the god of small things and others

I like to read, and I have just finished reading Arundhati Roy's (I like her name. Ah-run -dah-ti. It has a good sound about it). The God of Small Things (for a complete spoiler go here). Like the other novels I have read that are set in India ( the epic A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and The Life of Pi by fellow Booker Prize winner Yan Martell) the story centres around an endearingly eccentric Indian family and the tradgedy that soon engulfs them. What I like about this book is Roy's linguistic quirks she gives her characters- a chip/chop- mish/mash- kind of feel.

Meanwhile I'm chewing through my stack of books- of course borrowed and not owned! I am now reading Incidents on the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner. It is taking me a little while to get used to the sparseness of her prose- especially in comparision to Roy. I have read a couple of her books before, and am now starting to see a common theme to her writing- usually dealing with female characters who somehow end up breaking away from dependency on others, inheiriting a property, and generally spending a lot of time thinking about their lives (in a clean, calm and rational manner).

After that I have a couple of Richard Ford's to read through.... I keep reminding myself that I must get a diary to keep track of all the books I read. Sometimes I wonder how many I read in a year...