Book Review: The Book Thief

I have grown up with stories about the Holocaust, so much so that I cannot remember a time when I did not know about it. I started going to Hebrew lessons when I was five (and usually went with my sister before then anyway) and the first book that I remember wanting to read was Anne Frank's Diary. It is possible and quite likely that Anne Frank was the reason for my wanting to become a journalist in the first place, though I cannot guarantee that. In any case, Anne was the beginning of my Holocaust reading, but she certainly was not the last.

When it came to middle and high school, books about the Holocaust were spread amongst our syllabus, and we were encouraged to read books about the Holocaust outside of the syllabus as well. The school library was filled with them. The most memorable of the books that I read was Night by Ellie Wiesel, and it was hauntingly beautiful, but absolutely nightmarish. Which makes complete sense. The Holocaust was absolutely nightmarish. Worse. It was no nightmare. However, I came across a book recently (advised by my friend Kath) that I thought would have proved a better tool for learning about the Holocaust in high school. It is a marvelous book called 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak.

There are a couple of things that make The Book Thief great as both a novel and a tool for teaching. The protagonist in the story is a young girl, only nine when the story starts and fourteen when it ends, someone that teenagers, and particularly teenagers between those ages, can relate to. But even as a twenty-three year old, I can relate to Liesel. She is every little girl. Another great aspect about the protagonist - she is a reader. Even before she learns to read, she knows the value of books, and values the ability to read, possibly because it was such a great challenge for her to wrap her head around. Liesel is an entirely relatable character on a number of levels, all of which make the book easy to read for young and old readers alike.

One of the main reasons that I think this is a great tool for learning, however, is that it shows the Holocaust from a number of perspectives. It shows it from the everyday life of a young German girl, from the viewpoint of a Jew in hiding, from the viewpoint of a proud German man, from the viewpoint of his patriotic son, from the viewpoint of a crippled boy and from the viewpoint of a perfectly normal boy next door who is just trying to fit in. It provides a wide scope from which to view the Holocaust and see how it affected the life of everyone in Germany, from the rich to the poor, from the young to the old.

And the thing that makes this book a great read for anyone, learning or not, is the manner in which it is written. First of all, the narrator is not your typical narrator. The narrator is death, but not as the hateful bastardly reaper that steals you away. Death is not a nightmare in this novel, but a dream. He is thoughtful, he is the saviour and he even has a slight sense of humour at times. Death is the hero of the novel in many ways. But it's not just the narrator, its also the tone. The novel is not depressing. It is beautiful! It will make you smile and cry at the same time, knowing as you do what the outcome of the story is likely to be. And yet, you cannot help but smile. I smile everytime I think of Liesel and her collection of books and cry every time I think of Rudi covering himself in black coal and pretending to be Jessie Owens.

This is a book that I think every teenager should read. I think it is the perfect introduction to the Holocaust. That is not to say that books like Night should be ignored in the syllabus. Not at all - they hold valuable lessons that people of every age need to face. But I certainly think that they should be taught alongside books like The Book Thief, which show the beauty of life mixed in with the horror of death, the good together with the bad, both sides of the coin for the people of Germany - the Jews, the Christians, the Atheists, the young and the old. As much as the lessons in Night are valuable for people of all ages, I think that the same came be said of The Book Thief.

Kindly Give Me Back My Kindle

Hello readers :)

I figured that it had been awhile since I last posted something of interest on this blog, so I thought that I would write a post while I had a spare minute or two.

As anyone who reads my blog may have guessed from the many posts about books, I like to read. Quite a lot really. Enough for me to have books to fill practically fill a full two bookshelves by myself. Which means that when I move around, when I travel and when I move houses, I tend to take a lot of books with me. What this leads to is a lot of extra weight and a lot of extra space. This led to a decision being made last year - I needed an ebook reader. When Shaina got given her Nook for her birthday, I was incredibly jealous and I started working on Grant, insisting that I should get such a device myself. It would come in handy for the both of it, I pleaded. And eventually he gave in, getting my a wonderful Kindle for my own birthday in March.

