Around the world in a week and a half....

Sadly, my brain is currently too fried to give Michael Palin's 'Around the World in 80 Days' the credit it probably deserves; I think it probably deserves more than the 3 stars I gave it on my Goodreads account. The problem is, that I read this book over the last week and a half when my job has been so high pressure that I've been coming home, collapsing on the sofa and resembling somebody who has recently undergone a full frontal lobotomy. I haven't been able to concentrate for more than 2 minutes at a time because the second I get home and am no longer been paid to think my brain has been going into shutdown and refusing to do anything until the next day. I think I read days 25-30 of Palin's journey three times because the words just weren't sinking in and I can't remember enough about it to be able to tell you much about what happened other than Palin travelled the world in 80 days. Insightful, right?

That said, it was probably the perfect book to read last week because it didn't require much commitment, or concentration. I could dip into it at will and the diary format meant that if I had to put it down after 2 pages then it really didn't matter. I really liked Palin's writing style too: there's no over the top descriptions here, or long and convuluted explanations of every grain of sand he saw on his travels instead he is concise and to the point; he tells you just enough to keep you interested and somehow in the space of just a few lines he paints a picture of the places he visits and the people he meets so clear that you can really imagine it. I wanted all of the people he talks about to be my friends, and I felt so sad at the end of every leg of the journey when he had to say goodbye. All of this has been touched with the trademark Python humour: there were several times despite my extreme grumpiness that this book made me laugh out loud.

I have another 4 of Michael Palin's books in a set: Himalya, Pole to Pole, Sahara and another one. I might not pick them up for a while but I feel somehow comforted to know that they're there.