Travelling in a fried-out combie

So what really happens when you get Permanent Residency status for Australia? H and I are about to find out.....

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Book Twenty Five

At 573 pages long, this book was a monster, and the longest one I have read since starting this voyage of page-turning discovery.

I managed to keep the reading alive while the parents were here as I still had to go to work and commute to and from my desk.

Anyway, of all the books I have read since being here I think this has to be the best story by far. It's great.

But why did I choose this one I hear you all thinking? Well I work for a Marketing company here in Sydney and I work on the Virgin Blue/Velocity account. And one day were were all given a copy of the book – as well as a rather fetching Virgin Blue 'reversible' beanie hat, a Virgin Blue polo shirt and some Virgin Blue fridge magnets.

I love freebies!

posted by Jonny @ 8:44 AM  

12 Comments:

  • At 16/5/07 11:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Considering this supposedly is the best book youve read so far, its the friggin worst book review you written so far ... are you gonna shed any light at all on WHY it was any good ???

    surely not JUST because it was free?

     

  • At 17/5/07 12:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Oh come one Will, "It's great" is more than we usually get!

    I'm sure Orwell and other great story writers will be turning over in their grave at the 'best story i've read so far' comment though, surely this is an autobiography?

     

  • At 17/5/07 2:57 AM, Blogger Jonny said…

    Ok, well perhaps I should've written more about why it was so good. Sorry.

    I thought it was the best 'story' (not necessarily the best 'book' though) because it tells the story of how he aquires all of his wealth, having left school with nowt and ending up with squillions.

    I preferred this story to those writtten by Orwell, but in a literary sense '1984' and 'Animal Farm' would be some of the best books I have read.

    I am trying to make a distinction between a 'story' and a 'book' and the more I go on the more I realise that I am probably making no sense at all.

    So I'll stop.

    Thanks for the discussion points though.

    Perhaps I should have said that it was the best autobiography I have read since I have been here.

    I stand corrected. Book Twenty Five is the best autobiography I have read since I have been here. There, that's much better.

    And the fact that it's free, well of course that helps!

     

  • At 18/5/07 2:36 AM, Blogger Andy said…

    Glad to have raised a discussion point, even if it was a pedantic one.

    Is a story not, by definition, fictional?

     

  • At 19/5/07 12:22 AM, Blogger Jonny said…

    Maybe so, but surely stories can be factual as well?

    Last night I went out with work and drank lots of Coopers. Although factual, it is also a story (albeit a very brief one)about what I did last night, is it not?

    Mikey Roberts, help us sort this one out please.....

     

  • At 19/5/07 2:51 AM, Blogger Me said…

    You asked for this.

    A tricky question; a thorny issue. Although the dictionary makes it quite clear: a story is 'a narrative, either true or fictitious'.

    I understand why you want to make a disctinction between 'story' and 'book', though. A good 'story', I guess, is something that is driven by narrative, or plot, whereas a good 'book' doesn't have to have much of a plot at all. Some modernist writers pretty much ignored 'plot' altogether, but their 'books' are still admired. James Joyce's Ulysses, for example.

    The other thing to consider here is that, of course, most writers of autobiography fabricate their life-story to make them seem more interesting. It gives people a chance to say the things they wish they'd said, or do the things they wish they'd done. Ever read Roald Dahl's autobiographies? I'm sure the events happened, but I'm convinced he made most of the detail up.

    This is why sport autobiographies are, generally, so dull. They promise so much, but in the end, sportsmen tell pretty much the truth about their lives, including the dull story about their early years as a boy playing for Dulwich under 10s or something. Yawn. Roy Keane's autobiography had one good bit in it, and that was the bit that we'd all read in the papers anyway. I think it was you, Jonny, who paraphrased Tony Adams' autobiography thus: 'Well, we won that game and then I got drunk. Really drunk. Until finally I decided to play the piano and write poetry instead.'

    I expect Branson has a bit more artistic flair than that, which is what makes his story even more interesting than it undoubtedly already is.

    Finally, keep posting the detailed book reviews - I know you don't usually get many comments on them, but that's probably because no one else has read the book. You can see from these comments that we are listening and interested, though.

     

  • At 19/5/07 5:32 AM, Blogger Jonny said…

    Thanks for clearing that up for us Mike.

    I will continue to keep blogging about the books that I've read. And it's been interesting that my own "quarter of a century" milestone has created such debate.

    Oh, I've started Book Twenty Six now, but I think it's going to be one of my biggest reading challenges to date!

     

  • At 23/5/07 12:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Don't tell me you're gonna have a crack at Ulysses?

     

  • At 23/5/07 12:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    By the way, There doesn't seem to be a comment bar on the 'mum & dad (3)' blog. Any ideas?

     

  • At 23/5/07 5:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Who is Ulysses and why would you be reading about his crack ?

     

  • At 23/5/07 5:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    And yeah how come there's No comments available on your parent blog Jonny ... and where's my beautiful 'Meet the Armans' poster ?

     

  • At 24/5/07 2:31 AM, Blogger Jonny said…

    No idea where the comment option has gone on that postI'm afraid. I have tried re-publishing but with no joy. Oh well. Hopefully it will return in future posts.

    And no, Book Twenty Six is not Ulysses and I don't think I'll ever give that a crack!

    Will, I'll add the poster sometime soon.....

     

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