Adventures in the top 100

The Wind in the Willows

2012-02-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

I don't quite know how I hadn't read this before. I have seen the film and, I vaguely recall, played a bit-part in an am-dram production, so was familiar with the story.

It is a lovely children's book, worth reading as an adult. The loyalty of Mole, the bluff confidence of Badger, the generosity of Rat and of course the arrogance of Toad combine to create a compelling and, above all, nice tale. If you haven't read it, devote a few hours of your time to tales of the riverbank, Toad's trials and tribulations, and the battle of Toad Hall!

The Three Musketeers

2012-01-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

For me, and perhaps anyone who was a child in the 80s, my expectations of Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers were entirely based on Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds. It's not often that a cartoon dog offers an accurate interpretation of a literary classic, but bizarrely, it does.

D'Artagnan is impulsive, firey, proud, continually challenging people to duels. Athos, Aramis and Porthos are brave but vain and foolish. The cardinal is evil but somehow admirable. This much I knew from the cartoon.

However, to the book. It is a great read - pacey, intricately plotted, containing love interest, war, grudges, mysteries on both a national and personal level. It's difficult to describe without giving too much away, but I would thoroughly recommend reading it.

Things that bug me about London

2012-01-29T07:13:00.001-08:00

I've passed through London twice this weekend on my way to the south coast. Last time I went on the tube I was 8 months pregnant and it was the height of summer. This time, I was relieved to note that I'm back up to full pace again, and transformed back into a londoner as I stepped off the train. Phew. However, it did lead me to thinking about the things that annoy me when passing through the capital.

- people who don't move at "london pace". I.e. the ones who step off tube trains and stand stock still, blocking the doors; those who meander through the corridors of the tube 4 abreast with no awareness of those around them; those who don't appear to realise they'll need their ticket until they're actually standing blocking the gate...you get the idea.

- people who don't organise their luggage, or who carry more than they can manage. We've all seen them - a suitcase, slightly too heavy to be able to carry it, a couple of other bags, clutching a book or magazine that doesn't seem to fit any of the bags. They look as though they're on the brink of dropping it all, and every staircase, escalator or ticket barrier requires a complete stop and redistribution of luggage. I appreciate that sometimes people will need to travel with a lot of luggage, but this type don't appear to have given any thought to how they're going to navigate the inevitable steps etc.

- people who invade your personal space. You've tucked yourself out if the way into a corner, perhaps awaiting the announcement of a platform number, and people come & stand practically on top of you, or pass by so close that you might be invisible.

So, yeah, people. I think I should become a recluse.

In other news, Rachel has survived her first weekend alone with Martin (with grand-parental assistance) and I am going to attempt to finish the 3 musketeers on the remainder of the journey. Bye for now, London.

Bleak House #2

2012-01-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

Fanfare please! I have finished Bleak House!!

I think it's my favourite of the Dickens novels I've read, although as I've established on this blog, that's not necessarily a massive compliment.

It's a long book, and I would estimate that the first two thirds of the book is establishing characters and setting the scene for the dramatic ending. I found it quite confusing at times as there are so many different strands to the story, and seemingly unconnected characters, that it was difficult to keep track of them all. Naturally, they all get woven into the story, but I felt that it took far too long to get to that point. Esther, the main narrative voice, is quite a likeable character, although her uber-humility regarding others' opinion of her got a bit wearing at times.

The court case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce is a central theme of the book, with many of the main characters living their lives waiting for the outcome. I think that this was predominantly a way for Dickens to criticise the Victorian legal system and the court of chancery, and the various digs at the legal profession etc are mildly amusing.

There is also a comic character, Harold Skimpole, who is skilfully realised, and gradually exposed as a cynical manipulator - this is cleverly done.

Once Dickens actually gets to the point and starts telling a story, it gathers pace, is very readable, and very involving. It's just...why does it have to take him so long to get there?

Still, done and dusted, and I feel a sense of achievement at having finished it. I still won't be rushing to read any more though...

Bleak House #1

2011-11-28T12:37:00.001-08:00

Don't get excited - I haven't finished this already.

I'm about a third of the way through and, as it may take me a while, thought an interim post may be in order. Also, writing a blog post means that I feel I'm making progress whilst not actually having to be reading the book.

At the moment, we still have Rachel sleeping in our room, and she seems to start waking up if I have the bedside light on, so my reading is mainly happening under the duvet with one of those little lights musicians clip onto their stands whilst playing in an orchestra. This isn't conducive to reading for long periods of time, though it does have the side benefit of making me feel like I'm about 8, reading after I'm supposed to have turned out the light and gone to sleep! It may be time to move her next door.

Anyway. Bleak House is interesting, so far. It has quite a light-hearted feel about it, despite the name. I think the characters are all intended to be lightly comical, and the names are predominantly ridiculous. It's not laugh out loud funny, but it may have been when written. It's fairly readable, and certainly easier going than other Dickens novels (Nicholas Nickleby, I'm looking at you). However, so far it seems to meander without particular intent, and is more like a loosely connected series of anecdotes than a novel. I do like to feel that there is narrative drive in a work of fiction and that the author is aiming for something...so far the reading experience is much like the last Harry Potter book where they wander around a forest for 600 pages. Apologies to Dickens fans for comparing this to JK Rowling! I'm sure it will go somewhere at some point but it does feel as though it could benefit from an editor's severe red pen.

Perhaps I'll go and read some more when Only Connect finishes...

1Q84

2011-11-15T12:31:00.001-08:00

Now, this book isn't actually on the list but I thought I would talk about it anyway. Not least because my next read is Bleak House, and I suspect it may take some time. However, this is THE LAST DICKENS I WILL HAVE TO READ. Excuse the capitals, but I am excited. Bleak House may, in fact, be the last Dickens I ever read - I have improved on my previous record of struggling to finish anything but Oliver Twist, but have not been converted.

Anyway, I digress. 1Q84 is the new work from Haruki Murakami, a cult Japanese author and one of my all time favourites (I should thank my brother for introducing me to A Wild Sheep Chase, still my favourite, and giving me many happy hours of reading). Murakami writes in Japanese but works with two very good/sensitive translators and his novels are a joy to read. This one is broken into 3 volumes, volumes 1&2 published together, and 3 published slightly later - a week apart in the UK, but I think slightly longer in Japan.

I pre-ordered this on Amazon - one of the great joys of reading on a Kindle is that, as long as you leave the wireless connection switched on, a pre-ordered book is delivered automatically overnight, direct to the Kindle, allowing you to wake up in the morning and dive straight in. Or, wake up in the morning, see it's there, and spend all day desperately wanting to read it while you care for the baby...same difference!

The reviews of 1Q84 talked about this as having reference to Orwell's 1984 but I didn't really pick these up, other than the fact that it was set in 1984. Murakami is on his usual fine surreal form, exploring the story of Aomame, Tengo and Fuka-Eri who, through their contact with the world of the Air Chrysalis, find themselves in an alternate reality, which Aomame labels 1Q84 - Q standing for question. As ever with Murakami, there are recurring themes through the book - the preparation of food, ears, a lonely but attractive young man with an older married girlfriend, an unexpected role for sex in the drive of the narrative...

It's very difficult to describe this - if you haven't read any Murakami before, read Wild Sheep Chase or the Wind-up Bird Chronicle first, to get an idea of his style. Or Norwegian Wood or Sputnik Sweetheart which are still surreal but slightly easier to relate to. However, I would thoroughly recommend this as a very readable, intricate work. I couldn't put it down, and I'm sure I will go back to it more than once to appreciate the full intellectual achievement that it represents!

Next - Bleak House. < sigh >.

David Copperfield

2011-10-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

It turns out that finding time to read is pretty tricky with a tiny baby. Having found a bit of time to read, it is even trickier to find time to update a blog about it!

Small child is currently being rocked by Martin but shortly to be handed back to me, so, very quickly, David Copperfield.

The more Dickens I read, the more it confirms that I don't enjoy Dickens! DC was relatively readable but immensely depressing - without spoiling anything, I can say that each time you think it can't get worse, it does - rather Hardy-esque. It gave the impression of having been written for serialisation, but I don't know if that was the case or not...

won't be reading it again. To the Dickens fans out there, apologies for just writing him off. I still have to read Bleak House - joy. I would probably have given slightly more time to explaining why I was less than enchanted with it, were it not for the screaming child demanding my attention!

Formatting traumas...

2011-09-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

I went in this morning to update Les Miserables in the list and realised that my master list seems to have dropped the formatting - all of the ones which were blue, and thus read (not red!) have reverted to black. Gah. Will have to work out how to sort it out. In the meantime, I am reading David Copperfield and I think I counted that I have 15 remaining to read!

**Update - I couldn't make the colours work so I've just changed it to add sub headings. This may have been a more sensible way to do it in the first place anyway. And, I'm delighted to say that there are only 14 left, including David Copperfield. Unfortunately it also includes the complete works of Shakespeare and The Wasp Factory. I'm not convinced it will be easy to find time to read Shakespeare in the next...erm...18 years, and from what I've heard I really don't want to read the Wasp Factory! We'll see how we go - at least I'm making progress through the excess of Dickens on this list!

Les miserables #2

2011-08-27T12:02:00.001-07:00

To follow on from the last post, I did finish les mis. Definitely worth making it to the end. It is a spectacularly ambitious work, highlighting social issues, the general misery of the human condition, as well as the specific characters in detail. Read it for the sense of achievement, or to fill in the gaps around the musical, but it isn't an easy one!

Les Miserables & things I'm looking forward to when no longer pregnant!

2011-08-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last managed to write a post.

I've hit a point in the list where I've read everything that I actually want to read, and so it's becoming increasingly difficult to discipline myself to pick up the next book. It also turns out that being pregnant makes you really tired and makes it difficult to concentrate on intelligent literary content - who knew?!

Anyway, following diversions including re-reading the Stieg Larsson trilogy, Heartstone by CJ Sansom, and a number of chick lit and thriller books that I don't really want to admit to, I am now 68% through Les Miserables, in the English translation of course.

I do intend to finish it, of course, but had a few interim observations. Firstly - it's unfeasibly long, and really frustrating to read. Clearly, no-one ever taught Victor Hugo the virtue of short, concise sentences, or of using one example to illustrate his point. One sentence can easily span half a Kindle screen or more. When in descriptive or comparative mode, he seems to be unable to use less than 8 examples...one piece on slang lasted for three chapters without actually shedding any light on the slang that the characters subsequently used. He seems to have taken the central story, which is genuinely gripping and brilliant, and used it as a vehicle to propound long rambling theories on various social scenarios, the battle of Waterloo, street kids in Paris...etc. I'm sure that all of these are worthwhile in their own right but it creates a really disjointed literary effect - events are moving along apace, something significant is about to happen in the story, the reader is fully absorbed and interested...and suddenly you are expected to transfer your interest to a drifting series of chapters on another topic entirely. Most do have some relevance - for example, the description of Waterloo sheds light on the relationship between Marius and Thenardier - but this link could have been created without spending hundreds of words outlining the military strategy for the battle, the misunderstandings, the blow-by-blow account of the advances and retreats. For me, it has the effect that every time I start getting into it, one of these sections comes up and kicks me out of the reading zone.

It's not unreadable by any means but it does drag. I'll see how I feel when I get to the end!

Meanwhile, I'm just about to go into my 4th week of maternity leave. It's been surprisingly easy to stop work and become accustomed to a gentler pace, for the time being. As the end of the longest 9 months ever approaches, I've had some time to think about things I'm looking forward to...

Being able to turn over in bed without waking myself up

Having normal size feet and even wearing heels from time to time

Looking at clothes in shops that I could feasibly enjoy wearing

(Losing weight allowing)...Eating nice cheese, pate, cured meats...I miss Brie and goats cheese more with every day that passes!

And of course the odd glass of nice red wine or a pint on a sunny day. Pint of lager, that is, not pint of wine...

Not having the spectre of labour looming over my future!

Being able to walk normal distances, and even run occasionally

Regaining my taste for tea and coffee so I can finally take advantage of the espresso machine I bought Martin for Christmas

Not having to cope with acquaintances and strangers thinking that my body is public property - why do people think it's acceptable to touch a pregnant stomach when they wouldn't at any other time?

Not feeling like I need Inspector Gadget arms to reach things

Being allowed to lift things without being fussed over - I do of course appreciate that people care, and there's a good reason for it, but it really doesn't sit comfortably with the independent and capable person I have always been!

And, of course, actually having a baby and getting on with being a parent rather than just being a bit nervous about what it will be like!!

I know that's very much off the normal topic for this blog but thought I'd share. Now back to Les Mis!

Germinal

2011-05-30T02:24:00.001-07:00

I think it's quite obvious which books I enjoy based on the length of time between posting. I started Germinal on Thursday, after finishing Middlemarch, and have just finished it. Yes, I admit, it is shorter, but it is also eminently more readable.

I knew nothing at all about this novel before I started reading it and, due to reading on the Kindle, didn't even have the back-of-the-book blurb to inform me. This meant that I had no expectations at all.

Germinal is a French novel, set in a mining community during a period of industrial unrest. Etienne, a stranger who arrives in the community at the beginning of the novel, seems to act as a catalyst for change, with the mood in the community moving from utter poverty-stricken resignation to open anger, and a strike.

The story itself is fairly straightforward - scene setting, establishment of characters, the major event of the strike, and the consequences of that. However, the strength and impact is in the way that the people, community and their way of life is so starkly portrayed. I can't remember reading anything else which so accurately portrays the poverty of life lived just below the breadline; the day to day struggle to put the basic necessities on the table, and the social indignities. The few characters who were richer obviously threw this into sharp relief, but did not come off well in terms of the way they persisted in believing that the miners had enough when they were clearly starving.

One thing which was quite striking was the portrayal of relationships and sex within the community - the younger community members were depicted as being continuously at it, in the absence of cash to pursue any other forms of entertainment. There is probably some accuracy in the value placed on these relationships - inevitable, and ideally resulting in marriage, but with marriage delayed as long as possible so that they could continue to contribute to their parents' households - and the individual partnerships rang true, but the idea that the countryside was littered with couples wherever you turned seemed somehow improbable.