It is now August, and I am ashamed to say that I have not made too much use of my Kindle. After downloading a huge number of books and taking my Kindle to Johannesburg with me, I have barely touched it since, and there is good reason for this. My Kindle, my wonderful Kindle, the third (or fourth) love of my life (after Grant, Puddims and, at times, my HTC) is faulty. You see, while Amazon advertises that the Kindle battery can last a full month, I can barely get four hours out of the thing. The wireless is turned off. There is no music playing. I have decreased the number of books on the machine, but after fully charging it, turning it on and opening a book, it automatically jumps to less than half health. The last time I did this, I then turned it off and left it sitting on my desk. Two days later, it was completely dead.

Contacting Kindle from South Africa is a problem. You see, Amazon does not have South African support, and though I emailed them about the problem, they required a phone call. There is no local number to call. My cellphone does not have roaming and cannot dial international numbers. My Skype does not have credit as I have no credit card. I am left with only one option - to take the machine in to the shop where Grant bought it. Which I will do. But I thought that I would vent my upsetness first.

I am upset. I loved my Kindle with all my heart, glorifying it as the best birthday present ever. And it is broken. I seriously think that Kindle needs to get some South African support, particularly if these devices are being marketed at an International audience, which they are. If they cannot get South African support, then they need to be prepared to have better reception when emailed and provide better service than merely saying: "We can't help you over email. Give us a call." I can't give you a call, and I am left with a defective machine until I can get off my ass and go to Insight. Which, fair enough, is not too far away. But while Amazon offers a replacement in days, I know that my Kindle is not going to get back to me for weeks when I hand it over to Insight, because it is doing nothing more than passing it on to a middle man, who then has to get in contact with their suppliers, who then have to get in contact with Amazon, who then have to send a replacement, which then needs to be sent to Insight and finally ends up at me a lot later than it would have if I could have just gotten hold of Amazon myself.

I am upset. I am unimpressed and I want my Kindle back, the way that it should be. Rant over.

Hauntingly Lovely

It has been awhile since I wrote a review, so I thought that I would do that today. This time it is about a book that I finished a couple of days back.

I used to be so good at reading books – I used to get sucked into them and would sit, reading, for hours until eventually the book was finished. Nothing could stop me – not school, not work, nothing. I don’t read like that anymore. I tend to read about a chapter a night while I am in the bath, less if I have to have a quick one (and yes, I know that I should shower rather than bath, but after a year of Korean showers, this is a necessary luxury for me). I occasionally read when travelling, but aside from these moments, I tend to watch TV or play computer games over reading. These are terrible excuses, but it is the truth of the matter, and this is why it took my almost a month to read Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.

You have to understand that the month that it took me to read the book should not be taken as any judgement on the book itself. I absolutely adored it, so much so that I would spend far longer in the bath than was sensible poring over its pages. The water would get cold, my toes would go all pruny, I would (sigh, gasp) have to add extra hot water just to keep me going so that I could carry on reading. My boyfriend would come looking for me thinking that I had drowned. No, baby. I’m okay. I’m just reading.

For those of you who do not know the story of The Lovely Bones, it is about a young girl, Susie Salmon, who is murdered in the 60’s. The story is told from her perspective, looking down from what is essentially purgatory, as she watches how her murder (at first thought to just be a kidnapping) affects her family and her murderer, who happens to be her neighbour. She watches from above as life goes on, and describes the comings and goings of both the real world and the world that she finds herself in.

More than a murder mystery, the mystery of who murdered her, a question that is answered right from the get-go, is replaced with the mystery of what happens after life, after death, after everything that you love is taken away from you.

The Lovely Bones is a gem of a book and is going to be taking a prominent position on my bookshelf as soon as I have lent it to a friend of mine who I know is going to love it. I am sure that if you are reading this, you know just who you are ;)

Days 7-17

So I am way, WAY behind on all of the blogging that I was supposed to be doing. I got a job, you see, and the time that I was spending typing up blogs on my laptop at home was replaced with time spent typing up legal documents in plain English. Anyway, I am sure there will be another post about my new job at some point or another, but that is not what this post is for. This post is to catch up on the days that I missed from the book challenge. I didn't want to give up on it, and I didn't want to write eleven separate posts, so I figured that I would put them all together here. I won't bore you with long stories about why I chose these books this time around - just a line or two to explain how they apply to the topic. The book covers are a little small at times, but you can click them to be taken to a bigger picture or you can click the book titles to be takes to their Wikipedia pages. Enjoy!

