New book, new decisions 🤔💭🥃 or ☕ Probs best to stick with ☕ 😁

The first 2/3 of this slim book covers the history of England in Ireland, including the partition into North and South, which was entirely for economic reasons, with religious sectarianism used as the excuse, and grim reading it makes for an English person with a heavily edited version of history received from 70s/80s school and media. The last 1/3 gives Foot's outline for British withdrawal. Post-Good Friday Agreement, it still seems reasonable.

Check - Full house ✔

As another Brexit deadline looms, and with the status of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland being crucial, a book written in 1989, pre-Good Friday Agreement, might feel somewhat dated, but as the possibility of opening old wounds seems significant, understanding how deep the wounds run might be useful. I'm *really* hoping that the fragile peace in Northern Ireland is not sacrificed on the altar of vain ambition.
(Photo of Paul Foot)

Scouse humour! Environmentally-aware insult graffiti seen on a pub toilet wall in Liverpool. 😄❤

"Murderer! Just think how clever they were to choose that word. Think of the sound. There's really something of the death-rattle in it.
It's the repeated 'ur'-sound that expresses the horror. How cleverly people have wrapped us round in suggestion."

- "A Suggestion"

If it's anything practical, I'll let you know ... 🐕💩

Titles on the spines under Cameron's book - trolled! 😂

(Seen in a Waterstones display window - not my photo)

"An icy fear sweeps across the room - the intangible that lies beyond all thought and comprehension, the choking fear of death that has lost its root and origin and no longer rests on any cause, the formless mother of horror."
- "The Rings of Saturn"

Meyrink builds effect on effect in this story, rising to a climax, which he utterly skewers with a satirical denouement. He's a skilful writer.

Painting: "Monster Brains" by Alfred Kubin

❤

"At certain times of the night the soulless shades of dead planets come sliding into the realm of visibility, eager for life, exchanging mysterious confidences among themselves by means of strangely tentative gestures, instilling an uncertain and indefinable horror into our souls."
- 'The Rings of Saturn'

“The white folks had sure brought their white to work with them that morning.”

In the late '80s, Margaret Thatcher was beset by “turbulent priests“ who *would* insist that Christian values included Charity, which meant looking after the disadvantaged, you know, like Jesus did. Maggie wasn't having any of it! So, she took herself off to deepest Scotland, at that time a nation which was utterly opposed to her government, to address the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, a message delivered there, but intended for ⬇

I found this box set of 10 socio-political essays today at Great Grandfather's Books. Written at the end of the '80s, they're obviously not cutting edge, but I think they will be interesting to read from a contemporary perspective. And, how could I resist the title of the first volume: God, Man & Mrs Thatcher!?
There are some literary lights amongst the authors, including Fay Weldon, Ruth Rendell, Sue Townsend (signed copy✒) & Christopher Hitchins

Next up is Meyrink's short story collection, "The Opal". From the introduction: "He presents an alternative subversive underworld of mysterious uncertainties, inexplicable by the rational means of Western thought. It is a world of absurdities, of dreams & nightmares of occult oriental magic, of the horrors that lie beneath the surface, which may be raised through the extension of reality by means of a little imagination." Sounds trippy! ??

I ❤ Patti Smith, and this rendition of 'People Have the Power', by a 200-person 'flash choir' led by Patti is just fantastic!

"And the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
From the meek the graces shower
It's decreed the people rule
People have the power"

https://youtu.be/y6Wz3i_BYUc

The secret of how to be right is to ask people to justify their views, which is what O'Brien does with his (usually right-wing) callers each morning on his radio show. Each chapter builds around transcripts of callers opining on right-wing hobby horses (Islam, gay people, feminism, Brexit, Trump, etc.), in which they fall apart when James asks them to explain themselves. Shooting fish in a barrel was never so easy, nor more necessary.

"To fully understand Trump and his supporters you need, I think, to actually feel that your whole life is somehow somebody else's fault, that the status and respect you consider your due have somehow been denied you by gay people or black people or Mexicans or feminists."

🐱🤮🐱

I love it when an author delights in their bad reviews ? A bad write-up from The S*n is a definite recommendation in my book!
Interesting that "smug" is used as an insult here, as it's also used by tabloid journalist Gary Bushell as an insult towards comedian Stewart Lee, gleefully printed on one of his DVDs. I guess smug equates to "somebody I disagree with, but whose position is backed up with facts and cogent arguments".

A new purchase 😊📖😊

This is the "graphic biography" of a person of deep political conviction and passion, living through one of the most turbulent periods in history, and treats its subject with respect, depth and gravity. So it was with some surprise that I found Evans deftly weaving humour and romance into her story. Rosa emerges as a fully rounded person, her faults and inconsistencies shown alongside her humanity and fortitude. ??

“Take notice of the resplendence and glory that overlie this day, because this day will never, ever come again! This day is a gift to you like a rose in full bloom, lying at your feet, waiting for you to pick it up and put it to your lips.”

Tolkien's short poem is given two pages per line by his favourite Illustrator, Pauline Baynes.The verso page has the poem line, framed by a different pair of winter trees on each page, capturing Tolkien's theme of leavetaking and endings, the recto page Bayne's interpretation of the stages of Bilbo's final journey to the West, while the bottom of both pages have vignettes of Bilbo's first journey with Thorin and company, as told in "The Hobbit".

