Tag Archives: deon meyer

Goodreads

I spent the whole day reading and trawling through Goodreads.

It’s a website for people who love books and reading (because you can love books and not read a single one of them :-)). You can create your own bookshelves, look through everyone else’s bookshelves, post reviews and ratings.

There’s a social element to it to – you can friend people, have book discussions with them and start book clubs. Catalogue books into what you’ve read, want to read and be reading. At the same time track your reading progress and set reading targets.

My target for this year is to read 24 books – at least. I’m reading 6 books at the same time. What can I say, I get bored.

Today I finished South African author, Deon Meyer’s Thirteen Hours, nail-biting suspenseful story set in Cape Town, featuring policeman Captain Benny Griessel, who has thirteen hours to find a young American tourist who witnessed a murder and is being chased by the killers.

It’s as fast paced as the title suggests – action starts at 5am and finishes at 7pm. He’s working 2 cases at the same time. Deon Meyer builds his characters, novel by novel, and this is #2 with Griessel. As he battles criminals, he also battles his own inner demons. As the popular press would say – it’s unputdownable.

Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer
Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer

Once upon a time…happily ever after (Mandela Day)

It started when I was 5. My heart was broken when the beautiful princess pricked her finger on the spindle and fell into a deep sleep for a hundred years. I was happy with joy when the prince charming kissed her and she woke up to much jubilation.

I rode on the back of a cat with huge boots as he tramped through the country-side, charming the king with gifts. Together we crafted the clever plan to bring his master to the attention of the king (and his daughter). And I egged him on as he outwitted the horrible ogre.

Throughout the years I’ve immersed myself in alternative worlds. Through devouring books I have known past worlds and future worlds. The sheer pleasure of losing myself in these other worlds, the current one momentarily forgotten, dishes, washing, cooking…all relegated to the back seat as I enjoy front row seats to witness Sherlock Holmes solve mysterious crimes and  the dashing Darcy romance the clever Elizabeth.

As a kid I refused to do my homework until I had read for an hour. By the time I got to my homework I was in a much better frame of mind. Reading has always been and remains a stress-reliever for me.

Reading provides general knowledge. A knowledge of the world. A knowledge of different people – it promotes diversity and cultural awareness. There are worlds and minds to be explored in the pages of a book.

Where else can You Journey to the Centre of the Earth? Or go Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? Or spend Five Weeks in a Balloon? Jules Verne’s books have been hugely inspirational to me.  In real life, to do each of those things would take a ton of money. But I can experience them anyway, in my imagination, for a whole lot less.

Amidst the Limpopo textbook scandal I am keenly aware of being extremely fortunate to have been brought up surrounded by books. A child should never have to ask for a book. A child should never want for a book. It should be provided, thereby encouraging them to read for enjoyment, affording them the opportunity to discover  wonderful, different, new, worlds and peoples. Allowing minds to develop and expand.

Mandela Day is coming up on the 18th of July. What better day is there to donate books to children who need them? I will be doing so.

And in so doing I hope to go a bit of a way towards affording kids who can’t afford books, the beginnings of a happily ever after.