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Willoyd's Reading 2018


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Farewell to the Horse by Ulrich Raulff **

 

Picked this up in Waterstones as part of the BOGOHP deal they have. Looked very promising, and started off really well, with some interesting and insightful chapters introducing the topic of horses in the long nineteenth century - the last century they horse predominated as man's main source of energy for transport.  There was, in particular, a set of figures that set me back a little bit on my heels: in 1900 there were some 130,000 horses in Manhattan, each requiring 4 acres of feed per year, and producing 1100 tonnes and 270,000 litres of urine per day (yes, per day!).  And Manhattan was a fraction of the size of London.....

 

Unfortunately, we weren't far into this history before things started to disintegrate, or at least get hopelessly muddled up.  There was simply no structure, with the author diving off left right and centre with apparently random chapters, and even sections within chapters, just, or so it seemed, following wherever the whim took him.  The history itself was all over the place, and certainly didn't seem to focus on this last century. 

 

There is an absolutely fascinating book to be written on this subject, and the author certainly knows a lot about it.  He writes well in spurts, so, given a specific framework to write to, he could even be the writer.  Sadly however, he seems to have no idea how to structure a coherent discussion/narrative (I'm not sure which of the two he was trying to produce - or maybe something completely different?), and is too fascinated with material that appears to have little relevance (it's hard to tell what is relevant and what isn't, it's all such a mess) or is so trivial as to be near meaningless; his editors don't seem to have helped him either.  I gave up about 60% of the way through, massively frustrated and increasingly irritated. This is advertised as being The Sunday Times History Book of the Year; I am, to put it mildly, surprised.

 

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Two books completed this week:

 

A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland ***

Maybe it's a sign of age, but this is a topic that interests me more and more, particularly when travelling on the train!  I certainly value silence, or at least quiet, far more than I used to.  Sara Maitland, however, takes it several stages further, not only seeking more silence in her life, but exploring its place in our lives, from those who find it very scary through to those who consistently live by it.  She finds that there is more than one silence (for instance, a silence that fills the space, and a silence that sucks from it - interesting idea). 

Overall, I got a lot out of this - it certainly made me think, not least about what silence actually is (and it's not just the absence of sound - that's the silence that sucks).  However, I do feel that all too often the author entwined it with other issues, not least solitariness, and then focused more on that than on the silence itself.  I also feel that she focused too much, at least for me, on the religous aspects of silence.  This is obviously important to her, as evidenced by her record of previous writing, but there were too many occasions where she seemed to wander off and/or get bogged down in religious discursion, and lost sight of what her subject was really about.

I did come away with some useful and interesting insights, and it was never less than easily readable, but the distractions and over-emphasis on the religious aspects meant that it wasn't quite the read I had hoped for.

 

Tyke on a Bike by John Priestley ***

Picked up in the library and looked an interesting read: Priestley is in need of exercise as his blood pressure is too high. He acquires a (cheap) bike and sets off to cycle the towpaths of northern canals, starting in his native Yorkshire.  Living in Yorkshire myself, I found the travel descriptions and nuggets of information initially both interesting and incisive. 

 

The book is only just over 200 pages long, and he covers a lot of ground in that time, extending out to the other side of the Pennines, even up into Scotland and (briefly) south into the Midlands. The style is light and often amusingly readable.  After a while, though I started to find  some of the author's expressed attitudes grating badly - too much stereotyping (or using stereotypes for that amusement), with an underlying current towards women that I found uncomfortable.  He might, again, have just been trying to be humorous, trying to be the typical 'Tyke', but it wasn't. Actually, I started to find the bluff Yorkshireman point of view a bit forced.  At the same time, round about the end of the descriptions of the two Yorkshire-Lancashire 'rings', the descriptions themselves also started to feel rather repetitive: Priestley said (more than once) that he found the townscapes more interesting than the rural sections, and it showed - there was absolutely no feel for the countryside at all beyond the barest overview (aside from the nettles!).

 

Overall this was a book that initially attracted, but on closer acquaintance really was just an OK read, with reservations.  Two and a half stars rounds up to three, but not as strong a three as Sara Maitland's book, which was probably almost a three and a half (but not quite!).

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After a string of 6 books that failed to score above 3 stars, the longest run of indifference that I can recall, I finished Patrick Barkham's Islander tonight, in which the author visits a range of islands in the British archipelago, of decreasing size from the Isle of Man to the tiny 115-acre Ray Island on the Essex coast, and examines life on them.  It's been shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, and I can certainly see why: 5 stars (out of 6) - an excellent read.  Will probably now go onto Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March, but tempted by a number of the American states list.

