2020 Reading Record of PGMCC - Episode 1

Read in 2020

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

Reality is not what it seems by Carlo Rovelli 3/12/2019 - 20.01.2020 234 pages
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey 20/01/2020 - 26/01/2020 222 pages
The Last Best Friend by George Sims 27/01/2020 - 31/01/2020 191 pages
Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes 31/01/202 - 05/02/2020
Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy by Tim Harford 06/02/2010 - 17/02/2020 292 pages.
The Lights Go Out In Lychford by Paul Cornell 09/02/2020 - 11/02/2020
It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. by June Casagrande 17/02/2020 -
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley 17/02/2020 - 05/03/2020 482 pages

Thank you to the piffling artistry of my friends in the pub I have reached the requisite number of posts in last year's final thread to start my 2020 Reading Record.

Already I have been hit by a book bullet fired by TokenGingerKid on her first day in the pub. haydninvienna is trying to claim some form of credit for it as he claims he loaded the gun. Either way, I am hit. The book in question is Utopia for Realists.

Philip Ball's Critical Mass has a chapter on Utopia. Critical Mass is about the appliance of science to societal issues ranging from traffic flow modelling, through how voting patterns reflect the spread of fashions, to the effectiveness of different political systems. I am interested in seeing what Rutger Bregman has to say about Utopia.

Let me be the first to desecrate add a post to your new thread! Happy 2020, Peter! May you enjoy lots of satisfying reading experiences this year.

>3 clamairy: Right back at you, Clare.

I apologize for not contributing more extensively to the piffle party but I'm glad you were able to trip the 150 message meter and thereby launch a new thread on Thursday, January 2, 2020. (And I loved the story about you and the two pork chops and your daughter's birth!)

Didn't Li'l Abner have a child named Pork Chop or was it a schmoo?

Happy New Year - wishing you a great year and lots of fantastic reads.

>7 Peace2:
Many happy returns. Great to see you here. Have a wonderful 2020.

I note that J.R.R. Tolkein was born on this day in 1892.

On this date in 1923 the death occured of Jaroslav Hašek, author of The Good Soldier Svejk, a book I strongly recommend.

Happy new year! I look forward to seeing you in London very soon. Do we have a plan for the meet up yet?

>9 pgmcc: I second the recommendation for Svejk. And this year perhaps I will get time to read Private Ivan Chonkin, which was a book bullet from you!

I hope 2020 brings you and your family all good things in books and in life.

>10 Sakerfalcon: I do not think I will be able to get two bookshops into the schedule as my wife is not as fond of books as I am. As Foyles is high on my priority list of places to visit would Tuesday after work in Foyles on Charing Cross Road suit you? If so, what time?

-pilgrim- was thinking of joining us too.

>11 pgmcc: Tuesday would be great. I could get there by 5.30. It will be great if Pilgrim can come too.

>12 Sakerfalcon: Great. See you in Foyles on Tuesday at 5:30pm.

5:30pm on Tuesday, 7th January, 2020 in Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London. GD/LT meet-up for those who can make it.

One is thinking the café would be the place to meet.

I will be carrying a copy of The Times and will have a red rose in my lapel.

Actually, no, I won't. I include a recent (last June) picture of me to assist identification. I'm the one on the left. Kevin Barry is the one on the right.



Come one; come all.

>14 pgmcc: My experience of Foyles’ cafe is that it fills up with people staring at screens. It’s a good cafe but you might have problems finding a seat. Somebody have an extra espresso for me please.

>15 haydninvienna: I am a Foyles virgin, so I am looking forward to my first Foyles' experience.

In case you are wondering, the bookshop in >14 pgmcc: is Hodges Figgis. It is the first floor, where they hold their readings.

tardis has inflicted a BB wound on me. The Rook has captured my attention. I will put it on my list of possible purchases during my visit to London.

Via a friend of jillmwo’s, I have become aware of a place called "Cecil Court" in London. It is not far from Foyles' bookshop. Apparently it is an old street/alley that is lined with old bookshops. I think it warrants an exploratory stroll during our London excursion.

>17 pgmcc:, she's a font of information on a variety of subjects.

>17 pgmcc: That street has been showing up on Facebook this week for some odd reason. It does look like something from a dream.

>11 pgmcc:, >12 Sakerfalcon: Sorry to have missed the discussion. I had mislaid my phone and had to go back and collect it.

I'll see what I can do, but an evening meetup could be problematic for me. At the moment I am looking at a 3 hour return journey with multiple bus changes, or one involving a sizeable hike (well, for me) - and I have an early start the next day, as chemo is restarting after its Xmas break.

And a Happy New Year to you, Peter.

>17 pgmcc: The rook is an excellent read. I'm sure I'll be able to help you find a copy in Foyles.

>17 pgmcc:, >19 clamairy: Yes, Cecil Court looks like a bookish Diagon Alley! It's definitely worth investigating even if the prices are antiquarian rather than second-hand (i.e. beyond my budget). And coincidentally there are a couple more second hand bookshops en route between Foyles and Cecil Court.

>20 -pilgrim-: I do hope you'll be able to join us. If not, I'm usually available for a bookish meet up if you come to London at another time.

The adventure begins. About to head for the boarding gate.

>21 Sakerfalcon: You are a temptress. More secondhand bookshops?

I have actually booked a heavier check-in bag for return flight.

I am happy to report a very successful and pleasant Green Dragon meet-up at Foyles’ Bookshop on the Charingcross Road. Sakerfalcon, -pilgrim-, my wife and I had a lovely time chatting about books, history, our college days, our school days, Physics, Mathematics, Classics, Geology, languages, etc...

My wife and I had a fantastic time and it was wonderful to meet two lovely people from the pub.

Photo to follow when I return to Dublin and have access to my laptop.

>23 pgmcc: Good on you all! Great to know that it went so well. Er, did anybody actually buy any books?

>23 pgmcc: looking forward to meet-up pictures. How nice that you were able to get together!

Sounds like you had a brilliant time. Were there actual books involved too?

>24 haydninvienna:, >26 Peace2: I am happy to report that I purchased 2 books, and pgmcc +1 considerably more.

Unfortunately, Sakerfalcon and I concur that the standard of Foyles has gone down considerably since its move to new premises. The classics section is about a quarter of the one that I remember (and not nearly so eclectic); I would now consider the one in Blackwell's of Edinburgh more extensive. Mrs.pgmcc considers the children's book section inferior to that available in Dublin.

However, such deficiencies were more than compensated for by the pleasure of excellent conversation on meeting with fellow Green Dragoneers.

I too very much enjoyed our GD meetup. It was great to see Peter, Catriona and pilgrim in person and share a wide-ranging conversation over tea in a bookshop. I didn't buy books in Foyles but I did stop by one of the second hand bookshops on Charing Cross Road as I walked back to the station and bought a graphic memoir, A puff of smoke.

In Foyles' defence, I still find its fiction section to be very eclectic and interesting, with many books from small publishers not only stocked but highlighted by staff, and fewer tables of the same ubiquitous bestselling authors. Also, it is a relief not to have to go through the arcane rituals required to purchase a book which I remember from shopping in the old store as recently as the 1990s. (If you could find the book you were looking for in the first place - stock was famously shelved by publisher. I rarely found the book I went in for, but inevitably came away with several that I'd found instead.)

Books from trip to Lindon. More detail on the titles and the reasons for their acquisition to follow.

The Rook was a BB from several GD members, including Sakerfalcon who was determined to attend the meet-up and ensure I got a copy. tardis was also involved in this BB wound.

The Human Swarm was the fist book I saw when I went into the bookshop at The British Library and it appealed to me. It deals with ideas I have been toying with and will fit well with some ideas I am tossing around at the moment.

The Daughter of Time was a gift from my friend from the Philippines, AndrewThe Daughter of Time and recommended it to me. A short while later he found it, bought two copies, and presented one of them to me. (I sent him home with a copy of The Gone-Away World.

Elizabeth is Missing has recently been adopted for television with Glenda Jackson playing the main character. We like Glenda Jackson's work and have recorded the show to watch later. When I spotted the book I decided to grab it and read the book before watching the programme.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was a BB from the many Agatha Christie fans here.

