2020 Reading Record of PGMCC - Episode 2

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
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain 06/03/2020 - 09/03/2020 116 pages
When The Wind Blows by Cyril Hare 09/03/2020 - 15/03/2020 254 pages
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr 15/06/2020 - 25/03/2020 255 pages
Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor 26/03/2020 - 10/04/2020 320 pages
The Intercom Conspiracy by Eric Ambler 10/04/2020 - 17/04/2020 217 pages
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford 17/04/2020 - 25/02/2020 321 pages
An English Murder by Cyril Hare 26/02/2020 - 02/05/2020 202 pages
The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna 02/05/2020 - 09/05/2020 251 pages
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk 09/05/2020 - 410 pages

Welcome to Episode 2.

Let the wild rumpus begin!

Well, OK. I couldn't keep going through the grammar book without some fiction.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is my choice of a quick read. It does not waste any time getting down to brass tacks.

>3 clamairy: I am sure many people can cause a wild rumpus over this book.

>2 pgmcc:, >3 clamairy: Where do rumpuses live in the wild? Can they be tamed? What does clamairy want it to begin doing?

Should we be scared?

>5 -pilgrim-: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I suspect any rumpus clamairy sets loose would be very wild.

I finally got round to writing a review for The Daughter of Time.

This is an interesting who-done-it tale. The main character is a detective who is confined to a hospital bed for some months following a workplace accident. To avoid boredom he starts reading about Richard III and his reputation as an evil person.

With the assistance of a couple of friends who hunt out various historical documents he applies his crime investigative skills and the laws of evidence to the facts recorded in the historical documents.

The strength of this book is in its analytical approach to the interpretation of evidence and its demonstration that the history we learn and that is generally held to be true, may not be as reliable as we might think.

It is evidence that the victors write history.

>6 pgmcc: In a straight fight between a wild rumpus and a crocodile, which would you expect to win? and against a pride of lions?

>8 hfglen: I think to answer such questions we have to have pictures of a crocodile, a pride of lions, and a wild rumpus.

I will do my best to provide a picture of a wild rumpus.

clamairy or -pilgrim- might have pictures of a wild rumpus.

There is that rumpus room here in the Inn. I understand that it's mostly tame rumpuses that stay there, though.

>9 pgmcc: Turns out I only have poor pictures of the whole pride; one obscured by grass, the other taken at night. But crocodiles are easy. Anyhoo, I've put both here in my own thread.

The mighty Google reveals a number pictures of the Great Rumpus Cat in his Cats incarnation, by the way.

Hunting - carefully! - for wild rumpii, I came across the following:
http://forreadingaddicts.co.uk/bookshop-reviews/wild-rumpus-minneapolis-mn

I think that is a candidate for haydninvienna's Bookshop Tourism list. Pity I live too far away...

>12 -pilgrim-: Magical!

Very much the hard hitting, tough-life movie story.

ETA: I am just realising that I cannot think of a single appearance of a postman in the book.

>12 -pilgrim-: Brilliant!

Your threads are dangerous - having spent time in Foyles in London a little over a week ago while waiting for a friend looking for It was the Best of Sentences, It was the Worst of Sentences which I had added to my wishlist after being hit by a BB, I didn't actually find a copy in there but I did spend quite a bit more time browsing and adding to my wishlist (I was restrained due to renovation project about to happen at home and the need to not have any more boxes of books to store than I already have - where will I sleep during renovation if any more boxes are filled with books!) I was liberally adding books to the notes section on my phone for later purchase and the S A Chakraborty books were among them - seeing your comments earlier have moved them up the list. Would they work as audio books do you think? I may get to them sooner that way...

>16 Peace2:

I have never listened to a book so I would not consider myself qualified to comment on how well the Chakraborty books would suit the audio format. I suppose it depends on the reader.

In terms of boxes of books, I did comment to someone in a similar situation that they consider using them as the base for a coffee table, possibly a glass topped one. If the boxes are transparent or even semi-transparent they could become both a focus of interest and a topic of conversation with your visitors trying to make out titles and possibly commenting on them.

