Category: Books

20 years ago, I was mildly stung by criticism by Kim that an expensive hardback I’d asked for as a present was unread (and it remains the case). It’s become a running joke whenever she shells out some dollars on me, and 2015 seems to have been the year I either ran out of personal reading interests, or the year I paid respect to my wife’s tastes. Two out of three of her Christmas books are in the can so to speak, and there are smiles all round.

It was a weird year for reading, where the English history books were losing their lustre a little, the Dutch ascending, and the emergence of a few Running texts reflected recent interests. The podcast listening probably went the same way – no more WoW ones (despite still hanging on by a thread playing the game), and Marathon Talk and local Aussie equivalents got a regular listen. I became familiar with the IAAF and Russian state-sponsored doping! Interviews with local aspirants means I now have heightened awareness of the leadup / qualifiers to the Rio 2016 Olympics, so  I’m looking forward to the big distance events this year since I know the athletes names and follow a few on Twitter.

 

Back to some books, Russell Shorto’s “Amsterdam” was a $10 Reading book table special I was pretty certain I’d dislike – written by a yank, newly resident in Europe, and starting off with him dropping his child at a nanny’s place, so he could be free to research and ponder earlier times. I thought I’d last 50 pages, but the book ended up winning me over. Well researched and comprehensive – hats off to Russell! 4 stars.

Wanting something a little lighter next, I couldn’t resist the preposterous bestseller “The One Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared” by Jonas Jonasson. A silly farcical road trip it was, but utterly charming. There are not many books that can lay claim to including a scene about an elephant evading police capture by riding in a converted yellow school bus. The movie just happened to have been released recently, so we watched that too, and it was fun watching how they grappled with the more ridiculous scenes, some of which just couldn’t be executed on screen. Such a fun romp. 4 stars.

“A Gentle Madness” by Nicholas Basbanes took me awhile to get through. Dense and serious, I came to appreciate how long it may have taken the author to establish the credibility to mix in the circles needed to learn the legendary stories of the high-end book buying world and its obsessive collectors. The section on Stephen Blumberg was particularly good due to the criminal aspects and his close access to the man. It was still a wonderful read, full of eccentrics, despite being dry and overly lengthy in parts. Don’t think I’ll ever own a First Folio though… 4 stars.

Why did I read another Dutch book? Kim bought it for me of course! “Why the Dutch are Different” by Ben Coates, a pom who married a Dutch girl in Rotterdam, was a much more modern take on the country. He’s out there travelling around the south, soaking it all up, going to a bunch of Carnaval celebrations in Breda and Eindhoven and asking some of the trickier questions about the limits of Dutch tolerance, the uncomfortable racism of Zwarte Piet, and some of myths of Dutch wartime resistance and narrative. It got a touch repetitive near the end but I really liked this book too. 4 stars.

I heard a decent summary of the battle of Agincourt in a History Extra podcast interview with Anne Curry, so her book “Agincourt” surprisingly had little left to add in it’s efforts to unearth all possible references on the English and French sides. Long debated aspects such as “the sizes of the two armies”, “the importance of the English bowmen” and “whether the French prisoners were killed on the King’s word” were worked through again and again. The problem with such limited source material – often written well after the events, is there really isn’t much of a book in it, especially with someone as scrupulous as Curry at the helm. More interesting would have been an imagining of the events told as fiction. Probably not the wisest choice of a purchase Kim! Too academic for me. 2 stars.

“Two Hours” is Ed Caesar’s well researched history of the Marathon, running physiology and of the current crop of Kenyans who are inching the 26 mile record closer to 120 minutes using previously unthinkable early race aggression, and pacers. There’s some talk of drug use in the sport, and a sense of how far the race has fallen in terms of public awareness and admiration for its stars, now that they are almost always African runners. From what I gather, no other writer has taken the time to get to know the Kenyans, visit their training camps and tell their stories like Ed, so I am full of respect for his efforts. It was a decent book, which reminds that success is brief and hard work is everything. 4 stars.

Ruth Goodman wrote “How to be a Victorian” and its sister book How to be a Tudor because she’s a practical lady with oodles of curiosity and time on her hands to explore yesteryear. Arranged in dawn till dusk order, she takes us through a day in the life of the various classes from the 1830s till 1900, providing personal examples of her attempts to eat, clean, dress and work like a Victorian for what must have been years on end. I think someone told me she was on a “period-reality show” for much of it. Seems like bloody hard (and hot – 10 petticoats anyone?) work. I was never bored, but it was a  touch long maybe – attitudes to bathing, clothing and health in particular were eye opening. 4 stars.

