So Many Books... -

09:40 pm

FInished Enna Burning a night or two ago, a bit to my relief. It may well be as 'good' as The Goose Girl, but I certainly didn't find it as easy to like. It's a bit of a technical problem, making a character who's somewhere between possessed and addicted sympathetic in anything more than a detached, intellectual way. Enna's not much fun to spend time with, I felt. And Isi, a great character in The Goose Girl, seemed more saintly suffering than I'd have liked in this.

Now reading Robert Westall's The Wind Eye, which Charlie left with me. So far, it seems extraordinarily like his Yaxley's Cat, except more obviously a children's book. (His = Westall's, not Charlie's!)

As my brain is mildewing quietly away here, I'll offer a tidbit from the local housing marker in lieu of book talk. I didn't manage to visit and report on any nice houses this year for my friends with Euro (many!) to spare, and offer this less as that (though I'm sure it is a nice house and would be delighted to see anyone move in so close!) than as an example of real estate agent-speak of the most horrendous type. The house The relevant line is in the second paragraph: 'a great opportunity to gain a foothold in this prestigious location.' What the hell kind of mind-set do you have to have to view a 1.8 MILLION Euro house as a foothold? This is my starter house, I'm just slumming it until something worthy of living in comes along? (€1.8m= $2.29 m.= £1.23m = 3m AUD)