"There is no pastime so engrossing as being in the right, and when it is crowned by becoming unpopular no person of intellect can withstand its charms.”
From the story, "Narrative of Events Preceding the Death of Queen Ermine"
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"There is no pastime so engrossing as being in the right, and when it is crowned by becoming unpopular no person of intellect can withstand its charms.”
From the story, "Narrative of Events Preceding the Death of Queen Ermine"
Warner's "Kingdoms of Elfin" is one of my favourite books, so these additional uncollected stories of her fae folk and aristocracy will hopefully be just as delectable.
The bulk of the book contains feline fables for kittens, but of the darker Grimm variety rather than bowlderised nursery tales. I have high hopes for this one ??♂️?⬛?
[Apologies for the knobbly knees - it's a warm day in Lancashire?️?]
pickI read Vol 3 of this series earlier this year, so was pleased to see the initial books in the library so as to get the back story.
These are middle-grade GNs with no supernatural element, the ghost motif being a metaphor for teenage anxiety, depression and alienation. The characters struggle with self-esteem, but gradually, and with setbacks and comebacks, they begin to be able to support each other and feel greater self-acceptance. 4💖
pickThe 3rd book in the '60s/'70s trilogy of novelisations of the cult TV show, this was better than the 2nd offering by McDaniel, but the 1st novel by Disch stands head-and-shoulders taller.
This installment by Stine (now Jean Marie, not Hank 💖🏳️⚧️💖) had some mischaracterisations, & focused somewhat on contemporary hippie/square generational conflict, but overall was a worthwhile read. If you're not a super-fan of the show, I'd stick to the Disch
"YOU ARE AWESOME"
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
I'm first up with the tag this week, rather than last as I usually am! But, only because I thought it was Friday evening already, rather than Thursday! ? Lucky I've realised, or I'd be sleeping in tomorrow morning instead of going to work!
I was very saddened to learn today that Laurie Hardman, owner of my favourite bookstore, passed away a few days ago. Hugely knowledgeable and had a wry sense of humour. A great percentage of the books on my shelves passed through his hands.
When I ordered a Dave Brubeck biography from him, he recommended I listen to another great jazz pianist, so I'll put on a Bill Evans record this evening and raise a glass to Laurie 📚🎹🥃📚❤️
pickThis was a less proficient novelisation than Thomas Disch's, but not entirely unsuccessful.
The dialogue was not quite as crisply sparring, but was close enough. The main supporting character this time was Number Six's Lotus Seven kit car, driven by him in the iconic opening titles of the TV show.
Another of Mrs. B's indulgences of my Prisoner fandom was the gift of a track day at Silverstone where I got to drive the successor vehicle, a ⬇️
#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
Favourite radio station? Hmmm 🤔 It's a toss up for me between BBC Radio 3 and 4, but as I'm currently listening to the Night Tracks programme, I'll feature 3. I love discovering classical and avant garde music here.
Radio 4 has excellent drama, science, comedy and culture shows, of which my favourite is probably In Our Time, with national treasure Melvyn Bragg. 🎙️📡📻
Onto the 2nd of The Prisoner novelisations, & an inauspicious start as the first word, "Drake," has me grinding my teeth ?
John Drake was the name of actor Patrick McGooghan's character in his earlier TV series, Danger Man, & as well-loved as that series & character were, McGooghan made it clear in press releases prior to the airing of The Prisoner that the new protagonist Number Six was NOT Drake!
I'll calm my inner nerd & see what develops!
pickThis wasn't as good as I'd remembered it - it was better!
Disch captured the smart, jousting dialogue just right, and created the layers of suspicion, second-guessing, cautious trust and resigned betrayals of the TV series.
