What I'm reading ...

I have started The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson.

Bill Bryson is one of a very few authors whose books I buy immediately upon publication. This is an autobiography of his early life and starts out with some good background on life in the US in the early 1950s.

Rum Punch - by Elmore Leonard

This was a Bookclub selection. I have been reading it for over a month! I don't think this is a reflection upon the book itself - just my frame of mind.

It is a crime novel and has very strong characterization. But I'm afraid that I found the story rather hard to follow and I'm not at all sure that I understood the outcome. This is probably because I spent so long reading it. I will listen to the Bookclub programme - maybe that will help ...

BookCrossing catch

For some time, I have been interested in the concept of book crossing. The idea is that you register a book on a special Web site and then leave it somewhere for someone to find. Then they can register its "capture" and may add a review to the site and "release" it themselves later. Books thus travel around and develop a life of their own.

I have released quite a few books and had the odd one found. But today I made my first "catch". I registered to get "release alerts" for books left in Cheltenham, where I happened to be going this afternoon. We went to the right spot and there it was.

The only downside is that the book was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown - a popular author, but not one of my favourites! The registration was 126-4363000.

The Invitation - by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

A good friend shared a prose poem with me, called The Invitation. It seems that the author went to a party and realized that she was very weary of the trivial conversation and questions that people pose in that context. She wrote about what she would really want to know. I have reproduced the text of the poem below.

I was quite taken with it and got the book, which gave more background. It was an easy enough read, but she struck me as the kind of person who just beats herself up all the time and makes some dumb decisions. Well, each to their own. I still enjoy the poem.

---

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - by John Berendt

This book is billed as being about a murder and its investigation. It's fair to say that the murder is a thread running through the book, but hardly makes for suspense. The true value in the book are the beautiful descriptions of the people and places of Savannah - the glimpses of the social hierarchy and stories of ordinary and extraordinary people's lives.

As an inveterate people watcher, I enjoyed the book. It made me curious about the place. Maybe I should investigate. A friend told me about the movie - perhaps I should check that too.

I am really not reading fast enough at the moment - life is too full ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

This is the next Bookclub selection. It is quite long, so it might take me a while, but it seems easy enough to read. It is set in the US Southern states, which is an area that quite interests me.

Time to Depart - by Lindsey Davis

It took me a while to get through this book - mainly because my personal circumstances just didn't allow much reading time. I enjoyed it. The story progresses well, even though I can easily get confused with all the Roman names. I always like the author's style, combining good descriptions with wit. Here is a piece that I rather enjoyed:

Normally I like widows. They are women of the world, often without guardians, and frequently adventurous. This one was different. She did not know she was a widow yet.

Now I must listen to the Bookclub programme.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis.

I have read and enjoyed a few of the Falco books. So I was glad when I heard that Lindsey Davis was going to be on Bookclub. I had planned to attend the recording, but, unfortunately, that didn't work out. But I look forward to hearing the programme next month.

Sunbathing in the Rain - by Gwyneth Lewis

I would say that this book "delivered". It gave me some insight into what depression is all about and how a depressed person sees the world. And it did that in a reasonably light- hearted way.

There were a lot of insights, some of which were disconcerting. For example:

One of the classic symptoms of depression is sleep disruption, which usually means waking up early or being unable to sleep when you're exhausted.

I know exactly how that feels.

I thought that this was insightful:

Depression happens to people who won't listen to the messages that their subconscious is sending them.

At times, the author's poetic background is very apparent:

When I was young I remember seeing a film about Helen Keller, who was born blind, deaf and dumb, and her teacher who brought her out into the world. At the start, the deeply introverted child didn't want to leave her familiar isolation and learn sign language. But her teacher forced her, pressing the words into her palm like money she didn't know how to spend.

Beautiful!

Another great observation:

The British love of pets is, therefore, highly misleading. It's a spiritual matter in heavy disguise. What people in the park are really doing, as they throw a ball for Tyson or Slipper, is taking their own souls for a run.