In your particular situation perhaps you could use the boxes as the base for a bed. With enough boxes you could create a reasonably sized base for a King-sized mattress. I am sure it would be very comfortable.

My reading of It was the worst of sentences... is progressing nicely. I have taken to reading a few chapters at a time and interspersing these bouts of grammar with fiction. I am still enjoying the tone.

Casagrande is not above admitting prejudice and does not hold back in ranting about semicolons and brackets. She still admits that they are valid punctuation marks but does urge restraint and proportionality in their use.

Going back to audio book versions of the Chakraborty novels, I am wondering would the format affect the formation of the world I have created in my head while reading the physical book. The reader's pronunciation, accent and general tone could change the way my mind has constructed the world I have in my head. If I were doing something else while listening it could interfere with the world building in my mind and contort my perception.

I think what I am saying is that I am not convinced that I would like to listen to a book read by someone else; especially books that exceed the 600 page mark. (Hey, I used a semicolon. Do not tell June Casagrande.) Oops, brackets too. :-)

I have started and am enjoying When the Wind Blows by Cyril Hare. It has a different title in the Touchstone. Possibly a US publication title.

I would not call this a direct BB, but more of a ricochet as the first Cyril Hare story I read was Tragedy At Law and this was a direct BB from jillmwo. On the strength of my enjoyment of the first book I purchased a few others by the author. This is the second one I have started and I have no regrets. Thank you, Jill.

>17 pgmcc:
I did comment to someone in a similar situation that they consider using them as the base for a coffee table, possibly a glass topped one. If the boxes are transparent or even semi-transparent they could become both a focus of interest and a topic of conversation with your visitors trying to make out titles and possibly commenting on them.

In fact, most of the work surfaces/shelving in my current bedroom consist of just such plastic boxes...

>17 pgmcc:
The problem with using the boxes for the bed 🛏 is that you'll have make the dog and cat move to open a box

>20 suitable1: There is always a catch.

>19 -pilgrim-: Thank you for providing the supporting evidence for >16 Peace2:.

It works.

>22 pgmcc: I cannot, however, speak as to the validity of your theory of their being conversation pieces, since I am not in the habit of inviting guests into my bedroom to find out.

>23 -pilgrim-: Well, we are already talking about it so your conversation-starting ploy appears to be working... ;-)

>23 -pilgrim-: & >24 ScoLgo:
My work here is done.

I admit it; I have bought books. It being 11th March 2020 I am rapidly approaching my 14th Thingaversary and need to get my acquisition count up.

On Saturday my wife went to Cork for lunch marking International Women's Day. I dropped her to the 10am train and then had nothing to do. Well, that's not quite true. I went to a camera shop and bought a filter to protect my lens. I then went to The Secret Book and Record Shop, but it was closed. :-(

However, Hodges Figgis was open. I found myself going home with:

The Science of Storytelling and The Power of Small: How to Make Tiny But Powerful Changes When Everything…. Unfortunately I found my copy of The Science of Storytelling was damaged; some pages had been bound imperfectly. :-(

Yesterday I popped out for a walk at lunchtime and found myself in Chapters Bookshop where I found The Man Who Fell to Earth.

After work today I went to Hodges Figgis to see if they would exchange my damaged copy of The Science of Storytelling. I should have checked the book when I bought it so I was not 100% sure I could get an exchange. My fears were unfounded. When I showed the book to the man at the Customer Service desk, he was shocked. I could tell he loves books for their own sake. He replaced my copy immediately and apologised profusely that this had happened to me. Full marks to Hodges Figgis Customer Service.

On my way from the Customer Service Desk, located at the back of the shop, I had to pass piles of books. By the time I got to the door I had The Capital and The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories in my possession.









No suitable picture of The Power of Small.

>26 pgmcc:

Re: Secret Book Shop

Please note. The code knock and password are changed ever forty-five day. Please check with your pusher.

