Book Review: I'm not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti

I'm not scared : [a novel] by Niccolò Ammaniti

A strange and creepy novel which leaves you with an uneasy feeling.

A young boy from rural Italy stumbles into the dark secret of his village.

I’m not sure I can say I left this book happy but it certainly made me want to read more. The author does a beautiful job of capturing that feeling of being a kid and there are only a very few authors I’ve ever read who do that very well. (Ray Bradbury being the first which comes to mind.) I don’t know how these authors do it but I’m always happy when it happens. Many authors write about being a kid and it feels real (not forced), but writers like Bradbury and the author of this book leave me feeling as though I’ve been a child again (at least for a few short desperate hours). They capture the strange pangs and yearnings that come with being a kid and that is something I find fantastic in a book. For this alone I give “I’m Not Scared” high marks, but because the book is so desperately dark, in the end I had very mixed feelings about it

Book Weeds

I’m slowly discovering that I have a serious problem…

I can’t get rid of books. It’s a compulsion or obsession or some other “sion”. Whatever it is, it’s beginning to drive me nuts. Or maybe it’s the other way around and I do it because I’m nuts. I’m not sure how it started or even when, but it is (literally) physically painful to get rid of a book unless I have accidentally purchased 2 copies of the same text. Deciding which books to get rid of is as painful as killing my own children would be (although, some days it might be easier to kill the kids). I pick up a book I haven’t read in years and think, “Am I ever going to reread this book?” The answer will be NO but then my brain starts in on the “what ifs” and “buts.”

What if a movie version of the book comes out…
But it took me forever to find a copy of that book…
What if I get excited about that genre or topic again…
But it’s a first edition…
What if I read another book with similar ideas and I want to look back over this…
But I made notes in that book…
And so on until I feel sick.

So, I will put the book back on the shelf and keep it. I’ll go through this over and over again, getting rid of maybe 1 out of every 30-40 books I consider. The truth is that half the time I’ve gotten rid of a book I find myself wanting it again at some point in the future.

However, regardless of how I feel I need to remove some of my books. We’re in a state at my house. My wife is looking for a job and it’s highly likely her job search will force us to move. I need to slim down my collection, but I can’t bring myself to abandon one of my babies.

I’m not sure why I’m posting this here… but it does feel better to rant about it a bit.