Weekend Miscellany

I was quite miscellaneous (as it were) yesterday, so this feels a bit like an elongated weekend…. but there is always room for a book, a link, and a blog post!

1.) The book – is Edgar Allen Poe’s Murder at the Rue Morgue and other stories, sent to me by Penguin.  It’s part of their new Penguin English Library series, each of which comes with a rather funky patterned cover.  (Yes, folks, that’s right – I’m bringing back the word ‘funky’.)  They’re not reinventing the wheel with their choices – there certainly aren’t any undiscovered voices being, er, discovered – but it’s always fun to have classic books in attractive formats.  Trollope’s The Warden has also arrived, and will hopefully be the incentive I need to read some Trollope (although I feel oddly guilty about reading non-twentieth century titles this year…)

2.) The blog post – is Eva’s intriguing question: reading pilgrim or reading monk?  I’ll let her explain the rest…

3.) The link – is a trailer (of sorts) to a film I’ll be seeing on Sunday: Grand Hotel.  It’s based on the book by Vicki Baum, which I have had in my possession but never read, and won the Oscar for Best Film back in 1932.  Oxford’s wonderful Ultimate Picture Palace often show classic films, and this is the final in their ‘season’ on films set in hotels.  Great idea, no?

If you happen to be in Oxford at 3.45 on Sunday… do come along!

Hope you’re having a good weekend!  I’ll be off on one of my trips to villages with odd names – this time it’s the turn of Ready Token.  Brilliant, no?  I’ll leave you with a book, a link (or two), and a blog post.

1.) The links – I started writing a post last November on book covers (and by ‘started writing’, I mean I copied out two links and wrote ‘COVERS’ as the post title) but I’ve realised that it’s not going to come to fruition for a while. So instead I’ll just give you the links.  The first is to an excellent Caustic Cover Critic  interview with designer Alison Forner, which includes many examples of her beautiful work – one of which is above.  The second is a sort of review of the best covers of 2011 (which sadly too few illustrations), from the Guardian.  JUST what you wanted in the middle of March, no?

2.) The book – fans of the Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson will be pleased to know that another sequel has been written by Guy Fraser-Sampson (also known as Pursewarden).  His Major Benjy really caught the spirit of the original series (my thoughts here) and, if we can’t have Benson writing new books, then Guy Fraser-Sampson is second best.  And although these things shouldn’t matter, I’m glad that he’s been given a lovely cover this time around – for Lucia on Holiday.  If you’re quick, you might be able to hear Guy talk about it about on Radio 4’s Open Book.  Lucia on Holiday is published on 29th March.

3.) The blog link –  is Trevor’s fantastic review of Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, on his site The Mookse and the Gripes.  If you’ve yet to be convinced to try it out, I think he might just do the trick.

Happy weekend, folks!  Mine is looking chirpier than last week, as I seem to be back on my feet.  A bit of coughing here, a bit of sneezing there, but it no longer feels like my brain has gone on holiday without leaving a forwarding address.  (This isn’t what I wanted when I hoped my blog would go viral, ba-duhm-crash.)  For the first time in a while, I’m actually going to be disciplined and stick to a book, a link, and a blog post.

Oh, but first a reminder that it’s March!  And thus it is time to read A View of the Harbour, if you’re participating in Elizabeth Taylor Centenary Celebrations.  I’ll be hosting a discussion later in the month, and will hopefully start reading it myself this weekend (if I don’t get distracted by reading In Cold Blood for book group.  I know Polly and Simon love it, but I’m a bit trepidatious…)

1.) The link – comes via my housemate Debs’ friend Jo.  It’s a response in the Guardian to that list of beautiful bookshops which did the rounds a while ago (did I post them here?  I can’t remember – there were some stunning places.)  Basically it’s about the most unattractive and haphazard bookshops containing the best ‘finds’ – and does raise the question: why are so many secondhand bookshop owners grumpy and unpleasant?  Is it just me who has found this?  Is it because I buy cheap books, and they’re hoping I’ve got my eyes on £500 first editions?  (There are notable exceptions, of course – the staff in Slightly Foxed bookshop, for instance, are always lovely.)  Enough waffle from me – the article is here.

