Joe MoranBesprekingen

Almost perfect

One of the most enjoyable books about writing that I have read. Moran practices what he preaches, in his own words, and the examples he chooses. Until he arrives at the end...

The three 'biographies' are moving and beautifully illustrative - but would be better woven elsewhere in the text. And the remaining paragraphs continue selling something this reader has already bought.

A very useful, instructive book to which I will return - without the final chapter.

It's marvelous to write a perfect sentence, but for a book to be even decent, it needs to be more than perfect sentence after perfect sentence. I found this book profoundly exhausting.

Very good - bought it in hard copy so I could write in it after reading it in ebook

Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime by Joe Moran (2008)

While ending with twenty rules about writing the book outs is really the authors travelogue about finding voice and clarity with the written word.

It was a pleasure to read. An appreciated gift.

Reviewing a book about writing challenges the reviewer to write well, to be interesting, and to be clear.

The review also requires an attempt at using ones own voice to reveal what the book meant to you as reader.

Even the bibliography is cleverly done and worth reading.

I suppose we read reviews to help us decide what to read. Once finished with reading reading reviews helps share the experience and feel a sense of community.

This book describes the experiences of shy people throughout history. It highlights published personal accounts, which means that most voices are White and male. The author also spends much time discussing the concept of "English reserve." Shyness in non UK/US societies is usually described in the aggregate, such as people who are native to the Trobriand Islands; I wish there had been more individual accounts for these other cultures. The book is less a scientific exploration of the causes of shyness and more a cultural narrative and, ultimately, a "celebration" of shyness as part of the human condition. Recommended.

The parts I enjoyed most discuss the different ways (such as admiration, kindness, derision, or pity) that general society has regarded shyness over time. I also found it interesting how shyness and unrequited love are often equated. The author notes:

"In Why Love Hurts (2013), the sociologist Eva Illouz argues that unrequited love, idealized in poetry since the Provencal troubadours as a sign of profundity and sensitivity, has become an embarrassment in contemporary culture."

And later:

"In an age that values emotional mutuality, unrequited love signals immaturity and low self-esteem. A new word has emerged to describe this unenviable state: 'needy.' The word that once just meant 'destitute and deserving' now also means 'clingy and insecure.'"

It would be interesting to explore how the experience of unrequited love, by both the lover and the beloved, interplays with issues of consent. But that is the subject of another book!

A bit pretentious in places, perhaps. But the author certainly practised what he preached, because it was lucid and pleasurable to read - indeed, I found myself reading bits of it aloud … to myself.

A fascinating account of the social history of television in Britain, really worth reading.

Not going to finish this. Just borrowed on the spur of the moment from the library. I read about fifty pages and decided that would do me.

I’m a little disappointed in this book. It’s full of anecdotes and observations but I don’t feel I’m any further forward in understanding what shyness is.

The vignettes chosen by the author seem to conflate introversion, social anxiety, autism, mental illness, rebellion and plain eccentricity. He says that we can all be shy in different contexts but focuses on ‘shy’ individuals or groups. He touches briefly on cultural aspects of shyness, how in some societies it is seen as positive and in others negative. There’s some passing discussion of the impact of technology (eg it’s easier to ask someone out by text than face-to-face).

Many of his case studies are of middle- and upper-class English men. They are able to take their ‘shyness’ (if that is an adequate term) to extremes because they have the resources to keep the world at bay. In one of the more interesting chapters he discusses whether shy people can and should learn to adapt or whether they should structure their lives to minimise social interaction. But it’s hard to answer this without a working definition of shyness – does the shy person love solitude or is she desperately lonely but somehow unable to connect?

Although he touches on the physical nature of shyness – and particularly blushing – I would have been interested to know more about the physiology of it. What about that elusive ‘chemistry’? Why do we have a visceral reaction – positive or negative – to some people before they’ve even spoken? Some people set us immediately at ease, others leave us on edge or flat and empty. A rare few transform us into more vivid and articulate versions of ourselves. Maybe ‘shyness’ is in part a greater sensitivity to these signals?

I suppose this book lives up to its billing as field guide. There are some detailed descriptions of selected specimens. But I was hoping for a bit more insight and analysis.

I am naturally drawn to studies of my particular human condition - shyness - and Joe Moran's book is the new Quiet. I knew this would be an enjoyable and informative read from the number of times I said 'Yes!' in sympathy during the introduction - how talking on the phone is its own special brand of torture, constantly getting left out between two group conversations, and how 'hugging me is like trying to cuddle a scarecrow'. All me.

Moran covers possibly every aspect of being shy, from examples in the natural world (the 'shrinking violets' of the title) to human psychology, via some surprising famous case studies, including George Best (who resorted to 'liquid extroversion' to conquer his shyness), Dirk Bogarde, Agatha Christie, LS Lowry, Alan Turing and Morrissey of The Smiths. My favourite fellow wallflower would have to be Lord William Cavendish Scott Bentinck, or the Duke of Bedford, who built himself an underground maze of tunnels, including a ballroom, on his estate, just so he wouldn't have to talk to people.

