What are you reading now?

[amateur51]

And Am51, 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.

Twas new to me, french frank - good story!

You considered getting a Kindle, french frank? I reckon Gissings would be free and you can increase/decrease the print size at will

I'll get me tin 'at!

[french frank]

You considered getting a Kindle, french frank? I reckon Gissings would be free and you can increase/decrease the print size at will

No, the idea doesn't appeal . Another way I'm like Gissing: he describes how the dazio suspected him of being a travelling salesman because of all the books he was carrying with him.

I'll get me tin 'at!

Borrow mine ...

[vinteuil]

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. .

["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...

[french frank]

["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... "

Constable & Co. it certainly is. Slightly oddly, the publishing details given are 'First published... January 1903' (and that was the date of the 'original' first edition), and reprinted 17 times between March 1903 and the last one listed, September 1926. Could it really have been first printed in this same edition? At any rate, mine is clearly of September 1926. I paid £1 for it about 5 or 6 years ago; the earlier pencilled price of 3/6d possibly dates from 1950.

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...

I collect these editions too, for a similar reason (The House of Cobwebs is a reprint of 1923 in the same edition: Constable and Company Ltd, London Bombay Sydney - it cost £1.50) and because they are so nice to handle. In a spirit of serendipity I call in at the bookshop regularly to see which volumes he's acquired. I could buy several copies of Stevenson's Virginibus Puerisque every time I call, though they are probably the same ones each time.

[Mandryka]

I have the rather splendid Harvester editions of Demos, Thyrza and ....Rycroft...and the Bloomsbury editions of The Emancipated, Born In Exile, In The Year Of Jubilee and Will Warburton (the last, Gissing's final opus, is one of his best, though least-known).

The Harvester books were published by Michael Heseltine: probably his only unequivocally good contribution to public life (though I don't imagein he had anything to do with it, other than signing a cheque/contract).

Very pleasing to see that GG is so well-known in these here parts. Didn't realise until a couple of months ago that Ed Reardon's Week is based around two characters from New Grub Street.

[LeMartinPecheur]

No-one seems to have responded to my earlier post enthusing about Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, but I'm still hopeful: surely all you musical people must have read it? I will happily post more if any one is interested, I think it is a masterpiece

Umslopogaas: I reread Doctor Faustus a while ago. Got through it a bit easier than I expected from my memories of my first read 20 or 30 yers ago.

It's certainly a big, complex creation but its many layers don't quite add up for me. There's the musical history aspect (Leverkuhn as Schoenberg), the intellectual arrogance, spiritual pride thing (L as Faust), the great detail of countryside and city environments, and the feeling of the great German cultural and philosophical edifice/ tradition seemingly about to go down the pan as the 3rd Reich topples. All great themes, but for me the end of the book doesn't really deliver as much as one expects after so many pages!

Now please tell me why I'm wrong

[Roslynmuse]

Just discovered this thread. Still in 'holiday read' mode with The Moonstone (enjoyably undemanding) having also read over the last three or four weeks Jed Rubenfeld's The Death Instinct (again, enjoyably undemanding), Julian Barnes' The Lemon Table (pure pleasure -the Sibelius hommage in particular is a delight), Kazuo Ichiguro's Nocturnes (I enjoyed the last of these short stories, Cellists, the best) and Never Let Me Go (not much pleasure here, I'm afraid - the difficult subject matter was dealt with in a way that read like a teenage diary - cardboard, emotionally stunted, characters - intentionally so?; the genre seemingly undefined - horror? sci-fi? for me it was too weak to be either; and the ending felt like a damp squib - I kept thinking of how beautiful and moving it could have been in the hands of Ian McEwan). After that I needed some real light relief and turned to Bridget Jones's Diary (!) - a guilty pleasure, but pleasure nonetheless!

[hackneyvi]

The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness is such a beautiful, individual, funny book that I know I've been introduced to a Great Author. A very episodic novel that I've treated myself to a couple of chapters of per night in bed, my happiest night cap in a while.