A great metaphor about surfing:

We were each given a surf-board, like a personal headstone to carry down the beach.

I often wondered what meditation was all about:

Prophylactic doses of boredom and depression together in the form of meditation are very helpful in building up a resistance to them in your emotional immune system.

I think this book will stay with me for a while ...

I though that the author sounded familiar. I remembered a series of talks on the radio last year and wondered if she were the same person. A quick exchange of emails confirmed that she is. Isn't the Internet wonderful.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Sunbathing in the Rain by Gwyneth Lewis.

The subtitle of this book is "A Cheerful Book About Depression", which I have to admit seems an unlikely prospect. However, this is a topic that interests me, as where ever I go I come across people who have suffered from depression. I stumbled across a recommendation for this book in a magazine article. So, I thought I'd give it a go ...

Hotel World - by Ali Smith

I've done well and finished this book a whole week before the Bookclub programme - makes a change, as I'm usually behind.

The book is really a set of linked stories. The starting point is an incident where a girl is killed in an accident with a "dumb waiter" at a hotel. She is one of the narrators. There is also her sister and 3 other people.

I found the book rather unsatisfying, as I'm not sure it took me anywhere. I also found it hard to read in parts. Each perspective is written in a different style, characterized I suppose by the "speaker". In one case, the result is a total lack of punctuation. This would be OK for a paragraph or two to make a point, but, for a long chapter, no thanks.

Guess you win some and lose some. I will, nevertheless, look forward to the programme to see what input other readers may have.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Hotel World by Ali Smith. The next Bookclub book ...

This is the story of a night told from the viewpoint of five people, all of whom are connected in some way with a particular hotel. It's interesting how many books there are that use the device of telling the story from several perspectives. Guess that's OK.

Weaving the Web - by Tim Berners-Lee

The first part of this book is about the history and origins of the Web. It was interesting to see that Berners-Lee didn't really invent that much - he simply brought together a bunch of existing technologies in a novel way. I'm not saying that this wasn't brilliant, as such vision is very impressive.

I was surprised to find that I was such an early adopter, as I started using the Web in around 1995 and it was really quite new then.

The latter half of the book is much more about his ideas for the future of the Web [as he saw it 5 years ago when he wrote the book]. Although a lot of this is rather philosophical [e.g. how will it affect the way we think in the future], he did foresee some of the current trends towards user interaction: Wikis and blogging.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee.

Time for a different read - non-fiction this time. Since I use the Internet - in particular the Web - all the time, I guess it would be good to understand its origins and where it might be going. Since Berners-Lee essentially invented it, this should be a good place to start.

Noughts and Crosses - by Malorie Blackman

The story is centered around two characters, Sephy and Callum. They live in a world where there are two classes of people: noughts, who have white skin and are the lower class, and Crosses, who have dark skin and are the ruling class. Sephy is a Cross; Callum is a nought. It follows their life and their relationship through their teenage years.

Since the book is aimed at young adults, I guess the age of the main characters is intended to give the reader someone to identify with. I assume the goal is to raise awareness of prejudice and injustice in society, by showing an extreme [by modern standards, but not by historic] example of what a society might be like.

The story is well written, with each chapter seeing the viewpoint alternately from Sephy and Callum. The pace is good and kept me turning the pages. There is a strong sense of their increasing maturity as they get older.

I was curious about some of the terminology. The noughts [note the lower case first letter] were referred to in derogatory terms as "blankers". I imagine that this is supposed to be about their lack of value/worth/significance, but it seems to be a play on the word for "white" in various languages [it also rhymes with "wanker" - is that accidental?]. The Crosses [with a large "C"] were called "daggers" by the noughts. On the surface, this comes from the shape of a cross, but the word does resemble "nigger". Again, is that intentional?

I am told that there are further books in the series. I may investigate them in due course, but now I need to listen to the Bookclub programme [late again!].

What I'm reading ...