Some more odds and sods here before I completely forget the gist of them.

 

“Thinking Medieval” by Marcus Bull had delectable front cover artwork and was thin enough to tempt me despite the dry tone and feeling that it was someone’s PHD thesus. The takeaway for me was being aware of the traps for historians examining and assessing a former age and rigour needed to keep an open mind and not make assumptions based on today’s values. 3 stars.

In complete contrast, “The Adventures of Holly White and the incredible Sex Machine” by Krissy Kneen was lurid and thrilling – especially to begin with, but the repetitive sex scenes in Paris became a little wearing and the ending was so wilfully climactic that I don’t even really know what happened. 5 stars for imagination and a willingness to go into unknown surreal territory, but I’ll have to deduct 1 point for the last third of the book which was all over the place in trying to bring the story back to some sort of end. Crazy stuff! So much fun – 4 stars.

There’s nothing by Coetzee I haven’t liked, including his decision to become an Adelaide resident and Australian Citizen, so an $8 hardback “Youth” – the story of his move from South Africa to England in the 1960s was always going to be interesting to me. Every bit as interesting as Clive James, (less funny, but more honest and self deprecating) this was a marvellous read. Who knew his beginnings as an early IBM programmer would be just the antidote needed to force him into writing and a more satisfying life. 4.5 stars.

Footnote: How embarrassing, I read the above book seven years ago and reviewed it more comprehensively here. Sigh.

It took me awhile to read, but the comprehensive and never boring “Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England” by Ian Mortimer contained stories and samples of daily life in the 1300s. There’s not an aspect of life that isn’t covered – from how many shoes people owned, to how many people slept in a bed or where the term “room and board” came from. From mostly horrifying sections on the Law, Medicine, Hygiene and Food to more fun parts about humour, language and pastimes, the crazy facts just kept coming. I loved the small cheats guide to Chaucer section, because I’m never going to read Canterbury Tales anyhow. 4.5 stars – enthralling.

The closest I get to Sci Fi nowadays is Margaret Atwood, and the Oryx and Crake trilogy needed to be completed with “Maddaddam” and it was. Genuinely imaginative, the absolutely necessary matter of fact summary of the first two books at the beginning of the third was a godsend to me. The story is so out there that it’s troublesome to describe to a friend or partner as it reads as part kids story and part dystopian Animal Farm, where everyone has an odd name and copes as best they can with the increasingly dire situation. Atwood tries very hard to be original and succeeds wonderfully – her blue Craker race of genetically modified, simpler, gentler humans being absolutely believable. Although a little sad towards the end, I felt I’d been on a great journey – the Zeb and Adam story was particularly interesting (if a little improbable) and formed the backbone of this third book. 4.5 stars.

Now that the free MX magazine has ceased and the temptations of I-spotted-a-future-boyfriend-on-the-South-Morang-3:47pm letters have faded, I’ve been able to focus on my backlog of London Review of Books and the Monthlys. Meanwhile, some bedtime books are getting read too.

Firstly, let me say what a terrible disappointment the Punch books have been. It probably didn’t help that my cheap copy of Mr. Punch goes to War arrived with goop on the front cover, was full of dust and neglect, and when I attempted to clean it, managed to smear the gilt lettering on the cover with green dye. I rated it as disappointing on Abebooks and promptly had a guy all over me selling his arse to get me to change my review. I’d forgotten how important online reputations are to sellers, and didn’t mean any harm – was just an honest assessment of the quality of the book that arrived. So, in the end, he sent me Mr Punch on Tour, which was in better nick, though no funnier. Not recommended, though the pictures were fun. Two stars.

HHHH by Laurent Binet was quite a change in pace, and an enthralling page turner about Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SS in WW2. Particularly horrifying was the vengeful obliteration of the town of Lidice as a consequence of the attack on Heydrich. I cannot recommend this book enough – Five stars.

The Saturday book is a charming annual (I have mild aspirations towards collecting the set from 1941 to 1973(?) – this one being #23 from 1963) – there’s the usual slightly salacious cartoons and an article about old rude postcards, an article about the origins of ladies bloomers, and a short biography of the creator (Heinrich Hoffmann) of the apparently well known Struwwelpeter (the original Edward Scissorhards I suppose) from the mid 1800s. Finally an interesting look at the eccentric Marie Laurencin and her unique ghostly paintings.

Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers is an earnest expose on the conditions and knife-edge lives of Mumbai slum-dwellers. Completely compelling, though sad, and meticulously researched (in person),  I heard the film adaptation was canned by critics, and came across as clichéd, but the book doesn’t read like that in the slightest. Four stars.

I just loved A Wanderer in Holland by supposedly populist writer E.V Lucas, written in 1905 and filled with forthright statements about the sillyness of certain Dutch towns for their architectural or artistic decisions to not champion world class artists or writers. Primarily a travel guide to the countries greatest artwork and writings, filled with paintings of towns and from galleries, with copious gruesome historical details such as the Spanish siege of Haarlem (and others), it was a wonderful introduction to the country, just as I was doing my dutch genealogy research. I got to read about cities my relatives lived in (Dordrecht and Leiden), whilst the author travelled the country on boats and railways which no longer exist since the destruction of WW1. It made me want to pay some good dollars for a Baedekers handbook for Holland. Four stars.

Bill Bryson’s At Home was also quite the page turner – he covers an awful lot of ground, but does it in an entertaining way. The bibliography is stupidly, snobbishly long and even improbable I think, but the 632 pages were full of early facts about the habits of home life and the surprisingly uncomfortable lives that mankind led up until very recently. Four stars also.

For a year that reading-wise started so solidly, it ended in a whimper, however I’m going to blame a few library books (which I don’t include) for my low throughput. Having said that, two weeks into 2015, I’ve polished off a couple already. I’m really enjoying my reading when I can put my damn phone back in it’s cradle at night. Finding myself in a bit of an Anglophile phase, I’ve been hoovering up 1880’s copies of The Magazine of Art, bound copies of Punch and most of the “Pilgrimages to Old Homes” series by Fletcher Moss, and flicking through them. I find the references to a different time and to lost places charming and it’s sent me to all sorts of daggy places, like watching incredibly unfashionable English TV series like “From Lark Rise to Candleford” or “The Great Fire“. Do not watch these!

 

I made the mistake of reading the second book in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy about 8 years after the first, meaning I could not remember a thing about the former, however the second was a great read – imaginative and sometimes unexpected. “The Year of the Flood” follows the parallel lives of various female survivors after an apocalyptic event, framed as a thriller where I ended up egging them on against difficult odds. I find I can barely read sci-fi any more, and Atwood is my preferred hybrid form of it – not too gadgety and close enough to our current predicament to be believable. She’s pretty much one of the only female writers I seem to like now, since I stopped reading Annie Proulx. Oh – Hilary Mantel, I forgot her.  3.5 stars.

 

I subscribed to the London Review of Books a few years back – lured by an impossibly cheap price and a fortnightly (!) copy, shipped all the way to Oz. In many ways its opened my eyes to more serious literary and historical criticism and made me aware of my many failings as a student. I was lured into buying a reprint of John Thelwall‘s “The Peripatetic” in the LRB by claims of it being a masterpiece of it’s time (1790’s England) and an example of the social and political reform that agitators like Thelwall fought their whole lives for. The introduction by Judith Thompson was worth the $9 (hardback) price of the book alone. Thelwall was pretty much run out of society by the folks he was rallying against and encountered a lifetime of opposition. The language of this romantic period was quite a laugh – many encounters on the road with tramps or hobos, and long florid expositions about the weather. I was never going to be able to finish the damn book, but I’m glad I gave it a fair hearing. 2 stars.

 

By chance I came across a cheap copy of The Saturday Book (#34), published in 1975 (I believe the last one they made following the death of Leonard Russell the founder) and knowing nothing about it, liking its many pictures and a saucy article about the history of La Vie Parisienne, and sensing another series I might wish to collect cheaply, I nabbed it. What a delight – full of quirky historical and literary curiosities, all designed to be picked up and put down at whim over a year of English weekends until the next annual rolled around. I’d love to collect (and read) a few more. Much fun and easy reading. 4 stars.

 

Switching to Sardinia, a place I will probably never visit, I got sucked in Salvatore Satta’s “The Day of Judgement” after reading it had been compared to Lampedusa’s “The Leopard” which is considered an Italian classic, and which I enjoyed about 10 years ago. This one is set a bit later in the early 1900s, in a remote village of Nuoro, where the semi-autobiographical recollections paint a vivid picture of the corruption, and personalities of rich and poor. Even though I seemed to take forever to read this book, the second half really galloped along and despite the many magical and tragic stories within, it was wonderfully satisfying in the end. 4 stars.

