The Christmas holidays are a time of family, food and reading for me. So the first two books for the holiday were Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick.
Blood Red Snow White I’ve had lying around for a wee while. It drew me in as it mixed fairy tales and Russian history. It’s printed on paper that’s off white and designed to look old and is written as part fairy tale, part history and part biography. Done from the perspective of Arthur Ransome (of Amazon and Swallows fame) it cover the period just before the Russian revolution until the Bolshevists are set in place. It’s written for a teen audience so it’s easy to read but high in interest.
Lucky Jim is on my list of 10 books to read by World Book Day. It was easy enough to read but not much happens it’s one of those development of character books the English department love so much. James is a lecturer who kind of fell into the post and hates lots of things about it. By the end he’s fallen into another phase of his life. It was good, I enjoyed it – I wanted to know how it ended, I even cared for James. I’m not sure I’d agree with the great comic genius of it all, Jeeves and Wooster it isn’t but it was amusing. It’s a three out of five – worth reading, enjoyable but probably not going to stay on my book shelf.