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Islander by Patrick Barkham *****

As outlined in the previous post, the author visits a range of British islands, starting with one of the larger ones, the Isle of Man, and gradually working his way down in size until he lands up on Ray Island, a small uninhabited islet in the Essex marshes, with Hirta on St Kilda slightly out of sync on that, simply because of the logistics of when he could get there.  Through his journeys he interviews a good range of inhabitants and examines island society and the lifestyles and histories involved. 

I found this to be a very sympathetic book.  It's probably not surprising, but themes included a strong suspicion of outside interference, not least from conservation bodies, but an equally strong thread was the positivity towards to those coming to settle; sustaining a viable population is definitely a concern amongst smaller settlements (the primary school population apparently being a significant marker).  Having said that, equally striking was the diversity, an no shortage of strong characters, probably because that's what island life takes.  Barkham is not afraid to voice an opinion, although never does so in anything more than measured tones, and only when he appears to have listened, learned and worked to understand.  Having visited a couple of the islands profiled, amongst others, it's certainly made feel more aware of both the issues and character, andinspired to investigate further.  Sounds as if we need to pack the seasick tablets, as we're off to Barra and South Uist this summer!  An excellent read, definitely worthy of its shortlisting for the Wainwright Prize- 5/6.

 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein **

This is the story of Denny, an aspiring racing driver, his relationship with his dog Enzo, and his fight to keep his family intact as life's vicissitudes (and some malevolent relatives) threaten them, as told from Enzo's perspective. Enzo is an unusual dog who is remarkably human in thinking if not in action, certainly wiser than most, and with a penchant for speed!  It's an unusual, if not unique, take that adds an interesting twist to what is in all truth an otherwise fairly standard tale that found me skimming through a fair bit in the middle of the book, although I settled down more towards the end. 

I suspect that this is a better book than I'm probably giving it credit for, but it was a book group choice, and for some reason I seem to be struggling to settle to either of my groups' reads at present, maybe because there's so much else I want to read and too many of these I feel are not.  I initially gave it three stars, and even thought that it might be worth more, but who am I kidding and why?  It was, in truth, a book with which I never got going, and which, beyond the conceit of being written from a dog's viewpoint, never really moved much beyond the banal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sorry to hear The Art of Racing in the Rain didn't grab you! I found it a superb novel, but I'm a massive dog enthusiast and that plays into the whole thing in a big way, I believe :D But I'm glad it wasn't a total waste. Group reads are difficult sometimes, as we might be in the mood for something very different than what a group has chosen for us to read. 

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4 hours ago, frankie said:

Group reads are difficult sometimes, as we might be in the mood for something very different than what a group has chosen for us to read. 

 

Yes, I'm finding that particularly difficult at the moment.  In addition, whilst I really enjoy the meetings and the discussions, I'm sort of 'resenting' (too strong a word, but can't think of one more precise) being 'required' to read certain books, especially when I know they're the sort of book that I have actually avoided reading.  This one, about which I had no preconceived ideas beyond what I had read in the blurb, was better than most recently - indeed if anything it surprised on the upside - but some of the books that have been lined up have really annoyed me - not least the 'bestsellers' that I really didn't rate at all, and knew within the first few pages (I'm become deeply suspicious of bestsellers!).  I think, hope, it's just a phase, although there are one or two coming up that seem to be carrying on the recent trend!

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June Review

An unusual month in that I read more non-fiction books than non-fiction, the latter including my first classic of the year.  This also marks the end of the first half of the year, always an interesting stage to review from.  In terms of books, it's only the third year I've reached 30; more pertinent this year perhaps is that page-wise I'm barely 60 pages behind my best year to date (2016) when I had read 40 books at this stage, reflecting my aim to read more bigger books this year.

 

Best book of the first half is Elizabeth Taylor's A View of the Harbour, which deserves to be regarded as a classic IMO.  After that, the list is dominated by a string of 5 star non-fiction books, the best of which is just, but only just, James Macpherson's Battle Cry of Freedom; I'm seriously considering upgrading it to a full 6 rating. Worst book to date is undoubtedly Terry Hayes's I Am Pilgrim.  I'm reasonably on track with the Round Robin Challenge, but the others are not progressing quite so well, particularly my US Tour where I've added no books so far this year - too busy I think trying to keep up with book groups.   Main aim for the next half of the year is simple though: exert a bit more willpower, buy fewer books, and get that TBR list down a lot more! Even though I'm using the local charity shop more, the acquisition list is still too big (or maybe it's because I'm using it more!).

