The Customs of the Kingdoms of India, Marco Polo

I don't have a great deal to say about this one. It is very dated which makes it interesting and some of it is obviously made up and/or exaggerated. The tone is notable, it is a little like listening to an old man you have just met, quite formal but immediate and it feels like a dialogue rather than a piece of writing.
He is pre-occupied with describing the trade and flora/fauna of the countries he is telling of, so sometimes it reads a little like a catalogue! All the rulers seem to be 'one of the richest rulers in the world'. Worth a read though.

 

Can't decide on the next book, possibly The Infatuations by Javier Marias.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer

This was a brilliantly original book. It uses images and the layout of the pages to help tell the story.

The main plot follows nine-year-old Oskar. Oskar is greiving for his dad, who died in 9/11 (which at this point is around a year ago). He finds a key in his dad's wardrobe and tries to find its lock. It is a book full of difficult lives, but it feels honest and isn't depressing, more humbling. Safran Foer entwines the stories of Oskar's grandparents with that of Oskar, and you also get glimpses of other lives though the people Oskar meets trying to find the lock.

Oskar is incredibly engaging. He is insatiably curious and invents things when he is nervous or can't sleep.
Also I designed a pretty fascinating bracelet, where you put a rubber band around your favourite book of poems for a year, and then you take it off and wear it.

The way it is written feels very real and honest, partly because sometime it feels a little disjointed and less coherent than you might expect. This adds to the feeling of the reality of the lives Safran Foer is describing. Though it also means that on finishing the book, I felt i wanted to turn over and start again from the beginning, to get all the things I may have missed. This feeling wasn't helped by the fact I devoured the last 10 pages or so. It is definitely one I want to read again.

I invented a book that listed every word in every language. it wouldn't be a very useful book, but you could hold it and know that everything you could possibly say was in your hands.

Marco Polo is telling me about India now, not sure how truthful he is being.