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Willoyd's Reading 2017


willoyd

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Just back from the fabulous Outer Hebrides, a holiday full of wildlife, wonderful beaches, beautiful skies, and  landscape to fall in love with.  The islands were not full of people (unlike Skye!!), but we found everybody really friendly and welcoming.  I could go back tomorrow.

 

Didn't read as much as expected, but managed to complete two books on the trip, and the bulk of two others, all related to the islands.  Having loved the film Whisky Galore ever since I first saw it (and the new one is OK but not a patch on the old B&W version), I thought it about time I actually read the book (and we went to see where it all happened too!).  The same with Great Northern? - for some reason, in spite of being a Ransome fan as a youngster, I had somehow never got around to reading this last of the Swallows and Amazons novels.  Finished, and enjoyed, both (4 stars each).  Brought home to finish two others: Sea Room by Adam Nicolson, all about the Shiants (islands just off the East coast of Harris/Lewis), which his family has owned since the 1950s, and Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie, a series of short essays mostly based around the natural world of the Scottish islands (and Norway).  Even better reading, both rating 5 stars (excellent, if not quite getting on to my short favourites list).

 

Now to work out when I can next get back to the islands......

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Pleased to hear you enjoyed both Sea Room and Sightlines.  I read Sea Room years ago when it first came out, and I can't remember that much about it, but I read Sightlines much more recently and thought it was fantastic.  I can't remember if you've read Findings by her?  Another excellent book you should look up, if you haven't read it yet. :)

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15 hours ago, chesilbeach said:

Pleased to hear you enjoyed both Sea Room and Sightlines.  I read Sea Room years ago when it first came out, and I can't remember that much about it, but I read Sightlines much more recently and thought it was fantastic.  I can't remember if you've read Findings by her?  Another excellent book you should look up, if you haven't read it yet. :)

 

Yes, I read it a year or so ago.  Gave it 6 stars.  I suspect the only reason I gave this 'only' 5 was that I read it in smaller chunks, and thus didn't quite get as involved in it in the same way as I did Findings.  I'm not good at keeping more than one book at a time going.  I also thought it was bit more straightforward than Findings, which I remember as being slightly more contemplative, but that may just be a trick of memory.  Splitting hairs really, whether it's 5 or 6 it's still an excellent read, the 6 simply meaning that something about it made it a personal favourite.  I usually hold fire on awarding a 6 anyway, and wait to see how I remember a 5-star book longer term, so it may well get promoted in the future.

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A few more mini-reviews.  These seem to be becoming a habit, but if I'm going to write a full review, I need to write it almost immediately after finishing the book.  As the earlier ones of these were read almost a month ago, I'm going to stick to the smaller versions for now!

 

Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie ****

The original black and white film is one of my all-time favourites, but for some reason I've never got around to reading the book.  It's based on real events, the original of the SS Cabinet Minister in the book being the SS Politician which sank off Eriskay during the war when it landed up somewhere it shouldn't have done!  As we were heading off to the Western Isles and intending to visit the area, it was surely about time that I read the book!

I have to be honest and say this is one of those rare occasions where I think the film is better than the book.  The latter is an enjoyable, light-hearted, read, and certainly kept me thoroughly entertained, but it suffers in comparison with the genius of the film, not least in its pace - all the film action taking place in a couple of days, rather than the months of the book, which reduces the impact and the comedic value.  Both good, but the film is an easy 6-stars, whilst the book is a steadier 4 stars. (The more recent film starring Eddie Izard was fun, but not a patch on the original).