A House for Mr Biswas was an impulse by in Cecil Court. It is an old street of bookshops, antique shops, art galleries, etc... The shop fronts are much the same as they were 100 years ago. It is akin to Diagon Alley and I have just looked at a Harry Potter tour website that identifies Cecil Court as one of the contenders to being the REAL Diagon Alley. I spotted this book on display outside Watkins Books with a £2 sticker on it. I like the Everyman's Library books' format so had a read of the first few pages of the novel and thought I would risk it. The worst case scenario is that I have a pretty book on my shelf, or in a box, or on the floor.

Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt caught my attention in Watkins Books when I went in to pay for A House for Mr Biswas. Watkins books is a shop that specialises in the occult and was quite interesting. A friend of mine had recommended I check out the basement and it was quite an experience. Apart from the books on witchcraft, the supernatural, and other topics, someone was on the telephone advising someone on dealing with a health issue and giving them warnings to be cautious over the coming days as the full-moon would be blocking Jupiter and this could cause her some difficulty. I apologise, but I was having to bite my tongue to prevent myself laughing. I have to admit I would not have stayed in the basement as long as I did had I not been delaying to hear more of this conversation. The longer it went on the more unusual it became.

Green Dragon meet-up in Foyle's Bookshop café on the evening of Tuesday, 7th January, 2020.

From left to right, Sakerfalcon, Mrs.PGMCC (as named by -pilgrim-) and PGMCC.

Photograph taken by -pilgrim-.

We had a super time. It was lovely to meet up and talk about a myrad of topics. The conversation flowed freely. We met up shortly after 5pm and it was after 8pm when Mrs.PGMCC and I left Foyles.

I don't know about other people, but your photos aren't loading for me. Makes me sad. I want to see how wickedly extravagant you actually were!!

Nor me.

I was using my phone and it did not work. Will fix later.

You must have fixed it, because I see them in all their glory. Lovely books, lovely folks and it sounds like a lovely time.

>34 MrsLee: Yes, I managed to do a repair job.

We all had a delightful time. Our four days in London achieved all the objectives I had hoped for:

- Turned virtual friends into real, tangible human beings
-pilgrim-
Sakerfalcon
My friend, Andrew, from the Philippines.

- Visited Foyles bookshop for my first time and bought a book in it

- Met NicK Harkaway for coffee.

- Visited Cecil Court

- Found "The Circus" from Le Carré's spy novels

- Relaxed

Other bonuses included:

- Discovering how easy it is to use London's public transport. The Oyster card is very simple to acquire and use. It Keeps your daily spend on transport to less than £8.

- Chance encounter with Denis Lawson


- Lovely meals in Bizarro, Angus Steakhouse and Melainie restaurants.

- Realisation that one can get reasonably priced hotel accommodation near the centre of London. We stayed in a place called, The Caring Hotel, which is only about 100yds from Hyde Park. It is not fancy but it is clean, warm and the people are friendly. We had a double room and bathroom for three nights for under £200. Food was not included but they did provide a breakfast bag which was left outside our room every morning. For the location we thought the hotel was great value.

- Visit to Paddington Station and the Paddington Bear shop.

>35 pgmcc: Obviously you didn't "just have a look in" the W H Smith at Paddington. Dangerous place that. If I had thought to fire a The Rook BB at you I certainly would have! Once you've recovered from The Rook, I'll fire another for the sequel, Stiletto.

Great pics. I recognise the Foyles Cafe background.

>30 pgmcc: Now that Mrs PGMCC knows that LibraryThing is your "library thing" maybe you should cajole her into starting her own account. Then she can choose a sobriquet of her own.

Seriously, it really was good to meet you all.

It appears I am not over my book buying fever. Last week I passed Books Upstairs and saw a small book entitled On Art & Life by John Ruskin in the window. As at least one of you will know (I am looking at you Richard) I have dipped into Ruskin on occasion and recently picked up an old collection of Ruskin's writings. I took a picture of this book to check if it was one of the writings in the collection I had at home. As it was not I returned to "Books Upstairs" this evening to pick up the booklet. It was not in the window. :-(

I entered the shop and search the area it was likely to be in without success. My assumption was that someone spotted it in the window and requested it with that copy being the only copy left, and hence the copy in the window was sold. Before asking at the counter I then went down to the basement, where the "sale" books are displayed. I was wondering if it might be there. That was when I spotted Primo Levi's The Periodic Table for only £6. I have been planning to read Levi, in particular his If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, and decided to pick up The Periodic Table at such a good price. It was also sitting beside The Name of the Rose. This is a book I have read and loved but do not know where my copy is. As I want to read this again, especially as I have forgotten a lot if it over the years, as pointed out by -pilgrim- on Tuesday evening when she demonstrated I had forgotten the whole point of the book. I am sure that counts as a form of Book Bullet score for -pilgrim-.

I took these two sales books to the counter and then asked about the Ruskin pamphlet. The attendant is someone I have had dealings with before. In fact, I refer to her as my dealer as she provides me with the substance of my addiction. She agreed that the disappearance of the book from the window while the books that had been with it were still there was not a good sign. However, she was able to find a copy on the shelves, so I left the store with three books and thanked her for my fix.

In relation to actually reading:

I am still working my way through Reality is not what it Seems: the Journey to Quantum Gravity, a BB from Hugh (hfglen). I am finding it interesting but I cannot claim that I understand all the content. I feel quite at home with this as the author has pointed out that nobody really understands it.

It is a story of the steps followed by researchers to understand the world, the universe and everything. (None of them must have read Douglas Adams.) While it mentions, and occasion shows equations, it makes no attempt to prove them or try to explain them in any detail. At the earlier stages of the book, where it was dealing with equations that it might be possible to understand, I was disappointed that they did not provide more of an explanation of the equations. Now I have gotten into the second half of the book and am taking discrete steps towards Quantum Gravity (Did you see what I did there?) I am quite happy that not attempt is made to explain any equations.

>37 -pilgrim-:

I think a little explanation may be required for other viewers.

I have been on LibraryThing since April 2006. My wife has been very used over the years to my mentioning my friends on LibraryThing and telling her about things I have seen on LibraryThing.-pilgrim-

At our meet-up on Tuesday, while listening to -pilgrim-, Sakerfalcon and me talking about LibraryThing she suddenly said, "Oh! It's actually called 'LibraryThing'?"

She had thought that all these years I have just been referring to books website I was using a library thing rather than using the website's actual name.

-pilgrim-, in relation Mrs.PGMCC starting her own account, that is not going to happen. She spends all her time on politics, writing letters to the press, to the head honchos in her party telling what their policies should be, and organising activities in our local area, such as Neighbourhood Watch, Lucan Festival, etc... As a matter of fact, at 5:45am on Thursday, two days after we met, she received a message from the General Secretary of her party asking her if she would be willing to stand in the imminent General Election. Her candidature was announced publicly last evening, so she will not be having much time to set up and use a LibraryThing account.

Seriously, it really was good to meet you all.

I feel the same way. It was wonderful to meet you and Sakerfalcon and both Mrs.PGMCC and I had a wonderful time.

>29 pgmcc: Wonderful photos! You all look so happy. And what a nice pile of loot you came home with!

>38 pgmcc: And there was additional loot to be had, I see. :o)

I think you'll get a big kick out of The Rook. I have been meaning to reread The Daughter of Time as I have no memory of it all. I read it for an anthropology class in college. (My whole senior year is pretty much of a blur.)

Those pictures are awesome!

You will love The Rook!

> The Rook and The Daughter of Time are both well worth reading! I hope you enjoy them.

Aha! So the enabler pgmcc has an enabler of his own! Not surprised it’s at Books Upstairs.

Don’t ever recover from the book-buying fever, Peter.

And best of luck to Mrs Pete in her forthcoming election campaign. I’m now relishing the idea of you at a swanky do at Leinster House having to be nice to a bunch of TDs.

>38 pgmcc:
as pointed out by -pilgrim- on Tuesday evening when she demonstrated I had forgotten the whole point of the book
No, despite how this sounds, I am not some scary inquisitor who corners visitors to these shoes and quizzes them on their literary comprehension, appreciation and retention! The context was a lively discussion on how well (or badly) certain books translated to film.

However I am pleased to have scored a direct hit so early on. Am now contemplating buying some more Eco myself.

>40 pgmcc: And hearty congratulations to Mrs PGMCC on her candidacy. I am sure she will keep you busy over the coming weeks.

