On Books: Including One Which Seems To Quietly Go Mad

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Finished The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. It reminded me of Don Quixote and Les Miserables where it appeared that though there was a basic plot Sterne seemed to throw in every piece of writing he ever did and somehow shoehorn it into the book.

It's a novel celebrated for being freewheeling in style. Personally for me it was as effective as a three wheeled car. You can guess that I didn't like it.

The next ebook is rather interesting. It's Letters on Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary Shelley). Thing about it is this. Whenever I watch anything about Mary, there always seems to be something along the lines of anything she wrote aside from Frankenstein was rubbish so this is a good test.

As for my recent library book borrowings, there were two. Firstly:

Annie Prolux - Barkskins

This is a brick sized book. It's going to take me a long while to read it. Unlike.....

Things That Are - Amy Leach

This is a book of essays about animals, plants and stars. It's also weird. I really wish I could break copyright and give you examples of the odd sentences that Ms Leach makes. Best I can tell you is that I challenge any reader of this book to say that there wasn't at least one example in every chapter where you thought "What on Earth is she writing?"

or

"Is she on drugs?"

If this book was a person it would be the sort of eccentric that's no harm to others but talks no sense whatsoever when you speak to them. You just nod as they go on not understanding anything that is being said.

And to think that in 2013 there were people who paid £12 for this.

Until the next time.

On Books:From Dickens to Golf,Science and Ending With East End Crime.....As You Do

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I finished my post on The Thirty Nine Steps so excited was I in throwing the theory forward that racist John Buchan is still remembered today because of sex harasser Alfred Hitchcock that I'd forgotten to mention what my next ebook on the Kindle was going to be.

Well in the spirit of the season it's Charles Dickens' A Christmas....no only kidding...been there done that....seen the movie (and the musical as it happens).

It was in fact Martin Chuzzlewit.

I did not unfortunately like it. For me it seemed a lot more meandering than other books of his I've read and yet unlike those other ones it didn't seem to easily to move back into the central plot. Consequently my mind meandered as well. There are books that you persevere with because you feel as a reader you should but the only thing you're looking forward to is the end.

The only interesting thing to me about the novel were those scenes set in America. It made me wonder whether Dickens was the first writer (or the earliest still remembered today) to think that he could get greater American sales by setting part of the story there. Just a thought.

The next ebook turned out to be Arnold Palmer: Reflections On The Game by the aforementioned Arnold and Thomas Hauser. This I bought for free. Now I know why. It was just a few pages. A glorified magazine/newspaper article. Obviously Arnold Palmer had the right to chat about golf more than most people, but none of what I read held any surprise. It was a waste of the nothing I paid for it.

So the ebook I'm now reading is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Gentleman by Lawrence Sterne. It's a classic of British literature and am looking forward to it.

Have also read two library books. This was the first.

The Accidental Scientist - Graeme Donald

As the cover explains it's about the great accidental discoveries in science. In this case it's a book that scientists would buy their non scientist friends ("See? Science can be fun")

The trouble with this and similar type books is that you realise as you're reading it that each chapter would have made a better complete book in it's own right. So what you're reading may not be awful, but it is unsatisfying.

This was the other library book.

David Meikle - Kate Beal Blyth - The Krays The Prison Years

I'm not old enough to remember The Krays in their gangster prime. But growing up in the East End of London (I was born in Forest Gate) I do remember that even in prison for the rest of their lives they still seemed to have this myth surrounding them. Indeed for longevity in the collective East End memory the only other icon I can immediately think of is Bobby Moore.

So a detailed book (based on a TV documentary - not revealed until the end) about this rarely documented period in their lives banged up in prison is a worthwhile addition to the library of stuff written about the Krays. It's also the best book of the four I've chatted about today (yes it was more interesting than Martin Chuzzlewit) but perhaps that's my East End background talking

It's not without problems. For me the biggest was the surprising little time spent to their early prison years. It also made me feel a little sympathetic towards Ronnie Kray, given that he was a diagnosed with severe mental problems including schizophrenia. You wondered what would have happened to them if he hadn't been plagued with these illnesses

Still I "enjoyed" reading it and it's recommended. Won't be able to get new library books until Tuesday so we'll see what they are then.

Until the next time.