April Books List

Thanks to Easter, I managed to get back on track with my reading, so these are the books I read last month.

(1)  Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Contemporary Classic / Pop Culture: "Meet Renton and his friends, Scotland's finest and most well known fictional drug addicts."

I've wanted to read this for years as the film is one of my favourites, and I must have watched it an obscene amount of times.  Finally picked up the book and loved it so much.  The Scottish dialect is really hard to understand for the first couple of pages (if you're not used to it of course), but once your brain adapts to those words, you're in for a rollercoaster ride with Renton and the boys.  Hilarious, depraved and witty, it fills in a lot of the gaps that the film left out and even introduces you to some new colourful characters.  [4/5]

(2)  Filth by Irvine Welsh  

Contemporary / Satire: "With the Christmas season upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson of Edinburgh's finest is gearing up socially—kicking things off with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam."   

After I read Trainspotting, I went to the library immediately and picked up Filth.  It's vile and gross in every sense of the word, but oddly appealing thanks to Welsh's always clever and entertaining prose. The story is centered around Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson who embodies every despicable personality trait that you can think of, and sees his life unravel spectacularly around him as his train wreck ways finally come to a crushing close.  Hilarious (in a dark, twisted and perverted way) throughout, I'd highly recommend it for fans of Martin Amis and Will Self.  [4/5]

(3)  Collected Poems by Dylan Thomas

Poetry: "Definitive edition of Dylan Thomas' poetry from 1934-1952."  

This collection of Dylan Thomas' poetry is one I have dipped in and out of this past month.  His work is often characteristically bleak and moody, with many references to death and depression, yet every now and then there are glimmers of light and hope that peek through the lines.  My favourite poem by is still 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', which I have over-analyzed far too many times in English Lit discussions, and somehow it still manages to give me tiny shivers whenever I read it.

(4)  The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart

Pop Culture / Thriller: Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart, and in some ways changes the world as well.  Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen.

On paper (literally), this should have been a great book.  You have a psychiatrist protagonist who's fed up with his average life and wants more out of it, so one day he decides to start living by the dice. Using the randomness of every roll to determine what he should do next, he's propelled into debauchery, breaking taboos and all the rules that he felt held him back from enjoying life to its fullest.  Sadly, this interesting concept is, for the most part, poorly executed. There are some choice moments which kept me reading, but they were very few and far between.  The majority of the story just depicts a sexually frustrated man who decides (by the dice of course) to have sex with everything that moves, coupled with lots of annoying psychobabble nonsense to justify his motives.  It was written in the 70s, so I guess it must have been ground breaking back then, but by today's standards, it comes across as painfully dated and incredibly dull.  [1/5]

(5)  The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Non-Fiction / Atheism: "The God Delusion caused a sensation when it was published in 2006.  Within weeks it became the most hotly debated topic, with Dawkins himself branded as either saint or sinner for presenting his hard-hitting, impassioned rebuttal of religion of all types."

The God Delusion is a book that I should have read years ago.  I've always had a problem with religion which may stem from the fact that both of my parents tried to force their religious views down my throat when I was growing up.  Needless to say, I've always considered myself as an atheist, and The God Delusion is one of the most interesting books I've read on the subject so far.  It's a meaty book to get your teeth into, but is broken down into focused chapters to make it more accessible.  I read it over the span of two months, and took my time consuming what was said, carefully chewing it over and looking at the pros and cons of each argument presented.  At the end of it, I can firmly say that I'll always be an atheist!  [5/5] 

What books have you been reading lately?

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