What are you reading at the moment?

I am just about to dip my toe into Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, kindly gifted to me by Iain (@Digimonkey), after reading the glossary so I can get a grip on the language used throughout this book I can see it is going to take all of my concentration and some quiet space but I am determined to get though it and it is good to stretch your mind from time to time. I am sure it will be a good read. P.
 
I am just about to dip my toe into Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, kindly gifted to me by Iain (@Digimonkey), after reading the glossary so I can get a grip on the language used throughout this book I can see it is going to take all of my concentration and some quiet space but I am determined to get though it and it is good to stretch your mind from time to time. I am sure it will be a good read. P.
I first read Riddley 30 years ago Paul and I'm still getting to grips with it. Take your time and enjoy.
 
51Rpyngo-uL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


'These letters display an engaging intimacy, wit, erudition and humanity. They reveal two powerful minds tackling revoluntionary ideas while confronted by unprecedented challenges of academic and public life'...
 
I am just about to dip my toe into Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, kindly gifted to me by Iain (@Digimonkey), after reading the glossary so I can get a grip on the language used throughout this book I can see it is going to take all of my concentration and some quiet space but I am determined to get though it and it is good to stretch your mind from time to time. I am sure it will be a good read. P.

I hope you enjoy it P. As B. said -

Take your time and enjoy.

I found I settled into the book - you start to read it with the right cadence and the more you understand of the narrator's world view the easier it gets. That being said - it took me as long to read as Pinker's 700 page 'The Better Angels of or Nature.' Worth it though - yours - I.
 
Starting SPQR by Mary Beard tonight and for my fill of fiction I'm undecided between Butchers Crossing by John Williams and Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

I haven't read anything by Mary Beard that wasn't excellent. She is a brilliant communicator with subjects that would as dry as dust in the wrong hands. I like her onscreen persona too - every bit the eccentric boffin. The love of her discipline shines through. If you like this sort of book - I'd recommend anything by Tom Holland - immaculately researched historical narratives on a grand scale. If you haven't read it, Vassily Grossman's 'A Writer at War - a Soviet journalist with the Red Army - 1941 - 1945,' is astonishing and compelling. He also wrote a book solely about his experiences in Stalingrad but - regrettably - I don't think it has ever been translated into English. Yours - I.
 
I haven't read anything by Mary Beard that wasn't excellent. She is a brilliant communicator with subjects that would as dry as dust in the wrong hands. I like her onscreen persona too - every bit the eccentric boffin. The love of her discipline shines through. If you like this sort of book - I'd recommend anything by Tom Holland - immaculately researched historical narratives on a grand scale. If you haven't read it, Vassily Grossman's 'A Writer at War - a Soviet journalist with the Red Army - 1941 - 1945,' is astonishing and compelling. He also wrote a book solely about his experiences in Stalingrad but - regrettably - I don't think it has ever been translated into English. Yours - I.

I quite enjoy her documentaries, I completely forgotten I had SPQR until I spied it today, looking forward to devouring it. I'll keep an eye open for the book you recommend, Life and Fate was an impulse buy and from what have briefly read in reviews it is a masterpiece and one of the few novels that can live up to the often mentioned word of "epic". Looking forward to reading both.
 
‘Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life' by William Finnegan. This was kindly gifted to me by @Digimonkey and when it arrived my first thought was ‘do I really want to read 500 pages about surfing?'. I have absolutely no interest in surfing. I don't think I have ever given it more than a passing thought. And being a typical Londoner I'm frankly terrified of the ocean. But this is one of the most engaging books I have read this year. Finnegan is a staffer at the New Yorker and so I was expecting good writing. But the prose is sublime. Anyone who has an interest in surfing will love this book. Anyone who couldn't give two hoots about surfing will love this book. I now have nightmares about double hold downs. And I know I'm strictly a short board man. Those big wave surfers are maniacs! Many thanks to Ian for recognising the fact that I would adore ‘Barbarian Days'. Although I will never get those 2 hours back that I spent watching surfing videos on YouTube last Saturday morning.
 
Please indulge me. Just one paragraph to highlight the beauty of Finnegans writing.
“Being out in big surf is dreamlike. Terror and ecstasy ebb and flow around the edges of things, each threatening to overwhelm the dreamer. An unearthly beauty saturates an enormous arena of moving water, latent violence, too-real explosions, and sky. Scenes feel mythic even as they unfold. I always feel a ferocious ambivalence: I want to be nowhere else; I want to be anywhere else. I want to drift and gaze, drinking it in, except maximum vigilance, a hyperalertness to what the ocean is doing, cannot be relaxed. Big surf is a force field that dwarfs you, and you survive your time there only by reading those forces carefully and well. But the ecstasy of riding big waves requires placing yourself right beside the terror of being buried by them: the filament separating the two states becomes diaphanous. Dumb luck weighs heavily, painfully. And when things go badly, as they invariably do - when you're caught inside by a very large wave, or fail to make one - all your skill and strength and judgment mean nothing. Nobody maintains their dignity while getting rumbled by a big wave. The only thing you can hope to control at that point is the panic.”
 
when it arrived my first thought was ‘do I really want to read 500 pages about surfing?'. I have absolutely no interest in surfing. I don't think I have ever given it more than a passing thought.

