Tuesday 15 January 2013

Recently Read

As I’ve said before, I listen to quite a few audio books, and with those, if I don’t also have access to the text, I often find it hard to write a proper review. I’ve decided to just briefly “mention” some of them now and then under the heading Recently Read.

I recently listened to two by Alexander McCall Smith – one after the other – in Swedish translation:

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party is No 12 in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency/Mma Ramotswe series.

The Comfort of Saturdays is No 5 in the Sunday Philosophy Club/Isabel Dalhousie series.

I have to say, I much prefer the Mma Ramotswe series, set in Botswana. There is a combination of simplicity and humour in that series that appeals to me; while (harshly put) Isabel Dalhousie tends to alternately annoy vs bore me. (So why did I listen to another book in that series? Answer: Because I had forgotten almost everything from the previous ones…)

6 comments:

  1. i can read a book a year after i read it and forget most of it. so audio books are probably the same. same thing with movies on TV, wait a year and it is almost new again

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  2. I am way behind the Mama Ramotswe series, but I loved the first five. I shall catch up! Thank you for reminding me!

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  3. I think he tries to be too clever and show off his own knowledge in the Isabel Dalhousie novels. Like you, I prefer it when he he keeps to the simple humour and gentle life of Mma Ramotswe.

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  4. I haven't heard of these books. I wonder if I would remember a book better on audio, or reading it myself? With the body processing it different ways,there could be a difference.

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  5. I enjoy the Mma Ramotswe novels. However although I have posted criticism of AMS's desire to show off his prodigious knowledge and intellect in his two Edinburgh series of novels they contain so much of the city that I love I will keep on reading them (unless something drastic happens to me or the content of the novels). He is less of a show-off in the Corduroy Mansions series.

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    Replies
    1. I've not read the C.M. series but I've read some of the Scotland Street ones. And I might well read more, some day. I've been to Edinburgh but only briefly in the 70s... Don't think we saw much more than the castle.

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