Hello. I've got a book review for you today. I'm not sure I'm actually going to read the whole of the book, because I'm sort of bored with it now and I'm only two thirds through it. I was looking forward to it as it covers a lot of countries, which should make it interesting, but I am disappointed with the writing style. The character descriptions are almost non existent, and there is a lot of inane and uninteresting details in it. It's as if a school boy wrote it. I was appalled at how many spelling mistakes are in it, on almost every page, was it ever spell checked, it can't have been proof read before it went to print.
In a nutshell, Lee Morton drank his way around the world, went in this bar, went to that party, chatted women up, plenty of hangovers, stayed in this hostel and that hostel, and had long bus journeys on uncomfortable old buses. The blurb on the back cover is heavily embroidered and does not give an accurate description of what is inside the book.
He didn't have anything nice to say about the Australian people, some of his remarks were rude and condescending, and at times he comes across as arrogant and full of his own self importance. He reminded me a bit of a loudmouthed football fan, getting blathered after the match.
He didn't have anything nice to say about the Australian people, some of his remarks were rude and condescending, and at times he comes across as arrogant and full of his own self importance. He reminded me a bit of a loudmouthed football fan, getting blathered after the match.
Amazingly there are more positive reviews than negative on Amazon. I don't know how that happened, but as most of them are from a three month period in 2006, when the book came out, I can only assume they are from friends and family. Now I have talked myself out of finishing the book, I won't waste any more time on it. I can't recommend this book.
My dinner tonight. Yes, I have salad, bought before all the hoohaa about shortages and price rises. I like these Tesco vegetable grills, at £1 for a packet of six. Handy to have in the freezer to add to salad, or steamed vegetables.
Toodle pip
I think a lot of this 'crisis' over veg has been fuelled by the media. There are certainly a few empty shelves in Morrison's, but Aldi seems to have plenty of veg and salad stuff of all kinds and broccoli (one of the things that's supposed to be scarce and going for ridiculous prices) is only 38p a head. Anyway, even if some things were hard to come by there's tons of other choices available, you wouldn't get me paying £2 for a lettuce.
ReplyDeleteI think Helen is absolutely right about a media fuelled frenzy! What's more, they could even be doing the nation a favour by nudging people towards healthy eating because a so called shortage always bumps up demand. Telling people they can't have it, just makes them want more! Valerie
Deletetrue, Aldi have plenty of cheap fresh veg. This week a man infront of me bought 6 fresh chickens. I expect he is freezing them expecting a chicken shortage because of bird flu, so he's helping by creating his own shortage!
Deletelovely looking photo of your lovely looking meal..(again).
ReplyDeleteyet again, I am impressed by the health and value of your meals. (and they look nice too).
I cannot recall, maybe you have mentioned this, but
I am curious,
(just roughly)
how much do you figure you spend on food (just for yourself, not the critters)
per week
per year
Hi. I did have a page for this, but it seems to have gone. It's about £12 - £15 a week. x 52.
Deletebelieve it or not, I was in London, well, Kingston upon Thames East Twickenham to be exact, in the late seventies, a sugar shortage was happening, but when I went round the corner to an Indian market, voila, lots of sugar bags for sale, my English mates were quite amazed at my find.
ReplyDeleteYour salad crisis is a bit like the one we had over on this side of the Atlantic last year when it was cauliflower that caused all the fuss. For whatever reason there was a shortage and the price even hit as high as $8.00 for one head of cauliflower! Needless to say - I waited!
ReplyDeleteIf you enjoy travel books - have you ever read any of Bill Bryson's books? He is American - lived in England for about 20 years and has travelled far and wide. His book on Australia "In a Sunburned Country" is not only informative but hilariously funny (his travel books are always funny - but mostly at his own expense) - I had tears running down my face more than once. I highly recommend them. Plus - he's a good writer - he also writes about language and about history so I don't think you'd be disappointed.
Your salad is looking good.
ReplyDeleteIf you can find them, I highly recommend any of the travel books by Paul Theroux. "The Old Patagonia Express", "Kingdom By the Sea", "The Great Railway Bazzar", "Riding The Iron Rooster" and "The Happy Islands Of Oceania" are particularly good. R/Tim
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for an interesting read, try "Vague Direction" written by your fellow countryman Dave Gill. It is about his cycling trip around North America. We are in one of the later chapters, as we hosted Dave via Warmshowers. Barb
ReplyDeleteI noticed problems with quality and supply of some vegetables before I read about it, so I don't think it is media hype. However, we can just wait it out and eat alternative vegetables and hope that the weather improves so the next harvest of our favourites is a good one. Hopefully this is a short term problem. We are lucky we have so much to choose from in our shops, so we can easily substitute one vegetable for another.
ReplyDeleteThey are not ridiculous prices though if you think about the growers, the wholesaler and the retailer. They need to earn a living and if a commodity is scarce then prices go up - sometimes out of greed but in this instance probably necessity. Farmers and grocers etc have families to feed and clothe too and if they don't have bountiful produce to sell cheap, then they must sell what they do have for more to make up the shortfall. Many already don't get a fair price from big retailers who drive a hard bargain. Often farmers struggle to keep afloat.
Those Tesco vegetable grills look yummy.
ReplyDeleteNice salad. I'll skip that book. Have a good night.
ReplyDeleteMust say, your food looks yummy. I'll skip the book too. Natalie
ReplyDeleteJust to let you know you were mentioned in my post today Ilona, just writing about blogging x
ReplyDeleteThank you, I'll have a look.
Deletehttp://craftwhack.com/creative-person-spotlight-lisa-kokin/
ReplyDeleteThought you might like this :)
I thought the book was ok. I think if you start out with no preconceptions it makes you more open to a different style of writing.
ReplyDeletePersonally if a writer doesn't like something I prefer to read that rather than have them tell us what they think the majority want to hear.
Not had a problem getting the salad and veg I need here but then I only buy what is in season and grown in the UK, I'd rather not have a lettuce that's travelled thousands of miles (and heavily sprayed with pesticides and preservatives too)
The UK's root vegetables are in their prime just now, delicious.
Bren