Willoyd's Reading Log 2013

[willoyd]

 

Had a look at your classics list Willoyd & have quite a few of the same books Wuthering Heights, Tom Jones, North & South, Catch 22 & Of Human Bondage, i've read & enjoyed. Villette & The Mill On The Floss i didn't like in fact i couldn't even finish Villette. Desperate Remedies, Possession, The Deptford Trilogy, Midnight's Children & The Gormenghast Trilogy are all on my TBR pile so i look forward to reading your thoughts on these when you get round to them. I'm embarrassed to say i confused The Deptford Trilogy with The Deptford Mice bought it for the children & didn't realise my mistake till i got it home
Happy Reading in 2013

Thank you! Funny you should say that about Deptford Trilogy/Mice, because I made the mistake the other way round, ignoring the former for some time because I thought it was a set of children's books! Glad you enjoyed such a good proportion of those classics you've read. My first, however, once I've finished my current book is going to be David Copperfield, as it's going to be discussed at my reading group's February meeting. Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[poppyshake]

Interesting lists Willoyd but especially your top rated book list .. genius idea. The only two I didn't agree with (ha .. we're all going to point out our differences now ) was Emma and Between the Acts. Not that I didn't like them but I didn't like them in comparison to others by the same author but there are so many that I do agree with .. all the rest that I've read so will definitely look into all those I haven't.

 

I feel I didn't read enough classics last year so want to rectify that too this year, want to tackle Les Miserables but goodness what a tome! I'm sure it will be worth it but sometimes you look at a book and think 'I could read two or three others in that time' I do at least but sometimes books are so good they almost read themselves and hopefully this is one of those. I want to see the film but then is that the right way around to do things? I'm not sure.

 

Happy Reading in 2013 Will be visiting often.

[willoyd]

 

Interesting lists Willoyd but especially your top rated book list .. genius idea. The only two I didn't agree with (ha .. we're all going to point out our differences now ) was Emma and Between the Acts. Not that I didn't like them but I didn't like them in comparison to others by the same author but there are so many that I do agree with .. all the rest that I've read so will definitely look into all those I haven't.

But that's the whole point of listing one's views on books - so that others can comment (even better if they contradict)! I can see where you're coming from with both books. Firstly, i would agree with you that neither Emma nor Between the Acts rank as my favourites of either author (respectively S&S and To The Lighthouse/The Years), but for me they still rate high enough compared to other books by other authors to go on my favourites list. As I mentioned to Claire, who made a similar comment about Emma earlier, I've got a bit of an attachment to it, as it was the book that turned me on to Jane Austen when studying A-levels. I also like it almost because Emma is anything but a heroine (a right little interfering busybody in fact!), but she's as a result so real - a recent teenager who think she knows it all! It's not Austen's most pleasant book, but it certainly packs some bite. I've only just finished Between the Acts, and have to say I was taken completely by surprise: it might be one of her lesser known books, but there's so much packed in there, so many ideas/issues, whilst her steam of consciousness style, (after the intensity of The Waves) is so much leaner and less obscure. I didn't like the longish chunks of playscript - not sure what they achieved - but otherwise as good as anything of hers I've read so far IMO.

I feel I didn't read enough classics last year so want to rectify that too this year, want to tackle Les Miserables but goodness what a tome! I'm sure it will be worth it but sometimes you look at a book and think 'I could read two or three others in that time' I do at least but sometimes books are so good they almost read themselves and hopefully this is one of those. I want to see the film but then is that the right way around to do things? I'm not sure.

Ah yes, the LesMis dilemma!! I've been meaning to read it for ages (mentioned it in my review at the end of 2011, wondering if 2012 might be its year - it wasn't!). And now there's the film...... I've decided I'm going to stave off the film until I've read the book, which will probably mean waiting till its out on DVD. Possibly - but I am going to try and tackle it earlier. I'm not really bothered if I could read two or three others in the same time especially as I'm deliberately not aiming at a book count this year (that's got in the way of my tackling some of these biggies, and shouldn't have). If I'm that bothered, I can always count it as being worth two or three for my own satisfaction. As you say, hopefully it'll read itself. Whatever, I can't see me tackling it for a month or two (or three!) yet, as have one or two others that are definitely a bigger priority in the short term.

