Travel buddies

BUY:

GBP12.99 - History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason
GBP12.99 - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

WHY?

What better company on a long, solitary journey than a book or two?

The first was chosen after I read this article which piqued my interest.  Sadly the very pleasurable experience of reading this book only lasted 3 of the 24 hours between London and Sydney. In small, because I tend to devour books but largely because it was a romping good read through early 20^th century aristocratic Amsterdam and I couldn't put it down! It’s the kind of book, and style of writing, that makes me wish I had such a talent. I mean, take the first paragraph:

“The adventures of adolescence had taught Piet Barol that he was extremely attractive to most women and to many men. He was old enough to be pragmatic about this advantage, young enough to be immodest,  and experienced enough to suspect that it might be decisive in this, as in other instances.”

It's up there with the intelligent, witty and sarcastic first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" that I regard as one of the best opening lines. While Mason isn't writing contemporaneously like Austen, he certain transports the reader easily into the period through descriptions and his use of language. Definitely money well spent. 

The second I'm yet to finish but will let you know!