2.) The book – Urania, in the Virago Modern Classics LibraryThing group, mentioned a book in passing which really intrigued me: The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti Skomsvold.   All I know about this book is that it’s a Norwegian novella – but those are two definite buzz words for me, and I was immediately sold.  Onto the Amazon wishlist it went, for a post-Lent purchase… but I’d love to know if you’ve come across it already, and what you think?

3.) The blog post – is Tom’s very amusing review of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which I saw on Simon S’s Twitter feed (yes, Twitter – I’m there occasionally!)  Turns out Tom and I have a mutual friend called Carly from Real Life.  She also blogs, or blogged, here.  And now the indefinite chain of blog-links-to-blog-links-to-blog is in full force…

Hope you all have nicer weekends lined up than I do.  Well, the weekend will probably be fine, it’s just that I’ve come down with a horrible cold… that stage where you feel semi-conscious all the time.  Yeah, not fun.  Lots of bed and Lemsip for me tomorrow… And it’s going to be a pretty brief miscellany, so that I can slump in a heap somewhere.  (Cue violins, etc.)

1.) You know me, I love a review of Miss Hargreaves – and I especially love this one by Chris.  Go and have a gander – and if, for some strange reason, you’ve yet to read the novel… get to it!

2.) Doesn’t The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel look wonderful?  I can’t believe Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Penelope Wilton are in a film together – and one that looks such heartwarming fun.

3.) A review of Diary of a Provincial Lady, you say?  Iris and Jenny are happy to oblige.

Happy weekend, everyone!  Mine will be a little less fun than yours, at least to start off with, since I’ll be at work.  But then I’m off to London to see a film that’s so bad it’s become a cult hit – you can read more about it here.

It’s been a while since I last did a Weekend Miscellany, so I’m going to be casting my mind back a bit for some of these…

1.) Claire (Captive Reader) continues to delight me with her reading choices, mostly because they’re books I love too.  I have longed for the day when a fellow blogger would fall in love with AA Milne’s writing (my AAM obsession began pre-blog, where I read nearly everything he wrote, so SiaB has been less AAM-tastic than it would have been, had I begun blogging in 2001.)  Anyway, Claire has done just that – click here for her review of Milne’s Autobiography.  But it doesn’t end there – she’s also written a stonker of a review of my favourite non-fiction read from last year, William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner’s letters, The Element of Lavishness.  Go check ’em out.

2.) Lovely Merenia sent me the link to a Guardian article on ‘Top 10 Literary Believers‘.  As I emailed Merenia, I am appalled that John Ames (from Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead) didn’t make the cut.  Which believers would you add to the mix?

3.) World Book Day for Book Aid International is back on 1st March!  I’m just going to quote the blurb they sent me, as they can best tell you about their great works:

Book Aid International increases access to books and supports literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa. We send over 500,000 brand new books annually to 2,000 libraries, benefiting 2.4 million people every single year. Overall, we’ve sent more than 20 million books to partner libraries since 1954. Take a look at our website for further information: www.bookaid.org

4.) Thomas has succumbed and joined A Century of Books!  Hurrah!  That makes at least six of us doing it, over the course of a year or more.

5.) Thesis restraints (not to mention A Century of Books) meant that I shan’t be able to read Roz Morris’s My Memories of a Future Life, but the blurb she sent me did sound intriguing:

My Memories of a Future Life is much more than a twist on the traditional reincarnation tale. It is a multi-layered story of souls on conjoined journeys – in real time and across the centuries. It’s a provocative study of the shadows we don’t know are driving our lives, from our own pasts and from the people with us right now. It asks questions about what we believe, what we create and how we scare and heal each other.

Above all, it’s the story of how one lost soul searches for where she now belongs.
 
If you’re a fan of audio, you can listen to the first 4 chapters here, on download or by streaming.
 
6.) I don’t entirely know what an online trend book of the visual arts is, but apparently The Red List is one.  It looks interesting – have a gander here.