The on-line friend from the Philippines that triggered my trip to London to meet him for the first time in 13/14 years of on-line friendship let me know yesterday evening that he had arrived home. This morning he sent me this link: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/12/20/taal-volcano-erupts-as-phivolcs-raises-al...

It appears a volcano about 24 miles south of his home has erupted. Geologists have raised the alert level to initiate immediate evacuations as they are predicting a major eruption within hours or days. His wife has family in the area. No injuries are reported yet. Flights have been grounded and he can feel ash falling on his skin when he goes outside.

I am so glad I live in an area of stable geology and reasonable weather. We have no forests near us so are not likely to suffer the types of fire disasters hitting Australia or that hit the US in previous years.

Keep safe, everyone.

>46 pgmcc: my colleague and friend Manuel is in the Philippines now. Maybe he isn't going to be back on Wednesday.

Picture of the eruption from the aforesaid Manuel, who is still in Manila:

>48 haydninvienna:
I guess you are right; he may be delayed a bit.

Following, of course. And happy new year to you, Peter. A special thank-you to you for your kindness and warmth.

I'd have loved to join in your meet-up at Foyle's. It's always a pleasure to see Dragoneers get together as real-world friends, and I like to imagine being among them .

>50 Meredy: You were there in the spirit of The Green Dragon.

>38 pgmcc: There is no cure for book-buying fever. A suitable purchase may subdue it for days or even weeks, but it will always recur. Fortunately one need not suffer it alone.

*whispers* If on a winter's night a traveller is by Italo Calvino. That said, I really should read some Primo Levi.

Glad you made it home safely, and that Caitriona has something new to focus on. She would get my vote in an instant.

>52 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you for pointing out my error. I have the book but obviously do not have total recall.

>53 pgmcc: Memory loss is a side effect of book buying fever. It has a nasty habit of striking when in bookshops. Sufferers can be recognised by their perplexed frowns when holding a book in the store and muttering "Now do I have this already?" Thank goodness for the LT app!

>54 Sakerfalcon: I have suffered from that for years. Before I had LibraryThing on my phone I had problems. At one stage, years BLT (Before LibraryThing), I discovered I had five copies of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

E.T.A. A book I have read and loved.

I am still not finished Reality is not What is Seems but my next read will be The Daughter of Time. My friend from The Philippines recommended it to me and gave me a copy in Foyles' Bookshop. He suggested we read it together, but he has finished it already and I have only read the first page. :-(



On the social front I will be hobnobbing tonight. I will be representing my wife at the Italian Institute of Culture in Dublin. There is a ceremony for the handover from Matera in Italy to Galway in Ireland of European Capital of Culture title. I expect to hear how wonderful Matera is and wonderful Galway is. I am sure there will be some mingling and small-talk, finger food and the odd little beverage to celebrate the event. The things one does for love.

>56 pgmcc: Representing? Have Mrs Pete’s political duties started already?

>55 pgmcc: I have multiple copies of The Master and Margarita. But I did not buy ALL of them myself. A surprising number of people seem to have seen that book and thought of me...

>57 haydninvienna: She was invited to the event as a member of the Lucan Festival Committee. She wanted me to attend as she could not and did not want to appear ungrateful for the invitation. The Italian ambassador lives in Lucan in an old mansion that the Italian government bought and refurbished. The ambassador is good enough to open the lovely grounds of his home to the public on the Saturday of the Lucan festival. Lucan has a good relationship with the ambassador and is very grateful for his opening the grounds.

>58 -pilgrim-: So, you are The Master.

>56 pgmcc: Have fun and we do expect a full report!

>61 clamairy: Photographs would be nice.

>61 clamairy: It was interesting. Full report later.

>62 suitable1: Photos were not taken.

>60 pgmcc: A former historian whose writing will never be published, and who is utterly screwed? Sounds about right. Except there is no Margarita. (Or Woland, thankfully.)

>56 pgmcc: May you have joy of The Daughter of Time. It is one of my favorites that I reread from time to time.

Well, I did not go back to my dealer on Monday but I did drop in yesterday evening on my way home. -pilgrim- can now officially carve another notch on the stock of her BB gun. She has quite a few notches on the gun relating to her hits on me.

>66 pgmcc: I am glad. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. I look forward to discussing the meaning of that ending to you, once you have read it.

Something happened to me today that has never happened to me before. My book died while I was reading it. Books do not normally to that to me.

On a Kindle? A paper book? If the latter, how?

>69 hfglen: Kindle.

>68 pgmcc: Oh no! I hope you had a back up book to hand so you were not left with nothing to read. Also that you can retrieve the original one.

>71 Sakerfalcon:
I understand it is a battery issue. I have not quite acclimatised to the dark side yet. Having a Kindle run out of battery power is appalling.

Thankfully I do have another book to hand. My commute home will be the opportunity to commence The Daughter of Time which conveniently fits into my overcoat, inside pocket. I am one of these old foggies who always wants a lo-tech back-up to the digital age's technological traps that lull the unsuspecting millenial into total reliance on the system that will never fail...except when...

>72 pgmcc: Me too. I have never forgotten the occasion when a friend and I were flying to Edinburgh and her kindle died. Fortunately I was able to offer her my spare print book (it was the days before I had a kindle and I brought two books in case I finished one).

>73 Sakerfalcon: We have much in common.

What's a Kindle? Touchstone doesn't work.

>75 suitable1: It is some kind of new fangled contraption. It will never catch on.

>76 pgmcc: LOL!

>73 Sakerfalcon: I was fully convinced that the sentence "I have never forgotten the occasion when a friend and I were flying to Edinburgh and her..." would end with "...phone died, so she wasn't allowed to board, as she couldn't show her ticket". But yeah, the Kindle dying was gruesome, too ;-)

I used to print paper-versions of tickets and itineraries, as backup. Nowadays I email them to my travel companions (but do paper print-outs for international travel: never trust that you will have internet access abroad...).

>77 Busifer: I remember meeting a Swedish girl at Stansted Airport in the food area where you eat while you are waiting to have your gate announced. We sat beside one another at a Chinese fast food outlet. She was on her way to Gutenberg. She was delighted to see USB outlets for phone charging at the benches as her battery was low and she had her boarding pass on her phone. Unfortunately the outlets were not working and she was getting more worried with each minute.

We had been discussing the merits of having printed back-ups and she was saying they were unnecessary now and she never carried a printed back-up.

The irony of her going to Gutenberg without a printed back-up escaped her.

>78 pgmcc: Sounds like she was a bit behind on the history lessons, then ;-)

Our son just got a school assignment that specifically requires using printed books for reference, not the internet. It's for History, and he is to watch a historical drama of his choice, then check fact against written history, and write an essay on how the drama treated the known facts.
He would not had missed the irony. But he would had run the danger of being out of battery ;-)

>79 Busifer: That is s fascinating exercise your son has to do. That will help develop his thinking and his awareness of how things are never what they seem.

>79 Busifer: I like your son's teacher.

>72 pgmcc: I'm giggling at you. Not because you lost battery power, but because you were so dismayed at the behavior of the book. Also, I want you to read The Daughter of Time, so perhaps I jinxed you from afar.

>81 MrsLee: So, you were the disturbance in the force.

>82 pgmcc: It is my life goal. :)

Reading update:

I am on the final chapter of Reality is not What it Seems, a BB from Hugh (hfglen) which I have enjoyed. I cannot say I now understand General Relativity, Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Gravity, or Quantum Gravity, but I am at least more familiar with the vocabulary, the history of these theories' development, and the characters involved. The author did warn that the final section would be mind-bending and it is. As long as one appreciates that feeling that your brain is working as a contortionist to examine its own existence and operation one can remain sane enough to eat, rest and carry on in this world which does not really have any time, or space, or...

As this is on the Kindle I am not sure how long it will take me to finish. Accoring to the bottom of the page I am at 86% complete and on page 226. Nearly there, I believe.



My forced start of The Daughter of Time is fortuitous. I am enjoying it and hope to finish it this week.



Keep well, and read on.

I have finished Reality is Not What it Seems. Thank you for the BB, Hugh, even if I already had it in my library. I had not catalogued it so it did not exist. "Things are as they are reported". (Quote from Systemantics by John Gall.)

