journal
I haven’t yet finished it, but so far this book is really, really good! The only problem is, I’ve also got about half a dozen other books I’ve also got to finish right now…I’ll keep working at it =]
Here’s the description, verbatim from Stephen Baxter’s website:
“This century the sea will rise, to drown low-lying islands and coasts. But what if it kept on rising? Where would you run to? A novel of global catastrophe.”
You can find the book here at Amazon (UK).
It’s Sunday the 14th of September, 2008. It’s 4:50 PM, and I’ve yet to really study that much for my exams which began tomorrow (Monday) and go until next Wednesday. Yesterday, Dad arrived back home after being away for nearly five months, and so I spent some time with him and my family, watched some movies (The Chronicles of Riddick, Death at a Funeral, and Munich) and then I wasted the rest of Saturday doing random, un-productive things whilst I should have been studying.
Now it’s 4:50 (actually 4:53 now…) and I’m about to start “studying”. Basically, this means I’m gonna read over some notes, and try to remember some lyrics for my prescribed texts, and my related texts. I think I’ll just use Green Street Hooligans as my related text, like I did in my half-yearly’s.
I worked earlier today (10 AM - 3 PM), so the first half of my day was a complete waste. I spent most of that time day dreaming about stupid things…Haha. I’d like to write a book. I want to. I have ideas - lots of them. Some of them are pretty good, or atleast they sound pretty good in my mind. But whenever I go to start, I can never motivate myself, and when I do, I’m never happy with what I’ve written and I delete it all and start again. But then I give up, so it always goes no where.
Anyway, now I begin to study…wish me luck.
Bill Bryson is an amazing author, as I have recently discovered, and there is no better book to introduce me to his interesting, witty and compelling adventures and writing style, than Neither Here Nor There; Travels In Europe.
Neither Here Nor There is the tale of Bryson’s final trip around Europe before returning to America to give his kids the experience of living in another country, and to let his wife experience late night shopping (and, because he has decided his country needs him).
He begins his journey by going to the coldest place in Europe at the coldest time of year in the hope of seeing the amazing “Northern Lights”. Although he hates the cold, and the bus trip there is most unpleasant, and he initially finds the town mostly dead and unexciting and soon loses all hope of seeing the etheral Northern Lights, he is eventually blessed with the amazing sight that is the Aurora Borealis.
The “Aurora Borealis“ thanks to wikipedia.
From there he heads back to England before continuing on in the summer from Paris across Germany and Italy into Eastern Europe and finally arriving in Istanbull, Turkey. From the cafes of Paris to the busy war-scarred streets of Eastern Europe, Bryson uses his uniquely witty and charming writing style to craft an exciting and romantic idea of European travel.
A highly recommended read for anyone with even a slight interest in Europe, Backpacking, or Travel at all.