The other element which makes this novel something approaching a masterpiece is the exploration of individual responses to the situation, with the strong, driving background of the mob mentality. There is very little judgement of morality, with the reader left to make their own decisions, but with the impression that personal morality no longer really counted for anything. Without giving anything away, there is both injustice and justice in terms of the people who are injured and killed during the strike, creating the strong message that the individual was helpless in the situation, and good was not rewarded.

It is a work of unremitting gloom. However, it's definitely worth reading - I'm not sure I'd say that I liked it, but I gained an insight into a piece of history, and couldn't put it down. One word of warning - don't under any circumstance read this if you already suffer from claustrophobia, or know someone who works in a mine!

Middlemarch - finally!

2011-05-27T00:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have finished Middlemarch at last.

It's very long.

I started with a pre-disposition to dislike it due to my only previous Elliott experience (Silas Marner), and to be fair to Middlemarch I have to say that this was far less dull, turgid, irritating . However, it started well - there seemed to be lots of characters that might develop into interesting relationships and interactions, and things seemed to move along quickly. Until the second or third chapter, or whenever it is that Dorothy marries Mr Casaubon. From that point, all the pace and drive seemed to drop out of the writing, and it then took hundreds of pages to get to a conclusion which was quite obvious from the beginning. I don't mind a predictable ending as such, but I do object to having to read quite so much to get to it!

I also found that the characters didn't develop from their promising start - each one had one or two key characteristics, and demonstrated these throughout, meaning that they were more like cariacatures. The book is too long to do without character depth, and 99% of them were irritating - particularly Rosalind (or was it Rosamund? I should be able to remember that). As I've noticed before, I find it particularly difficult to engage with fiction where I don't like, or have a genuine interest in, any of the characters.

So, it's finished - it's not as bad as I expected but I won't be rushing to read any more Elliott.

Whilst reading Middlemarch I also read:
The Ice Cream Girls - looks like a lovely floaty chick lit kind of book, is actually quite a traumatic book about a violent teacher paedophile. Good, readably, but be warned!
Victoria Coren's poker book - brilliant
The last two books in the Millenium trilogy - I'd read them before but still found them gripping.

I think I now understand why Middlemarch took so long!

Ulysses - a failure, but whose?

2011-04-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

So - James Joyce, Ulysses...stream of consciousness narrative. I've tried to read this book 3 or 4 times before and never got beyond page 43. I can tell you this as the bookmark was still in there from the previous aborted attempt. I can even date it, as the bookmark is a train ticket - October 2003, when I apparently optimistically tried to start reading Ulysses on the train from London to Langley Mill near Nottingham, on the way to see the software provider for the recruitment database I was working on at the time. I remember the trip quite clearly, but not the book. Telling. Anyway. On this attempt I was absolutely determined not to be beaten - I've found books difficult before, and have made my way through them, and on this challenge, I didn't see not finishing a book as an option. I have tried really, really hard. I've made it all the way to page 200, and so far all I can discern as having happened is: - Some young men who unfathomably houseshare in a tower have breakfast - One goes to work and gets paid - A man walks to the shops and buys a kidney for his breakfast, which he forgets about when cooking but just manages to catch before it burns - Those two men plus some others spend a lot of time discussing funerals and then attend one. That's it. 200 pages!! And another 700 to go. When I first starting reading this I asked on Facebook whether I was being thick in not finding it easier to read. Apparently, I am not alone in this, and my friend Joanna described stream of consciousness narrative as "having no narrative". She's an English teacher by training, so I trust her opinion on this! The thing is, I'm sure that if I really focus closely on drawing out what is happening, there will eventually turn out to be a narrative, slow-moving as it may be, hidden within the stream of consciousness. Not many books have defeated me, and I know that I am capable of reading it and understanding it, if I try hard enough. However, I just don't want to! There are too many books in the world, let alone other things to do, to waste time reading something as unintuitive and unenjoyable as this just to be able to say I have read it. I do also understand that literature is not all about the narrative, and what happens in the end - it's about the way the journey is portrayed, the display of intellect, the use of techniques to create a particular effect. I've read other books - A Suitable Boy is a great example, actually - where it is so long and involved that you have to stop focusing on what's going to happen at the end, and just sink into the way the story is told, the characterisation, relationships, and the style of writing. It took me three months to read, but I didn't mind because it felt like an achievement, it's intellectually challenging, but there is pleasure to be had in the act of reading. Ulysses is not like this. Thus far, there is no characterisation, no appearance of relationships between the characters...there aren't even really many finished sentences. It's impossible to sink into because the stream of consciousness is so difficult to follow, and if I relax and read at anything approaching my usual speed, I get to the end of a page and realise that what I've just read has no meaning. Sometimes, a slower re-reading also yields no meaning... And I think that's the problem - it doesn't display any of the characteristics that I associate with either a pleasurable read, or a difficult but worthwhile read. The story isn't compelling, the characters are neither likeable nor interesting...nor are they really anything more than names on a page. The language isn't beautiful. It isn't teaching me anything about a historical context. It feels, if I'm honest, like it has been written just to be clever, with no other redeeming features. According to one of the soundbites on the back, it gives an unmissable flavour of Dublin life. Really? So far, it hasn't given a flavour of anything outside of two people's internal monologues, and they appear to be two dull people! At about page 140, one of the characters said something along the lines of "Shite and onions! Life's too short for..." (and I can't remember what). And that's the conclusion I've come to - life is too short to read another 700 pages of something I won't really take in (including the last 200 pages with no punctuation - what a treat) and therefore I am declaring Ulysses a failure. Mine, really, as Joyce managed to finish it, but I couldn't. I'm sure that die-hard Joyce fans (if there are any, I've never met one) would tell me that I'm missing something, but I am left with the suspicion that this is one of those books which people recommend to sound intellectual, whilst not actually having read it. Don't bother, unless you have unlimited time on your hands! If anyone has any wisdom into what I'm missing, let me know - I can't promise I'll try again but if there is a better understanding to be had of why this is considered to be such a key piece of literature, I'd like to at least know! Ulysses passes onto the very small pile of books which have beaten me (Nicholas Nickelby, Ian McEwan's Saturday, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, and this...I think that's it), and I will move on to the next thing. I need to find something on the list which isn't painful to read, and preferably doesn't take place in France or on a ship, as I need a change after the Count of Monte Cristo! Any recommendations? Rant over... :-)

Heartof Darkness

2011-04-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

In a slightly unexpected display of commitment, I have read another book - Conrad's Heart of Darkness, described as "the first 20th century novel". To be fair, it's very short - 100 pages - which somewhat makes up for the length of the Count of Monte Cristo. I may have read it too quickly as it hasn't made much of an impact on me. The novel is based on the first-person narrative of a sailor describing a voyage he made into the "heart of darkness" - Africa. It's very much reflective of its time, and I found the casual approach to enslaving the "natives" difficult - his first experience on arriving in Africa is seeing a chain gang, who are dispassionately described but clearly on the brink of starvation, over worked, and uncared for. I understand that this is in part a reflection of the time - but it was written in 1890, a good half-century after slavery was outlawed, and so I would have expected the mentality to have changed. I always find it difficult to engage with the characters in a novel where they display these sort of attitudes - the natives are not really acknowledged as people at all, and the narrator expresses surprise when he finds that he is sad "in a way" about the death of one of those travelling with him ... because he had become used to keeping him in order. Other than this, it's one of those novels which isn't so much about events as about creating an impression and atmosphere via descriptions of places...I have a tendency to skim-read descriptions, looking for the real action, so I suspect I haven't really taken the best out of it. Certainly very readable, but I didn't find that it particularly engaged me. What to read next? I have a horrible feeling that it's time to take on Middlemarch, or possibly another Dickens or Russian extravaganza!

The Count of Monte Cristo

2011-04-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a long time since I last posted. The Count of Monte Cristo is a very long book and I really struggled to wade my way through it. However, with the assistance of time waiting in airports and on planes I have finally reached the end - hooray! This mainly makes me happy because I can now read something else without guilt (bearing in mind that I have read at least 2 quick reads - with guilt! - as light relief whilst struggling through to the end of this). This is quite a difficult work to write about because I can see that it is a masterpiece - the ideas, construction, depth of imagination and sheer quality of writing make it so. However, it's densely plotted with complicated twists and turns, and the mid-section (about 250 pages !) was so long and apparently unrelated that by the time I got to the end section (about 350 pages...) I had entirely forgotten the cast of characters from the beginning. Given that this is a revenge saga, and only makes sense in the context of what happened at the beginning, I think this contributed to my lack of enjoyment. I would be tempted to read it again to see if I could gain a better overall picture, but it's so long and there are so many other books in the world to read! I found it ultimately unsatisfying and hollow - this is probably the intention, as it is built around the Count's determination to revenge himself on three individuals who did him a significant wrong, and he finds that revenge is not as sweet as expected....therefore there isn't a resolution that is pleasing to the reader despite an attempt at a vaguely happy ending. This can be appreciated from the literary point of view but not necessarily enjoyed as such! Definitely worth a read if you have a lot of time on your hands, and a good memory for characters through a long, twisting, turning plot. I have neither, but I'm glad I made it to the end! On another note, someone recently suggested to me that I diversify into blogging about parenthood...obviously not quite yet as I'd be writing about parenting a cat, but from later in the year. I'm undecided...writing about books is easy for me, and unthreatening as I can write in the personal but without actually mentioning anything personal; parenthood would be a whole different thing. We'll see - might come back to having time on my hands, and learning to type with one hand only!

Seeing Ben Folds

2011-02-25T01:16:00.000-08:00

We went to see Ben Folds in Manchester last night and I wanted to blog about it. It's slightly outside my normal remit of books and cake, but I have justified it to myself on the basis that he is on the Lonely Avenue tour, an album co-written with Nick Hornby, and including some short stories written by Nick, therefore it was a literary activity. Clear? Good!

A warning, first - below, I will talk about the songs he uses to open and close the show, and some highlights of song selections. If you're going to one of the later gigs, and would rather be surprised, stop reading now, and come back and see if you agree with me when you've been!

The gig was at Manchester Apollo which was quite a nice venue, although not in such a great area. It used to be a cinema, and the Stalls area is now all standing, with seating in the circle. The main highlight of the venue for me (which maybe tells you something about my age) - we failed to get cash before going in, so went to the bar and asked if we could pay by card. No, but there's a bar on the top floor that takes cards. Up we went, and found the bar at the end of a quiet corridor that looked like it didn't lead to anything interesting. Not only did it take cards, but it was empty (when we arrived, though others followed), and was full of big white sofas and armchairs to chill out in. A cut above the average bar at a gig!

So, duly relaxed, we took ourselves off to find our seats in time for the support act, Kate Miller-Heidke, an Australian singer-songwriter. We were unconvinced for the first couple of songs, and started to write her off as a generic girl singer (lovely voice but difficult to distinguish from any other). However, as she progressed, we were much more impressed - some really interesting songs, imaginative use of voice techniques, a bit of comedy (check out "Are you f*cking kidding me?", a song about Facebook, but please note the parental advisory warning on lyrics!!), and an absolutely astonishing range. Definitely worth a listen.

Then it was time for Mr Folds. Last time I saw him, about 9 years ago now, he dual-toured with the Divine Comedy, and did his piece solo with a piano. This time, he had a four piece band - bass, the most energetic drummer I have ever seen (sorry Dan Matthews), a guy who switched between synth, French horn and random percussion, and a guy who switched between guitars, additional drums, and other random percussion. And, of course, himself on a grand piano.

I can't remember every single song that he did. They played for just over 2 hours, with 5 or 6 songs from Lonely Avenue, and the rest spread pretty evenly across the back catalogue. Highlights for me were...

- Opening with Levi Johnston's Blues, from Lonely Avenue - probably the best song on that album, about Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy incident.
- Belinda - another great song from that album
- Still fighting it
- Annie Waits
- Bastard
- Cologne, from Way to Normal - by far the best song on that one
- You don't know me, featuring Kate M-H as the female voice, again demonstrating her fantastic range, and performed with brilliant interaction between the two of them that really brought out the character of the song
- Landed
- Hilarious cover of Sleazy by Ke$ha, chosen because it was #1 in the iTunes chart at the point where they were deciding which cover to do. Don't know the original but I'm pretty sure the cover, whilst funny, was musically better!!
- Finishing (pre-encore) with Philosophy...still brilliant.

In terms of songs, as I write this, every one I remember is a highlight, so I'll stop there before I basically type out the set list in a random order. In terms of the show, I love the energy that Ben Folds puts into it - even at the end, after 2 hours without a break, he was bounding around as frenetically as at the beginning. He plays the piano with such force that he broke one of the strings, and so quickly that you start to wonder if he has 3 hands, or at least extra fingers. I've always loved his musicianship - as a pianist (albeit not a very good one), I can recognise how advanced his piano composition and technical ability is, and love the way that he makes the piano often the leading and central component of his music. After 2 hours, it felt like every song had been a fantastic choice, but at the same time, I could think of about the same number of songs again that I'd quite like to have heard, which is a testament to the strength and variety of his back catalogue/body of work. But most importantly, for a live performance, you can tell that consideration and planning has gone into every song - he doesn't just turn up and play through the catalogue, but brings something new to songs I've heard hundreds of times.

Only one criticism - the venue isn't that big and it wasn't sold out. Manchester, what's wrong with you?!

If you haven't heard anything by Ben Folds, go and check it out. The man's a genius - fact!

Next blog post...normal service will be resumed if I ever manage to get to the end of the Count of Monte Cristo. It's good, but my word it goes on for a long time!

Madame Bovary

2011-01-31T12:35:00.000-08:00

Ah, Madame Bovary. I read this in the English translation, obviously - you would be waiting for some time for this review if you waited for me to plough through it in French. This is the terribly tragic tale of Emma, who makes a good, solid marriage to the sensible and not overly exciting Dr Bovary. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for her to become disillusioned as her marriage has not brought the rollercoaster of passion and excitement that she expected. They move to a quiet country town where Charles sets up his medical practice.

