willoyd
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Posts posted by willoyd
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Only one book left? That cuts into the very fabric of what defines us as human. It would have to be something big. Of what I've read, or at least partially read, it would probably have to be JM Roberts's History of the World. or possibly Peter Watson's two volume History of Ideas (i.e. Ideas: A History, and Terrible Beauty, in one volume!):
If only in terms of fiction? I haven't a clue. To Kill A Mocking Bird ? It may not be quite my favourite fiction (although it's up there), but it has a huge amount to say (positively!) about humanity. So much other 'important' fiction seems to concentrate on the negative aspects, and I've only got one to read! Perhaps The Canterbury Tales ? Humanity in its full variety!
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In very broad terms, the presence of a book high on a modern best-seller list is, for me, a pretty reliable indicator to steer clear. That's not to condemn the books - it's just that the more popular reads of today are not normally the sort of books I enjoy the most.
In fact, I've actually read two of those on the list. Gone Girl was my Duffer of the Year, fairly comfortably the book I "enjoyed" least in 2013. I really can't see why it has had such rave reviews, rather the opposite. So that somewhat confirmed my prejudices! On the other hand, I read Life of Pi when it first came out and found it overall a good read with some thought provoking twists.
Of the others, Dan Brown is on my short-list of popular writers I dislike most, whilst Alex Ferguson is on my short-list of sports personalities I dislike most, although one has to respect (if somewhat reluctantly!) what he achieved. Diet books are almost all pernicious nonsense, whilst The Guinness Book of Records, once a source of fascination and interesting trivia, has somewhat succumbed to silliness - although it is very popular amongst the boys in my year 5 (age 9-10) class at school. But then, maybe I was not too dissimilar in age when I last read it??
I've browsed one or two of the others following on reviews here and elsewhere, but none have particularly appealed. -
I read this last August, so, as I'm not ready to read it again so soon, it's not going to be my Kent book. However, I thought the (brief) review I wrote at the time might be worth adding to the list here. Hope it's of interest:
The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates ***
A light, enjoyable evening's read. Most Brits will be familiar with the novel through the TV series (even if one hasn't watched it, as I haven't, it's fairly strongly engrained into the historical culture!). In some respects it was almost iconoclastic in its attitude to conventions at the time it was written, now it's nothing special on that front. The book itself is dominated by food and by colour: it seems the Larkins eat big and eat loud every two minutes, reflecting their approach to life, whilst everything, but everything, is described in terms of its colour. It all makes for characters and a simple story that read larger than life. Great fun! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series in short, sharp, bursts. -
Flicking through this review, I suddenly realised that I'd bought this book a while ago on a whim/recommendation or whatever. I can't think why, but it's just going to have to move right up the list to be read on that review. On your head be it........!
Really - great review, love the enthusiasm, definitely one to investigate!
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I will have to go back and find your review of this, as I just bought it recently. I'm especially glad now that I bought it given that you think highly of it.
Here you go Kylie: http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/11098-willoyds-reading-log-2013/?p=366212
I noticed that you have rated The Pursuit of Love as five stars and Love in a Cold Climate as six stars. This bodes well because I have just finished the former and loved it.
I'll be rereading them this year as part of the English Counties Challenge, and am looking forward to it!
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Reading update Feb 15th
The week has, not surprisingly, been dominated by the Darwin biography. A couple of good sessions on long train journeys this week, and am up to page 400 today. It's a big book in every sense of the word, and each page is fairly jammed - not one of your quick reads! Perhaps not the best book to read during term time, but when I am able to settle down, it's definitely worth the effort.
Three books acquired this week:
It's All Greek to Me - Charlotte Higgins (paperback, Book Depository)
A Commonplace Killing - Sian Busby (e-book, Amazon)
High Minds - Simon Heffer (hardback, Waterstones)
The first of these is my wanting to follow up on reading her latest book, Under Another Sky; whilst the second is my book group's choice for next month. The Heffer has been on my wishlist since it came out, and is courtesy of a gift card received at Christmas and a few pounds being knocked off in Waterstones. With the various loyalty cards, it works out no more expensive than Amazon, in spite of the good deal they are currently offering. And there's- still enough left on the gift card for another book! It can wait till a few of these have been read! -
I just finished Capital by Maureen Duffy. Will write review later.
