3.14159265358979323846.....

Book Three. Tick!

This reading odyssey of mine is already beginning to show me that I read books like I watch films. By that I mean I watch them and don't really know, or follow, what's going on and then I get confused and ask lots of questions at the end, like "Who is he?", "Why did that happen?", "Why is she doing that?" and "How long have I been asleep for?". Well I have just finished my third book and I am left with some questions, the main one being;

"Was he the Tiger?"

I had been told before reading this book, by others who have commented on it's greatness, that it's very thought-provoking, and as I type this I am still thinking about it. At first I thought he was the Tiger, then he wasn't, and now maybe I think he was. I just don't know. I think I need Mikey's help. Being an English teacher I am sure he appreciates a good read (with the exception of Shakespeare. Bloody hell, he made my life a misery at school. And the author who thought to write "White Fang". Utter garbage. Mrs Palmer - that was the name of the teacher at the time who made us, a bunch of 11 year olds with obviously nothing better to do, read chapters of that for homework. Mr Owen, on the other hand, was class. He taught me at GCSE and let me do my Open Study on Roald Dahl because I wanted an easy read. Things went downfill when I was encouraged to study English Literature at A Level. What a load of Michael Ballacks that was. I'm ranting now, I must get back on track.....).

When people had told me to read this book I never gave it a look. I would just look at them in bewildement and wonder why they had read a book about Maths in the first place. There was no way I was going to. The closest I had come was buying one in the past was when I bought my Mum a Suduko book.

H recently read the book and suggested I give it a go. Will also said the same thing and I remember Kim talking about it. What the hell? I'm on a roll, I thought, so I picked it up and began reading.

For what it's worth I really enjoyed this book. Ok, the first third of the book was hard going and full of lots of divine mumbo-jumbo that I'm just not into. But then it got really good, and was a joy to read. In fact I am really pleased with myself for sticking with it and getting through the first hundred or so pages. Well done me!

I didn't know what Pi (the maths thing) meant before I read the book and still didn't know what it meant after. I got a C grade at GCSE Maths having been relegated in style from the top set because I just didn't get it. Not Pi, just Maths in general.

I have just looked it up;

Pi is "the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle ". I can now see the relevance of this definition given the plight of the book's main character. It is also the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet but so far as I can see, this has no relevance (unless I have missed something completely obvious).

I thought I would have problems finding a suitable Book Four. I mean, I LOVE going into book shops (not libraries - they smell of old people) and looking through the shelves. I often think about how much I would know, or how clever I could become, if I could read all the books in there. I almost always leave without making a purchase. I was really looking forward to the new "Dymocks" or "Borders" challenge when H suggested I read a book she had shipped over, so I need not go any further than our wardrobe-come-bookshelf for my next read.

If Book Three was for Mikey, then Book Four is for Andy.