My Weekly Book

I’ve just finished this travel book picked up from the Official Bookcrossing Zone at Julian Graves in Norwich and I would say that it was definitely a successful experiment.

Neither this, nor the other book we picked up there - Waterland by Graham Swift - are books that it would have occurred to me to have read of my own accord. The Swift, as earlier entries state, was a raging success. This too, I enjoyed, and I found myself absorbed in the travel narrative and engaged by the writer’s encounters with people in Vietnam.

Mr Random has already said most of what needs saying on the Bookcrossing journal, and I won’t repeat it. I was shocked by the couple’s actions at the end of the book - I won’t reveal what they are and spoil the narrative - and by the way that this turns out to be the bit of the trip that has life-changing implications for them.

I found myself shaking my head over the folly of what was happening, although that was easy for me to do, sitting on the London Underground on a sunny Saturday rather than facing the situation on the ground in Vietnam.

But the questions raised by all this could keep you thinking for hours. On the whole, a recommended read, I think - even if it has never occurred you to read a travel book or to go to Vietnam.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2004 at 4:08 pm and is filed under 2004 - Books read, Archive - Bookcrossing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.