I look forward to your visits (and I'll be visiting frequently too!). Happy reading to you too. Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[willoyd]

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro **
Authors are obviously like buses: you don't read one for years, then suddenly read two or more of their books in no time at all. Having read my first Ishiguro novel, The Remains of the Day, a few months ago, my book group promptly tackle another for this month's meeting. In some respects, there are many points of contact: in When We Were Orphans, the main protagonist, Christopher Banks, tells the story of key episodes from his life, with the focus being very much on how selective and delusional our memories can be. At the start of the novel, Banks is an aspiring consultant detective, whose biggest mystery in his life is the disappearance of his mother and father in Shanghai when he was a young boy. In the first half of the book, we learn of his progress as a detective whilst Banks gradually peels back the layers of his childhood recollections. In the second half, he returns to Shanghai to pursue his quest to find his parents.

The premise of the story, as recounted in the blurb, appealed enormously, and I was really looking forward to getting stuck in. In the end, though, I came away almost disappointed. For starters, I never really related to Ishiguro's style of writing. I think he was trying to write in the rather formal, clipped style of inter-war years speech, but it never quite rang true for me - it read more like someone who was an excellent, but not native, English speaker. Equally, I find the character of Christopher Banks increasingly irritating, very self-centred, highly obsessional, and highly unempathetic (even with his ward, Jennifer). Even as it dawned on me that this was very much part of the point, that this book was all about the (highly distorted) world through Christopher's eyes, and the damage that the events of his childhood had inflicted, rather than the mystery (which was resolved in what struck me as a highly melodramatic fashion - I'm sure intentional again), I still couldn't warm to the book. Admire the writing? - yes. Respect the cleverness - definitely. But like? No - this was not a book that I particularly liked at all. Interestingly, reading the (many) reviews of the book on Amazon, it appears that a lot of readers completely missed the point altogether, taking the story told by Christopher at face value.

If you like The Remains of the Day, then I think you will like this. I didn't particularly (although, again, I could admire the writing), and have come to the conclusion that Ishiguro isn't really my style, even if I can appreciate why others do like his books. I will, however, enjoy the discussion, as there is much to talk about (but much of it includes plot spoilers, which is why I've been a bit vague here).

Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[frankie]

Books rated as 6-stars

 

A record of the 83 books I've given my top rating to:

 

Fiction (57)

Ackroyd, Peter: Dan Lemo and the Limehouse Golem

Ackroyd, Peter: Hawksmoor

Atkinson, Kate: Case Histories

Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice

Austen, Jane: Emma

Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre

Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights

Buchan, John: John Macnab

Carr JL: A Month in the Country

Carr JL: The Harpole Report

Carre, John Le: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales

Chevalier, Tracey: Fallen Angels

Childers, Erskine: The Riddle of the Sands

Collins, Norman: London Belongs To Me

Cunningham, Michael: The Hours

Davies, Martin: The Conjuror's Bird

Dickens, Charles: Bleak House

Elphinstone, Margaret: The Sea Road

Elphinstone, Margaret: Voyageurs

Ewing, Barbara: Rosetta

Greig, Andrew: The Return of John MacNab

Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Herbert, Frank: Dune

Horwood, William: Skallagrig

Hulme, Keri: Bone People

Japrisot, Sebastian: A Very Long Engagement

Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill

Kipling, Rudyard: Rewards and Fairies

Lee, Harper: To Kill A Mockingbird

Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall

Melville, Herman: Moby Dick

Miller, Andrew: Pure

Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea

Moorcock, Michael: Mother London

O'Brian, Patrick: The Mauritius Command

Pears, Ian: An Instance of the Fingerpost

Penney, Stef: The Tenderness of Wolves

Pullman, Philip: Northern Lights

Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children

Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy

Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres

Smith, Dodie: I Capture the Castle

Stephenson, Neal: Cryptonomicon

Stevenson, Robert Louis: Kidnapped

Thackeray, William: Vanity Fair

Thompson, Harry: This Thing of Darkness

Tolkien JRR: The Lord of the Rings

Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace

White, TH: Mistress Masham's Repose

Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Woolf, Virginia: Mrs Dalloway

