Book number 9 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge is The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent.

‘Guylain Vignolles lives on the edge of existence. Working at a book pulping factory in a job he hates, he has but one pleasure in life . . .

Sitting on the 6.27 train each day, Guylain recites aloud from pages he has saved from the jaws of his monstrous pulping machine. But it is when he discovers the diary of a lonely young woman, Julie – a woman who feels as lost in the world as he does – that his journey will truly begin.’ (Thanks Amazon!)

Firstly I should mention that I am an avid reader on my Kindle (I love real books; the smell, the feel of them, the look of them on my bookshelf – it’s just the Kindle is so darn convenient.  How else am I supposed to hide the 104 books I have purchased but not yet read from my husband?).  Anyway, back to my point.  Reading on a Kindle is very deceptive, you never really know how long a book actually is.  So when I finished The Reader on the 6.27, I thought it was a short story.  Turns out however, it is not.  Instead it was just me, devouring it rather quickly.  Which can only be a positive thing.  Except that it ended too quickly. Darn it.

So anyway, back to the specifics of the book.  As we all know, I love a book about books.  Except this is a book about the outrageous murder of books.  In fact, it’s about a book lover murdering books. Confused?

Guylain Vignolles hates his job.  I don’t think hate is even a strong enough word, he despises it.  The only light in his day is when he rescues a few random pages ready for his daily reading on the 6.27 train each morning.  He reads anything that he has managed to save to an enraptured audience on that early morning train until he comes across the torn pages of a diary.  These diary pages capture his imagination like nothing else he has read before, setting himself on a journey that will open his world up to new experiences and possibilities.

That’s all i’m going to say about the content of the book as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone.  I found the book translation to make sense (translations don’t always unfortunately), and the essence of the book was certainly not lost in translation.  I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but I loved it.  I loved the characters, I loved the setting and I loved the plot.  I enjoyed the simplicity of it and I wanted to know where Guylains life journey would take him.  I also loved how this novel highlighted that reading, even if it’s only for a few minutes, can change your day.  The commuters on the 6.27 waited for Guylain.  It didn’t matter what he read to them, what mattered was that he did read to them.

“For all those fellow commuters, he was the reader, the bizarre character who each weekday would read out, in a loud, clear voice, from the handful of pages he extracted from his briefcase.” Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, The Reader on the 6.27

Despite the downright despicable destruction of so many books, all I can do is recommend this book.

Make a cup of tea (or pick up a glass of wine, I know which I prefer!), settle in for the evening and dive into this book!

Rating: 📖 📖 📖 📖