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.

Pondering Pirlo,Coronating Coren and The Novel That Might Make Post Office Employees Cry

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well have finished three books today clearly my reading habits are following the bus principle of finishing more than one on the same day after a wait.

Let's start with I Think Therefore I Play, the autobiography of Italian footballing legend Andrea Pirlo. I say "autobiography" because that's how it seemed to have started.

However a few chapters in I get confused. The timeline makes no sense to me whatsoever. Only as I go into this book deeper does it suddenly make sense. It's a collection of essays with biographical anecdotes and opinions put on them. So for example he could chat about referees, racism or playing for Italy.

Once you understand that the book is readable. Although a rough knowledge of his career would help the unwary.

Alan Coren's Toujours Cricklewood was a welcome reminder of the amiable man who would always be your friend even though you never knew him. Every piece was a comic gem that left a smile on my face.

For the moment I'm going to fire up the Kindle and use that when waiting fore people in the car.....until the copy of the third book in the trilogy, The Cricklewood Tapestry arrives.

Michael Palin has done something rare in my experience. Not since Kingsley Amis has my opinion of a writer changed radically from one book to the next. From the disappointment of volume  two of these diaries to my admiration for Hemingway's Chair, his 1995 "comic" novel.

It's the story of Martin Sproale. assistant postmaster in a small town and Hemingway addict, when he faces "progress" in the form of the new postmaster of the Post Office. Written when the Post Office and the Royal Mail was one organisation (though he does predict the privatised spilt) Palin cleverly shows the slow but insidious effects on an organisation when it's taken over by people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The sort of people who are obsessed by efficiency savings , branding and gloss but at the same time ignoring what made the organisation respected in the first place and not caring about its effects

(Now of course there is a lot more to the plot than that but I try my best not to spoil things for the new reader)

The thing is if you work/worked in the Post Office and remember how things were you will get bittersweet reading this. You might even shed a tear at memories of things past.

It's the sort of book that I've always admired. Something to say about Britain today (even though it was written over twenty years ago) but done in a way that could appeal to everyone who read it whatever their background. Reminded me of Sue Townsend in that regard.

There are a few similarities between what happens to the Post Office in the novel and the one in Bridgend Town (though not to spoil things I'm not going to list them - just understand that you cannot assume that when I'm talking about some similarities I'm implying everything). I was tempted to send my copy to them but then saw sense. It would have been an action at best pointless and at worse patronising and condescending. Still it made the book even more topical to me than it was already.

It has an all too human hero, it has villains and it has Hemingway (though don't let that put you off. You can enjoy this even if you've never heard/read of him before).

If you can get your hands on this do so. You won't regret it.

The next book on the pile of the great unread is this:

Dave Edmonds & John Eidinow - Bobby Fischer Goes To War

This is the account of the chess world championship series between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. The only chess match ever that could justifiably be described as legendary. Should be interesting.

Until the next time.