Poppy's Paperbacks 2011

[poppyshake]

 

These are the books bought for me for my birthday .. mostly by my lovely husband and mum and dad. I'll list them to prevent you from squinting.

 

Mr Vertigo - Paul Auster

Stuart : A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters

A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe

The Hand that First Held Mine - Maggie O' Farrell

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

Started Early Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson

The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal

A Book Addicts Treasury - Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy

The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar

A Strange Eventful History - Michael Holroyd

Birdcloud - Annie Proulx

The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson

Faulks on Fiction - Sebastian Faulks

 

.. and of course the lovely signed Jasper Fforde book .. One of our Thursdays is Missing ... which I wrote about in Jasper's thread on the Fantasy forum.

 

 

... I'm still on cloud nine!

Edited January 2, 2012 by poppyshake

[chesilbeach]

What a smashing family you have buying you a whole pile of books, poppy! I have to say, A Fine Balance is a fantastic book which still sticks in my mind despite it being well over 10 years since I read it - hope you enjoy it

[poppyshake]

What a smashing family you have buying you a whole pile of books, poppy! I have to say, A Fine Balance is a fantastic book which still sticks in my mind despite it being well over 10 years since I read it - hope you enjoy it

 

Thanks Chesil , my family are brilliant .. they know that books are the things I love above everything and so they're more than happy to buy them for me. I stick the one's that I like on my Amazon wishlist and they choose from there. Sometimes they will choose a book that is not from the list (they like to have a bit of input in my reading matter ) but usually it's accompanied by at least two that are and it's nice to have surprises amongst the wished fors. I'm very, very lucky.

 

[nursenblack]

What a haul! I love the pics as well. They make me want to curl up in a soft blanket, drink hot chocolate, and read the day away!

[Kylie]

I feel a bit daunted by them now I'm home (which usually happens after Christmas when I've bought a lot of books) and the situation has been compounded because I got more books bought for me for my birthday and I've just put in an order at Amazon using some of my birthday money (did you feel like that when you got home from the bookfair?)

 

Yes, I feel like that after book fair. In fact, I have a book fair coming up next month and I'm already feeling daunted by my soon-to-be-expanded TBR pile! I pretty much feel daunted all the time by my books. I guess I've reached the point of no return. The way I look at is: what's another 50 books on top of the hundreds I already have?

 

Another nice book haul from the family! My own family are torn about buying me books. On the one hand, they know I have quite a few hundred unread books and are loathe to keep encouraging me, but on the other hand they know I really, really love books! I usually win out in the end.

[poppyshake]

Great list poppyshake

 

Thanks Weave I hope they'll be good reads .. some of them I know and some are a bit of a leap into the dark

 

What a haul! I love the pics as well. They make me want to curl up in a soft blanket, drink hot chocolate, and read the day away!

 

What a marvellous thought .. we should all do that regularly .. once a month at least

 

Yes, I feel like that after book fair. In fact, I have a book fair coming up next month and I'm already feeling daunted by my soon-to-be-expanded TBR pile! I pretty much feel daunted all the time by my books. I guess I've reached the point of no return. The way I look at is: what's another 50 books on top of the hundreds I already have?

 

]Another nice book haul from the family! My own family are torn about buying me books. On the one hand, they know I have quite a few hundred unread books and are loathe to keep encouraging me, but on the other hand they know I really, really love books! I usually win out in the end.

 

There was a time when my family were loathe to buy me books .. it was like 'is that all you want?' because although they are all readers they're not obsessive readers and cannot see why I would prefer books to shoes or jewellry etc. But they've thankfully got over that now and they get pleasure out of buying me books (hurray!!)

I will take a photo of the books I bought from Amazon when they've been delivered and that will be that until January 2012 .. I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE BOOKS THIS YEAR ... if I do I will pay some terrible forfeit like being banned from reading any further Jasper Fforde's or not being allowed to come on here

Edited January 2, 2012 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

I will take a photo of the books I bought from Amazon when they've been delivered and that will be that until January 2012 .. I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE BOOKS THIS YEAR ... if I do I will pay some terrible forfeit like being banned from reading any further Jasper Fforde's or not being allowed to come on here

 

Is that the ramblings of a crazy woman, or do you really think you can resist buying more books until next year?

[poppyshake]

Is that the ramblings of a crazy woman, or do you really think you can resist buying more books until next year?

I'm not even convincing myself but I really must try ... I'm surrounded by books, they're piling up on the floor and I will be crushed before too long by a collapsing wall of unread stories.

 

 

Memento Mori - Muriel Spark

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Unforgettably astounding and a joy to read, Memento Mori is considered by many to be the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame Muriel Spark. In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each, "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls, and in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavories like blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more.