 

Great Northern? by Arthur Ransome ****

The last novel in the Swallows and Amazons series, bringing all the children together into one adventure set on the Isle of Harris.  Again, a book that I've never got around to reading (in spite of being a passionate fan of the S&As), and another must being up on the island for our holidays this summer (we visited the place where Ransome stayed - Uig on the west coast).  A classic S&A story, even if not quite as enthralling as the earlier novels.  I think that's partly down to the structure - there's a point where Ransome is trying to handle three parallel strands and it's just a mite too repetitive for my taste - and partly down to the rather weak characterisation of the 'natives', but the main plot is a good one (trying to protect a rare breeding pair of Great Northern Divers from a professional egg collector), and it's good to see the younger ones being given more important roles, particularly as I've always empathised with Dick.  I'd love to know though whether the main setting has any foundation in the real world, as his Lake District and East Anglian settings do.  I can't find any trace of that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Sea Room by Adam Nicolson *****

Another book in my Hebridean thread.  Adam Nicolson, the son of the publisher Nigel Nicolson, and the grandson of Vita Sackville-West, is a well-known writer in his own right on a wide range of subjects.  His father bought the Shiant Islands (off the east coast of the Isle of Lewis/Harris, and previously owned by Compton Mackenzie, above), which have now passed into his hands.  The islands have not been permanently inhabited since the start of the twentieth century, but it is used for sheep pasture, and is one of the most important breeding grounds for seabirds in the UK.  Nicolson stays on the island regularly, in a very basic bothy, and obviously has a deep passion for them. This book is his paean to the islands, covering much of the archipelago's history, archaeology and ecology.  It's fascinating stuff, and shows deep respect for both the islands and those who have lived there or made their living from them.  (It was written ten or so years ago, and Nicolson has since passed the islands on to his son Tom.  The islands remain a major haven for birds, particularly since the black rats, which are a significant feature in the book, have now been cleared after considerable debate and effort).

 

Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie *****

The Outer Hebrides feature (there's a particularly interesting chapter on St Kilda), but this collection of essays is rather more broad-ranging, although retaining a strongly Scando-Scottish feel, with chapters on gannets, a whale museum in Bergen, storm petrel surveys, the island of Rona, and memories of a Scottish archaeological dig amongst others).  I loved the lyricism and effortlessly readable prose of Findings, and this was more of the same.    Kathleen Jamie is probably better known as a poet, and she brings her skills fully to bear on her prose.  Although her language never feels complex, it is always engaging and flows beautifully.  It is an absolute joy to read. I just wish there was more.

 

 

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11 hours ago, willoyd said:

A few more mini-reviews.  These seem to be becoming a habit, but if I'm going to write a full review, I need to write it almost immediately after finishing the book.  As the earlier ones of these were read almost a month ago, I'm going to stick to the smaller versions for now!

 

Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie ****

The original black and white film is one of my all-time favourites, but for some reason I've never got around to reading the book.  It's based on real events, the original of the SS Cabinet Minister in the book being the SS Politician which sank off Eriskay during the war when it landed up somewhere it shouldn't have done!  As were were heading off to the Western Isles and intending to visit the area, it was surely about time that I read the book!

I have to be honest and say this is one of those rare occasions where I think the film is better than the book.  The latter is an enjoyable, light-hearted, read, and certainly kept me thoroughly entertained, but it suffers in comparison with the genius of the film, not least in its pace - all the film action taking place in a couple of days, rather than the months of the book, which reduces the impact and the comedic value.  Both good, but the film is an easy 6-stars, whilst the book is a steadier 4 stars. (The more recent film starring Eddie Izard was fun, but not a patch on the original).

 

 

Sea Room by Adam Nicolson *****

Another book in my Hebridean thread.  Adam Nicolson, the son of the publisher Nigel Nicolson, and the grandson of Vita Sackville-West, is a well-known writer in his own right on a wide range of subjects.  His father bought the Shiant Islands (off the east coast of the Isle of Lewis/Harris, and previously owned by Compton Mackenzie, above), which have now passed into his hands.  The islands have not been permanently inhabited since the start of the twentieth century, but it is used for sheep pasture, and is one of the most important breeding grounds for seabirds in the UK.  Nicolson stays on the island regularly, in a very basic bothy, and obviously has a deep passion for them. This book is his paean to the islands, covering much of the archipelago's history, archaeology and ecology.  It's fascinating stuff, and shows deep respect for both the islands and those who have lived there or made their living from them.  (It was written ten or so years ago, and Nicolson has since passed the islands on to his son Tom.  The islands remain a major haven for birds, particularly since the black rats, which are a significant feature in the book, have now been cleared after considerable debate and effort).

