We read books, talked books, argued over books, and became dearer and dearer to one another.

Just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I loved this book sooooo darn much. Characters who just unfold out of the book and read it with you - or at least that's how I felt - I haven't felt this much affection for fictional people since my Louisa May Alcott/Mary Grant Bruce/L. M. Montgomery days (not that I don't still adore the creations of the aforementioned authors!). Mary Ann Shaffer, may she rest in peace, was a magician of storytelling. I only wish I could have made the book last me more than two days...

I have no words to critique this book. I can only say: read it.

When I finally get to Europe, after this long, long time of waiting, Guernsey will be one of my first destinations...

Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.

Got The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society for Christmas. Enjoying it more than I've enjoyed a modern book perhaps ever. :-) Expect more on this theme later...

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Hello again.

I'm back already because I have finished my books. Already. I finished Dear Fatty last night because I got two thirds of the way through it and realised that if I didn't finish it in one sitting I never would finish it at all. Dawn French has lived an interesting life and she knows how to talk about it in an interesting way. But I found the 'series of letters to friends and relatives' thing didn't really work for me. I kept forgetting who it was that she was addressing in any given letter and feeling annoyed because I felt unincluded. It simply felt like a bizarre love match between prying into someone's personal correspondence and reading a proper book of memoirs. Parts of it were boring; most of it was warm and interesting. Buuuut - I wanted more about Vicar of Dibley! I know, I know, it's such a cliche - the one role that will follow the poor actor about forever, haunting them inescapably... but I was interested. My curiosity and desire for Dibley anecdotes still remains unsated.


Alan Alda's memoirs read more like a normal autobiography. Which was refreshing - and he managed to hit that balance between human honesty and storytelling, without becoming impersonal or spending too much time despondently navel gazing a la Sean Astin. I enjoyed his sense of humour and the personality that infused the pages - he involves the reader in his story very effectively. Aaand he talked about being in M*A*S*H*! So he beats Dawn French a little bit.


It's odd - reading people's autobiographical stuff - it's the things they're reticent about that keep you wondering afterward. Both of these actors mentioned a sort of breaking down in their personal faith in God (or the church at least) but (even though Alan Alda spent some time talking about it) neither really seemed to come to any personal conclusions. Which baffles and perplexes me. How can you lose your faith and just leave the whole existential question to gather dust at the back of your mind? I know that if I didn't have an actual relationship with my Father in Heaven I'd be a horrible gibbering wreck most of the time, worrying about how nothing at all makes sense, but I guess life might make a good distraction if you're good at being distracted.

The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.

Alan Alda

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

Second post! Whoot!

I visited the library today: borrowed Dawn French's Dear Fatty and Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda. Both are celebrity memoirs - I am unashamedly addicted to autobiographies. In generality they are 100% more entertaining than biographies - even the popular biographies which rely on scandal and rumour to keep readers' attention - though occasionally you come across a dud. I don't reccomend There and Back Again - An Actor's Tale by Sean Astin; which had scandal and rumour and STILL managed to be boring and unentertaining: if you want a good LOTR film book read Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic by Andy Serkis, who manages to keep it personal but still generate interest through a genuine talent for storytelling.

If you're interested (and who wouldn't be?) in more memoirs I also reccomend:

Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied With String by Michael Crawford

Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis (I've read a ton of biographies about him and none of them shapes up to be as interesting and gripping as his own perspective)

My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

Bono On Bono (which isn't really autobiographical in the strictest sense - it's really a series of interviews. Still a good read, though.)

Good stuff.

From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.

Good day, readers.

I have been tempted for some time to start a themed blog - tempted, but I managed to resist. Until today. Today I have given in to the peer pressure of other marvellous blogs started by marvellous people and I have done it. You see before you a book themed blog, one of the many millions of book themed blogs out there. Really, it ought to be a crime starting another one to twinkle vaguely in the constellation of millions.

I have been reading 'The Complete Polysyllabic Spree' which isn't really a book but a collection of newspaper columns by Nick Hornby. I'm not quite sure exactly, but I think his method is to write down, once a month, every book he's reading or has bought and then work on the theme of the books he has read. I don't share literary tastes with the man, but the 'Spree' is quite an entertaining read. I hope to do something similar. Keeping track of what I'm reading is actually a gargantuan task because I'm reading an awful lot of books at the one time with very little sense or cohesion at all in the order of reading, so perhaps this endeavour will prove bootless after all. I won't be terribly disappointed if it is ;-)