That’ll do for now.  I’m sure there were other links I was going to include, but… they can wait until next week!

I started a new part-time job this week (still as a librarian, but this time in a Special Collections reading room, so the materials are suddenly much more fragile and valuable!) and I’m pretty tired.  Back to work today (Saturday) but with the not-very-valuable books instead… and mostly reshelving.  Such is the ignominy of being a library dogsbody!  Still, I made a chocolate cake this evening, so at least I’ll have something delicious in my lunch, though I says it as shouldn’t.

I seem to have wandered away from the book/blog post/link format of my Weekend Miscellanies of late, but that’s because each week seems to be bursting at the seams with goodies.  But I’ll try to remember to keep all three in somewhere…

1.) For those of you who can’t get enough of me here (ahem) you can read some of my writing somewhere else this week!  My review of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, The Hogarth Press, and the Networks of Modernism (phew) ed. Helen Southworth is in the CILIP Rare Books Newsletter.  Have a gander here (it’s in Issue 91) if you fancy it.  In summary, it’s a good book!  And my review starts by quoting E.M. Delafield.

2.) Linda Gillard’s A Lifetime Burning is a very good, strange, wonderful book.  I said that, in a few more words, back in a rather speedy review here.  It’s now available on Kindle here at the ridiculously cheap price of 88p.  It’s not the most comfortable read ever, but it is Linda’s masterpiece. Twenty-six reviews on Amazon; all five-star – that’s got to mean something.

3.) Peirene’s Short Story Month competition (PeiShoStoMo), which I mentioned here, is done and dusted.  Lots of congrats to Rose Rankin-Gee and her great story ‘London’, which you can read here.

4.) Some other lovely bloggers are joining in A Century of Books: see what Fleur Fisher, Read the Book, Geranium Cat and Harriet Devine have planned, and let me know if you post your own plans on your blog.  (Sorry if you’ve already told me and I forgot!)

5.) I keep linking to Claire’s reviews, but she keeps reviewing wonderful books wonderfully well!  I can’t believe another blogger has read Miss Elizabeth Bennet by A.A. Milne – read Claire’s lovely review here.  My plan for people to read and love AAM’s obscure adult plays/sketches/novels/essays is finally coming to fruition!  He wrote so, so much, I could fill up a third of A Century of Books with Milne alone…

6.) Finally, I was delighted with Slightly Foxed sent me the latest of their Slightly Foxed Editions: it’s Dodie Smith’s autobiography Look Back With Love.  One of her autobiographies, I should say, since I think she penned a fair few.  I’ve been wanting to read this for a while, since I love I Capture the Castle, and this beautiful edition is perfect.  I hope to get onto it soon, but for now – more info is here.

First things first – happy birthday to Our Vicar!

It’s definitely getting Christmassy at our house, since the Christmas tree has gone up (sans tinsel) and presents have been wrapped.  I’m heading down to Somerset at the end of next week, where Sherpa will inevitably destroy any decorations which go up – but I could forgive that little sweetheart absolutely anything, of course.

I’m not going to be particularly festive right now, though, as the weekend miscellany is dashing everywhere from the derivation of a popular phrase to the Twilight Zone.  It’s an odd one this week… enjoy!

1.)  You know when you start with an honest, sensible Wikipedia search… and then quarter of an hour later you’re reading about the chart hits of Destiny’s Child or an unsolved murder case from the 1840s?  Yes?  Perhaps you’ll sympathise with me: my initial search started with something for my DPhil on fantastic novels where rooms shift shape.  It ended with… an episode of the Twilight Zone called ‘Five Characters in Search of an Exit.’  I thought I’d post it here, because (a) it makes for good watching, and (b) since it plays on the title of the Pirandello play Six Characters in Search of an Author, it’s literary-by-proxy.  I do enjoy The Twilight Zone because it’s surreal and mysterious without being terrifying or gory.  You can read the Wikipedia article here, and watch below (hopefully).

2.)  I spotted this via Kirsty, I think (whose blog Other Stories seems to have disapparated?)  Ever wanted to know where the odd expression ‘stealing someone’s thunder’ comes from?  The Oxford Words blog obliges here.  I absolutely love these quirky little idioms and their history.  Any others to share?

