Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Summer Reading Spectacular # 15

[Allow me to apologize. I got part-way through the entries from my week of holiday and got side-tracked. Now, some time later, I am finally finishing the job. I repeatedly thought of the need to finish transferring the entries from word processor into dullgloomy, but never when I was actually at the computer. I apologise. And now I bring you ... the continuation of the job long overdue!]

Today I read two books start to finish, each on completley opposite ends of the spectrum as far as content goes.

The first was Night by Elie Wiesel. The book is essentially the memoirs of the author, recounting his experiences as a teenager in Auschwitz and other death camps.

The book itself has an interesting history. Wiesel wrote a lengthy memoir in Yiddish, then rewrote a shorter version in French (La Nuit) which was translated into English as Night. What I read was a new translation by his wife.

Almost anything I can say about the book will seem trite. Suffice it to say that I recommend the book to help those of us, so far removed in our daily lives from the events and tragedies of World War II, to understand, in some limited way, those realities. 'Nuff said.

Then I read Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney. You might recall that I have already commented on the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid (see Summer Reading Spectacular # 7.5). This volume is more of the same. While a bit more limited in narrative scope than the first (with a noticeably shallower arc in the plot), it is essentially a mildly amusing little light reading that kids, again, will enjoy.

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