Without giving too much of the story away, Madame Bovary then embarks on a life of seeking romance, love and excitement outside her marriage. There are moments of ecstasy, moments of despair, against a background of spiralling debt to fund her lifestyle. Charles is resolutely oblivious.

It doesn't end well.

It was very readable, but to be honest, left me completely cold. I just wanted to shake Emma, and tell her to pull herself together. She was so deluded and silly that I had no sympathy for any of her difficulties or traumas, particularly during her increased neglect/ignoring of her daughter, and I found it really difficult to believe the debt-related strand of the novel. I can understand why it is a classic, but it isn't for me - the characters held no appeal for me, and I didn't really care what happened to them.

This probably displays that I'm not a purist, but I do prefer a story with an element of redemption in it...something that doesn't feature in Madame Bovary.

In other news, I can't find my Kindle - I'm pretty sure it's in the house somewhere but the exact location is a mystery. Hmm. My next reading project will have to be something in real paper...

Bram Stoker's Dracula

2011-01-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how quickly you can read a book when it's totally gripping, you don't have any prior engagements for the weekend, and you then have to spend Monday lying flat on your back because your back seizes up for no apparent reason...

Dracula is one of those novels which has contributed so much to subsequent literature, film and general popular culture that it's definitely worth reading in order to understand all of those references.

It is also a cracking read.

The story is told through the diaries and letters of the main characters - a style which took me a chapter or so to get into, but once I got used to it, the narrative device is used really well & smoothly to create dramatic tension and move the story along.

Although I was obviously already familiar with the general outline of the story I didn't really know any of the detail, and so came to it fresh. It's really refreshing to read a novel of that period that is so geographically mobile, beyond the European Grand Tour - Van Helsing appears to travel to and from Amsterdam in a day or so, and the trip to Transylvania is undertaken with the minimum of planning and trepidation (other than the natural fear of hunting Count Dracula down in his homeland!)

**pauses for brief hiatus in blogging whilst lying on back as cat decides to stand on my chest between me and the keyboard**

It is easy to see how this earned its classic status - the mix of tension, horror, strong characters, and exactly the right level of description to create atmosphere and location without dragging the description out. Definitely worth a read, if only to understand the contribution it has made to so many other works. Interestingly, I can't help but suspect that JK Rowling got the idea for Voldemort & Harry's mental connection from the link between Dracula and Mina...just one of the many contributions!

Tale of Two Cities

2011-01-22T00:27:00.000-08:00

I approached this with some trepidation. My only previous positive experience of Dickens has been the more child-focused - Oliver Twist (finished it, not overwhelmed, easy to read because I knew the story and - hanging head in shame - had seen the musical), and A Christmas Carol (likewise, knew the story, and it only takes about 10 minutes to read - definitely more impressed by this). The only "grown-up" Dickens that I'd attempted was Nicholas Nickleby. Now, there are very few books which have defeated me - as I read so quickly I tend to plough through to the end even if I'm really not enjoying what I'm reading. However, NN has defeated me not once, not twice, but three times - I think on the third attempt I even got past half way, and then realised that I just didn't care enough to make it through to the end. This left me with a bit of a Dickens hangover, and I have been kind of ignoring his works on this list in the vain hope that they'd go away and I wouldn't have to read them. That clearly isn't going to happen, and I realised that if I didn't start making headway I would get to the end of the list with just Shakespeare, Ulysses, and a pile of Dickens - a depressing few months' reading!

So, A Tale of Two Cities. One of the interesting things about reading on a Kindle is that you don't get to read the blurb on the back of the book - I didn't bother reading it when I downloaded it, as I knew I had to read it anyway, and so started reading this with absolutely no idea of what it was about. This is quite reluctant praise, but I have to say that it has entirely transformed my opinion of Dickens - I really didn't think that was possible! ToTC is set in the period of the French Revolution, and takes place across Paris and London. First and foremost, it is a cracking story. It did take me a little while to get into it, but as the revolutionary action really kicked off, it gained momentum and completely gripped me. There were unexpected twists and turns, peril, love stories (requited and unrequited), long-held grudges...brilliant, and all set against the context of a historical period that I know a little about, but not a great deal, so I felt that I was learning too. Always a bonus. I think that part of the reason I found it so gripping was, knowing nothing about it, after the initial period in Paris, when the action moved back to London, it appeared to be settling down into genteel 18th century life, with minor excitements such as marriage and (greatly understated) childbirth, and I prepared to lose interest. So, when it actually then plunged back into the danger and excitement of revolutionary Paris and la Sainte Guillotine, it definitely drew me back in.

The characters were also well-realised. Miss Pross and Mr Cruncher bring the element of comedy (particularly towards the end as they plan their escape, and as Miss Pross faces off with Madame Defarge), and Madame Defarge presents a fantastic image as she grimly listens, and knits the names of the enemies of the revolution into her coded woollen register of people to be punished. Minor characters such as the Vengeance add colour and interest. One interesting facet, in terms of characterisation, is that the "main" characters - Lucie and Charles - are fairly one-dimensional. They are worthy, and good, and act honourably, and Lucie faints at every appropriate juncture. The story revolves around them, but in actual fact it is the characters of Mr Lorry, Sydney Carton, Dr Manette and the Defarges who come to life, hold the story together, and move it forward. I don't know whether this is in some way reflecting the social order at the time, where those who were traditionally in charge lost control and were reliant on their "inferiors" for their lives - or, it may just be that I have no patience for the 18th century "good wife" kind of character, who is passive, quiet and good!

On getting to the end, I can see why the first third of the book, which seems to meander around talking about peasants and villages, is important, so it is definitely worth getting through, as the remainder is a more than adequate reward!

So, I didn't think I'd ever say this, but - I would definitely recommend reading this!

As a bit of light relief, I took a mid-novel break from a ToTC to read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, which I had for Christmas. Based in the American South in the 60s, it explores the relationship between white women and the black women they employ to run their homes. Please read this - it's brilliant. It's really easy to read, but at the same time well-written and has great substance. The implicit and explicit racism of the society explored will make you angry, but it's not written in that "righteous indignation" tone which can sometimes make books feel too "worthy" to enjoy - it is simply placed before you as part of the novel, and you are left to form your own opinion. I won't go into the detail of the story, as I think it's all best discovered as you go along, but do take my word for it - I can't recommend it highly enough as a relaxing but engaging read!

Anna Karenina - finished!

2011-01-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

I've been half-heartedly reading this for some time (see previous post) and realised that I couldn't bear to go back to work after such a long time off after Christmas without finishing it. This has meant that I've spent a lot of time reading in the last couple of days - there are worse ways to spend a very cold holiday.

Firstly, I'd like to thoroughly recommend to you keen readers that a slanket (blanket with sleeves) is a fantastic addition to your reading equipment. I was given one for Christmas by my brilliant friend Jo - I have rarely left the sofa since due to the extreme comfort (and occasional electric shock from the static it creates), and it has most definitely facilitated reaching the end of a difficult read.

Secondly - Anna Karenina. Hmm. As I read this, I couldn't shake the feeling that Tolstoy had about three different books in mind, and at least 6 essays on philosophical and religious concepts, as he wrote and, rather than writing separate works, rolled it all into one. My overwhelming feeling at the end was word fatigue. I think this is mainly due to the way Tolstoy seemed to be working towards a grand ending, then veered off for a few thousand words to discuss the rights and wrongs of war, before shoe horning the story back towards his ending...I think it would have been more powerful as a culmination without this diversion.

There are three main strands to the story - Anna & Vronsky, Kitty & Levin, and Dolly & Stiva. Anna & Vronsky are an exploration of what might happen if you follow your heart at the expense of previous commitments and promises - the social quagmire they find themselves in, the realisation of how much has been given up, and the guilt all chip away at the happiness of their new-found love and it is never going to end well. Dolly & Stiva as a storyline kind of hovered in the background - they feature strongly at the beginning but, once Dolly accepts Stiva's adultery and decides to move on with their marriage, fade into the background as a constant reminder of the stresses and strains of living beyond your means. Stiva seems to play the part of a catalyst for other events in the novel, often coincidentally popping up in unexpected places to facilitate meetings between other characters or the moving on of the story. Kitty & Levin were, I think, the most interesting characters, in the way that they develop and grow a happy and fulfilled relationship despite Levin's best efforts to sabotage it by over-thinking.

It is a majestic work. I suspect it would be made vastly more readable by removing the sections on the peasantry & musings on the best way to manage farmland and there were also times when it seemed to drift for 50 pages or so before moving things on. I suspect Tolstoy's aim in writing was more about the leisurely exploration of concepts than creating a tight, fast-moving tale...or if not, this is certainly what he achieved. I can't see myself reading it again - I actually didn't find any of the characters particularly believable, and also didn't think that any of them moved much beyond the initial character sketch/characteristics laid out for them. I suspect that each character represented a particular type of belief or person in society but I'm just not interested enough to do the reading which would give me that background knowledge...sorry! I would not venture to argue that it shouldn't be considered one of the greats - but it is probably one I won't even dip into again. As Daniel commented in my previous post - it's useful to have read it to understand other allusions to the work but that's about as far as it goes.

So, next - slightly unenviable choice between the three as-yet-unread Dickens novels on the list. I need to read one now or I will find myself at the end with all Dickens to go, and I can't think of anything worse!

Anna Karenina (part 1) and A Christmas Carol

2010-12-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

As I've worked my way through this list I've been trying to balance out the ones I want to read with the ones which are harder work. Rightly or wrongly, the Russian epics are definitely on my "harder work" list. I've been reading Anna Karenina for a couple of weeks, and am 53% of the way through (one of the benefits of reading on a Kindle is that you always know exactly how far through you are!). I've told a couple of people that I'm reading it and their reaction has been "you'll love it"..."it's a great book".

I'm going to reserve judgement until the end - so far, I'm not convinced, but I have sort of been reading it alongside a Philippa Gregory (picked up entirely on the basis that the cover matches the colours I've just painted my bedroom and therefore it looks pleasing on the bedside table - me, judge a book by its cover? Never!), which is always going to make Anna Karenina feel like harder work. So far, there are some compelling elements but with the move to the countryside, and elaborate descriptions of farming methods, peasantry and pastoralism, I've kind of lost interest. I will pick it up again soon!

In the meantime, given that it is only one week before Christmas, I thought it was time to read A Christmas Carol. I am obviously familiar with the story, but don't think I have read it previously, given that I go to great lengths to avoid Dickens generally. However, I've read it in about an hour this morning, and got to the end - progress on the majority of my previous Dickens attempts! (Nicholas Nickleby, I mean you - 3 attempts and never finished...).

I have to say I enjoyed it - in a way, there's not anything to dislike. The thing I found particularly striking was the creation of atmosphere and visual pictures which, for me, were much more powerful than any film version I've seen. Scrooge's fear and trepidation is much more clearly depicted when described and then partially left to the imagination!

It is, of course, a great story - some comedy, some sadness, and a transformed Scrooge by the end. Definitely deserves its place in this list, and in the standard Christmas feelgood movie/book canon.

And back to Anna Karenina - I suspect I won't finish it in an hour...

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

2010-11-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I last posted - I think I've been intimidated by the massive stack of worthy-looking books waiting for me to read them!

So, after a brief excursion into the land of frivolity (involving Jasper Fforde's newest - Shades of Grey - very good), I returned to the slightly more sensible world of my list.

A Fine Balance is set in India in the mid-70s, in a time of political turmoil, with the unlikely meeting of Dina, a lonely widowed woman, two tailors, living on the edge of destitution, and a student who comes to rent a room from Dina. There is a lot of detail provided on the political and economic landscape, and the novel follows these four characters through the uncertain times.

AFB was nominated for the Booker Prize and is widely acclaimed. But it is such hard work to read. I finished it, but only because I knew I had to in order to write about it! I found it to be overly complex in terms of the "coincidences" which linked the characters together, not particularly believably. The narrative devices used were also quite predictable - the innocents arriving in the city, trusting the people they meet and being let down; the way that each time it seemed as though the plot was about to resolve positively, something dreadful happened; the way that the tailors constantly believed naively in people with authority despite the number of times they had been let down.

It is a clever book, I think, but I couldn't warm to it - as my friend said, "I'll keep it on the shelf to look worthy, but otherwise - pah!". I can't think of a better summary!

Lord of the Flies

2010-10-30T01:01:00.001-07:00

Lord of the Flies is another of those books that everyone else seems to have read at school. It is an extraordinarily powerful book, and I find it slightly depressing to have spent a whole academic year studying As You Like It, and to have studied Silas Marner TWICE...when we could have been reading Lord of the Flies. Ah well - I suppose I get to read it now with full enjoyment, rather than having to pick apart the symbolism in the pig's head on a stick, or the significance of the face paint!

A word of warning - as everyone apart from me seems to have read LOTF, I will be giving away some of the events and ending, so if you haven't read it and might, look away now.

The power of LOTF, I think, lies in the portrayal of the transition from an orderly "British" society to a savage society with its own set of rules and behaviours. When the group finds themselves stranded on the island, they initially attempt to create a culture which mirrors that they have seen at home - what would an adult do if they were here? Intentions are good - we will build shelters, keep a fire going, and one group will find food for the rest. However, intentions are not strong enough to keep the boys from doing, basically, whatever they like - the battle around the fire becomes a central theme of the book, and acts as a symbol of the decline of authority and ordered society.

I was really affected by the examination of tribal behaviour in this novel. There is evidence of it at the start, in that many of the boys in Jack's choir/hunting troupe never exist as individuals with names, but just as a group of boys in black caps, and the "littluns" are never numbered and named. As Jack develops into a more bloodthirsty character, and eventually achieves his first kill for food, he demonstrates that he has the power in this environment, where the ability to provide food has become more important than the ability to think, keep order, and address practicalities. Two separate "camps" emerge - boys are initially tempted across to Jack by the promise of meat and then, following the tribal dance where Simon is identified as the beast and beaten to death, Jack's leadership in violence and ruthlessness makes fear the deciding factor.

