The first of many ...

The first book I read this year was ‘Us’ by David Nicholls. Technically it is supposed to be included on 2014’s reading list as I started Christmas day. However, since the bulk of it was read in 2015 I am counting is as part of my 52 books for this year.

I received this book as a Christmas present from the ever wonderful Father Christmas after telling my Mum that I had it among a few other books on my Christmas wish list. I managed to find a spare 20 minutes on Christmas day and honestly, it became rather awkward when I was the odd 18 year old sat in the corner of the room chuckling away to myself at the witty comments I had read when people began to look at me wanting an explanation….it’s even worse when having given an explanation you get blank looks as if to say that it’s really not that funny….

My humour is very dry, and I manage to find wit in every day comments that wouldn’t usually be found funny, no one else understands my humour but I am content laughing away when others aren’t….my theory is whether people are laughing or not, they manage to break into a smile purely at the fact that I am beside myself with laughter looking like an absolute fool and they find that amusing. At least it makes others smile, that’s my favourite part.

Anyway, back to the book. Whilst it’s not chronological in that it goes between talking about the main characters past and present, the main plot line that runs through is immense! I am not sure whether that is the right word and I won’t give any part of the book away however what I will say is this; The main character is Douglas and he, in attempt to save his marriage, agrees to go on the long planned ‘Grand tour’ with his wife and son to see if they decide they want to stay together. However, of course, what could possibly go wrong?

This book is one of those books where it’s not ‘oh, yeah, well that was going to happen wasn’t it…’ as if the obstacles were so far-fetched. Nicholl’s writes it in such a way that the things that go wrong are so subtle, and in my case at times humorous, you just become so attached to Douglas wishing things would stop taking a turn for the worst.  I found myself saying to my boyfriend on numerous occasions; ‘It’s just getting to the good bit’ at which point he would reply that ‘I said that last time he asked.’ I was hooked to the point that after having to read it in dribs and drabs over the last week of 2014 because of the busy nature of that time of the year, I took to spending as good as the entire day on the 2^nd of January to finish it. Staying up until 1am was well worth it I’d say. I went to bed very content with the ending result for the characters that I had grown to love.

Book number 1 complete J I strongly recommend!