What are you reading now?

[french frank]

This wouldn't be Bell's Diner or Café de Daphne that I knew from the Montpelier district of BS6 long ago, french frank?

O no, am51. I'm the next district up from the now gentrified Montpelier. I've looked in Bell's Diner but it's rather poh-sh for the likes of I. My nephew once arranged a family meal at the One Stop Thali Cafe (possibly even closer to the fine abode of Monsieur johnb than Bell's Diner). But I'm up the Gloucester Road in Horfield.

Wouldn't give up Gloucester Road for anything: on Saturday, barbecued lambburgers, Cornish oysters, fresh orange juice, all on offer out on the sundrenched pavements. Montpelier? Hah!

Back to the topic and Don B's Wolf Solent - splendid cover. My Penguin is very plain by comparison (haven't yet read the book, though. I must, I must).

[Bax-of-Delights]

Just embarking on Rupert Croft-Cooke's elegant and astonishing 24 volume "autobiography" although he says a lot more about other people and the times he lived through (1903 - 1965approx) than himself.

The first volume "Gardens of Camelot" covers the first years of the 20th century when he was a small boy in Sussex (Haywards Heath) and Surrey (Chipstead) and outlines the quiet mannered lives of reasonably well-to-do Edwardians.

Later he was to delve into a number of professions, including second-hand bookseller before becoming a full-time writer. His inscribed books still turn up in this corner of south-east England, 30+ years after his death.

He was banged up in the Scrubs for homosexual "indecency" at about the same time that John Gielgud just escaped a similar fate by the skin of his teeth (or clever barrister).

He is perhaps better known these days as "Leo Bruce" the crime writer - first editions of which can fetch considerable sums.

[Richard Tarleton]

Back to the topic and Don B's Wolf Solent - splendid cover. My Penguin is very plain by comparison (haven't yet read the book, though. I must, I must).

I read Wolf Solent, closely followed by Weymouth Sands, a while back - as Don B suggests it's hard to be indifferent about them, there is something deeply, well, strange about his writing and his characters. A writer whose books are only ever going to have a cult following. Weymouth Sands provoked strong passions locally, I gather, with various people who recognised themselves among the characters going to law.

[Don Basilio]

I believe Powys' A Glastonbury Romance was threatened with legal action by the owner of Wookey Caves, or some other local attraction, who believed he was libeled.

I am now dipping into Dickens Old Curiosity Shop, and Tressell The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

[french frank]

I believe Powys' A Glastonbury Romance was threatened with legal action by the owner of Wookey Caves, or some other local attraction, who believed he was libeled.[/I]

Yes. Just don't mess with a first class cricketer.

[Angle]

Having finished BLACK FALCON AND GREY LAMB, travelling every inch of the way with Rebecca and getting restive about her understanding of every situation, her unbridled marvelling at the beauty of every flower but perfectly happy to share with her the company of anyone and everyone we met on the road, I feel the need for something a little less intense. In fact, I said goodbye to Rebecca and her husband, Constantine and the others just over a month ago, very happy that Gerda had gone home quite a long time before we all went our separate ways.

AUNTIE MAME seemed to promise fair entertainment but despite a promising beginning, it soon began to feel very dated and rather worn. I turned to O RARE HOFFNUNG, a book of adulation in memory of the witty and eccentric man we all know from his cartoons, his concerts and appearances on JUST A MINUTE.

Now, for a very tasteful bit of risqueness, I am reading SMUT by Alan Bennett whose style, ever so delicately and splendidly northern, smooths over what might have been tasteless not to say unappetising, in other hands. He only just scrapes by, I think. A light read indeed, but enjoyable.

Book suppliers and my winter energy levels being what they are, and procrastination being what it is ,I still have not got my hands on the recommended Fantomas!

Perhaps a visit to Daunt's during my weekend trip to London immediately after some wedding or other, will satisfy my need.