 

Figures are those to date for the year, with figures in brackets being those this month if more than zero.

 

Books read:  31 (6), plus 3 (0) insufficient to count.

Pages read:  11034 (1715), average 356 (286) pages per book.

Gender : 24 (5) male, 10 (1) female

Genre:  20 (2) fiction, 14 (4) non-fiction

Sources:  21 (4) owned13 (2) library

Format:  23 (4) paper, 3 (1) ebook, 8 (1) mixed media

Round Robin challenge:  (1)
TBR list: 1460: year -12, month +9

 

Books for reading acquired this month:

Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather (paperback, charity shop)

Yorkshire, A Lyrical History by Richard Morris (hardback, online offer)

Our Place by Mark Cocker (hardback, online)

Tamed by Alice Roberts (paperback, Waterstones)

Plainsong by Kent Haruf (paperback, charity shop - US challenge)

Underworld by Don DeLillo (paperback, charity shop - US challenge)

Poems by John Clare (paperback, independent)

Jane Austen, A Brief Life by Fiona Stafford (paperback, independent)

The Journey Home and other stories by Malachi Whitaker (paperback, charity shop)

The Known World by Edward P Jones (paperback, charity shop - US challenge)

The Women Who Shaped Politics by Sophy Ridge (paperback, Waterstones)

The Fight for Beauty by Fional Reynolds (paperback, Waterstones)

Gods, Graves and Scholars by CW Ceram (paperback, charity shop)

Men of Honour by Adam Nicolson (hardback, charity shop)

Willa Cather, A Life Saved Up by Hermione Lee (paperback, charity shop)

 

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Three books finished in the past 24 hours (it's too hot to do much else!): 

 

Gossip from the Forest by Sara Maitland *****

Paddington Helps Out by Michael Bond *****

Maigret by Georges Simenon ****

 

The first was a reading group choice that split the group up more than any previous book, with two of us absolutely loving it, one rating it strongly, and the other eight hating it - no middle ground at all!  It's a complex book to review, and will need to think about this, so a full review to comer later.  A 5* book, not least for some of the discussion and ideas it provoked, even if I sort of understand some of the arguments from those who really didn't like it.

 

The other two are both books in series that I'm reading.  Paddington was one of my favourite reads as a child, and is still one of the few characters that can make me laugh out loud (I have a childish sense of humour, I know!). A couple of years ago, I aqcquired a lovely box set of the full series in hardback, so, prompted by Michael Bond's death last year and the approaching publication of his last book, I decided they needed a gradual reread.  I'm also reading the Maigret series in order of publication, using either the French omnibus editions (Touts Maigrets), of which I have the complete seit, or the attractive Penguin reprint series (one a month).

 

Not sure what next!

 

Both are six star series, so it seems a bit pointless giving individual books ratings, but FWIW, I've given the Paddington 5* and the Maigret 4* (almost 5*).

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On 7/1/2018 at 3:35 AM, willoyd said:

In addition, whilst I really enjoy the meetings and the discussions, I'm sort of 'resenting' (too strong a word, but can't think of one more precise) being 'required' to read certain books, especially when I know they're the sort of book that I have actually avoided reading. --  I think, hope, it's just a phase, although there are one or two coming up that seem to be carrying on the recent trend!

 

How long has this phase lasted? Have any of your own suggestions been chosen to be read? I hope it really is just a phase, you wouldn't want to have to read a book you don't particularly want to time after time. 

 

On 7/1/2018 at 3:35 AM, willoyd said:

This one, about which I had no preconceived ideas beyond what I had read in the blurb, was better than most recently - indeed if anything it surprised on the upside - but some of the books that have been lined up have really annoyed me - not least the 'bestsellers' that I really didn't rate at all, and knew within the first few pages (I'm become deeply suspicious of bestsellers!). 
 

 

Well it pleases me to hear that this was better than you expected! :D Good luck with the upcoming novels!! 

 

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2 hours ago, frankie said:

How long has this phase lasted? Have any of your own suggestions been chosen to be read? I hope it really is just a phase, you wouldn't want to have to read a book you don't particularly want to time after time.

 

It's a funny one, and as I said, 'resentment' is far too strong a word, something like a mild irritation is probably closer to the truth.  There have been, in fact, a fair number of book group choices I've thoroughly enjoyed.  Your question has made me think rather more about this. 