Looking forward to this, as read and reviewed it last year.
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Reading update Feb 8th
From one big 'un to another! Started Adrian Desmond and James Moore's biography of Darwin this week - keen to get a few of the challenge books under my belt (and actually rather keen to read the book itself!). About 150 pages in, and whilst the pages aren't turning that fast - there's a lot on each one - it's living well up to expectations. I've got a couple of big train trips this week, so will hopefully be able to get some serious reading completed.
Bought one book this week, at the tail end of the Folio Society's spring sale:
Feudal Society by Marc Bloch
I really like the Annales style of history writing, and this is one of the classics. Hard to get a good one volume copy, so this looks ideal. One to add to the History Doorstoppers list?
Had a very pleasant browse around the bookshop in Salt's Mill earlier in the week. I love the way they lay their books out, laid out on tables - much more tempting than the normal bookshelf standard (which i think the likes of Waterstone's are starting to appreciate given the style of the displays cropping up in the Leeds store). Added a couple of books to my wishlist as a result, including Maria McCann's As Meat is to Salt, and a promising looking history of nursery rhymes, Pop Goes The Weasel. Almost bought up the collection of books about Titus Salt and Saltaire too! -
Just completed Nicholas Nickleby, and have posted a review on my reading blog thread. I've repeated the text below.
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens *****
Well, it's taken just over three weeks, with plenty of interruptions from relatively inconsequential distractions (like work!), but Nicholas Nickleby finally rolled to a conclusion last night. It's been a bit of an epic, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything (well, almost anything!).
As with many Dickens novels, even if you haven't actually read it (and this wasn't a reread) there is still a certain degree of familiarity. Aside from the Nicklebys, names such as Smike, Wackford Squeers, the Cheeryble brothers, Dotheboys Hall - they are all known well beyond the pages of the book. But, as with so many superficially familiar books, the reality is very different. Just as Wuthering Heights took me completely by surprise with the entire second half (left out in the most famous film version), so I was somewhat taken aback to find that Nicholas departs Dotheboys Hall barely 20% of the way in. After that, we're on much more recognisable Dickens territory - London and Portsmouth, mainly the former. The narrative, however, was completely fresh.
The interesting thing I found though was that, whilst the novel is famous for its campaigning stance on the infamous Yorkshire holiday-less schools where boys were effectively dumped and left to the worst machinations of some pretty brutal individuals (Wackford Squeers is apparently based on a real-life head of a school in Bowes [now in County Durham], William Shaw - even down to the initials), a campaign that was so effective that by the mid-19th century these schools were extinct, the vast majority of the book is actually one of his funnier novels. [If I'd read the blurb that Claire posted above, I'd not have been so surprised!]. It may not be quite as light as Pickwick Papers, but whilst the main plotline has its fair share of evil, the vast majority of characters have a distinctly comic side, if not entirely so in some cases. As the main villain, Ralph Nickleby is pretty unremitting, as indeed is the minor villain Sir Mulberry Hawk, but even Squeers and his family, especially daughter Fanny, are ridiculed rather more than railed against. There are, however, a well above average collection of comic and/or eccentric characters, the most extreme being the rather gratuitous but no less funny mad suitor next door to Mrs Nickleby, wooing her by throwing cucumbers and various other vegetables over their dividing wall, and getting stuck halfway up Mrs N's chimney!
Dickens is a master of handling a large cast of characters. His best on this front, at least of those I've read, is IMO Bleak House. Nicholas Nickleby doesn't quite match this on a number of fronts: the plot line is rather more straightforward, characters less integrated in places and not quite so rounded, but, given that it's a much earlier effort, it's still a good example of what so many lesser authors can only aspire to. But what does make this stand out, even amongst Dickens's own works, is the huge energy the book exudes. It rattles along at a tremendous lick, galloping from episode to episode, each generating its own atmosphere and vitality. Quite a few of these, in hindsight, add little to the thrust of the narrative (for instance, the whole theatrical aside with the Crummlesses is really just one big, but thoroughly entertaining, diversion), but they do add to its richness, allowing a whole different set of characters to strut their way onto the stage (and the Vincent Crummless troupe creates more than its fair share of entertainment!).