 

 

 

 

 

Remember some characters in a Lillian Beckwith book (set again in the Hebrides) going off to see Whiskey Galore and I tracked the book down at some stage. Remember it as very funny and think I saw the black and white film too.

 

I like the sound of the Adam Nicholson book. Vita and Harold Nicolson were a fascinating pair, interesting that their grandson is a writer too.

 

See you've recently had a wonderful trip to the Outer Hebrides, it's always nice to read books set in a particularly beloved destination.

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Four more reviews to bring me up to date this month

 

A Point of View by Lisa Jardine *****

A Point of View was the BBC's answer to the retirement of Alistair Cooke, and the loss of Letter from America. It's an interesting series, with a variety of contributors reflecting on a topical issue of their choice (and often taking off at an interesting tangent!), but it's never, for me, quite hit the consistent heights of Cooke's broadcasts.  Except for Lisa Jardine.  I could virtually guarantee when her name was mentioned that I would spend the next 15 minutes completely wrapped up in her crystal clear exposition, a voice of calm, sensitive but scientific reason, in a world that all too often feels anything but calm, sensitive or rational.  This book is a collection of some twenty-one of her radio essays, and they made equally easy and pleasurable reading.  I will, inevitably, return to them, and go to her other collection Another Point of View.  Sadly, there will be no more, but I can still hear her voice, made for radio, in those written words, even without the aid of the podcasts.

 

The Timeless Way? by Peter Clarke ***

The author describes  a walking route from the Butt of Lewis to the southern end of the chain of islands that make up the Outer Hebrides, using ancient paths and trackways as much as possible.  It was written in around 2006, partly with the aim to stimulate the formal development of a walking route, something that has since come to fruition with the advent of the Hebridean Way.  That doesn't lessen the potential interest of the book in any way though, especially as the final route is significantly different.

There are two significant problems though.  The first is that Clarke gets thoroughly bogged down on occasions in the minutiae of the route description.  This is probably because he wanted to definitively describe a walk for people to follow.  In that context a detailed description was necessary, as the maps used to illustrate the book are as close to useless as any I've come across, but at least it's possible (as I did) to follow the route pretty accurately on the relevant OS sheets (I used the 1:50k maps), as long as you can translate from his Anglicised versions of names to the OS's Gaelic labels.  Following the route in this way certainly added significantly to the interest.  The other problem is that, perhaps trying to be clear, the writing is on occasions quite monotonous in structure: a string of simple sentences starting with pronouns or noun phrases, barely a connective in sight.  The result is a strongly staccato rhythm that does not flow easily when read.  It's noticeable that on the occasions he does move away from the route finding and goes into the history (particularly of the local hostels en route and their villages) he adopts a more discursive style, which makes for a much more interesting read.  It's a pity that this is not the norm, and that he didn't reverse the proportions taken up by route description and background.

 

More About Paddington by Michael Bond ******

One of the very, very few authors who is almost guaranteed to make me laugh outright.  That probably says something about my maturity, but Paddington Bear is in my view one of the great inventions of children's literature; as with all great children's books, there is also much for adults to appreciate and, indeed, learn from.  These books may have been written 50 or so years ago, but they remain remarkably topical, particularly when bearing (!) in mind that Paddington is an immigrant.  On a lighter note, I'm currently in the throes of decorating our kitchen, and the description of Paddington's efforts with his bedroom left me completely helpless. The original illustrations, by Peggy Fortnum, add much to the text.  Overall, this is pure, unadulterated, genius.

 

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller ****

Read as part of my US Challenge (my fourth, just another 47 to go!) , this is the book for Iowa.  It's probably not the sort of book I would normally pick up, but in the event it proved a moving and involving story, and I'm glad it was part of the challenge.  It may not have wowed the critics at the time, but I can completely understand why it has proved such a best seller, written at a very human, and humane, level.  Incidentally, I can totally see how Clint Eastwood fitted the role of Robert Kincaid in the film, but I couldn't match up my image of Francesca Johnson with Meryl Streep, however much I admire her - I'll have to see how that works sometime.