[Mandryka]

I'm re-reading Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (or: The Karamazov Brothers, as the title ought to be rendered).

I'll admit to not quite 'getting' F.D. but I cannot write him off because so many people much wiser than I rate him so highly. He is the one novelist I've encountered who seems to demand absolutely 100% concentration from his readers at all times, which makes the experience of reading him fatiguing at times. Part of the issue is his seemingly random approach to plotting and the way certain scenes only make sense in retrospect: I'm not normally a reader of thrillers, so the latter effect often throws me.

[Richard Tarleton]

I made the mistake (?) of reading Dostoyevsky, and indeed most of the Russian classics, in my late teens. I was at an impressionable age but I think only had a limited grasp (in Dostoyevsky's case) what was going on much of the time. Well apart from C&P of course. I think his way of writing was anything but structured, and the novels are fairly shambolic as a result. The trouble is I can't summon the energy to re-read them - I feel I wasted my opportunity and the moment is now past - too many other things to read.

For light relief (and from sublime to ridiculous) I've just finished the "Millennium" trilogy by Steig Larsen - The Girl Who etc. Ripping yarns. Also, from the land of Ikea, a curious obsession (which I take to be Scandinavian?) with the floor area of any given space - Larsen cannot describe a room, house, summer cabin, etc., without telling us how many square metres it is. A bit like an estate agent.

[Mandryka]

I made the mistake (?) of reading Dostoyevsky, and indeed most of the Russian classics, in my late teens. I was at an impressionable age but I think only had a limited grasp (in Dostoyevsky's case) what was going on much of the time. Well apart from C&P of course. I think his way of writing was anything but structured, and the novels are fairly shambolic as a result. The trouble is I can't summon the energy to re-read them - I feel I wasted my opportunity and the moment is now past - too many other things to read.

For light relief (and from sublime to ridiculous) I've just finished the "Millennium" trilogy by Steig Larsen - The Girl Who etc. Ripping yarns. Also, from the land of Ikea, a curious obsession (which I take to be Scandinavian?) with the floor area of any given space - Larsen cannot describe a room, house, summer cabin, etc., without telling us how many square metres it is. A bit like an estate agent.

Spot-on about the Scandinavian floor space obsession. All the 'skanskas' I know talk in that language. It's very difficult to get your head around, until you realise they're just as bewildered by our obsession with property prices (I think the majority of Scandinavians still rent rather than own).

[DracoM]

Reading now:
The Year of the Flood / Atwood.

[gradus]

Going to try again to read Danube by Claudio Magris which I gave up 10 years ago on the feeble grounds that his style irritated me. I wish he wrote more like Christopher Hill whose The Century of Revolution is a great read - if you like that sort of thing.

[verismissimo]

Re-reading Kipling's Kim. And in parallel Peter Hopkirk's "Quest for Kim". Deep joy.

[Mobson7]

Before I Go To Sleep; debut novel by S J Watson

[Don Basilio]

I've found I'm reading the complete novels of Thomas Love Peacock. I got the Pan selection when I was in my late teens, (Headlong Hall, Nightmare Abbey, The Misfortunes of Elphin and Crotchet Castle with an intro by J B Priestley) and I've now got a complete selection second hand via the internet. Just read Melincourt (the orangutang being elected for a rotten borough) Maid Marian and The Misfortunes of Elphin. Getting into Nightmare Abbey again.

[amateur51]

I've found I'm reading the complete novels of Thomas Love Peacock. I got the Pan selection when I was in my late teens, (Headlong Hall, Nightmare Abbey, The Misfortunes of Elphin and Crotchet Castle with an intro by J B Priestley) and I've now got a complete selection second hand via the internet. Just read Melincourt (the orangutang being elected for a rotten borough) Maid Marian and The Misfortunes of Elphin. Getting into Nightmare Abbey again.

Until this post, Thomas Love Peacock was but a name to me, Don Basilio - many thanks for the inspiration and the recommendations!