Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

First, a sidenote: When I was in Barcelona in 2006 I went to check out the Sagrada Familia Basilica. Fun fact: it was designed by Antony Gaudi, began construction in 1882 and has an anticipated completion date of 2026.

I only bring that up because I can kind of understand Ken Follet's obsession with cathedrals. I mean, I was at Sagrada Familia for maybe an hour five years ago and I can still remember those facts. If you haven't read the book, it's set in England in the 12th century, and is basically a story about the building of a cathedral. And lets face it, building a cathedral is no ordinary task. The book is full of detail about how to build a cathedral, should you feel the urge.

The Pillars of the Earth is an entertaining read without being amazing. I was suprised to see how divided people are about it on Goodreads. It seems to be a book you either love or hate, which makes me in the minority, because I have absolutely no strong feelings about it either way. Yes the characters were pretty generic, and I was getting a bit tired by about the 800 page mark (it's an epic tale), but I still enjoyed it.

On a completely unrelated topic, I also read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and I'm annoyed for two reasons: it turns out it wasn't on my list, AND I didn't like it at all. If you've read it can you please explain what the attraction to this story is because I just do not get it.

5 comments:

Danielle Zappavigna said...

I loved this book. Mostly because I love a good villain and he JUST WON'T DIE! Obviously it's not the best literature ever written, but the story had me completely absorbed. I haven't read the 'sequel' but have a copy on my TBR shelf I'd like to get to one day. Have you seen how enormous his latest one is?

Anonymous said...

I haven't! But I can imagine.

Seriously, William was a slippery customer. He was my favourite character in a way. I liked that Remegius redeemed himself too.

moonrat said...

so this is one i bought about three years ago because someone raved about it, and which i still haven't gotten around to reading.

your review has made me decide to persist in my current noncommital behavior. ha.

Anonymous said...

You know what? It would be a great holiday read. It's entertaining without being challenging.

Unknown said...

I really liked this book, but then and did notice that it is one of those books where people are divided about it - that love hate thing.

As for Kafka...I get what your saying. I can't understand how something so simple could be discussed so much.