There are, almost inevitably, weaknesses, some not untypical of other Dickens novels. Yes, his story does seem to dive rather idiosyncratically down various blind alleys on occasions; his love-interests are all too often too soppy, irritating and, frankly, rather under developed for my taste - Madeline Bray is a mere cypher compared to much of the rest of the dramatis personae, and even Kate is comparatively forgettable. But what I'm left with is an overwhelming sense of having lived through, rather than merely read, the lives of the characters, and the action of their adventures. Dickens has the ability to suck you in and keep you enthralled, so that even after 3 weeks and over 800 pages, I'm still wanting more, and feel rather lost that it's all over. He is, simply, one of the greatest novelists, and Nicholas Nickleby, whilst not quite matching my own personal favourites (Bleak House, David Copperfield), is up there challenging the very best.
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The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens *****
Well, it's taken just over three weeks, with plenty of interruptions from relatively inconsequential distractions (like work!), but Nicholas Nickleby finally rolled to a conclusion last night. It's been a bit of an epic, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything (well, almost anything!).
As with many Dickens novels, even if you haven't actually read it (and this wasn't a reread) there is still a certain degree of familiarity. Aside from the Nicklebys, names such as Smike, Wackford Squeers, the Cheeryble brothers, Dotheboys Hall - they are all known well beyond the pages of the book. But, as with so many superficially familiar books, the reality is very different. Just as Wuthering Heights took me completely by surprise with the entire second half (left out in the most famous film version), so I was somewhat taken aback to find that Nicholas departs Dotheboys Hall barely 20% of the way in. After that, we're on much more recognisable Dickens territory - London and Portsmouth, mainly the former. The narrative, however, was completely fresh.
The interesting thing I found though was that, whilst the novel is famous for its campaigning stance on the infamous Yorkshire holiday-less schools where boys were effectively dumped and left to the worst machinations of some pretty brutal individuals (Wackford Squeers is apparently based on a real-life head of a school in Bowes, William Shaw - even down to the initials), a campaign that was so effective that by the mid-19th century these schools were extinct, the vast majority of the book is actually one of his funnier novels. It may not be quite as light as Pickwick Papers, but whilst the main plotline has its fair share of evil, the vast majority of characters have a distinctly comic side, if not entirely so in some cases. As the main villain, Ralph Nickleby is pretty unremitting, as indeed is the minor villain Sir Mulberry Hawk, but even Squeers and his family, especially daughter Fanny, are ridiculed rather more than railed against. There are, however, a well above average collection of comic and/or eccentric characters, the most extreme being the rather gratuitous but no less funny mad suitor next door to Mrs Nickleby, wooing her by throwing cucumbers and various other vegetables over their dividing wall, and getting stuck halfway up Mrs N's chimney!
Dickens is a master of handling a large cast of characters. His best on this front, at least of those I've read, is IMO Bleak House. Nicholas Nickleby doesn't quite match this on a number of fronts: the plot line is rather more straightforward, characters less integrated in places and not quite so rounded, but, given that it's a much earlier effort, it's still a good example of what so many lesser authors can only aspire to. But what does make this stand out, even amongst Dickens's own works, is the huge energy the book exudes. It rattles along at a tremendous lick, galloping from episode to episode, each generating its own atmosphere and vitality. Quite a few of these, in hindsight, add little to the thrust of the narrative (for instance, the whole theatrical aside with the Crummlesses is really just one big, but thoroughly entertaining, diversion), but they do add to its richness, allowing a whole different set of characters to strut their way onto the stage (and the Vincent Crummless troupe creates more than its fair share of entertainment!).
