Thursday 18 December 2014

The Harry Hole Saga

I have recently completed the Harry Hole Saga (in English) of ten books by the Norwegian author, Jo Nesbø. For usefulness' sake, here is a list of the books:

  • The Bat, 2012
  • Cockroaches, 2013
  • The Redbreast, 2006
  • Nemesis, 2008
  • The Devil's Star, 2005
  • The Redeemer, 2009
  • The Snowman, 2010
  • The Leopard, 2011
  • Phantom, 2012
  • Police, 2013
(N.B. the first two have only recently been translated - also, I have not read them...)

Normally, I am quite conscious of avoiding starting a saga anywhere other than the first book. However, at the same time I found what I thought was the first book, was also the first time I made a sincere attempt to try and read on my iPad, rather than a normal paper book. As such, the translations that were made for the first two books had not yet migrated to the iTunes store. 

Now that I am happy you understand why I have missed out The Bat and Cockroaches, I will now proceed to the main reason for this post!

As is evident by my completing the saga out of my own initiative, I did enjoy the stories surrounding Harry Hole - the maverick Oslo police detective. However, it did take me a while to get 'stuck in' to the storyline.

The Redbreast was the first crime novel I read, and it took me a good long while to get my teeth stuck in to it. I found the story, characters and places confusing. This was probably because they had Norwegian names and references. I used to read a few pages then have a couple of months off where a different book had taken my interest. It wasn't until I was stuck on a plane and had finished my paper book was I 'forced' to continue reading The Redbreast.

It wasn't until I was about a third of the way through The Redbreast, did the magic happen. The depth and detail of Nesbø's work revealed itself. His talent of harnessing mystery and suspense carries the reader on a wave of emotion through to the end of the book. Once the reader has struggled with Harry Hole's professional and personal problems, and finally come out at the end of the book does the addiction start. His, is a character one should not and probably does not like, if one to meet him in real life; Nesbø however manages to turn this antisocial, provocative (in a bad way) drunk into someone you end up, beginning to love.

The journey Nesbø takes Harry and the reader in the subsequent books do not disappoint, into one of the most satisfying conclusions I have read.

Verdict - Go out and buy all the saga for yourself, then make your friends buy them and read them.

I hope I've made a good blog post here - its my first book review and I tried not to make it into an essay, but something that would mirror a verbal recommendation I give to my friends. If you've made it this far, I thank you! Until the next post...

Peace

DB


Saturday 13 December 2014

My problem with Question Time

First post - politics!

On Thursday, 11th of December 2014 there was a particularly special episode of BBC's much watched show - Question Time. On this occasion, the show was being broadcast from Canterbury and included the following guests:

  • Penny Mordaunt MP (Conservatives)
  • Mary Creagh MP (Liberal Democrats)
  • Nigel Farage MEP (UK Independence Party)
  • Russell Brand (Comedian)
  • Camilla Cavendish (Times columnist)
Needless to say, its obvious why this particular episode was much anticipated and viewed. The coming together of two polar opposites was always going to be entertaining; and it is just that, I felt that this episode highlighted an underlying fault with the entire show (and in fact, political discussion in the UK as a whole).

It is inevitable that emotions will be running high when such sensitive and important topics are discussed, however an ugly debate presented itself on Thursday, and presents itself in almost every other televised political discussion or parliamentary debate.

In Parliament (and indeed regional legislatures), PMQs (or FMQs) lack any form of utility or respect within them. Questions posed to the premier are loaded either in a sycophantic manner by a government MP, or in an antagonistic manner by an opposition MP. Indeed in programmes such as Question Time there is a lack of patience, respect or control.

In particular of last Thursday's show, audience "participation" was strong, with a couple of instances where audience members heckled each other! The panel was full of jibes aimed at each other, dishonest answers, rude interruptions and a full scale failure on the part of Mr Dimbleby to chair the show.

Until these problems are addressed and remedied, I fear that political debates and discussions will never realise their true utility. 

QT 11/12/14 VERDICT: CAMILLA CAVENDISH WINS

Ms. Cavendish approached the discussion with the least amount of stubborn bias, and through some devil's advocate work, she brought about at least a bit of discussion.

This particular blog unfortunately reads like a bit of a rant, I promise not every post will be a rant. I do plan to talk about nice things too :)

Peace.

DB



Wednesday 10 December 2014

Blog of Everything

Welcome to my blog. I don't really have an agenda here, I will post things about lifestyle, fashion, culture, food, politics and anything else that interests me. Hopefully I won't bore whoever you are too much - I in fact aim to do the opposite and enthuse readers about my topics just as I get excited writing about them.

I always love a good discussion, so please don't hesitate to post comments (as long as they're respectful) and I'll try my best to reply to get a meaningful dialogue going!

Until my next (real) post,

Peace.

DB