Book Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five 2013

It’s becoming sort of a regular thing for me to take an awful lot of time to write a new post, but this I have a very good reason.

I just finish reading the longest book of the year, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I kind you not, it took from May 7 to July 9, that’s 63 days.

An enthralling tale set during the middle of the 12th century during The Anarchy in England, it explores the intrigue and conspiracies that started brewing during King Stephen reign.  The story spans over half a century.

But to me it really revolves around the building of a new cathedral in Kingsbridge. The other historical references are merely a back-drop in which the story unwinds.

I loved all the architectural references I think it gives the story a great deal of strength and it make feel you’re standing there cover in dust, watching how this beautiful building rises slowly from the ground. I  especially liked how you become  witness to the architectural shift from Romanesque to Gothic.

My favorite characters of the novel are Tom, the master builder who thinks that his sole purpose is to build the greatest cathedral known to man. Jack, the young man who turns from being a menace to a great stonemason. And lastly the beautiful and successful Aliena, she defeats all odds and becomes a beacon of light in all the darkness that try to engulf them.

I would have given the novel five stars but somethings didn’t quite click, mainly two things. The fact that William Hamleigh was a cliche of a villain got pretty old really soon and also the fact that Aliena had to suffer extremely throughout the novel was kind of a drag, how much bad luck can one person have. Other that it’s really a behemoth of a story ,a really long and satisfying read.

The other book that I finish, and the one that puts me right in the middle of this year, was Shame by Salman Rushdie.  Written in the style of magic realism the story revolves around mainly the violence that is born out of  the feeling of shame . It takes flesh in an innocent girl,that as a small child became sick with encephalitis.

She wreak havoc on one and all of the characters, sort of an retribution for all the wrong they gave to the world. Not a easy read, I sometimes got lost but found my track pretty quickly, but beautifully written and executed.

So that’s 12,424 pages down, 37,318 pages to go.

Total Pages : 124,004 pages