Changes

If books are the bread, the addition of this volume is too little marmalade – and this from an author who complains rightly of the editor too eager to take the pith out. You don't get enough spread of content, you don't get enough depth and flavour of Parks, and when things do bulk up and concentrate on translation, which is the focus of the fourth quarter, you hit the crust of repeated ideas and make a U-turn to where you've already been spreading. Like I say, a clumsy metaphor. Parks, for sure, is a greater user of words than I am, and he knows his stuff. I know just enough to think this didn't fully deliver, for various reasons. I didn't dislike it at all, and I did go against his suggestion of stopping when I'd had my fill, but as reliable an effort as it was from beginning to end it wasn't quite as substantial as I had expected.

[[This is Not the End of the Book; by Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere]] is a great look at all things paperback, hardback and cyber to read.