A book gratitude meme
From Litlove and also from Charlotte. Since it is Thanksgiving, and also because I spent a week or so feeling fractious and uncomfortable and tense and slightly panicked because I didn’t own what I wanted to read next (Trollope) and of the handful of available books on my TBR shelf, nothing else would suit. On a couple of days I even went out without a book at all and dear gods, what was I thinking? Living in the real world for days at a time is very bad for me. Finally I nipped up to Posman’s one lunchtime, found Can You Forgive Her? and a couple of other titles and immediately felt that nasty lurking sense of wrongness dissipate. So, probably, I’m certifiably nuts, but I have the whole rest of the Palliser series on order now so I don’t care.
What reasons do you have to be grateful for books?
For providing wonder and learning, company and escape. For teaching me that childhood, school, family, work, marriage, love, the world could be other than it seemed to be and so that I could change things if I wanted to. For giving me a vocabulary and a sense of curiosity and letting me travel in time and place. Even for being decorative and giving warmth and comfort to a room.
Is there any author for whose existence you are especially grateful?
There are loads who have been the right discovery at the right time. Donne and Shakespeare and Emily Bronte, to whom I was well introduced at school. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. David Kynaston and Peter Ackroyd, Georgette Heyer and D.L. Sayers, Anthony Powell, Elizabeth Goudge, David Eddings, Paul Scott, Enid Blyton. They build on each other.
What positive impact does reading have on your day?
It takes me out of my day, mostly. I’ve always had the ability to fall so deeply into a book that I lose awareness of my surroundings and I’m grateful for that. Now I read on the train, and I can forget that I’m standing up for an hour, or if I’m having a bad day at work I can run away and read myself out of it at lunchtime. I’m patient about waiting at doctor’s offices or anywhere else, because it’s not wasted time. When I’m having trouble switching off my thoughts, if I pick up the right book I can turn the whole of my concentration onto a different track. Reading is therapy.
What good things has reading taught you?
That intellectual curiosity is a good thing and that I don’t have to accept what I’m told. Particularly when I’m told by someone in ‘authority’. I hope reading has taught me empathy, given me some self-awareness, and broadened my contexts too, because it’s a way of pre-experiencing situations and seeing how they might be dealt with.
Is there any particular book that’s special to you?
The Latin Dictionary that I carried everywhere with me for three years used to be. I quite missed it when my degree was done. Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto and Glenn David Gould’s Carter Beats the Devil because I read both of them at a point when I was sick of contemporary fiction and had begun to think none of it was any good. I grew up on Enid Blyton, from Tales of the Wishing Chair through The Famous Five to Malory Towers. Wind in the Willows, which I read time and time again until finally I understood it all. Generally, unless I have chosen very poorly, they are each special for the duration of the reading.
What are you most happy to have read recently?
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, because Thomas Cromwell lived on the page. Little Bee by Chris Cleave, for being emotionally hard hitting and instructive without didacticism. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway because it was funny and sad and had ninjas and about 1000 ideas per page that each could have sprung off to be a new novel, and it had the most energy of anything I’ve read this year. Austerity Britain by David Kynaston, for being fascinating and letting me see how the country I grew up in developed. Alms for Oblivion, vol 1 by Simon Raven, because Mr W spent time tracking it down for my birthday and as a grubbier and more sordid counterpart to A Dance to the Music of Time.
Sunday bullets
I keep trying and failing to put together a decent post but none of my thoughts are coherent enough for any length. Hence a gallimaufry of thoughtlets for today.
- We have made an offer on a house. In fact, on a house that is far too big for two people, but is only about 5 minutes away from where we now live and which sits on 2 acres of land at the end of an unpaved, private road. I don’t know that we have much chance of getting it because our offer is way below market value, but it’s a possible short sale and so I suppose the bank might go for it. Our realtor warned us not to get too attached to the place, excellent advice that you can tell we have completely ignored because we say things like ‘When is that man going to move out of our house?’.
- I’m in a bit of a reading slump after finishing Wolf Hall on the way back from Edinburgh. Now I’m looking for something equally good and historical and I’m stumped. It’s time I cut back on the reading candy and got on with something more wholesome. Any suggestions?
- Although, that said I did read Brideshead Revisited last week, and it was marvellous. It always is, despite absolutely dripping with nostalgia. No wonder it was Waugh’s least favourite of his novels, he always seems such an unpleasant man that I expect he didn’t want to admit to real human feeling.
- It’s been about three months since I jacked in my gym membership and I feel so much better for not going, mentally and physically. Clearly, any exercise benefit was outweighed by the stress of fitting it into my day, the guilt at not getting there and then sheer bloody wretched tedium when I did manage it. The walking-and-yoga regime I have in its place is much more enjoyable.
- Somehow the holiday season is almost upon us and it hasn’t so far given me a fit of the screaming abdabs and made me want to hide under the bed. In fact, I scored a few BBC Good Food magazines recently and I’ve been poring through them for seasonal baking ideas. My plan was to make mincemeat today but I don’t have any brandy, so perhaps I’ll do that tomorrow night instead. I’m also intrigued by the parsnip and maple syrup cake, and I really might have to have a go at an old fashioned treacle sponge. The Good Food mags are so good I thought about subscribing, but actually if I was going to pay that much for a subscription I’d get Top Gear.
- David Tennant is allegedly making a US show! This is very exciting because, obviously, he’ll have to move to the US to do so and he’ll probably be in New York at some point and therefore it’s almost inevitable that we’ll run into each other and he’ll realise he doesn’t really prefer blondes and then my other life will start. Well, that’s my thinking and I’ll thank you not to shine the cold light of reality onto the rainbow sparkles of my daydreams.
Right. There’s only one thing for it. Tea.
