I decided to buy If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino, after my literally-encyclopaedia pal at work asked me read the first paragraph of this book at the local bookshop. It starts like this:-

Having come out of a reading mode for a while I thought that a weird book would get me into reading mode again. Boy was I right; this book is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. And what’s more it’s all about reading. In one of the reviews I read about the book somebody described it as a love letter to a reader. I think it’s a good analogy.

Each odd number chapter is written in the second person and the following chapter is from a book the reader is trying to read. You, as the reader of "If on a winter night a traveller" are reading the same book the reader (you) in the story is reading. This suggests that you are being referenced in the book and the book sometimes even references itself.

The main story develops only in the odd numbered chapters where the reader and the other reader start uncovering a series of book fakers who are causing all the confusion in the same book. Scattered along these chapters are observations on reading, writing and the relationship between the author and the reader. The even number chapters on the other hand are like a series of short stories which don’t relate to one another (or at least I didn’t manage to find any relation between them). Each time the reader gets to the most interesting part of the story the story is cut abruptly and something mysterious happens to the book the reader is reading.

I still cannot decide what rating I’m going to give this book. Parts of it are great (4/5) parts and parts of it I just couldn’t get (2/5). If you liked the first paragraph and like weird books then give this book a go. Don’t expect a simple storyline with a clear plot because there isn’t any. Overall (3.5/5)