>27 suitable1: Let us know what you think of The Capital. I bought it a while back on the basis of a review in the Economist, but haven’t read it yet.

>28 haydninvienna:
I certainly will. You might get to it before me.

>27 suitable1:
My pusher is Mary in the Books Upstairs bookshop. It was open but I did not go in. You know how these dealers can be if they think you have been with one of their competitors.

I was tempted by the Penguin book of Italian short stories the other day while in Foyles at Waterloo Station (my favourite station, for this reason). I resisted, but can't guarantee I will hold out for long.

ETA Ooh, just had an idea. I could buy it for work and then borrow it! The perks of working in a library.

>30 Sakerfalcon: I was tempted by the Penguin book of Italian short stories the other day...

My purchase was the result of "stack'em high" temptation. While the Customer Service assistant went to get my replacement copy of "The Science of Storytelling" I noticed a large stack of The Penguin book of Italian short stories, picked one up, had a quick browse of the contents page, and then put it down again.

After my book replacement transaction was complete I headed for the front door but passed a table of books from other European countries and stopped to have a look. Yes, there was a copy of the Italian short stories book sitting amongst the other books and having already been softened up by my earlier browse I decide to pick it up.

There was a silver lining. When I came to pay for my two books I produced my loyalty card. It is one of those cards that they stamp on a squared for every €10 you spend. When you have ten stamps you get €10 off your next purchase. My purchase came to €28. The shop assistant, who happened to be the same person who served me at the Customer Service Desk, filled my card and then gave me €10 off the purchase. He then gave me a new card and put three stamps on it. I have always found Hodges Figgis to be very liberal in how they interpret their loyalty card scheme. Where there is any grey area for interpretation I find they always, without hesitation, go with the option that favours the customer.

The Taoiseach has announced that all schools, colleges and childcare facilities will be closed from 6pm this evening until 29th March.

Shops are to remain open.

Public transport is to continue to operate.

Internal gatherings of more than 100 people are to be cancelled. External events involving more than 500 people are to be cancelled.

People are encouraged to continue to go to work but are urged to work from home if they can. (That one looks a bit internally inconsistent.)

Restaurants are to implement social distancing as best they can. (This will eliminate some small restaurants.)

People are asked to avoid socialising. (There goes the pub trade.)

I have been asked to get my team together at 4.30pm this evening for a cascade message from the Management Board. They have not given a venue and I suspect we will receive an e-mail to read out to our teams. That would avoid bringing everyone into a single location.

We appear to be entering an historical period during which we will all be suffering from a common problem. Keep well everyone.

By the way, the Books Upstairs Bookshop has posted on facebook that they will be happy to see us if we drop in today to stock up on books to carry us over the period of lock-down that is coming. They have obviously made the connection between books and toilet paper.

My daughter who works at Bicester Village outlet centre says that things have gone very quiet. Despite the Taoiseach’s good advice, I would happily visit an Irish pub right now.

After 6 months of being housebound, except for hospital trips (and a brief interval over Christmastide), this "chemo holiday" is supposed to be my chance to "get out and about a bit" and socialise.

My timing is impeccable, as usual.

>26 pgmcc: I have remembered the point that first attracted me to The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories. I knew there was something other than its being book.

In my initial brief browse of the contents page I noticed there is a story by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa included. He was the author of The Leopard, a book I loved and strongly recommend.



That story will be the first one I read from this collection. I am curious to see what it is like. I must check out who did the translation. My reading of The Leopard was not hindered by any sense of its having been translated, so the translator, Archibald Colquhuon, must have done a great job.

>35 -pilgrim-: :o( I'm so sorry.

>36 pgmcc: I'm mulling over this recommendation, but first you have to promise me that the writing style is nothing like Haruki Murakami's. ;o)

>36 pgmcc: I have been meaning to read The Leopard ever since it was quoted in The Prisoner by Thomas Disch.

>38 -pilgrim-: Is that a book about the programme or a novelisation of the series?

