The Art of Reading

~My Thoughts~

This is without a doubt one of the weirdest books I have ever read and I’ve been having such a hard time deciding how I feel about it. I’d seen it around on a few different book-lists and was really intrigued by it. It isn’t very long, less than 300 pages if I remember correctly and in it we follow two different story-lines: the first being the main plot about an unnamed women living on an island where things keep disappearing and there are only a select few who retain their memory of these ‘disappeared’ objects. The protagonist is an author by trade and the sub-plot is the story of the novel she’s currently writing. I really enjoyed the first half of the book as the disappearances themselves I found fascinating and I was always wanting to know what happened next. The prose was clean and concise which made for an easy reading experience.

The second half was a bit more interesting, and not necessarily in a good way. One thing I liked was how the two plot-lines seemingly merged towards the end. You have to read in between the lines a bit but the parallels between the two were very unsettling, especially as the book took a very eerie turn. However I also felt like the plot just wasn’t going anywhere and we weren’t getting any answers about the island, the memory police or even the main character herself! Also, I’m not an adult, so I didn’t really understand the whole romance situation between her and R. But the part I’m most conflicted about is the ending. Do I love it? Do I hate it? It was totally wacko but it certainly takes the reader by surprise! Was it too easy though? I honestly don’t know! Overall I think this book is definitely worth the read. It makes you think and is undoubtedly very memorable. I know it’s not one for everyone but I feel that it has the potential to reach readers in a very unique way. Happy Reading 🙂