I didn't hate it, but I didn't get it either. It's not a book you read for the plot, because there isn't really any to speak of. As I understand it, it's the thrill of the travel that's supposed to be the thing that gets you excited about this book, and while I enjoyed the descriptions of the continent from up close, overall, it didn't sound enjoyable or attractive to me at all. For example, descriptions of the pleasantness of being caked with dead bugs and covered in mosquito bites did not resonate with me at all.
My lack of enthusiasm might be explained by the fact that I haven't really heard of the "Beat Generation" before, and that while I enjoy visiting new and unfamiliar places, I do feel ready to go back home relatively quickly. In other words: your mileage may vary.
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Vincent rated The Sex Lives Of Siamese Twins: 4 stars
Vincent rated The Marriage Plot: 3 stars
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jeffrey Eugenides
The Marriage Plot is a 2011 novel by the American writer, Jeffrey Eugenides. The novel grew out of a manuscript …
Vincent rated Born a Crime: 4 stars
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime New York Times bestseller about one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid …
Vincent reviewed On the road by Jack Kerouac
Story of two restless young men in the late 1940s who cross and recross America, …
Review of 'On the road' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I didn't hate it, but I didn't get it either. It's not a book you read for the plot, because there isn't really any to speak of. As I understand it, it's the thrill of the travel that's supposed to be the thing that gets you excited about this book, and while I enjoyed the descriptions of the continent from up close, overall, it didn't sound enjoyable or attractive to me at all. For example, descriptions of the pleasantness of being caked with dead bugs and covered in mosquito bites did not resonate with me at all.
My lack of enthusiasm might be explained by the fact that I haven't really heard of the "Beat Generation" before, and that while I enjoy visiting new and unfamiliar places, I do feel ready to go back home relatively quickly. In other words: your mileage may vary.
Vincent reviewed Nomade by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
De auteur gaat verder waar ze in 'Mijn vrijheid' was gebleven. Ze schrijft over haar …
Review of 'Nomade' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I very much enjoyed her personal accounts of her youth and her interactions with her family, and the events she witnessed as a translator for Somali refugees - which paint a worrying but interesting picture of a culture I'm not that familiar with.
She ends the book with a number of recommendations which, unfortunately, go unmotivated and are therefore somewhat unconvincing. It would have been interesting to see some more substance there.
I very much enjoyed her personal accounts of her youth and her interactions with her family, and the events she witnessed as a translator for Somali refugees - which paint a worrying but interesting picture of a culture I'm not that familiar with.
She ends the book with a number of recommendations which, unfortunately, go unmotivated and are therefore somewhat unconvincing. It would have been interesting to see some more substance there.
Vincent rated How to Be Good: 4 stars
Porno by Irvine Welsh
some of the gang from trainspotting ten years on and as always dream up schemes to make a quick buck …
Vincent rated Janesville: 4 stars
Amy Goldstein: Janesville (2017)
Janesville by Amy Goldstein
"A Washington Post reporter's intimate account of the fallout from the closing of a General Motors' assembly plant in Janesville, …
Vincent rated Basic Income - And How We Can Make It Happen: 3 stars
Vincent rated Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: 3 stars
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book applies Godel's seminal contribution to modern mathematics to the study of the human …
Vincent rated Swing Time: LONGLISTED for the Man Booker Prize 2017: 3 stars
Swing Time: LONGLISTED for the Man Booker Prize 2017 by Zadie Smith
"An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North West London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth …
Vincent rated The secret history: 4 stars
The secret history by Donna Tartt
In a rural Vermont college, a group of Classics students get carried away at a bacchanal, and an innocent man …
Vincent rated Animal Liberation: 3 stars
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
Since its original publication in 1975, this groundbreaking work has awakened millions of concerned men and women to the shocking …