- NO-ONE GETS PARDONED FOR LIVING.

Just finished reading Terry Pratchett's Mort. This won't be a very long post, coz I haven't eaten today and my hungry stomach is beginning to make its presence known. I rather liked this book - but, to be sure and certain, Pratchett has come a long way since then as regards characters and the development of them.

Oh, and I recently listened to P. G. Wodehouse's book The Luck of the Bodkins on CD - does that count as having read a book? Probably. And yes, I do reccomend it. And no, I haven't got anything to say about it right now.

"You like it?" he said to Mort, in pretty much the same tone of voice people used when they said to St George, "You killed a what?"

Old men, intellectual ladies, and a dearth of reading material...

Haven't been reading much new stuff lately - mostly been dabbling and dipping into old favourites. Read Pere Goriot for uni - won't talk about it here because I know I'll be writing reams about it elsewhere ere long; lazily dipping into George Eliot's Silly Novels by Lady Novelists, which began most entertainingly but lost me a little when she started to talk about the salons of the influential French les précieuses and their literary movement: basically a bunch of pretty women who held parties for clever men and made them write fairy tales and love poems and stuff. Sounds like it must have been fun at the time - but deadly dull to read about.
Need some books to read! I'd really like to get my hands on Leave it to Psmith and Summer Lightning - I read the first Blandings novel ages ago and loved it. Why is Wodehouse not sold with all the other comfort foods? I could really go for some chocolate and chuckles.

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.

Hello, hello, hello, it has been far too long, hasn't it?

I only just noticed that I am unintentionally working my way through British actors of the later part of the last century. I've already read the autobiographies of Michael Crawford, Dawn French and Michael Caine, and I'm almost finished Stephen Fry's one. I wonder if John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson have written any memoirs yet? Hmmm, according to wikipedia Cleese has and Atkinson hasn't. Guess what I'll be looking up at the library next time? :-P

I've decided to review these two books together because, well, just because I want to. It's been ages since I last posted something here, so it is certainly quite a while since I read either of these books. I had to take them back to the library a while ago, so there's a few things I planned to quote and compare that I can't now. Not ideal.

I loved The Elephant to Hollywood. It was one of those books I read aloud to irritated family members and quoted anecdotes from in conversations. Michael Caine's writing is not particularly stylish or writerly, but his method of going chronologically through his life and picking out interesting stories to tell is engaging. Throughout the book he exudes affection for the people and incidents described and his awe at meeting great actors is actually endearing rather than annoying. Even when Michael Caine talks about hard times he does it in a brief and interesting way - like sitting about in a cafe waiting for an agent's call - with Peter O'Toole and Sean Connery! Or, after shortly describing being neglected and abused by the family who took him in during the war, talking about how he loves to do work for children's charities now because of that. I really adored this book.

My reaction to The Fry Chronicles was more... complex. There's no doubt that Stephen Fry has a positive gifting when it comes to word choice and style. He's a born writer, to be sure, but I was more than a little bothered by the content of his book. I think that one could open The Fry Chronicles at any page and learn that Mr Fry has a self esteem issue. Which is incredibly frustrating for any reader; being told about his multiple achievements, positive traits and accomplishments in a self deprecatory tone very quickly grows aggravating. And even more aggravating is his awareness of the reader's aggravation and the apologetic tone he takes. Why can't the man forgive himself for being successful? He constantly deviates into long passages describing a personal trait of his own that he doesn't like or a reason that people might dislike him. I just felt so, so sorry for him after reading the book. And more than a little irritated. I know that Stephen Fry suffers from bipolar disorder, but the book left me feeling rather depressed - not a pleasant sensation for a book to leave for a reader! I didn't not appreciate the book for what it was, but I am somewhat conflicted about my overall response. Mr Stephen Fry, dear, please look into some sort of therapy.

Having a great intellect is no path to being happy.
Stephen Fry

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

I finished I Capture the Castle about a week and a half ago; don't know why I haven't thus far written about reading it, but here goes.

This book was splendidly written. I loved the setting, I loved the style, I loved the characters. I hated the plot with a very real hate. I Capture the Castle was really let down by its plot. I suppose the lack of satisfaction felt by the reader at the end is supposed to reflect reality in some fashion, but the big twist near the end was so unlikely and badly foreshadowed that any resemblance to reality was drowned in a whelming wave of 'Yeah. Right.'
The characters were very well realised and endearing in themselves, but the relationships between the characters were not. Cassandra, the protagonist and narrator of the story is such a detached observer (though her interest and sympathy make her very relatable) that the other characters are never, somehow, given all that is due them.
But watching the movie first alleviated much of this disappointment. Because I already had been so thoroughly disappointed by the film, I already expected the awful storyline (or lack thereof for the first chunk of the book). So I enjoyed the book a lot more than I expected to. Because, after all, it is so very well written. And has a great many quotable lines.

"Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression."

Anyone with the veriest speck of sensibility would feel for my plight! I am escaping from the most odious persecution

Finished The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer last night. It was delightful. The plot was a little convoluted, particularly towards the end, and Heyer's style could use some editing here and there, but on the whole I really enjoyed this book. If you like Georgian England, madcap escapades, brigands, tomboys, and a Percy Blakeney-esque hero, look no further. Heaps of fun. I certainly recommend this book.

Give thy mind to books and libraries, and the literature and lore of the ages will give thee the wisdom of sage and seer.

Library trip this morning - well, sort of. For some reason I asked for that the books I put on hold at Rockdale library be pick-up-able from Bexley North library. Which was stupid because Bexley North library, even though it is quite the closest to my house, closes at six on weekdays (making it impossible for me to race there from work in time). Forgot about this and yesterday went to Rockdale for the books in response to the customary email. They told me that the books were at Bexley North, and that the latter library shuts at one on a Saturday. Couldn't go this morning until ridiculously late, because I had to wait at my parents' house (ironically, I appear to be the only one of my siblings who has a house key). Got to the library at 12.50. Got my books from a very grumpy librarian, who obviously couldn't wait to go do whatever it is librarians do on a Saturday afternoon.

But I now have my mitts on Michael Caine's The Elephant To Hollywood and The Fry Chronicles by (naturally) Stephen Fry. Delightful :-) As well as a Terry Pratchett (Unseen Academicals), the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge, and a DVD of Agatha Christie's Appointment With Death.

"When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it...

Currently reading:

Jane Austen for Dummies - very interesting so far; I quite like the more obscure 'For Dummies' books. I already own Tolkien's Middle Earth for Dummies, which I recommend to any real fan of Tolkien and his amazing world.

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith, who, incidentally, wrote the original book of 101 Dalmatians - there's some trivia for you! I saw the movie of this a while ago - I must have been housesitting for my grandparents (not the ones I live with - the other set!) at the time, because I was alone at their house when I watched it. Such a disappointing film: if it had been less pretty I would be less torn about how little I enjoyed the story and how frustrating I found it. So far, the book is beautifully written - really enjoying it, though I dread the plot kicking in.

The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer - I've only read about eight pages of this one; so far it's shaping up to be exactly like the other Georgette Heyer Regency novels I have read. Which isn't such a bad thing. I like her snarky dandified heroes; her silly young Lydia-Bennet type ladies; her sensible governess types and helpless male wannabes. Fun reading.