I am enjoying The Daughter of Time. The history of the English kings and queens was what my school history classes focused on and which did not interest me in the slightest. I abandoned History at the first opportunity as a result. This book is bringing back memories, not always my favourite memories.

Having been a pageboy in our school performance of Richard III I did know the main points raised in the novel which, for those of you that do not know it, focuses on the aforemetioned king.

Without giving any spoilers away I can tell you the book is about an injured detective confined to bed, and confined to lying still in bed, for a considerable period of time, and the way he eventually finds to pass the time and avoid going totally crazy.

Before I go further in discussing the book I shall employ the spoiler cloak of invisibility.

I find the detective to be more highly educated and sophisticated than one would normally find in an English policeforce. More of a very polished Morse than an Inspector Plod.

In essence, the book takes a police procedural approach to assessing the evidence supporting the story that Richard III had his two young nephews murdered in The Tower of London.

I like the way his investigation is going. He has identified the sources of information about Richard III and is taking the approach of dismissing "hearsay" evidence. He is also putting sources under the microscope in respect to potential bias in the author.

At this stage, just about mid-point, I believe the investigation will conclude that history is totally unreliable, an issue that Umberto Eco demonstrated in Baudolino.

The detective's ruthlessly pure approach to assessing evidence is refreshing and supports a healthy degree of scepticism in all things. Fact check, fact check, fact check...and verify source reliability.

>86 pgmcc: That is a book that I read in my teens. I remember very few details about the contents, but I know that it impressed me, because I pursuaded my father to try it. Furthermore he actually enjoyed it (despite reading relatively little fiction).

>86 pgmcc: Daughter of Time was a book I read quite young, as it was one of the many mysteries on my mother's bookshelf. My sister and I graduated to those books after reading Nancy Drew, and never looked back. I've recommended it to several people, and don't think any haven't liked it.

>86 pgmcc: I think I must have skimmed that one in college. I wonder if I should revisit it.

>88 NorthernStar: Funny thing is I have never heard anything but good things about it.

>89 clamairy: It's one of those books! Worth a reread every few years.

I have completed The Daughter of Time and have increased my cynicism of History and all it says.

I started The Last Best Friend this morning. Apparently it is a spy novel and was written during the Cold War period. The cover included some comments about Graham Greene and John Le Carré being contemporaries of Sims but they became more famous. The blurb implies that Sims should have received as much attention. We shall see.

>91 pgmcc: ...as do anyone who has dipped into the topic. It feels good to my heart to know that at least in Sweden the school curriculum now includes a critical look at how history has been used throughout the ages to further this or that political idea or campaign, but also on how the ideas prevalent in a specific time has influenced analysis of an earlier era.

Apparently the recently late Terry Jones wrote a book, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives, companion to a TV series, in which he argues that Richard III was actually a good king. Might be worth digging up a copy.

ETA One mildly comforting thing about the debate about whether Richard III was a good king or not is that even with Shakespeare arguing one side of it, the case isn't regarded as closed 500-plus years later. Only mildly comforting because it took an awfully long time for the counter view to become respectable.

>93 Busifer: As the saying goes, "The victor writes the history".

>94 haydninvienna: Have you read, The Daughter of Time?

I have done some Googling since reading the book and it appears the evidence presented in it is real.

Having reached the stage in life from which I can view few several decades of personal experience I can state with confidence that I have no confidence is newspaper reports and am frequently amazed at how history books misrepresent events that I lived through.

The best history books I have found about Ireland are those written by Robert Kee, The Green Flag. He presented events without bias and left the reader to draw conclusions.

Well. The Danes had a king once that they nicknamed "the good". In Sweden his nick is "the tyrant". Who is in the right is always open to debate. I mean - good from which point of view?
It's actually one of the interesting aspects of many of C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union books: how changes that are good for society might wreck the lives on groups of already vulnerable people; and should we say that those changes are good, or are they bad? And - what responsibility carry those who bring the change towards the people that has to pay a personal price without ever getting any of the benefits?

Treason doth never prosper, and what's the reason?
If it DO prosper, there's none dare call it treason.

There has been a Yorkist Richard III Society since the 1920s, whose patron is the current Richard, Duke of Gloucester. When Richard III's bones were discovered under a Leicester car park, they were reburied with honour in Leicester Cathedral.

It is well-known that Macbeth is a gross calumny against that Scottish monarch, written to legitimise his overthrow and so curry favour with the usurper's descendant, James I & VI. Shakespeare was a genius as a playwright, but also a master propagandist.

>96 pgmcc: Yes I have. I started getting doubtful about newspapers in particular while I was working in a department where they used to circulate the daily press clippings. I noticed that I'd see the same text in different papers and eventually the penny dropped--the stories were written from somebody's press release. Then I got involved in a matter that was getting some press coverage, and as you did I started wondering about the accuracy of the reporting of things I knew about personally.

>97 Busifer: I saw this with the fairly recent controversy about "ride-sharing services". An economist, whom I shall not name, was shocked at the behaviour of a London cabbie towards an Uber driver. Now maybe ride-sharing is good for society as a whole (although I seriously doubt it, and don't intend to debate it here) but of course for a taxi driver Uber represents the wiping out of years of training and knowledge, and for the taxi proprietors, possibly the loss of substantial capital. Not surprisingly, the taxi drivers are not enthusiastic. Disclosure: I have a brother in law who runs a taxi fleet in Australia.

This is getting too serious: what about 1066 and All That? Good lesson in not being too convinced of the truth of history ("James I slobbered at the mouth and Had Favourites. He was therefore a Bad King.").

This discussion of the Wars of the Roses leads me to a question for Busifer:

I have recently read, in English translation, a book by Astrid Lindgren, with the English title: The White Rose Rescue.

The children in it are having a "war" with classmates, as the Knights of the Red Rose and the Knights of the White Rose. It is a game, but they seem to have a real historical war in mind, that they are enjoying re-enacting.

In retrospect, this seems to be odd.

Are Swedish schoolchildren so well versed in English history that the Wars of the Roses is a natural choice for them to emulate?

Or is there a Swedish conflict with the same name, that they are thinking of - and of which I am completely ignorant?
(Some comments seem to reference the Thirty Years' War - which is two hundred years later than the English Wars of the Rises.)

>100 -pilgrim-: In Sweden schoolchildren has no concept of the War of the Roses, at all, so this I'd say this is more a coincidence than anything else.
I learned about the War of the Roses as an adult. Only yesterday I asked my son, who's 16 and is on a track were history has a greater part of the curriculum than on any other post-compulsory school track, if they learn about it (or any English history at all). His answer was an unequivocal no. He attributed his knowledge of it to me. (He's currently writing an essay on the 100 years' war, which is why I asked.)

This is not to say that Astrid Lindgren didn't know, and borrowed the names from English history. But her audience wouldn't get the reference. Mind, we only ever study Hamlet in school, and then only in post-compulsory school ("gymnasiet"), and only in the most cursory way.

Edited to add: If there are references to the 30 years' war in the book I wouldn't know. I haven't read it since the 70's, and then only once. She never was my favourite author.

>101 Busifer: Thank you for answering so conclusively. I was aware that I was reading the 2nd book in the series, so there might have been explanation that I had missed.

Pippi Longstocking was one of those books that "every" child read, in England when I was little, but until recently I think the Pippi sequence was the only one of Astrid Lindgren's to be translated into English. I certainly had no idea that she was so prolific.

>102 -pilgrim-: Oh, she wrote A LOT. Some of it is quite sinister, like the story about the two siblings who die in a fire, only we don't really get that, as they immediately enter an afterworld through which they travel together. As a kid I never understood that they had actually died.

This is just a random post to report something that happened and made me feel all good inside.

I was having a conversation with a graduate recruit on my team. He has been working with me for about five months.

We were discussing a project he is working on and he was presenting issues that were causing difficulty for the project. He had a tendency to see a problem and interpret that as a reason why something could not be done.

As he presented a problem and said, "That is why we cannot do X."

I replied with, "No. It does not mean we cannot do X. It means we have to work out how we can do X despite this issue."

At that point he said, "I love that. If there is one thing I have learned from you it is that problems and barriers are things to be overcome or worked around rather than reasons why we cannot do what we want."

I felt chuffed. :-)

>104 pgmcc:
Makes it all worthwhile!

