(Untitled)

[lackofgravitas]

And boringly, books read this year:

3. Necropolis - Catharine Arnold
2. One Day - David Nicholls
1. The Reapers - John Connolly

Currently reading - Wolf Hall

Comments

[gylfinir]

What did you think of Necropolis?

[lackofgravitas]

It was a bit unbalanced in places, heavy on the Victoriana - I suppose read slightly amateurishly in a way, as though she'd concentrated on what she liked and skimmed the rest. But I enjoyed reading it, and found it interesting. I was just looking at the Amazon reviews, including one saying it would have been made complete by a gazeteer of London cemeteries, how to get there, who's buried there ... but that's not what it sets out to do! I have that book, it's Permanent Londoners and it's a completely different book

[gylfinir]

I must re-read Necropolis; I've forgotten a lot of it. I remember that the period in which I had the most interest - the Roman - was dealt with in the broadest of terms, and that it got increasingly more detailed; I'd wondered if that reflected the relative amounts of extant evidence, but, reading the Amazon reviews, I guess not.

I haven't been to any of the London cemeteries, but would love to. Cemeteries were my thing when I was at university (legitimately: I was studying the early Anglo-Saxons and cemeteries provide practically the only evidence about their 'lives') and my other house has a cemetery as its back garden - that's why I bought it!

I'm only on page 2 of Wolf Hall; my copy arrived on Friday, and I was too tired to delve right in. I never think it bodes well if a book contains a list of characters right at the start :) I haven't enjoyed Hilary Mantell's work in the past; I really want to like this one!

[gylfinir]

Oh! And I've just started reading Wolf Hall too :)