I have started Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

Another Book Club book and I running late again - the programme is only a week away. Still, it seems to be a reasonably straightforward read. It is described as "fiction for young adults" and my daughters assure me that it's a good read.

Teacher Man - by Frank McCourt

As expected, this was a good read. McCourt is a fine story teller and the best story is always one's own. Here he's relating his years in New York, with a brief sojourn in Dublin, when he embarked upon his teaching career. His perception of what teaching is - or can be - is quite inspirational. Kids reading recipe books, as if they were poetry, accompanied by improvised music - and all that in an English class!

The book is serious, but not gloomy, and has its humorous moments. He paints very vivid pictures and his powers of observation make you feel like you were there.

I'm left hoping that there's more to tell. Will there be a 4th book?

What I'm reading ...

I have started Teacher Man by Frank McCourt.

I needed something a bit lighter to read and though this would fit the bill. I read McCourt's first book - Angela's Ashes - before it became really well-known. Then I got his second -'Tis - as soon as it came out. So I have been looking forward to this, the third volume of his autobiography, for quite a while.

It's a nice read, so far. I do like a well-written autobiography - the reality of it just works better than even the best fiction.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - by Lionel Shriver

This is a remarkable book. It basically tells the story from Kevin's birth up until a while after he committed the massacre. The mechanism of telling it by means of a series of letters is not totally original, but is very effective and, by the end of the book, seems the only way that it could have been told.

The book is beautifully written and well deserved the Orange Prize.

The author is very observant and puts things into words that one may have thought, but never been able to express, for example:

We have explicit expectations of ourselves in specific situations - beyond expectations: they are requirements. Some of these are small: If we are given a surprise party, we will be delighted. Others are sizeable: If a parent dies, we will be grief-stricken. But perhaps in tandem with these expectations is the private fear that we will fail convention in the crunch. That we will receive the fateful phone call and our mother is dead and we feel nothing. I wonder if this quiet, unutterable little fear is even keener than the fear of the bad news itself: that we will discover ourselves to be monstrous.

Her descriptive prose is very evocative:

As ever, I marveled at your appetite, recently revived; you may have been the last WASP in America who still regularly breakfasted on two eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. I could never manage more than coffee, but I loved the sizzle of smoked pork, the fragrance of browning bread, and the general atmosphere of relish for the day ahead that this ritual fostered. The sheer vigor with which you prepared this feast must have scrubbed your arteries of its consequences.

Her skill with metaphor is outstanding. Instead of using them for effect, they are always used to say something that would be harder in "straight" text, for example:

For about five minutes no one said anything, and then we gradually resumed the pretense of an ordinary morning, making no mention of Kevin's outburst the way polite people are meant to pretend they didn't notice the release of a load fart. Still the smell lingered, if less of gas than of cordite.

This book has the key elements that make me enjoy reading: it has a beginning, middle and end; the characters are well drawn; the pace is just right and keeps me turning the pages; there is a very unexpected twist at the end that really makes you draw breath.

Although this is a shocking story, it is not the stuff of nightmares. It's a tale which will stay with me for a long time.

What I'm reading ...

I have started We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

Straight on to the next Bookclub book - I am getting behind, as I don't read fast enough.

This book is about a kid who carried out a high school massacre in the US. It is told in the form of a series of letters from his mother to her estranged husband.

I was surprised to discover that the author is female - the name would suggest otherwise.

Holidays in Hell - by P J O'Rourke

I enjoyed this book. PJO's cynicism and occasional outrageous statements amused me. But at the same time, he paints vivid pictures of the places he went and the people he found there. The destinations were various political "hot spots" and other places in the news at the time of writing [mid-1980s]. My only problem is trying to remember what all the politics was about back then - a lot's happened in the world in the last 20 years.

I am bemused about the title. He's an American, but he's using the word "holiday" in the English sense, where they would normally say "vacation". Perhaps it should have been "Vacations in Valhalla".

Time to listen to the Bookclub programme now ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Holidays in Hell by P J O'Rourke.