>104 pgmcc: Good work Peter! Old age and cunning will beat youth every time!

>106 haydninvienna: Who are you calling cunning?

>107 pgmcc: Quite some years ago one of my supervisors called me "devious". I think this was after an exploit in which I managed to provide for variable penalties under certain ministerial orders, which according to the received wisdom couldn't be done. I took it as a compliment.

>107 pgmcc: Rightly so.

>104 pgmcc: That is such a good feeling!

>108 haydninvienna: Justly so.

The Last Best Friend

In the first couple of chapters I was wondering how this would develop as these chapters dealt with the behaviour/character of the main protagonist. He was basically being made out to be a bit of a bounder. I was thinking that this was going to be a book that was full of characters that it was not possible to like. Having passed half-way I can say that liking the characters or not has been sidelined by what has become an interesting story. I am now picking it up whenever I can and enjoying it. The character based elements are carrying on in the background but the characters are developing, i.e. we can see their development as they pass through the story and experience different things. While George Sims not Graham Greene or John Le Carré his story is proving a good read and I have picked up a few interesting quotes and points of view. These will be produced in a later post.

I have thirty-four pages left in this story and have developed the feeling of wanting to reat it at any opportunity. I am planning a quiet cup of tea in a secluded coffee shop (upstairs café in Books Upstairs, of course) to finish it at lunchtime. Yes, it has caught my attention and dismissed any concerns I had earlier in the novel. Definitely a good read.

>111 pgmcc: & >113 MrsLee: I love the title and cover of that story. Very evocative.

>112 pgmcc: I see you are thinking ahead by finishing your current book sitting in a bookstore cafe. You will be able to purchase your next read right away. Clever!

>113 MrsLee: The cover picture is obviously a picture fromt the 1960s before clean air acts, etc... It reminds me of the fogs we had in Belfast at the time; heavily laden with soot from the coal fires everyone used.

>114 Sakerfalcon: You might think that, but I was so late finishing the book I had to hurry back to work. Yes, that is right, I finished the book. Yay!

I finished this today and found it a very satisfactory read. Set in the 1960s it has an interesting mystery with human entanglements of post-WWII survivors, and a human interest story in the background.

Sims kept the mystery going right to the very last sentence. DO NOT READ THE LAST PAGE BEFORE YOU REACH IT. I will be reading more of his novels. This was enjoyable and I will want more.

He obviously has a penchant for clothes and decor. When we meet a character we have a description of what they are wearing, but it is done in an engaging manner and feels very natural. Also, in a very easy way he describes the surroundings to scenes without interupting the flow of the story or making it feel in any way boring. As I said before, he is not Le Carré or Greene, and I would say he is not an Eric Ambler, but heis good and I will hunt out his books.

By the way, Sims was an antiquarian bookseller which will endear him to many here. The Last Best Friend takes place in the world of antique and antiquarian book dealers. In the novel Sims uses his obvious expertise to add flavour to the texture of the story.

Yes, I would recommend it to anyone who likes a mystery.

As >114 Sakerfalcon: has brought up the subject of my next read I will have to address the issue. As I have finished the only physical book I have with me I will have to resort to my Kindle and pick something from the unread e-books hiding there. If I do not resort to the Kindle then I will be subject to that most horrible of tortures; a bus ride home with nothing to read. Aaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh!

One of the pluses for the Kindle is that it fits in the inside pocket of my overcoat. This will not be of any benefit when the weather improves and I do not have an overcoat with me. That is a problem for future Peter.

>117 pgmcc: This will not be of any benefit when the weather improves and I do not have an overcoat with me.
This is why women carry handbags. Not for makeup, phones, anything else, but for books!

I'm glad you enjoyed the read. Sounds like a very satisfying lunch hour.

>118 Sakerfalcon: Sounds like a very satisfying lunch hour.

It was.

This is why women carry handbags. Not for makeup, phones, anything else, but for books!

When we met in Foyle's my wife and I had two Agatha Christie books we had bought earlier. They were hardback editions that we treated ourselves to. I had The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (which you can see in #29 above) and I cannot quite remember the one my wife had. Caitríona wanted her book to read on the train when she was travelling to Birmingham to see our daughter. I picked mine because of BBs here.

(Where is he going with this story.)

Caitríona kept her book in her handbag which she had with her in Foyles.

This day two weeks ago, she was out on her election campaign, parked the car, took some posters out of the car, and proceeded down the road with a couple of her helpers to put the posters on lamp posts.

She thought she had locked the car but, it appears, she had not. When they got back to the car her handbag was gone, as was her passport, driving licence and mobile phone. What is worse, the nice hardcover edition of the Agatha Christie had been in her handbag. :-(

Obviously the crook knew that women keep books in their handbags. Why else would they have taken the handbag.

This caused her a bit of difficulty on the following Tuesday when she had to submit her election nomination papers to the Dublin County Sheriff who is the Returning Officer for the General Election. She had conversed with his office on Monday about her having had her documents stolen and they told her there would be no problem. When she arrived they were very nice but without her passport or birth certificate (which she had not been asked to bring with her) the Sheriff said he could not tick the box that she was an Irish citizen and hence eligible to stand in the election. :-(

Eventually he called the Guards and they gave him the reference number for her report of the theft of her passport and he settled for that.

A further humorous event consequent on the robbery happened last night about 9pm when our doorbell rang. My immediate reaction was, "I hope this is not canvassers at this time of night!"

It is dark and the weather is cold, so it is not pleasant canvassing at this time of year and I know I certainly do not want to answer the door at that time of night in current weather conditions to talk to politicians. My wife was of a similar mind. She told me, "If it is any politicians, even ones from my own party, tell them to go away."

When I answered the door it turned out to be two Guards. They were following up on the robbery and wanted to take a statement from Caitríona.

They stayed for nealy half-an-hour and we had a great chat. One of the guards was helping Caitríona with suggested wording for her statement. He read out a suggested sentence and listed off the contents of the handbag as I listed them above, but also listed, "...and €400 in cash."

Caitríona blurted out, "Oh! I hadn't told Peter that bit."

The Guard apologised profusely and I said I had expected that some cash had been in the handbag.

The really worrying thing is that she did not list the Agatha Chrsitie book as one of the items in the bag. I wonder why she was hiding that from the Guards.

Which reminds me, when the doorbell rang we had been watching a Poirot; "The Third Girl". I had paused the DVD and the screen was frozen with an image of a girl holding a viscious looking, blood splattered knive. I do not know what the guards thought when they came into the room and saw that on the TV.

>117 pgmcc: The obvious solution is to carry more books at all times.

>119 pgmcc: You live an interesting life!!

>119 pgmcc: Oh no! I'm sorry to hear about the book theft. And the loss of the passport and money, obviously. I hope she is able to replace all the essentials without too much bureaucracy to deal with.

>120 suitable1: Obviously.

>121 Sakerfalcon: She was able to replace the phone quite quickly as she had the forethought to keep her credit card on her person. Usually she has it in her handbag but I had recently indicated to her that it was not a good idea and, surprisingly, she had listened to me.

The passport should be easy enough to replace but I think the driving licence will be a bit of a pain. The government outsourced this to some organisation that does not have many locations and insists on you going to one of their sites. Until the election is over Caitríona will not be in a position to do that.

The money was unfortunate. I suspect there was some GBP in her bag too, because I know she had some from our trip to London and she seldom uses cash. We will not cry over spilt milk. We will pick ourselves up and march onwards.

I stopped carrying a purse one day several years ago after I accidentally left it in the grocery cart. I never cared for having my purse dangling on my shoulder and getting in the way, so I always took it off and put it in the part of the cart near the handle while I shopped. I had finished my grocery shopping, proudly put the cart into the corral in the parking lot like a responsible and conscientious shopper, but left my purse in it like an irresponsible idiot and walked off. Luckily I realized what I had done before I had driven very far, and an honest person had picked it up and was walking toward the store with it to leave it with the staff. I caught up with him before he even got inside and he gave it back. I guess my panicked expression made it clear that I was the true owner!

