Friday, April 15, 2005

it's been a few days since i've finished the book i said i would review here. and review now, i would. however, i have no idea on what criterion books need to possess in order to grace bestseller's lists nor am i particularly qualified to give any review of sorts, so very simply, it's just my honest opinion. for the love of my life, i don't even know where to start. here goes. upon picking the book up, one would easily notice it's heavy which would of course, make the cheapskates in and amongst us go, 'good, it's value for my money'. but, open up to any page and you'd see the fonts are annoyingly large. i don't know about you but i prefer my fonts a little smaller. no one next to you on public transport needs to glance over and see words like blowjob and whore. the target audience for this book probably aren't 60 year old birds with a case of severe astigmatism either. oversight on the publishers there. but as they say, don't judge a book by it's cover [it's a rather blah one] or it's font size for that matter. content is thankfully a better than the bland cover and the annoying font, however it is nothing more than what you can already read on her blog. if you've been living in bedrock or any other stone all this while and haven't the slightest inkling who the author, under the nom de plume of belle de jour, is, then here i am to clue you in. the title already clues one's ignorant self in and belle is one of millions of workers in the world's oldest trade - sex. she is on the higer echelons of the hierarchy of prostituition. in short, she isn't one to turn tricks by the highway. written in the form of a diary, it manages not to be choppy and disjointed and most importantly, not to be self-indulgent and exclude the reader. in between detailing her experiences with customers whose preferences range from vanilla to kinky, she also pens personal thoughts on issues and introduces her readers to her ex boyfriends, friends and family which other sex bloggers like her try to avoid like the plague. it adds a very nice personal touch without being too distant and still keeps her identity under wraps. what i like about the book is it's terse humour and quick wit, so quintessentially brit and so fun to read. what i would like even more if she were to keep up her blog or churn out a second book because no one likes to be left hanging. what i did not like has already been detailed above. i give it a diplomatic 2.5 or even 3 stars out of 5 for it for being such an enjoyable read.

the textual siege.

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