This is the next Bookclub selection. It's actually a book I'd had on my shelf for quite a while. I like travel writing and autobiography. I think the best travel writing tends to be of an autobiographical nature and that's what this is. So I'm looking forward to it. I will try to read it more quickly, as the programme goes out in a week's time ...

Margrave Of The Marshes by John Peel & Sheila Ravenscroft

Well, the verdict after reading this book is: yes, John Peel is someone I'd have liked to meet. I have a clear impression that he really was the guy he portrayed on the radio. I said before that I felt that I knew him. I guess I now feel that I know him a bit better.

The book is very nicely put together. Part 1 is a series of numbered chapters, which is a lightly edited [I think] rendition of the material that John was in the process of writing when he died. Part 2 was written by Sheila to finish of the story and takes the form of continuous text, with no chapters as such. This sounds odd, but works well.

I am aware that I am a slow reader and, at present, I don't get that much time for reading [compared with when I'm travelling]. I am normally keen to get through a book, as there are so many more on my shelf. In this case, I was more reluctant and seemed to read more and more slowly, even though it was well-written. I just realised why: I knew what the end of the story would be and was not in a hurry to get there...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Margrave Of The Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft

I was rather upset when John Peel died suddenly in late 2004 - I felt I'd lost a friend. I wasn't alone - many people seemed to be affected by his early death. Generally, I don't "do celebrities"; most celebs are, IMHO, rather talentless individuals who happened to be in the right place at the right time. JP was different. Anyone who listened to him on the radio felt that he was a personal friend. He always seems so open and accessible. This biography, started by John and finished by his widow and family will, I'm sure be interesting reading. I have a feeling he was a "what you see is what you get" kind of guy. We'll see. My list of "people I'd most like to have a beer/chat/dinner with" seems to get shorter by the day ...

Flashman - by George MacDonald Fraser

This is the story of a thoroughly unlikable chap - a cad or a bounder, if ever I came across one. This terminology says it all really, as the story is set in the early 19th century. It's a rather unlikely romp through India and Afghanistan with our hero doing very little heroic, but having the luck of the devil. It has very good pace - a true adventure story, but with a tongue firmly in cheek. I enjoyed reading the book and will seek out others in the series. I look forward to listening to the Bookclub programme now.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. This is the January Bookclub selection - I'm getting a bit behind with my reading, but at least the BBC make it easy to catch up with the programme later. I am hoping this is a little more like light reading after the last two books ...

We Were the Mulvaneys - by Joyce Carol Oates

This book took quite a while to get through. Partly this was because it's quite long [450 pages], but also because I have been devoting less time to reading than I'd like to. It wasn't hard to read and is very well written.

The story is about a family over something like a 15 year period, written mainly from the viewpoint of the youngest member. There are the parents and 4 children - 3 sons and a daughter. When the daughter is raped, a train of events almost leads to the complete destruction of the family - hence the title of the book.

There are ups and downs in the book and a real feeling [for me] of how life can make you feel out of control. Obviously, the rape is a terrible experience for the victim, but I had never considered how such an event might have wider implications. I have read other books on this subject [like "Lucky" by Alice Sebold], which have given me some insight, but there always seems to be more facets. In this book, the idea that the victim ends up with such a low opinion of themselves - a low self esteem - is introduced. I am not clear whether this comes from the event itself or from the reaction of her family and community.

All in all, I am glad that I read the book and feel that I have gained from it. It makes me sad that a "dream family" can fall apart like this, but I am encouraged by the description of how the individuals came out of it OK.

What I'm reading ...

I have started We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates.

I have owned this book for some years. I bought it first when it was announced as a future Bookclub choice. Then that programme got cancelled, as the author was unwilling to travel after 9/11. I was, therefore, pleased to see it recently re-listed. So the time to read it had come ...

The only downside is that it's the story of a family with tragic circumstances - just like the last book I read.

Family Planning - by Tim Parks

This was an interesting read. It had its humorous moments, but was, on the whole quite serious. A lot of the story is told by means of letters between the main characters. I like this style - it gets you into the head of the individuals.

