Welcome to this week's blog. Here's a roundup of your comments and photos from last week, including a number of open-ended questions coming from the community which sparked interesting conversations.
fat_hamster asked:
Here's one of those open ended questions I delight in. Has anyone read a book they feel should be made into a film one day? Mine is Room by Emma Donaghue.
Dylanwolf contributed:
I'd choose Manly Pursuits by Ann Harries. In her novel an aged and ailing Cecil Rhodes believes that the only thing that can save him is the mellifluous sound of English songbirds. Oxford ornithologist Thomas Wills is engaged for the task of delivering the birds to Cape Town. The Boer War looms. The book includes appearances by other real Victorian figures including Lewis Carrol, Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling.
Jantar's take:
Okay, normally I ignore all movies-based-on but the temptation to design one to order, as it were, is too hard to resist. So I would like to see Gaiman's Graveyard book as a movie – but very much like Greenaway did with The Tempest/Prospero's book. So it must be voluptious and weird, with one narrating voice (which would have to be provided by Gaiman himself.)
The discussion was also opened to cast choices. Which would be your picks?
AbdullahM shared not only what he was enjoying at the moment but also his most recent and forthcoming reads.
Dylanwolf said:
I've just finished Silent Cry by Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburō Ōe, story of two brothers returning to their home village in Shikoku, a remote forested area of Japan. They are struggling with their own lives and with the myths of their family history. The book is a heavy tale of continuous descent with the ever-present rolling rumble of the futility of action in the light of insufficient knowledge, poor judgement and evitability.
This after finally finishing the extravagant and sumptuous feast that is Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec. W or the Memory of Childhood and Avoid duly purchased.
judgeDAmNation said:
I finished reading Post Captain by Patrick O'Brien, and have already found HMS Surprise in an Oxfam bookshop so I won't have to wait so long to start the next in the series. After waiting patiently for one of the many copies to be returned to the public library, I finally chanced upon the next in the Jack Reacher series, Without Fail, and am now reading that – has everything you'd expect in it so far so am not disappointed. Also just started re-reading Elephant by Raymond Carver, which is probably my favourite of all his books...
A few discussed John Le Carré novels, and whether A Perfect Spy is his best book. According to AlleinAllein:
I've been reading A Perfect Spy by John Le Carré and I agree when people say it could be his best book. After the misstep of The Little Drummer Girl, a book which probably have been considered great were it written by anybody else, it's really good to see that he's returned to his familiar universe while going for something far more ambitious.
I'm not the kind of person who tends to think of 'hard' and 'easy' books and I'm definitely not one to confuse difficulty with quality but, aside from being great, it's also perhaps the most difficult books I've read: the Magnus chapters skip from first to third person, past to present tense, address usually two separate people and sometimes pull back even further out of his narration, often doing at least one of these per paragraph. It takes a while to get used to but when you get used to the rhythm, it's genius, and even with all this going on, it's still a thrilling page turner.
Just finished A Delicate Truth by le Carre. The final page was devastating, although how Toby could have avoided all the state's mechanisms is debatable. Where is Snowden now? And who else recently committed suicide rather conveniently?
Some are looking forward to tackling a nicely wide selection, time permitting:
MsCarey said:
Finished All The Pretty Horses in a state of bliss but I've decided to take a break before The Crossing. I decided on a change of scene with The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru. Just started and not yet sure what the tone is meant to be. Seems like it might be picaresque and I'm not sure if the writer is achieving it. In all fairness it's too soon to say.
Jantar gave a negative recommendation, breaking a tradition:
Normally I will only discuss books here I enjoyed and which I would recommend to others but I will make an exception for Isabel Allende's detective novel 'Ripper'. First the faint praise: it's not really bad but weighing in at almost 500 pages 'not really bad' turns into 'why-am-I-still-reading-this?' fairly quickly. The story isn't bad, the way it's presented is not bad, the setting and what there is in terms of back story: not bad... Well, you get my drift.
[...] She is slumming here. You can't help but feel she wrote this on a dare but without putting any real thinking or writing effort into it. So, if you really have nothing better to do or if you lost your suitcase with all of your holiday reading and this book is the only thing wit words in it you come upon in a night train, some faraway hostel et cetera, then it will do. Otherwise, really, don't bother.
Shakespeare couldn't be absent with his coming 450th birthday:
Other anniversary-based reads:
A recommendation for all ages from csrees97:
And finally, another open query: what books of yours always get stolen (or 'borrowed' forever – we all know how that goes down)?
Trevor Edward Walder said his two are:
The Last Blue Sea by David Forrest. I've had two copies (it's a fairly rare paperback) – both were passed to Vietnam Vets to give their wives a "feel" of jungle warfare. Neither was returned. I accept that.
Very Special Intelligence by Patrick Beesley. About the Admiralty's radio intelligence service. I got to dip into it (PQ-17 chapter). SKE picked it up. Said "This is my job". Bang. Into her Chador. Left me with the feeling I was in breach of the Official Secrets Act.
SnowyJohn shared:
Good question. I have the opposite problem in that I can't give them away! I've bought 4 copies of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and three of Burgess's Earthly Pleasures , as gifts for people, and most ended up back on my shelves. I've stopped trying to make people read things now.
The only book I've had nicked was an annoyingly rare edition of Keats. The person who borrowed it denies memory of doing so. I'm trying to wangle an invitation to their house so I can casually pluck it off the shelf and point out my pencil notes on the inside.
If you would like to share a photo of the book you are reading, or film your own book review, please do. Click the blue button on this page to share your video or image. I'll include some of your posts in next week's blog. And, as always, if you have any suggestions for topics you'd like to see us covering beyond TLS, do let us know.