There are, almost inevitably, weaknesses, some not untypical of other Dickens novels. Yes, his story does seem to dive rather idiosyncratically down various blind alleys on occasions; his love-interests are all too often too soppy, irritating and, frankly, rather under developed for my taste - Madeline Bray is a mere cypher compared to much of the rest of the dramatis personae, and even Kate is comparatively forgettable. But what I'm left with is an overwhelming sense of having lived through, rather than merely read, the lives of the characters, and the action of their adventures. Dickens has the ability to suck you in and keep you enthralled, so that even after 3 weeks and over 800 pages, I'm still wanting more, and feel rather lost that it's all over. He is, simply, one of the greatest novelists, and Nicholas Nickleby, whilst not quite matching my own personal favourites (Bleak House, David Copperfield), is up there challenging the very best. -
I read it a couple of years ago. With one or two caveats, I enjoyed it too, although perhaps not quite as much as you. My review is buried away on an old thread, so I hope you'll forgive if I repeat it here: it may be of some interest to you in comparison.
I had started reading Jane Smiley's Moo, but it was dragging a bit, and I dipped into this. Before I knew it, I was engrossed! This has had very mixed reviews, largely on the negative side, and I can see why. It's one of those multi-threaded novels, with several parallel stories running at the same time, the one common point being that they are all based in or around a street in South London, and that all the residents have been subject to some sort of slightly threatening campaign by a mystery individual. There is an irony here, in that the campaign is all about "We Want What You've Got", yet none of the recipients can understand why - they'd happily exchange quite a bit of what they've got for something else!
The problem is, though, that few of the stories every really connect: they largely stay separate throughout. Equally, the characters themselves are all somewhat stereotypical: the banker anxious about his bonus with his shopaholic wife, the Asian family at the corner shop, the last 'original' (I.e. born in the street) inhabitant, the Polish builder, etc et, all a bit superficial. And some fairly obvious things happen (it is all pretty predictable). It's certainly not a patch on some other 'London novels' like Michael Moorcroft's Mother London or Norman Collins's London Belongs To Me (both superb!). And yet.....
And yet, I raced through it, and really enjoyed it. Whilst it was predictable, I still wanted to know what happened and how things were going to turn out; I found most of the characters very 'normal' and likeable (apart from the shopaholic wife!), even if I didn't like individual characteristics. They weren't drawn with any great depth, we didn't get any great insights, but at the end I felt that this what life is like. So, not a great book, certainly not as great as it feels the author is aspiring to with way too many flaws, but an enjoyable, readable one, that I found I wanted to keep reading to the end. **** / 6 stars -
You have to succumb to bookshop temptation every once in a while ... there would be no bookshops otherwise
Glad you're getting on okay with Nicholas Nickleby. I need to pick it up again one day. I gave it up because Kate was one of those soppy and sentimental Dicken's heroines that make me want to scream
.. perhaps I didn't give her a fair chance (though I saw an adaptation and she plunged even lower in my esteem 
) I'm about two-thirds of the way through and, she doesn't seem overly sentimental to me. Maybe I've become a bit inured, but my notes actually comment that, for once in a while, one of Dickens's heroines actually seems to be fairly 'normal' - yes, a bit of a Victorian maiden, but nowhere near the likes of, say, Dora in David Copperfield (but could anybody be quite as sickly as her?) - and given the levels of harrassment, I'd say her reactions seem pretty reasonable.
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Like Athena, it's books I read as a child, the main ones which stick in my mind being the Swallows and Amazons series; Enid Blyton's Nature Book; Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books and Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies; the Paddington Bear books; Winnie-the-Pooh. There are many others ,but these one jump out at me immediately.
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Reading update 30th Jan
No posts, as steadily reading my way through Nicholas Nickleby in between everything else; up to just over 500 pages tonight. Still proving thoroughly enjoyable. The narrative drive may not be quite as strong as in, say, Oliver Twist or Bleak House, but there are some great episodes, and the language and atmosphere is as rich as ever.