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I recently found a Paddington book (translated in Dutch) and bought it, it's nice to read a good recommendation for it :). It was the omnibus of A Bear Called Paddington and More About Paddington (in Dutch they're called: Een Beer Genaamd Paddington & Speurneus Paddington).

 

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2 hours ago, Athena said:

I recently found a Paddington book (translated in Dutch) and bought it, it's nice to read a good recommendation for it :). It was the omnibus of A Bear Called Paddington and More About Paddington (in Dutch they're called: Een Beer Genaamd Paddington & Speurneus Paddington).

 

 

That exact omnibus is the first book I can ever recall owning and reading!  My copy (and we're talking the early sixties here) was a darkish royal blue hardback, and was absolutely adored.  I suspect it finally fell apart.  I now have a 12-volume boxed set of Paddington Bears in hardback, published by Harper Collins "exclusively for the Folio Society" which I picked up in a special deal, and which look lovely.  They are one of the very few "children's books" that I keep - I've barely two shelves worth - but are much loved.  I used to have a larger collection but I find that most children's books simply don't engage me any more: too many years as a primary school teacher has left me needing more adult sustenance; I can rarely even read YA books now.  What I do have seems to speak either to my childhood or to the adult in me. (I also have a couple of volumes of Paddington in German - certainly helps with the motivation when learning!).

 

FWIW, in addition to the Paddington books, my children's books consist of hardback copies - mainly Folio Society editions - of the books below. You can see the sort of books and authors that influenced my early reading (plus a lot more of the likes of - off the top of my head - Enid Blyton, WE Johns, EE Nesbitt, Richmal Crompton, Alison Uttley and PL Travers)!  I may have a few others (like the Twains), but shelve them as adult books.

 

Alice books - Lewis Carroll

The Dark is Rising sequence

The Seeing Stone trilogy

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The Wind in the Willows

Kipling's Jungle Books and Puck of Pook's Hill books

AA Milne's Pooh and complete Christopher Robin poems

The Dark Materials trilogy

The Swallows and Amazons sequence

The Eagle of the Ninth trilogy

Mistress Masham's Repose

Ronald Welch's complete Carey Family sequence

Flood Warning by Paul Berna

Enid Blyton's Nature Lover's Book

Kidnapped/Catriona and Treasure Island

 

 

 

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15 hours ago, Madeleine said:

I still have some of  the old Paddington paperbacks, which were published by Armada, with a lovely red spine with a lion on.  They were lovely stories.

 

Oh, I remember Armada paperbacks.  I think they were the ones that graded target reading ages for each book with different coloured dragons (red, green and blue?).

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This week

It's been a busy week: whilst no longer involved in the start of the school year (Hurrah!), I've been up to my eyeballs in domestic work, not least decorating the kitchen - an excellent opportunity to catch up with podcasts, CD series and even the odd audiobook, if not a lot of time to sit down and actually read.  I've finished two books this week: Marilynne Robinson's  Gilead was the audiobook - a set of 7 CDs that was part of a birthday present a couple of years ago and that has been waiting for a decorating project - which, whilst it took some getting into (the first 3 CDs seemed rather rambly), seemed to tighten its focus in the latter half and eventually proved a rewarding listen (if that's the right word!).  I've now got stuck into David Reynolds's Radio 4 series from a few years ago and now on CD, Empire of Liberty, a history of the USA, with the aim of reading the book later: excellent listening and very enlightening.  More conventionally, I also finished my book group's choice for this month, Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett.  Having also read The Old Wives' Tale earlier this year, I am somewhat mystified as to Bennett's obscurity.  He's a superb writer, and one that (according to the rest of my book group, all women) gets into the mind of women better than most men.  This was another that took a bit of warming up, but eventually I really couldn't put it down, reading into the early hours of the morning.

 

I did manage to pop into a couple of my favourite second-hand bookshops whilst on a mission to York earlier in the week, and came away with a fistful of books that were all on my wishlist and all at pleasantly cheap prices (I've had to cut back a lot on full price books now!):  3 of Roger Pilkington's Small Boat series, which I collect as and when, Apostle - Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve by Tim Bissell, and Taming the Flood by Jeremy Purseglove.  I passed on a quite a few others!  I also picked up my book group's next book, The Deaths by Mark Lawson - a really nice copy of the hardback at 50p!  

