summer reading list - part 1

Since we’re only a week away from August (only a week, sheesh!) I thought I’d share with you what’s on my reading list for the month to come.

First up, ‘Unicorn Mountain’ by Michael Bishop...

I tried really hard to like this book (I mean, look at the front cover!), but it’s really tough to read. It’s just so twee (if that is possible for a book) and, frankly, awfully written. I know that was the whole point of choosing it – it looked so dreadful I thought perhaps it would be amazing, just to be ironic. The blurb says, quite clearly:

“Unicorn Mountain is the story of four people whose lives are transformed by a band of unicorns”

…and how am I supposed to resist a book with a blurb like that? Exactly! I had no choice but to read it. Intriguingly, when looking for the image, I discovered that ‘Unicorn Mountain’ has a 5 star rating on Amazon. Goodness, I must really be missing the point. I might start reading it again from the beginning (much as it would pain me to do so) in order to “get” the brilliance. Second time lucky, right?

To lighten the mood when I’m not forcing myself to read U.M., I will be dipping into ‘My Favourite People and Me’ by Alan Davies (of Jonathan Creek fame).

I have been a little bit in love with Alan since 1997, when the show first aired. If you haven’t seen Jonathan Creek (how could you not have?) it’s a BBC crime/mystery drama series about a chap named Jonathan who works as a creative consultant to a magician, and also solves seemingly impossible supernatural mysteries in his spare time, just for fun. Plus he lives in a windmill, which is just plain awesome.

Anywho, the book isn’t about Jonathan Creek, it’s about Alan’s own childhood and his idols while he was growing up. 

The final book in my list is called ‘Gods Behaving Badly’ – I found it in a charity shop in Haringey this morning with a plain black cover so I had no real idea what it was about, though now seeing the cover I'll assume it’s about mischievous Greek Gods – ooh, let’s hope so!

Nothing very sensible, I know, but it's the holidays after all!

Are you reading anything interesting at the moment? I'd love to hear about it!