Blog 1- The kite runner / Khaled Hosseini.

'Write a blog' they said, 'It'll be fun.' they said. And by 'they' I mean +Daniel, and +David ... Well that's not exactly what they said, but I am pumped full of codeine, and in agonising pain, and that baby has started screaming again so I am just making stuff up. Deal with it.

Lets all read 100 books in a year, and blog about it. Well Ok then! That's easy.
I'm not using their list. They have a lovely list and all, but it seems geared towards a UK audience, and I do not live in the UK. I am using this http://www.dymocks.com.au/Booklovers/101club.aspx list- 'The best 101 books of all time as voted by Dymocks Booklovers', as Dymocks is an Australian bookstore that's been around since 1879 I figured there'd be some Australian titles on it, and the books would have been voted most popular by Australians... of which I am one... There is quite a bit of crossover from my list, and their list, which is good, but I won't have to read any biographies of British persons I have never heard of.

I've already got a bit of a start on this list, but didn't bother to blog (Well what's wrong with a Facebook status update to illustrate progress I ask you?), but apparently I must blog, so here I am... blogging.

The Kite Runner I finished reading yesterday, so I'll start there, and call it 'book one', because it's the first one I have bothered to blog. I expect I'll be playing catchup for a while with the blogging.

The thing about reading through a list of most popular reads (well there's a couple of things) is that:-

 a) you'll get a fairly eclectic collection of diverse themes and random genre leaps, which is fantastic. Makes you read stuff you would not normally have bothered with, stretches your brain, shoves stuff into it you normally wouldn't have considered.

b) you'll likely get terribly confused as to why the f@#k THAT book is popular. 'Popular' does not always mean 'good'. I mean; just look at 50 shades of Grey!... Which I will need to blog about at some point *sigh.

There are lots of reasons why a book becomes popular, and they are not always 'good' reasons. However THIS book; The Kite Runner, is here for a very good reason, so you should all read it. Do it now, I'll wait...

I lied, I'm not waiting. I got up and made a cup of tea, and checked my Facebook notifications, but that's about the extent of my patience. 

The blurb on the back of this book is not going to tell you much about what this book is... There's kites in it. Not the kind of kite I would fancy my kids playing with, as there is ground glass involved in the making of the string, and part of the fun seems to involve slicing up your hands and bleeding all over the place and I just wouldn't have that kind of dedication, or the stomach to watch my kids injure themselves on purpose. But I didn't grow up in Afghanistan in the 1970's, and I had a television.

Most of the events of importance in this story happened in Kabul, with the back drop of a build up to war. We all know about the war of which I speak. It is still very much a part of our communal conciousness in the western world. We know what the media tells us about it. This story is told through the eyes and heart of a 12 year old boy who was there. But this story is not about the war. It's about a childhood betrayal, and a chance at redemption; a parental betrayal, and a realisation that a parent is not always exactly the person you thought they were; that everybody lies, and sometimes those lies have profound and far reaching consequences.

It is not a pretty story. It's really quite awful, but thoroughly engrossing, and educational. Not quite sure why our protagonist needed to find God at the end there though- I really didn't get the logic involved in that scenario. But you should all just go read it now really... I won't wait, I've got other books to read and blog about, this is just my first go at it.

Tune in next time, to watch me wax lyrical about... probably 'The book thief'... or if I haven't finished it yet maybe Jane Eyre... I dunno, something...