Anyway, last night I finished a book and it has leapt straight into my top five books of all time. I enjoyed it so much I now want to recommend everyone to give it a try. It is by David Mitchell, the author of 'Cloud Atlas' which I enjoyed but wouldn't rave about. It is called 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet'. I bought it on a whim and was expecting it to be a bit heavy going and a bit chewy, however I was hooked from the first chapter. Do you ever find you have read a book and can't remember if it was a film you saw or a book you read? Well for me this will be one of those, it is so vivid and exciting and, I'm sorry, a bit horrifying in places. I found some evenings I couldn't put the book down because my heart was racing with adrenaline. It even made me exclaim out loud in several place, to my husbands irritation.(He's an exerciser not a reader.) I found myself keen to go to bed at night just to fit an extra chapter in and found elements of the story creeping into my dreams too. I'm not going to tell you what it's about, that is irrelevant, I had no idea at all when I picked it up. It's a gripping story and I just wanted to let you know.
The other books in my list are;
'Oscar and Lucinda' by Peter Cary- again don't worry what it is about, I put off reading it for ages because the subject didn't appeal, but it really is my absolute favourite!
'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy- I love anything by Hardy, but this particular novel is his best, brilliant despite being a set text for my A level.
'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier- another vividly written story that had me exclaiming out loud on one memorable car journey to Oxford, my husband was not amused then either.
'The Solitaire mystery' by Jostein Gaarder- a less well know book by the author of 'Sophie's Word'. This one looked like it may be chewy, but I found it to be a real page turner. A book within a book too, brilliant device!
And one more that has perhaps been knocked down to 6th place... 'The Castle' by Franz Kafka. I'm not sure I got everything I should from it, but I sort of let it wash over me and found it hard to remember if I had read it in a book or seen it in a film.
I'd love to know if you follow up any of these recommendations and how you get on with them if you do! Do you have any recommendations for me? I'm going to find it difficult to find anything to follow 'Jacob De Zoet'