 

Review: I enjoyed this one, it's macabre but with a comic touch. All the characters are elderly and in various stages of decrepitude and some of them are beginning to lose the plot. When they start receiving disturbing phonecalls saying 'Remember you must die' they are at a loss to discover who is making them. One thing in particular is peculiar, the voice on the end of the phone appears different to each listener although the message always remains the same. Having lived fairly full lives they each have their secrets and intrigues to hush up and plenty of enemies to suspect of foul play or blackmail. As the title suggests this is a book about being mortal and how we cling tenaciously to life even when it becomes insupportable. Each character reacts differently to the phone calls, one is not that concerned, one refuses to acknowledge - even to themselves - that they've received a call and others draw up list's of suspects. One of the suspects cannot confirm or deny the accusations saying that as far as they are aware they haven't made the calls and yet they might have made them during a Mr Hyde moment. There is a particular sinister Mrs Danversish type maid who lurks about listening at keyholes and amassing evidence to use as blackmail ... a real boo-hiss character.

 

Despite there being plenty of absurdity, it's also a bit depressing. You feel slightly uneasy reading it, realising even when you're laughing that it's an all too accurate portrayal of old age and a reminder of what lies in wait. All the horrors of old age are here, vulnerability, fear, failing health and intellect .. the slow decline etc but for all that you can't help but smile at it ...

 

'I have quite decided to be cremated when my time comes' said Godfrey. 'It is the cleanest way. The cemetries only pollute our water supplies. Cremation is best.'

'I do so agree with you,' said Charmian sleepily.

'No, you do not agree with me,' he said. 'R.C.s are not allowed to be cremated.'

'I mean, I'm sure you are right, Eric dear.'

'I am not Eric,' said Godfrey. 'You are not sure I'm right. Ask Mrs Anthony, she'll tell you that R.C.s are against cremation.'

He opened the door and bawled for Mrs Anthony. She came in with a sigh.

'Mrs Anthony, you're a Roman Catholic, aren't you?' said Godfrey.

'That's right. I've got something on the stove.'

'Do you believe in cremation?'

'Well,' she said, 'I don't really much like the idea of being shoved away quick like that. I feel somehow it's sort of ...'

'It isn't a matter of how you feel, it's a question of what your Church says you've not got to do. Your Church says you must not be cremated, that's the point.'

'Well, as I say Mr Colston, I don't really fancy the idea ...'

'Fancy the idea ... It is not a question of what you fancy. You have no choice in the matter do you see?'

'Well, I always like to see a proper burial, I always like ...'

'It's a point of discipline in your Church,' he said, 'that you mustn't be cremated. You women don't know your own system.'

'I see, Mr Colston. I've got something on the stove.'

'I believe in cremation, but you don't - Charmian, you disapprove of cremation, you understand.'

'Very well, Godfrey'

'And you too, Mrs Anthony.'

'OK., Mr Colston.'

'On principle,' said Godfrey

'That's right,' said Mrs Anthony and disappeared.

 

Muriel doesn't tie up all the ends, she allows the reader to come to their own conclusions (not always wise in my case ) and gives them plenty of food for thought. Not a cheerful read overall but an interesting one. 9/10

Edited December 11, 2013 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

 

Love Letters : Leonard Woolf & Trekkie Ritchie Parsons 1941-1968 edited by Judith Adamson

 

Waterstones Synopsis: It was the middle of the Second World War, and Trekkie, a painter and book illustrator, was married to the publisher Ian Parsons, who later became Leonard's colleague. Leonard was 61, Trekkie 39. He wanted her to get a divorce and marry him, but instead she persuaded him to move in next door to her in London and spent the weekends with him at Monk's House in Rodmell. When Ian came back from the war, life became more complex. Trekkie was a feisty, principled feminist - she had never wanted a husband and now, it seemed, she had two at once. She spent the weekends with Ian and the week with Leonard: she took holidays with them separately, acted as hostess for them both, and talked to no one about the way they lived. The arrangement worked smoothly for the next twenty-five years - an inventive and honest solution for a woman who loved two men in different ways at the same time. When Trekkie and Leonard were not together they talked through the post - a letter scribbled while she cooked dinner could reach him before breakfast the next morning. Trekkie sealed up their correspondance, and it was only opened after her death. Linked by excerpts from her diary, the letters shine with details of daily life: of gardens and glow-worms, books and plays; of Leonard's publishing and politics; of Trekkie's struggle to balance her professional and personal life. But above all they are a romance in two voices - his besotted, hers tender and sensible. This remarkable exchange of letters tells the story of two contrasting personalities, their love for one another and their unusual and creative domestic arrangement.

 

Review: I really enjoyed reading these letters, I didn't know anything about Leonards relationship with Trekkie, I've only ever connected him with Virginia. They met through Trekkie's sister Alice, who had had books published by the Hogarth Press. Alice became terminally ill and Trekkie looked after her during the last few weeks of her life. Leonard had very generously lent Alice some money 'on the poor security of an unfinished book' (Alice's words) and Trekkie was able to return it to him saying that she had been able to cover Alice's expenses without using it but that it had given Alice the greatest of comforts to feel that she wasn't being a financial burden on her sister. It had only been a few months since Virginia had committed suicide and at first the correspondence between the pair is sporadic and fairly tame but soon Leonard is visiting Trekkie (who herself was an artist and illustrator) and leaving her little presents of strawberries and flowers and their letters start to reflect how much they are enjoying one anothers company.