Woolf, Virginia: The Years

Woolf, Virginia: To The Lighthouse

Woolf, Virginia: Between the Acts

Woolfenden, Ben: The Ruins of Time

 

Non-fiction (26)

Cocker, Mark: Crow Country

Dawkins, Richard: The Blind Watchmaker

Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris

Frater, Alexander: Chasing the Monsoon

Hanff, Helen: 84 Charing Cross Road

Hastings, Max: All Hell Let Loose

Holland, James: Dam Busters

Hoskins, WG: The Making of the English Landscape

Huntford, Roland: Shackleton

Junger, Sebastian: The Perfect Storm

Longford, Elizabeth: Wellington, The Years of the Sword

Lee, Hermione: Virginia Woolf

Moore, Richard: In Search of Robert Millar

Nichols, Peter: A Voyage for Madmen

Pennac, Daniel: The Rights of the Reader

Rackham, Oliver: The History of the Countryside

Pinker, Stephen: The Language Instinct

de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: Wind, Sand and Stars

Salisbury, Laney and Gay: The Cruellest Miles

Simpson, Joe: Touching the Void

Taylor, Stephen: Storm and Conquest

Tomalin, Claire: Pepys, The Unequalled Self

Uglow, Jenny: The Pinecone

Unsworth, Walt: Everest

Wheeler, Sara: Terra Incognita

Young, Gavin: Slow Boats to China

 

Bloody hell, I was sure I'd already commented on this, but turns out I hadn't. Anyhow. I love it how you've dedicated one post on the first page to books you've absolutely loved and which have received the hard-to-come-by 6/6.

 

I was thinking, I have this post on my own log where a few members have listed their most favorite books in three categories: fiction, children/YA and non-fiction, and I find that list of yours ^ very interesting, and I was thinking that with your permission, I'd like to add it to the post on my thread? As a sort of a list of recommended books by a member on here whose reading tastes I admire? If you would feel uncomfortable with that, just say so, I wouldn't be offended!

 

 

 

Classics TBR list

I also want to get stuck more into the classics, so this is my list of classics to read (the definition of 'classic' has been stretched on occasions!).

Only one book/series per writer allowed at any one time, so will only add a second once the first has been read. No more than 40 to be listed at any one time (37 currently)

It's highly unlikely these will be read this year, but do aim to complete over the next couple of years.

Books in blue have been read.

 

Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac

The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir

The Master and Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov

Evelina by Fanny Burney

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (reread)

Possession by AS Byatt

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Washington Square by Henry James

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome

Ulysses by James Joyce

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos

Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham

The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (reread)

The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott

Waverley by Walter Scott

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

The Once and Future King by TH White

The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola

 

I remember you asked about my own Classics Challenge, had you already posted this? What are the odds

 

Happy reading in 2013, willoyd!

[Alexi]

Intriguing review Willoyd I've tried one Ishiguro (A Pale View of Hills) and got on reasonably well with it, but I was surprised to, because I don't normally warm to a somewhat abstract style, if that is the right word.

[willoyd]

Bloody hell, I was sure I'd already commented on this, but turns out I hadn't. Anyhow. I love it how you've dedicated one post on the first page to books you've absolutely loved and which have received the hard-to-come-by 6/6. I was thinking, I have this post on my own log where a few members have listed their most favorite books in three categories: fiction, children/YA and non-fiction, and I find that list of yours ^ very interesting, and I was thinking that with your permission, I'd like to add it to the post on my thread? As a sort of a list of recommended books by a member on here whose reading tastes I admire? If you would feel uncomfortable with that, just say so, I wouldn't be offended!

Do go ahead - no problem at all (you can go a long way with such flattery!). It'll get updated as the year progresses though (if i read any 6/6 books that is!)