His story is littered with the Shakespearean and classical references of the original, and the Bard's "Measure for Measure" forms both a plot element and a subversive meta-narrative on the role of the characters within ⬇️
A BBC radio adaptation of a previous #ClassicLitsySciFiBookClub group read, if anyone's interested 😊👽
@TieDyeDude @Ruthiella #ClassicLSFBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001z63w?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Having just bailed on a much-loved literary classic, I thought I'd dive into a cult classic instead 😁
I've been fascinated by the adventure/sci-fi/espionage/cultural-philosophy/dystopian TV series since I first saw it as a kid in the '60s, and Mrs. B was indulgent enough that our honeymoon was in Portmeirion, the Italianate Welsh folly-village of eccentric architect Clough Williams-Ellis, which was the principle location of the show. ⬇️
bailedI thought I should return to my reading of Rebecca, begun 5 months ago & paused 1 month ago at 38%, noticing my heavy feeling as I reached for it.
Du Maurier's writing is wonderful & atmospheric, & if it was all descriptive of the gothic Cornish environs in which she set her story, I'd be happy with that, but I don't give a fig* about any of the characters & really don't care how it ends (which I know, anyway, from film adaptations). So, 👋📔🚮
pickOf the four of Shen Fu's records which have passed down to us, the first three recount his life with his adorable wife Yün, whose sweet nature was subject to anxiety & depression, sensitive to the harsh judgements of her in-laws, & prone to ill health, which we know from early on will sunder the loving couple. Shen's grief at her death is palpable & moving.
The couple live an aesthetic life, troubled by precarious employment, poverty and... 1/4⬇️
pickA quick read of twenty or so poems commissioned by the National Trust from Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, on the theme of spring blossoms, embellished by Angela Harding's woodcut illustrations. Nothing to not like, if not exactly transporting. Will probably reward a re-read, and despite Harding's bio at the back being only 20% the length of Armitage's, it's really her contribution that lifts this from a low pick to a solid one: 4🌸
A little #bookhaul from our visit to Lytham & Lytham-St-Anne's (technically, I'm on a book buying ban, but it seems it doesn't apply if I'm not in my immediate neighborhood!).
I'll first read Blossomise by Simon Armitage, illustrated by Angela Harding, as it's the right season.
Snow Country by Kawabata is in a pretty Penguin imprint, Little Clothbound Classics, &
Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James in the equally pretty Macmillan Collectors 😊
"She prized shabby old books and tattered paintings. She would take the partial remnants of old books and separate them into sections by topic, and then have them rebound. These she called her 'Fragments of Literature'. When she found some calligraphy or a painting that had been ruined, she felt she had to search for a piece of old paper on which to remount it. If there were portions missing, she would ask me to restore them. These she named ⬇️
"I was born in the winter of the 27th year of the reign of the Emperor Chien Lung, on the second and twentieth day of the eleventh month."
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
Written around 1809 by a mid-level Ch'ing Dynasty civil servant, the surviving four records (nonetheless confusingly still titled "Six Records") recount Fu's marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Yün, his dalliances with courtesans and her efforts to secure him a concubine, in keeping with the social mores of the time.
In a culture of arranged marriages, the introduction says that Fu's description of his romantic love match with Yün was unusual ⬇️
"I've come to wish you an Unhappy Birthday
'Cause you're evil
And you lie
And if you should die
I may feel slightly sad
But I won't cry"
- "Unhappy Birthday" by The Smiths
??
pickIt's Amos Tutuola so it's bonkers! 🤪
While all of the novels I've read by Tutuola are episodic, this one is actually a collection of short stories, folklore retellings with a bit less of the darkly macabre & horror that inhabits his other works, which isn't to say people don't get eaten, bits chopped off them or get transformed into creepy-crawlies.
Perhaps familiarity affects my perception: I found these marginally less interesting but still 3½⭐
“If we continue to pay "bad" for "bad", bad will never finish on earth.”
I guess Tutuola's thought is a reframing of "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." It's from a tale that channels a similar vibe to the Judgement of Solomon story, though the wisdom lies not with the king in this version.
And now for something completely different...
