Category: Fiction

I recently bought a beautiful reading journal from Amazon. Although ordered in Australia it was sent from America. It has challenges in it, places for notes and lists and all those things book and stationery lovers like to accrue. I am loving filling it out and becoming organised for my reading that has finally left the slump behind and is going full tilt. The warmer weather, though nowhere near hot and all the spring blooms have me enthused.

Books I’m into. For Rayne’s group at Fullers I am reading the Irish book, the Colony by Audrey Magee. It is a beautiful book. The year is 1979 on an island on the west side of Ireland. Only 82 people live on the island. Four generations of women, great grandmother, grandmother, daughter and her son. Their men have all died at sea fishing. To make ends meet with the other inhabitants they rent accommodation out to two men for the summer at enough money to get them through the winter. Masson, who is a French linguist studying the old language and Lloyd, an English artist who craves isolation. The two men do not get along as they record the landscape, people and language. The islanders do not approve. There are many relationships to delve into. I love it. Beautifully written. Every once in awhile a paragraph is inserted of a killing between the English and the IRA from the troubles that are happening at the same time on the mainland. The contrast between the two is stark. It goes back and forth. Remember it is 1979.

Next book is If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino. I am thoroughly enjoying this book but must take notes, read each paragraph slowly and closely to understand it. The penny has finally dropped and I am in the swing of it. I can’t wait to discuss it in Adam’s book group at Fullers for ‘All the books you wanted to read’ group.

Next up is my bus mall book on kindle. The very easy to read, James Patterson book series of the Washington DC detective Alex Cross. I am on the 28th book in the series and have followed Alex Cross and his wonderful family for years. James Patterson doesn’t write literary fiction but he can certainly tell a rollicking good crime novel for entertainment. He knows how to turn them out and create an extremely good lifestyle for himself. Easy to read waiting for the bus while all the young people in hoodies, with scooters and skateboards with attention seeking behaviour keep the police in tow.

I still need to finish Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au as I put it aside to begin the book group books. It won’t take long to finish up that delightful read.

The next two books are audible books. The first is one I dip into while in the car. The Gifts of Reading by various authors. Robert Macfarlane, William Boyd, Chigozie Obioma, Roddy Doyle, Jan Morris, Michael Ondaatje, Sally Vickers and more. It is a series of essays about giving and receiving gifts of books, the author’s style related to this and the books they cherish as gifts. I really enjoy hearing their perspectives on books as gifts and their own books. Definitely a book for those who love books about books.

Last but not least is the audible book I listen to at nights when I can’t sleep. Many older people have a hard time sleeping and audible authors can be good friends to have around in the dead of night.

The book is This Much is True by Miriam Margoyles. It is her auto biography and she reads it. Many people will know her as a stage actor, film actor (Harry Potter) and television presenter in the UK and Australia. I saw her years ago on stage here at the Theatre Royal when she was touring for Dickens Women. She knows a lot about the theatre and Dickens as well as other writing. However she does not mess around with genteel language. If you don’t want to know about her intimate, and I mean very intimate stories of her youth with men then discovering her lesbian roots as she puts it do not read this book. She uses a lot of very foul language too that at times can be very grating. People either love her or not. I have always enjoyed her adventures on the road and on stage and how she tells it as it is. None of the aforementioned faults bother me. It has been quite a funny trip through her life so far.

Well, you are now caught up with my brain activities.

Mr P has returned from his family trip to Canada. Ollie is improving and now Mr P is home I will be able to get out and take some photographs and maybe some metal detecting at the beaches. We have had a warmer than usual winter and no doubt we will have a hotter summer soon. So as I read all the northern hemisphere stories and blogs about people settling into cozy activities I am smelling the blooms that are newly arrived everywhere. I have to say the word cozy is greatly overused up north you guys.

All the best, stay well and keep reading until next time. I’ll find a photo or two to add below.🤠🌻

Kaggsy’s post recently (here) reviewed this book and serendipitously it is the first book of a second book club I have joined entitled ‘Books we’ve always meant to read’.

It gave me a good beginning point before picking this book up myself. At the same time I was cruising through some literature sites on You Tube and came across Benjamin McEvoy’s videos. He is a young, Oxford educated man in literature who has a passion for great literature. His enthusiasm is contagious and I watched several of his videos. He has more than 93,000 subscribers. He discusses the ways in which he reads the difficult books of the past in various ways so he remembers it all. He talks about having conversations with the author through the use of marginalia. I quite like that term. I have never been one to write in books. But after digressing to other you tubers who discuss marginalia and seeing the benefits they get from it I decided to try it with the Winter’s Night book. The suggestion is to have a conversation with the author as one reads about 10 pages at a time. Make comments, ask questions, note your observations about what is being observed.

It was stated repeatedly as we studied in school we would highlight lines of text in our books , then keep reading as we studied. Teachers encouraged this, but unless you went back and took additional notes from that text, who ever remembered what they had highlighted. I am not 20 pages into this book and using a pencil (I still can’t come at using ink) , I really got into it. I am finding it really fun. It is as if Calvino is sitting in the room and we are actually discussing his book. I am easily remembering what I read and as this book has a very unusual style I am still right on track. One you tuber stated he did not think writing in books should be a sacrilege. If he were an author he would be flattered the written conversations were occurring. He saw it as a tribute to the author. Now, having said that, there are books of beauty, gemerally hardcover with gorgeous photographs and illustrations and we may not want to mark those up but the humble paperback should be one of our friends who we converse with.

I have to say I am enjoying the process very much. My question to you is- do you imbibe in marginalia? Or are you one of those readers that can read the most difficult of texts and remember and understand immediately everything you read because I certainly can’t. If marking up paperback books gives me this gift I think it will become a new and common practise for me. I’d love to know your opinion on the topic of marginalia. And if you love the old classics give Benjamin McEvoy a listen. Just to be infected with his enthusiasm and love of these old books.

New Zealand – Granta Books – 2023 – 433 pages

Fullers bookshop, my home away from home in this 103 yr old shop, has about 90 members across several reading groups. Each group has 15 members but a few seem to disappear, especially during winter months.

Our facilitator Rayne is a wonderful historian, doctorate who taught at universities in America as well as Oxford university in England. She has an excellent way about her and shares her expertise with all members of the groups who all read the same book each month. I thought I would share her summaries the comprises from her notes after all the groups have met. I have in the ‘second Wed evening group’. We meet in a lounge area at the historic Hadley’s Hotel in Hobart. We can choose a drink from the hotel bar if we wish before carrying it into the lounge area, private room where we sit in old leather upholstered chairs around a large old wooden table.

This is Rayne’s summary from our most recent meetings of Birnam Wood. Let me know if you would enjoy seeing the summary review from the 90 members who have a lot to say each month. The group meets monthly from March through November.

Rayne’s summary:

Until next time….