This year, I have decided to read 12 books recommended by my students. I did ask the 6 students of my Thursday group to recommend 2 books each, but not all have done so.
One of them, however, kindly lent me 4 books when we met up for breakfast one morning shortly before Christmas.
I started the first one on New Year's Day - and finished it on the same evening. It was The Second Coming by John J. Niven. In it, God comes back from a brief holiday only to find utter chaos on earth, so he sends his son down to earth again. Not a book for those who faint at profanity. God, Jesus and the angels...their swearing would shock you. A good story, amusing, but the ending is highly predictable. As I like to think, if Jesus were alive today - he'd be crucified. People just don't like that kind of 'do-gooder'.
The next day, I started (and finished) Ready, Player One by Ernest Cline. My student was afraid I'd not get all the references to the 1980s, especially all the video games, films, etc. It is set in 2045 and it's a pretty horrible world. The hero tries to find the answers to clues set by a man who created an entire virtual world that has a lot of users. The man has died and whoever can solve all the clues and find the Easter egg inherits his estate. It was pretty exciting. A page-turner. I enjoyed it.
The third book, which I finished on 8 January (after finishing one non-fiction book and listening to a few audiobooks while cross-stitching) was How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. Another unusual premise: that there are some people who stop ageing normally in their teens and then live for centuries. It was okay. A bit of a love story, a bit of a search for a long-lost relative, and a journey through time and various locations. I liked, for example, his time with William Shakespeare. I particularly like fiction that weaves famous historical characters into the story, such as the Oscar Wilde Mysteries, in which Oscar Wilde plays the role of the detective. The author is Gyles Brandreth.
Now, there is a huge difference between these three books and those of Dickens. One thing is that they are all science-fiction, all based on a 'what if' idea. But for me the main difference is that the modern books are very much plot-driven and the books from the 19th century are not only plot driven but character-driven, too. In fact, the characters drive the plot forward, whereas these modern books have plots that force the characters to go with them. It is as though the story is a stream and the characters have to 'go with the flow'.
And you can see the difference in that it took me a couple of weeks to get through a book by Dickens, whereas I could 'kill' these books in a day. I am a fast reader (you have to be if you study literature twice), but 19th century books don't allow you to read as fast as these modern-day books.
It'll be interesting to see what other student recommendations come my way. I'm currently reading the fourth recommendation from this student: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, the film of which I have already seen. As with How to Stop Time and Ready, Player One, the story is told by various people in the first person. And I'm a sucker for first-person narrative.
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