 

I belong to two groups, of which one is fine - there are 1/2 star books but there are plenty of 4+ star ones as well.  When I look closer, the issues are with the other, and I think it's the way we select books.  This is done from a list of books held in sets for reading groups by the local library network (the group is part of the local library). Each cycle we each choose one, and then they turn up in randome order.  Unfortunately, the list (around 200) is, from my perspective, distinctly uninspired and rather samey - generally books that seem to have been deemed worthy of discussion (I think some have been chosen from nominations by longer standing groups) - a lot of literary or general fiction with a smattering of others (e.g. a fair number of crime, around dozen non-fiction, mostly memoir, and half a dozen classics).  I've read about 20% of the list already; a majority of the others are books I had already chosen not to read. 

 

I've also realised that my reading tastes are completely the opposite of most of the group, so whilst that means I'm reading books I wouldn't have perhaps otherwise read (a good thing - half the point of a book club after all), I'm finding the majority of choices hard work, at a time when there is a large number of other books I really do want to read.  Equally, I think that the majority of the group found my two choices to date very hard work - distinct minorities enjoyed them!  OTOH, I love discussing books with other readers, whether we agree or not (and it's often best when we don't).

 

Hopefully, it'll work out in the wash - there are rumblings of choosing other books beyond the list for instance.  I'll see how it pans out.  It may just be that the sort of reading I want to do doesn't fit comfortably with this sort of book group, or the chemistry doesn't quite suit me - need to wait and see!

 

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On 15.7.2018 at 8:34 PM, willoyd said:

I belong to two groups, of which one is fine - there are 1/2 star books but there are plenty of 4+ star ones as well. 

 

 

Wow, I did not know you belong to two different reading groups! I find joining one would be hard enough for me because I find group readings very challenging. I'm a mood reader and if I can't get into a book soon enough, I'll abandon it. I admire your dedication! :)

 

On 15.7.2018 at 8:34 PM, willoyd said:

When I look closer, the issues are with the other, and I think it's the way we select books.  This is done from a list of books held in sets for reading groups by the local library network (the group is part of the local library). Each cycle we each choose one, and then they turn up in randome order.  Unfortunately, the list (around 200) is, from my perspective, distinctly uninspired and rather samey - generally books that seem to have been deemed worthy of discussion (I think some have been chosen from nominations by longer standing groups) - a lot of literary or general fiction with a smattering of others (e.g. a fair number of crime, around dozen non-fiction, mostly memoir, and half a dozen classics).  I've read about 20% of the list already; a majority of the others are books I had already chosen not to read. 

 

 

I'm happy that the other book group satisfies your needs and it's only the one book group that you have difficulties with (I couldn't find a more neutral word, instead of difficulty. It's the heat, my brain is melting!). I can definitely see how you would have some problems with the list of books as you've read so many of them, and so many of them are books that you've chosen to ignore already. I wish the list was more varied! But then again, I don't know how difficult a task it would be to choose a list of 200 book for others to choose from. Then again, it's a library group and they are the experts :D 

 

On 15.7.2018 at 8:34 PM, willoyd said:

I've also realised that my reading tastes are completely the opposite of most of the group, so whilst that means I'm reading books I wouldn't have perhaps otherwise read (a good thing - half the point of a book club after all), I'm finding the majority of choices hard work, at a time when there is a large number of other books I really do want to read.  Equally, I think that the majority of the group found my two choices to date very hard work - distinct minorities enjoyed them!  OTOH, I love discussing books with other readers, whether we agree or not (and it's often best when we don't).
 

 

Like I said, I admire your dedication! If I were you, I might've given it all up long ago! Which would be a shame because as you say, sometimes the best book conversations arise from different opinions and takes on a novel. Some of the books I had to read for uni are ones I would never had picked up myself, and even though I hated some, I enjoyed the majority, and I think of them rather fondly :)

 

On 15.7.2018 at 8:34 PM, willoyd said:

Hopefully, it'll work out in the wash - there are rumblings of choosing other books beyond the list for instance.  I'll see how it pans out.  It may just be that the sort of reading I want to do doesn't fit comfortably with this sort of book group, or the chemistry doesn't quite suit me - need to wait and see!

