Notes: I need to change my labelling system so it matches up with Noah's. Otherwise, how would we be able to tell that I was ahead? I started with 1 as my first book in the competition. But of course, I had already read many of the 100 books on my list. I therefore jump ahead by 55 (the number I'd already read), making my Book 1 into Book 56, and this, Book 7, into Book 62. The only flaw with this system is that some list items contain more than one book or film. 'The Bagthorpe Saga' by Helen Cresswell, for example, in fact contains ten books. To solve this problem, I'll use letters when a list item is more than one book. So without further ado...
Book 62: The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes
Read: Saturday 10th July, in between tidying my flat, starting to do some packing and welcoming my parents, who have come to visit.
Review: "The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows." As poetic a tale as one might expect from Ted Hughes, which raises some interesting questions about purpose, belonging and acceptance. This book seems to me to ask a lot of questions without really answering any of them - but at the end I felt the peace described in the space-bat-angel-dragon's eerie singing. And that, I've always thought, is the sign of a good story.
Time: I guess about eleven hours. Breaks for sorting, tidying, packing, food, a quick trip into Scarborough to buy parcel tape, a walk on Filey Brigg, and a decidedly bracing evening swim in the North Sea followed by hot chocolate.
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