More Chopin, Arguing With Len And I'm With Team Fyodor

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So it appears that yet again I begin this blog the day after a terrorist atrocity. Yet again the world turns digitally medieval. Yet again for what it's worth my sympathies goes out to the injured and dead in these London attacks (bar three). But yet again I say this. No one should change their lives for fear. For fear would mean that the terrorists will win. I intend to go out to Cardiff Bay today. Am not going to alter my plans. Not at all.

So I will continue in this blog to chat on the books I've read yesterday. Terrorists remember don't like people who read avidly. They don't like books outside of their own sphere. And when we're talking about Islamic terrorists they wouldn't like Kate Chopin. She is first a woman, then a woman with a voice of her own and a woman who would not have believed that her place is in the home serving a man.

The Awakenings and other stories have now been finished. As I explained yesterday this has come as an unexpected surprise. The stories were a fascinating read. They were all best described as a slow burn. You wonder what's going on in the beginning and then you find yourself being drawn into the tale she's telling. Will look forward to reading her again.

Kindle do a series called Kindle Singles. Short fiction/non fiction on various subjects. When I first bought it one of these ebooks I bought was James Bond : My Long And Eventful Search For His Father. Essentially this was focusing on the battle which eventually involved in the (for want of a better word) "rebel" James Bond film Never Say Never Again.

Before this book I've read three Len Deighton novels. The Ipcress File, SS-GB and XPD. In all cases I had the same view. If Len and Deighton were an ice dance couple then they would score largely on the technical but not as well on artistic impression. His characters leave me cold. As I remember reading James Bond as a teenager Ian Fleming was much better in engaging your emotions. And of course nobody does the crime novel better than John Le Carre.

This book doesn't change my view of him one iota. It was rubbish. It's biggest problem was that it was just too short. It needed a lot more detail. Also his conclusion at the very end is just useless. I won't tell you what it is but let's just say that it doesn't matter what TV/Film does to change an iconic character (eg Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Inspector Morse) it's parent is the author who created it in the first place.

The novel I'm currently reading is House Of The Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky published in 1860. It reminded me of why I'm with Team Fyodor and not Team Chekov. You find yourself interested in the people and their lives in the Siberian prison camp they're living in. With Dostoevsky I find myself wanting to go on rather than swiping the page at a sense of reader duty.

Until the next time.