The Journey So Far

Seeing I have discussed book covers, their magic and appeal, it is appropriate to tell you that this whole notion, this whole book club of two people started from one very such book cover in a Borders store in the middle of winter. Now a confession I have to make before I go too far is that I don't buy a lot of books, it is a question of storage, and practicality! My appetite would also leave me broke and as I feel I'm lured by the call of new books I rarely return to past loves. So bookstores are like travel brochures, full of exciting promised lands, and I browse and note them in my note book.

So in browsing the 'New' I found 'Raw Shark Texts' by Steven Hall. The edition of this book and therefore the cover of this book differs around the world, and the version in Australia is unique. It is also brilliant and having seen the English cover I have to say I favour ours. If you have a chance, definitely pick this book up, look at the front, the back, the spine, and read the text it contains. It is a book marketing masterpiece!



This book I had to borrow so placed it onto my reservation list ( I am in love with my local library ) and joined a dozen others waiting for this book. Even today the four copies of the book are on loan! But it was a worthwhile wait filled with other books, other books which while some were good and others not so, were in no comparison to this one, and on receiving my turn, I showed it to Ian who was completely taken by the cover and first page of this book in the same way I was, but he was a bit more brash and decided to hell with waiting and purchased it. So together we read this book and it was a brilliant journey, and a journey that was further enhanced by our many conversations since. And even today we can happily talk about this story.

From here (which was only two months ago) we have devoured a number of books, and the purpose of this blog is to give us a home for sharing them and recording our thoughts, our lists and whatever else!

I must also tell you from that point and several disappointing books later, the lure of the Man Booker Prize and the promise of books that are of a certain quality have given us our current reading list.

So below are our current rankings of books. I think the aim here will be to each have our top ten by Christmas! Each of these we will in turn discuss:

Rach's List:
1. Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall 98/100 (Jul 07)
2. Animal's People - Indra Singh 97/100 (Oct 07)
3. Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones 94/100 (Sep 07)
4. The Reluctant Fundamentalist 92/100 (Sep 07)
5. The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies 91/100 (Sep 07)
6. On Beauty - Zadie Smith 89/100 (Sep 07)
7. On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan 87/100 (Oct 07)

Ian's List:
1. Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall 99/100 (Jul 07)
2. Gifted - Nikita Lalwani 92/100 (Sep 07)
3. On Beauty - Zadie Smith 91/100 (Sep 07)
3. The Reluctant Fundametalist 91/100 (Sep 07)
5. The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies 87/100 (Sep 07)
6. Winterwood - Patric McCabe 79/100 (Sep 07)