desert island disc
07 Sep 2010 16 Comments
in classics, thoughts Tags: 2010, MEME, musings
Well Simon and Richard have put down list for there desert island discs ,well I am a huge fan of the show having listen since roy plumleys time showing my age there lol . Over years have jot my eight records down ,but when I come to write a post that other people are going to see my mind went blank to start with ,then it was all new stuff but after a think and bearing in mind the records are meant to be with you for a peroid of time a mix of what is tried and test and maybe one or two new was the way to go .
DESERT ISLAND DISCS -
1.better together by Jack Johnson ,I first got into jack well before the wave of sucees with his first album as a fan of ben harper he had worked with jack ,but this song is “our song ” we both like it myself and my wife Amanda ,we had it for a dance at our wedding so it means a lot to me and reminds me of my darling wife .
2.Mercy seat by Nick Cave and the bad seeds – I heard this on the John peel show taped it and wore the tape out it is onw of his finest songs epic dark ,religous imagery and full on rock ,nick has mellowed over the years like I have been a tear away as a teen but this song evokes a time and places .
3.Golden lights by The smiths ,now as a teen I had the morrissey haircut glass etc ,he spoke to me then but over the years i fallen in and out of love with his music ,at moment I m in love again after a couple of great albums ,this song is funny and sums him up in a way ,he was a guide to a young man with troubles .
4.Black eyed dog by Nick Drake ,nick Drake was a wonderful guitar player and singer ,he died at a young age and this song about depression touched me at a time I had depression and of course has dog and I had a black dog at the time ,a soul searching song .
5.love will tear us apart ny Joy Divison now i grew up around north cheshire near macclesfield went college there ever since I can remember I ve love this song it was a anthem for me growing up ,both joy divison and new order have been bands Ive listen since teens and this brings back my school and first outings to pubs etc
6.Old King by Neil Young ,a song about neils dog enough said
7.razor blades ,,little pills and big pianos by James rhodes ,A collection of piano piece by James Rhodes his first album it is amzingly soothing record from a great self taught talent
8.hallelujah Jordan by hothouse flowers ,this irish band reminds me of my irish roots and the last summer at school it is a very summery album its on .
book proust in search of lost time (complete) a book I really really want to read at some point so may have time on desert island
luxury item – digital photo fram with picture of my wedding and my wife and of course winston .
well there is the 8 sure if you asked me next week sure they be different .
persephone reading week cheerful weather for a wedding by julia strachey
08 May 2010 9 Comments
in books from, classics, U.K Tags: english classics, persephone books
Julia Strachey
Notes -
Julia strachy was on the fringes of the bloomsbury group she was a cousin to the biograph Lytton Strachey part of the famous stachey family,she was published by hogarth press orginally that was connected to the group she also published another novel twenty years after this .It was book 38 in persephone releases .
The book –
The book follows dolly the main charcaters wedding day to the hon Owen Bigham , we start with the morning nerves and her brothers frolicking about downstairs on the sofa .
Robert’s black shoes sticking on the arm of the sofa were crossed one over the other , and revealed a gleam of emerald between the shoes and the trousers .
her mother flaps as the day progresses nerves run high drinks are taken to calm nerves ex’s appear Joseph that confides he is still in love with dolly and aunts are abound ,In what seems a typical if a little fraught at times wedding day in the thirties .
My view -
I was looking forward to reading this book and was disappoint it oozes the era ,Dolly’s brothers and the aunts made me think of Woodhouse and Wooster with his aunts .But this book is slightly darker than them ,Julia had wonderful observations and great dialogue in this book .The book is wonderfully produce with an elegant front cover and nice inner leaves .I m a little disappoint that this was the only book i ve got to read for Persephone week , but due to work and home commitments i haven’t had the time .This was a wonderful book to republish a lost gem from a writer connected to so many other writers .
Links -
the life of Julia Strachey - a 2 page pdf file
FAB ,FAB FABER
16 Apr 2010 8 Comments
in classics, CURRENT READS Tags: BOOKS
BOOKS IN A BAG
Early this morning ,we were woken to a banging at the door ,my darling wife went downstairs and was greeted by the postie saying take this its heavy ,i ask the wife what it was when she came back upstairs she said oh more books again .I wondered what books it could be as wasn’t expecting any ,then saw Faber on label and remembered i won a comp on twitter a few weeks ago ,as those of you who know me i am on twitter all day every day nearly lol . So i quickly opened the parcel and discovered tho complete collection of the Faber firsts that came out last year to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Faber and Faber .this great collection of Faber’s shows Faber’s wide range of books -
William Golding – Lord of the flies – I read this when young ,but have been wanting to go back to it at some point after hearing about John Carey’s new bio of Golding ,i want to see if the book has change in the twenty years since i read it .
