I figure since the writing content on this blog has been (and may continue to be) somewhat sparse, I could include my book list here instead of on my personal blog. Reading and writing go together like peanut butter and jelly (mmm... pb&j), and writers are readers first, so I feel that it is a natural extension of the original purpose of this blog.

The public library here has very few books in English (Duh! It's Germany!), and even fewer I recognize the authors of, so it has been a bit hit or miss, finding a book I enjoy. Beyond the books I already own, I mean.

I recognized Things Fall Apart, but I don't think I had ever read it before. (I think John read or saw a movie version of it when he took an African literature class back in the day.) It was very interesting, written from the perspective of an African (in what was to become Nigeria) during the period of European colonization. I liked it, but I didn't get really excited about it, if that makes sense.

For my next book, I gave Paul Doherty a try. He has a whole series of medieval novels, according to the book jacket, and I like historical novels, both fictionalized history (I, Elizabeth, Girl with a Pearl Earring) and fiction in a historical setting, so it seemed like a promising choice. But I was just not impressed. All the characters sounded roughly the same, and the description didn't manage to pull me in. Sad to say, I skimmed the bulk of it. The story is actually a murder mystery in a medieval setting, and I wanted to see how it ended, which is the only reason I stuck with the skimming instead of putting the book back in the library book basket.