Ahem

Nicolette’s right, I haven’t been very good at keeping this up to date lately. Lots of other stuff going on… But she is also wrong, I haven’t had time to read that much, having visitors (ahem) sort of slows me down a bit. However, I finished Potok’s The Book of Lights, which is a facinating story – and such lovely language. It deals with a son’s feeling of guilt for «the sins of the father», and, as always with Potok, the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world.

I also read most of Lord Peter, which is the collected short-stories about LPW – I had read some of them earlier, so I read all the «new» ones and reread some of the others. I’ll take my hat off to DLS any day, her skill at evoking real live characters is more than admirable, in fact, I can think of few authors who outdo her, and none within the limits of «genre writing».

At the moment I’m rereading the Hornblower series – I’m about half-way through Lieutenant Hornblower right now, and it caused some confusion this morning when I excused my lateness with «I was in the middle of a battle at sea and got a bit distracted».

The Bookman’s Wake

In which we remember that we like books.

Finished The Bookman’s Wake by John Dunning last week. Lovely combination of whodunnit and book-about-books. The «detective», Cliff Janeway, is a retired cop who runs a second-hand bookstore, so anyone who’s into bookdealing (or buying) should love it. Of course, the crime is book related. It’s only the second in a series (the first is Booked to Die and is highly recommended, too), and though it’s from 1995 there do not seem to be any more. Grumble, grumble. Why do all (ok, maybe not all, but a helluva lot of) my favourite authors decide to stop writing the moment I start really liking their work?

Also finished The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. Almost done with the Wimsey books, now. Well, «done» is not the right word, I suppose – I plan to reread them all shortly.

Have his Carcase

In which we shout: Huzzah, huzzah!

The University Library having come up trumps as far as Sayers goes, I have now finished Have his Carcase. And started Gaudy Night again… I keep being annoyed at «getting» too many bits of the story before Lord Peter (or anyone else), but it’s not been so bad since The Nine Tailors (that just really annoyed me). Hm, I think I figured out a way of commenting without spoiling the book for other people – I’ll use the comments. And put a warning in the main message. That ought to work…

Still, Sayers’ language, setting and characters are so delightful on the whole, that a few minor annoyances are not going to stop me. Also, of course, the benefit is that once I’ve read the book once, nothing at all will be a surprise the second time around, and there will be no need to be disappointed at the lack of surprises. Oh good. Because I really do want to read them all again.

I will also have to start reading some of all these books on Austen that I am unearthing.

Comments

what, you are not surprised by anything the umpth time you read a book? I am! well, maybe not surprised as such, still in suspense… depending on the quality of the writing, of course

Nicolette 05/02/02 03:51pm

In suspense, yes. Surprised, no. (There is always that suspense of whether they are going to make it/solve it/get together this time, too, but I’m not Surprised as such.)

Robin 05/02/02 04:07pm

Strong Poison, Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon

As you’ll know if you’ve been reading the diary, I’ve been immersed in Lord Peter novels lately. An obliging bookshop on Karl Johan kindly sold me Strong Poison and Gaudy Night on Wednesday. And I had to go back and fork out some more for Busman’s Honeymoon on Friday. From which you can infer that I got rather caught up in them.

So I finished those and then finished Unnatural Death, which was one of the few Whimsys the library managed to produce. And now I want to read Thrones, Dominations, but it doesn’t seem like the library even have it, and I can’t get amazon.co.uk up at all. Very annoying.

I’ve been attempting to listen to a recording of Little Women (Sterling Audio), but think I may have to give it up. I read Little Women somewhere back in the dark ages, but can’t remember anything, except I think Jo sold her hair. But this thing is read by Lorelei King, and I really can’t stand her voice/modulation/intonation/whatever. It’s driving me mad.

The Promise

Finished The Promise. Luckily the library had The Gift of Asher Lev. I might have been a bit peevish today if they didn’t. They also have a new computer system which gives them a pop-up box with a birthday cake in it that tells them that the patron has his/her birthday that day. So I had lots of happy wishes for the day (this was yesterday…) which was nice.

My Name is Asher Lev and The Chosen

I did it. I’ve been putting off writing about Chaim Potok for the site, as I just knew I’d end up rereading all the books if I tried. Well, I’ve started. Finished My Name is Asher Lev before the weekend, got majorly frustrated when I realised I don’t have The Gift of Asher Lev (will have to drop by library today), then read The Chosen over the weekend and have now started on The Promise.