P D James – Cover her face – Not read any James ,I have enjoyed the tv versions of her work over the years .
John McGahern - The barracks – This is a new name to me I ve read the blurb on the back of the book and its set in Ireland ,and sounds quite good .
Sylvia Plath – The bell jar – This is one i read as a teenager as well and had mislaid my copy over the years so is a welcome edition to my bookshelves
Peter Carey – Bliss – I feel bad I ve not read this as a huge fan of Carey’s work I feel iI should have read his debut ,so this is going near top of tbr ,expect a review soon
Kazuo Ishiguro - A pale view of the hills – i had this on tbr pile after reading nocturnes last year i decide to read some more of his books again ,
Paul Auster - new york Trilogy – i read this last year from library the same edition and like the cover design so will be please to have it on my shelf as i really enjoyed it as i have with many of Auster’s books ,this book set in new york a collection of three stories with a detective theme .
Orhan Pamuk - The White castle – I read this last year also ,an italian sailor is sold as a slave in arab world ends up educating a sultan ,wonderful storytelling ,I would recommend this book to any one .
Hanif Kuriesh - The Buddha of suburbia – I ve not read any Kureishi ,I remember catching a couple of the tv version of this years ago as David Bowie had written the music for it . shall see if the book is better than the show ,which bar the music was a little silly at times .
Rohinton Mistry - such a long journey - The debut of the Canadian based indian writer ,i ve enjoy one of his other books ,so will be reading this as well .
MANY THANKS FABER .
Don Quixote readalong ?
08 Apr 2010 19 Comments
in classics, EUROPEAN FICTION, TRANSLATIONS Tags: readalong
DON QUIXOTE
I was wondering if any one would like to join a read along of Don Quixote the new Edith Grossman translation .It is one of those books you think you should have read like my self but haven’t got round to it ,This may be your chance ,this new translation has freshened the text and has gained praise from both Harold Bloom and Carlos Fuentes .the book is published in the U.K by Vintage Classic and in the U.S.A by Harper Perennial ,both editions appear to be the same length at 992 pages ,if there is interest i ll work out a timetable and plan to start late summer .
US EDITION DON QUIXOTE
Don Quixote-UK EDITION
all that glistens is it gold
26 Mar 2010 6 Comments
in classics Tags: BOOKS THAT DEFINED ME, BURGESS, classics, english classics
I have Been pondering if all that glistens is gold ,this last few months for the first time in my life .I ve been mainly reading new books as in just out .I ve enjoyed a good many ,my question is how many of these books will be here in twenty years how many will stand the test of time ,what makes a book stand the test of time .Do writers have vogues ? Does the quality of the writing make a difference ,i ve a number of books from Persephone and capuchin both who publishers books that have fallen by the wayside the ones i ve got and have read all seem great books .Most of my life i ve read books that have been out for a while read many by the writers i love Burgess ,Doyle ,Maugham ,Roth ,Updike,Mailer Kerouac,Burroughs most of these have stood the test of time .so the question is -
what makes a book last ?
HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY
17 Mar 2010 4 Comments
in BOOK BUYS, classics Tags: 2010, BOOK BUYS
SOME IRISH BOOKS FOR ST PATRICKS DAY
Today is st Patricks day ,as my father is irish and I was born in northern Ireland I d thought i do a post .I spent most of my childhood holidays in Ireland in Donegal making peat fire ,fishing ,rockpooling ,visiting the lakes of the south-west of Ireland ,time in cork .falling as a ten-year old in to a pond the main park in Dublin .My family history goes back to the 15th century in Ireland ,my grandparents had many books on irish myth that i read when young tales of giants and great kings .As a teenager i loved Wilde’s books .the above books are a few of my favourites -
- from the top -down
- Oscar Wildes collected works -this has most of Wilde’s works ,i love his stories for children they are touching at time and at others funny just like the man himself
- Ulysses by James Joyce -this is a treasure of mine an early 60′s edition from Bodley head before the text had been hacked ,I ve read it once and to be frank I was lost I will read it again till I get it fully.
- a star called henry by Roddy Doyle - Roddy Doyle was some one i read a lot in my teens and early twenties this book isn’t his best that is paddy Clarke but I lent that someone and didn’t get it back .
- the best of Myles Flann O’Brien this is a collection of piece Flann O’Brien published in the irish times from 1940 onwards
- the master Colm Tobin his shortlisted booker novel
all behind our irish beleek candle tray ,that was a wedding gift and we treasure.
a bargain and a thousand treats !