After a bit of a hiatus, I succumbed to the temptations of one of my favourite second-hand bookshops in Otley earlier this week to top up on a handful of books that I've had on my wishlist for a while:
The People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe
Patriots and Liberators by Simon Schama
and one bought with the balance on my Waterstone's card:
Roman Britain, A New History by Guy de la Bedoyere -
I grew up reading the Swallows and Amazons series: they were, in fact, the first set of books I can recall collecting for myself with my own money, saving up to buy them all second-hand for 2/6d each! Whilst I didn't lead quite the life they did, my childhood did range through the local Surrey woods, playing out for hours on end well beyond the bounds of home, with a whole host of friends, as well as my two (younger) brothers.
The fact is that society's whole perception of risk, of danger, has changed dramatically over the last 30 or so years, much to the detriment of the children on the receiving end. The increasing prevalence of the car has certainly had some influence. There is no doubt in my mind that most children I now teach display wide-ranging dysfunctionality, increasing year on year, largely due to the over-protective society, dare I say paranoid/neurotic society, they are growing up in. Socialisation, communication skills, motor skills, development of self-responsibility, risk assessment skills - all have suffered massively because parents keep their children locked up where they can see them, and have taken over the structuring of their lives minute by minute, encouraged by a society which has no understanding of risk itself (it is thus, for instance, actually riskier to drive to work than to cycle, whatever our perceptions, because we only factor in the short term, immediately visible, risks). Yes, Ransome idealised the children's lives in his books, but they are completely recognisable to me, and underline how in some vita human areas, we are going backwards, not forwards.
BTW, I've visited most of the S&A sites, including swimming out to Wild Cat Island and camping in the most likely site for Swallowdale- they are all highly recognisable, even if the overall geography is slightly different!
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IMO, some things are great to have seen even if you hated them, just because you can join in conversations or understand references etc. It's like history. Some events are more important to know of than others because they changed a lot in the society. And if you never heard of that specific event, people will think you´re dumb.
That was a little what this question is about. A film or tv-series that everyone should know of or have seen to be "media smart".....
After some thinking, I voted Star Wars and Seinfeld. I still hear lots of references to both. And if you have never seen them, you'll simply won't understand the conversation to its fullest.
The Godfather is my runner-up for film, and probably X-files as runner-up for tv-series.
Hmmm. Can't say I'm overly bothered about the opinion of somebody who forms it based on what film or TV series I've watched. Having never been involved in a conversation about Seinfeld, I think I'll cope with not being able to understand one to the full (in fact, I doubt if I'd understand one at all)!
An interesting question though: what, if any, films or TV series have changed society significantly (and how)?
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None! It's all too personal, somebody's all-time great being somebody else's pet hate. It doesn't help that I'm finding TV less and less interesting, to the extent I'd be quite content for the TV to go (but the family wouldn't let me!). Having said that, the one big personal 'must-see', and the only TV I've watched since Christmas, is Sherlock (I'd be prepared to wait for the DVD!). With film, a long list of favourites (not many blockbusters though, but I do agree with Raven in rating Amelie as a favourite, maybe even no. 1), but I can't think of any that everybody should see.
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Just finished watching 'Gravity'. I was expecting good things with this film, but sadly, I'm disappointing. An action packed film, but it has very little plot. I'm also feeling rather dizzy after all of the spinning and movement throughout the film
This was my most recent film. I thought rather the opposite and really enjoyed it. There were a few quibbles on the science, but on the whole it did well, and I liked the fact that the plot was pared down to such stark simplicity. OH and I were enthralled. We didn't have any expectations, but wondered whether Sandra Bullock would be able to hold the film on her own. With some help from Mr Clooney, she did.
We also both thought that the 3D was a definite enhancement - the first time either of us have got even close to thinking that.
Offspring went to see American Hustle the week before last and was definitely underwhelmed. "OK" was the verdict, certainly not Oscar material.
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Like most people here, I use Amazon for my wishlist, with separate lists for fiction and non-fiction. There's usually about 30-40 non-fiction and a dozen fiction at present.. I try to put all books I intend to buy on there, and then sit on them to see if I really want them - that's unless something amazing comes up on a Kindle Daily Deal or similar (very rare - just doesn't really cover what I read anymore). I can access that list on my phone when shopping. Every few months I have a clear out of books that I'm actually now not going to buy. However, some do sit on there a while, for instance whilst I wait for them to come out in paperback.