Although all of the hunting tribe are involved in the two murders, the nameless/faceless nature of most of them means that the sense of blame is attributed mainly to Jack and Roger, and this very much conflicts with the sense of personal responsibility for ones actions that is a core element of our society. Can the hunters be blamed for their actions? Of course - but when the mask of the facepaint has been applied, and darkness has fallen, the boys no longer operate as individual humans but as a pack of animals, and there is no sense of individual choice there at all.

Piggy is very much an anomaly in this society. His choice of name is significant, given that the only animals on the island which provide sustenance are pigs; as a reasoning voice who is physically unsuited to a life in the wilderness, Piggy is always doomed. He is gradually reduced to, symbolically, an animal to be hunted - severely short-sighted, first one lens of his spectacles is smashed and then the hunters make a midnight raid to steal them in order to light their fire. Piggy is then blind, unable to function - an animal, meaning that Roger is able to roll the rock down the mountain, giving Piggy no chance of escape. Piggy's death represents the final loss of reason, and from this moment Ralph becomes a hunted animal. Crazed by the idea that he needs to remove Ralph (in order to remove the accusation of wrongdoing?), Jack is determined to hunt Ralph down and the island is pretty much destroyed in doing so. Had this battle been followed to its conclusion, Ralph may have been hunted down and killed, but the tribe would also have destroyed their livelihood - the fruit trees and pig habitats were burning as Ralph emerged from the forest and found himself at the feet of a naval officer.

The irony, of course, is that it is Jack's attempt to burn Ralph out of the woods that has created a fire large enough for a ship to see. Suddenly, in front of an adult, they are small boys again, and the battle becomes a game, rather than a matter of life and death. The story ends here, with rescue in sight, leaving open all sorts of questions - how will they reintegrate into British society? Will Jack become a "normal" boy again? Will they ever be punished for the murders of two of their group (not to mention the disappearance of a littlun at the very beginning)?

Golding's pace of writing changes through the novel, changing from a "jolly japes on an island" tone to become ever more urgent, darker, and threatening. I'm sure I haven't written anything here that hasn't been said before - it has a great power to invoke feelings, sensations and moral musings. Spectacular book!

Holiday reading

2010-10-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite things about going on holiday is having time to read- time to pick up a book, get absorbed in it, and keep on reading till the end because there's nothing else you have to do. Fabulous.

This week in Italy, as well as seeing many beautiful mountain views from hilltop towns, and making friends with lots of local cats, and eating some fabulous food, I have read:

A Town Like Alice

The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Brave New World

PopCo (Scarlett Thomas)

A Week in December (Sebastian Faulks)

I also started reading Anna Karenina on the plane on the way home but that was always an ambitious ask after 3 hours' sleep!

Let's start with the non-list ones first.

Scarlett Thomas wrote The End of Mr Y, which was my favourite book of 2009. PopCo was published earlier, but shows the same level of creativity and storytelling ability as the End of Mr Y. Alice is a bit of a misfit working for PopCo - the third biggest toy company in the UK. She is reluctantly attending PopCo's annual creativity conference in Devon when she is selected, along with a small group of others, to remain behind indefinitely after the conference and develop a product set which will kickstart a craze amongst the difficult-to-reach teenage girl demographic. The concentrated seminars, designed to help them understand how a toy craze takes hold, makes her increasingly aware of and uncomfortable about the way toys and marketing are designed to manipulate children. This leads into some interesting questions of ethics, globalisation & trade. Alongside this story, Alice is working to crack a code left to her by her grandfather, and also trying to work out who is communicating with her in code within the PopCo centre. The author has clearly done her research and goes into extensive detail on codes, how they work, how they are decoded, different methods etc - but it always complements the story, and doesn't feel like it's just a show and tell of how much she has learned! There are other threads to the story too, and the whole thing weaves together to create a gripping, intelligent and frequently surprising work of fiction. I absolutely loved it, and couldn't put it down.

Secondly, Sebastian Faulks. I have mixed feelings about this one. Faulks' earlier work, particularly Birdsong/Charlotte Grey/Girl at the Lion d'Or, is fantastic, and they are some of my favourite books. However, more recently I've found him much harder to read - Human Traces was just too academic, and I struggled to engage with Engleby. So, I started A Week in December without massive expectations. It's set in 2007 in the context of the banking meltdown, and follows characters ranging from a hedge fund trader to a tube train driver. It's pretty readable but I don't think Faulks' modern style displays him at his best - the dialogue is a bit cliched and stilted. It might be that the event is too much in recent memory to have fiction written about it and to create a sense of originality. So, if you are a Faulks fan, I'd probably recommend reading it, but it isn't amazing.

Sherlock Holmes was the first book I read on the Kindle. It proved that the Kindle is very much a viable medium for reading, and I didn't really notice too much of a difference from reading a book. Well, that's not strictly true I guess, but it is easy to read on, doesn't strain the eyes, and it's actually quite nice that you can just switch it off, and on again, and it is in the same place - no need for a bookmark (lazy reader...!). Sherlock Holmes is, of course, great. Very readable, each case is a distinct story in itself, and each time the resolution is one which seems so simple, but beyond the capability of me as a reader to work it out! It definitely deserves its place within the top 100 list - I enjoyed it very much.

Brave New World is chilling, and creates a convincing image of the new society where babies are grown to fit the genetic characteristics required for the role they are due to play, and a caste system is created according to physical and intellectual ability - but this doesn't matter as all humans are conditioned from birth to be happy with their lot & capacity. When the striving for a "better" life is removed, and the individual does not feel that they should be capable of more than "just" working in a factory, for example, everyone is happy. And, if they are not happy, "soma" is provided, a drug which can be taken to numb emotional disappointments and distress, so that the unhappiness never truly exists, and passes by the time the soma wears off.Bernard is a member of the highest caste but doesn't truly fit in, and he is already dissatisfied with life, reluctant to take soma "holidays", and wishing for a lasting relationship with one woman rather than the now socially acceptable "everyone belongs to everyone". He then visits the New Mexico Reservation, and meets a woman who was cast out of acceptable society to bring up her son. The brave new world, when viewed through the eyes of John "the Savage", who is essentially viewing the world with the morals of Huxley's period of writing, does not seem as perfect as individuals are conditioned to believe. This is a fantastically constructed world, and does deserve its reputation, but it doesn't quite have the strength of 1984 - the characters are less engaging, and the writing is more distant. That's not necessarily to say that 1984 is better - Brave New World goes further in terms of the way that society has developed, and the way that this is maintained - but I did enjoy reading it more.

And finally, A Town Called Alice. This is one of my mother's favourite books, and I believe one of my Grandad's favourite books too. I can't believe I haven't read it before. It centres around Jean Paget, who is a prisoner of war in Malaya and is forced to walk hundreds of miles, in a ragtaggle group of women and children, after they are captured - there is no prisoner of war camp to put them into, and so the Japanese keep them on the move. Jean takes the lead and proves herself to be "a damned fine girl". Following the war, she inherits a large sum of money and goes out to Malaya to build a well for the village where she spent 3 years towards the end of the war. There, she finds out that Joe, an Australian that she met during the war, was not killed as she supposed, and decides to go to Australia to find him. The second part of the novel is Jean making sense of Australian society, and deciding to make a difference. This is a really uplifting work, due to the strength of Jean's character, her ability to achieve anything in any situation, whilst being really an ordinary girl. It is also a love story. And it is beautifully written. I think it's going onto my list of favourites now too!

Onto Anna Karenina next, I think...

Of Mice and Men (and major book acquisition!)

2010-10-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've just finished Of Mice and Men -another Steinbeck. Most people read this at school, and I can't quite work out why we didn't. I know that other classes did, as I was vaguely familiar with the story from having seen bits of creative writing based on OMAM on the classroom wall, but my English teacher clearly decided that our group was destined for other things!

So - the cultural background to OMAM is very similar to the Grapes of Wrath, in that George and Lennie are labourers looking for work, with no particular geographical base, ready to pick up and move on. The novel opens as they are heading for their next job.

For those who are not familiar with OMAM, Lennie is a strong giant of a man, who is intellectually limited - his understanding of the world is childlike, coupled with unfeasible strength which he is unable to control when he is scared - a recipe for disaster. George is smaller but cleverer, and has taken it upon himself to care for Lennie. Lennie, unfortunately, continually does "bad things" but never deliberately or maliciously.

They share a dream - to own their own piece of land, just enough to get by, where Lennie will be allowed to look after the rabbits. Realistically, this is never going to happen until they meet Candy, who has saved some money in anticipation of not being able to work, and offers it to George as long as he can live with them on the land, and be as useful as they can. Suddenly there is an exciting future...but Lennie's next "bad thing" puts that at risk.

I don't want to give any more detail for fear of spoiling the ending. Following Lennie's actions, George is left with a very difficult choice and I think, in the end, makes the decision that is best for Lennie. You may choose to disagree with me once you know what that is. However, there is some ambiguity around George's motivations - is he trying to do what is best for Lennie, or has Lennie pushed him too far by endangering George's prospects of achieving his lifelong dream?

It's a pretty quick read, and very accessible - good choice for a GCSE syllabus. It is an interesting insight into that world, and also into the way that ambition and desperation overcome the "natural" human instinct. I'm not sure I'd be particularly excited to read it again, and I'm not sure I'd include it on a list such as this, but it was a perfectly acceptable way of passing a couple of hours!

In other news, it was my birthday a week or so ago, and I was fortunate enough to receive about 15 new books, mainly courtesy of my brother making generous use of an Amazon wish list... This is very exciting - due to the speed at which I read, I very rarely have a queue of new books awaiting my attention. So, I am looking forward to getting into those. I also received a Kindle (e-reader) so that I can theoretically go on holiday without using 50% of my luggage allowance on books. So far, I'm really pleased with it - it's a good size and weight, and pretty easy on the eye as far as the reading experience goes. I'm going to be reading the complete Sherlock Holmes on this, so that review will also look at how it feels to read a book on the Kindle. I don't really know, so far, whether it will make any difference. Also, holiday coming up soon so expect a gap and then lots of list progress, if all goes to plan.

Possession

2010-09-25T06:20:00.001-07:00

Wow.

The next book on the list was Possession, by A.S. Byatt. I'd never heard of it before, but it apparently won the Booker Prize in 1990.

This book is an amazing piece of work.

A struggling academic, studying a 19th century poet, (Randolph Henry Ash) discovers some drafts of a letter to an unknown woman written by the poet. Ash was previously thought to be happily married, and nothing is known of any involvement with a woman other than his wife. Roland is compelled to investigate. When he discovers that Ash met a poet named Christabel La Motte at around the time that the letter was written, he approaches Maud, an expert on La Motte, to help him trace the connection. Roland and Maud then retrace journeys made by the poets, and uncover more previously unknown letters and poems, to discover a grand passion between Ash & La Motte.

The story is told through these letters and poems, as well as the third person narration. I have to confess that I skipped most of the poems; this probably means that I've missed some of the literary significance of the novel (doing a quick search, it seems that Ash is thought to be based on Robert Browning and La Motte on Emily Dickinson, but I have to say that this passed me by). The early letters between the poets were also hard work as they were literary discussions in relation to their craft of writing. I can appreciate that these elements of Possession are well-written, intelligent, essential to the story...but I didn't actually want to read them.

However, it was worth persevering. The relationship that is uncovered between Ash & La Motte is beautifully realised. Following a chance meeting and then correspondence, they fall in love, passionately and with a compulsion that leaps out of the pages. Ash is known, however, to have remained married to the same woman for the rest of his life, and the diaries and letters that are officially on record have no indication of unhappiness or disruption in their marriage. This raises some questions about the nature and potential duality of love - is it possible to fall in love with a second person without this reducing the love you feel for the first? The reader is given an insight into the relationship which is not given to the academics, and arrives at a good understanding and possibly justification of Ash's love affair - but Roland & Maud will never get to understand this. Part of its power also comes, I think, from the fact that their behaviour is so different to what we have traditionally come to expect from 19th century characters in literature.

The 19th century events take place against a background of academic rivalry - American and English academics vying for understanding, discovery and, above all ownership of the papers. We also see Roland moving from a stagnating relationship and career, with a continuous sense of failure to....something different. I don't want to give away too much of the story, because the dramatic tension is beautifully maintained.

Although it is hard work at times, I would highly recommend reading this. It is beautifully constructed and researched, and I was deeply affected by it. Not so much that I would recommend polygamy as a way of life, naturally, but the "historical" figures had such depth of feeling and powerful passion that it seemed impossible for them to have made any other choice. The academics, "current time" figures as far as the novel is concerned, paled into insignificance beside them, and it was impossible to make the moral judgement that Ash was wrong to do what he did. I can't work out how to express this well, but there is something in the writing that connected directly into my heart/emotions, rather than me just responding to it intellectually as I do to most fiction. That sounds slightly odd, but I can't think of any other way to put it. If you read it, let me know what you think!

Winnie-the-Pooh

2010-09-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I had read Winnie-the-Pooh before but I was only one chapter in when I realised that I had, either in one go or in separate stories. However, I read all the way through to the end anyway - couldn't resist it. W-t-P is such a nice book. It has a genuine innocence, and the characters are nicely realised without too much description of them. There isn't a massive amount to say about it...but W-t-P definitely deserves its position as one of the most enduring and well-loved childrens' books of all time.

Gone with the wind & The Little Prince

2010-09-05T11:23:00.001-07:00

Two for the price of one on this post!

Ok, first - the Little Prince. My friend lent me a beautifully illustrated version of this, and I read it in about half an hour. It is a children's book, and is a lovely fanciful account of the Little Prince's travels from planet to planet, learning about what is important. It has some sweet imagery in it - his home planet is tiny, so he regularly rakes out his active volcanoes in order to avoid an explosion (the problem with our planet, you see, is that our volcanoes are too large to rake and so they tend to erupt). By taming a fox, the Little Prince learns that a friend (the fox, his flower) doesn't have to be the only one in the world, but when you love something, it becomes the only one in the world to you. Cute, and well-realised - the translation I read, from the original French, was also nicely written.