I remember you asked about my own Classics Challenge, had you already posted this? What are the odds

No I hadn't. I wasn't going to have any lists but, having written my review of the year, decided to have two reminder lists (they aren't TBRs!), as I hadn't made as much progress on the doorstoppers or classics that I had intended to do this year in spite of making them an aim in last year's review. Your challenge was certainly a stimulus!

Happy reading in 2013, willoyd!

And you too.

Edited July 14, 2013 by willoyd

[Ben]

Interesting review of Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans, he's an author that seems to be being widely discussed on here at the moment. I'm currently about fifty pages through The Remains of Day but it seems to be a bit slow so far. Will give it more of a chance but I too am not so sure about his writing style.

[Ooshie]

Interesting review of Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans, he's an author that seems to be being widely discussed on here at the moment. I'm currently about fifty pages through The Remains of Day but it seems to be a bit slow so far. Will give it more of a chance but I too am not so sure about his writing style.

 

He does seem to be one of those authors that people really like or just don't get on with, Ben. I very much enjoy his books, but can see that why they wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea.

[bobblybear]

Good review of When We Were Orphans. The only one of his I have read is A Pale View of Hills, and I enjoyed it. He had a very distinctive writing style, that really gelled with the plot of the book, so maybe that's what he was trying to do with When We Were Orphans. I'd have to read more of his books to see how his style changes depending on each story.

[frankie]

Do go ahead - no problem at all (you can go a long way with such flattery!). It'll get updated as the year progresses though (if i read any 6/6 books that is!)

 

Thanks, I'm off to copy+paste!

 

No I hadn't. I wasn't going to have any lists but, having written my review of the year, decided to have two reminder lists (they aren't TBRs!), as I hadn't made as much progress on the doorstoppers or classics that I had intended to do this year in spite of making them an aim in last year's review. Your challenge was certainly a stimulus!

 

Well, it doesn't hurt to have a few teeny tiny lists, right? And thanks

[chesilbeach]

Yes, that's often one of the Austen canon that people don't like it seems, along with Mansfield Park. i studied it for A-level, and it was the book that introduced me to Jane Austen, so I suppose it had a stronger impact than for others.

It's strange that it does often seem to divide people between it being either their favourite or least favourite of her works. On the other hand, I love Mansfield Park. It's the only one left to read in my Austen challenge, and I'm looking forward to it immensely. I know it's quite long and doesn't have the light-hearted touches and wit from some of the other books, but I have always enjoyed reading it nevertheless.

 

Now that's one I wouldn't have guessed.

I read it when I was 19, and all I can remember is that I hated reading it. It was at the time when I used to refuse to give up on a book, and it took me a few weeks to actually make it to the end. I think I even threw it across the room in frustration at one point. I wonder now if I ought to give it another chance, maybe now that I've grown up, and my reading experience has more breadth and depth to it, I might appreciate it more. Something to consider.

 

 

These two are about as close to fantasy as I'm likely to get when it comes to rating a book highly - not my scene normally - I'd normally rate fantasy in the 1/2 star bracket. They are both novels where I can quite see others not rating them at all. I just think both are brilliantly imaginative and thought through stories (some of LOTR might seem a bit of a cliche now, but only because others have tried to follow). BTW, Ben, this 6-star rating is just for Northern Lights, not for the whole of the Dark Materials trilogy. For me, the next two books, never quite lived up to the first.

Awh Chesil, not a Northern Lights fan? That's one of my favourite trilogies.

Sorry no. I read all three, and I initially thought the first one was ok, the second a bit better, but the third I just didn't enjoy at all. Since then, I've thought about it a lot, as it's often discussed, and I find the more I think about them the less I like them all.

 

As for The Lord of the Rings, I read them just before the films came out in the cinema, as I wanted to read them first, and I found them a struggle. I detest made up languages, and these were the final nail in the coffin for these for me.

 

 

This is one I read years ago, one of my earliest 6-star ratings, before I started writing reviews, so can't quite remember why. I remember loving bot the premise and the quirkiness of the story. Your naming it surprised me a bit - I can see why not a 6-star rating, but not one I would have put down as likely to be rated at the bottom end (but then, looking at the Amazon reviews, it's a rare book indeed that doesn't have at least a couple of 1-star reviews.

