the not-so-good

Continuing from yesterday's post, here is my take on the two books from that list that sort of let me down:

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem – some dude. Peter somebody.

I’m starting to feel that I may have exhausted the public library. I mean, I’m sure that I haven’t…but still. Sometimes I feel that way. I checked this one out because I’d been at the library for a while without finding anything and my lunch break was almost over. It looked like a potentially good mystery…but then it turned out to be one of those true (I think) historical accounts of murders. Well, if it wasn’t true, then I don’t understand why it was written. And if it was true, then it’s one of those books meant for a specific audience (the people interested in historical accounts of things) and I am not a part of that audience.

Song of Stone – Iain Banks

This guy is really hit or miss with me – either I really love his books, or I just hate them and feel sullied and besmirched afterwards. I pretty much skimmed the last half of the book, because I’d gotten to a point where I was pretty sure it was irredeemable, but I wasn’t sure. It’s a potentially good premise, and then it just crashed and burned. I had to watch an hour of The Backyardigans afterwards - have you heard of that show? John’s parents burned a bunch of episodes onto a DVD and they lent it to me – DANG but I LOVE the Backyardigans! 5 little animals of various cultural and ethnic backgrounds who have adventures in their imaginations each week that always involve songs and dancing - and I have to say the music is really good and so are their little dances. Oh those Backyardigans. They are so…hypnotic. I do not recommend this book. But I do recommend the Backyardigans.