Secondly - Gone with the wind, or GWTW from now on. I can't believe I have never read this before - it's very much the kind of book I enjoy, and I absolutely loved it. It took me a while to get into it - for the first 100 pages, I found that the casual references to darkies, field negroes etc, and the associated attitudes ("they're like children, they need to be told what's good for them") really grating and offensive. I decided that I needed to put these to one side and accept it as being a reflection of the period, in order to give myself a chance of appreciating the work whilst not actually agreeing with the attitudes therein. Once I'd made that decision, I found it much easier to read!

So, what to say about GWTW? Scarlett O'Hara is a fantastic heroine - I think I liked her in the same way as I appreciated Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, in that Scarlett is consistently portrayed in her true light - she is not "good", she doesn't do what is expected of her, and she is full of life. Rhett Butler is also a brilliant male romantic lead - dashing, bad, thrilling, but with a heart. The story itself is gripping, with unexpected ups and downs, and it is absolutely brutal - Margaret Mitchell doesn't shy away from tragedy(perhaps an understatement!). I wanted it to end differently, but having said that the resolution of the story is great, and unexpected to the end...

I'm not sure I can write much more about it that hasn't already been written and said. I feel like I've learnt something about the American Civil War - I've studied it in the past, but very much from the point of view of the north, and the Confederate experience was obviously very different. Not sure how accurate it is, but it felt enlightening at the time. I think it is sufficient to say that GWTW fully deserves its reputation for being one of the great romantic novels of all time - if you haven't read it, please do, although you may need to set aside a few weeks to do so! I may even go on to watch the film...

Chosen

2010-08-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

This post is a slight departure from the usual. A random Twitter contact asked whether any book bloggers would like a book to review and, as I have seen various other contacts say lots of very positive thing about this book, I was intrigued and volunteered.

I'm not intending to move in this direction, particularly - certainly not before I've finished this top 100 - but I am reading Gone with the Wind at the moment, and needed the satisfaction of completing a book more quickly! During one week, I was working my way through GWTW, this book, and a Marian Keyes I picked up in a charity shop. Thankfully they are all very different so I think I've managed to maintain a pretty clear idea of what happens in each one!

So, this book is called Chosen, and is by Jerry Ibbotson. If you would like to know more about him or the book, his website is http://www.jerryibbotson.co.uk.

Jerry has self-published this novel, and it is gradually achieving some exposure - according to his website it is now stocked by all branches of Waterstones, which seems like a great achievement with a self-published work. He describes it as a combination of fantasy and coming-of-age, which (as you will know from earlier posts) is not entirely my usual genre. However, the novelty of reviewing a book by a local author, which he kindly hand-delivered to the door (beats Amazon any day!) had me interested and involved before I even read the first page.

The basis of the tale is that Alex, a man with two small children who is feeling generally disillusioned and, I think, disappointed with life, finds his way into an alternate world via a corridor in his office basement. He finds himself drawn repeatedly back to this world, eventually setting off on a quest with his annoying colleague to explore and reach a city which is "far, far away". Armed only with a sleeping bag and his cagoule, and not without a sense of guilt at leaving his wife & children, he heads off into the unknown. The adventure then develops into something of a quest, as he learns more about his own identity, the world he is in and the people he meets on his travels.

It's difficult to say too much more about the story without giving it away; I'm conscious of not dropping any spoilers, as one of the really strong points of this book is the element of surprise and unexpectedness. There is a strong sense of Narnia/CS Lewis at the start - inevitable, I think, given that it begins with passage through into another world - and I guess potential similarities could be seen in that they both address themes of salvation and religious identity. However, given this crossover, they really could not be more different and my initial concern that the work would be derivative of CS Lewis was not realised!

Jerry creates some very strong concepts in this book. His depiction of the Lezard, a many-headed monster, is particularly vivid, and I also thought that the descriptions of the scenes where the village defended itself against "the undead" using only their lights were well-realised. The characters do not greatly develop, but I seem to remember making a similar criticism regarding Lord of the Rings, and I think the same principle applies here - the central concept is the quest, and what the characters represent, rather than their actual characteristics as such.

It kept me interested all the way through to the end; it is well-plotted and structured; and I may read it again to see whether I have missed anything in terms of references, underlying messaging etc. So, on that front, I would definitely recommend it as a fairly quick, fun read - particularly if you live in York, as helping to promote and encourage local talent seems like a good thing to do! You may also note the mention of the Mitre pub, which perhaps has its parallel in York.......

One criticism, though - I think this may be something to do with the fact that the novel is self-published. Ideally, when reading, the writing should be so smooth as to allow you to almost forget that you are reading, and to be drawn into whatever fictional world you are inhabiting - I don't know if that makes any sense? From time to time, I found that my enjoyment of the story, and involvement in Alex's world and adventures, was jolted by a clumsy sentence or description, kind of kicking me out of my belief in the tale because I had to think about what the author was trying to portray. I don't think that this is bad writing as such, but it struck me that those are the kind of passages that an editor might pick apart with an author - i.e. can the language be tightened up, does this metaphor actually work, what exactly are you trying to say there? This sent me musing about how great the difference is between published and unpublished authors, and whether it is a good editor that can make the difference between a bestseller and something which achieves lesser acclaim...obviously not wanting to take anything away from the author, and the creative process, but I do think that Chosen could have benefitted from someone with a red pen and some constructive criticism.

Even bearing that in mind, though, definitely worth a read. Well constructed story, which has the ability to grip you even if you have very little interest, generally, in the fantasy genre!

And I've just discovered that it is also available on Amazon...go nuts!

Progress check...

2010-08-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd have a quick count up - 35 to go!

Dune

2010-08-15T01:48:00.000-07:00

The next project was Dune, by Frank Herbert. I interpreted this as being the novel, Dune, rather than the whole series which goes under that name - apologies if this is cheating but we would be waiting rather a long time for me to finish the list if I have to read them all.

Dune is acclaimed as a seminal work of science fiction, and I can see why. The world is convincing, well-thought out, and totally different to life as we know it. The world is placed on a planet where water and "spice" are the commodities - or, actually, necessities - of highest value, and it is seen through the eyes of characters who come from a planet of plentiful water. This allows the reader to feel the shock and acclimatisation experienced by the characters as they adapt to the different economic and, more significantly, cultural behaviours driven by the water supply.

A mark of successful science fiction is the seamless suspension of disbelief - everything that happens within Dune requires this suspension, whether it is the highly developed communication/observation techniques, the transition from one Reverend Mother to the next, weapons and transport, scientific research and methods...the list goes on. I would say that Dune is very much successful in this regard - the principles and world are so well thought through that there is nothing to jar the reader back into reality. I found the characters slightly unconvincing - each and every character operated with a constant awareness of their role in society, and the "baddies", for want of a better word, are little more than caricatures. However, I think this novel/series is far more about creating the alternate reality and global events, than it is about character.

If you have read Lord of the Rings a number of times, and you love it, I would venture to suggest that you would also enjoy Dune. In fact - you've probably already read it. I won't be rushing to read it again, or to read subsequent episodes in the series, but this is a reflection on me and my lack of interest in sci-fi rather than the quality of the writing. This is very well-written, and I have read it within a couple of weeks (pausing along the way for a quick Jane Green pitstop) which, given the level of interest I have in the genre is very much a compliment to Mr Herbert...but I do find it difficult to care about what happens to the characters in this kind of novel (partly because life is so cheap) and, as I've already discovered in the pages of this blog, it is caring about what happens next that drives me to read!

Gone with the wind next - expect a long radio silence and perhaps some interim posts...

Cold Comfort Farm

2010-08-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons, is (according to the back of the book) "a hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas". Unusually for books which claim to be hilarious, it actually is - I laughed out loud a number of times which is rare for me when reading.

CCF was written in the 30s as a parody of novels by the likes of Mary Webb, which were popular between the wars. I suspect that many of the references are lost on me, being completely unfamiliar with the genre, but it can be appreciated despite this.

Each character is an embodiment of a cliche - not hidden beneath the surface, in the usual way of cliches, but out & proud. The cows are called Graceless, Pointless, Feckless and Aimless (presumably taking issue with the prevailing fashion for naming people & animals after desirable qualities). There is a strong & silent son called Reuben, another son, Seth, who is the brooding embodiment of the farmer's son with the animal instinct (fathering a child per year with the kitchen maid); Amos, the father, a hellfire and brimstone preacher, and Elfine, the daughter of nature who drifts around in the fields and woods. The Starkadder family are trapped on CCF by Aunt Ada Doom (more subtle naming), who saw something nasty in the woodshed when she was a girl and hasn't been right since. Flora Poste, a sophisticated 19yr old, comes to live at CCF when she is orphaned and decides to take the family in hand. It's difficult to say much else without giving the story away...so, read this book.

This is one of the few books I've read so far from the list that I know I will read again - Gibbons' ability to put together evocative phrases which are just slightly over-stated and therefore both striking and funny is rare and makes it an immensely rewarding read. Enjoy it! It's such a shame that none of the rest of her books are in print.

This week, I am mainly modelling myself on Miss Flora Poste...

Oops...but a little bit of progress

2010-07-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm quite ashamed to admit that my progress through the list has kind of halted in July. It's my usual approach to long term tasks - a burst of enthusiasm followed by extreme slacking off. I'm not a completer-finisher any more - I think I may have been once in the dim & distant past! However, a long break and resurgence is as good as a new task, and so I will shortly be back with renewed enthusiasm!

I think I went wrong in two ways: first, believing that I could sit and read Shakespeare plays on my own at home. It's not going to happen, and I'm going to have to find another way of doing this. I'm thinking a Shakespearean version of a book group. Second, I finished one book without lining up the next one. The only list books that I have in the house, as yet unread, are Ulysses and a Gabriel Garcia Marquez - can't remember which one - and neither of these grabbed my attention. I am constitutionally incapable of not having a book on the go so have been revisiting Philippa Gregory, with a sense that I am capable of greater things! However, some time alone with Amazon helped with my supply issue, and I now have Gone With the Wind, Dune and Cold Comfort Farm on the way. In a brief plug, could I also say how fantastic the second hand option is on Amazon? I got the above three for a total of £9 including postage - charity shop prices without having to trawl through 7000 Maeve Binchies! (is that the plural of Binchy? It looks wrong).

Anyway - they have been dispatched, so I should be back in the reading saddle by the end of this week, with Philippa Gregory safely back where she belongs...handed on to someone else!

Progress...

2010-07-05T00:46:00.001-07:00

Progress on the list has halted somewhat over the last few weeks. This is, I think, due to a few factors. I decided that Shakespeare was my next project, made it through one play, and can't quite bear to pick it up again - so if anyone would like to spend a few evenings drinking wine and reading Shakespeare aloud, let me know - I think it's the only way I'm going to make any progress on it!! Also, for the first few months of this challenge I have been incredibly disciplined and not read anything that wasn't on the list. I relaxed this on holiday, and gave myself a couple of trashy treats and now, faced with Ulysses as my next book, I can't quite bring myself to put the trashy treats aside and return to the discipline of the list. I will do it though - I have a train journey this afternoon, and Ulysses is my only companion so I will either read it or (more likely!) have a nice long nap!!

Finally, whilst dipping into non-list literature, I found myself reading Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I normally resist this kind of thing, partly just from stubbornness - I object to reading the books that everyone else is reading - but picked it up at the airport. I have to say, reluctantly, that the hype is probably justified. There is one horrific scene in TGWTDT, which I found quite shocking when I got to it, but it isn't gratuitous, and it plays a pivotal role in the workings of the trilogy. I liked it so much that I went on to read books 2 and 3 of the trilogy in quick succession, almost unheard of for me - and, although they were slightly samey in that they deal with the same characters, it was definitely the right way to read it. I was left with the impression that the trilogy was one grand story, split into three novels for readability, rather than three novels loosely linked together. So, definitely worth reading, particularly if you like the thriller/crime genre. As for me, it's back to the list!

The Tempest

2010-06-13T09:25:00.001-07:00

Right - first Shakespeare play down. The Tempest - I've seen it in the theatre, so had a vague idea what was going on, which made a difficult play easier to read. Interpreting the stage directions and working out who can see who is probably the most difficult bit!

I don't have anything particularly intelligent to say about it...I've been musing on the concept of love at first sight, as often seen in Shakespeare as a dramatic device...it's understandable on this one, as Ferdinand seems to be the first man that Miranda has ever seen, other than her father, but the lightning strike effect is seen so often throughout Shakespeare that you have to question whether he had ever actually seen a man and woman meet and begin to form a relationship - because, let's face it, that really isn't how it usually happens.

The dialogue between Prospero, Miranda and Ferdinand is the high point, I think - interesting directness from Ferdinand as he asks whether Miranda is a virgin (again, not how the initial conversation between a boy & a girl who are interested in each other would generally go these days!). The rest of it - well, let's just say it works better on stage.

I've given myself a bit of a rest from list books, and have been reading The Girl Who Played With Fire (2nd in the Millenium trilogy) which is very gripping, although reads slightly strangely in its translation from Swedish. Back to something from the list next, but I haven't quite decided which!

Vanity Fair

2010-05-31T05:47:00.001-07:00

I started reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair with low expectations - 19th century literature, whilst worthy, is rarely gripping or particularly interesting...a sweeping statement, I realise.

VF is a massive book (800 pages + footnotes in my edition), and was originally published chapter-by-chapter as installments in a weekly magazine. This makes it really readable, as each chapter is structured to hold attention and stimulate interest enough to make readers pick it up again the next week.

It is described by the author as a novel without a hero, and is immensely refreshing for this genre...the female characters are not good, meek, moral, waiting for their parents to set up the perfect match. Instead they act against parents and relations, set up their own marriages, and the real story starts after the wedding, rather than the wedding being the ultimate goal.