I read it for the reading circle last year, and I could sum it up in one word - irritating! I found that with the characters and the dialogue especially, and was so disappointed as it had such promise as a story, I just didn't like the realisation of it. Shame really.

[willoyd]

Reading notes for Jan 8th.
Having finished off my first book of the year, When We Were Orphans, this month's selection for one of my face to face reading groups, I've now moved on to the selectio for the other group I belong to: David Copperfield. Just under a quarter of the way in, and I'm glad to say that after a whole string of disappointments, I'm at last really enjoying a book club choice. I may not go a great bundle on the overall plot line, but I'm just loving the characters, whilst nobody can create a scene in the same that Dickens could - it's just completely addictive. At around 800 pages, that's just as well, as it could take a while to work my way through!

We discussed the Ishiguro book at book group last night, and were pretty much all in agreement (as we were last time - hope this is not a sign for the future!) - intriguing take on delusional memory - but none of us quite gelling with it. We then discovered our next read (supplied by the library service, and we don't find out what it is until the box arrives at the meeting). I can't say I'm overwhelmed by the choice - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - not the type of reading I get any pleasure or satisfaction from at all. Having glanced through the early pages, I can already see I'm going to struggle to finish this one. I can't say i'm overly enamoured with the choices so far, rather the opposite.

Bought a few books in the Twelve Days of Kindle sale (which otherwise didn't really inspire), along with a couple largely paid for with recently acquired book tokens.

Twelve Days of Kindle books:
Peter the Great - Robert Massie
The Last Viking - Stephen Bown (biog of Roald Amundsen)
Andes - Michael Jacobs
The Particle at the End of the Universe - Sean Carroll
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick de Witt

Book token books
The Puzzle of Left-handedness - Rik Smits
Antarctica - Gabrielle Walker

I'd better read them now! What really sticks out is how few fiction books I'm currently buying, and yet the bulk of what I'm reading is the backlog of fiction on the Kindle or my bookshelves. Just as well not much recent material appeals - I'm spending more than enough anyway (although that little lot barely came to a tenner between them all, so not as bad as it might initially look).

Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Reading notes for Jan 12th.
Back on track, with reading notes at the weekend.
I'm still working steadily through David Copperfield - up to around p. 300 out of 800 now. It sounds like it's taking a bit of effort, but it's not. I've tried starting Copperfield once before, and didn't get an awfully long way in, but this time it's proving really easy to stay on track, as it's so readable. I still find the characters far more interesting than the plot, but again that's Dickens for me.

A couple of other acquisitions in the past few days: I was browsing in a charity shop whilst waiting for a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and three books I've been meaning to read for a while came ot hand on the shelves, and at 99p each......!

The Journal of Mrs Pepys - Sara George (charity bookshop)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson (charity bookshop): had to buy this as it was recommended to me only a couple of days beforehand by somebody else at the book group meeting!
Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (charity bookshop), which means I'll just have ot read Cold Comfort Farm - such a penance (not!).

And a Kindle Daily Deal:
The Woodcutter - Kate Danley.

i'm currently working on a list of suggested reading for children coming into Year 5 - often requested by parents. It's quite hard really - there is both a huge amount of good/popular books for this age group, and judging the right pitch in terms of difficulty isn't easy either. The Ultimate Book Guide is being a real help - along with suggestions from my children in class.

Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Reading notes for Jan 19th.
Amazing how fast a week can pass, and how little one can read when work takes over!
Still reading David Copperfield, but with little opportunity to spend much time on it, have only just reached half way. It's still proving outstanding though - I can't believe I didn't enjoy it last time round, although I have to admit that it does get somewhat oversentimental in places, especially when dealing with David's infatuation with Dora Spendlow, but that's Dickens for you. It's more than compensated for by the way he develops his characters, and individual scenes. To be honest, the least interesting character so far is probably DC himself - he's so irritatingly, and not overly credibly, naive at times.

Books acquired this week limited to two - a result of a browse sheltering from the snow in Bradford centre on Thursday night - not a good move! Fortunately mostly covered by a book token!