 

The relationship was complicated, there was a twenty two year age gap for a start plus Trekkie was already married. It's hard to say what her husband thought about it, nothing is really known, they kept it all private with a capital P but if he did have towering rages about it nobody ever recorded it. His own romantic life was entangled too so maybe it was a case of 'what's sauce for the goose' etc but in any case there didn't seem to be any rancour between them and indeed they all ended up living in the same house (on separate floors) and working together. The editor here thinks, despite Trekkie's assertions to the contrary, that her relationship with Leonard was sexual, though since reading these letters I've read a biography about Leonard which takes the opposite view. Either way it doesn't matter, he clearly adored her and she him .. she was his 'Dearest Tiger' and he her 'Dearest Lion'.

 

Extract from one of Leonards letters (showing him to be a hopeless romantic with too much time on his hands)

 

'I don't mind what you write your letters with or on, even a lithographic stone, if they're like the one I got this morning at breakfast. It was an amazing morning here yesterday & still more lovely this morning. It's no good your saying that you may create a wraith out of yourself which will haunt the garden, because that's just exactly what you have done. I never go into the garden now, I think, without it. It walks by my side, feeds the goldfish with me every morning, notices the new flowers as they come out. Sometimes I see it painting in the orchard or eating a mutton pie under the fig tree. I even hear it laugh or say "No, Leonard, I do not agree with you'. And the other night when the moon was up & I went out on the terrace before bed, it walked by my side in a long golden dress & was so beautiful that I realized that the penny novelette writer is quite true to life when he works up to the grand crisis with 'Her beauty was such that he caught his breath, a lump came into his throat, & for a moment his heart stopped beating." It even follows me up the village street when I go to post a letter in the new box on the main road for the other day the wraith of a bus appeared & your wraith let me hold it's hand & got into it saying: "Well, Goodbye Leonard". And don't you know that this evening & last evening after tea your wraith came out with me into the orchard & gathered the apples with me & I wasn't at all nice to the wraith, being depressed because it was not you but the ghost of you - for that is one of the things you've never done here & ever since you began to come I've looked forward to the September evening - sunny, absolutely still, with the first chill of autumn in the air & the mist beginning to creep up out of the water meadows - when I should see you in the orchard gathering the apples - for I think it's really the most beautiful moment of the year here. Don't you know all this dearest tiger? If not, I think it's rather disgraceful. For if you create a wraith of yourself, you oughtn't really let it wander ab- (this is Peats interference - I flung him off, whereupon he has leapt on the table and upset a large bowl of flowers & the floor is swimming with water) about with me here out of your control.'

 

I've always thought of Leonard as a bit of a serious creature, but these letters show a different side. His in particular are very affectionate, sometimes too much so and Trekkie often had to try and bring him back into line .. 'I want you to love me ... but not as an epidemic disease.' I think he was ripe for falling in love, certainly he seems to be the more enthusiastic of the two especially to begin with and Trekkie was just the sort of woman to attract him, creative and artistic but less highly strung than Virginia. The letters are often funny, they both have a great sense of humour and were fond of writing spoof letters to each other. They had lots of shared interests .. they adored plants and gardening and they had an absolute mania for animals .. their houses were awash with cats and dogs. The relationship survived and prospered until Leonards death in 1969.

 

Very, very enjoyable.

 

9/10

Edited January 2, 2012 by poppyshake

[lopeanha]

What a haul! I love the pics as well. They make me want to curl up in a soft blanket, drink hot chocolate, and read the day away!

Me too, me too! Sounds like a wonderful trip Poppy

[frankie]

What is it about the UK? Every so often I read on this forum that this and that person went to this and that town (which are apparently nationally known for having just rows and rows of bookshops on the streets), browsing and buying, and then other forum members will come and say 'oh I love that place, I've been there'. What? Why? Why don't we have these kinds of perfect towns in Finland?? Poppyshake, would you be so kind as to tell me more about this and perhaps list all the good places to go? I'm starting to think I need to fly over to UK just to do a bit of bookshopping. Two or three days and I'd easily get the 20 kilos or so that I'm allowed to carry back home. I won't even pack any clothes with me or anything, I'll just wear what I have on me. I'm not kidding!!!

 

I swear, I used to be so happy going to my local secondhand bookshops and charityshops, first going for the English section and then taking a look at the other sections. But Australia has totally spoiled me. Everything there was in English, and I got so used to being able to get all the books I wanted in the English (the original) language. Now I'm so frustrated with the Finnish bookshops. Last Friday I went to a secondhand bookshop, took a look at the English section and was outraged. The shelves are at the back of the shop, they never re-organise the books, they just shove everything in and it's a mess. I've been there so many times, re-organising the shelves as I go along looking for books to buy, but now I'm just fed up. There's such little variety and it seems that there are always the same books there and nobody's bringing in new blood. Nowadays I'm only happy on play.com. I love being an Anglophile but sometimes I just wish I was crap at English and would happily settle for the Finnish translations.

 

Sorry for the rant. I loved reading about your trip to Hay on Wye, it really sounds like a paradise. Maybe I should re-locate there The pictures are amazing, thanks for posting! The hotel room seems so quaint, and they even have bookshelves in the bathroom What I found very hilarious (I'm sorry!) was that half of the books you bought there were not on any of your lists It is very predictable though, who wouldn't go crazy in all those bookshops?

