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I think this was made into a film with Jeremy Irons a few years ago, not sure if the film might work better? I have this book somewhere but probably won't bother reading it now, as I've read other reviews which haven't been very good, so off to the charity shop it will go!

Night Train to Lisbon (2004) Pascal Mercier A 57-year-old Swiss academic named Gregorius encounters a beautiful Portuguese woman on a bridge which, in turn, results in him ending up in a bookshop where he purchases a book by an obscure Portuguese author named Amadeu de Prado which leads to such a fascination with his work, his ideas, and his writing, that he feels compels to get on the night train to Lisbon and investigate who this man was. In Lisbon, he meets the writer's elderly sister, his best friend, his priest, and learns about the resistance movement under the Salazar dictatorship. All the while, he is translating Prado's work (sections written in italics) and becoming increasingly fascinated by the man's life. Okay, so this was (initially) very easy to read and I was enjoying myself for the most part but as the book went on I had two very distinct problems. Firstly, the book never really goes anywhere and you can sense that is has no intention of going anywhere from very early on. It just goes around in circles and repeats the formula (Gregorius meets sister and learns more, Gregarious meets his old best friend and learns more, Gregarious meets such and such and learns a little more, etc etc). But the second (and much bigger problem) is the writing of the fictional Amadeu de Prado. This man's writing is apparently of such an exquisite standard, with such lyrical prose and philosophical musings, that it inspires our main character to change his life and contemplate the very meaning of human existence. Except... it just isn't. It's rather banal and laughable. It comes across as something an angsty teen would write on discovering Marx and offers up such dull and cliched cod philosophy that you wonder what Gregorius (an intellectual academic) could possibly find so compelling. At one point Mercier (as Gregorius) even says this about Prado's (actually Mercier's) writing: LOL. No, it didn't. It seems very evident to me that Mercier read The Book of Disquiet by Pessoa and was so inspired by it (and why not, it's great) that he concocted this story of a man discovering the work and going to Lisbon. But Mercier had two choices here: Simply make it about Pessoa or (given his need for a more obscure writer) simply don't show us the text that your fictional writer has produced. Let the reader simply imagine how beautiful and profound it must be. Instead, he chose option three and wrote his own stuff under the name of Prado and (massively) overestimated how good it was. Anyway, the book was okay but nothing more. Easy to read but mostly forgettable. By the halfway point, I was pretty much done with it. Oh well. 6/10

Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton

slush puppy consumed simultaneously

what's more, we are running out of cat litter..I'll ring the Vicar and ask about that lorry load that overturned a week ago' ..''Oh Johnny, yes, and ask for it free..every little helps..' ''Parson, it's me...' 'Oh..Disgusting, what a surprise..' 'Revolting..Johnny Revolting..' 'Old chap don't be rude..'' 'I want a half ton of cat litter free, you promised me last week..can you arrange..?'

My first D.H. Lawrence. I hear it is his best. I found the opening chapter a bit of a slog, but I will see how it goes.

Things worked out quite nicely for Francis Osbaldistone. Well I am glad. I don't like unhappy endings. If it's a choice between a great but unhappy ending, and a happy but not so great ending, I prefer the latter.

Only the Good Die Young - Billy Joel

will last longer than

What about using libraries, especially the digital libraries where you can download to a kindle.

Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison

asked Rosie if there were any of my favourite jammie dodgers left. 'I can't be thinking of jammie dodgers at a time like this! Whatever's wrong with you, Johnny?? Daddy's obviously suffering from some sort of temporary mental lapse and he needs us!' 'That's all very well, but we've no idea where he is (I knew exactly where he was but had no intention of sharing that little piece of info) and ...

because he thinks it

Only You ~ The Platters

delicately through a straw

Living in France helps as there are far fewer bookshops with less choice! When I visit the UK it's a different story though. I could literally barely lift my case for books last time and that was before I'd got airside at Gatwick and a look at the large airport only paperbacks!

that drinks his pints

Hello and welcome to the Forum!

'Oh didn't I say....? He took a walk along the Thames..saying he likes a good constitutional, this gent..if you see him, do send my regards, and whatever ails him, shall certainly pass. ' Hoping never to see him again, I poured myself strong tea and slurped it with gusto,and

cousin Benson, a bloke...

How do you do it? Every time I walk into a bookstore, I feel like buying everything at once!

You Were Made For Me - Sam Cooke

to visit with her

her sister was coming

are you talking about! You're not making any sense and your words are all garbled. Have you been drinking or something? Oh no! You haven't been ...' 'Here give me the phone,' I said. 'Now Major, let me speak to the Fuzz.' 'Who's fuzzy? Are you calling me fuzzy, you impertinent whippersnapper? I'll have you know ...' I hung up on him. 'Oh dear, we seem to have been cut off. Never mind ... he'll ring back.' 'But where is he?' wailed Rosie.