Mar 2
If this cat is real then it is *awesome* (say it in your best singsong voice).
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
In other news the movie of Kazuo Ishiguro’s amazing book Never Let Me Go is now in post-production. Less thrillingly it stars Keira Knightley.
Do I put my dislike of Miss Knightley aside for my total love of Ishiguro?
Can they really make as great a film as The Remains of the Day?
Feb 27
I’m currently reading Maskerade by Terry Pratchett, I don’t think I’ll do a full review but just had to say – is this possibly the funniest Discworld book of them all? It’s truly hilarious. From the very first page:
An eldritch voice shrieked: “When shall we… two… meet again?”
Thunder rolled.
A rather more ordinary voice said: “What’d you go and shout that for? You made me drop my toast in the fire.”
Nanny Ogg sat down again.
“Sorry, Esme. I was just doing it for…you know…old time’s sake…Doesn’t roll off the tongue though.”
“I’d just got it nice and brown, too.”
“Sorry.”
“Anyway, you didn’t have to shout.”
“Sorry.”
“I mean, I ain’t deaf. You could’ve just asked me in a normal voice. And I’d have said, ‘Next Wednesday.’”
The story is so entertaining and along the way he skewers opera, popular musicals, publishing, ballet… and some of the best characters are here – Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Agnes/Perdita Nitt, Death, the Death of Rats – it’s an embarrassment of riches. If you haven’t read any Pratchett this would be a great title to start with.
Feb 18
I’ve noticed some odd changes in my reading habits as I get older. Namely my attention span seems to be slowly slipping towards what I like to characterise as “manic guinea pig” levels. I love the physicality and heft of large, thick books but I find myself approaching their reading with a sinking heart – it’s difficult to keep myself patient for the time it takes to read them. I think that’s why my recent reading run has been so successful – several shorter books (though I did manage Wolf Hall and that’s no shrinking violet in the length stakes). On the other hand though, I don’t want to be stuck reading shorter books forever, I vastly admire any author who can sustain their creations for truly long books, and I don’t want to deny myself the pleasure of being immersed in those creations.
I’m hoping to some extent this is a phase rather than a long-term change! My reading style seems to go through cycles. Up until quite recently I was always loathe not to finish a book I had started, out of some sort of need to prove my stick-to-it-ness. These days, though, I am far less patient with books that are not keeping my interest or proving worth my reading time – and oftentimes it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what it is that is making it unreadworthy. Sometimes even bad or badly-written books can be readworthy, with a judicious amount of skim-reading.
Perhaps it’s just as time goes on and I think about the amount of great books out there yet to be read and the amount of great books to come I see less use in wasting my time on those that are falling well outside that category.
Question and Comment Time: So, dear viewers of mine, have your reading habits changed over the years? Can you give a book up or are you readers to the end? Do you have to read only shorter books or longer books and do you mind?
I don’t often venture far from books on this blog (and if I do it usually involves teh kittehs) but I really wanted to draw your attention to this great post by @catatonichic from Twitter on her blog Confessions of a Southside Catatonic Chataholic, about Waitangi Day.
But it’s not just about Waitangi Day, it’s also about national identity, personal identity, Maori identity and personal history. It’s awesome. I can’t really say more as I think the post speaks for itself. Please to read it.
P.S. I’m wrestling with a Sydney Bridge Upside Down review…. it will arrive later…
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
When words like “poignant”, “delightful”, “wondrous” and “life-affirming” (yes that’s two, sorry) are used in reviews and write-ups of a particular book, they’re almost guaranteed to have me running from said book as fast as my cynical little feet can take me.
Which is probably why I have resisted reading this book for so long (I’m all a-catching up on 2009 books now it’s 2010!), but I gave in – perhaps I was feeling especially “life-affirming”. It’s probably a good thing I resisted – when everyone else was being poignantly delighted I probably would have felt more contrary and picked at it.
But I would have been hard-pressed to find something to pick. I loved this book. It was delightful and poignant and wondrous (though I cannot bring myself to use “life-affirming” – what does it even mean? “Oh, I’m alive, yay!” I don’t usually get too unsure about that sort of thing. Bah, life humbug) and above all, charming. It totally charmed me. The writing was lovely, the story was lovely with the occasional really not lovely sidebar (it is set during and after WW2 after all), the characters were really lovely – I have not been so attracted to a main character (Juliet) in a long time. She’s real. And rather funny.
The book has an epistolary style (that’s letters, y’all) which seems quite old-fashioned these days (it’s really more under-used than old-fashioned), but in a way that totally suits the time period of the story. What it does mean though is you sometimes feel the characters blend together a bit – other than idiosyncracies of language there isn’t necessarily a lot to distinguish them from one another. But putting aside that miniscule quibble, I enjoyed the style – very much in an 84, Charing Cross Road-way – it allowed the witty, talky sound of the voices to come through and I’m a sucker for that sort of carry-on.
“Touching” and “witty” are the two words I’d apply to this little charmer. Thoroughly enjoyable and perfect for this more relaxed time of year. Did I say relaxed? Hahaha. Ahahahaha.
Four little furry paws up.
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