 

Carey, Peter - Oscar and Lucinda - great find, I'm looking forward to your review, haven't read it myself

Cunningham, Michael - The Hours - ditto, on my TBR

Keneally, Thomas - Schindler's Ark - ditto, on my TBR

Kureishi, Hanif - Gabriel's Gift - I hear Kureishi's supposed to be really good

Stein, Gertrude - The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - I hope this is good, have borrowed from the library

Updike, John - Rabbit Run - ditto

Woolf, Virginia - Mrs Dalloway - haven't read it, I'm a bit worried it'll be too intellectual for me on my TBR

de Rhodes, Danuta (Dan Rhodes) - Little White Car - what's this? I didn't know Rhodes has written under an alias?

Orwell, George - Animal Farm - I hope you like it

Rhodes, Dan - Gold (better copy) -jealous! such an amazing read

Most people (ordinary mortals that is not proper book reading one's) nearly fainted when I told them I'd bought fifty books.

 

That's always fun

 

Stuart : A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters - ooh! Did you get the idea of reading this from Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree?

Started Early Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson - any chance of it being a book about dogs, and a good one at that?

A Book Addicts Treasury - Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy - The title sounds very promising!

Faulks on Fiction - Sebastian Faulks - Yay!

Edited March 7, 2011 by frankie

[poppyshake]

What is it about the UK? Every so often I read on this forum that this and that person went to this and that town (which are apparently nationally known for having just rows and rows of bookshops on the streets), browsing and buying, and then other forum members will come and say 'oh I love that place, I've been there'. What? Why? Why don't we have these kinds of perfect towns in Finland?? Poppyshake, would you be so kind as to tell me more about this and perhaps list all the good places to go? I'm starting to think I need to fly over to UK just to do a bit of bookshopping. Two or three days and I'd easily get the 20 kilos or so that I'm allowed to carry back home. I won't even pack any clothes with me or anything, I'll just wear what I have on me. I'm not kidding!!!

Some of the time it feels like bookshops are dying here and that we're all destined to be downloading our books straight to Kindle and at other times it seems like they're alive and well and thriving. In Hay they're definitely thriving, you couldn't live there or visit there if you weren't a book fanatic. The town's link with books stems from a man called Richard Booth .. he's the self proclaimed King of Hay (and a bit of an eccentric .. he made his horse prime minister!). He started opening bookshops and others followed suit and now you can't move there for books and they have a big book festival there every year with lots of authors etc.

If you do ever come to the UK you must make your way to Hay-on-Wye .. you probably wouldn't need to go anywhere else.

We're not very well off for new bookshops .. mainly just Waterstones which can be expensive but is a gorgeous place to browse in, I try and buy books there every now and then because you can't expect a shop to stay open if you don't patronise it.

Notting Hill is another place I'd love to visit but I've got a feeling that the bookshops there might be a tad on the expensive side.

I swear, I used to be so happy going to my local secondhand bookshops and charityshops, first going for the English section and then taking a look at the other sections. But Australia has totally spoiled me. Everything there was in English, and I got so used to being able to get all the books I wanted in the English (the original) language. Now I'm so frustrated with the Finnish bookshops. Last Friday I went to a secondhand bookshop, took a look at the English section and was outraged. The shelves are at the back of the shop, they never re-organise the books, they just shove everything in and it's a mess. I've been there so many times, re-organising the shelves as I go along looking for books to buy, but now I'm just fed up. There's such little variety and it seems that there are always the same books there and nobody's bringing in new blood. Nowadays I'm only happy on play.com. I love being an Anglophile but sometimes I just wish I was crap at English and would happily settle for the Finnish translations.

It's quite clear that they don't need to organize their shelves .. they wait for you to come in and do it for them We've got a couple of nice Oxfam secondhand bookshops nearby (and all the books are nicely alphabetised on the shelves) but I find that the stock doesn't seem to change very often. The other day I went in and the door to the stockroom was open and there were books piled high to the ceiling awaiting sorting .. I would have given my right arm to get in there for a rummage.

 

Sorry for the rant. I loved reading about your trip to Hay on Wye, it really sounds like a paradise. Maybe I should re-locate there The pictures are amazing, thanks for posting! The hotel room seems so quaint, and they even have bookshelves in the bathroom What I found very hilarious (I'm sorry!) was that half of the books you bought there were not on any of your lists It is very predictable though, who wouldn't go crazy in all those bookshops?

Yes, you noticed and the really embarrassing thing is that Alan got most of the one's that were on my lists because he was taking them seriously .. I was just like 'ooh, look at the cover' and 'I like the sound of that' .. hopeless!

 

Stuart : A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters - ooh! Did you get the idea of reading this from Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree?

The short answer is yes

 

Started Early Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson - any chance of it being a book about dogs, and a good one at that?

My real reason for buying this is that when I bought some books in Waterstones they were offering a range of books at half price and this was one of them. I had it in my mind anyway because (of all daft reasons for reading a book this has to be one of the daftest) when we were in Hay, Alan said to me over breakfast 'well, we've started early' and I said 'took my dog' and he said 'what??' and I said 'it's a book title' and he said 'no, you're having me on' and I said 'no, I'm not' and he didn't believe me. When we got back home and did some shopping in Waterstones (because of course, you can never have too many books ) it was lined up on the counter proving that I wasn't a great big 'Dunlop Tyre' (cockney rhyming slang.) I am hoping though that it is a good book about a dog.

