A little light reading

One of the joys of being an adult is that I can indulge myself how so ever I choose.

There are numerous books languishing on my bookshelves. I will get around to reading them sooner or later, but I just haven't been in the mood for most of them lately. Whilst books provide an admirable form of escapism, I seem to have a stack of weighty tomes piling up and I've felt in need of a more flippant form of entertainment, a change of pace if you will. With that in mind I delved into the children's section in the local Waterstones to see what I could see. I thought it rather odd that Bloomsbury took to publishing "grown up" editions of the Harry Potter books - differing only in the presentation - I tend to hold to the belief that good fiction is more than capable of appealing across all ages and demographics, as J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman are admirably demonstrating and I see no shame in reading anything that others may consider childish.

Two titles caught my eye, largely because I've heard their titles bandied around recently and I've been curious to see what tales they contained. The first was Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, a brief tome which you can easily skim through in an hour or so but which is no less delightful for it. The story concerns the fortunes (or rather misfortunes) of three Baudelaire children who are orphaned when their parents perish in a fire and sent to dwell with their nefarious relative, Count Olaf who is more intent on gaining control over the family's fortune than the well being of his new charges. Snicket appears to be the heir apparent of Roald Dahl and seems to delight in placing his plucky band of protagonists in ever more perilous scenarios. Whilst they triumph in the end (against overwhelming odds, if you can believe it), the book warns early on that it is not intended for those seeking the easy comfort of happy endings and this proves no idle threat as it finishes on a melancholy tone (though not, perhaps, without a hint of hope). Still it's an inventive little tale which I thoroughly enjoyed. Judging from the shelf on which I found it, it appears that the mishaps of the Baudelaire children have continued into something of a series - one which I may yet continue with.

The latter title is Artemis Fowl, which I shan't comment on too deeply as I've scarcely started it, but which has an intriguing premise: Artemis Fowl, you see, is the latest descendant of a long chain of criminal masterminds and may well be the greatest of them all. And he's only twelve years old. Recommended for all of you with budding criminal geniuses in the family (you know who you are :)