Thackeray's characterisation is brilliant - his aim is the satirisation of "polite" society, and he takes great joy in uncovering the unsavoury elements of behaviour. Gambling, financial dishonesty, the petty politics particularly within the female circles...hypocrisy, the way that people flock to associate with the "right sort", who just happen to have come into some money...it's all there. There are comeupances, love stories, redemptions. His central female characters are the perfect antidote to the view of 19th century society as portrayed by Austen - Becky Sharp could totally take on Elizabeth Bennett in a literary "Celebrity Death Match".

I also enjoyed the way that the narrator's tone was continuously faintly disapproving of the goings on with "Vanity Fair" (i.e. polite society), and equally scathing of minor indiscretions (taking slightly too much spirit and water) and major (causing the ruin of an old family retainer by failing to pay rent to the extent that his creditors foreclose), leaving the reader to make their own moral judgement.

There is a lot that I could write about this, but again I would be in danger of reproducing York Notes on the subject. It took me by surprise, and was an utterly gripping read, both in terms of the story, and the social commentary. Towards the end, a couple of chapters were a bit drifty, making me wonder whether he was ready to bring it to an end, but had to spin it out for a certain number of weeks, but that is pretty much the only criticism I have. It brings me to the conclusion that the flawed are much more interesting than the good - Amelia is basically good but the narrator makes no secret of his disdain for her as she is a bit of a wuss with no initiative! - and I have to be honest, that I often find this to be the case in real life too...

If you haven't read this, you should most definitely do so! I have a copy available on loan if anyone wants to borrow it...

37 left to go!

Mary Berry's Banoffee Traybake

2010-05-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

This recipe is from "Cook Now, Eat Later" - I've just made it for the first time, and it has the double plus points of being really easy to make, and really really nice!

On the topic of books, I'm about 100 pages from the end of Vanity Fair so will write about that soon...the cake is a minor distraction for you while you wait.

So, you will need:

For the cake:

175g baking margarine or butter at room temperature

250g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

3 ripe bananas, mashed

350g self-raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons milk

Toffee topping: a tin of Carnation caramel (normally used for banoffee pie). Alternatively, 50g butter, 50g light muscovado sugar and a 397g can sweetened condensed milk.

Line a 30 x 23 cm (12 x 9 inn) traybake tin or roasting tin with foil & grease well. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, 350 F or Gas 4.

Measure the above ingredients into a bowl, and mix until smooth with an electric beater. Put into the tin, smooth the top, and bake for 40-45 mins until well risen & golden (in our oven this took about 38 mins, but it is a feisty oven). Cool in the tin.

If using the tin of caramel, tip into a bowl and beat to make it smooth, then spread over the cake.

If making the topping yourself, put the three topping ingredients into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil stirring continuously and simmer for a few minutes until smooth and starting to thicken. Take off the heat and cool slightly, pour over the cool cake. Spread out evenly with a small palette knife and allow to set on the cake before cutting into squares with a hot knife.

Enjoy. I love Mary Berry recipes because they always work and she doesn't really consider the concept of low fat...

Nineteen Eighty-Four

2010-05-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

I don’t quite know why I hadn’t read this before. This is an immensely powerful tale, and felt familiar all the way through due to the extent that Orwell’s concepts have permeated into cultural terminology. I read it pretty much in one sitting, partly floating on a lilo in the pool (perhaps that would be a lying?), which gave an interesting juxtaposition to the dark & depressing world of 1984.

How to write about it though? Is there anything which hasn’t been written about it? Published in 1949, it takes some of the aspects of the communist regime (I think!) and extends them to create a world where independent thought and action are forbidden, where the past is constantly rewritten, and where the regime demands doublethink – truly believing that which is not true, to the extent that one has forgotten it is not true, whilst also understanding that it is not true. It is truly compelling.

Winston Smith struggles to live within this world – as he works in the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he is constantly faced with proof of the regime’s control and amendment of the truth, and so starts to break out. He starts with a small rebellion (writing a diary) which eventually builds up to full involvement in anti-regime activity. Even from the start he believes that discovery and punishment is inevitable, and rebels because he cannot do anything else, rather than because he believes he will achieve anything.

I don’t want to give away the ending – if you haven’t read it, read it. I can’t really find much to comment on without writing a poor excuse for an A-level essay, other than how much of writing since then has drawn on this, popular TV concepts (Room 101 and of course Big Brother) have come from this, and it really does deserve its reputation as one of the best English novels of the twentieth century.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

2010-05-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

This book is one of the more modern ones on the list (published in 2003) and I remember, when it came out, picking it up in bookshops lots of times but never quite being interested enough to read it.

It is an interesting, light read. I like the central concept – that heaven starts as a place where your life is explained to you by five people who had an influence in changing your life, although this may be unknown to you. It avoids borrowing too heavily from Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, in that Eddie is in conversation with the five people, being told a story, but is not taken back to observe particular events. The narrative device adds interest to what is essentially a slim story of a disappointed life.

However, I don’t know whether I was in the right frame of mind when I read it, or whether I’ve become hardened and cynical as, I have to say, rather than being emotionally stirred by Eddie’s reconciliation to his father’s treatment of him and reunion with his wife, I found it all a little simplistic. I am fortunate enough to have not been treated badly by a parent (or anyone else to a significant extent), but felt that Eddie’s acceptance of the reason for his father’s treatment, just on the basis of understanding why (rather than receiving an apology etc) would frustrate readers who have themselves been treated badly...I read into it an implication that anything can be forgiven as long as it’s understood which doesn’t always ring true. Perhaps this is where the supernatural element of being in heaven comes into it but still...not convinced.

It is nicely written, paints a vivid picture, and is very readable – so I would recommend it – but it didn’t convince me. Perhaps because the idea of an afterlife that just consists of spending time explaining life on earth just isn’t enough!

The Great Gatsby

2010-05-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

After Lord of the Rings, I wanted to read something that I could potentially relate to a bit more - something about people. So I took advice from the mother-in-law, and went for The Great Gatsby. In addition to being about people, it is short, and as soon as I started it I realised I had in fact read it before - easy win!

TGG is set in 1920s high society in America. The eponymous (I love that word) Gatsby is a mysterious figure who hosts party after party in his beachside mansion, surrounding himself with people whilst remaining personally aloof. No-one really knows where he has come from, or why he constantly opens his home to others whilst not seeming interested in involving himself with them.

Re-reading this novel reminded me that on first reading, I thought it was rubbish. I thought the characterisation was shallow, the resolution too swift, and the work in general too quickly over for it to truly deserve the accolades it received. I think I've changed my mind. It still left me with the impression that the characterisation is shallow - although the novel is written in the first person, Nick is actually fairly peripheral to events and we don't really learn much about him - his own little "love story" is understated, a side line, and doesn't really go anywhere. Where the other characters are seemingly keeping mistresses etc, and very little detail is given about more physical relationships, we see in great detail Nick's decision to move his relationship with Jordan Baker "to the next level"...putting his arm round her shoulders.

So, with the narrator being a little peripheral, narrative distance is then maintained - where Nick is not party to an event, we may hear about it retrospectively, but only hear an event from the character's point of view if they later choose to talk about it. This has the effect of making the novel as a whole feel quite distanced, and as a reader I felt very much that I was an external observer rather than drawn into the situation.

However, I think this narrative device does convey a sense of the shallowness of 20s high society - all about being seen at the best party, with the best people, even if you don't like them. (Is it any different today in "high society", or the "Hello" world??!) Relationships were more formal, and distant, and it is entirely possible to spend evening after evening at parties with the same people, and not really come to know them. Understanding this has made me revise my opinion of the novel, and agree that it is brilliantly crafted, although I still find the distance frustrating. It is typical of "the Great American Novel" - On the Road had a similar sense of manic progression from place to place and party to party without really engaging with the people, and perhaps that's why I didn't like it...not sure I'm willing to read that again to check though!

The hypocrisies in relationships are uncovered well, and the ending is very neat and tidy for Tom and Daisy - although again, because of the style in which Fitzgerald writes, there is very little feeling attached to the events. The lack of consequence for their actions is frustrating...I won't say more about this in case I spoil it for any prospective readers. However, I think it is safe to say, without spoiling, that the novel is an interesting study of double (triple??) standards within a marriage, and that my identification with, and sympathy for, characters shifted throughout as events unfolded in what is essentially, a tale of obsession & love gone a bit wrong - the depiction of a period is the greater achievement here, rather than the story itself. I think - I'm happy to be disagreed with!

I recently read "Tender is the night", one of F Scott Fitzgerald's less prominent works, and I liked it much better...if you liked Gatsby, read it; if you didn't like Gatsby, read it anyway and you might like it better!

Lord of the Rings #4

2010-05-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I am delighted to say that I have finished Lord of the Rings - all 3 books, or indeed 6 books as I read them.

I'm not sure whether reading the three one after the other (without reading something else in the meantime) was the best way to do it - by the end of book 3, I was a bit bored of the whole orc/war/good/evil thing, but having said that, they hang together so much more as one big story, rather than three individual episodes.

So, some thoughts. As I think I've mentioned before, it took me a while to get over my Lord of the Rings prejudice, and admit that I was interested, and I have, overall, thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. The world is convincing and well-constructed, the storyline moves along at a good pace, and there is a huge variety of character, events, and place. Essentially, I guess I'm saying that it is very well and compellingly written.

However, I'm continuing to discover how much my reading is driven by caring about the characters, and it seems that I only extend this to human beings!! I was very much involved in LOTR until the point that Frodo successfully destroys the ring (presuming that since everyone in the world other than me has seen the films, this won't be a spoiler for anyone else), and the compulsion that the story held was very much wanting to know whether they were successful in their mission. Once the ring had been destroyed, in my mind, mission accomplished, and I then struggled to finish the rest of the book, because I'd pretty much forgotten that the hobbits would need to get home again...I didn't mind whether they had a happy resolution to the story as I viewed them very much as vehicles for the Ring, rather than beings with a right to an ending themselves. This may be a reflection on the way I read - generally described as charging through to get to the end rather than pausing to absorb the detail. It also may be a positive reflection on Tolkien in that the strongest character in the trilogy is the ring itself, and everybody else is a means to an end.

One thing that I became slightly weary of by the end is the way that significance/fate is attached to almost every event - nothing just happened because it happened, it was all part of the grand plan. After the ring is destroyed and the darkness lifts, there are two weddings. These felt like a slightly superfluous attempt to bring human interest into the story, and they were written in such a way as to indicate that Tolkien felt he ought to include them but wasn't particularly interested. So, rather than there being a gradual development of any sort of romantic feeling, both relationships seemed to arise almost out of nowhere, but to be portrayed as the fulfilment of something that was meant to happen. I suppose it is possible to read something into it about the lifting of the darkness of the Dark Lord's influence, allowing love & positive relationships to flourish, but I can't help feeling that I'm reading more than was intended into it! I don't feel that I've described that very well, but read it and you will see what I mean.

I don't know if it was necessarily intended, but I couldn't help but notice some parallels to religious concepts in there - I'm not in any way suggesting that this is an extended metaphor like the Chronicles of Narnia, but the sense of spiritual oppression brought by the darkness/black riders/ring, and the impression that so many events were predestined had a strong religious flavour to it.

An 8 hour drive from Devon today is clouding both my memory of the books and my ability to type so I will leave it there. Onto something with people in it next, I think!

Lord of the Rings #3

2010-04-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Getting there! I finished book 5 of 6 last night - one more to go, and I have set myself the goal of finishing it before going on holiday so I can read something other than Tolkien with a clear conscience - it's not sunbed reading!

I still don't have any desire to watch the films. But I do feel that I'm reading something which is a significant contribution to English language(ish!) literature, and it is worth the hype. It is the first book/set of books that I've read since starting to work through this list that I have felt really justified its position on the "top 100" on any grounds other than being pretty pretentious!

Will post one final time when I finish it!

The best chocolate brownie recipe in the world

2010-04-17T01:26:00.001-07:00

I've just reached the half way point in LOTR - finished book 3 of 6. Still interested, but I don't really have anything more to say about it so far. Except, that I'm admiring the way that Tolkien, on a regular basis, seems to have thought "Hmm - story needs moving along. I know! I'll bring in a character who can carry them and cover vast distances with one step." This device could have been useful in the last Harry Potter!

Anyway - so it was Martin's birthday this week, and rather than making him a birthday cake as such, I decided to make triple chocolate brownies. This is a recipe I came across in Delicious magazine in 2008, and it truly is the best chocolate brownie recipe ever. It justified a year's subscription all by itself (not that I paid for it - thank you Susan :-) )!

It's so good that I thought I'd share it - and it can really easily be made gluten free without tasting any different.

So, you will need:

150g unsalted butter

200g plain chocolate, broken into squares

175g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

75g plain flour, sifted (replace this with gluten-free flour for the g-f version, I used Dove Farm)

100g white chocolate, cut into 5mm - 1cm chunks

100g milk chocolate, cut into 5mm - 1cm chunks.

Preheat the oven to 160 C/140 c fan/gas 3 - adjust accordingly if your oven is fierce as you really don't want to overcook these.

Grease & line the base and 2 sides of a 20cm square cake tin with 1 piece of baking paper, which makes it easier to lift out of the tin.

Place the plain chocolate & butter in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water and melt, stirring occasionally - I've discovered that the chocolate melts loads quicker than the butter, so chop the butter up if you want to speed up the process. Remove the bowl from the pan once melted and cool slightly.

Using electric beaters, beat the caster sugar and vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Whisk in theeggs, one at a time, until well combined. Add flour and beat until the mixture is smooth.

Stir in the white & milk chocolate chunks.

Pour into tin and bake for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the brownie comes out with a few moist crumbs (I tend to undercook it by 3 or 4 minutes so it is still gooier than this when it comes out - it then isn't very structurally sound but it is ammmmmmmmmmazing.)

Allow to cool completely in the tin before lifting out and cutting into squares.

Try and restrain yourself or anyone else in the house from eating them all at one sitting, and don't think about the calorie count.

