Book Review: Salam Pax

I never thought reading a book of someone's personal blog could be quite so interesting (I say interesting rather than fascinating because really its just opinionated musings of daily life, only during the recent war in Iraq). These are really just letters published on the Internet so Pax's friend Raed in Jordan can read them.

Somehow you feel drawn to this book because it goes against something that would never have been allowed in controlled Iraq, although all it really is is a published web log, copied-and-pasted straight off the Internet.

Somehow it grips because of all this inside information. Many times does Pax put himself at risk just to keep his blog updated. Friends and relations are reduced to first initials or pseudonyms as to not give away identities, and only a mysterious blog-friend Diana is entrusted with many of his secrets.

What gripes me about this book is that its available for viewing on the Internet completely free of charge in its original format.

What is also difficult is there are footnotes at the bottom of nearly every page! This means you have to do a lot of referencing in order to understand some of what you're reading.

Its also quite hard for people who have never 'blogged' before to understand the layout of it.

Fortunately for me I picked it up in the library though...

A good read? Yes.

Finally there's something I can read and at the same time look back on when comparing it to what I saw on the news at the time. It was a risk writing something like this, but reading it fascinates the mind as you experience the same images we saw on TV only through the eyes of someone in Iraq at the. Its humorous and well written and I recommend it to anyone interested in Iraq affairs or just those who need a better understanding of a land constantly in our headlines portrayed in a such a negative way.

Read the book, it will change some of your opinions. Although as I said, its also free to read on Pax's blogsite anyway.