All through the story, we are told that Ray is the mad one. I began to gradually wonder if he was the only one. Most of his immediate relatives seemed to have screw loose.

As is so often the case, I found the ending rather disappointing. The future is mostly set, but there was no clear "closure".

What I'm reading ...

I have started Family Planning by Tim Parks.

This is the first fiction book I have read by Tim Parks. He is an English guy with an Italian wife and lives in Italy. He used to appear quite often on the Home Truths radio program, talking about the oddities of life in Italy. I read a couple of books by him on the same topic. This one is about a family - an oldish couple and four grown-up children, one of whom has some mental difficulties and still lives with his parents. I have the impression that a key issue is what happens to him in the longer term.

A Wayne in a Manger - by Gervase Phinn

I wanted some easy reading, after the last book, and this fitted the bill, as I read it in two sittings. I have always enjoyed Gervase Phinn's books - his keenly observant style has always appealed to me, as he described his days as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales. This book is a collection of pieces around the theme of Christmas. I bought it at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, where I attended Phinn's talk and had him sign my copy. If I were being cynical [me?], I'd say that a successful author is pretty smart to get away with repackaging some work that had been published before, charge a good price for just over a hundred pages of large type and get it on the market in good time for Christmas. Fortunately, I enjoyed it, so I won't be cynical ...

The Gunpowder Plot - by Antonia Fraser

This book was, I admit, a bit of a struggle. Maybe just too serious for bedtime reading - not badly written, just detailed and heavy going. But I got through it and learned quite a lot.

My preconceptions are probably the same as anyone who has grown up with the standard Guy Fawkes mythology. I thought that Guy was the ring leader of a small band of terrorists, who burrowed under the Houses of Parliament in order to blow up the government. I had no real idea what their motivations were. I was wrong on numerous counts:

• Guy Fawkes's first name - regardless of our "Penny for the Guy" habit - was Guido.
• He was not the ring leader - that was Robert ["Robin"] Catesby - Fawkes was just one of the team, who happened to be caught.
• They didn't dig underground. The explosives were simply in a ground floor room under the chamber.
• They were planning on killing most of the royal family, not just the government.

Although there are some other theories, it seems that the plotters were Catholic fundamentalists, who wanted to overcome the government to ease their oppression. 400 years later and only the names have changed ...

It seems likely that the plot would actually have failed, as reports indicated that the gunpowder had "decayed" [as it will do if not stored correctly], but that may have been propaganda.

I was taken with a phrase used to indicate that something was unlikely to happen: "We shall see Tottenham turn French".

Tomorrow I will listen to the Bookclub programme and maybe pick up some more insights. But now on to some lighter reading ...

Cheltenham Literature Festival

I guess it goes hand in hand with enjoying reading and loving books, but I really like to take any opportunity to meet authors or just see them in person.

Last year I discovered the wonderful Cheltenham Literature Festival, which is only 45 mins drive away. On that occasion I just went to see Roddy Doyle talk [my daughters Josie and Emmeline both went to sessions that interested them]. This year, I went to two sessions. Last week I went to one which was presented by the people from a favourite Radio 4 Programme: From Our Own Correspondent. Today I went to see the inimitable Gervase Phinn, who, at 10:00 on a Sunday morning made a whole hall full of people laugh and cry in good measure. Josie also went to a story-telling session last week.

The whole festival is a great event and I must take full advantage in future years. I regret not going to see Alan Bennett this year ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Gunpowder Plot by Antonia Fraser.

This is a serious history book. Not really my usual line of country. It's the next Bookclub book, so I'll give it a go. The broadcast is on 6 November - the day after Guy Fawkes Day, which is the 400th anniversary of the Plot.

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers - by Paul Hoffman

This book delivered. It is a biography - and I always like to get glimpses into other people's lives - but it is also very informative about what goes on in the world of higher mathematics. This is all presented in a very informal manor, with more than a little humour. Although I am certainly not a mathematician, I am interested in numbers and the examples of number theory were fascinating. I am just frustrated that I don't really have anyone to discuss my ideas with ...