Once you have melted the chocolate & butter it is really easy, and genuinely the best brownies I've ever had. I suppose you could add nuts if you wanted to, but I feel that nuts in a cake spoil a perfectly good cake! As it is, it's pretty allergy friendly.

Have fun :-)

Right, back to Lord of the Rings next time, but we're off to Knaresborough today to enjoy the sunshine!

Lord of the Rings #2

2010-04-10T02:21:00.001-07:00

Just a quick one to mark the finishing of the second book of 6 (1 of 3 in film terms!). As a mark of how much I'm actually enjoying this, I will be straight on with the next to find out what happens to Frodo and Sam as they stride off into the wilderness.

I was reading it last night as I watched one of the Harry Potter films (Goblet of Fire) which really hammered home the derivitiveness (that clearly isn't a word but you know what I mean) of HP - particularly the moment where Dumbledore used his Pensieve just as Frodo was introduced to the mirror of Galadriel.

I don't think LOTR will become one of my favourite books, but I am definitely withdrawing my previous comments about it being over-rated/geeky/just for children. Sorry, Tolkien. :-)

Lord of the Rings #1

2010-04-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

I suspect this won't be the last time I write about Lord of the Rings.

So, the uninitiated among you may believe that there are three books in the Lord of the Rings series. If you were a true fan, you would realise that there are in fact 6 books, plus an appendix. I can't help but feel that the publisher chose to present them in this way because there are 7 letters in Tolkien...one for each spine in the box set.

I'm currently about half way through the second book, which means that the ring has set out and is now on its way south. Or, alternatively, about a quarter of the way through in total (I'm not planning to read the appendix!).

I have always resolutely avoided LOTR - haven't seen the films, had no interest at all in the books. The Hobbit as an hors d'oeuvre didn't exactly whet my appetite either, and I approached this box set with trepidation, reluctance, and chiefly a desire to get them ticked off the list. Please don't judge me but (whispers) I am actually enjoying them so far. Shhhhhhhhhhh.

The story is much more gripping when there's action going on - I found myself skim-reading at the beginning of book two, when there was feasting, re-capping, songs and tales of times past. However, once the quest is ongoing...I struggled to put it down.

I have to say, though, and I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, that I'd never realised how heavily the Harry Potter books draw from the concepts in LOTR. Dementors? Surely based on the Black Riders. The name of an evil that cannot be spoken lest the attention of that evil be drawn to you? And don't get me started on the Gandalf/Dumbledore parallels. It may be unfair to comment on the Gandalf/Dumbledore similarities, and I don't mean just the use of a wizard - more the figure who is pivotal to the story, and has knowledge and power beyond that of the rest of the characters, but has frailties and weaknesses too. I feel slightly disappointed in J K Rowling - perhaps I should have read LOTR first!

More thoughts will, I'm sure, follow, when I've finished reading it...

Crime and Punishment

2010-04-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

I have finished Crime and Punishment! This feels like an enormous achievement, given the confusing names, density of the text and scale of the concepts involved. It is a hard but satisfying read, and I'd recommend it, as long as you have a bit of time on your hands...which I didn't, hence the time it has taken me to get through.

There is a lot to consider in this book. First, the main storyline - Rodion commits a murder, in the belief that he is one of a special breed of men who have responsibility to carry out grand actions to change the course of society and therefore are above the law. Even in the act of the murder, his conscience leads him to doubt this and he spirals into a madness driven by his guilt & conflicted conscience. The remainder of the novel then follows him as he wrestles with whether he should confess, flee or kill himself - which is most honourable, will he be found out etc.

The events of this work are then, in the main, viewed through a filter of his madness, and you can never quite be sure whether they are as they seem, or they are his interpretation. For example, Svidrigailoff enters the narrative in pursuit of Rodion's sister, discovers his guilt and then tries to use this to convince the sister to marry him. This conflict leads him too into madness. However, before he reachs this point, he toys with Rodion. On one occasion, Rodion (in one of his many fevered wanderings of the streets) believes he is going to Svidrigailoff's home, and instead ends up in a completely different part of the city, where he sees Svidrigailoff in the window of a tea house. He sees this as fate, coincidence etc, but Svidrigailoff says that he has told Rodion to meet him there...he has no recollection. There are many of these coincidental events throughout, and this gives an insight - perhaps they are not fate, driving Rodion towards a confession, as he believes, but normal, planned meetings, which he is misinterpreting due to the depth of his confusion & madness!

Catherine Ivanovna adds a welcome lightness to the mid-part of the novel - in particular, the funeral dinner following the death of her husband is the only section that made me smile. The fact that a funeral dinner is the funniest part of the work does give an indication of its bleakness! All of the key characters are subsisting at the lowest echelons of society, hand-to-mouth in terms of their financial situation, and at the mercy of those with money and position. It highlights how the justice system did not really offer justice for the poor, but just for those with the most influential voice, and those with money have a disproportionate amount of power & influence over those without. This is obviously not a new idea in society, lest you think I believe I'm making a revolutionary observation, but it does come across very starkly here.

I won't give away the ending, as I would highly recommend reading it, but will just say that it resolves, and felt like a satisfactory conclusion (take note, Grapes of Wrath - this is how to finish!). I feel like I have achieved something in this one - it was hard work, but it was worthy of the hard work.

Phew. Now to some shopping. And perhaps Lord of the Rings next!

A little light relief

2010-03-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

I am still working my way through Crime and Punishment, and will make it through to the end.

However, as a little light relief, and also to put off having to pick it up just now, I was thinking about books that I would put on my top 100. My friend Jo, for her next significant birthday, has asked her friends and family to get her a copy of their favourite book. For me, this is akin to Nick Hornby's main character in High Fidelity (whose name I cannot for the life of me remember) being asked to put together his top 5 records. I couldn't estimate how many books I've read in my lifetime (on an average week's holiday, I'll read 4 or 5 if not more), and I have a nagging feeling that as soon as I pick one, I will think of 5 others I prefer!! So, to help me in my thinking for Jo's birthday (and Jo, if you're reading, you may like to stop now or no surprise for you!) - my top 100 books that everyone should read would include:

The End of Mr Y, by Scarlett Thomas - a brilliant mystery based on a PhD student who finds a work by the author she is studying in a bookshop - the work is extremely rare, and no-one alive has ever read it, because everyone who has ever read it has died or disappeared in mysterious circumstances. The book then follows her as she reads the book and gets drawn into the mystery of it. I won't go into any more detail because I think it's best discovered for yourself, but read it! Best book I read last year...I think!

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The story of a small boy who is taken by his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a labyrinth of books which would otherwise have been in danger of being destroyed or forgotten. As a rite of passage, he chooses a book to take home, understanding that he is then taking responsibility for the survival of that book. As he reads the book and grows up, he becomes drawn into the mystery of the author. It's quite dark but absolutely compelling.

A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami. Anything by Murakami could have made it onto this list, but this is the first one I read and so I think made the biggest impact. Murakami is one of Japan's most read authors of modern times, and with good reason. The plot of this novel is almost impossible to outline and do justice to - look it up on Amazon - but the key feature of anything by Murakami is the way he draws you into an utterly surreal and often comic world, but in such a way that you do not notice you're moving away from reality until you realise that you are reading about a character whose ears have the power, when uncovered, to improve sex, or the hunt for a manic depressive in a sheep outfit, or a hotel which has a hidden world on the 19th floor which very occasionally appears...and it seems completely usual. Murakami's powers of imagination and story telling are amazing, and I went on from this novel to read all of his other novels.

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde. Books are again central to this (I'm spotting a theme in books that appeal to me!), but in a very different way. Fforde creates a world where travel into the interior of novels is possible, Swindon is the capital of England, dodos have been revived (slightly unsuccessfully), and time travel is not only possible, but used as a means of policing. Oh, and the Crimean War is still running by the 1980s. It can be read on a very simple level, enjoying the premise of the story - nominally a mystery, where Thursday Next (the main character) attempts to track down and stop the criminal who is kidnapping minor characters from the original copies of novels and holding them to ransom. If he doesn't get what he wants, he plans to kidnap Jane Eyre and murder her, meaning that Jane would disappear from all copies of the novel, and ruin one of the classics of English literature. (Martin would be glad of this, as he still holds that Jane Eyre is one of the dullest books ever written). Beyond this storyline, though, the novel is littered with literary references, and so can be read with a faint feeling of smugness/bewilderment as you place, or fail to place, the references. It's brilliantly constructed, funny, and gripping, and again I went on to read the rest of Fforde's work.

I could go on - I love recommending books - but will stop there, and try and work further through Crime and Punishment! If you try any of the above and like them, let me know...

Crime and Punishment #1

2010-03-20T00:37:00.000-07:00

After Steinbeck & Rushdie, I went for something a bit more lightweight - the Hobbit. I wanted to then go onto something also fairly light - but started Crime and Punishment instead!

Now, I haven't finished this yet - it's been a pretty busy week and it's a pretty heavy book - but there's a lot in it and I'll probably forget my thoughts so far if I don't write about it part-way through!

One observation that made me chuckle - Roskolnikov's mother has just arrived, and is described as retaining some traces of her former beauty, despite being on the verge of old age - she is 43. Imagine the slating that an author writing now would get for defining a 43 year old woman as being on the verge of old age! Having said that, a chuckle is in a sense the wrong response - this is really just a reflection of firstly the general increase in life expectancy, and also the extreme poverty & harsh life lived by the characters in this novel would, I'd imagine, cause a woman to age at a far quicker rate than us in our more cosseted life here with anti-ageing creams and hair dyes and moisturisers proven to address the seven signs of ageing...

For those who aren't familiar with the novel, Crime and Punshment is set in pre-Revolutionary Tsarist Russia. Rodia Raskolnikov decides to carry out a murder for financial reasons, but also as a matter of principle - ridding the world of the evils of a money-lender who also conveniently happens to have riches that can be stolen after the event. Following this event (it isn't giving much away to tell you that he does it!), Dostoevsky examines the effect of guilt on Raskolnikov and his subsequent actions.

The first thing to say, I think, is that for the first time in this challenge I am absolutely gripped by the book I am reading. I was starting to worry that the 52 books I'd already read would turn out to be the only ones I like, and that it would be a year (or so) of forcing myself through depressing and overly complex works! This is complex - even to the extent that each of the characters seems to be referred to by two or three different names, and it has taken me until about the halfway point to really know who the characters are - and is certainly not a light or cheerful read. However, it is so well constructed that I have been completely drawn into the darkness of Raskolnikov's growing madness/illness/panic, and want to know where it is going next.

As I mentioned, the mother & sister have just entered the equation, and the depiction of dignity within poverty is striking.

More to follow when I finish! By the way, I'm reading the Wordsworth Classics version, which is giving me an eerie sense of doing my English A-level homework...

The Hobbit

2010-03-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Another book down - I've just finished The Hobbit. I think I made a token effort at starting this years ago and didn't get very far. I have very little interest in this as a genre, which is why I have never read any LOTR, or seen the films. However, one of the interesting things about this challenge is the removal of my personal taste from the decision as to what I read next, and it is definitely forcing me to widen my literary horizons.

I don't really know what to say about the Hobbit. It's very readable, although I have to confess to only skim-reading the songs, but I find it difficult to care about the outcome of a story that doesn't have any people in it. The depictions of dwarves, elves and goblins exactly mirror the standard literary definitions of those species, although I don't know if that's because Tolkien coined these characteristics. My ignorance showing itself, I think. If one feels so inclined, there are some general principles, or life lessons, that can be drawn from the Hobbit - the pursuit of money above all else erodes relationships & leads to conflict; a higher cause can unify parties previously divided by conflict over riches; the power of encouragement and affirmation in bringing about change (Bilbo believing that he could be useful and take the lead, because Gandalf has told him so); it's always a bad idea to leave the path in the woods; travelling down a river in a barrel will always be an uncomfortable experience.

The theme of food, or the absence thereof, runs throughout, as Bilbo learns that it's possible to shake the habit of a lifetime and survive a day or more without regular tea and cakes - perhaps a lesson we could all do to learn.

Overall - it is a book aimed at children, and it would be unfair to write it off for not being very deep!! It was easy enough to read, but I can't see myself becoming a big fan of the genre. I think I might finish off Crime and Punishment before I attack the rest of the LOTR books.

May your beards never grow thin. And remember, according to Gandalf, just because you had a part in making it happen, it doesn't mean that it isn't the fulfilment of a prophesy!

Books that would make bad musicals

2010-03-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Today, I was listening to the musical equivalent of Midnight's Children - not, I hasten to add, a musical of Midnight's Children (it wouldn't make a great stage show...an event occurs, all action on the stage pauses for 10 minutes while the narrator explains the metaphor we are supposed to be understanding...in song...action continues, 4 hours later nothing has really happened...). No, I was listening to the new Gorillaz album. I've really liked their previous work, but this is just rubbish. It seems to be a mixture of bad rap, 80s electro pop, and generally unmemorable music. However, I know that they have often been heralded as making innovative use of different musical styles and so I didn't feel I could just write it off. So, I listened through to the end. I tried really hard to understand what they were doing with the album as a whole, rather than just feeling complainy because there is nothing singable on it. I felt a bit uncultured because I was probably missing the point.

It seemed to go on for a long time, and nothing of interest really happens. I don't ever want to listen to it again.

So, I'm left with the question - is it too clever for me, am I missing the point, or is it just not worth listening to?

I'll leave you to draw the parallel - I don't think I need to hit you over the head with it!

That did start me thinking about books that would make bad musicals (I was driving to work, I was bored, and all I had to listen to was the Gorillaz album). So - Midnight's Children, Jude the Obscure (totally inappropriate subjects for song), The Wasp Factory. Strangely enough, I think the lingering, trudging misery of Grapes of Wrath might lend itself quite well to song.

I'm reading the Hobbit at the moment, by the way. Only 30 pages in but so far I'm pleased to report that it's more interesting than I remember it being last time I tried. The seven book Lord of the Rings Millenium edition is looming ominously over my reading future...

Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children - done!