3.) I haven’t read nearly enough books published in 2011 to submit my own results, but if you have, pop over to The International Readers Book Awards on the website for my new favourite podcast, The Readers, run by Simon of Savidge Reads and Gav of Gav Reads.

4.)  This weekend’s book (I have taken liberties with my normal Weekend Miscellany, but there has to be a book, doesn’t there?) came through my letterbox from Vintage Books.  It’s called Stop What You’re Doing And Read This – what else could I do but obey?  I’m afraid it’s not out until 5th January, but I couldn’t resist telling you about it in advance – because it’s just the sort of book-about-books that I adore.  To quote them, ‘this book is a mission statement about the transformative power of reading.’  Well-known authors, publishers and sundry others have written essays about reading and the importance of books – preaching to the converted here, of course, but a topic which always captivates me.  So far I’ve read Zadie Smith on libraries (wonderfully impassioned), Blake Morrison  (mainly about biographies, and very interesting), Carmen Callil (most fascinatingly for me, the origins of Virago), Tim Parks (the one dud essay so far; trying far too hard), and Mark Haddon (unexpectedly brilliant, actually.)  Other essayists are Jeanette Winterson, Michael Rosen, Dr. Maryanne Wolf, Jane David, and Nicholas Carr.

Of course I’ll write more in depth about this later, but I wanted to sound the alarm early.  It’ll only be £4.99 when it’s published, which I thought pretty reasonable, and it might just join Anne Fadiman, Susan Hill, and Alberto Manguel on my beloved books-about-books shelf.

I am not best pleased, as the post I spent 45 minutes writing just disappeared. Darn it darn it darn it. Well, I’ll try again, but I might be a little less insouciant than usual…

Firstly, I have yet to reach the end of the tunnel when it comes to comments. Apparently some of you can’t see other people’s comments – curiouser and curiouser! I think this might be people using Internet Explorer – can I recommend the all-round-nicer Firefox! I’m going to keep the new comment format for the next few days, and if the problems don’t clear up then I’ll probably change back…

EDIT: well, it wasn’t working, so we’re back to the old way of commenting for now… well, it’s teething at the mo, but we’ll be back to normal by tonight. I will keep trying!

But enough of these shenanigans! It’s the weekend, it’s already been miscellaneous, that can only mean that it’s Stuck-in-a-Book’s Weekend Miscellany!

1.) The blog post – is over at Tales From the Reading Room, and a fascinating discussion about Why Write Reviews? This isn’t quite the same as Why Blog? A few bloggers noticed that full-length reviews tended to get fewer comments than other posts, and also themselves were often more reluctant to read full-length reviews than bookish-chatter type posts. Which led Litlove to write an interesting analysis of why she writes reviews – and, of course, the comments box is filled with conversation on the topic, including my tuppenyworth.

2.) The question – (for there is no link this week!) is on similar territory. I was wondering what you thought of the post Claire and I co-created on One Day? A few of you commented – most of you (of course!) did not. What did you think of the conversation format? Do you think it worked? Those bloggers amongst you – would you like to have a go yourself? I’d love to know your thoughts. (If the comments box doesn’t work, email them to me!)

3.) The book – is The Outward Room (1937) by Millen Brand, which New York Review of Books Classics gave to me a while ago. I forget quite why I asked for it, or where I heard about, but I’m even more excited about it since I spotted in an old interview with Persephone Books that they had it forthcoming. Those plans must have been shelved, perhaps because of the NYRB edition, but a Persephone stamp of approval doesn’t go amiss. Since I’ve yet to read it, I thought I should at least give it a mention. It’s about a woman, Harriet Demuth, who escapes from a mental hospital and goes on a journey both of New York and of self-discovery. That synopsis puts me in mind of Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel, which is no bad thing – and it sounds as though it might have been rather revolutionary for 1937.

Ok, that’s it for this miscellany – have a good weekend, everyone.

