what we have here down under.
Apart from that, one book that piques my interest the most is Room by Emma Donoghue, and I know I’m not alone in this. Looks like Room starts popping up everywhere on the blogosphere. I’m not however rushing to buy and read it. I’m more likely to sit back and watch the battle field from the side, waiting until the dust settles before approaching any of them.
mee 
