The Lost World – Arthur Conan Doyle

When I was a kid I read some of Sherlock Holmes’s stories and kind of liked them, but to me The Lost World was of an entirely different calibre.

Maybe it’s because this week I’ll be going to Crystal Palace to check out the 19^th century dinosaur sculptures, or maybe because the novel reminded me of my youthful love for those creatures, but I loved The Lost World with passion. Sure, the characters are all so representative of authentic 19^th century English values (something with which I am still very much struggling in post-referendum Britain), and many of these features are just offensive by today’s standards (nowadays you don’t quite assert your masculinity by firing guns, at least in theory, and women are allowed on adventurous expeditions, at least at times), but the four heroes all remain charming in their own ways.

I suspect that the book falls into the “young adults” category – and I’m sadly out of it now! – but one thing that really surprised me is that, at the end of the day, it’s really not dated…

The Humans – Matt Haig

And a second entry from my book club’s list (!) – it’s not that I loved this book, not even that I hated it like Norwegian Wood, it’s just that, unlike most of the books so far, it was actually quite enjoyable.

Other than many fairly trite observations about the weird ways of the humans, the novel is quite nice in its exploration of human bonds and emotions. If only Gulliver had actually killed himself there would probably be something more to say about the novel, but alas he didn’t (yes, I’m a horrible person…)

Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

Having read so many of McEwan’s books, it’s nice to be able to smugly say “I like his earlier stuff better”. To me Enduring Love falls in between the aforementioned “earlier stuff” and some of his more recent fairly dull works.

Enduring Love is an interesting read, and one that makes me surely really happy to be out of “real” academia (“you aren’t even ripe yet” said the fox to the grapes?!?). The couple’s dynamics seem remarkably plausible (although I would personally like a bit more support for my partner!) –Joe’s bizarre entry in the English underworld a lot less so (like in Saturday, to me it looks as if McEwan doesn’t really know what he’s talking about).

Most of all, this book actually made me realize why so many of McEwan’s character (including Joe) are in the end rather unlikeable – they’re not just posh, they’re just so obscenely judgemental you want to punch them in the face…