I am both on holiday from work and ill again, so a great deal of reading has been taking place, generally pretty light:
35. Bookworm- Lucy Mangan I had really been looking forward to reading this and finally bought it on my Kindle when it went down to £4.99. It was almost as good as I expected. Like everyone, I preferred it when she wrote about my own childhood favourites such as The Tiger Who Came For Tea, Dogger, Beezus and Ramona, Danny, the Champion of the World, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Secret Garden, What Katy Did and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. I have very little interest in pony books or Sweet Valley High!
36. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More- Roald Dahl Although this is not mentioned in Bookworm, Lucy Mangan’s book did give me a sudden urge to re-read this. It was the first book I have read on BorrowBox, which is a better app than I expected, but I have a signed paperback copy somewhere. Many years ago, I met Roald Dahl at a children's book event: I was in fancy dress as the eponymous hero of Danny, Champion of the World (despite being female), while Dahl was grumpy and gave me the distinct impression that he didn’t like children (it is so true that we should never meet our heroes!). I enjoyed the book even more this time than when I read it as a child. Back then, I was deeply affected by ’The Swan’ and it still retains much of its power now. Almost all the short stories in this volume are brilliant, however.
37. The Lady in the Van- Alan Bennett This is a charming book with an abundance of character. The writing is as excellent as you would expect; the film is also superb. I plan to read much more Alan Bennett.
38. Jacob’s Room is Full of Books- Susan Hill I have read several ‘books about books’ recently and this one was not quite what I expected. It is written in the style of a blog and Susan Hill repeats herself a fair amount. There are very many anecdotes about other authors. She has fairly strong, and often entertaining, views on subjects such as literary festivals, book prizes, second novels, WH Smith, Henry VIII and Hallowe’en. However, I’m not sure if I can trust the opinions of someone who doesn’t like Keats, Wordsworth or Jude the Obscure ! There are also many references to flora and fauna, which gives a sense of the cycle of the year in nature- these are usually charming but occasionally tedious. Very unexpectedly, I wasn’t inspired to read any of the books she wrote about.
39. A Monster Calls- Patrick Ness I saw the film recently: both the book and film are very moving. As with the film, I didn’t really enjoy the three fairy tale sequences, but these were important to the plot and children might enjoy them. The end of the novel was rather abrupt: I preferred the ending to the film.
40. The Essays of Arthur Shopenhauer: Studies in Pessimism I can’t remember why I downloaded this, by the nineteenth-century German philosopher, but I think it must have been referenced in another book, and it was free. I rarely read philosophy, so some of it went over my head, but a few sections had me either laughing out loud or incredulous. According to Shopenhauer, we shouldn’t read novels as they give us a ‘false view of things’ and ‘[arouse] expectations... which can never be fulfilled’. Women are apparently ‘childish, frivolous and short-sighted… the most distinguished intellects among the whole sex have never managed to produce a single achievement in the fine arts that is really great, genuine and original’.