My "bad" book today is How to be Good by Nick Hornby. It is very sad that I have to give this book such a bad review, because it started out with such promise. The first few chapters were hilarious. I loved Hornby's wit and clever way of saying things. I had such high hopes, and then.... it just got stupid. The thing I do not like about "smart" books is that authors often confuse depressing with deep. That is what happened here. By the middle of the book, I just wanted to smack all of the characters across the face and tell them to stop being (pardon my colloquialism) tools. I ended that no matter what you do, life is going to suck, the same feeling I had when I watched the terrible The Family Man. Unless you like hopelessness, I do not recommend this book.
Do not worry, I am not going to leave you with bad news. I absolutely LOVED my second book, The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester. It is the story of one of the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary and one of its major contributors, who just happens to be locked up in a "lunatic asylum". Besides the compelling stories, one of the things that I liked most was how the story of words and the English language were woven into the book. I love words and language. One of my friends jokes that the best way that a guy could hit on me would be to show off his extensive vocabulary. That's exactly what Winchester does. The book is so well written that I forgot that I do not like non-fiction books. If you are a language buff or someone who likes to know the history of items that are deeply entrenched in our culture, I highly recommend The Professor and the Madman.
Images from Amazon, here and here.
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