 

Kim managed to find me a Fall biography that I hadn’t yet read, and I pretty much dropped all else to consume this surprisingly thick, plainly written diary “The Big Midweek” by ex-Fall bass player Steve Hanley. The guy is a saint – he lasted 20 years in a band environment that can only be described as toxic and comes out of it with only minor scarring. Despite pulling punches on Mark, you’re left in no doubt about his misanthropic bullying ways, and it only made me wish I had seen them on their 1982 tour – I was just a bit young really. The 2010 gig was pretty average and he was well and truly drugged up, being physically shepherded about the stage by a nervous looking Elena. 4 stars.

 

Finally – I finished a monster, the 400 page (plus 80 page notes/index) kooky-covered “Reinventing Bach” by Paul Elie. The Readings bargain table strikes again. It had me buying a full copy of JS.Bach’s piano works, and I nearly got sucked into buying the cello suites after some loving commentary about Pablo Casals. I already had Gould’s Goldbergs to refer to. I enjoyed learning about Albert Schweitzer and Leopold Stokowski and the roles they played in bringing Bach into people’s consciousness. 3 stars.

Three writers that I enjoy, admittedly some more in the past, have consecutive daytime sessions on at the Melbourne Writers Festival this year. I will be in the last week of my annual leave, freshly returned from caravanning to Woolgoolga and am going to enjoy a solo matinee of sorts. And should be able to beat those pesky comuters home on PT too.

I took a photo of my reads for the past 6 months (missed a couple though), and perhaps it’s books from the early 20th century, or maybe it’s just history books, but boy do they LOOK dull. I’ve loved them all regardless, but they hardly bring the excitement factor.

 

Jonathan Raban – Coasting (1986)- I was worried I might have fallen out of love for this writer since not reading him for 15-odd years, but his book about circumnavigating Britain delivered (yet again). My favourite travel writer I think. 4 stars.

Nicholson Baker – House of Holes (2011) – Delightfully pervy and erotic with a lot of imagination. I thought this was his best book of all. 4 stars.

Arnold Fellows – The Wayfarer’s Companion (1937) – I learnt a lot about the architecture of cathedrals and monasteries in Britain, amongst other things. 3 stars.

Julien Gracq – The Shape of a City (1985) – Magnificent tribute to his home city of Nantes, France in the early 1900’s. Almost unbearably nostalgic. 4 stars.

Maurice Ashley – Louis XIV and the Greatness of France (1946) – A shortish summary of his life and legacy. A great read. 3.5 stars.

A.R.Burn – Agricola and Roman Britain (1953) – Another short summary of this well documented Roman born AD40 just before the conquer of Britain. Loved it. 4 stars.

E.S. Turner – Amazing Grace (1975) – A bit of an embarrassing admission of mine to read about all the silly and eccentric Dukes of England. 3 stars.

Arthur Hayden – Chats on Old Furniture (1905) – Some nice old pics and strong words about the merits of  Jacobean, Stuart and French furniture. They all seem to love Chippendale too. Some of the pieces are ghastly! 3 stars.

Robert McFarlane – The Old Ways (2012) – It’s won many accolades however the best stories are in the first half, and it gets a little dull and repetitive beyond that. What’s with 68 pages of Glossary, Bibliography and Notes at the rear? 3.5 stars.

A.H.M Jones – Constantine and the Conversion of Europe (1948) – The first of the Teach Yourself History series that I had to slog through, possibly since the author seemingly had many reservations about this not very intelligent, and easily angered Holy Roman Emperor, but also because the road to Christian unity was littered with squabble after squabble with purist offshoots who all sounded similar after awhile. 2 stars.

That Marcel Proust’s first volume of “In Search of Lost Time” was published, I decided I would start on it, as there was a good chance it would stay unread otherwise. There was never any question that I would finish the full 3000 pages of the 7 book work, but the first, “Swann’s Way” seemed achievable.

In many ways I was quite charmed by the book and it’s famously long sentences. I immediately recognised it as something Gerald Murnane must have been heavily influenced by, though when I Google the two names now, I discover more crossover between Samuel Beckett than the Frenchman. Apart from mild irritations about a boy’s obsessive wish for nightly kisses from his mother, and the overly long and repetitive jealous episodes of Swann when seeking to know the whereabouts of Odette, it was really quite a good read. The parts about small town French life, the eccentricities of Aunt Leonie, maid Francoise and the social life of the Verdurins were such fun. 4 stars.