 

As a result of all this, am now at 38/52 on the Popsugar Challenge (Gilead - an audiobook, Clayhanger - book with a red spine), nicely on target at present, but am well down on my target of reading more books than I have bought during the year (20+ down now!).  Must try harder!.

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7 hours ago, vodkafan said:

Willoyd, congratulations on being retired. I read Sightlines a couple of years back and enjoyed it, a corpus that defies placing readily in any genre....I really want to go to that whale museum in Bergen. 

 

Thank you - I don't feel very retired yet, and hopefully won't as I'm now doing some voluntary work, both in local village and in conservation education, and will do some paid work to keep my hand in, but it's nice to have some space to breathe now, and to be able to enjoy evenings and weekends.

 

Yes - I want to see that museum too!

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This week

The kitchen was finally finished this week - a big job but a rewarding one.  I also managed to complete two books.  I started The Sportswriter (Richard Ford) before going on holiday at the end of July, but put it aside as it really wasn't working in our setting.  I came back to it this week, and it proved a real pleasure to read, almost unputdownable.  I'm certainly going to follow up on the other Frank Bascombe books that succeeded this; 4*.  The other was the next in the Maigret series, Liberty Bar, set in the south of France, in and around Cap d'Antibes.  There's not much I can add to previous reviews - these make up one of my favourite collections, with Maigret one of my favourite literary characters; 4* again (as are most of the individual books), but the series as a whole is a full 6*.  This was also my fiftieth book of the year.

Current reading is split between two books.  The non-fiction is Christopher Somerville's January Man, a year of walking round Britain (mostly England, although the chapter on Foula is one of the best so far), borrowed from the library.  The fiction is CJ Sansom's Winter in Madrid, which, being on the Kindle, is the one I can read on the move (and in bed!).  I'm about half-way through the former, but only some 50 or so pages into the latter.  Both are looking good.

As a result, my Popsugar Challenge figure remains at 38 (out of 52), whilst the US States Challenge figure advances to 5/51, as The Sportswriter was my choice for New Jersey.

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This week (ending September 23)

With OH away for the week on school residential, I expected to get quite a lot of reading done, but in the event, I actually did rather less than usual, as the weather proved so good, I spent a lot of time out of the house, especially as things are going full swing on the bird migration front!  However, I did manage to finish Christopher Somerville's The January Man, an account of a year's walking intertwined with reflections on his relationship with his father, also a keen walker.  Somerville is a lovely writer, and his walking accounts were always thoroughly evocative (I enjoyed especially chapters on time spent on Foula and in the Wash area), whilst the stories set around his father, particularly at an early age, reminded me so much of mine, even if they were very different people. 

 

A major enhancement would have been a set of maps to illustrate his descriptions.  Without them, I was scrabbling around my copies of OS maps (and on-line when I didn't have the paper copy) to try and track what he was talking about.  I  can never understand why books like this either seem to completely ignore or be unaware of the usefulness of maps or, if they do include them, nine times out of ten the maps are very pretty but near useless.  Having taught mapwork in a variety of contexts, it never seems to amaze me how unregarded basic graphicacy is (in its broadest sense, going far beyond simple map reading), set against the educational totems of numeracy and literacy. (Mind you, given popular inability to understand even basic statistics and financial concepts, numeracy isn't far behind).  Phew, rant over!  Back to the book - a good read, but needed illustration.  4 stars.  I've now moved on to Helen Hanff's Letters from New York.

 

A brief (!) visit to our local Oxfam store resulted in a bit of a haul on books this week, all non-fiction:  The Last Forest by the author of one of my all-time favourite non-fiction books (A History of the Countryside), Oliver Rackham; The Triumph of Music by Tim Blanning (his The Pursuit of Glory was also a 6-star read); I May Be Sometime by Francis Spufford (on my wishlist for a while now); Small Wars Permitting by Christina Lamb (I love books of journalism, but haven't come across this before); English as a Global Language by David Crystal (always very clear sighted on a subject that can generate much emotion and not a little myth creation).  All in excellent condition, and all for the price of one new, admittedly big, paperback.