After that, I asked myself, “How much of this stuff in my purse do I ever actually use when I’m out and about?” The answer easily fit into my pockets. Now I just take my credit card, my driver’s license, my debit card (as a backup method of payment just in case), my keys, and my smartphone. But I rarely have any occasion to take public transportation or sit for a very long time, so I don’t do a lot of reading outside my home anyway. When I go to the doctor’s office or eat breakfast by myself in a hotel, or whatever place where I might have a few minutes to read, I just sync my Kindle book up to my current page on my phone and use that. It’s not my preferred device for reading e-books, but it’s sufficient for a few minutes.

I’ve never missed carrying the purse, though. I do take a purse on rare occasions when I’m doing something that requires me to carry more items, but I find it very annoying and distracting now. For example, once every year or two I’ll make a trip to the bank to take out a bunch of $1’s and $5’s. I don’t normally use cash, so I do this to make sure I always have tip money on hand when I take trips or when I have service people out to my house or whatever. If my errand includes one of those trips, I take a purse to stash the money in. Otherwise I feel like people are going to think I’ve just robbed the bank if they see me walking out the door with wads of cash in my hands!

I have started and am enjoying Dread Journey, a BB from jillmwo. I see from my catalogue that I have another of Hughes's books, The Blackbirder.

As Jill said in her post on the story, it is a murder on a train. So far the characters have been introduced and I am learning of all the rivalries and hatreds amongst the passengers. The is at least one railway carriage full of motives. While the author is putting one person up as the most likely murder victim it looks like there could be another, if not a third possible victim.

This is the book I started reading on my Kindle as I travelled home from work yesterday.

Thank you, Jill, for the recommendation.

I saw jillmwo's recommendation of Dread Journey as well, and thought hard about it. After all, isn't there a starlet who is reading The Magic Mountain? In the end I decided I already had too long a wishlist. Maybe I should reconsider.

>125 haydninvienna:
Ironing again and more Haydn on the radio. Habit forming.

Concertino in G.

>126 pgmcc: Haydn is definitely habit-forming. Try not to have the association with ironing stuck in your head though.

Music I have associated with ironing creates a sense of joy. Such music turns what some might consider a mundane task into a time of serenity and contemplation. So far the ironing association has improved the ironing rather than damaged the music.

Of course, if I go to a Haydn concert I may feel dissatisfied if I do not have my trusty ironing board, iron and a pile of shirts with me.

E.T.A. I am enjoying Dread Journey very much.

>124 pgmcc: That was too easy. Between you and jillmwo I decided to put it on my Kindle wishlist, however, Dread Journey was only $1.99 on Amazon Kindle. Now it is on my Kindle.

>129 MrsLee:
:-)

It is a book I want to keep reading but my wife’s election work is keeping me away from it. :-(

Back to work tomorrow so I get to read on my commute.

>130 pgmcc:

You could be reading rather than using time ironing!

>131 suitable1: Given the circumstances under which Peter is ironing, I think he is doing OK.

>132 haydninvienna: Thank you for defending my honour. I put >131 suitable1:'s comment down to lack of election trail experience.

While I am really enjoying Dread Journey I had to give Dorothy B. Hughes a little licence when I found her using the word "inferred" when "implied" was the word required. I beleive meredy would not have been so forgiving.

What do you think, jillmwo?

Sorry about the loss of the bag and all of its contents. I've gotten a bit OCD about locking my car, but now I'll probably be even worse.

>123 YouKneeK: I'm still carrying a bag, but I've made myself start using a smaller one than I used to. Still just big enough to fit my Kindle.

Peter, what is your objection to reading on your Kindle? It sounds like it's your last resort.

Best laid plans...

As I will have mentioned before my two main reading slots are my commute to work and my commute home.

This morning I was leaving the house and heading for the bus while my next-door neighbour was leaving at the same time. He drives to work and when we leave at the same time he invites me to go in with him. Our conversations are always interesting and it is good to catch up. He knows the roads in Dublin very well and invariably gets me into town almost half an hour earlier than I would normally get there. While I miss out on my reading time on the bus his getting me in early gives me the opportunity to grab a cup of tea somewhere and do a bit of reading.

This morning when I got out of the car I went to a Starbucks near my office with the intention of reading for a while.

As I was ordering my tea the next customer in the queue said, "Hi! May I join you?"

It was a colleague and she joined me.

When she sat down she said, "I am probably ruining your reading time."

What do you think? She admitted knowing what she was doing. What should I do? How do you deal with someone who knowingly committs one of the most heinous crimes known to the reading classes?

>135 clamairy: I am in love with the tactile experience of holding and reading a physical book. A Kindle is very much a "make do with" alternative; the result of special circumstances.

Of course, had I capitalised special circumstances like this, "Special Circumstances", would anyone have been aware of the literary allusion?

Answers, on a postcard, to...

Spoiler rich comments. Read only if you have read the novel. (Looking at you, jillmwo.)


I have reached a stage where I believe the murder is to be discovered. It is on the second day and Kitty is about to enter Viv's compartment. So far the story has focused on how Viv plans to murder Kitten, but I beleive that is a ruse, a red herring, a piece of misdirection. The story so far has shown us that at least ALL the passengers have a motive for killing Viv. I think Viv is going to be the murder victim and I think Kitten is about to find him dead in his compartment.

I had to write my suspicions before reading the next chapter to put my marker in the ground. My commute home will reveal if I am right or I am wrong.

By the way, in case you are wondering, I went out for an early lunch (Soup, sandwich, cup of tea. I knew enquiring minds would want to know. suitable1, as you are likely to have the most enquiring mind, the soup was basil and tomato; the sandwich was on brown bread, mayo instead of butter, chicken, tomato and relish.) and took the opportunity of reading a few pages.

>136 pgmcc:
Just because she shared a table, you were not hindered from reading.

>139 suitable1: Why didn't I think of that?

By the way, it was Barry's Green Label tea; I am sure you would have asked.

>137 pgmcc: That's what you get for trying to read in public. According to some law that a fellow called Murphy (was he Irish?) made up, whenever one covets a stolen moment in public to read a book, there will be a non-reader there to interrupt.

>141 MrsLee: Tell me about it.

Generic wording of Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong."

I would suggest that Mr. Murphy was not a real person who coined the law but a stereotype construct for an Irish person who always gets things wrong; i.e. Murphy's Law could be interpretted as a racial slur. I choose to interpret it as a good rule to keep in mind when doing anything at all.

By the way, I strongly recommend Systemantics for funny axioms about systems (computer and otherwise) and how they fail. Key rules from "Sytemantics" include:

1. A system that becomes sufficiently large develops behaviours of its own.
2. Things are what they are reported to be.

I read one of the earlie editions of this book and found the later editions grew in girth but did not add much value to the content.

>138 pgmcc: mayo instead of butter: I'm sort of pleased that I'm not to only person who does this.

>140 pgmcc: Of course it was Barry's tea.

By the way, are we having a piffle party?

I used to have a book of Murphy's and related laws, but haven't seen it for many years. As I remember it was asserted that Murphy was a real person—he was a technician who was notorious for wiring things up wrong, and his officer exploded about "Murphy's Law" after a particularly egregious manifestation.

>142 pgmcc: Sorry, I never mean to slur. Personally, I think of Murphy as a very wise person who has a good perspective on this world and isn't the cause of the issues.

>144 MrsLee:
I never thought you did. I know you would not do that.

>143 haydninvienna:
We must investigate the history of said Murphy.

>138 pgmcc:
Dread Journey

I was wrong.

>145 pgmcc: As you would expect, there is a Wikipedia article about the origins of Murphy's Law. I find that the officer I was vaguely remembering was the amazing Colonel John Stapp. Look him up if you've never heard of him. Among his many claims to fame is that of being the father of the car seat belt.

>142 pgmcc: around here we refer to Murphy as the Patron Saint of Chemical Laboratories. His law is spot on in terms of what we deal with every day.

>148 Darth-Heather: I have a similar feeling about Murphy's Law relating to my nation in the same way I feel about The Peter Principle relating to people with my name. :-)

I finished Dread Journey yesterday and enjoyed it very much.

Currently sitting on a train awaiting our 7:35am departure for Athlone. I am working there today and with my wife still running around canvassing for Saturday’s election I do not have the car.

Of course, as most of you will appreciate, this provides me with uninterrupted reading time.

I have just started reading Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy by Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist. He is a great writer who presents economic issues in quite a humorous fashion. He has a column in one of the newspapers in England. I had the pleasure of attending a talk given by him in London two years ago.

