Day 6 (in the Big Brother House…) – there are many books that make me cry, two of which have already been posted (damn) so I’ll have to go for a slightly embarrasing one: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There are plenty of deaths in it, all of which manage to jerk a tear. As Rowling’s writing matured, along with her audience, she’s been able to slide in some biting political comment, as well as truly heartbreaking scenes. The death of Dobby, the house-elf, is one such scene. Laying down his life for his friends, by taking a dagger to the heart, his final act is to spirit the intrepid band of vagrant youths young wizards to their safehouse. Harry’s burial of Dobby, eschewing magic for hard graft, is plainly, emotively done.
Day 7 – this is possibly the easiest book to choose, and definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever read (in English – attempting to read A La Recherce Du Temps Perdu in French, and bad GCSE French at that, was suicidal folly). One word shall explain it all: Ulysses. Caveat emptor: I shall update this if I ever get around to finishing Ulysses, and therefore deem myself worthy to fail at reading Finnegan’s Wake.
Day 8 – a book I’ve read, of which no-one seems to have ever heard, and which, to my knowledge, isn’t troubling the bestseller charts (and has never done), is the Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli. There must be some interest, because I’ve got a reprinted, collected version of said trilogy, with cover quotes by Stephen Fry and other rent-a-blurbers, but not a single person I’ve ever met has even heard of it, let alone read it. Buy it here and laugh your heads off.
