The last five books I've read
Zoë Norton Lodge is the author of Almost Sincerely. Here she tells us the last five books she read, and how she rated them.
The very last thing I read was the Magna Carta. Would not recommend. V boring. 1 Star. Does have some highlights – like how we should measure booze and the right to a fair trial, but otherwise it’s a snoozefest.
The last book I read was The President’s Desk by Shaun Micallef. It’s a mish-mash of real events and people with complete inventions. It features a lesbian Queen Victoria who receives special massages via a series of brooms tethered together with a boxing glove on the end, Michael Moore gets caught up in an ice-cream-truck manslaughter as well as quite a lot of cannibalism, penguin eating and people who turn out to be robots. It also has a useful ‘Errata’ section at the end to help you understand what was real and what was pretend (not that I was struggling in that department… ahem). Anyway, it’s great.
Before that I read A Man Made Entirely of Bats by young Aussie author Patrick Lenton – which is a collection of completely absurd and compelling micro-fiction. There are a lot of super heroes and villains and animals. It’s a gorgeous little experiment and a very funny read.
And before that I read Cannery Row which I loved. My favourite thing in the world is Under Milk Wood and so the darling and sickly vignettes of Steinbeck appealed to me greatly, as did the magnificent casting of place as character.
And before that I read A Confederacy of Dunces which I completely adored. Not just because it’s hilarious and brilliant but because our delightful and repulsive hero, Ignatious, reminds me terribly of a dear friend – a friend who is so dear that they didn’t even mind when I told them that.
I recently joined a book club, and am about to sink my teeth into At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien. I hear it’s hard, so I’ll rely on pride to get me through it.