The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds
Is That A Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos.

Once I get through Copperfield, I might actually tackle some of this pile!

Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[poppyshake]

David is irritating isn't he? I liked him as a child but goodness he wearied me later on. Luckily there are so many other characters to love in DC .. none of them are Dora though He did write creditable females but so many of them were soppy, pretty looking, drips .. I think that's how he liked them

 

I keep seeing Is That a Fish in Your Ear in the bookshops but I haven't picked it up yet .. what's it about? Hmm I need to read Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm too .. I feel it should have been tackled in December (though it's more of a short story collection isn't it?) still, if I read it soon it'll still be in keeping. I've also got Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday .. ought to get around to that too.

[willoyd]

David is irritating isn't he? I liked him as a child but goodness he wearied me later on. Luckily there are so many other characters to love in DC .. none of them are Dora though He did write creditable females but so many of them were soppy, pretty looking, drips .. I think that's how he liked them

Good grief, yes - far too many drippy females: possibly his biggest weakness (especially as I prefer them completely the opposite!). Agnes is better though but, again, her character isn't as quite as well developed as others around her.

 

I keep seeing Is That a Fish in Your Ear in the bookshops but I haven't picked it up yet .. what's it about?

It's a book about translations and translating and the issues it raises- e.g it's effect on the way we understand things. It's a subject that has intrigued me particularly since trying to find 'good' translations of some of the French (and Russian) classics that I've been reading or want to read. Fascinating how what might seem minor nuances can totally change the way we perceive something. But then, I love books on language!

 

Hmm I need to read Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm too .. I feel it should have been tackled in December (though it's more of a short story collection isn't it?) still, if I read it soon it'll still be in keeping.

Yes, I reckon the same.

 

I've also got Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday .. ought to get around to that too.

One of my favourite Swallows and Amazon books. Right now would be a good time to read it, given the weather!! But, I first read it in the summer, and it wasn't a problem. A very satisfying story - certainly better than the S&A itself.

[willoyd]

Reading notes for week ending Feb 2nd.

At last, today I finished David Copperfield.  I say, at last, but what I really mean is 'desperately sadly', as it has absorbed me for the past month, growing and growing into a real favourite.  I'll save the detail for a review later this week, but if ever I needed convincing that I rate Charles Dickens as one of the all-time greats, this is it.  Maybe not quite at the level of Bleak House, but not a million miles away.  In particular, the cast of characters is a wonder - just so many superb participants, including a lady who rivals for my all-time favourite female in a book - Aunt Betsey Trotwood!

 

I did try to read, in between times, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas for a book group, but failed to get anything out of it, and packed in early. Maybe the contrast was too much, but the language was simple and bland, the writing clunky, and the main protagonist totally without credibility (the nine year old son of a major Nazi player who apparently doesn't know the word Fuehrer, and doesn't seem to know much else, including the fact that he's missing from the Hitler Youth.  Not like any 9-year old I've ever taught)  I can't understand its popularity, at least amongst adults.

 

A few books purchased in the past week, mostly taking advantage of the last of my book tokens from Christmas and a couple of half pricers:

 

The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne

Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester

What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan

Underground, Overground by Andrew Martin

Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[willoyd]

 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ******

It's hard to imagine that I could actually add anything of value to the thousands, more like millions, of words that have been written about David Copperfield or, indeed, Charles Dickens himself.  But on a purely personal note, it's probably good for the soul, so I'll plough on! 

 

I picked this book up as it was this month's book for my reading group.  I did so slightly reluctantly, as I had already tried reading this fairly substantial looking tome (over 800 pages in my hardback edition) twice before in the previous few years, petering out both times.  But there was also an element of my self that really looked forward to wrestling with this book, as it has been obvious from recent efforts that Dickens has grown on me substantially in the past few years.  Having reached the end after a month's steady progress, including a small push over last weekend, it really proved the old adage, third time lucky, as I've come away having absolutely loved what was apparently Dickens's own favourite, and feeling almost bereft at its end!

