Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha
Authors	Arthur Golden
Genre	Historical fiction

Own and read. Published in 1997.

First read (February-March 2012)

Finished! March 5th 2012.

Format

1998 paperback edition (white with bright red lips on the cover, not easy to read in public ಠ_ಠ). 422 pages, 32 blank pages. 42 lines per page, 947700 characters total, putting it at 492 standard pages.

Journal

Reading progress (started placement half way through).

I loved the film, and was happy to notice the book on the BBC's Big Read Top 100. I'd read some controversy about the inaccuracy of it, but thought "meh" :P In February 2011 I watched the film again, and was really moved by the saying at the end, You cannot say to the sun, "more sun", or to the rain, "less rain", in particular, and wanted to see if it was in the book.

I bought a second-hand copy for 50p from the Sheffield Buddhist Centre on the 13th of October 2011 (I was very pleasantly surprised to find a lot of good books for sale!).

Started reading it on the 21st of February 2012, plucking it from the bookshelf in a rus having finished The Age of the Five Trilogy the previous night and wanting to read on the bus. Got about 40 pages in that day and decided to commit to reading it.

Noticed from the beginning that was basically identical to the film, with little else to add, really. Half way through I started a teaching placement and stopped reading for a few days until the weekend, when I got through the rest, finally finishing in the dentist's waiting room on the 5th of March. The last half differed more from the film, with a bit more waffle, and there was a bit of an epilogue at the end that wasn't in the film. The message was slightly different, in the film it was basically a love story, but the book had a more realistic tone (being a memoir). Although having said that the film does end with a bit of a message to that effect.

Rating

1

Reading record

Previous book: Trudi Canavan, The Age of the Five Trilogy #3 (Voice of the Gods)

Next book: Daniel Suarez, Daemon #2 (Freedom^TM)

Ratings, awards, mentions and recommendations

Number 62 on the BBC's Big Read.

Loved the film.