 

A Book Addicts Treasury - Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy - The title sounds very promising!

I've dipped in already and it looks good, just lots of random passages and quotes about books. I've already spotted a few books that I want to get just from the extracts printed in this book (did I say that you can never have too many books? .. however .. in case you're reading this Alan .... I NEED SOME BOOKSHELVES!!!)

Edited January 2, 2012 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

These are the books that I bought with my birthday money ... which I really shouldn't have bought because the house is overstuffed already.

 

Not in the same order as the photo I'm afraid ...

 

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray

The Queen of Whale Cay - Kate Summerscale

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (I am developing a Woolf obsession to match my already existing Murdoch, Spark and Fforde obsessions)

Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins

Henrietta's War - Joyce Dennys

Moonlight in Odessa - Janet Skeslien Charles

Mrs Woolf and the Servants - Alison Light

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

So I Have Thought of You: the letters of Penelope Fitzgerald

Giving Up The Ghost - Hilary Mantel (already read and enjoyed library copy)

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson .. oh dear Frankie .. I think I already know your opinion .. but I loved the TV drama and so I'm hoping I'll like the book.

 

Most of these were on my list .. but I took them off my wishlist after ordering/buying and forgot to add them to my TBR's.

 

Also, I popped into my local supermarket on Sat night and a man outside gave me this ..

 

 

.. I was delighted

 

All I need now is time to read them all.

Edited January 2, 2012 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

Wow, another great book haul, Poppyshake!

 

I could spend all day commenting on the books you've bought, but I'll just content myself by saying that I'm so pleased you bought The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear.

[frankie]

Some of the time it feels like bookshops are dying here and that we're all destined to be downloading our books straight to Kindle and at other times it seems like they're alive and well and thriving. In Hay they're definitely thriving, you couldn't live there or visit there if you weren't a book fanatic. The town's link with books stems from a man called Richard Booth .. he's the self proclaimed King of Hay (and a bit of an eccentric .. he made his horse prime minister!). He started opening bookshops and others followed suit and now you can't move there for books and they have a big book festival there every year with lots of authors etc.

If you do ever come to the UK you must make your way to Hay-on-Wye .. you probably wouldn't need to go anywhere else.

We're not very well off for new bookshops .. mainly just Waterstones which can be expensive but is a gorgeous place to browse in, I try and buy books there every now and then because you can't expect a shop to stay open if you don't patronise it.

Notting Hill is another place I'd love to visit but I've got a feeling that the bookshops there might be a tad on the expensive side.

 

Richard Booth sounds like a mighty fine fella to me I bet his horse had a lot more sense in him than some of the prime ministers out there. I even have a very recent example: Our prime minister took part in the Emma awards gala (Finnish music awards) and she had a fur coat on her. There had just been news about the fur industry and how some of the people have neglected to take good and decent care of the animals (which is a paradox in my opinion, I'd put a stop to the whole industry if I had the power), and when our prime minister was photographed and interviewed at the gala she was just giggling and saying ”well I suppose you could call me Mink-Mari”. (her first name is Mari).

 

The book festival sounds good, I think I should definitely visit during that time I've never ever met any Finnish authors, let alone internationally known authors.

 

Hehe, BTW, now that we've been talking about Hay-on-Wye. I was at the library yesterday, looking for a novel by Charles Bukowski, titled Ham on Rye. I had problems remembering the title so I was chanting it over and over again in my mind, and soon I realised I'd been chanting things like Ham-on-Wye, Hay-on-Rye...

 

Kylie and I visited Borders when I was in Australia, it was my first contact with the chain store. All I can say about it is that it's hella expensive, but I have to also admit that it was a really beautiful, nicely organised place. It's just too much for my wallet.

 

The biggest chain store in Finland is also expensive, and so is the other big book store which I think has only 1-3 book stores in Finland. I think the problem is that there's only that many people who will read books in Finnish so they need to be priced accordingly. There are only a handful of people in Finland who live on writing, others will have to apply for different kinds of writing grants or simply just work like the rest of us. And the translated novels aren't all that much cheaper because the translator needs to be paid as well.

It's quite clear that they don't need to organize their shelves .. they wait for you to come in and do it for themWe've got a couple of nice Oxfam secondhand bookshops nearby (and all the books are nicely alphabetised on the shelves) but I find that the stock doesn't seem to change very often. The other day I went in and the door to the stockroom was open and there were books piled high to the ceiling awaiting sorting .. I would have given my right arm to get in there for a rummage.

 

Apparently so! I just hate it that they don't seem to put any effort into that section, and the children's novels are there too and they just pile them on the floor, and because English lit is on the top shelves, I need to get this chair that has a miniladder on it, I don't know what you would call it, and even then I have a hard time because the kids' books aren't exactly piled neatly against the wall and I can't get very close to the bookshelves. On top of that, there are stairs right next to the section, so one false move and I'll be downstairs on my back on the floor, looking at records.