 

For me, the core strength of Copperfield (and of Dickens as a whole) is the huge cast of wonderful characters that strut their stuff on Dickens's stage.  The book certainly has more than its fair share of larger than life 'names': Wilkins and Emily Micawber; Tommy Traddles, the Peggottys; Edward and Jane Murdstone; Uriah Heep; Mr Dick; Aunt Betsey Trotwood (now a candidate for my all-time heroine), along with minor gems like Mr Barkis, Mrs Gummidge, Rosa Dartle, and Miss Mowcher.  Admittedly a few didn't really grab me - Steerforth being the most prominent exception - and I'm not a great fan of the subjects of Dickens's at times OTT sentimentalism, personified by Dora and her yappy Jip (and to some extent by Li'l Emily too), but even then she grew on me (a bit!).  Dickens does seem to struggle sometimes to get beyond two dimensions with more 'normal' characters, such as Agnes; but overall, if you love great characters, Dickens has to be high on the list of favourites.

 

I have also increasingly grown to love Dickens's use of language. I know he's generally regarded as somewhat verbose, but the more I've read of him, the less wordy he feels and the more each word seems to count!  He is certainly one of the greats at painting verbal pictures (that first chapter in Bleak House!), and amply rewards those patient enough to make sure they don't miss a single word.  The great Victorian writers could make the English language sing in a way that modern writers seem to struggle to achieve, and Dickens is right up there at the top of the pile.

 

There is no doubt that the originally episodic nature of the book has an impact: there are passages of longeurs which don't really work for me, but after a while I began to realise that that is a fair reflection of life too, and after all this is a life that is being written about: David's life, like all of ours, is punctuated by periods of both heavy and little activity, and, to some extent, that is what the book itself shows.  On the whole though, the story of David's life rattles on at a rollicking pace, and is as involving as any I've ever read.

 

I spent much of the book gradually upgrading my rating: four to start with, soon to become a five, where it stayed for some considerable time.  However, it steadily dawned on me as the book rolled forward to a close, that I was dreading the finish, especially once we'd got past some of the excessive melodramatics of David's wooing and early years of marriage to Dora (even she, later on, began to grow on me). I was, in fact, slowing down some of my reading, just so that I could fully appreciate what I was reading, metaphorically rolling the words round in my mind, savouring them to the full. (one scene, probably innocuous to most , really stuck in my mind, describing the Micawbers starting to learn some of the skills of farming: so funny!).  Any book that does that to me deserves full marks.

 

I know that this all probably sounds like pure gush, but I make no apology.  This past month has been a growing joy in terms of reading, and has helped me realise how much I have, over the past few years, grown to love Charles Dickens's books.  I'm just so glad that I've still got plenty to go at!

Edited June 16, 2013 by willoyd

[bobblybear]

Great review of David Copperfield. Your enthusiasm is very catching.   I have to say, even though I have put classics on hold for a while, David Copperfield (as well as A Tale of Two Cities) is one that I can't get out of my mind and feel somewhat compelled to read it.

[bree]

Wonderful review of David Copperfield willoyd  - I'm looking at picking it up for this reading year.

And you're my inspiration to read more classics 

[Athena]

That's a great review ! It really makes me want to read the book sometime.

[Kidsmum]

That's a great review ! It really makes me want to read the book sometime.

  Just out of interest Willoyd i'm presuming you've seen one of the TV productions of the book & did this have any  effect on your enjoyment of the story at all ? 

[willoyd]

  Just out of interest Willoyd i'm presuming you've seen one of the TV productions of the book & did this have any  effect on your enjoyment of the story at all ? 

 

Thank you all for all the lovely comments, am glad you enjoyed the review, and hope that you find that you share at least some of my enthusiasm and are not disappointed in the book!   Kidsmum, I haven't, believe it or not, seen any of the TV productions.  I remember watching the old 1935 film many years ago, but I my memory is limited to impressions.

 

BTW, tomorrow (Feb 7th) is Dickens's 201st birthday!

Edited February 6, 2013 by willoyd

[lauraloves]

I have David Copperfield to read soon and I hope I enjoy it as much as you did