Long-Overdue Book Reviews: Persepolis, A Christmas Carol, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

These book reviews have been lingering for a while, so I figured I’d smoosh them together and call it a post.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I’m embarrassed to admit that I read this nearly a year ago during last winter (2010). I had just gotten the Sony eReader and tried downloading some free books from Gutenberg.org… well you all know how that ended.

But technological/syncing issues aside, I didn’t really enjoy the experience of reading on an eReader. Therefore, my low opinion of A Christmas Carol is probably coloured by the fact that I did not enjoy the experience of reading eBooks.

I found the book to be tedious, slow and while reading I was annoyed that I couldn’t lie on my side (auto-rotate). The ebook did have illustrations, but it just wasn’t the same as pencil sketches on paper, and I found it frustrating to figure how far into the book I actually was. Honestly, “104 of 379 pages” means very little to my non-mathematical brain, especially when the novel is only supposed to be 200 printed pages.

I believe I will have to pick up a physical, print copy of A Christmas Carol and try again… perhaps this winter season.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is a graphic memoir by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, translated from French. The comic series follow the story of Satrapi’s childhood, teenage years and coming-of-age within (and without) her family during the Islamic Revolution. She struggles with figuring out her place within the political upheaval and making sense of the world around her.

My friend Eka was running a book club this summer and they had recently read either the first English volume or the second at university, so they decided to read the entire story and discuss it over coffee in June of this year.

While a bit long-winded, I did enjoy the graphic novel and feel that it is an important story to tell, and I am glad Satrapi published this graphic memoir. Satrapi has also published another graphic novel about the issue of sex, sexuality and gender within the Iranian community, and I think this would also be an interesting read.

A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Further embarrassingly, I can’t even remember when I read the first two volumes of the trilogy. Suffice to say it was aaaages ago, and haven’t read the third, fourth or the fifth part yet. However, I loveloveloved the film and perhaps one day I will return and finish reading the series.

From what I remember of the book series, I really enjoyed Douglas Adams’ wit, but my interest started to wain as the series got more and more obscure. I may chalk this up to my preference of fantasy over science fiction. I am also a huge fan of Marvin the Paranoid Android and feel there was never enough Marvin.

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