New Book

I fell asleep on the train today. This, in itself, isn't all that surprising. There's something about the vibrations and the comfy chairs that just lends itself to sleep. Also, the day before had been a long one and more sleep would have been welcome.

Anyway, the problem came when I woke up as doors were closing and the train was pulling away from the station I was supposed to be getting off on. I ended up in the middle of nowhere with an extra half hour to kill. I was late for work. Also, it rained.

In a bid to avoid the same fate on my way home, I walked to the shop in search of a book to read. It seems that Asda customers are big fans of books about children surviving tough upbringings and biographies about people who haven't done enough to deserve even one page written about them.

Since I don't care about either of these, I ended up in the children's book section. It was here that I found 'Skulduggery Pleasant'.

The front cover had a picture of a skeleton, dressed as a detective. I was interested, so I flipped it over. The back told me little that the picture hadn't already told me. Yes, he was a skeleton and yes, he was a detective. He was also a magician.

It also had quotes telling me that the book was funny, but I've found that kid's book funny doesn't often translate to real funny. The only books I can think of that break this rule are the 'Series of Unfortunate Events' series.

So I opened the book, in search of a passage to allow the book to prove its humour. And for the first time in my life, I bought a book based on the author biography.

For those that are curious as to what it said to win me over, the passage can be found below. Hopefully the book is as good.

"Before writing his children's story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, Derek Landy wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous thriller in which everybody dies.

As a black belt in Kenpo Karate he has taught countless children how to defend themselves, in the hopes of building his own private munchkin army. He firmly believes that they await his call to strike against his enemies (he doesn't actually have any enemies, but he's assuming they'll show up, sooner or later).

Derek lives on the outskirts of Dublin, and the reason he writes his own biography blurb is so that he can finally refer to himself in the third person without looking pompous or insane."

:D

PS. If memory serves, the author description for a Stephen Fry book is pretty good, but I purchased that before reading it, so it doesn't count.

http://eskimoblueboy.deviantart.com/art/Books-Books-Books-73000817