Nobody could read this and not come away with a feeling of regret that meeting Paul Erdos is now not an option. One also feels a kind of affection for such an eccentric character.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman.

I had never heard of Paul Erdos, the subject of this book until I heard an edition of the Radio 4 programme, "A Further Five Numbers" [programme #3], when they were covering the number 6. The example of why 6 is important turned to levels of connection - any two people on Earth are separated by, on average, six "jumps". This moved on to a discussion of Bacon and Erdos numbers. A Bacon Number is the separation of an actor from working in a movie with Kevin Bacon. If the actor has worked with KB, they have a Bacon Number of 1. If they have worked with an actor who has worked with KB, their number is 2, and so forth. For an Erdos Number it is about the closeness to having written a mathematical paper with Paul Erdos.

This book is his biography from his birth in Hungary in 1913 to his death 83 years later. He was a mathematical genius. But he was incapable of almost anything else. He would show up at colleagues' houses, unannounced, with a view to staying for a while. He was welcome because, even though he was hard work, his insights could save months or years of work.

The Buddha of Suburbia - by Hanif Kureishi

I finished this book in time for this afternoon's radio programme! Of late, I always seem to be a few days late and use the BBC's "Listen Again" facility. So, I guess this was quite an easy read.

The story is about Karim Amir, a teenage boy with an Indian father and English mother growing up in London in the '70s. Although humorous in many ways, there are lots of observations on society at that time [and now perhaps] and the attitudes to ethnic minorities. It's broadly optimistic, but not without its dark moments.

I found Karim hard to identify with or even like. He led, by my standards, a rather chaotic lifestyle, but I don't think that is particularly unrealistic. Perhaps I am now unable to get inside the head of a teenager. There is a lot of sex in the book. I am tempted to say too much, as, although some is very relevant to the story, I'm not sure that it all is.

I was intrigued by a random fact that I learned from the book [I like to think that I can learn things from fiction]. Some people's eyebrows are linked across the top of their nose - like they have one long eyebrow. It seems that the Romans thought this a sign of nobility; the Greeks thought of it as a sign of treachery.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi.

This is another book that I'm not sure I would have picked up on my own. It's the next Bookclub selection. It is described as a "comic novel" and I can see that it is humorous, but I think some of the Indian culture is wasted on me. I came across a simile that I rather liked: "Dad liked to stand out like a juggler at a funeral".

Gridlock - by Ben Elton

This really is a very unlikely story. A CP sufferer invents a revolutionary engine, which could change the world. The story is of his conflict, aided by his wheelchair-bound girlfriend and black traffic-warden mate, with the automotive industry. An additional thread covers the downfall of a government minister, who gets embroiled in the affair.

For all its unlikelihood, it is a cracking story and I enjoyed it a lot. It has lots of funny and/or surreal moments - that is Elton's style. I am not quite sure what we learn about his attitude to the car industry, the government, public transportation and the environmentalist movements, but I'm sure he has one ...

A greeting

Not much to do with my reading, but relevant nevertheless. I enjoyed this greeting which is used by the BookCrossing community:

May your shelf never be empty;
May your heart always be full;
May you never lose your place,
In life or in your book.
May your friends list grow.
And may the next story always
Be more enchanting than the last.

My book

Not strictly to do with my reading activities, but a book matter nevertheless ...

A book, that I've been working on over the last year, was finally published recently - details here. It is very nice to hold it in my hand after living with it for so long. Earlier in the week I, was at a trade show, where I was invited to do some signing at the publisher's booth. It seems that it was their best selling book at the show. All I need now is a few Amazon 5* reviews ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Gridlock by Ben Elton.

As I have commented on previous occasions [here and here], I never really expected to like Elton's books, but I was wrong. His writing never fails to impress me. And, so far, this book has not disappointed me. It's an unlikely plot, with extreme characters and outrageous jokes, but I like it a lot. The most interesting facet is the lead character suffers from cerebral palsy - he refers to himself as a spastic. Controversial eh?

