Book Review: Diary of a Nobody by G and W Grossmith

March 16, 2009 Review, What to Read 3 Comments

Why I chose it

This book is listed on the 1001 books you must read before you die. I have a strange obsession with the list, and can’t pass up a bookring (Q57) when it comes my way.

The Buzz


On of the great English comic novels, Diary of a Nobody bridges the world of Dickens to that of Waugh and Wodehouse… The masterstroke of the novel is the ironic distance between Pooter’s sense of himself and the world, and his dim recognition that matters might be otherwise.
1001 Books:

What I reckon

This is a curious fictitious diary of a bumbling man in England in the 1890s. He works hard at fitting into his place in society, and is perpetually embarrassed by his son and friends, who are , basically, bounders. The only “normal” person in his life is is wife, who he perpetually undervalues. I got the impression she spends a bit of time laughing at him.

This book was enjoyable, but it was odd to relate to such an overlooked man, in a strange cultural context. I imagine a modern version of this might appear as a literary version of Kath and Kim. If I understood the culture well, it might have been hilarious.

The fact that this book is on the 1001 list makes me think it was probably one to the first novels in this style - where the protagonist is the butt of the jokes, not least his ridiculous puns. Very readable, but not a book that I would press on anyone else.

The copy I read is registered with bookcrossing. It was part of a bookray, and has travelled on to visit another reader.

The 20 Most Downloaded Ebooks of 2009

February 2, 2009 Finding books, What to Read 7 Comments

I have started reading more downloadable ebooks. Now there are more available to purchase, but there are also many that can be downloaded free.

Some of my favourite download sites are Manybooks, Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks. To emphasize how many great books there are out there that are royalty free and easy to download, I have compiled a list of the 20 most downloaded ebooks this year.

How I compiled the list

Manybooks and Project Gutenberg publish their download totals for the last 30 days. Feedbooks compiles an ordered list of total downloads for the year. Unfortunately, they only provided numbers for total downloads over the life of the site. These three ebook download sites are the biggest sites for downloads of e-novels

In order to compensate for Feedbooks, I converted all the download numbers into a percentage of total for that site. These were compiled to give a top twenty.

I admit this is a bit fudgy, but stay with me on this one - the list is good.

The 20 Most downloaded Ebooks of 2009

  1. The Art of War
  2. The Kama Sutra
  3. Pride and Prejudice
  4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  7. Dracula
  8. The Count of Monte Cristo
  9. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  10. Ulysses
  11. Grimm’s Fairytales
  12. 20000 Leagues Under the Sea
  13. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  14. War and Peace
  15. A Tale of Two Cities
  16. Frankenstein
  17. The Prince
  18. The Call of the Chtulu
  19. Fanny Hill
  20. Les Miserables

And I should make an honourable mention of I, Robot by Corey Doctorow, which landed in the top ten on absolute downloads, despite being only listed on one of the surveyed sites.

I have read six of the list. What about you?

Breathtaking Book Bindings

January 16, 2009 Finding books, What to Read No Comments

I have never been a collector of fine or rare books, but I have been coveting this collection of books with unusual bindings, featured on AbeBooks recently.

They have bindings featuring brass, semi-precious stones, steel, skin of every sort of animal imaginable (pythons, eels, sharks, salmon, snake) even rubber.

gospels-new-testaments-scriptures-gilt-over-sharkskin.jpg

My favourite would have to be the New Testament gospels covered in shark skin (above). Amazing.

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