(the other title of this post could be: Book Review - The Understudy by David Nicholls)Those who know me well enough to know the inside of my room know that whist most young adults have spent money on booze and cigarettes, I have spent equivalent, and even surplus amounts, on books. Next to my king size bed I have a book shelf almost as wide as the bed and it is quite densely populated with all sorts of book titles. My books.
In order to have a book collection of your own, the first rule that you have to obey is the ‘don’t join the library’ rule. Libraries are awful places for those rare human specimens that prefer ownership to leasing. I have always resisted libraries and instead frequented 2nd hand book shops or better yet, hospice charity shops where I have personally been lucky enough to pick up hard cover Grisham’s for R10. Ten rand being my average library fine expense anyway.
Moving along with this story, before I entirely lose you, I was the most excited man in the world 4 days ago when I stumbled upon an “ALL BOOKS R15” sale at the local stationery shop. Trying not to salivate on the books, I managed to pick up a total of 4 decent looking ones, all by authors that i have never heard of before. Fully aware of the risk involved in such a purchase I was not expecting much as I opened to the first page of the book with the best cover. (the proverbial ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ is actually wrong. i believe covers mean more than the crappy sales pitch on the inside cover anyway.)
About 20 pages into The Understudy I found myself totally gripped by the story-line, the main character’s colour and the sneak -peek it gave me into London’s West End. I found myself leaving parties early so that I could read more. I also found myself getting positively annoyed with my eyelids as they began to shut at night because a part of me wanted to know what happened next. It all became a little obsessive really.
I don’t want to review the book- there are enough people in the world reviewing things, hoping that their point of view gets taken seriously... if you are interested in a review then ask Uncle Google for one, I’m dure he would be happy to deliver in record time. I do, however, know that this is not everyone’s book, but I’m glad it was mine. It sprinkled flavour into an otherwise bland week back at varsity making calculations.
I have just finished the book and now am not sure what to do with myself other than encourage people I know to ask to borrow it from me. Just remember to give it back because I will surely note it’s absence from the shelf- it has the best cover, remember....
Posts