A short volume of Amos Tutuola's stories drawn from Nigerian Yoruba folklore 🇳🇬
pick#LSFBC #LitsySciFiBookClub @TheSpineView @CatLass007
I liked this from the beginning, but didn't feel connected with it until a little over halfway through. I like the ideas in it, and the narrative sweep. There aren't any particularly engaging characters in it - perhaps wily police officer Da Shi, but he's not exactly a nice guy - so it's really about the ideas and how they're linked, which I found interesting. It was also interesting to ⬇️
#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
The Sundays made beautiful jangly guitar pop that leaned into melancholy and wistfulness. Their first album, "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic", was, I think, their most successful, but all three are excellent. "Here's Where the Story Ends" has this wonderful lyric:
"And whoever would've thought,
the books that you bought
were all I loved you for?"
https://youtu.be/2HV5KfE4xMA?si=0hNkt27KCupF-uLI
pickFucking brilliant. 🌈🧑🏻🎤
"Whether he fell to Earth or not, Bowie deeply loved people. He wasn't cold but, in his relations with others, he gave the impression that he followed a sort of code: something basic that should exist between all human beings, but that they've had a tendency to forget. On a personal level, that's what gave him a better grasp of fame. When they become stars, many artists lose their humanity, but that never happened to him!"
- Hazel O'Connor (2017)
pickA fascinating glimpse into life in 7th century CE China, translated in the 1940s from a 19th century Chinese manuscript that appears to preserve a genuine account of investigations undertaken by the magistrate of a small city.
Judge Dee is insightful, ethically scrupulous and morally strict, slightly softened by compassion. However, in the context of his culture, the use of torture, graphically described, is a legitimate judicial tool. I found ⬇️
pickThis is a nifty c. 1915 edition, bound in purple-dyed leather, with two illustrative plates glued to green backing paper with gilt borders & inscription. It's had a bit of a hard life, with some sun-bleaching and a small hole in the cover, but I guess we all start to show our wear and tear eventually: wholly in keeping with the contents ??????
"'One Moment in Annihilation's Waste,
One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste--
Oh, make Haste!"?
This afternoon I'm sunburning my knees in the back garden with a previously unread edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in honour of the Persian tentmaker's birthday today, listening to Beth Gibbons's excellent new album, Lives Outgrown, with its matching themes of death and the transitory nature of life (I'm a happy bunny, really, honestly!🐰), and wishing I had another Twister ice lolly to replace the one I've just finished.
#BooksAndMusic
“They say that reading will attract the spirit of sleep. Let me read a while, perhaps this book will help me pass the time, or else bore me to such an extent that I shall fall asleep.”
"In the end, as a general rule, no criminal escapes the laws of the land."
If only this were true!
Judge Dee has a number of legal recourses not available to the modern judiciary. Were he presiding over the trial of D. Trump, that fellow would certainly have had 100 stokes of the heavy bamboo for lack of respect, and probably the thumb screws for lying!
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe
Well, you put me in an awkward position, but as you insist on only 3:
1. Boat to Bolivia by Martin Stephenson & the Daintees, not least because I've just got home from seeing Martin live & I'm filled with his love, warmth & gladsome humour 💖
2. Any David Bowie album, but let's say Young Americans for tonight - a heart full of plastic soul 🧡
3. Veedon Fleece by Van Morrison, because of its Celtic emotionality 💚
Is one book a #BookHaul ? ?
I've been really enjoying the Netflix series "Judge Dee's Mystery" and decided to get the source material.
Judge Dee was a Tang Dynasty magistrate, three of whose historical cases are translated here, the success of which led van Gulik to write his own stories in a continuing series.
In his introduction, van Gulik comments on the centuries old Chinese tradition of detective novels, considerably predating ⬇️
"I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude. And I would not have the tears that sadness makes to flow from my every part, turn to laughter. I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.
A tear to unite me with those of broken heart; a smile to be a sign of my joy in existence."
#BookMail #BestMail
This is a collection of some of Gibran's earlier works from his mature period (according to the introduction: I wouldn't have known otherwise!).
A Book inscription records Nick's thoughtful gift to Roz, circa 1973 if it was given at the time of publication.