Also reading, King Mob by Christopher Hibbert. I bought this after reading Barnaby Rudge whose second half dramatises the Gordon Riots of 1780 (I was finishing the Dickens when the UK riots took place a fortnight ago). Hibbert's writing is excellent and the introductory chapters about Lord George Gordon are very interesting. Rather sadly, though, Dickens had already told me many of the best stories - though I do like the one about the Archbishop of Canterbury telling his anxious, elderly neighbour that he (the Bish) intended to shoot any rioters who tried to burn his furniture. An extraordinary story, though, and if one replaces Roman Catholics with Moslems and an 18th century rabble with a modern one, a pattern to opportunism and bigotry in human nature is revealed.

[gurnemanz]

Umslopogaas: I reread Doctor Faustus a while ago. Got through it a bit easier than I expected from my memories of my first read 20 or 30 yers ago.

It's certainly a big, complex creation but its many layers don't quite add up for me. There's the musical history aspect (Leverkuhn as Schoenberg), the intellectual arrogance, spiritual pride thing (L as Faust), the great detail of countryside and city environments, and the feeling of the great German cultural and philosophical edifice/ tradition seemingly about to go down the pan as the 3rd Reich topples. All great themes, but for me the end of the book doesn't really deliver as much as one expects after so many pages!

Now please tell me why I'm wrong

I read it when studying German at Durham 40 years ago and it is probably due a re-read. I remember a lot of discussion in lectures about diatonic music being "Zweideutigkeit als System" (double meaning as a system) and 12 tone music a la being Schönberg/Leverkühn being Mehrdeutigkeit (multiple ambiguity).

The essential follow-up read is "Mephisto" by his son Klaus about Gustav Gründgens, famous for playing Mephisto in Goethe's Faust, not leaving Germany during the Third Reich and marrying Mann's daughter, Erika.

[french frank]

Kazuo Ichiguro's Nocturnes (I enjoyed the last of these short stories, Cellists, the best) and Never Let Me Go (not much pleasure here, I'm afraid - the difficult subject matter was dealt with in a way that read like a teenage diary - cardboard, emotionally stunted, characters - intentionally so?; the genre seemingly undefined - horror? sci-fi? for me it was too weak to be either; and the ending felt like a damp squib - I kept thinking of how beautiful and moving it could have been in the hands of Ian McEwan

I read all Ishiguro's novels (most of which seemed to win awards of some sort) until Never Let Me Go came out. The subject didn't appeal and I didn't think much of the title either . Since then I've lost track of any of his new work. I've read quite a few of McEwan's but never enjoyed them as much as Ishiguro's. Atonement was the last (chronologically) that I read and I didn't think a lot of it. I think I probably enjoyed Amsterdam the most. I heard him speak at a literary festival when he was working on Atonement. A member of the audience asked him whether he thought Amsterdam was a worthy winner of the Booker Prize. He said, Yes.

[vinteuil]

Have just finisht Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending - which I have much enjoyed. A sort of darker reprise of his first novel, Metroland - but now infused by the really felt (by the author... ) experience of a middle-aged man, who becomes aware of how un-aware he has been of much of his previous life. Much recommended to all those who ever wonder - "this 'life' malarkey - what's it all about, then?"

As a sorbet am now delighting in his A Pedant in the Kitchen - so close to my own life it's almost frightening...

[Anna]

Seeing as Julian Barnes has been mentioned .... I picked up Arthur & George in the charity shop a while back, it's been lanquishing unread, so I think I'll start reading, does anyone know it?

[Roslynmuse]

Seeing as Julian Barnes has been mentioned .... I picked up Arthur & George in the charity shop a while back, it's been lanquishing unread, so I think I'll start reading, does anyone know it?

Yes - I enjoyed it very much - a more straightforward narrative than some of his other books, sensitively written, and - given this is based on real events - in places shocking read. Highly recommended (IMO).

[Richard Tarleton]

Was baffled by "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" - a novel - why? Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, at least twice, but couldn't understand what the chapters had to do with eachother. If anyone could explain I'd be grateful.

[Roslynmuse]

Was baffled by "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" - a novel - why? Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, at least twice, but couldn't understand what the chapters had to do with eachother. If anyone could explain I'd be grateful.

Only read it once, but had a similar response - thoroughly enjoyed it but - aside from the more obvious thematic links between some of the chapters (arks and rafts etc) - could get no sense of it as anything other than a sequence of brilliantly imaginative short stories.