I can only read a book with a happy ending

Whenever I finish a book I always try and think of a friend or colleague who might like it and give it to them.

I also have another friend who lends me books. This is sometimes quite difficult because I can’t stand books with unhappy endings and quite a lot of these are a bit miserable – too black for me.  I have a very annoying habit that once I get in to a character and begin to start rooting for them I must look at the end to check everything turns out OK.  If it does, that’s fine.  I can carry on reading the book.  If not, I stop. My take is that I read a book or watch a film to lift me up, make me think that all things are possible with a bit of effort and luck, not relentless pessimism.  I also can’t stand graphic physical violence or any form of torture.  Baddies can die, but only if they have limited character development.

I have just finished ‘A Long Way Down’ by Nick Hornby. This is a difficult one as it is based on the story of four people attempting to commit suicide, but so much of it made me laugh out loud and it had so many human, poignant and thought provoking bits.  It’s not that they are quotable – just that overall you can empathise with all the four protagonists’ issues.  It’s a special book.

Village Voice gives it the thumbs up and encapsulates my viewpoint.  ‘Perhaps the funniest and most exhilarating novel ever written about group suicide.  A long way up from much modern fiction, which seems to have been written to supply us with reasons to jump’.