Journal Entry 1 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, November 22, 2009

Finally picked this one up after many, many recommendations. The person who recommended it to me last and loudest reckoned that Ignatius J Reilly *is* the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. (Fat, overly enamoured of his own literate opinions, a Masters degree in something arty, etc.) So he was a big simply-drawn yellow slob in my mind as I read it. :)

And A Confederacy of Dunces took me an age and a half to finish! I kept on putting it down and picking up other books in between (never a good sign). I could *see* the humour in Confederacy but it wasn't tickling my funny bone much.

It's not that it's not a good book (Ignatius J Reilly is an amazing comic creation), it's just that if a nuclear bomb were to be dropped on New Orleans in the book at about the halfway point, I might have just breathed a sigh of relief that all these irredeemable characters were blown to kingdom come. There's not a single character that I could identify with, let alone *like*. I tagged it "grotesque" at one stage, and I'm sticking with that as the one-word-summing-up.

Can't say I enjoyed it - all the characters were most unlikeable, and there didn't seem to be any point in the plot (they're all still revolting at the end, and I like a bit of character development). It's been highly recommended by a number of people (most of whom are men, if that makes a difference), and is on the 1001 You Must Read Before You Die list, but I think it's a personal thing - they probably got the humour.

It's not a dreadful book, it's just not for me.

This has been offered up at the Oz VBB to start its journey...

UPDATE 27 Nov 2009: ... and selected by L1nda! I shall pop it in the post asap. 

Journal Entry 2 by tqd at Balmain, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, December 03, 2009

Released 2 yrs ago (12/2/2009 UTC) at Balmain, New South Wales Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Popped in the post to L1nda.

Happy reading! 

Journal Entry 3 by L1nda from Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Monday, December 07, 2009

Arrived safe and sound, thanks