 

It would be great if the rumblings would work for your advantage and you could choose from outside the list! I will keep my fingers crossed for you! :)

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Pendulum by Adam Hamdy *

 

Read for my reading group, this is a thriller that has largely had strong reviews, most of them citing the 'amazing' opening chapter, which plunges you straight into the action.  The protagonist is a damaged hero, who finds himself running from both his mysterious enemy and the law.  From then on it's fairly unrelenting, with the inevitably rising bodycount (why did anybody find any of these unexpected?), culminating in a denouement which is bigger and more bloody than anything previously in the book.  The hero then, almost literally, walks off into the sunset.

 

In other words, it's absolutely bog standard fare, the same as so many others, with cut and paste characters in cut and paste situations in a cut and paste plot. 'Nuff said.  One star.

 

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Ooh, now A Book of Silence sounds interesting. I think I'd be quite tempted by that, or something similar, but it's probably be one of those books you'd have to be in the mood for.

 

I do love silence. (Or maybe I just hate noise!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

July Review

Carrying on the trend from last month, this month saw almost as high a proportion of non-fiction books, exactly half.  Equally, the number of pages per book has stayed high.  In 2016 I recorded my highest number of books to July end (48), involving 12900 pages, also the highest to that point.  This month has actually seen me overtake the latter figure (13200), but in just 39 books (3rd highest to date).  Just goes to show how deceptive those book numbers can be.

 

Quality-wise it was a solid month, with two 5*, two 4*, three 3* and just the one 1* - almost inevitably a book group read.  Having said that, next month's book choices look much more interesting: Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

 

With the sad demise of the BCF, I'm not sure whether I'll even get to write a review for August here, but I'll at least temporarily continue on the BCF group page on LibraryThing (the one on GoodReads doesn't seem to have attracted anybody), and am thinking quite seriously of starting a blog (which will, inevitably, include birding as well!).  It'll be interesting for me at least!!  I wonder if the Round Robin Challenge will survive too.

 

Figures are those to date for the year, with figures in brackets being those this month if more than zero.

 

Books read:  39 (8), plus 3 (0) insufficient to count.

Pages read:  13201 (2167), average 346 (308) pages per book.

Gender : 28 (4) male, 14 (4) female

Genre:  24 (4) fiction, 18 (4) non-fiction

Sources:  27 (6) owned15 (2) library

Format:  30 (7) paper, 4 (1) ebook, 8 (1) mixed media

Round Robin challenge:  (0)
TBR list: 1460: year -12, month 0

 

Books for reading acquired this month:

WTF? by Robert Peston (paperback, Waterstones BOGOHP)

The Last Wolf by Robert Winder (paperback, Waterstones BOGOHP)

The Age of Illusion by Ronald Blythe (hardback, Folio Society sale)

The Truth About Our Schools by Melissa Benn (paperback, charity shop)

A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows (paperback, remainder shop sale)

A Cast of Falcons by Steve Burrows (paperback, remainder shop sale)

A Pitying of Doves by Steve Burrows (paperback, remainder shop sale)

Charles II, The Star King by Clare Jackson (hardback, charity shop)

True North by Martin Wainwright (hardback, charity shop)

 

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On 06/08/2018 at 11:18 AM, Athena said:

While you and I don't share a lot of common reading tastes, I will miss you (and your monthly summaries).

 

I feel the same about you and others.  Even though I'm trying to contribute to the Facebook page, it's not the same (of course, I know it's not meant to be!). With the best will in the world, it's a bit like moving from an in-depth and involving conversation to party smalltalk - hard to sustain anything of substance (but that might be my misunderstanding of Facebook), and I've never felt comfortable at parties.  For the moment, I've set up a BCF-style blog thread on the BCF group in LibraryThing, which is less well organised but enables threads like this to be sustained much more easily than in Facebook.  I do think that if more people used the LT group for reviews etc, it could be interlinked with the Facebook group (which does seem to have attracted more people back) to be almost as effective as BCF itself.  Depends on what people want I suppose.  Otherwise,  I'll probably got a full scale blog at some stage; I'm looking to do one involving both the books and the birds!

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Unfortunately, one of the reasons that forums don't do that well any more is because most people seem to like the ease and speed fo social media. As you've said, people are coming to the facebook group who we haven't seen in here for ages. I appreciate that there is a group of people who enjoy the in depth discussions which work better on a forum, but there are too many negatives (cost, time, tech know-how etc) to justify keeping it going for a few. There is room for discussion on LT, but not many seem that interested in joining / discussing, and you can't have a good discussion without a decent amount of people. 

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On 05/08/2018 at 3:55 PM, willoyd said:

 (the one on GoodReads doesn't seem to have attracted anybody)

 

 

I wasn't even aware there was one! Do you have a link / name for it?

