Duffy's reading log.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I've started posting on the Literature forum a lot recently and I thought I might start one of these. I read quite a lot of books as an English and History student, and also for my own enjoyment so I should have plenty of things to talk about here.

The last book I read (finished it about 2 weeks ago) was John the Revelator by Peter Murphy. Its a novel about a teenage boy growing up in a small Irish town, which is a subject matter I could instantly identify with. I really enjoyed it despite it being a very unusual book with a highly unconventional structure. It was a book which I was very disappointed to finish reading as I just wanted to keep reading more of the protagonists story.

At the moment I've kind of fallen into the trap of reading three books at the same time-this is a bad habit of mine and I'm going to have to pick one to focus on. The first one is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. Its set in the early twentieth century in a southern English town and deals with the poor conditions that building workers lived in. Tressell used the book to express his socialist ideals and criticize the existing class system in Britain. So far I've greatly enjoyed it, its a novel with very engaging setting and characters.

The second is Siegfried: The Nazis Last Stand by Charles Whiting. It tells the story of the defense of the western German border during the later stages of the Second World War. Like any well-written history book on an interesting topic, its a good read.

And the third is Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky. Its a very scathing critique of US foreign policy and so far its been an interesting read. Of course even a big leftie like myself, has to bear in mind that hes writing from a bias, and after I finish reading it I plan to do some research to see how accurate his claims are.

Well thats about all for now, hopefully I can narrow it down to one book and then I'll come back to report what I made of it!