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.

On Books: Including With Regard To William Morris How You Cannot Judge A Book By Its Wallcover

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

William Morris then. Socialist wallpaper guy. Hero of his era. I'm left-wing too.

But let me give you a secret.

His wallpaper designs? Of those I've seen. I don't like them. Suspect my grandmother would have though.

And of course my opinion is absolutely right. As is yours if you disagree. Because what you want to be put onto your walls. Be it wallpaper or in my preference paint is entirely up to you.

Now the point of all of this is that when I woke up at four o'clock in this Monday morning. Unable to sleep further. Worried about my mother. Not knowing for sure when I can return to Wales from Essex exile (though 27th Feb taking her with me to complete her recovery seems the most likely). Well that's the moment when I grab my Kindle to find out that the next book was his book Hopes and Fears For Art. And I'm not

It is not a bad book. Actually for a subject I'm not all that interested in it had it's moments. He doesn't like bankers, has views on art that the majority can appreciate and his comments on the effect of trade on Indian art exports is an interesting snippet in itself.

Not the sort of book I should warn that when you realise you've nodded off after swiping a few pages you can plough through regardless. You have to go back. Still it's a good read. And the version I read didn't have any illustrations of wallpaper...which is a help.

Sometimes reading a book without knowing the background is fun. Sometimes though it's a waste of time. When I downloaded Harbours Of England (published 1856) by John Ruskin it was because a) I heard about him and b) it was free.

However essentially what this book is about is Ruskin talking about certain paintings of John Turner. Paintings that I probably have seen but have never noticed. It could be the greatest piece of art criticism ever but it was wasted on me.

The next book is Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas. Suspect I'll be able to get into it a whole lot quicker.

Until the next time.