A book that you can quote:
The Great Gatsby is one of the books that I was forced to study at University, but that I absolutely loved. This meant that when it came to the exams, it was one of the books that I aced purely because it was one that I managed to remember well having enjoyed it so much. And yes, I can quote a couple of lines from it.

A book that scares you:
As someone who would like to have children some day, the idea that my child could turn into a monster or a psychopath is scary. The whole nature vs. nurture idea that was behind
We Need To Talk About Kevin is one that intrigues me and yes, scares me more than a little.

A book that makes you sick:
I don't see how anyone who has ever read American Psycho could disagree with me on this one. It was another book that I studied at University, and I pushed through it, but could only read small sections at a time as at times the descriptions would just get far too vivid and I would actually start to feel physically ill.

A book that changed your life:
I know that this is going to sound more than a little corny, but
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone really did change my life in more ways than one. It got me addicted to reading, addicted to fantasy (and led to some more hardcore fantasy reading of course) and it was the foundation for one of my best friendships - I don't think that Natasha Karpul and I would have ever clicked if we hadn't discovered our mutual love for JK Rowling!

A book by your favourite author:
Choosing a favourite author was always going to be a difficult one, but there is one author whose work I love and that is Khaled Husseini, author of The Kite Runner. You will see another of his books later in the challenge.

A book that reminds you of your own life:
This was another hard one, but the first thing that came to mind (and this is more from the movie than the book really, although I have read the book) was Bridget Jones's Diary. A silly, overly emotional rollercoaster is the best way to describe it, and yes... that does sound quite a bit like my life.

A book that has a main character very much like you:
I haven't seen the movie, so I cannot tell you that I am very much like the character in that, but I can tell you that I am quite a lot like Becky in The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic: a. A shopaholic (Grant can attest to that), b. Have an over-active imagination (once again, just talk to Grant for proof) and c. Am more than a little nutty (no proof required).

A book that has a main character that you want to marry:
I am not the kind of girl who likes bad boys. I like gentlemen, men who are kind and sweet and nice and lovely and... anyway. The quintessential gentleman? Why, Mr. Darcy from
Pride and Prejudice of course! Sure, he wasn't all that kind and sweet in the beginning, but it turned out that way at the end, didn't it!

The first "chapter book" that you can remember reading:
I still fondly remember sitting on my mother's lap and paging through Black Beauty. There were a number of books that I did this with, but Black Beauty was also the first that I snuck off to read on my own, a fete that I remember being rather proud of!

The longest book you've read:
It took me awhile to think of this one, but I believe the answer would be The Earthsea Quartet. It may be four books in one, but it certainly is a very long collection and, as I have yet to finish The Lord of the Rings, I think that this is probably the closest that I have gotten to that length.


The shortest book you've read:
This is, without a doubt, Heart of Darkness. It is a novella and I was really surprised and excited to see how thin it was when I had to study it in High School. Little did I know the horror ("The horror!") that awaited inside. A cure for insomnia if ever there was one.

Day 6

So today I am supposed to write about a book that I loved when I was a young adult. There were many of these because that was when I really started getting into reading. Sure, I read before, but I didn't swallow books whole like I did back then. This was the age when I started having all-nighters just lying in bed and reading until the sun rose. Those were the kind of all-nighters that I loved, far better than the university variety which involved staying up and studying or writing essays until the sun rose and it was time for your first lecture. Anyway, because I figured that a lot of the books that I read at this age would come up elsewhere in this challenge, I decided to pick one in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed but many people have probably never heard of.

I can remember very clearly what drew me to Stargirl. It was the bright pink, very simplistic cover and the price tag that read only R11. I knew that Mom couldn't say no to letting me have the book at that price, and of course she didn't. And then it sat on my bookshelf for a long while without my bothering to pick it up. I had other books to read first. One day, my friend Natasha came over and saw the book. She had nothing to read at the time, so she asked if she could borrow it, which I let her do without hesitation. Natasha was like my library at that point - I was constantly borrowing books from her (she had all the best ones after all), so when I had a chance to pay back the favour, I leaped at it. And she absolutely adored it. Within two days she had returned the book to me and went on a mission to find her own copy. Of course, by this point I wanted to know what all the fuss was about and opened up the book myself. And then couldn't close it again!

