gekauft fuer booker prize 2005 roundabout. Freu mich schon aufs lesen, ist ja der favorit!

god, I loved this book!

The book gives a good reflection of the general unease of living in the contemporary world but also the realisation of how lucky we are. Perowne obviously has a great life, but it feels fragile and under threat, and he feels guilty towards those worse off than him without knowing what to do about it. I think this is how the affluent Western middle class feels (or should feel).

I absolutely identify with the kind of person perowne is, not what hes done in his life but how he thinks. This is exactly the kind of internal dialogue I have all the time, trying to make sense of what is happening in his life, but worrying just that little bit too much. I appreciate how good this is as ive recently read lots of books where the characters were so completely aware of their feelings when they werent that sort of person at all. But you believe in Perowne.

to be sent to Qantaqa

Thanks a lot! I'm going to read it right after I finish my current book!

Oct. 6th
I enjoyed reading this book a lot - I think it perfectly captures the spirit of living in our times...
I'd like to share my favorite paragraph with you:

"When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in - you know, a girl I've just met, or this song we're going to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto - think small."

RELEASE NOTES:

To be sent to urfin.

Saturday got here on Wednesday (Oct 12th), thank you, Qantaqa!

Oct 19th
I so enjoyed reading this book!
it's the kind of book that leaves you thinking, and feeling, that you're not alone, that in fact the way people reason is often similar.

throughout, many times, I said to myself: "hm, I have to think this over" but I also just HAD to continue because the story is quite absorbing. this dilemma I could only overcome by resolving to read the book again, at some later stage ;o) this doesnt happen very often, which is why it gets 10 stars :o)

question:
on page 67, the book of a 'magical realist' is discussed. anyone knows who that might be? could it be Margaret Atwood or Salman Rushdie or who?

side note:
on page 75, Harold Pinter is mentioned. this I noticed because he recently won the Nobelprize for Literature, and I won the corresponding/matching(?) prize draw, and thus I'm soon to read one of his plays. :o)

lbnl:
the book was sent on to Sternschnuppe28 this afternoon.

Dankeschön für´s Zusenden! Ich freue mich auf das Buch.

This was my first book by Ian McEwan - and it leaves me back in such an adorement, that I immediately searched for another ring or ray by him (I found "Atonement" and am already looking forward to it).
I like McEwan´s style and way of story construction a lot, although it took me a good while to come into the first 50 pages (well, relatively a while: I read 10 pages, made a break, read another ten, average reading speed rose from 15p/hour to 40/hr).
"Saturday" is an excellent portrait of our time and covers the big issue: terrorism - terrorism in our microcosmos and in our macrosmos. While reading, I felt both the fragility, subtile fear that surround us and endangerment of our society on the one side and warmth, love, commitment and compassion of the other side.

A little aside: Funnily, I am just preparing for an exam in neuropsychology, so this book fit very well into my scientific reading material. I had more than once an "aha-effect".

"Saturday" continues its journey to elhamisabel today.

This book arrived today.

Thanks very much. I'll start reading it tonight, I think.

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EDIT on 20.11.:

I liked this book very, very much. It's full of descriptive writing and usually I can't stand descriptive passages and nearly always think about skipping them (if not actually do). But with this book, I was fascinated by the descriptions. I had bought and registered "Atonement" but wasn't very keen on reading it. Now I'm glad it's on Mt tbr. Perhaps another good book to read.

humptydumpty doesn't want to read it so I've already pmed barnhelm whether I can send it to her.

....vielen dank für's schicken, freu mich schon drauf!

nach "atonement" jetzt wieder ein McEwan wie "von früher". Exakt minutiös beschriebene Befindlichkeiten, durch die Lupe sezierte Alltäglichkeiten und dann, durch eine scheinbar belanglose Entscheidung, drei Minuten Verspätung oder etwas ähnliches gerät das Leben der Protagonisten aus den Fugen.
Der Tagesablauf des Neurochirurgen Henry Perowne an diesem "Saturday" ist wieder eine Glanzleistung McEwans. Pity, he didn't make it, didn't even get shortlisted.

Geht weiter an lesezeichen!

Gut angekommen, danke. Eure Einträge machen viel Lust auf dieses Buch!

Oops, it seems I'm the odd one out here!

To be honest I found the book to be pretentious crap. This is probably because I did not care about Henry and his family at all, and that is why I was probably not very interested in getting to know every single detail of a day in their life ;-) Having said that, even if I did not like the book, it did not keep me from realizing that McEwan is an author with a certain talent, so that is why the book gets 6 points after all.

As the score is 6:1 in favour of the book I declare myself beaten ;-)

Edit 26.05.: Sent to CC today.

A fast book - if you sent it on the 26th, it must have arrived the next day! Let us hope that it will be read fast... I'm afraid that I'm starting a new collection of Booker Prize books! It was nice to be down to one single book...

Das Buch ist samt Umschlag im Koffer - sobald ich zurück bin, hole ich hier meinen Kommentar nach. Und humptydumpty kriegt Urlaubspost von mir!

A great book! I liked it very much - once again, a book that illustrates the classical " Das Persönliche ist das Politische". Thinking small is connected to thinking big.
I think I'll buy this book and read it again soon.
For now: good reading, humptydumpty!

Das Buch ist heute wohlbehalten angekommen und muss sich hinter Banville und die ukrainischen Traktoren einreihen. Es kann also (mal wieder) ein Weilchen dauern; dafür schon mal vorab die Bitte um Nachsicht.

Lieben Dank für's Zusenden (nebst schöner Karte) und Mitlesen-Lassen!

Das war einfach zu viel des Guten: zu präzise, zu minutiös, zu viel Neurochirurgie. Not my cup of tea at all, sorry...

Ich habe im Forum angefragt, ob noch jemand Interesse an diesem Buch hat - falls nicht, macht es sich demnächst auf die Heimreise (es war über Gebühr lange bei mir, Entschuldigung).

Heute reist das Buch zurück zu pustefix ins heimische Regal - entschuldige bitte, dass es so lange gedauert hat!

ist wieder sicher bei mir angekommen. Freut mich, dass es den meisten gefallen hat!