Was quite poignant, actually, reading about the conflict between zionists and ultra-orthodox anti-zionists in the States just after WW2 and the discussions and verbal war prior to the establishment of Israel in the UN in The Chosen, what with what’s going on there now. I’m not going to say what I think about that whole mess, though, almost impossible not to offend people and this is not a political column.

Anyway, Potok is heartily recommended.

Odds and ends

Ok, Easter is over and I’m back at work (sigh).

For some reason it has become almost mandatory to read whodunnits at Easter in Norway, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I had a very frustrating time of it, though, as what I like is to be surprised when I get to the end, and this year very few things surprised me.

First, I read Kakerlakkene by Jo Nesbø. It’s a Norwegian one, and I don’t think it’s been translated, so those of you who don’t read Norwegian will just have to ignore this bit. Nesbø is one of my favourite songwriters, so I thought it was about time I checked out his novels, too. And I’m glad I did, too. Very engaging, and beautifully written. Unfortunately, I sort of guessed major parts of the plot way before they happened. Pity. Still, I’m certainly going to read the other Harry Hole books as well.

Right, then I got on to P.D. James’ last novel, Death in Holy Orders. I got rather worried half way through, as the person I thought would be murdered had just been murdered and I thought maybe I knew who’d done it, too. Fortunately, I was proved wrong – I hadn’t guessed the murderer, though I’d sort of guessed the motive. All in all, the end made me very happy (for another reason, too – trying to avoid spoilers here), and I can say that, as usual, P.D. James really has to be read.

I also watched Evil Under the Sun (Agatha Christie) on television, and got the murderer way too early. Very annoying, but the Poirot mini-series are always so throughly enjoyable because of the setting and the people that it didn’t really matter all that much.

Gosford Park is a whodunnit of a sort, too, and I saw that Saturday. Beautifully done, with an amazing cast, wonderful props, costumes and cars, lovely lines abounding and an invaluable addtion to the portayal of upstairs/downstairs life. But again: there were no surprises. It was obvious who the murderer was, how the murder was done and what the motives were. So disappointing. On the other hand, you get Altman’s inimitable touches of reality twisted, so despite the obvious solution it’s a picture well worth seeing. And you never know, you might not think it all too obvious…

Adding to the disappointments, I finished listening to Ian Carmichael reading The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers yesterday. Delightfully read, Lord Peter was lovely company as usual and Sayers isn’t normally one to disappoint. But. I actually guessed at the «murder weapon» in the very first few chapters – granted, by the time the body was found I had forgotten about this (it was a few days later, my time). However, when the puzzle was almost solved but the weapon still a mystery, of course I remembered again. And it was so b****ing obvious! Fair enough, a little specialist knowledge helped, but I can’t believe that Lord Peter (who should, judging from the rest of the story, have more knowledge on the subject than me) would take weeks and even months to come up with the solution. In this case, then, as opposed to the others, the problem wasn’t so much that I guessed the solution, but that the sleuth didn’t. And in some ways I think that’s worse. I really do not want to be steps ahead of Lord Peter. Really.

All in all, as you see, I have been a bit too clever this Easter. Problem is, I don’t really think I’ve been too clever, I think the authors haven’t been clever enough. I still think I’ll read those other Nesbø books, though. And I’ve just started Lord Peter views the Body (same narrator), so I haven’t given up on him, either.

Blue at the Mizzen

blue_mizzenIn which we wave goodbye and say hello.

Finished Blue at the Mizzen yesterday. I had to wave farewell to Jack and Stephen. Desolation Island ain’t innit. I suppose I could start all over again, but first I have to reread Pamela for a course. Lucky for Pamela she’s not a real person, as I think I might have strangled her. I would certainly have drowned Robinson Crusoe, the «hero» (using the term very loosely) of the book we read for the last session. But perhaps he were to be hanged? That would explain why he was so unperishable. I’m looking forward to Shamela, being next on our list. It might possibly reconsole me to Richardson that at least he furnished food for such excellent pulling of legs.

Saw The Shipping News Saturday. What a wonderful film. I have no idea what it was all about, though.

Funny moment Saturday evening: I have a somewhat squewed concept of time, especially as regards my own age. I was 13 last year, I’m sure (at least I don’t feel any older), unfortunately that would make this, uhm, 1988. Which it obviously isn’t. Anyway, was out with a friend and we went to TGI Fridays. They had a sign saying you had to be 24 to enter. I actually had to stop: «Am I?» Well, a quick calculation told me I had nothing to worry about. However, earlier in the day we had been to an Irish pub (excellent fish and chips!) where the sign was 20 years. And I had actually hesitated just for a moment…

Funnily enough I never seem to forget that I’m above legal drinking age, though.

The bottle stands by you, sir.