 

Hot on the heels of this I found a charming little volume at Alice’s Bookshop recently. My version, published in 1929, “A Short History of Hampton Court” by Ernest Law (which I now see is an e-book if you’re into them) was a quick read with many quaint drawings of the rooms, the cupolas, the Great Hall and the many splendorous windows. Surprisingly, the history started with Cardinal Wolsey’s occupation at around 1514, with only a line or two about its former use by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. It seems odd to me how quickly the info drops off before the late 1400’s, since the value of a nationwide census was shown with the Domesday Book of 1086. I guess religious orders are boring.

If you didn’t know English History, you’d be frustrated by this book, as it really only deals with who stayed at Hampton and what happened there – the masques / plays – Shakespeare’s visits, and numerous stories of haunted rooms. The sheer size and opulence of the Palace was just staggering, and it was considered the finest in all Europe at the time – 1200 rooms, kitchen fireplaces that were 7 foot tall by 18 foot long, capable of roasting entire bulls within. All throughout is made mention of Wolsey’s exquisite taste in furnishings, artwork and precious stones and how he lived in finer splendour than Henry VIII, which may have even brought about his downfall . I’d just love to visit it next time I go to London.

They’ve been on my desk for months awaiting a fair hearing, or a night when I could be arsed, and now that I’m getting DC’d playing WoW, the time has come for the shortest of summaries.

Koch’s “The Dinner” first captivated me with it’s Lobster cover, and then infuriated me with it’s ending. A provocative and calculated attempt to goad anyone with a sense of justice, and like The Slap, provide fodder for lacklustre dinner party conversations, if anyone has them anymore. I couldn’t believe how angry this book made me, so 4.5 stars for trolling me so comprehensively.

Next up, the book that cemented Australian Patrick White’s Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978, “Voss”, which won the Miles Franklin and a book whose enigmatic title I’d long wondered about. Probably the 4th White book I’ve read, but one of the best. An imaginative remake of the failed 1849 cross-Australia trek by Ludwig Leichhardt, the utterly impenetrable Voss, driving further and further into the desolate interior, his mind awash in a cool, spiritual relationship with a tortured Sydney schoolmistress. It was a great contrast between their circumstances and in White’s sparse hand, it was a memorable exchange. 4 stars.

Last up, a populist map book by Simon Garfield “On the Map”, full of pics and oddities and chapters that explored everything from Ptolemy to Harry Beck’s London Underground map and Sat Nav. systems. Extremely readable, and had me searching Ebay and Abebooks.co.uk for a nice fresh 1908 copy of Baedeker’s “London and its Environs”, where I’ve since unfolded it’s delicate maps and read all about the beheadings in and around The Tower. 3.5 stars and great fun.

 

I am back to my usual self and habits now, so that means sneaking in a beer whenever I can (ha, that sounds so furtive), and to procrastinating with my reading by playing on my Samsung Note 2 at all times of the day and night. There’s just no way a book can hope to compete, so after I’ve checked Tour de France live comments on the Skoda Tracker, and browsed Twitter, RSS feeds and my guild website, the book gets about 5 mins of attention before I crash. On the way to work I play Ingress – that’s another post I suppose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, it’s no surprise that the most recent books read all get a lacklustre rating from me – they barely stood a chance. The Emigrants by Sebald was what I call “my sickness book” as it tainted my growing interest in history to the point where the association with nausea meant I thought I would have to throw it away. I felt physically ill looking at the cover. Remarkable! Although the critics would disagree (it won the Berlin literature prize) I thought it was his worst. 3 stars – and mainly for the Ambros Adelwarth story. I hope a dud Gall Bladder hasn’t ruined Sebald for me forever.

After that, history and war books lost their appeal, so I sought the ribald sensibilities of Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto” which was just what I needed. The Peruvian has quite an intellect and imagination, but read superficially the book is still quite an erotic blast, and I got an education about the works of Egon Schiele in the process. 4 stars.

Last was The Voyage by Australian Murray Bail, which I found both frustrating and contrived but continued to turn pages nonetheless. I have since read a very favourable review by John Banville who pointed out the uniqueness of the writing and the unpredictable elements, but I’m not convinced. 3 stars.