reading roundup

In January I read:

• A Reason for God (Timothy Keller)
• Physik (Angie Sage)
• Queste (Angie Sage)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society & the Perilous Journey (Trenton Lee Stewart)
• Your Child’s Growing Mind (Jane Healy)
• Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world (Mark Kurlansky)
• Mister Monday (Garth Nix)
• Grim Tuesday (Garth Nix)

Hmm, I think I know why I didn’t get much writing done this month. Granted, five of these books came from the children’s section of the library and were quick reads. I especially enjoyed the Garth Nix books, the first of The Keys of the Kingdom series. It looks like six out of the seven books have been published. Good. I hate having to wait a year or more between books. I wish publishers would wait until they have most of a series, then bring the books out at six-month intervals. It probably doesn’t work from a financial standpoint (authors like to be paid and publishers want to guage how a series will do before committing to it), but I wonder how many readers are lost because they won’t pick up a series unless it’s complete or forget about it altogether because it’s been too long between books?

Cod, I was predisposed to like because I enjoy books that trace the impact of a commodity on history and culture. Though short, it did drag towards the end, and I found the “fish that changed the world” epithet far too grandiose for the reality (I’m from Asia and I failed to glean how cod changed my corner of the world). What made the book fascinating for me were the details that I could see using in a novel; fishing techniques, or the use of clay/cod oil mixture to protect coastal buildings from the salt, or wars over fishing grounds. I also skipped the appendix of cod recipes. Just not a big fan of old-style European cookery.

I do plan to pick up the Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History.

What have you been reading?