 

Hehe, maybe you should've asked them if you could go in the stockroom to have a look, I would think they'd be only happy to let you in. The books are of no use in the stockroom, they'd love it if someone found something there.

Yes, you noticed and the really embarrassing thing is that Alan got most of the one's that were on my lists because he was taking them seriously .. I was just like 'ooh, look at the cover' and 'I like the sound of that' .. hopeless!

 

Well I couldn't help but notice Maybe you should've used a smaller font on the headings...

My real reason for buying this is that when I bought some books in Waterstones they were offering a range of books at half price and this was one of them. I had it in my mind anyway because (of all daft reasons for reading a book this has to be one of the daftest) when we were in Hay, Alan said to me over breakfast 'well, we've started early' and I said 'took my dog' and he said 'what??' and I said 'it's a book title' and he said 'no, you're having me on' and I said 'no, I'm not' and he didn't believe me. When we got back home and did some shopping in Waterstones (because of course, you can never have too many books ) it was lined up on the counter proving that I wasn't a great big 'Dunlop Tyre' (cockney rhyming slang.) I am hoping though that it is a good book about a dog.

 

Haha, that made me lol out loud It's as good a reason as any, and obviously you had to get it if only to show him who's right. Yay, another list of books to go through!

 

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers – hehe I knew Kylie would come in and comment on this!

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray – I noticed the book in the picture and went 'yay!'. I haven't read it so don't know if it's good, but I've borrowed it from the library and something tells me it ought to be great.

Moby Dick - Herman Melville – nice to see some classics on the list

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe - ditto

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (I am developing a Woolf obsession to match my already existing Murdoch, Spark and Fforde obsessions) - ditto

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson .. oh dear Frankie .. I think I already know your opinion .. but I loved the TV drama and so I'm hoping I'll like the book. - ROFL! What perfect timing Well to be fair, my expectations were rather high. And it's now been maybe 3-4 years since I tried reading it, so who knows what I might think about it now. Good luck

Edited March 8, 2011 by frankie

[Kidsmum]

These are the books that I bought with my birthday money ... which I really shouldn't have bought because the house is overstuffed already.

 

Not in the same order as the photo I'm afraid ...

 

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray

The Queen of Whale Cay - Kate Summerscale

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (I am developing a Woolf obsession to match my already existing Murdoch, Spark and Fforde obsessions)

Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins

Henrietta's War - Joyce Dennys

Moonlight in Odessa - Janet Skeslien Charles

Mrs Woolf and the Servants - Alison Light

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

So I Have Thought of You: the letters of Penelope Fitzgerald

Giving Up The Ghost - Hilary Mantel (already read and enjoyed library copy)

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson .. oh dear Frankie .. I think I already know your opinion .. but I loved the TV drama and so I'm hoping I'll like the book.

 

Most of these were on my list .. but I took them off my wishlist after ordering/buying and forgot to add them to my TBR's.

 

Also, I popped into my local supermarket on Sat night and a man outside gave me this ..

 

 

.. I was delighted

 

All I need now is time to read them all.

 

That's a lovely juicy looking pile of books Poppy, I loved the TV version of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit as well but haven't read the book so I'll be interested to read your thoughts on it

[Weave]

Oh you bought 'The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear' by Walter Moers, enjoy!

[poppyshake]

 

Leonard Woolf : A Life - Victoria Glendinning

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Many people today know Leonard Woolf mainly through the surname of his wife, Virginia, or his role in supporting her through her mental illness, depicted in films like The Hours. Some critics see him as his wife's oppressor. In Victoria Glendinning's biography, for the first time we see the whole man. As well as being a prominent member of the Bloomsbury group, Leonard was a formidable figure in his own right, first as an innovative civil administrator in Ceylon, then as a writer, leading light of the Fabian society and publisher of TS Eliot, EM Forster, Robert Graves, Katherine Mansfield and of course Virginia Woolf. He was interested in everything and knew everybody. The achievement of Glendinning's book is to make its readers wish that they knew him too.

 

Review: Having read his letters to Trekkie Parsons I felt I had got to know Leonard pretty well but the letters were written during the last twenty years of his life and only occasionally touched on his childhood and marriage, so it was interesting to be able to go right back to his beginnings. Most interesting of all is his friendship with the other Bloomsbury Group members (Lytton Strachey in particular) and, of course, his marriage to Virginia. It's clear that Leonard was fiercely intelligent and a bit of a leading light amongst his fellow Bloomsburyites. There are two schools of thought about his impact on Virginia, some feel that without him we would never have had Virginia's great novels and some feel that he had a negative effect on her. It's clear she was often unstable (and had been since childhood) and living with her was like living on a knife edge. There's not many men who could accept the fact that their marriage was never going to be consumated .. let alone men who make that decision themselves based on their wifes mental state (apparently the one and only abandoned attempt happened on their honeymoon.) Leonard was quite a physical man, he'd had plenty of sexual encounters before Virginia but he seemed to relinquish it, if not willingly, then very promptly. Perhaps arrangements were made elsewhere .. if so nothing is known about it but it can't have been easy especially when Virginia became the lover of Vita Sackville West (though how much Leonard knew about the physical side of their relationship is unclear.) He must have been devoted to her because he always seemed to put her needs and wants before his and everything was made as smooth as possible in order for her to be able to write. He was put under terrible strain by Virginia's suicidal tendencies and hysterical behaviour but it was as nothing compared to the strain she herself was under. When she was well she was as gay as a schoolgirl but when she was ill, which was more often than not, she was in a pitiful state. Much depended on her books, she dreaded getting to the end of them and dreaded further the reviews. Leonard's opinion was always the first she sought and he had to tread very, very carefully (though he was a truthful man, so there would often be advice as well as praise .. luckily Leonard nearly always found her writing inspired.) When everything went well she was euphoric and all was right with the world again, when it didn't she crashed and it would take months of recuperation and tender support to get her on her feet again.