Our Vicar’s Wife is staying at the moment, so give her a cheery wave.  Thanks!
Feeling sleepy this weekend, so we’ll move straight onto the book, blog, and link – although I’ll whisper a little advance warning for Monday… I’ll be trying something a bit different, and another blogger will be along to help me…

1.) The book – came from the lovely people at Sort Of books, responsible for the wonderful Tove Jansson editions and my recently-reviewed Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles.  Basically, their books are beautiful and they don’t put a foot wrong.  They spotted my review, and thought I might like Telescope by Jonathan Buckley.  This is their blurb, from the website:

Daniel Brennan, approaching the premature end of his life, retreats to a room in his brother’s suburban house. To divert himself and to entertain Ellen, his carer, he writes the journal that is Telescope, blurring truth, gossip and fiction in vignettes of his own life and the lives of those close to him. Above all he focuses on his siblings: mercurial Celia, whose life as a teacher in Italy seems to have run aground, and kindly Charlie, the entrepreneur of the family.

More info here – but I’d be surprised if I didn’t love it, given how similar my tastes seem to be to this publisher’s own.

2.) The link – a lot of you will have heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where aspiring novelists scribble as fast as possible during November to create their first draft.  Well, Peirene Press (lovely Peirene Press, I mean) have created PeiShoStoMo.  Peirene Short Story Month.  I’m afraid I’m announcing this nineteen days late, but you still have a week and a half to write 900 words, if you’re interested… more here.

3.) The blog post – you know I can’t resist it when I find reviews of my favourite books, especially when they’re wonderfully enthusiastic reviews.  This one, of Miss Hargreaves (which I’ve just finished for the sixth time) was actually written back in March, but I didn’t see it then.  It’s a lovely review, and the post includes a picture of the first edition dustjacket, which I hadn’t seen before and which I love.  (It’s not the one pictured… I’m saving the surprise for when you’ve clicked on the link.)  Oh, I flippin’ love everything to do with Miss Hargreaves – every time I read it I love it even more, and wish ever more fervently that (a) I could have seen Margaret Rutherford play her on stage, or (b) Maggie Smith would play her in a film.  Please, please, pleeeeeeease.

Morning everyone!  I usually try and write my Weekend Miscellanies in advance, so that they appear on the dot of midnight, but I was at a friend’s house yesterday evening and too zonked to write anything when I got back.  And, prepare yourself, today’s post is quite self-indulgent… I was going to be bashful and modest, but… no, I’ll try that next year instead.

1.) Spangle very kindly asked me to participate in a series on her blog called Chapters In My Life.  As with the My Life in Books series I ran in March/April, we were both inspired by the My Life in Books TV programme.  I chose five books which were important during my life, and which have led to my current reading tastes.  I also tried to steer clear of my normal answers to such things, so there is nary a mention of Miss Hargreaves!  You can read it here, and see the others in Spangle’s series here. As a sneak peak, my first choice is Enid Blyton’s Five Get Into Trouble, but I now have a suspicion that I chose the wrong book… Our Vicar? Our Vicar’s Wife?

2.) A teensy bit of trumpet-blowing, but trumpet-blowing occasioned by surprise and delight – according to Wikio, I am now top of their ranking of UK literary blogs!  I know these things are only a bit of fun, and I’ll probably have dropped to no.93 by next month, but I couldn’t help being rather pleased.

3.) A now a bit of fun – a great quiz I happened upon called Shakespeare or Batman?  Not as easy as it sounds… I got 20/30, which is the worst score of anybody I know.  Great.

4.) Slightly Foxed‘s beautiful little limited edition hardbacks have proved so popular that they’re going to reprint their bestselling titles in paperback form.  More info here; the first will be Mr. Tibbits’s Catholic School by Ysenda Maxtone Graham.  Anybody read it?

5.) To most of us, Elizabeth von Arnim is far from being a neglected author (she appears on my 50 Books list, for goodness’ sake – what greater acclaim IS there??) but a mention in Downton Abbey a few weeks ago has apparently created something of a resurgence of interest.  A lovely little article here.  And a confession from me that I’m three episodes behind with Downton…