Stargirl is a wonderful story for young girls about a girl who doesn't quite conform to what people think she should be. Fine, she is downright strange. She prances around the school halls being what some people see as overly happy, and for awhile her individuality is praised. For awhile, people look up to her and admire her and she becomes the centre of attention. People start wanting to be like her. Which ends up taking away from the individuality a little bit, because how can you be an individual when you are the same as everyone else? Anyway, the acceptance doesn't last for long, and soon people start turning against her when they realise that she really doesn't conform and is never going to. The whole book is seen from the eyes of her "boyfriend" and the way that he sways with public opinion.

Basically, I think this book is a wonderful example for teenage girls, the morals of the story being that it is better to be an individual than to conform to peer pressure. It may not be one of the best books that I read in those years, but it is certainly one that stands out in my mind and is still lining my bookshelf today in the hopes that one day my own little girl can read it.

Day 5

Day 5 is supposed to be a book that you wished you could live in. Once again there are many of these that come to mind, from Memoirs of a Geisha to almost all the novels of Jane Austen and more. But, though I found myself easily getting lost in those worlds, there was one world that I found myself particularly drawn to and I decided that should really be the book that I write about today.

I really loved CS Lewis as a child, and the world of Narnia has remained engrained in my brain (teehee for assonance). With its beauty, its lore and its mysticism as well as the touch of magic that is sprinkled around, I think that Narnia is the one fictional place that I wish I could live in. Well, maybe not live in per se. After all, you can visit Narnia and stay there for a lifetime and return back to the real world to find that no time has passed at all. Perhaps it would be the ideal vacation spot - a place to run away to when the stresses of life get a little too much. A place where you could have your own adventures separate from the real world and return to reality without anything having really changed. How lovely would that be?

Day 4

For day 4, I am supposed to write about a book that makes me cry. This was a very difficult one for me. Though I get overly emotional and tend to cry in just about every movie that I watch (terrible, I know) it is not quite the same for books with me. I think that it's because when I get to a point where I feel I might cry, I can just put the book aside and do something else for a short while, detaching myself from the story and giving my emotions a bit of a break. There was one book though that despite my tears, I just couldn't put down.

The Time Traveler's Wife is one of the most beautiful, terrifying, funny, mindbloggling, glorious, heartwrenching books that I have read and I absolutely love it. You should have seen how angry I was when I realised that my copy of the book (frugally purchased for R10 from Cafda before I had realised what a treasure it was) had been ruined by... I don't know what exactly. Coffee? Perhaps. Whatever it was, more than half the book is covered in a dark stain that cover at least half the width of the pages, and though you can read what is written, it is certainly not pleasant. I look forward to purchasing another copy of the book very soon, but the story behind my finding of it will not be quite as interesting or lucky, I am sure.

Day 3

So I didn't get around to writing this blog up yesterday, but day 3's book is supposed to be one that makes you laugh. The book that I chose for today came to mind pretty quickly and it's one that I have written about here before.

When I read Northanger Abbey, I couldn't help but laugh at the way Austen describes her characters and sets up situations. Towards the end of the book, the humour died out a little, as should be expected considering that the book was supposed to be more of a drama than anything else, but even so, the comical language exchanges continued throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Day 2

So, on day two, I am supposed to talk about my least favourite book. This is quite a difficult choice for me because it is not often that I come across a book that I truly dislike. I might come across books that I find to be a little boring at times or a little disappointing, but never BAD. But there is one book that stands out amongst the disappointments that I have experienced, and that is Shalimar the Clown.

Perhaps it is because I had such high expectations for the book. Perhaps it was because I spent so much time reading it, put so much effort into it and found all of my hopes for it torn apart, but I had the worst time reading this book, and by the time I finished it, all I wanted to do was throw it across the room and give up reading forever. The little bit that I had read of Salman Rushdie before this had given me such high hopes, and Shalimar the Clown tore them right down. And so, I think that this, if anything, counts as my least favourite book. I am not, however, giving up on Rushdie and still intend to read books like The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 1

So I have been seeing a lot of challenges going around lately. There are photo challenges, music challenges and movie challenges. But I had never heard of the 30 Day Book Challenge, and I was rather intrigued when I came across it. And so, I thought that I would start to take part in this challenge (as well as the music challenge - you can follow my progress in that one over facebook). I didn't want to do this challenge over facebook, as I figured that I could use this opportunity to write little posts about each of the books - why they are up there and all.