 

EDIT: Don't worry - I have it now (from the forum closure discussions thread).

 

Edited by ~Andrea~
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On 10/08/2018 at 10:46 PM, willoyd said:

 

I feel the same about you and others.  Even though I'm trying to contribute to the Facebook page, it's not the same (of course, I know it's not meant to be!). With the best will in the world, it's a bit like moving from an in-depth and involving conversation to party smalltalk - hard to sustain anything of substance (but that might be my misunderstanding of Facebook), and I've never felt comfortable at parties.  For the moment, I've set up a BCF-style blog thread on the BCF group in LibraryThing, which is less well organised but enables threads like this to be sustained much more easily than in Facebook.  I do think that if more people used the LT group for reviews etc, it could be interlinked with the Facebook group (which does seem to have attracted more people back) to be almost as effective as BCF itself.  Depends on what people want I suppose.  Otherwise,  I'll probably got a full scale blog at some stage; I'm looking to do one involving both the books and the birds!

 

You sum it up well! I'm not a huge lover of FB even though I use it quite a bit. I'll probably dip in and out of the group but like you I find it a bit busy.

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  • 2 months later...

BCF is back!

Absolutely overjoyed to be back on stream, so need to start off resumed thread with a huge thank you to Madeleine and Hayley for making this happen.  In spite of the presence of the Facebook page, which helped alleviate the loss, there was definitely something lacking in my reading experience, and this was it!

 

I doubt if I'll catch up with all the reviews, but will try and post some sort of summary soon, and certainly update lists and things at the start of this blog; am currently immersed in the Leeds Film Festival, so may take a bit of time.  Meanwhile, just to note that am currently reading Roy Jenkins's humungous biography of Winston Churchill (worth about 4 normal books!) and, because this is virtually untransportable (I have the hardback), Patrick O'Brian's The Surgeon's Mate whilst travelling - mostly on the train in and out of Leeds at the moment!

 

Looking forward to catching up with others' threads!

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22 hours ago, Madeleine said:

It was all Hayley:flowers2:, not me!

 

Oops! I meant Michelle. :blush:  I had just been reading your thread, and must have subconsciously muddled up my 'M's.  Sorry all! :hide:

Well done, though, on keeping your blog thread going Madeleine!

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On 11/6/2018 at 10:44 AM, willoyd said:

BCF is back!

Absolutely overjoyed to be back on stream, so need to start off resumed thread with a huge thank you to Madeleine and Hayley for making this happen.  In spite of the presence of the Facebook page, which helped alleviate the loss, there was definitely something lacking in my reading experience, and this was it!

 

I doubt if I'll catch up with all the reviews, but will try and post some sort of summary soon, and certainly update lists and things at the start of this blog; am currently immersed in the Leeds Film Festival, so may take a bit of time.  Meanwhile, just to note that am currently reading Roy Jenkins's humungous biography of Winston Churchill (worth about 4 normal books!) and, because this is virtually untransportable (I have the hardback), Patrick O'Brian's The Surgeon's Mate whilst travelling - mostly on the train in and out of Leeds at the moment!

 

Looking forward to catching up with others' threads!

Yes,it's great that the forum is back! A big thank you to all involved in bringing it back.

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So right Frankie!

 

1000 Books To Read Before You Die by James Mustich.

A few days ago, I found another 'list' book, this one with 'only' 1000 books to read in one's lifetime, by James Mustich.  Browsing through, it appealed almost instantly because it also includes non-fiction books, which make up around two-fifths of my reading (and far more of my collection!).  I've thus used up one of the spare posts at the start of this thread to add that list to the others I'm keeping a track of.  As usual, I don't seem to have read that many - about 15% of the total in fact.

Like all lists, there are some inclusions that I thoroughly disagree with, but it's full of interesting ideas, and is far more eclectic than, for instance, 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, including also a range of children's books, and reading as diverse as Aristotle and Dan Brown (yes, Da Vinci Code is in there!).  I suppose the biggest disagreement I have is the way that some multi-volume 'books' actually count each volume separately - for instance Laurence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet counts as 4 books, and Proust as 7 (but Gibbon counts as only one), which means that Durrell takes up 4 times as much space as, say, George Eliot (TBH, I wouldn't include any of his books!).  Odd.

But, otherwise, it's a good list, with plenty to think about and ideas to explore.  There's a website that lists all the books and gives brief summaries of the entries for each book, plus space to comment too: 1000bookstoread.com .

Edited by willoyd
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