Anyone who has an interest in surfing will love this book. Anyone who couldn't give two hoots about surfing will love this book.

My experience exactly with the book Barry. An excellent review - I'm very glad you enjoyed it. Yours - I.
 
Re-reading 'From the Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise,' - one of histories great love stories - and like many great love stories it doesn't end well for either of them - particularly him. Abelard was one of the most outstanding minds of the 12c. - a brilliant philosopher, theologian and logician - he was of the Scholastic school - as opposed to the Monastic. He made a good fist of reconciling Aristotle with Christianity - no mean feat, it requires considerable intellectual gymnastics - it's fairly easy to match Platonic thought with the then religious orthodoxy - as the Monastics did - Plato's idea of Universals and faith in a single god sit easily next to each other. It was though a 'blind' faith - the Scholastic philosopher sought to use reason and dialectic in theological dispute. A pretty controversial idea at the time. What Abelard started - to my mind - Thomas Aquinas perfected a century later - his teleological proof of god - well he never actually mentions god, only an unmoved mover, generally understood to be god - is still breathtaking to read. So - Heloise - she was remarkably well educated for a woman of her time - was Abelard's pupil and they began an affair - she eventually became pregnant and had a son - who bizarrely she named Astrolabe. Much scandal ensued - she was sent thence to a nunnery and Abelard received a fairly gruesome punishment courtesy of Heloise's uncle and guardian Fulbert. I shan't spoil the surprise. In tandem Abelard had picked a fight with the leader of the Cistercian order - Bernard of Clairvaux - highly influential at the time and one of the most loathsome people in medieval history - actually in all history - in my opinion - who arranged with the pope to have him excommunicated. Nobody really knows how the letters between the star crossed lovers came to be preserved - there are 3 from him to her and 4 from her to him. They are wonderful to read - even in translation from Latin. Two highly intelligent people who understand fully they shouldn't be doing what they are doing but can't help themselves. You do get the impression that Abelard was at the back of the modesty queue - he is a bit up himself and probably richly deserved a slap. He probably didn't deserve what they did to his.... I recommend the book to you - yours - I.

@Barry Giddens
 
Last edited:
Re-reading 'From the Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise,' - one of histories great love stories - and like many great love stories it doesn't end well for either of them - particularly him. Abelard was one of the most outstanding minds of the 12c. - a brilliant philosopher, theologian and logician - he was of the Scholastic school - as opposed to the Monastic. He made a good fist of reconciling Aristotle with Christianity - no mean feat, it requires considerable intellectual gymnastics - it's fairly easy to match Platonic thought with the then religious orthodoxy - as the Monastics did - Plato's idea of Universals and faith in a single god sit easily next to each other. It was though a 'blind' faith - the Scholastic philosopher sought to use reason and dialectic in theological dispute. A pretty controversial idea at the time. What Abelard started - to my mind - Thomas Aquinas perfected a century later - his teleological proof of god - well he never actually mentions god, only an unmoved mover, generally understood to be god - is still breathtaking to read. So - Heloise - she was remarkably well educated for a woman of her time - was Abelard's pupil and they began an affair - she eventually became pregnant and had a son - who bizarrely she named Astrolabe. Much scandal ensued - she was sent thence to a nunnery and Abelard received a fairly gruesome punishment courtesy of Heloise's uncle and guardian Fulbert. I shan't spoil the surprise. In tandem Abelard had picked a fight with the leader of the Cistercian order - Bernard of Clairvaux - highly influential at the time and one of the most loathsome people in medieval history - actually in all history - in my opinion - who arranged with the pope to have him excommunicated. Nobody really knows how the letters between the star crossed lovers came to be preserved - there are 3 from him to her and 4 from her to him. They are wonderful to read - even in translation from Latin. Two highly intelligent people who understand fully they shouldn't be doing what they are doing but can't help themselves. You do get the impression that Abelard was at the back of the modesty queue - he is a bit up himself and probably richly deserved a slap. He probably didn't deserve what they did to his.... I recommend the book to you - yours - I.

@Barry Giddens
Fantastic review Iain. As informative as an episode of Radio 4's 'In Our Time'.
 
Back
Top Bottom