Summer Reading 2+3July 3, 2018

I was scrolling through the reading challenge list and it inspired me to look a bit wider and perhaps read things I’d not have looked at before. As my budget is only £10 I decided that this was a perfect time to go scrolling on the kindle unlimited list and hope something catches my eye. It also inspired me to go down my very long wish-list and see if there were books on it that I could bag. Category 6 is graphic novel and I’ll admit I’ve never read one, plus the challenge of finding something over 100 years old for Category 8 called me.

Book number 2
 
Title : ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers’ by Brian Michael Bendis (Author), Steve McNiven (Illustrator), Yves Bigerel (Illustrator), Michael Avon Oeming (Illustrator)
Cost : £0.00 (kindle unlimited)
Category : 6 (graphic novel)
Date finished : 30th June
 
Three word summery : teaser, back-story, hummphrah
 
Sentence summery : A strong start to a longer epic, fulled with characters backstories.

Comics are something I’ve enjoyed when I’ve come across them but I’ve never been particularly hooked enough to try a graphic novel. What I quickly realised is that cover pictures were going to be no use and jumping in part way isn’t my style so I opted for something where I already knew something of the characters from the two movies. I’ll admit there was a slight pull to buy the next part when I reached the end, mostly due to the nature of ongoing stories I suppose, but every night I’d read it there has been times I wished I could skip the graphics and just get to the story. I think reading on a device was a definite disadvantage for this one. I read on the biggest handheld screen in the house (10.1″) and still I had to zoom to individual frames to read the text – this meant I lost the beautiful and dramatic layout at points. Overall I’m surprised I didn’t enjoy it more. If Adam gets into comic books I may still add “The Action Bible” to my wish-list and happily peer over his shoulder!

Book number 3
 
Title : ‘Serbia: A Sketch’ by Helen Leah Reed
Cost : £0.00 (kindle unlimited & Public domain)
Category : 8 (A book published more than 100 years ago.: published 1917)
Date finished : 2nd July
 
Three word summery : old, beautiful, bias
 
Sentence summery : A book written with a lot of Serbian sympathy for a pre WW2 american ear.

If you search for Serbia in Amazon this usually comes up on the first page. It sat on my perhaps list for some time. Reading it was like doing a dot to dot in history. It’s not a long piece, but like many older books it’s mostly devoid of fluff and so not a quick read. The clear exception comes with the dreamlike introductions where the country is painted as a maiden who slowly ages and comes to her own. Amongst the air of intentional bias that paints this nation of tension in the best possible light are some real gems about the modern countries outlook. Many reflect a mind-stay of a nation I know to a great degree of accuracy given the books age. With it being a pretty complete history of records arching back as far as possible some passages revealed deep gaps in my local history and left me understanding the national obsessions. Others left me laughing out loud, particularly the description of Serbian wives below – I remember lamenting a role model of what a Serbian wife looked like, I’m glad I didn’t stumble on this back then!

The Serb woman is not willing to go out as a domestic. She prefers to earn money, if she has to, as a teacher, secretary, or nurse, or in a profession; but in her own home the Serb woman does no end of work. She is the first to rise, the last to go to bed, and seems never to rest, for she does all the housework. She spins, weaves, and embroiders; cooks, washes, milks the cows, makes cheese; she takes care of the children and the sick; she makes the family pottery and sometimes the opanke or shoes.

Image Background : Freepik

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