For those of you who would like to join me in this endeavour:

Create a photo album and use Photobucket, Amazon, or Shelfari (or some other sight with pictures of books) to share pictures of the books on this list day by day.

Day 1: Favorite book
Day 2: Least favorite book
Day 3: Book that makes you laugh out loud
Day 4: Book that makes you cry
Day 5: Book you wish you could live in
Day 6: Favorite young adult book
Day 7: Book that you can quote/recite
Day 8: Book that scares you
Day 9: Book that makes you sick
Day 10: Book that changed your life
Day 11: Book from your favorite author
Day 12: Book that is most like your life
Day 13: Book whose main character is most like you
Day 14: Book whose main character you want to marry
Day 15: First “chapter book” you can remember reading as a child
Day 16: Longest book you’ve read
Day 17: Shortest book you’ve read
Day 18: Book you’re most embarrassed to say you like
Day 19: Book that turned you on
Day 20: Book you’ve read the most number of times
Day 21: Favorite picture book from childhood
Day 22: Book you plan to read next
Day 23: Book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)
Day 24: Book that contains your favorite scene
Day 25: Favorite book you read in school
Day 26: Favorite nonfiction book
Day 27: Favorite fiction book
Day 28: Last book you read
Day 29: Book you’re currently reading
Day 30: Favorite coffee table book

And so, to day one. My favourite book.

This is a bit of a hard choice and an easy choice at the same time. There are so many books that I love, but the first one to come to mind was Cloud Atlas. I have spoken about the book before, but I absolutely love it. From the moment I opened it to the moment that I put it down, I never stopped loving it, and it is one book that I don't think I could ever get enough of.

Revisiting Jane

As I have mentioned before a couple of times, I am a big fan of reading, and I have been doing a lot more of it lately. But after finishing with the David Mitchell, I didn't know where to go. Should I pick up another of his books? Should I go for a lighter read and pick up a Meg Cabot or Sophie Kinsella? Or should I put aside my preordained notions of authors and go by category - comedy, thriller, suspense or drama? As I was wondering about this, I stumbled across a book that was lurking in Michael's room and decided that it was time to give a classic a try.

I had one of Jane Austen's novel as a setwork in my third year of University, but I never really got into the language of Mansfield Park, and so it ended up gathering dust on my shelf, occasionally been paged through when it came to writing essays but ignored by and large. I had, however, heard great things about her writing and always intended to come back to her one day - maybe not through Mansfield Park, but maybe through Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, one of those books that has had a movie put to them so that I can picture the movie while I read the book and can understand the storyline better. I always figured that I would need the support of a movie to understand Jane Austen, you see. Her language just seemed to complicated otherwise. And then I stumbled across Northanger Abbey. There was no movie put to this work as far as I could tell, or at least not one starring a notable actress like Keira Knightley or Emma Thompson. I was completely on my own for this one, but I decided to take up the challenge.

I was less than five sentences into my reading of the novel when I came across a sentiment of the author that made me burst out laughing (leading to Michael staring at me from across the room with the look of someone worried about another's sanity.)

"Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard..."

Anyone who knows me and my experience with men named Richard, will have heard me say (possibly on more than one occasion) that the only sensible nickname for these men is Dick. There is none more appropriate, and the fact that Austen seemed to agree with me led to my already deciding that the two of us would get along. I paged through the rest of the novel, trying to even out my reading of it so that I could enjoy Austen for longer, and would regularly interrupt whatever it was that Michael was doing at the time to inform him of some witty or quirky comment that Austen had made. I found that there was no need for a movie to guide my reading, as I could picture all of the scenes in my mind, could hear the characters voices in my head, could read of the comings and goings of Catherine as though a dear friend were telling me about them. I suddenly found myself swept up in the lifestyle of balls and tearooms and didn't want to leave!

Unfortunately, the novel came to an end all too soon, and I did find bits of it a little predictable, but that didn't take away from my entertainment of the novel in the slightest. On conclusion of the novel, I made a number of decisions. The first was that I would have to read all of Austen's works, next in line being Pride and Prejudice (not because of the movie this time, but because I can imagine how humorous she must have made some parts of it). One of them is quite a bold decision, and it is one that is likely to flop completely or one that I may give up on along the line.

