In Which I Realise I Know More About Chess Than Criminology and Other Book Stuff

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A bit of housekeeping (or is that housestillkeeping?) first. The sale of the house I mentioned a few posts ago has fallen through, The potential buyers could not raise the required amount. So we're now back on the square of one.

Though neutral to the idea of a move I must admit to a certain irritation, if only because I'd spent a large portion of the week looking around Penarth properly for the first time since we'd put the house up for sale, getting details of all relevant houses and arranging viewings for this forthcoming week. All now cancelled.

And in case you're wondering yes I am going to borrow books from Porthcawl (and other libraries in the Bridgend borough) again. No reason why not at this present time.

Have finished the ebook of the three lectures Enrico Ferri gave to the University of Naples on Criminolgy. They were for me a mixture of my ignorance about the subject and the moments that he seemed to be chatting along about the bleeding obvious. Still I've never been afraid to broadcast my ignorance to the universe and so I think it's best to give Enrico the benefit of the doubt.

Amougst the great e unread the book that replaces it is An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman. To go off at a tangent here I had discovered through Twitter a podcast about books which had somehow been forgotten called Backlisted. Going through the episodes it has quickly become my favourite book podcast. Their latest podcast concerns Georgette Heyer, a writer who I wasn't interested in until last year when I'd read False Colours (which was a Penguin paperback). I'd avoided her since I was a teenager in the seventies/eighties as was put off by the Mills and Boon like covers.

(Another writer who I reacted to in exactly the same way but who I have a vintage Penguin paperback in the great unread is Norah Lofts)

Now before they discuss the specific book/author that fortnight, The presenters tell an expectant world what they had been reading during this period. In the very first podcast Andy Miller (whose book on crazy golf I chatted about sometime back) mentioned he'd read (and recommended Grossman's epic novel Life and Fate. Come Christmas, armed with an Amazon £15 gift voucher , I decided to buy the ebook. But knowing I'd some money to spare decided to buy An Armenian Sketchbook as well.

So through the random way of picking the next book it's that one I'm going to read next.

I know how to play chess. Not well you understand. Normally play on a chess app on my tablet for fear of my fragile male ego being torn to shreds by a hothoused seven year old. Still I know the rules. And as long as you do that's enough to fully appreciate Bobby Fischer Goes To War by David Edmunds and John Eidinow. Their account of the legendary chess battle in Iceland to be world champion between the aforementioned Fischer and Boris Spassky.

This book works on so many levels. From the personalities involved in this struggle to the geopolitical cold war backdrop to an analysis of the games involved there is no part of this work that the authors haven't explained to the reader with infinite skill. If you consider chess a sport (and I do) then it's one of the best sports books I've ever read.

And apart from the analysis of the games if you don't play chess I still think you'd enjoy it.

The next book I'm going to read is the twenty page pocket sized book The Bookshop Fights Back By Anne Patchett which I bought at a nearby bookshop after saying a belated goodbye to West Ham's old Boelyn Ground in September.

The book on the right

It's the story of how she set up a bookshop as a reaction to the closure of one in her town. It'll be an interesting read.

Until the next time.