 

Popsugar Challenge: 39/52 (The January Man = book with a month in the title)

US Challenge: 5/51

 

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The Deaths by Mark Lawson ***

Read as this month's reading group choice, this is a modern satire examining the lives of a certain type of upper middle class family in the post credit squeeze era.  It focuses on four couples and their children who all live close by each other and socialise together to such an extent that they describe themselves as The Eight. The book starts with a bang, as the murders of one of the families is discovered by a delivery driver for the specialist coffee service company they all subscribe and seem addicted to, CappucinGo (it's a satire!).   We don't, however, find out who the victims are until towards the end of the book, and most of the narrative is in flashback, describing the days and weeks leading up to this violent act.

Satire is for me at its most potent when it sends up the attitudes it wants to home in on, but does so without excessive heavy handidness.  First vibes here were of a thoroughly readable novel with plenty of bite: the four couples are all quite difficult to tell apart (I wrote out the names of the families as I worked through to help me keep track,and am glad I did!), each with their mixed gender 2-4 children, requisite dogs (a labrador and other each), antipodean nannies and other essential accoutrements, all assiduously trying to keep up with each other and leave the 'plebs' behind.

I have to admit, though, that after a while, the incessant barrage of nastiness and patronising attitudes (one character apart) began to tell, and about half way through I began to find it rather wearing.  The book has been described as humorous, but I can't remember having even smiled let alone laughed; I cringed a lot though!  Having said that, Mark Lawson does hit a fair few nails on heads - I was reminded on more than one occasion of people who I've (had the misfortune through work to have) met - and it was these touches on reality that helped keep me going to the end. I was also intrigued how by the end I did find myself at least in part caring, or was it feeling sorry?, for these characters - partly the deaths themselves perhaps bringing out more of the humanity that one hopes is in all of us, and partly the fact that the reader is all too aware that they are human enough to have insecurities and weaknesses just like the rest of us.

At 460+ pages this is 50-100 pages too long, and needed more editing, especially some of the over described and elaborated set scenes, and the aftermath (although I almost missed the final twist in the last half dozen pages which I only latched onto in the final few lines when I started to wonder why it was ending the way it was).  However, it was fairly straightforward to get to the end, being well enough written and sufficiently deftly plotted.  Having said that, I'm in no great hurry to explore Mark Lawson's other work with so much high quality reading out there, and do wonder a little if I'd have made it without the prompting of my reading group.  It'll be interesting what they have to say - it's certainly a good one for discussion.

 

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14 hours ago, Little Pixie said:

How are feeling about Winter in Madrid now ? I found I enjoyed it more in hindsight, if that makes sense. :)

 

I've put it on the backburner for the moment.  Not because I wasn't enjoying it (I was), but because I had a reading club book to finish off etc.  Will pick it up again later this month.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This week

 

I haven't managed an awful lot of reading this week.  I have, however, started Jane's Fame (Claire Harman), which after just over 100 pages is proving a fascinating book on how Jane Austen came to be one of the most famous and revered authors in the English Language.  But that's about it.  That's not to say, though, that books haven't been prominent. 

For instance, the Ilkley Literature Festival has been running for the past couple of weeks, finishing on Sunday.  Although the programme didn't inspire me as much as previous years (too much poetry and social issues and not enough science, natural history or travel, amongst others, for my taste), there was still enough to make me a regular visitor.  Highlights so far have been talks by Sarah Dunant on the Borgias and Regina Lee Blaszczyk on Fashion, Tweed and Abraham Moon, and an interview with Michele Roberts and Katie Hickman, whilst disasters have been Alys Fowler on her new book Hidden Nature, and Steffie Shields on Capability Brown.  Fowler's book looks really interesting, and I definitely want to read it, but her interviewer was awful in the inanity of her questions and responses, whilst Fowler herself couldn't finish a single sentence without including at least one but usually two or three of 'like', 'you know', 'sort of', 'kind of' or similar.  After twenty minutes I was desperate to get out of the room, and don't know how I hung on until the end.  Will power, sort of, maybe?