14 Mar 2010 3 Comments
in around the world, BOOK BUYS, classics Tags: BOOK BUYS, classics
a thousand stories
This was one of my best bargain book finds late last year at a charity market in town where my employers had a stall selling cakes , i d help make .i had a look round and spot this on a stall for people in Palestine ask how much it was they said three-pound but i gave them five-pound .this huge collection includes a thousand short stories from around the world mainly nineteenth century by such great writers as Hugo,Maupassant,Dickens,Thackary and Twain . I think it will take me the rest of my life to work through them but sure it ll be worth it .
the man who knew everything by tom stacey
06 Mar 2010 2 Comments
in books from, classics, U.K Tags: ARAB FICTION, english classics
This is one of Capuchin classics reissues a book from the 1988 when it was originally published as “deadline ” and was made in to a tv movie featuring John Hurt .the book itself is set over the fifties and follows Granville Jones who is an old fashion fleet street reporter who has ended up in a middle eastern emirate ,Jones is a drinker the sort of report that likes to spend as much time in the bar as he does his typewriter .Jones is good friends within the current Emir ,but as with most things in this time the emirs position is in jeopardy as the emirate has a new found wealth thanks to the discovery of oil ,this also leads to a change in jones as a forgotten man to some one that is now in the centre of a major news story .the major themes in this story are empire britains diminishing strength the growth of oil money and new wealth ,also a man struggling or unwilling to come to terms with the post war world and its new media ,Stacey’s writing is journalistic and sparse not word is wasted .the book is only 145 pages long but feels much longer than that .
this particular friday lunch time Jones found himself unable to recognise the people with young McCulloch at the Darwish bar .They weren’t the self-assured young bankers whose company McCulloch favoured.the mail clerk handed jones a cable with his airmailed newspapers and the rest of his correspondence .he settled at one of the window tables and as Abdullah brought him his cold Tuborg and chilled glass he was opening his cable………….
a scene from early on in the book that brought back memories of ice-cold in Alex the film
have you read any Capuchin classics ?
50th post -20 great books for world book day
04 Mar 2010 5 Comments
in booker, classics, favourites Tags: BOOKS THAT DEFINED ME, classics
As this is my fiftieth post on Winston’s dad and also world book day i ve decide to do a list of 20 books fiction and non fiction today is the 4th march is world book day 2010 all these books i have enjoyed and would recommend highly -
- the rings of Saturn by W G Sebald lyrical
- suite francaise by Irene Nemirovsky-french war
- the last testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd imagined truth
- encyclopaedia of snow by Sarah Emily miano-hidden gem
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau-american classic
- the rebel by Albert Camus-french classic
- notes from walnut tree farm by Roger Deakin-nature writing
- close range by Anne Proulx great american shorts
- Hercule Poirots christmas by Agatha Christie classic crime
- oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey-aussie classic
- hunger by Elise Blackwell-us modern classic
- the suspicions of mr whicher by Kate Summerscale-where crime fiction started
- white teeth by Zadie Smith-mordern british
- Brideshead revisited by Evelyn Waugh-british classic
- girlfriend in a coma by Douglas Coupland-modern american
- the book thief by Markus Zusak-thought provoking
- empire of the sun J G Ballard -wartime drama
- pride and prejudice by jane austen-classic
- famished road by Ben Okri-booker winner
- the restraint of beasts by Magnus Mills -funny
what our your favourite books ?
dinner at the homesick resturaunt
27 Feb 2010 2 Comments
in books from, classics, CURRENT READS, U.S.A Tags: NEW BOOKS, NEW VOICES
This came to me via a loan from bookrambler after a lament from myself earlier in the year that i don’t feel i read enough female writers last year and to be honest in general this was Jannette suggestion ,this is one of Anne Tylers most popular novels and i can see why it is beautifully written ,it follows the ups and downs of the Tull’s family a single parent family with the matriarch pearl and her band of kids Cody ,Ezra and jenny you get to see them grow up and develop ,the main thing i loved is the Tyler write exactly how real families are warts and all there is no beautifying at all .The characters are well drawn particularly pearl and her wayward son Cody a lad that most rebellious teens would recognize .the story is told in snippets as pearl lays dying and recalls the family growing .
while pearl Tull was dying ,a funny thought occurred to her .It twitched her lips and rustled her breath ,and she felt her son lean forward from where he kept watch by her bed .”get . . . “she told him “you should have got . . . “
you should have got an extra mother ,was what she meant to say …………………
have you read Tyler do you have a favourite ?
