I’ve actually started a new book – yes again! Someone said that I was a quick reader. I think it’s a sign that I’m stressed. Reading is a bit of an escape for me. I get to stop thinking about things that worry me and I get to wonder about someone else’s issues for a change – and I don’t have to worry. I just have to read so that I see things unfolding. It’s a good thing.
I’m reading Us by David Nicholls (he wrote One Day). It’s about a biochemist whose marriage is failing. But he and his wife decide that despite the fact that they are going to get a divorce, they go on a trip with their teenaged son and while on the trip, the son disappears. I haven’t got any further than that though.
The story appeals to me though, because of the sciency bits. One of the nerdy jokes that got me giggling to myself on the train (no doubt attracting weird looks) was the joke that said “The only acid in this house is deoxyribonucleic acid!” As the main character is a biochemist, I wasn’t surprised that there was a lot about labs and research. It made me smile when the Drosophila melanogaster was mentioned along with genetic mapping. The Drosophila melanogaster is the scientific name for the common fruitfly. I have first-hand experience with fruitflies because my dad is a geneticist and he was working on a project that involved fruitflies. Fruitflies are a blight on Philippine mangoes and my dad was attempting to sterilise the fruitflies, so that they only produced female flies. I don’t really know if my dad was successful, but it was because of this project that Drosophila melanogaster was a big fixture in our life for a very long time.
I’m still reading. So the jury’s out. But then again, I did get the book because it was a David Nicholls book and I loved One Day. I am loving the book so far thought. More so now because I seem to have found a connection with the main character!
Yellywelly 