Upon reading the last few pages of the book, it dawned on me that this could very easily be made into a modern adaption for teenagers, something along the lines of 10 Things I Hate About You, as the characters themselves are teenagers (or young adults) and I can just picture how the story could relate. And so, as April is the month for Script Frenzy, I have decided to try and write the screenplay for it myself.For those of you who do not know what Script Frenzy is, you basically have to write a 100 page play, screenplay or anything of the kind in one month. I will update you all on how that goes.

Addiction

I have an addiction. It is a problem most serious, and it is almost impossible to cure. You see, everytime I walk into a bookstore, I have to leave carrying something. It may not be something you have ever heard of - it may not in fact be something that I have ever heard of – but it will be something. Fiction, non-fiction, romance, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy – You name it and I can almost guarantee you there is one of every genre sitting on my bookshelf at this moment in time.

My addiction started off fairly small. I had few friends growing up and most of my time was spent delving into the worlds that books provided me with. I could be an it-girl at Sweet Valley High one day and a treasure-hunting teenager travelling the world another. The highlight of every week was going to the library where I could choose three – THREE – worlds to explore without ever having to pay a cent (unless the books were late that is, which they often were).

As I grew older, I started making more friends, but I still made time to feed my imagination. My reading pace sped up and I suddenly found myself racing through books faster than ever. Many of the friends that I made shared my love for reading, and suddenly books were being recommended to me.
“Have you read this?”
“What did you think of that?”
“What about these?”
My trusty library started failing me as it couldn't keep up with my demands for the newest, latest and bestest books on the market. Slowly my bookshelf, which had previously held only children's books and collections of stories and poems, started being built up with newer models, far more appropriate for my teenage self.

When I got to University, there was no doubt in my mind that English literature was going to be one of my subjects – how could I pass up this opportunity to turn something that I loved into a more serious path that would possibly even lead to a career? I was given the list of books and excitedly made my way to the store to buy them. I stroked their unworn covers, I breathed in their unread scent... and then I never opened half of them again. At university, for one reason or another, I stopped devouring books in the way that I had in my younger years. I found myself too busy doing other things and without the desire to pick up a book to read. Yet, though I wasn't reading them, my desire to own books would not relent.

At this point in my life, I have a rather large collection of books, and probably the vast majority of them have never been read. I am sitting with 40 books on my shelf and more packed into boxes on their way back to South Africa, and yet I am still buying them. To be fair, I have started getting back into reading, but I think that the privilege of owning books has surpassed my desire to actually read them. I think that someone needs to send me into rehab, and I think that rehab should be known as a library – a place where you can read all the books you want without having to own them.

In any case, I thought I would share with you some of my haunts in Cape Town – the shops that I have discovered feed well into my addiction.

Book Wise: This shop in Durbanville is run by a family friend. There are a large range of good quality second-hand books here, and you can always be guaranteed to find something to walk away with. The shop has a credit policy where if you bring them a book, you can take one with you or else you can sell the books for cash credit and come back at a later stage to buy to your heart's content.

Exclusive Books: This is, of course, where I go when I want the newesst of the new or the best of the best (basically, the books that I wouldn't be able to find at a second-hand store.) They do have an online ordering system, but there is just something special about walking into a bookshop and browsing through shelves, the special feeling that you get from finding something you have been searching for amid the shelves and shelves of books that are just not it. Unfortunately, with their rather steep prices, this is not where I do most of my book shopping.

Bargain Books: While this shop does not have the same reputation or sell books in the abundance of Exclusive, I have found myself wandering in more than once to glance through their '3 for R90' books. These are usually the fairly trashy sorts of novels that are not particularly intriguing reads, but it just so happens that these kinds of books are just what I need at times – no brainers that just solidify my love for reading and get me back into the swing of things.

Kafda: This shop in Sea Point is an absolute treasure trove of second-hand books and magazines. Sold for as little as R4 or as much as R50, I have found some of my favourite books at this store. These include The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (R10) and a number of other interesting authors like Kundera, Ondaatje, Archer and more. What I particularly like about the store is that all of the takings go to charity. This means that you shouldn't expect to be paid for any books you bring in, and the staff are purely volunteers, not paid for their efforts. It also means that you are contributing to something good everytime you buy a book there, even if it's as small as a R4 contribution. I highly recommend that any serious reader pay a visit to their sstore on Main Street. You won't be disappointed.

Finally, I have put up two lists: a reading list and a read list. Feel free to browse through them and let me know what I should read next or else comment on what has been read.

What have you been reading?