About a month ago I mentioned that I had won a copy of Dan Brown’s Inferno, which was a good thing as, after The Lost Symbol I wasn’t planning on buying one of his novels again. Turns out my instincts were right as Mr Brown’s latest offering was not much of an improvement on its predecessor.
I have to admit that wasn’t my first impression. In fact, I quite enjoyed the first two thirds of the novel.
(At this point it would be pertinent to insert a spoiler warning. I am going to reveal significantly more than the jacket blurb, but I’ll try not to ruin the big stuff just in case you really want to read it.) Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews Inferno by Dan Brown”→
This is not what I had planned for today. But I needed to vent. In fact, I needed to vent last night but didn’t feel like powering up the computer at 11pm for a rant.
I finally finished Infernolast night. That in itself is reason to rant, but the full review is on its way. However, on the tedious slog to the finish line I came across a sentence that quite literally made me cringe.
On page 434 of the hardcover edition Mr Brown uses this sentence: “And the HIV virus attacked the immune system, causing the disease AIDS.”
In South Africa HIV and AIDS is a pretty big issue, with about a third of the population infected and more than two thirds affected. In the people-oriented professions like social work, counselling, teaching, community development and the medical professions it is something we have to deal with every day. Consequently, during my studies the facts about this condition was thoroughly drilled into my mind (and I’m reading a book about it again for my Master’s) and I get quite riled up if people spout a bunch of nonsense about it. Continue reading “On getting the facts right”→
I came across this survey on Cheap Thrills and Charleen got it from Katie’s blog, Words for Worms. Both of them decided not to tag anyone, but leave it out there for anyone who’s interested to grab it, which is exactly what I’m now doing.
The rules are:
Post these rules
Post a photo of your favorite book cover
Answer the questions below
Tag a few people to answer them too
Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you’ve tagged them
Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you’ve taken part!
Favorite Book Cover
I can’t really say that I have a favourite book cover. I’m more interested in what’s in a book. However, I am a bit obsessive compulsive, so if I buy books from a series I like them all to come from the same imprint and edition (you know, so they look all pretty and organised on the shelf). And I love the covers of old, especially antique books. I have a bunch of old books that I bought simply for how they look.
But I’m avoiding the question, aren’t I? I guess if I had to pick a favourite it would be the original Discworld covers by Josh Kirby. Since his death in 2001 the covers have been done by Paul Kidby. Kidby’s are also very good, but I like Kirby’s more, probably because I got to know the Discworld through his drawings when I first started reading them in high school. Here is one I randomly selected:
Like many people (according to one infographic I’ve found on Facebook, around 57 million) I had never heard of Dan Brown until The Da Vinci Code propelled him into fame. I did not pay the whole phenomenon much attention – I was earning minimum wage at the time and was definitely not going to spend the little cash I had on a novel by someone I had never heard of.
I did some house-sitting in those days to supplement my income. I spotted the novel on the shelf in one of the homes I was watching and decided I might as well give it a read (and before you get into me for reading other people’s books without permission – I can read a 1000-page paperback novel without cracking the spine).
Just in case you’ve never heard of this book before (you barbarian), a few quick facts: Eric Arthur Blair, under the name of George Orwell, wrote it in the late 1940s. He died shortly after publishing it. He wrote a few other novels during his life, but none so famous as Animal Farm, which preceded Nineteen Eighty-Four and is about a bunch of farm animals who rebel against their master and start running the farm for themselves but is actually a satirical allegory of the rise of communism in post-revolutionary Russia.
Both Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four carry the same message: they want to warn us of the danger of not thinking for ourselves and giving too much power to those who govern over us. According to Wikipedia these two books together have sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author.
Most people in the English-speaking world are forced at one time or another to read Animal Farm during high school (I can recite significant portions of Animal Farm from memory – occupational hazard of being an English teacher), which is a shame, really, as they end up hating what is really a delightful little novella. On the other hand, for some reason people think there’s something wrong with them if they have not yet read Nineteen Eighty-four, or at least, that’s the only conclusion I can draw from the fact that it’s the book most people have lied about having read.
If you haven’t read either of these, but are planning to still do so and don’t want me to spoil it, you might want to stop reading about here. If you’re not planning to read them, read on – at least next time you lie about having read it you’ll sound a bit more informed 😉
if all else fails...use a hammer 