When I wanted to mark my place in the book I realised I did not have a bookmark. Foraging in my pockets I found a receipt from Foyles’ bookshop. What a suitable bookmark it makes.

Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy is an interesting non-fiction discussion of various items that came into existence making certain things different and leading us to the current world in which we live.

On page 5 I learned that women are not the root of all evil. It was the plough. The arrival of the plough meant it was possible for people to be much more productive when growing food which released some of the hunter/gathers to specialise in different areas, one of which was soldiering.

Another aspect of the plough was that it was men who were considered suitable for using such implements which meant men were spending long hours in the fields while their women were at home grinding the corn and preparing it for use. This led to suspicion in the men's minds and they started to become paranoid about what the women were doing back home while they slaved in the fields. This led to men taking actions to control their women and this can be seen as the birth of misogyny and other abuses of women.

Harford is expert at putting two ideas together that no one would every think of linking and he shows how these things are related. In his introduction he lists a handful of questions to add to the excitement of reading his book. These questions include:

"What's the connection between Elton John and the promise of the paperless office?"

"How did a monetary innovation destroy the Houses of Parliament?"

He has other questions and these are quite intriguing.

A key premise is that with every new innovation there will be winners and losers.

As I said, an interesting read, but I might read it with intervals between chapters to read a fiction book.

By the way, this was an impulse buy in "Books Upstairs"; I walked into the bookshop's annex and found a mixed bag of books with this one sitting by itself. Knowing his work and having been impressed with his personal performance I reckoned it would be safe to take the plunge.

Today was polling day. It looks like I will be spending several hours at the count centre tomorrow. Kindle will be useful.

Sitting in the car beside the count centre. Storm Ciara is lashing us with rain and blowing the car from side to side. We have one Tally Counter with us and are waiting for two more to arrive. The count starts at 9am and the Tally people are to be briefed beforehand.

>151 pgmcc: That sounds like it might be an interesting pairing with It's Better Than it Looks, which I was reading yesterday. TH's suggestion about the plough fits nicely with Easterbrook's comparison of the area of land necessary to feed a hunter-gatherer with that necessary to feed the same person by broad-acre farming.

Probably too late now to wish Mrs Pete the best of luck, but I hope you both have a good day.

>154 haydninvienna: Thank you!

Sun now shining but number do not look good for Mrs Me. Looks like her party is not doing as well as expected and Sinn Féin is making gains everywhere.

>151 pgmcc: I've enjoyed Tim Hartford's Fifty Things... on Radio 4, and have heard two series. Didn't know there was a book but can well believe it's excellent.

>155 pgmcc: Strength-and-whatever to you both!

>156 hfglen: Thank you, Hugh.

My between Tim Harford chapters read is The Lights Go Out In Lychford.

Yikes, and good luck to all of you. (Both with the storm and the political imbroglio.)

For those of you who are interested the election is over my Mrs PGMCC. :-(

Until the next time.

:o(

I am 43% (no idea what page that is) into The Lights Go Out In Lychford and am enjoying it. It is quite emotional as it is dealing with dementia and all that that entails. Paul Cornell does not shy away from having real life problems in his stories.

>160 pgmcc: Sorry to see that, Peter. Please convey my condolences, or whatever you think is appropriate.

>163 haydninvienna: Thank you, Richard.

I'm sorry to hear that Caitriona was unsuccessful in her election bid. I hope that you can both take some time to recover from the busyness of campaigning.

What Claire said.

>160 pgmcc: I gather from reading Why We Get the Wrong Politicians a while back that losing an election can be really pretty traumatic. Even when you'd be the right politician, as in this case. I hope Mrs Pete isn't too downcast.

Sorry that I have been offline, and so missed the opportunity to wish Mrs PGMCC luck. My commiserations to you both.

Do you think storm Clara affected the turnout?

>160 pgmcc:

Can we claim that the election was rigged?

The Lights Go Out In Lychford

I enjoyed this sad but hopeful story. It includes the effects of dementia and will be poignant for many.Paul Cornell does not shy away from including real life issues in his stories.

This story brought me to tears. The second time Paul Cornell did that to me.

I started reading It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences on the train yesterday. It has proved to be another book on grammar, like Write to the Point by Sam Leith, that is easy to read cover-to-cover. The author has kept the content interesting by using a conversational tone and by including some humour.

When I was at grammar school I had an English teacher (he was not the nice man we had in first year) who kept complaining that we had not been taught to parse sentences at primary school. This was, apparently, totally our fault. He continued to give out to us class after class that we could not parse sentences but neither attempted to teach us how to parse, nor gave us any reference to a book that would inform us how to parse sentences. Parsing sentences, in his opinion, was something he felt was critical to our education in English, something that was his responsibility for the years that he had us.

This is the first book I have come across that actually educates a reader how to parse sentences. The book does not use the term "parse", but parsing is what the author has done when analysing sentences, and has done it in a fun way.

I have read almost half of the book and am tempted to arrange more work trips away so that I can get more reading time on the train.

This is a book bullet. I was riddled by book bullets for this book from several directions. The snipers in question know who they are.

You will be glad to know that I started reading it in bed last night and was hooked immediately.

My day was very long yesterday. I got up at 06:30 hrs and travelled to Cork by train. (2.5 hr train journey.) I had a day's work and returned on the 18:25 hrs train from Cork to Dublin arriving at Heuston Station at 21:00 hrs. I got the bus home at 21:15 hrs and arrived into the house 40 minutes later. I had a quick change of clothes and enjoyed a lovely dinner (sirloin steak and onions) that my wife had prepared for me. After that we had to go out to cut down some election posters that we had missed earlier. (There is a €150 fine for each poster left up beyond the 7 day after the election deadline.) This meant it was after 23:30 hrs when I got to bed.

I brought The Rook to bed thinking I would fall asleep after the first page. I was wrong.

By page eight I was contemplating reading into the night and was full of energy and enthusiasm for the book. I had to stop myself from reading in the hope that I would be able to get up for work in the morning.

This morning I got up at my usual 06:00 hrs and was still full of enthusiasm to read The Rook.

What I am trying to say is, "I am grateful to all those BB snipers who hit me with The Rook."

>172 pgmcc: I don't recall being one of the snipers, but I thought The Rook was terrific anyway. If you could have fallen asleep after that first page I would have been disappointed in you.

>172 pgmcc: Just remember not to bother with the TV show that was adapted from this book.

>173 haydninvienna: The snipers I recall most clearly are you, Sakerfalcon, clamairy, tardis, @NortherStar, and catzteach. Talk about a gang. I did not stand a chance. At the end it appeared they all wanted to get a kick in.

ETA: If you do not remember firing the shot you should look at post #36. You disguised your shot at me by implying that you had not fired a shot at me. That in itself was a coup de livre.

>173 haydninvienna: You have even stated your intention to fire another BB at me for the sequel.

Thank you!

>176 pgmcc: Consider it fired. Some people didn't like the sequel as much because Myfanwy is less prominent in it, but there's plenty of other weird people in there. And the reviews of Stiletto on its work page are even better than those for The Rook.

>177 haydninvienna: Have you read Altered Carbon?

>178 pgmcc: no I haven’t. I gather that it might be a bit dark for me.

>179 haydninvienna: I gather that it might be a bit dark for me.

You are the one who has hit me with a BB for a book that opens with someone coming too with dead bodies lying all around her and discovering her memory has been wiped clean. Is that not a bit dark?

:-)

>180 pgmcc: Well, yes, and quite a bit of both The Rook and Stiletto is fairly violent, and surprisingly gory. (One reason I had for not watching the TV adaptation was, what would they do about the gory bits? Given the general opinion of the adaptation, I seem to have made the right choice for other reasons.) But the overall mood isn't dark. Or, as sakerfalcon said about the Viriconium books, it's dark but not grimdark. It often seems cartoonish, like Jerry dropping a safe on Tom and Tom staggering around for a bit with a safe-shaped dent in him. O'Malley seems to have quite an imagination for weird violence. If I recall correctly, near the end of The Rook Myfanwy is attacked by a Grafter whose tongue has some unusual abilities, and defeats it/him by stabbing it/him with her epi-pen.

Having said which, I bought The Rook in the Kinokuniya shop in Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the only time I've ever been to Dubai, and how I wish Kinokuniya would open a shop here). The incident you put inside the spoiler tags is mentioned on the back cover, and that was what hooked me.