I persevered and made it through, but it was hard work. I think there's a good reason why this book had previously been translated into English only in an abridged form: in order to fully appreciate al-Ma'arrī's grammatical and etymological musings, you would need to read Arabic, so there's little to be gained (and, presumably, much to be lost) in the translation. Even the section that most interested me, 👇🏼👇🏼

I'm excited to hear that Susanna Clarke has a new novel coming out. That it's release date is next September gives me time to work it into my reading schedule! It sounds as enchanting and mysterious as JS&MN
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/30/jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell-au...

Of 61 pages, 39 of them are a potted life-and-times, interspersed with beautiful illustrations, leaving just 20 pages of the sage's thoughts, but I do have a copy of the Analects, and did mainly buy this for the artwork, so I guess that's ok. The meeting of Confucius and Lao Tzu is one of my favourite illustrations, though strangely not mentioned in the text. While I prefer the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, Confucius gave me food for thought.

My version of gribnoi sup (mushroom soup) from the pictured Sainsbury's cookbook. We visited Russia in 1991, not long before Yeltsin ousted Gorbechev, but I swear the two things were not connected! I bought the book when we got home as a culinary reminder, though the main thing I got from it was keeping vodka in the freezer! ❄🍸❄

“The intolerant "true believer" is a menace to any field, yet I suspect each one of us finds traces of that person in ourself.”

“I would prefer my experiences in communication to have a growth-promoting effect, both on me and on the other, and I should like to avoid those communication experiences in which both I and the other person feel diminished.”

I would prefer this, too, though sometimes it feels hard to achieve when our public discourse has become so polarised. This is one of the things I need to bring myself back to.

“When you are in psychological distress and someone really hears you without passing judgement on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good!”

"Legally and politically, the journey to impeachment is unlikely to be as straightforward as blowing the bad guy out of the window. Neurologically, though, it just feels so good to say. Three words with seemingly unlimited power. Impeach the motherfucker."

https://lithub.com/the-scientific-case-for-calling-the-president-a-motherfcker/

I fell in love with this book as soon as I opened it! Printed in 1946, in a limited edition of 1,400 copies, on handmade paper. The illustrations by E. A. Cox are just fantastic! They're not an Illustrator I've come across before, but they did a beautiful job on this commission.
The text is drawn from James Legge's 1861 translation, and I'm not scholar enough to know if that's a good or bad thing, but I'll enjoy the book anyway, as an artefact.

So, having congratulated myself at the weekend for downsizing my book collection (a bit!), I'm back on true form as these are today's purchases.
Red Rosa is a biography in sequential art form, which looks fascinating, while the Sayings of Confucius is a beautifully illustrated limited edition published in 1946 on handmade paper. It's in fantastic condition, and I could barely believe it was only £10.
#bookhaul

Frankie going for that devastating triple word score!
#catsoflitsy

I stalled with this one, getting bogged down in al-Ma'arrī's arcane and convoluted grammatical explorations about a language I don't speak. However, being only 50 pages (plus notes) from the end, I couldn't bring myself to bail. Picking it up, I'm feeling engaged with it again, as al-Ma'arrī is writing of his beliefs, rather than etymology. Fingers crossed he stays on this tack 🤞🏻

The author's shocking indictment of the Australian education system notwithstanding, I loved this book. It's not deep and meaningful, being an alphabetically arranged series of factoids, but it is colourful and vibrant, thanks to Libby VanderPloeg's gorgeous illustrations. While I've seen this in stores shelved with children's books, references to Bowie's drug taking and sex life mean it's definitely not suitable for young readers.

"The American V-2 rocket..."

Gaghhh! ???

#booksandbowie #badhistory

"The Bowie constellation is near Mars..."

I can't even...! ???

#booksandbowie #badscience

Mabey has a conversational style ideally suited to the topic of the British weather, a style he blends with a thoughtful lyricism. Thankfully, he isn't overblown and his prose feels grounded, earthy and real. Some interesting and sobering reflections on climate change.
The original edition was published in 2014, the edition I read was published in 2019, with two additional essays.

We spent a pleasant afternoon in Howarth, West Yorkshire, home of the Brontë sisters, although we didn't go to the Brontë Parsonage Museum on this occasion. I did go to a couple of bookshops, though, as it seemed rude not to...
#bookhaul #booksandbowie

“Weather is a kind of Rorschach test. We see in it what we need to see, or what we feel is missing from our lives.”

"Every winter forty million tonnes of desert sand is sucked up from Chad by the wind and whisked 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic to gently descend on the Amazon basin. It is the main source of new minerals in Amazonia, a fertilisation on a global, Gaian scale without which the rainforest couldn't survive."

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dus...

“Black weather,
Cucumber fruit swells,
Rooks sit."

- 11th March, 1768

What could be more British than a book about the British weather? I started a lovely conversation today with a total stranger just by commenting on the sunshine we've had the last few days. Of course, we both agreed it couldn't be relied upon to last! ☀️🌤🌥🌦🌧⛈☔😊

An atmospheric and evocative read. I really felt drawn in to Ambler's well-sketched presentation of Turkey, Greece, the Balkans and western Europe between the wars, and written on the brink of the second pan-global conflict of the last century. Latimer is something of an innocent abroad, but not a cheap, bumbling English stereotype. Fantastic, psychologically rich characters, vivid locations & tight, historically accurate plotting. A joy to read.

“The duplicity of others must always be shocking when one is unconscious of one's own.”

"A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for fulfilment and which his fears demand for their protection of prying eyes. He wears it like a devil mask; a device to evoke in others the emotions complementary to his own. ??

Because we really can't move house *again* to accommodate my expanding collection, here's 36 books I'm releasing into the wild. I genuinely consider this to be a moment of personal growth and a healthy thing, even if it is only about 1% of my library.