 

Whatever her sexual preferences, it's obvious that Virginia was devoted to Leonard, she wrote a note to him before she died, telling him that he had made her completely happy and that no-one could have done more for her. She feared she was wasting his life as well as her own and felt that she would never get over this last illness (in her diary she had written that she was hearing voices.) It was the opinion of Virginia's family that she would never have lasted as long as she did if Leonard had not been so devoted to her.

 

The account of her death was very sad, a few weeks before it happened Leonard had found her in the garden dripping wet after what must have been an unsuccessful attempt to drown herself .. she said she had fallen over. Leonard blamed himself after her death for not taking more care of her when the warning signs showed her to be once more sinking into ill health. He was convinced that she would have rallied again.

 

I have read since that this book contains many inaccuracies which is a shame, the footnotes are prolific as a lot of the writers knowledge seems to have come from other books but it would seem that not everything she has gleaned is correct. Still, despite the errors (and they are mostly to do with names and dates etc) I feel it gave me a more complete picture of Leonard and a better insight into Virginia.

 

8/10

Edited September 4, 2012 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

Wow, another great book haul, Poppyshake!

I could spend all day commenting on the books you've bought, but I'll just content myself by saying that I'm so pleased you bought The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear.

Thanks Kylie I am as happy as can be, everywhere I look there are books. The Walter Moers is one of the one's I'm really looking forward to and also one of the few that I'm fairly confident about.

 

Richard Booth sounds like a mighty fine fella to me. I bet his horse had a lot more sense in him than some of the prime ministers out there. I even have a very recent example: Our prime minister took part in the Emma awards gala (Finnish music awards) and she had a fur coat on her. There had just been news about the fur industry and how some of the people have neglected to take good and decent care of the animals (which is a paradox in my opinion, I'd put a stop to the whole industry if I had the power), and when our prime minister was photographed and interviewed at the gala she was just giggling and saying ”well I suppose you could call me Mink-Mari”. (her first name is Mari).

oh dear! and I thought we were badly off why are the people in power such idiots?

The book festival sounds good, I think I should definitely visit during that time I've never ever met any Finnish authors, let alone internationally known authors.

Yes, you must go. The hotelier was telling me that people don't even leave the site because everything is there and they don't need to (a bit like the Glastonbury music festival) but that's a shame because it would be madness not to visit the town after being so near to it.

Hehe, BTW, now that we've been talking about Hay-on-Wye. I was at the library yesterday, looking for a novel by Charles Bukowski, titled Ham on Rye. I had problems remembering the title so I was chanting it over and over again in my mind, and soon I realised I'd been chanting things like Ham-on-Wye, Hay-on-Rye...

This made me laugh and reminded me of all the stupid ways in which I try to remember book titles ... like word association and all that. I tried to remember 'Water for Elephants' once but mixed it up with 'Like Water for Chocolate' ... and looked up 'Chocolate for Elephants' ... actually I would read that book.

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray – I noticed the book in the picture and went 'yay!'. I haven't read it so don't know if it's good, but I've borrowed it from the library and something tells me it ought to be great.

I'm hoping for great things, it sounds good and it looks good so we're halfway there.

 

Moby Dick - Herman Melville – nice to see some classics on the list

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe - ditto

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf - ditto

I really should read more classics, there should be some sort of equation like you must read one classic to every five contemporary. I've taken a bit of a gamble with my birthday books because they're all new (apart from those bought in Hay) .. should I hate them I'll be wishing I'd bought them second hand or borrowed them but fingers crossed I'll like at least most of them .. the classics especially are looking good on my bookcase (I'm getting a bit of an obsession with the Vintage covers too which I need to get the better of.)

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson .. oh dear Frankie .. I think I already know your opinion .. but I loved the TV drama and so I'm hoping I'll like the book. - ROFL! What perfect timing Well to be fair, my expectations were rather high. And it's now been maybe 3-4 years since I tried reading it, so who knows what I might think about it now. Good luck

It creased me up when you wrote what you did and I knew I had to post about it later :lol:

That's a lovely juicy looking pile of books Poppy, I loved the TV version of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit as well but haven't read the book so I'll be interested to read your thoughts on it

Thanks Kidsmum when I will get around to reading them goodness only knows but in the meantime they can sit there and look gorgeous. I too loved the TV version of 'Oranges are Not the Only Fruit' and I also enjoyed Jeanette talking about it on 'My Life in Books' but whatever you do, don't ask Frankie for her opinion of it .. the forum might explode.

