What are you reading now?

[Anna]

The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes - the story of how modern Australia began, as a gulag, with the first transportations in the 1780s. A grim tale brilliantly told - Hughes writes so well it is hard to put the book down.

Absolutely! I bought this following my first trip to Australia (in fact at Sydney airport waiting to fly back) Having done the whole convict thing whilst there I really wanted to know more, and this book is marvellous. In fact, I've been prompted to get it down off the shelf as I read it in 2001, I certainly don't think you need to have been to Oz or have Oz connections to read it.

Just picked up in the charity shop, the newish Jeanette Winterson 'Why be happy when you could be normal?' I have most of hers so looking forward to this.

[Globaltruth]

Hughes book ' A Jerk at one End - reflections of a mediocre fisherman' is also recommended - in a similar way you don't have to have ever fished to enjoy this.

Menwhile I'm savouring a collection of Damon Runyan stories, bound in a beautiful (and previously unread) Folio Soc. edn bought second hand for less than the price of a new paperback.
One of the benefits of aging is that I've forgotten reading them before, which I did voraciously about 30 years ago.

[amateur51]

Hughes book ' A Jerk at one End - reflections of a mediocre fisherman' is also recommended - in a similar way you don't have to have ever fished to enjoy this.

Menwhile I'm savouring a collection of Damon Runyan stories, bound in a beautiful (and previously unread) Folio Soc. edn bought second hand for less than the price of a new paperback.
One of the benefits of aging is that I've forgotten reading them before, which I did voraciously about 30 years ago.

[Sir Velo]

Samuel Johnson A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland

James Boswell Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

Though published more than ten years apart, these books have become joined at the hip as it were. The old boy's tome is rather on the dry and dusty side (something about Scotland and the Scots didn't go down too well with him ) but Boswell's journal provides an unbuttoned warts n'all view of the great man as he lurches from one baronial setpiece to another.

Some of the writing is pure farce: at one point the two are discussing the merits of clothing made from vegetable matter as opposed to those made from animal by products. Johnson says that he has often imagined himself founding a seraglio in which all the women would only wear cotton or linen, and not wool or silk as being inclined to harbour dirt, at which point Boswell can't contain himself from a fit of hysterical laughter at the ludicrous image conjured up in his mind of the sage philosopher and religious instructor often bethinking himself at the head of a harem. Johnson, with an enlarged sense of amour propre heaps invective on Boswell in front of the entire assembled company in terms which Boswell finds so humiliating that he cannot bring himself to record them in the journal.

[gradus]

Just started Paul Fussell's book Abroad, British Literary Travelling Between The Wars, sought for a while and found s/h on Amazon for 32p. It seems that getting away from our green and pleasant land was the highest priority for some.

[Sir Velo]

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft - George Gissing

A novel without narrative or plot to speak of (despite the enigmatic title) does not augur an entertaining read. Ryecroft has withdrawn from the world thanks to a small legacy. An unsuccessful jobbing hack he lives entirely in the past, and given the resemblance between many of the events of his life with Gissing's own, the book does feel like thinly veiled autobiography. Ryecroft's life has been one of almost unremitting failure and disillusionment, cataloguing his failure to strike up meaningful personal relationships, documenting his contempt for demos (a familiar Gissing trope!) while ultimately finding solace in nature and books, partiularly classical authors. Having said that, it has the virtue of brevity, is elegantly written, and many of Ryecroft's musings will strike a chord with perceptive and sensitive readers, none more so than the description of the aromatic allure of books.

[vinteuil]

A novel without narrative or plot to speak of (despite the enigmatic title) does not augur an entertaining read. Ryecroft has withdrawn from the world thanks to a small legacy. An unsuccessful jobbing hack he lives entirely in the past, and given the resemblance between many of the events of his life with Gissing's own, the book does feel like thinly veiled autobiography. ..

... ah, yes - we were all reading Gissing back in August and December 2011

- see French Frank at #289, #300, my #303, and FF #426 above :

George Gissing, By the Ionian Sea. I've read several of Gissing's best known novels: New Grub Street, Born in Exile, The Netherworld, The Odd Women, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft; also The House of Cobwebs. I'd need to reread them to have any ideas as to why he has become such a secondary figure.

By the Ionian Sea is already suggesting a trip next year to follow in Gissing's steps: from Naples by train to Paola (Gissing did it by boat), then to Cosenza (that bit was done by coach) and on to Taranto; then walking back along the coast. I've only just reached Taranto by train so far so I'm not sure how the coastal bit was done.

Gissing's descriptions of the people and customs are charming, and he's a wonderful companion with his knowledge of Greek and Latin history and literature. I'd also take Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad for company in Naples. My memory of both is that, if you substitute cars for coaches, Naples traffic hasn't changed much.