 

My birthday last week produced just one book (but loads of other lovely presents!), a really nice edition of Tweet of the Day, an ideal bedside, dipping into book, I did receive some book tokens.  So off I toddled to Waterstones and Blackwells this week for a browse.  I didn't go completely mad and actually managed to come home with some unspent, but the shelves are going to have to make room for:

A History of Britain in 21 Women - Jenni Murray

Jacob's Room is Full of Books - Susan Hill

The Secret Life of Cows - Rosamund Young

Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker

 

I also acquired Jane Smiley's Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel from our local charity shop, a book I've had on my wishlist for some time.

 

I have to admit, I do feel as I've been really treating myself buying all these new books, as most books, particularly fiction, are now coming from the library.  Our local library has re-opened as a 'community library', which means that it's mainly staffed by volunteers (of whom I'm one), and it's good to get back to being able to use it.  Jane's Fame is one loan, and I've a pile on my library shelf to get through.

 

Anyway, this weekend there are 3 more festival events on our programme, all on Saturday, with the festival finishing on Sunday.  Next up is the Leeds Film Festival - browsing through the programme I think I might just take a sleeping bag into the town centre for a week or so!

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Happy belated birthday! I'm glad you had a good time.

 

It's nice you're helping out your local library. I love going to mine too.

 

I hope you enjoy your new books :).

 

I wish you fun during the festival events and also during the film festival :).

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  • 2 weeks later...

One month later.....

 

Well, not quite, but it's almost four weeks since my last post. How?  Where did the time go?  Good grief....

 A week away at the end of October is partly the reason (a few days in Cornwall, then a couple of days visiting relatives in Pembrokeshire - a lot of driving!), but also some slowing up on reading, with more birding and film festivalling (if that's a word!).  Also, I've been getting a bit bogged down, but more on that later.

 

Reading-wise, it wasn't the most inspiring of Octobers.  After the very much middle of the road The Deaths, Carlo Rovelli's Reality Is Not What It Seems, an introduction to some of the latest thinking in quantum physics, was, if anything, off the edge and into the ditch - virtually incomprehensible in the second half.  I think he forgot it was meant to be an introduction, which means he needed to explain each step, not make fairly large leaps in understanding.  Not one to hold on to, and a big disappointment after Seven Brief Lessons in Physics (2*).  Jane's Fame was the highlight of the month, and it was a genuine highlight too, being a thoroughly readable account of how Jane Austen rose from fairly mildly regarded to one of the all time greats in the pantheon of English literature (5*).  Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio after that was an OK read (3*), but again, not one I'm rushing back to.  Not sure how it became John Steinbeck's favourite book.  And that was it, although I have also, since the start of November, managed a quick gallop (about 3 hours) through Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of AJ Fickry, my book group's choice for this month's meeting.  I think the word generally agreed was 'innocuous', but not much more (3*).  

 

I've also added a few books to the shelves:

A Secret Sisterhood - Emily Midorikawa and Claire Sweeney (from the Ilkley Literature Festival)

Brexit, Why Britain Voted To Leave the European Union - Harold Clarke (a statistical view rather than opinion)

The Card - Arnold Bennett

Birders - Mark Cocker

The Penguin Book of the American West - David Lavender (a history)

 

And finally....

I've been feeling quite bogged down with quite a lot of my reading - trying to complete too many challenges and finding myself reading books to satisfy those rather than because I actually really want to read them.  It's a sense that's been creeping up on me for a while, but it's come to the fore this month, so I've decided to do something about it, and focus on books I actually want to read - there are enough of them on my shelves!  I'm going to carry on with my own US States challenge, with my own focus lists, and with trying to reduce the number of to-be-read books on my shelves, but everything else is going overboard; as of today.  Hopefully, I'll start to make some inroads into my collection of non-fiction books, which always seem to get put aside so that I can tick another challenge book off.  Not any more!

 

PS - Cold Mountain is proving an excellent read - about half way through and hoping for it to carry on a while yet. 

 

 

Edited by willoyd
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