 

Oh you bought 'The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear' by Walter Moers, enjoy!

Thanks Weave, Yes, I couldn't resist it and I've flicked through it and am entranced by all the pictures and graphics. I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it

[Kylie]

Yes, you must go. The hotelier was telling me that people don't even leave the site because everything is there and they don't need to (a bit like the Glastonbury music festival) but that's a shame because it would be madness not to visit the town after being so near to it.

What? They don't leave the site to visit the bookshops? What the heck?!

 

the classics especially are looking good on my bookcase (I'm getting a bit of an obsession with the Vintage covers too which I need to get the better of.)

Oh my, yes! I love the Vintage covers. The Vintage books here have very recently come down in price so they're all a uniform $12.95, which is very cheap for Oz! Needless to say, I'm thrilled. On top of that, there was a 3 for $30 deal recently, during which I bought 9 books (and got a pretty Vintage bag thrown in for free). I'm not sure that I like having the same coloured spines on all the books, but the pretty front covers more than make up for it. And I love that they're publishing a huge range of books, including perhaps some lesser-known classics.

 

The extent of my love of Vintage is such that I recently set up a document and copy/pasted the covers of all the Vintage books I want. I was actually quite well-behaved and only listed the books I really want. Now I can take it shopping with me.

 

When I saw that you had several Vintage books in that photo, I was just about straining my eyes to see which ones they were. I notice you bought Moby Dick, which I very nearly bought myself the other day.

[Weave]

I like the vintage covers too, my copy of 'Moby Dick' is a vintage

[poppyshake]

The people in the town at Hay (shop owners etc) are a bit miffed that the visitors don't come in as much anymore when the book festival is on .. apparently it's made a big difference to them money wise. It does seem bonkers but I suppose they find that there's so much to see and do at the festival they just run out of time.
Yes, my Moby Dick is also a Vintage one Paula ... I love the cover and I love them all in general but like you Kylie I wish the spines were all different .. I've got big swathes of red in my bookcases now and it makes it look like I've just bought one big set of books (which will probably get bigger) and not hand picked them carefully as in fact is really the case (except for the Maugham's ... see later.) I think on the whole they have the edge over the Penguin Modern Classics although sometimes I'm torn.
I think they mostly cost about £5.00 per book (on Amazon) but I was naughty and bought a whole set of Somerset Maugham's for £9.99 .. I only wanted Cakes and Ale but 'The Book People' were selling ten of his books for £ 9.99 (Vintage covers) ... and for that matter I also bought their set of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's .. again 10 for £9.99 (but this time Penguin covers) .. I had actually forgotten about them when I posted my birthday books .. oops   .. but who could resist?



I don't know how I'll get on with the Maugham's .. I have never read him but I'm fairly confident about the Marquez's because I've read two and wanted my own copies anyway (and they would have cost me at least £9.99 so I've got eight more to read for free if you like

Above are some of my Vintage covers ... I quite like the way they have put Virginia's silhouette on all of hers but filled them in with a different vintagey pattern.
I love the Moby Dick especially and adore Edgar Allan Poe's cover ... I like the one for Robinson Crusoe .. but even from the back he does look a bit too contemporary and .. well fed I'm wanting to get Iris's Under the Net because it would look so nice with my other Murdoch's and because it has just the sweetest pussy cat cover.
Oh dear  I realise now that I've been naughtier than I thought and I haven't even updated my TBR list yet.

Btw Kylie? have you read any of Nevil Shute's books? ... I am loving the Vintage covers for them but don't know much about them.

Edited November 2, 2013 by poppyshake

[Janet]

I love the Cider with Rosie cover - so prettyful!

 

Sorry to butt in when I'm not Kylie, but my Mum loves Nevil Shute's books. I have Pied Piper somewhere to read (although I don't know where it is - it wasn't where the rest of my unread books are when I made my list recently ).

[Kidsmum]

Poppy I hope you enjoy Maugham my favourites are The Moon & Sixpence & Of Human Bondage. The only Neville Shute I've read is On The Beach but I liked it.

 

Fanatastic covers as well

[poppyshake]

 

I love the Cider with Rosie cover - so prettyful!

Sorry to butt in when I'm not Kylie, but my Mum loves Nevil Shute's books. I have Pied Piper somewhere to read (although I don't know where it is - it wasn't where the rest of my unread books are when I made my list recently ).

You are not butting in and are more than welcome Janet .. as I hope you know I'm glad to hear a recommendation for Nevil, though I mustn't, MUSTN'T, buy any of his books just yet ... perhaps when the dust has settled (they are lovely covers after all.)

Cider with Rosie will be a re-read ... but I had to buy it when I saw that cover.

Poppy I hope you enjoy Maugham my favourites are The Moon & Sixpence & Of Human Bondage. The only Neville Shute I've read is On The Beach but I liked it.

Fanatastic covers as well

Thanks Kidsmum would you know it, those two Maugham's aren't in this set .. I'm outraged (ten of them .. and they couldn't fit in the good ones ) Still it's encouraging, perhaps the others are good too   Edited November 2, 2013 by poppyshake