Very interesting, whatever your social persuasion, but inspirational for introverts.

Shrinking Violets: A Field Guide to Shyness is what it says: a guide to what makes people shy and why shyness causes certain behaviours. It's part sociology, part social history, part psychology.

Moran begins his study with a summarisation of animal behaviour research into the shy-bold spectrum observed in a number of animal species. From this, it seems that shyness acts as a balance to boldness that helps a species to bond and survive. My favourites were the elks of Banff, some of whom were so bold that they could lead the shyer elks astray.

The main bulk of the book is arranged into chapters on particular themes and takes the form of a series of case studies, looking at shy people through history and shyness' relationship to notions such as British Reserve.

Moran reflects on the over-sharing nature of modern life, particularly through social media, and the suspicion this engenders when faced with someone shy, bringing round an assumption that they are posturing somehow. He's not a fan of social media.

There are lots of pen studies of the celebrated and talented, a surprising number of whom are or were shy. Actors, writers, musicians, you name it, they're apparently a shy lot.

As well as the pop culture case studies, there's a lot in the book about theories of human behaviour and the psychology of shyness. I learnt plenty about the diagnosis and treatment of shyness as a mental disorder.

All in all, this is a wide ranging book, but it's engagingly written and structured in a way that pulls all of Moran's disparate thoughts on shyness into a coherent study of the condition. Even if you're not interested in shyness as a topic, there are lots of intriguing snippets about the famous and celebrated to make this an entertaining read.

shelved at: 12 : Road transport

shelved at: 12 : Road transport

You probably need to be British to appreciate this one. I'm not.

If you find it a little strange that a History Professor from Liverpool would write an entire book on the subject of the British Motorway, you’ll find it even stranger – should you pick up a copy – that you cannot stop reading it! Joe Moran also wrote another highly regarded book on the subject of Queuing (lining up) for Beginners and is a Cultural Historian, who, says Robert Macfarlane in “The Guardian” takes subjects that should not be really be interesting and makes them so. I found myself endlessly quoting snippets and facts from this work … I am sure my wife could write a review of this fascinating book, even though she did not actually read it.

Using the advent of the first Motorway, built just after WWII, Moran introduces the concepts of planning, forecasting, logistics and politics of road building and attendant “Black Arts” of costing (and budget overruns of course), the necessary size, color and background of lettered signs to enable them to be read at safe distances at high speeds and the revolution of changing from roman capital lettering to computer generated sans serif signage.

Quoting Betjeman and Paul Theroux the author lays out the story of development protests, tree-housing squatters and ‘tree huggers’, and early examples of ‘occupying’ by indignant local populations demonstrating against – and sometimes even for – the new road that they wanted built in somebody else’s backyard.

A history of the palimpsest nature of roads, rarely truly ‘new’ in Britain’s cluttered history, from Romans through Napoleon to the “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher and the series of beleaguered Ministers of Transport the human side of the road story is fascinating reading.

Good introduction to an academic trend, especially in English lit.

From library

An interesting book on the technical and social history of (mostly) motorways - a bit of psychogeography and some excellent facts and snippets (did you know that the chap who invented the modern caravan also invented Little Chef?)½

I love quirky books like this, that take simple and relatable ideas and open the reader's eyes to their history and complexity in an accessible and amusing way.

Moran takes us on a gentle journey through a day in the life of an average modern human, picking out sixteen mundane and overlooked elements to explore. 'Bacon and eggs to go', for example, takes breakfast from its rich beginnings, through the preference for cereals and toast during the meat rationing of the war, to today's rushed coffee and the rise of the cereal bar. Moran then proceeds to explore the daily rituals of commuting, office gossip, lunchtime errands, checking emails, the rushed sandwich eaten at the office desk, cigarette breaks, post-work drinks, ready meals and watching the evening weather (amongst other things) before finally signing off with a history of the bed and attitudes towards sleep and the bedroom, and a gentle reminder to look around us and recognise our daily routines as a part of our collective social consciousness.

All in all this is a good idea done well. Generally Moran traces his social history in each section back as far as World War II, though he doesn't shy away from placing our habits in their extended historical contexts where relevant. This proves to be a good strategy as it narrows down the focus of the book to a manageable level without leaving it feeling incomplete. It is the kind of book that has the potential to be heavy, serious and deadly dull - but Moran manages to combine thorough research and a questing mind with a lightness and humour, and a knowledge of modern popular culture, that makes it interesting, compelling and accessible from beginning to end. Highly recommended.½

shelved at: 05 : Urban design

shelved at: 05 : Urban design