I'm gradually collecting Gibran's works in this early '70s Heinemann edition. I've eight of them so far, with about the same to find. #SlowCompletist
#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
I tracked down this 1995 album a few years ago as it features Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins on several songs, but lead singer Chris Thomson is certainly not overshadowed, his baritone voice sweeping between breathy & gravelly, & set in chamber pop arrangements of piano & strings. The Bathers have been described as "the best kept secret in Scottish music", & part of me wants to keep it that way. They're a bit special
pickWonderful poems, starting with Clarke's viewing of a "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse in 2019, an ominous precursor to her reflections on the COVID pandemic, a reminder of the unnecessary deaths, the silence of those taken by the virus, the silence of those in power regarding those deaths, and the gradual quietening of the world during lockdown and the temporary resurgence of the natural world. The poems gradually turn to the changing of seasons, ⬇️
"Black sky of stars and a risen moon
in the sleeping arms of the beech."
- Blood Moon
691 and 21 January 2019
We've had a gloriously sunny weekend in Lancashire, but now the predicted storm is brewing, thunder is rumbling closer & lightning flashes briefly cutting through the gathering gloom - I love this weather! ⛈️
Listening to The Doors "Riders on the Storm" & ELO'S "Symphony for a Rainy Day", & about to start Gillian Clarke's latest poetry collection, "The Silence", featuring her native and beloved Wales, COVID lockdowns and WWI, amongst other topics.
Starting this for the #LitsySciFiBookClub @TheSpineView
I watched the first episode of the Netflix series, but Mrs B wasn't taken with it, then the book was nominated for the group read, so I've paused the show to avoid spoilers.
I see this has mixed reviews, but I'm partial to some hard sci fi, so have hopes for an enjoyable read 😊📡👽
pickThat was surprisingly better than I expected it to be 😊
The first story is basically a Western with Dredd as sheriff in a border town run by a corrupt business family, with high explosive weapons, mutants and radioactive twisters.
The second story sees Dredd battered and bloodied, running a gauntlet of violent perps in a locked-down Mega-Block, not dissimilar to the excellent Karl Urban Dredd movie.
⬇️
I went out without a book! ? Panicked! ? Bought this ? so that I had something in case of a reading emergency (you can't be too careful!), and came home immediately without further incident ?
My book-monkey brain likes to play tricks! ???
So, I feel obliged to read this now: from the Old Woman in Purple, Jenny Joseph, a 1978 collection of poems which "gives a better view [than Warning] of the range and originality of her work". Sounds good.
I was running errands in town (ok, I ordered a book and bought a book!) and saw this inspirational prose poem chalked on a wall between the back yards of two pubs. ❤️
"It's never too late to grow back,
No matter how little light there is, no
Matter if it's just bricks and cement
Around you. Even when the circumstances
Feel hopeless, there is always time,
There is always a chance. You are not doomed.
It will get better.
YOU WILL GROW" ?
pick1947 Faber edition of Brooke's culturally significant poetry collection, containing his five-sonnet cycle of war poems published within weeks of his death on active duty in WWI. That he died from an infected mosquito bite and never saw combat was less mentioned at the time, and that he died in 1915, before the worst excesses of Industrialised War, made his elegiac poems a perfect propaganda memorialisation of the millions of Patriotic Dead. ⬇️
"And after, ere the night is born,
Do hares come out about the corn?
Oh, is the water sweet and cool,
Gentle and brown, above the pool?
And laughs the immortal river still
Under the mill, under the mill?
Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainty? and Quiet kind?
Deep meadows yet, for to forget
The lies, and truths, and pain?… oh! yet
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?”
- The Old Vicarage, Grantchester
“I would think of a thousand things,
Lovely and durable, and taste them slowly,
One after one, like tasting sweet food.
I have need to busy my heart with quietude."
- The Busy Heart
“If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home."
- The Soldier
A bit jingoistic for my taste, but still affecting ???????
"We have built a house that is not for Time's throwing,
We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever.
War knows no power, Safe shall be my going,
Secretly armed against all death's endeavour;
Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all."
- Safety
"Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!"
- Peace
#FirstLineFridays #ShyBookOwl
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