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Reading update for week ending 17th Jan
A fairly frantic, and exhausting, week at school, so not as much reading done as I would have liked, having only read 150 pages of Nicholas Nickleby since this time last week, mostly on the train commuting or late at night in bed. It's classic Dickens though, and am totally into it. Nickleby has just left Dotheboys School - I hadn't appreciated how little space this part of the book took up, and am wondering where the next 650 or so pages is going to take me!
No books bought this week! -
Hi Willoyd - i picked up a copy of Sacred Hearts Sarah Dunant this morning in the charity shop, i've just been back to look at your review & pleased to see it was one of your favourite books of the year
I've just been reading your thread, commented on your purchase, and then come here to find your post! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do - I think it's likely to see slightly more divergence on opinion than some of her others which are more obviously appealing. But yes, definitely up there for me!
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I like having the different threads for the different counties - good idea. What about, though, threads on people's tackling the challenge? Should they go in the other bit of the Reading Challenge Section, or here, or in the Reading Blog (as poppy has done)? I'd love for them to be collected together in one place so that we call keep track of how people are tackling/making progress and what their thoughts are without sifting through the rest of the site - a bit different to threads on the books themselves. My efforts are so far constrained to my reading blog, other than individual reviews of books. (BTW, if I'm missing something obvious, please forgive!).
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The Harpole Report J.L.Carr
The Harpole Report is a very funny book with great characters
I am not a great one for humour in books. Indeed, I often think there might be something a wee bit wrong as I just don't seem to 'get' funny books, even the great classics, but The Harpole Report is one of the big exceptions, restoring my faith in my own humour! For me it's the funniest book I've read, a rare laugh outlouder, and was the book that introduced me to JL Carr. I'm so glad you enjoyed it too. My one point of disagreement with you is that I gave it 6/6!!
I fell off the wagon this morning, i couldn't walk past the charity shops without going in for a little look - i came out with
Sacred Hearts Sarah Dunant
Orley Farm Anthony Trollope
Ralph The Heir Anthony Trollope
Castle Richmond Anthony Trollope
The Trumpet- Major Thomas Hardy
What a fab selection. I've just finished Sacred Hearts - loved it (although I know it's not everybody's cup of tea). The Trumpet Major was my first Hardy - I love his work too. Looks a good selection of Trollopes......
I loved The Barchester Chronicles but i always think of The Warden as more of an introduction to the characters, the rest of the books are much stronger IMO
Agree entirely. For me The Warden is one of the weaker of his that I've read. Good, but not in the same league as, for instance, its sequel Barchester Towers, which was my introduction to 19th century literature as a teenager when it was required reading at school (didn't have to study it, just read it). Good call by my teacher!
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I haven't read any of them yet, but those last three biggies of his, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl, are generally reckoned to be his most challenging (i.e. difficult!) reads.
Claire - I think that's a prety decent summary, including the confusion! Yes, I'm sure it's all about the questions!
Willoyd's Reading 2014
in Past Book Logs
Posted · Edited by willoyd
Reading update Feb 22nd
It's been an awful week at work, and reading has had to go pretty much by the board. If it hadn't been for a pleasant hour spent this morning in my favourite reading position in the south facing bay window of our sitting room, looking out over the street we live on, I'd have been reporting virtually no progress at all on Darwin. As it is, I reached p.500 this morning - having covered the period when Origin of the Species was published - really lively, fascinating stuff. It's half term this week, so I'm hoping/expecting to finish soon and move on. It feels like months, but it's only three weeks on Tuesday. It's just I'm not used to books taking that long (although Nicholas Nickleby did - maybe it's the two books back to back that makes it seem such an extended period?)
A bit of a buying spree in Ilkley yesterday - just fun visiting the charity and book shops as a sigh of relief. Pure retail therapy!
Darwin and the Beagle - Alan Moorehead (hardback, Oxfam)
The Return of the King - William Dalrymple (hardback, Oxfam)
The Almost Nearly Perfect People - Michael Booth (paperback)
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion (paperback)
Poetry, The Basics - Jeffrey Wainwright (paperback)