Got some new books to read over the weekend:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: like many in engineering and science-related fields, I can relate to Christopher, the mathematically talented but socially inept protagonist of this tale. The best bit about Mark Haddon’s writing is that at no time did the book start to pall, it retained its Chapter One zest even during moments that lesser writers would have ruined with pathos — which, of course, meant that I read it in one swell foop and lost the better part of a night’s sleep in the process (Dang, Joel Spolsky had warned people about this).
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell is large, dense book written in a dry, almost pre-Dickensian style. Yet the six chapters I’ve read so far have been riveting, more so than portions of Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. You may have heard this book described as “Harry Potter for adults” or even (rolls eyes) “a cross between Tolkien and Austen” (as a recommendation I saw pasted to a board in Madras’ Landmark bookshop put it), but it isn’t– it is fantasy, but it has its own distinctive voice and pace. Definitely a promising read.
I would call Susanna Clarke’s work as a cross between the fantasy of Tolkien, sense of humour of Douglas Adams and the settings of PG Wodehouse. And as you approach the last pages, you would feel start to feel bad that the book is coming to a close. One of the best books I’ve ever read, IMHO. Definitely bound to make it big, unless ofcourse some bloke *cough* decides to make a movie out of it.