2010-03-07T01:39:00.000-08:00

I have finally finished Midnight's Children. It's been an interesting experience. Trying to plough through this book has made me challenge the way that I read, pretentious as that may sound. I think I've mentioned previously that I read really fast - my driver to find out what happens at the end means that I do miss details, and generally don't think that much about what I'm reading other than taking in the outline facts.

Midnight's Children was impossible to read in this way. I've already commented that nothing seems to happen for the first 200 pages and, another 150 pages on, I realised that nothing was going to happen going forwards, in the way that I was looking for it - i.e. significant events, in the present tense, which caused an unexpected change in the direction of the story. The narrative voice is so distant (despite the fact that he is telling his own story), and bound up in metaphor, that all events are just below the surface of the text - I'm struggling a little to put this into words - as a reader, you actually need to read and digest the metaphor, the very visual language, and the narrator's own uncertainty about the accuracy of his memory to get to the heart of the story.

It's a difficult book to read.

Rushdie plays with the reader's perceptions throughout. Saleem expresses doubt about the accuracy of his dates & memory, leading me to believe that the parallels between his life and the life of India as a nation are delusions of grandeur, entirely in his own mind, rather than the cause & effect that he believes. However, his arrest and subsequent events at the end of the book indicate that the group of children (obviously now adults) are seen as a significant threat - they clearly have some significance and relationship to the life of the nation beyond Saleem's own mind, leaving me then to revisit my previous perceptions. Having said that, belief in the events of the novel to any extent do involve a suspension of disbelief - but for some reason I find it easier to do this in relation to the magical powers of the children than in relation to national events. Perhaps a reflection of the individualist society we live in, perhaps a limit in my imagination - who knows?

I did also find the level of coincidence in the novel, putting lost friends & family in entirely random places to be found by Saleem, difficult to believe in. However, perhaps I'm being difficult to please here - I can't help but contrast this to the Grapes of Wrath, where I complained about the way that loose ends were not tied up, and people were never heard from again. Saleem ties up all loose ends in the narration of his story, sometimes convincingly, sometimes fantastically, and sometimes admitting that he doesn't know, and this is the way he likes to believe that it happened.

There is a passage which really stuck with me:

Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I've gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each 'I', every one of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude.
(p535 of the Vintage Books edition)

This is written in the context of his significance to the Indian nation (and gives a good example of the style of prose that I found so difficult to skim read), but I thought this was a great way of summarising an individual's impact on the world for those looking for their own significance...leaving questions of God and higher meaning to one side for the moment!

Having reached the end, I'm left with an appreciation of the complexity of this novel. I suspect that I might have got more out of it had I known more about the period of history it covers, or had I read the beginning with the same mindset as I read the end. However, I still feel that the metaphor is heavy handed...Rushdie wants to leave you with a particular interpretation of Saleem's significance, actions, and life, and therefore interprets this through the voice of the narrator. There is very little space or scope for a sense of discovery that comes with a subtler metaphor - I feel, rather, that I've been beaten about the head with what he wanted to say!

Would I read it again? I doubt it...but I'm glad I didn't give up this time.

Onto the next - I might go for Lord of the Rings or Nineteen Eighty-Four for something slightly gentler.

Midnight's Children - an interim report

2010-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

I thought I should post something about Midnight's Children, even though I still haven't finished it, because it is taking me a while to read. I know it isn't a long time for most people, but as I read at the speed of light, generally, and this is something of a plod, it feels very slow.

I mentioned to my friend Simon that Midnight's Children was my next project; he said that this is one of the few books that he's started and failed to finish. This filled me with dread, as we tend to like the same books, but I carry on regardless - I have a challenge to complete!

So - Salman Rushdie. Simon's difficulty in finishing this novel is entirely understandable. It was 100 pages before anything happened, and 200 pages before the main protaganist, Saleem, is born. Given that the first 200 pages is laden with future hints about his birth, this seems like a long time to spin out the anticipation. Once Saleem enters the picture, the pace speeds up a bit and this is where I started to get interested, but if I didn't have another compelling reason to finish it, I would have given up before then.

You can't argue with the quality of the writing. Rushdie plays with form, both in choice of words & in the punctuation & structure of sentences, to create mood and impact. There's a particularly striking scene, with the retelling of a dream about a witch killing children, where he does this to great effect; and another where the repetition of the colours saffron and green in every element of a description creates a sort of driving rhythm that supports the urgency of the situation (Saleem's birth), as well as linking it in with the birth of India as a nation. His description of Amina taking a knife to her verrucas is, unfortunately, particularly vivid...my feet are curling themselves up in self-defence just thinking about it.

There is an enormous amount covered in this novel. Indian independence, the political system, Partition...childhood events, accidents, turbulent family life, and of course the magical realism elements of Saleem's psychic links with India's other "midnight children". The novel is written self-consciously - Saleem is writing his own story, and frequently breaks off to comment to Padma, his companion. This obviously gives him the advantage of hindsight, and the ability to hint at future events, but from a stylistic point of view, I find it much harder to become absorbed in the story - I feel as though I'm sitting by the narrator, watching from a distance, rather than being one with the story.

This could also be partly due to spending almost four hours today reading whilst on a train to and from London at unsocial hours - much more difficult to get involved (particularly when the seat in front is occupied by someone playing a game on their iPhone without switching off the sound - grr - but I'll calm myself as this is not a forum for train rants!).

So far - hmm. This is an enormously accomplished book, it's very well constructed, and complex but easily followed. It's difficult to get truly involved in, in the sense of emotional engagement, because so much of its style and construction is about creating parallels between people & events of national significance. When Rushdie gets involved in the "real time" story that he's telling, it's immensely compelling, but this does tend to happen in fits and starts, and so many misfortunes fall upon Saleem, both physical and emotional, that it's difficult to see him as a three-dimensional character rather than a living metaphor. Maybe that's the point & I'm just not sophisticated enough to like it!

I suspect I will be glad I've read it, when I finish it, but I'm not quite near enough the end to feel that yet! More to follow- about 150 pages to go, I think...

Book # -1...or something

2010-02-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

One of the books from the list which I had already read was the Time Travellers Wife - hasn't everybody? I resisted reading it for ages because it was populist, everyone was reading it, and I hate following the crowd, but then I gave in and LOVED it. So why write about it today? I wasn't planning to write about all of the books I read pre-challenge, but I've just watched the film and it reminded me of all the reasons that the book is fantastic.

The film was a good one to watch - absorbing, a little bit emotional, fairly well cast. It took a little while to adapt to the American accents...I didn't realise until the film started that I had read the book entirely in an English accent, even though it was set in Chicago! As with so many film adaptations, though, they left out almost all of the elements that made the book memorable and (at risk of sounding like a total girl) heart-rending. The period between Clare and Henry meeting in "real time" and getting married, in the film, passes in two scenes. In the book, this is one of the formative periods where you grow to understand the relationship between them, the tensions of planning for the key events of life...the true depth of relationship and passion. I remember the passion between them as being compelling, a core part of the novel, and this hardly featured in the film at all. Without this, and with much of the interaction with other characters (Clare's mother, Kimy, the women from Henry's pre-Clare life), it became difficult to truly care, and I think the emotional involvement came mainly from the understanding of the characters, and expectation of events, gained from the book.

I did genuinely love that book, and not just in comparison with the film. It's one of the few books that has made me cry (and I mean sob) on public transport, and despite the totally unrealistic concept it is based on, it is somehow very believable. It also gives an interesting take on free will, from a different angle than the usual predestination/free will debate. There is the question of cause and effect - Henry convinces Dr Kendricks to work with him on the basis that he is already working with him and therefore he must agree - and inevitability - Henry is already married to Clare when he is visiting her as a small child, and therefore does she have any choice but to marry him? It is also a brilliantly constructed, very well written, cracking good read. Definitely recommend it; try to read as much as you can in one sitting (it's really hard to follow if you read in short bursts), and don't necessarily bother with the film!

Book #1 - done!

2010-02-23T14:31:00.000-08:00

It's been a hard slog, but I've finished the Grapes of Wrath. Given that the blurb on the back describes it as "A terrible and indignant book", I perhaps should have guessed that it wasn't going to be a joyous and uplifting read! I can certainly appreciate the quality of the writing - Steinbeck's descriptions of scenery, people and travel are immensely evocative. I have a tendency to skim over descriptions in general, looking for the action, but his descriptions did make me pause and visualise. Having said that, I struggled to motivate myself to progress through the book, I think because there is a sense, from the very beginning, that the Joad family's quest for a new life in California is futile & doomed - even though they express hope, there is very little optimism or hope within the novel. I know that this is the fundamental point of the work, and it is a pretty accurate depiction of the period, but it makes for quite heavy reading. I can sort of appreciate the sense of purpose that is restored to Rose of Sharon in the (slightly disturbing) end scene, but it is one of those novels that leaves so many loose ends...it feels a bit like Steinbeck created as many scenes of dashed hopes as his imagination/patience could handle, got a few characters out of the picture and swiftly concluded the story. But then (I've used the word "but" far too many times for elegance here, which does make me question who I am to critique a Pulitzer Prize winner!) the loose ends, the disappearances and the lack of a happy ending are all fairly true to life for the time - the displaced families in America in that period would have become separated in their quest to scrape a living and there wasn't a happy resolution where they got their little white house, steady work and settlement!
Which leads me to thinking - is it shallow of me to only really enjoy a book if it has a degree of optimism, and a genuine resolution at the end? A happy ending isn't essential (although I have to say I quite like them), but at least a sense that the central tension of the novel has been resolved and brought to a close!

So, that was the Grapes of Wrath. I suspect it won't be on my list of all time favourites but I'm glad I finished it. Onwards and upwards...maybe something more cheerful next!

Grapes of Wrath

2010-02-17T22:52:00.001-08:00

I love how books capture the imagination. I've told a few book-loving friends about my mission, which has instantly sparked list comparisons, recommendations, offers of books to borrow, and a couple of copy-cat projects (not that my idea was in any way original, I hasten to add).

I feel reassured to have discovered fellow Dickens-haters and slightly confused as to how anyone can number George Eliot amongst their favourite writers - no offence, Nuneaton, but studying Silas Marner twice in two years kind of killed her for me. Apparently Middlemarch is better - I shall soon be able to confirm this!

I have been musing on the best way to do this without killing the enjoyment of reading for the next year or so - I love reading, and find that it is the best way I have of switching off from work, retreating into my own world, and refreshing my mind, but I do tend to struggle when I know I _have_ to finish a book. So, I think multi-tasking is the way to go...if I always have two books on the go (probably Shakespeare and A. N. Other) there will be a sense of respite. It might sound odd, but I think it will work for me!

So, Grapes of Wrath so far. I have to say, it hasn't instantly grabbed me, but I perhaps haven't given it a fair shot as I've mainly given it 10 minutes at a time before falling asleep. Evocative descriptions of scenery, definitely - I can see the scenes clearly - but nothing has really happened yet. One list-reader said this was her favourite book of the 100 - high praise! - so I'm sure it will pick up - more to follow!

Book #1

2010-02-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

And just to demonstrate that I am doing something about this - first up is the Grapes of Wrath, mainly because we have it and so I can start straight away! Thoughts to follow...

The BBC's top 100 books

2010-02-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know whether it's the start of the new decade, but this year seems to be the year of the list, with friends trying to achieve 52 in 52 (books or games, in as many weeks), or 101 in 1001 (tasks on a list, in 1001 days). I don't quite have the time or imagination to do either of these, so I've decided to set myself a task that I have already more than half completed - is this cheating? :-)

In February last year, the BBC published a list of the top 100 books to read before you die, reckoning that most people would have read 6 or 7 of them. At the time, I'd read 52, and so felt smug at being very well read. A year on, and I have only read two more, so have decided to publicly set myself the challenge of reading the rest. I'd like to say that I'll do it by the end of the year; not sure how realistic that is given that I have to go to work as well, and the Complete Works of Shakespeare are on the list (thankfully I've already read the Bible) but we'll see!

So, the list. As a starting point, the ones in red are the ones I've read, and I'll update them into blue as I read more. This is going to challenge me in overcoming my prejudices (I have tried time and again to read Dickens, and never enjoyed it, and I have never wanted to read Lord of the Rings) but hopefully give me a focus for reading - I read extensively and quite randomly, and generally not books of the highest quality!

Pride & Prejudice
The Lord of the Rings
Jane Eyre
Harry Potter series
To kill a mockingbird
The Bible
Wuthering Heights
Nineteen Eighty-Four
His Dark Materials
Great Expectations
Little Women
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Catch 22
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca
The Hobbit
Birdsong
The Catcher in the Rye
The Time Traveller's Wife
Middlemarch
Gone with the Wind
The Great Gatsby
Bleak House
War and Peace
The Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy
Brideshead Revisited
Crime and Punishment
Grapes of Wrath
Alice in Wonderland
The Wind in the Willows
Anna Karenina
David Copperfield
The Chronicles of Narnia
Emma
Persuasion
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Kite Runner
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Memoirs of a Geisha
Winnie the Pooh
Animal Farm
The Da Vinci Code
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
The Woman in White
Anne of Green Gables
Far from the Madding Crowd
The Handmaid's Tale
Lord of the Flies
Atonement
Life of Pi
Dune
Cold Comfort Farm
Sense & Sensibility
A Suitable Boy
The Shadow of the Wind
A Tale of Two Cities
Brave New World
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Love in the Time of Cholera
Of Mice & Men
Lolita
The Secret History
The Lovely Bones
Count of Monte Cristo
On the Road
Jude the Obscure
Bridget Jones' Diary
Midnight's Children
Moby Dick
Oliver Twist
Dracula
The Secret Garden
Notes from a Small Island
Ulysses
The Bell Jar
Swallows and Amazons
Germinal
Vanity Fair
Possession
A Christmas Carol
Cloud Atlas
The Colour Purple
The Remains of the Day
Madame Bovary
A Fine Balance
Charlotte's Web
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Faraway Tree Collection
Heart of Darkness
The Little Prince
The Wasp Factory
Watership Down
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Town Like Alice
The Three Musketeers
Hamlet
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Les Miserables