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

On the surface, this is a series of stories about Precious Ramotswe and her detective agency. And they are charming, often funny, stories that interweave all through the book. But it is also about Mma Ramotswe's history and its parallels with her cases. Furthermore, it documents the current state and recent history of Botswana.

I really enjoyed the book. The stories engaged me and I like the mix of short ones, that are covered in a single chapter, and the longer ones that reappear and progress from time to time. I was constantly given a clear vision of the people, their lifestyle and sound and colour that characterizes Africa.

I look forward to reading more.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

I have been meaning to start off on this popular series for some time. After just reading a couple of chapters, I'm hooked. It is amusing and engaging and the African voices speak to me very vividly. I have a plane journey tomorrow and look forward to reading more ...

Le Grand Meaulnes - by Alain-Fournier

This story is essentially about a close friend of the narrator, who has the nickname "Le Grand Meaulnes". He has a rather unlikely [it sounded to me] adventure, which results in his meeting the love of his life. Later on he ends up marrying her and then abandons her while she is pregnant to go on another unlikely quest. She dies soon after the baby is born and he returns later.

Maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps there are some essential metaphors that I'm not seeing, but I found the story unconvincing and a bit dull. Win some, lose some.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier. An example of classic French literature, written about a century ago. Not my usual kind of reading matter, but it's the next Bookclub book. So I'll give it a go. Needless to say, despite the suggestions on the programme to the contrary, I am not attempting to read it in the original French. The translation I have seems an easy enough read.

Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince - by J K Rowling

As I expected, I did have some trouble remembering some of the "history", but it mostly came back to me. I found it an easy enough read, being able to get through 100 pages at a sitting without undue effort.

Although it was easy to keep reading, I guess I didn't really find the story exciting - at least not until the last 50 pages or so and then it all seems to be over at once. I wasn't very happy with the ending, feeling that it just fizzled out. There are plenty of threads to pick up in Book 7 and I guess I'll read that when it appears.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince by J K Rowling.

I was coerced into turning out at Midnight on the day this book was published. This was so my daughter Emmeline could get her hands on it before her sister took it off to the US for the week. 24 hours later, Emmeline had finished reading it. I am, of course, the last in the family to get the chance.

This is the sixth book in the series. I have read all the prior ones, having got them straight after publication [from 3 onwards]. The only problem is that they come out at approximately yearly intervals and I really can't remember the details of the story so far. Life is too short to re-read stuff. I guess it'll all come back to me. I am sure that Em will enlighten me, if I have problems.

Blood Rain - by Michael Dibdin

The story is about the hero being on Sicily investigating a Mafia- related case. His daughter Carla is also there and becomes friendly with a judge and suspicious about some tampering with the computer system that she is working on.

For the most part, I enjoyed this mystery story. It has a good pace and wasn't hard to read. Also, there is a dramatic turn of events in the middle of the book [start of part 2]. I am motivated to read other books in the Aurelio Zen series, but I do have a few concerns:

Most significant was the ending. The book has one, but I am unsure that I understand it. I also don't know if there is a further volume in the series that will clarify the matter.

The author is prone to giving rather more detail at times than I feel is strictly necessary for the progress of the story. In one place we are told about Carla's upcoming birthday [p51]; we are told again about the birthday shortly after [p65].

I am always concerned about technical inaccuracies. On page 300 we hear about the use of a "stick of plastic explosive". I don't think that plastic explosive comes in sticks.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Blood Rain by Michael Dibdin.

This is the next Bookclub book. It is odd to be reading a detective story set in modern Italy having just read the one set in the Roman Empire. So far the book seems interesting - quite intricate, but that's fine. It seems to change viewpoint quite often, but I will be OK with that, so long as I never get confused about who's "speaking". I have slight doubts about the name "Aurelio Zen" ...