Reading etc.

The Irish Times has a column in the magazine every Saturday with the above title. Generally, it seems to be a series of one liners on what junior journalists have been doing that week. So, for example, first item under “What’s Hot” today was: “Motor Tax Office: They phone you up when you’ve stupidly given the wrong Laser card number.” I’m not making this up. Item 2 was: “Amphibian King: Great fitting service for running shoes, or, our favourite, trail shoes, which are running shoes for people who don’t like running. On the Dargle Road as you come into Bray.” By no stretch of the imagination are either of these items hot. However, they both beat what remains my favourite “What’s Hot” entry from a couple of months ago: “[My local Dublin] shopping centre which had cheap vegetables when I went there on Monday night”.

Needless to say the items have a very strong Dublin bent unless the young journalist has been away for the week. You can tell this as they tend to say things like “What’s Hot?” “Some trendy spot in London.” “What’s Not?” “Long queues at Dublin airport”.

No byline, no wonder.

Do you think it’s a parody? Do you want more next week?

“Great Irish Lives” ed. Charles Lysaght [New Year’s Resolution]

This is a collection of obituaries from the London Times, starting with Grattan and Daniel O’Connell and covering many major figures thereafter. It was a present and it isn’t the kind of thing I would have bought it myself but I found it entertaining and mildly interesting. Although, you would need to know a lot about the ins and outs of 19th century politics for most of it.

“Under My Skin – Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949” by Doris Lessing [New Year’s Resolution]

I loved chapter one – lots of ancestral history. I will love this book, I thought to myself. OK, you know where this is going. It was ok, but my fundamental problem was that I found the author very annoying and difficult to relate to which is a problem for autobiography. I found myself sympathising deeply with her much loathed mother. And she lives so much in her inner life, it can be a bit difficult to follow what is happening in her outer life. She assumes that you know a lot about her novels and her life already which, I suppose, is not unreasonable but it is a false assumption, in my case anyhow. She has lots of affairs, she leaves her husband and two small children, her second husband, possibly, becomes an East German spy. But yet, it is dull, for my money because she’s so enormously earnest.

“The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” by Rebecca Miller [New Year’s Resolution]

I finally persuaded my book club to read one of my new year’s resolution books when I had them trapped in my house recently. It covers the descent into nervous breakdown of the perfect wife – something of a theme for Americans, I often think. It’s a reasonable page turner. The characters are not very believable; maybe people like our heroine do exist but I think it is doubtful. But lots of things happen to her and they are well-described and the book is well-written also. Entertaining.

“The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula Le Guin

We went into the library in Marino, round the corner from Bram Stoker’s house and they had an enormous gothic section. I was suitably impressed. They had a number of Ann Radcliffe books but when I asked for “The Mysteries of Udolpho” they said it had just been taken out. I took this instead. And a little quiz to check if anyone is reading along. Ann Radcliffe and Ursula Le Guin are linked in my mind by having been read by a fictional character in a book I read over the summer. If you identify it, you may be my husband.

Anyhow, this seemed appealing. Look, gender and science fiction, my key interests in one handy package. It starts off fine. Slightly underwhelming but fine. And that’s how it continues. The big item of interest is that she tries to imagine a world without gender. It’s not that interesting; and I’m a feminist.

“A Life of Contrasts” by Diana Mosley

I was reading this in tandem with Doris Lessing’s book and I have to say that I found it by far the more enjoyable read. I couldn’t help feeling that Doris Lessing was a much worthier person but far less entertaining than Diana Mosley.

This is, of course, more Mitfordia as Diana was born Mitford and became, briefly, Guinness and then Mosley. I know most of the stories and the cast of characters already. And Diana was probably the most interesting sister of them all. She defends Mosley at every turn and despite myself, I find some of the questions she raises interesting. She seems a charming and lovely person despite her beliefs – sorry, but there it is. She glosses over, as I suppose might be expected, the less pleasant aspects of her husband’s activities and she must have been the only, somewhat sane, (her comments on the deaths of the Goebbels children make me wonder whether she was entirely so) person defending Hitler in 1977. Definitely worth a read. But, if you are going to tackle only one Mitford book this year, make it the six sisters one.

It’s November. I will be posting every day.

Aren’t you delighted? No theme suggests itself. Posts will be random musings. There’s excitement.

I’m going to do the NaBloPoMo thing again in November. I know, you can hardly wait.

This year, to take part, you have to sign up to Blogher. I did. As I invented yet another password, the screen kept flashing imperious messages at me: not long enough; not secure enough; include a number; mix small letters and caps; include a punctuation mark. Really, to keep my immensely valuable Blogher account safe? Oh good grief.

Granta 114

I borrowed this from a cooler friend. Really, who subscribes to Granta? Honestly. But it was a feminist issue and I am interested in feminism. And it was excellent and very easy going [not to be confused with easygoing, which it wasn’t]. Who would have thought?

“The Female Eunuch” by Germaine Greer [New Year’s Resolution]

This is Mr. Waffle’s edition. I’ve never read it before. It was interesting in places, still, alas, current in some, very dated in others. Her chapter on work is of historical interest only. Her chapter on romance could not be more relevant. Except she has a dig at Georgette Heyer, which I resent while acknowledging the fairness of her argument. I don’t think I’ll be able to look at advertising in quite the same way in future. She has completed for me a process begun by women laughing alone with salad. On the other hand, I think she is fundamentally wrong about violence against women; largely wrong about children; and mistaken about marriage. I wonder what she thinks now?

“9th and 13th” by Jonathan Coe [New Year’s Resolution]

Very short book of 4 short stories. Jonathan Coe is always worth reading but this is slight in every sense.

Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx [New Year’s Resolution]

A history of the new world told through the travels of an accordion (or possibly several, I got a bit confused). Beautifully written and engaging enough but each individual vignette stood on its own and the overarching theme of immigration to America and accordions did not turn it into a novel.

“The Factory of Facts” by Luc Sante [New Year’s Resolution]

This was a present on one of the many occasions when I left Belgium definitively. It’s a memoir by a Belgian/American and has an insider/outsider view of Belgium. It’s interesting enough in its own right, I suppose, but for someone who lived in Belgium for many years, it’s very appealing. I have pressed Mr. Waffle to read it, but I’m not entirely sure that I would press it on everyone.

“Green Lantern: Rebirth” by Geoff Johns, illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver

I include this for the sake of completeness. I know you care. Daniel spent all of our holiday in France reading and re-reading it. As we took it out of the library, I felt a twinge of guilt as the librarian said, “You know that this is an adult graphic novel.” Eventually, in France a combination of a shortage of books and mild interest in what my then 5 year old was consuming made me turn to this. I am fond of science fiction and I like to think of myself as able to follow a plot, but I had no idea what on earth this was about and had to turn to Daniel for advice and guidance which he very willingly gave. I was pleased to note, however, that unlike the X-men graphic novels which he has also been perusing with interest, there were no scantily clad women; this was somewhat offset by the random violence, of course. Not recommended.