But what prompted you to ask about Altered Carbon?

>181 haydninvienna:

But what prompted you to ask about Altered Carbon?

The opening of The Rook reminded me of Altered Carbon. The waking up in a body and not knowing whose body it was reminded me of the way people transfer to different bodies in Altered Carbon. Without giving too much away (it is in the first page) the premise is that the main character has been taken out of storage and put into a body to investigate a murder. The person who hires him to do this is an amazingly wealthy individual. The rich guy hires the revived main character to investigate the murder of the rich guy himself. Yes, it is that convoluted. I found it a good read. The Rook's start gave me the same feeling I had at the start of Altered Carbon, hence my question.

>182 pgmcc: Fair enough. The trope of waking up in another body seems to be pretty common though. Now that wasn't a good idea. I started searching for the "waking up in another body" trope on TVTropes and of course fell down that rabbit hole. I found Ancillary Justice at the bottom of the rabbit hole though, and it sounds interesting.

>183 haydninvienna:
I read the book before watching the Netflix adaptation. There are differences. I enjoyed both but am still happy with the sequence in which I experienced them.

So glad you are liking The Rook! I enjoyed Stiletto very much, too.

I think I would like Altered Carbon. I’ll have to see if my library has it.

I'm very glad that our book bullets have successfully led you to a book that you are enjoying.

>186 Sakerfalcon: I did have a shaky few moments while all the instruction was being given about the organisation, but then came the interrogation. It has taken off from there.

Well into The Rook now.

Had a lovely evening. Met a friend for dinner and then we watched the film Brazil on the big screen in The Irish Film Institute. That was great fun.

Great quote from the film:

“Lowry. We’ve been close for a long time. Until this all blows over stay away from me.”

>188 pgmcc: Totally different context, but your quote reminded me of Boris Strugatsky 's description of the calculation required when deciding to whom you could give copies of your unpublishable novel (The Doomed City) for safekeeping - someone you knew well enough to know that they could be trusted absolutely, but not so well that they were known to be your friends; so that when "they" "come" for you, these are not friends that "they" would know to visit also.

And my favourite concept from Brazil was - guerrilla plumbing.

>189 -pilgrim-:
What a cast. Robert de Niro as the guerrilla plumber. Bob Hoskins as the state plumber. Michael Palin as the other agent. Jim Broadbent, Peter Vaughan, Ian Richardson, Brian Pringle, Gorden Kaye, Ian Holm, Johathan Pryce,...

I realise I have only listed male actors. That is because I recognised them and know their work. While the lady's played critical roles and played them perfectly, they were not people I immediately recognised from other works.

>190 pgmcc: It was pretty much a name check of top character actor of that era. And what other film of that period would get de Niro for such a small (if crucial) role?

>190 pgmcc: "I realise I have only listed male actors. That is because I recognised them and know their work. While the lady's played critical roles and played them perfectly, they were not people I immediately recognised from other works."

Katherine Helmond was pretty famous here in the USA. I believe she appears in two other Terry Gilliam movies besides Brazil, where she played Sam's mother. The other two TG films I remember her in are Time Bandits and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Brazil is a favorite movie. I own the Criterion Collection DVD set and re-watch fairly often.

(I'm still waiting for footwear hats to become a fashion trend...)

>192 ScoLgo: The shoe hats were great. I loved the plastic surgery techniques, especially the bull-dog clips.

I have not seen Time Bandits or Loathing in Las Vegas.

>192 ScoLgo:, >193 pgmcc:

I also have seen neither of the other films mentioned. Nor have I heard of Katherine Helmand. Her face was familiar in Brazil, but I could not have put a name to it, nor have I seen any of the other films that IMDb lists under her name.

Trying to catch up on threads - so sorry to hear about the theft of book, bag and other contents and also about election outcome.

The It was the best of sentences book sounds like one I should keep an eye out for.

>195 Peace2: Thank your comments on book, bag and contents. While my wife was a bit down about the result of the election I cannot claim to be unhappy about her not being elected. it would be too much pressure on her.

Yes, "It was the best of sentences..." book is an interesting read.

So, how is your progress on The Rook? I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I appreciated the humor greatly.

>197 clamairy:
I have just passed the halfway mark. Rook Thomas is in the house of purple fungus and chanters.

Ok, The Rook is a book I try to pick up at every opportunity. It is a page turner. There are not many life lessons or underlined passages but the story is keeping me interested and there is a thread of humour, usually in the form of sarcastic comments (either uttered out loud by a character or expressed as their thoughts) that keeps the mood suitably light. There is a fair amount of gore but that is kept in its place.

It is good entertainment fodder.

I have a colleague who finished The Kingdom of Copper yesterday. I gave her The City of Brass as a gift at Christmas. She loved both books and is now suffering withdrawal symptoms as The Empire of Gold, the final book in the trilogy, is not released until June of this year. She is suffering badly and cannot think of what to read next.

I plan to give her The Rook when I finish it. I think it is a good book to tide her over while her system recovers from the shock of finishing the two Chakraborty books and the frustration of waiting until June for the next one. This is an emergency and I will have to ensure she receives the proper treatment.

I have just bought the Delphi Complete Works of Anthony Trollope in Kindle format for £1.99 on Amazon UK.





I have also just bought "The Complete Novels of Wilkie Collins" for 82p and "The Complete Short Stories of Wilkie Collins" for 41p, also in Kindle format and from Amazon UK.

I hang my head in shame.

>199 pgmcc: May I suggest Alif the Unseen as a substitute for absent Chakraborty instalments? Vikram the Vampire has to be my favourite djinn. ;)

>199 pgmcc: I am so pleased to hear that you enjoyed it!

>200 pgmcc: Nice snags! What exactly causes the shame, though? That you're buying Kindle files?

>202 clamairy:
What exactly causes the shame, though? That you're buying Kindle files?

Of course. What else could possibly cause such scandal and shame?

>201 -pilgrim-:
You have hit me with several BBs. I am just ignoring your sniping. I will not click on the link. I will not be tempted. I will not...oh! Interesting.

>203 pgmcc: Your shame is just silly. ;o)

>203 pgmcc: If it makes you feel any better, I have just succumbed to City of Bohane in a Kindle Sale, on the strength of your, and Richard's, enthusiasm for Night Boat to Tangier.

I share your discomfort with Kindles, but the experience of being stranded without books for three months (over a year ago now, but I still remember the horror of it!) taught me the value of keeping a Kindle stocked with either free books or 'experimental copies' - books bought in sales, or omnibuses (omnibi???), like your latest haul, of OOP classics.

I have finished The Rook. It is a good page turner and kept me interested to the end.

My copy is now with a colleague who is feeling at a loss because she finished The Kingdom of Copper earlier this week and is yearning for the publication of The Empire of Gold to happen earlier than the scheduled June date.

Apparently the galleys arrived with S. A. Chakraborty yesterday, so the work is progressing.

My homeward commute will be spent reading It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. As suggested when I started The Rook my reading of this grammar book, which is very readable, took a backseat as the fictional story took off and led me along its path. It is my intention to finish It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. before starting anything else.

I want to go back over this grammar book and take notes on all the vital elements in each chapter, but somehow I am not making finding time to do this. It would be educational and useful for future reference.

>205 -pilgrim-:

I hope you enjoy City of Bohane. It may take some getting into. It is one of those books that uses a phonetic accent/dialect which takes a bit of getting used to. Usually I fall by the wayside with such books but I got into it fairly quickly and found the effort rewarded with a story that was not really about what I expected at all.

The accent appears to be a mix of an Irish brogue, a Traveller accent, and some Scottish intonations. If you can accommodate that then there is a rich story in there.

In terms of the Kindle, I first used an e-reader for books I found on Gutenberg. I then found some other books that were only available on Kindle and had to use the Kindle app on my phone. Last Christmas I was given a Kindle and have it in my coat pocket as a back-up for occasions when I find I have time and no book.

A physical book is still my preference. I like to underline and annotate. With the Kindle I find that more awkward than with a paper book.

>208 pgmcc:
And all that white-out on the screen makes it hard to read

>209 suitable1:
I see you feel my pain.

I have just noticed that this thread is taking a while to load. Time for Episode 2.