More Reading At Outpatients

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well last Monday I was at outpatients with my mother. And as per usual there was the wait, and then another wait, and then another wait. And in the meantime I read. Some of these books were started before we went into the hospital and others were finished afterwards but they all bar the first had the outpatients reading vibe upon them.

Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance) by Elizabeth Champney then. When I started this read I said I didn't know what it was going to be. Now that I've finished it I can truly say nothing has changed. I wasn't really sure whether I was reading a historical novel, or a biography or art history. One moment the Borgias were being discussed. The next there were quotes from William Morris. My head hurt.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell was the next read. The good thing about this was that it's definitely a novel. And..... well.....that's it.

Written to be published in a magazine between 1864 and 1866 whilst this was (though obviously decades later) in a Jane Austen manner it was nowhere near as good. As regular readers will know Jane Austen is for me in that group of writers that comes in that neutral "literary Switzerland" territory.

Elizabeth Gaskell is however (based on the books I've read) more moving into the D H Lawrence blog villain category. Possibly this is to do with the reputation of North and South (which I haven't read) as a social novel in the Dickension mould. Wives and Daughters is anything but. Inconsequential is the best word I can describe this....and the most kindest.

A Hero Of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov is another book which I didn't like, Essentially a collection of tales with the overall arc surrounding them all I can say is that I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I was Russian.

So now it's a biography of Robert Burns by John Sharp. Let's hope I like it better than this lot.

Until the next time

On Reading In A Hospital Outpatients And A Little Bit More Hooray For Harlow

Hello there. Hope you're feeling today.

Whilst there is always the unexpected. Basically the only things that would apparently stop me from returning to Wales by the end of the month are two particular outpatient appointments for my mother.

Today was appointment number one.

I won't go into full details. But everything was fine. However it did involve waiting for about three hours in the hospital. Three hours which I spent reading. And since three seems to be the number of the day then three was the amount of books completed today, most of the time in that three hour period.

So let's start with Scarlet Thomas' 2001 novel Bright Young Things. Which is about a group of jaded but brilliant twentysomethings that find themselves in an island. Won't go further as I don't wish to spoil it for anybody else.

The best thing about the book are the opening chapters before they reach the island. They are interesting. They paint a picture of the "Bright Young Things" of the title.

Unfortunately for me that was yesterday. The bits I read today were dull. It is the sort of book where you wonder whether all of a sudden the author just forgot the plot. There was a feeling of drift.

And speaking of drift....I nodded off in the outpatients as I was reading,almost dropping the kindle as I did so. Think I mentally nodded off long before that. As for the ending. Some people might be angry about it. To be honest I was too disinterested to care.

James Whistler was an artist. He was also the author of The Gentle of Making Enemies. A book which details some of the run-ins he had with the art establishment. Particularly a libel case he had with John Ruskin. The same Ruskin who wrote Harbours of England that I chatted about (albeit very briefly) in my last post.

I couldn't work out reading this whether Whistler just enjoyed being a stirrer or was just a pain in the backside. If I was a betting man I'd say the latter. An interesting book but really for curiosity value only.

Lady Susan (which I finished after going leaving outpatients) was Jane Austen's shortest novel though apparently written before (though published after) the others. It's basically a comedy of manners although in the form of various correspondence.

Of the three (there's that number again) Austen books I've read this was the one I liked the least. It just seemed not so much Lady Susan or Lazy Susan but a Lazy Jane. Just didn't seem that exceptional. Still, if this her earliest book perhaps it's forgivable.

The current book I'm reading is Romance Of Roman Villas (The Renaissance) by Elizabeth Champney

Yesterday went to Harlow to buy a pair of jeans. I noticed another statue.

Upright Motive.....Certainly Upright

This was done by Henry Moore. One of the few sculptors (for what it's worth) I've ever heard of. Can't say I like it personally, but it's worth mentioning.

Aside from the jeans I bought something else

I Shopped Polish

Until the next time.