Santiago Barrionuevo Barrionuevo itibaren Hersham, Surrey, İngiltere itibaren Hersham, Surrey, İngiltere

A comic book without drawings. Appears to have been written in one day (March 8, 1996), takes about 90 minutes to read (maybe 2 hours allowing for some reflection along the way), and delivers laughs. What's not to like? Well, the whole enterprise: the author sat down one day and let his thoughts amble along in writing until evening, when he declared it a book and was done. This fits with the automatic drawing etc. of surrealism and has the same intellectual and emotional weight. And is just as passé. As the author confesses (page 58): "But my mania--to be constantly adding things, episodes, characters, paragraphs, to be constantly veering off course, branching out--is fatal. It must be due to insecurity, fear that the basics are not enough, so I have to keep adding more and more adornment until I achieve a kind of surrealist rococo, which exasperates me more than it does anybody else." Well said--except for maybe the "exasperates me more than it does anybody else" part. Surrealistic rococo isn't bad. But it's just rococo.

This is my first Nick Hornby book (although I liked the movie High Fidelity, which I hear is pretty close in flavor to the book), but I only picked JULIET, NAKED up because it was recommended by an author I follow. I wont go into the plot, you can get the basic idea from the the blurb on the back of the book. What I will say is that JULIET, NAKED was a bit of a slow start for me, albeit I was intrigued enough by the bizarre obsession of Duncan's, to continue on with the book.. kinda like being unable to turn away from a crazy person on the street corner shouting out randomness that you really should make your way past them as quickly as possible, but are just unable to stop staring. This particular situation in real life can end disastrously and even dangerously, but fortunately in a book there are two outcomes.. a waste of a few hours or a pleasant surprise. I'm happy to report, for me anyway, it was the latter... by page 174 of 406, I was still reading.. and smiling. Now having completed JULIET, NAKED through blurry tear filled eyes (laughing tears) I found Hornby's writing to be truly artful, giving the reader sympathy and even respect and understanding for a character (Duncan) that in another book might only be seen as egotistical, pathetic and sad. Annie was enduring, likable and relatable. I enjoyed the cultural differences, stereotypes and point of views between American and British, but ageing raw ex-rockstar Tucker Crowe was my cherry on top. This novel is warm, hysterically funny and thought provoking; as Hornby draws you into the lives, relationships, self-evaluation and regrets of three very different people, all at a kind of cross roads in their lives. Very well done, the music references are excellent.. I highly recommend JULIET, NAKED and plan to check out more of Hornby's work. Hmm.. a wittier, more modern and much more exposed and entertaining Sleepless in Seattle with a rock'n roll edge?.. yes?.. no?.. well maybe, maybe not, but very entertaining nun the less; with enough similarities in the general plot to bring the movie to mind anyhow.

A world with no books? The horror! So goes the world in which Marty Whimpel and the Curse of the Acne Pimple (love that title!) takes place. Marty's story is told by way of an old story teller to a group of children. This story telling device was the perfect way to bring across this book's message: the importance and power of books in life and how we can relate to them and learn from them. Jim Tatton has come up with a wonderful concept and message for his book. The execution of the book is what is lacking. There were innumerable typos and grammatical errors that make the book near unreadable. As with most self-published books, Marty Whimpel and the Curse of the Acne Pimple shows promise but could benefit greatly from some heavy editing.