Well, I'm having some trouble these days with the whole concentrating/thinking thing when it comes to my thesis revisions so I'm tearing through some books for pleasure and trying not to worry. I'm thinking also about trying to get a job so I have something other than my thesis to think about, the idea being that some perspective will take the pressure off. We'll see.
Last night I started and am now almost finished the first book in Garth Nix's The Keys to the Kingdom series, Mister Monday. This is a fantasy series geared, I'm guessing, towards the younger teenage set and is therefore perfect for my mind right now.
I think the decided lack of reading magic in my thesis years has left me open to kiddy lit in a way I wouldn't have been otherwise, but that would have been my loss - I now very often lament how little of the fun magical stuff I read when I was a kid, wasting my time instead on pure trash by the likes of V.C. Andrews. How embarrassing!
I don't really think I can even give a vague synopsis of Mister Monday because the terms of this fantasy world are still being established and I have as many questions about what's going on as the main character, Arthur Penhaligon, does. That said, I find Nix completely reliable when it comes to looking for a really engaging read so I'm willing to be led blindly through the dark as long as necessary; indeed, his Abhorsen trilogy is up there in my top ten favourite books.
An employee at one of my favourite bookstores, Book City on Bloor, recommended Nix to me on the basis that if I loved Philip Pullman (which I do, particularly his His Dark Materials trilogy) I would also love Nix - he was right.
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