Weekend Miscellany

This weekend miscellany malarkey seems to have settled into a blog, a book, and a link. Sorry that ‘link’ doesn’t begin with ‘b’, that would have been pleasingly alliterative… any b-synonyms for ‘link’, let me know… Also, I’ve been using this weekend frivolity to try out all the fancy colours which Blogger offers me. I do hope this doesn’t offend any more delicate senses…

Anyway, here goes.

1) This week there are two blog posts I want to point out, as I couldn’t narrow it down to just one. Elaine at Random Jottings writes about Light Relief in the form of PG Wodehouse and Betty Macdonald’s The Egg and I. Like Elaine, I’ve bypassed The Egg and I dozens of times in bookshops, but I know that next time I’ll snap it up. To quote Elaine: And then I turned to The Egg and I another title to join the distinguished list of Books I used to Shelve Regularly when I was a Librarian and turned my nose up at (sorry for the appalling grammar) and recently given to me to read by a friend who said ‘ Cannot believe you have not read these Elaine’. She also was staggered I had not read Mapp and Lucia. I do like to keep my friends on their toes. Oo, I’ve never noticed that ‘quotation’ function before. That’ll come in handy.

The second blog post is this one from Simon at Savidge Reads – mostly I just like the fact that it has pictures of bookshelves. (The one above is actually one of my own, taken last year.) But he also asks from where we inherit our love of books – parents? grandparents? teachers? nowhere? The comments make for fun and interesting reading.

And whilst I’m posting blog links, I happened upon one of my own sketch-based posts which I’d forgotten about, and which made me chuckle… narcissistic, much? It’s from the days when most of my sketches involved my Stuck-in-a-Book self-portrait.

2) Icon Books emailed me a little while ago, wondering if I wanted to review any of their books. Not my usual sort of publisher (they’re non-fiction publishers, for a start) but I looked through their Literature section, and they sent me a couple. I’ve got Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard by Ben Crystal (any relation of David?) and Nobel Lectures: 20 Years of the Nobel Prize for Literature Lectures edited by John “Did Cruella de Ville Dye Her Hair?” Sutherland. I’ll be interested in the former, though it’s preaching to the converted – but I’m really looking forward to the latter. Just a shame it was published too early for Doris Lessing’s speech.

3) Graduating from university, or simply seeking a new job? I was sent a link to the 50 Books You Should Read Before Entering The Real World – click here – though it has little in common with my own 50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About. (Speaking of which, it’s ongoing, and in no order, but hasn’t been updated for a while… I’m always open to ideas about obscure books which should make the list). The list has lots of books related to jobs and finances etc, but also a section on Fiction and Memoirs. The only one of those I’ve read is the much-overrated The Catcher in the Rye… but that shouldn’t put me off the rest.

It was fun last week, so let’s try it again. I had meant to write about a few books I’ve recently finished, but somehow it hasn’t happened. Next week, I promise.

1) This video is hilarious. I subscribe to communitychannel’s videos on YouTube, and though her humour is unfortunately sometimes what Our Vicar’s Wife would call “near the knuckle” (does anyone else use this expression?) her sketches are usually very amusing. Just watch the sketch at the beginning – I think you’ll enjoy it.

2) Do go and see a lovely review of Joyce Dennys’ Henrietta’s War on the very wonderful blog Paperback Reader. This should even please my brother Colin (who says he reads my blog but ‘skips the booky bits’) since the blog title is adapted from the Beatles song ‘Paperback Writer’. The review takes the form of a letter from Henrietta, and picks out one of my favourite moments in the book, concerning offal…

3) How have I lived this long without buying any of the gorgeous New York Review of Books Classics titles? Possibly because that’s such a mouthful. But incentive, if incentive were needed, has arrived – they currently have a 20% off sale. Actually, I had to go to Amazon because I don’t have a credit card, and so I don’t know what postage costs to the UK are. But any American readers should head that way immediately… I bought Barbara Comyns’ The Vet’s Daughter, because it’s one of hers which I don’t have yet and I hate the new Virago cover for it. But they also do all sorts of Stuck-in-a-Book favourites and would-be-favourites including to-die-for editions of Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book; Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes; Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April, and Ivy Compton-Burnett’s A House and Its Head and Manservant and Maidservant. All of those should be pictured below, and if I’ve done things correctly, clicking on the image will take you to the NYRB page in question. My friend Erika says “They really are lovely editions–the paper is good quality and bright, the binding is tight, and it just has a good feel to it in your hands!” They should put me on commission…

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Something new I thought I’d kick off here – at the weekend I’ll pick three or four things I’ve noticed in the week beforehand, and point you in their direction. It’ll usually be other bloggers or blog posts which I’ve enjoyed, but will also include books I’ve spotted or snippets of information I’ve been emailed.

1) First off, Libby Cone’s novel War on the Margins was published on Thursday by Duckworth. She sent me a copy ages ago, but sadly I’ve not got to it – but it’s definitely the right territory for Stuck-in-a-Book, based as it is in wartime Guernsey. All of us loved Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, didn’t we? Lynne at dovegreyreader wrote about War on the Margins here, in its self-published incarnation. Isn’t it great when a self-publisher manages to get published in the conventional way as well? Libby sent me a very sweet email asking me to mention that the book was now out, suggesting I say the following: “She’s barmy! She’s driving me nuts! I haven’t been able to read it; read it for yourselves, for goodness’ sake, so she’ll leave me alone!” But I will read it one day, Libby, I will… see if you can beat me to it.

2) There are quite a few things that readers of Siab agree on, more or less – two of them are that reading is great, and that Virago Modern Classics are wonderful, when they appear in their dark-green covers. Witness the Virago collage I made a while ago:

Well, Verity (of The B Files, see left-hand column) has set up a subsidiary blog, Verity’s Virago Venture, documenting her attempt to read as many of the VMCs as possible. I can’t remember how many there are, but it’s A LOT. Go along and see her progress – authors/books already covered include Barbara Comyn’s Sisters By A River (which I wrote about in April) and the works of Antonia White.

3) I’m a little in love with Lisa’s blog A Bloomsbury Life, which has (I quote) “sporadic posts about style, travel, food, literature, gardens, eccentrics and their foibles.” It’s a quirky riot of colour, very stylishly so, and is a simply beautiful place to be. Most adored post recently is this one, in which Lisa compares the photographs taken on her travels with objects and designs around her home – how the one has influenced the other. For example, below – she has drawn connections between the beautiful saris she saw, and the way she shelves her books… beautiful. Do go and read the whole post, with lots of great photographs.