I have a story about Henry Ryecroft which I've told many times (stop me if you've heard it!). Bingeing on Gissing at the time, I bought a copy, I think it was one of those 99p World Classics editions, and the paper was awful and the print blurry. I tried to read it several times but kept giving up, just couldn't get into it. Then, in our local secondhand bookshop, I spotted one of those little old pocket editions, Oxford or Collins. The paper was slightly discoloured with age but the print was wonderfully clear. I sat down and ... straight through, almost at a sitting!

Mandryka, you mean more depressing than Gissing's other novels? My word! that's saying something.

["Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft"]... possibly the Constable edn of 1928, of which The Observer at the time wrote "The books are singularly attractive in format, of the handy pocket size, and printed in a large and clear type..." - and The Manchester Guardian "... printed in good, clear type tastefully bound... " - and The Guardian "... The type is clear, the paper good, and the whole format remarkable elegant... "

I picked up a copy for 50p. It is in my pile of books from which I select a volume when dining alone at restaurants - slim enough to fit in a jacket pocket, and in a format which lies flat on a table without needing extra cutlery to keep the pages lying down - and of a style where you can profitably read a few pages before tucking in to the next course or consulting with the sommelier. I also use Chekhov short stories in Constance Garnett's transl, Chatto & Windus pocket edn; Henry James short stories in the Macmillan pocket edn; an old battered Pléiade Montaigne...

Gissing again: The House of Cobwebs, published posthumously in 1906 (he died in 1903). These are short stories which mainly deal with Gissing's abiding themes: poverty and failure . He has a quiet way of depicting good, unassuming people who are beaten by cheats and fate, not apparently subjects which make for popular blockbusters these days. Most of the 'stories' are fairly light on plot and focus on the character of a particular person. Hope for the best outcome for them, but expect the worst ...

[muzzer]

Gissing is great and unfairly overlooked. The Paul Delany biog is well worth a read.

I have book glut as usual, having raided the local charity shop last weekend too soon after my last visit. Have just started Still by Adam Thorpe (sometime contributor to Freelance in the TLS). I find him a compelling and intelligent writer. I hope I get sucked into this one even further as I've struggled to finish much else for ages, having started Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara and also his short stories, some short stories by Lorrie Moore - v good but self-consciously American. You have to be in the right mood. I also recently started Of Time and the River by Thomas Wolfe but am not sure I am young enough to persist with it. In fact I put it down in favour of Jonathan Meades' The Fowler Family Business (tangentially found from a thread here) and which I highly recommend, especially to anyone who knows Sarf East Lunnun well.

[french frank]

life has been one of almost unremitting failure and disillusionment

<oops, sorry >. I do like to Giss from time to time, even with all the unremitting failure and disillusionment.

[Sir Velo]

... ah, yes - we were all reading Gissing back in August and December 2011

Ah! Before my time (on these boards, at least) I'm afraid! Lovely, though, to read yours and FF's enthusiasm (well, sort of) for GG.

A failing, albeit an endearing one, is the way in which Gissing develops an irrational hatred of those characters who for him are a representation of worldly success. I'm thinking of, for example, Amy Reardon, in New Grub Street who surely doesn't deserve the fate Gissing metes out to her.

[eighthobstruction]

I'm afraid in writing this I am showing you just how moth eaten my poor old nod is....

I'm wondering if any of you have come across this....or perhaps you can give me a few clues that might help my search....

I'm looking for a book (non fiction) written by the daughter/grand daughter of a woman (strict and odd) who ran a pokey little drinking club in West End/Soho during 60's-70's where a lot of the arts/acting people used to hang out (Bacon/Lucien Freud).... when I heard the author on R4, it sounded like a compelling book....thanks

[vinteuil]

... might it be Sophie Parkin's account of the Colony Room?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colony_Room

[amateur51]

I'm afraid in writing this I am showing you just how moth eaten my poor old nod is....

I'm wondering if any of you have come across this....or perhaps you can give me a few clues that might help my search....

I'm looking for a book (non fiction) written by the daughter/grand daughter of a woman (strict and odd) who ran a pokey little drinking club in West End/Soho during 60's-70's where a lot of the arts/acting people used to hang out (Bacon/Lucien Freud).... when I heard the author on R4, it sounded like a compelling book....thanks

I reckon this could be it, eighthO

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colony-Room-Club-1948-2008-Bohemian/dp/095743541X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385550015&sr=1-1&keywords=Colony+room

Not a cheap read, sadly

ooops cross-posted with vints

[eighthobstruction]

Ah thanks....it's Sophie Parkin....Mollies daughter....now Molly, I bet that's an interesting biography....she gave a very good Desert Island Discs a couple of years ago....thanks Am51....I'll have remember and wait for the paper back or possibly get my library on the case....though it would look daft on the shelves along with the celebrity trash that would also be there....

[aeolium]

Am reading Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914 by Robert Gildea, a very well-written and lucid analysis of a very complex period. Also, two works recommended on other threads, Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers on the lead up to 1914, and Ernest Bramah's The Golden Hours of Kai-Lung, both deserving their recommendation so far.