I remember seeing the first episode of The Prisoner when it was first broadcast. My mother and I watched it. We had always been avid viewers of Danger Man (It was called, "Secret Agent", in the US.). We were expecting a new series of Danger Man to start and The Prisoner started. I know the producers said it was not a sequel to Danger Man but we thought it was. I read a few years ago that it was conceived as a sequel by Patrick McGoohan and the producer. The producer was from a competing TV production company and when word was slipping out about their making a sequel to Danger Man there were whispers of law suits for copyright infringement, etc... That was when they started denying that it was a sequel to Danger Man.

>37 clamairy: Trust me, you will enjoy it.

>39 pgmcc: It is a novel. But not a novelisation of the series, just a novel set within the series:

The Village is putting on a performance of Measure for Measure, with Number 6 cast as the Duke. He is, of course, taking part for the same reason as he does anything.

So - we have someone who intends to not be there when everyone thinks he is, playing the role of someone who is there when everyone thinks he is not....and that's just for starters.

I don't remember if there was actually an episode of The Prisoner with that plot - my parents had only just got a TV, there was no such thing as VHS, so if you missed an episode, you had missed it - but I don't think there was.

I never saw Danger Man, other than an episode shown as part of a Patrick McGoohan retrospective some time in the nineties. But I watched The Prisoner every time the ran it - and negotiating with my parents to watch a TV programme that started at 11.30pm on a school night was a feat in itself!

Be seeing you.

>41 -pilgrim-:

Caitríona and I go to a holiday village in France for holidays. Others here know it as my spy training camp where I go for debriefing and advanced spy training.

The staff go around the camp in golf carts and they always greet you with a wave and a "Bonjour!"

I commented to Caitríona one day that this reminded me of The Village and the "Be seeing you!" greeting.

Caitríona was not familiar with The Village so I obtained the boxed set. She really enjoyed it.

I then mentioned its origins in Danger Man and again this was new to Caitríona.

Yes, we got the boxed set of Danger Man and she loved that too.

B.C.N.U.

I have enjoyed When the Wind Blows, a murder mystery by Cyril Hare. jillmwo introduced me to the work of Cyril Hare in 2017 with Tragedy at Law. This is another delightful cozy crime novel.

Unlike other murder mysteries I have read or watched on TV I was able to identify the guilty party. I was not able to identify the motive, but that was due to the holding back of a bit of information until the end of the story, although, to be fair, there was a hint to it earlier in the story.

Thank you, Jill, for introducing me to Cyril Hare.

The TV series The Prisoner was filmed in Portmeirion, the tourist village on the western coast of Wales created by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis. I keep scheming to go there, but have small chance of persuading Mrs Haydninvienna.

Minor fun fact: Clough Williams-Ellis's wife Amabel was a joint compiler of a number of SF anthologies. One of the first SF books I ever remember reading was Out of this World, edited by Amabel Williams-Ellis and Mably Owen. Foreword by, heaven help me, Bertrand Russell, according to ISFDB. One classic story that I remember to this day: "The Ruum" by Arthur Porges.

>44 haydninvienna: I have often thought I would like to visit Portmeirion but have never bothered to organise the trip. With our trips to France taking up the bulk of my leave there does not appear to be a suitable time for me to arrange a trip. Our daughter is living in Birmingham and I was thinking we might combine a trip to visit her with a few days visiting Wales and pop into The Village for a quick reconnoiter. Of course, once we would get into The Village would we ever get out? You know what happens spies people when the visit there.

Now my daughter and her husband may be going back to the US. Between that and the current virus fiasco it does not appear there will be a suitable time to visit Portmeirion this year.

I like your fun fact.

>44 haydninvienna: >45 pgmcc: Having been to Portmeirion (nearly 40 years ago), if ever I were so lucky as to revisit UK, I'd hesitate to put it ahead of the Ffestiniog Railway. Pete, when Better Half, Aged Mother and I went there, we were happily out within two hours.

>46 hfglen: Last year we took the car over on a visit to my daughter. We got the ferry to Holyhead in North West Wales. My intention was to take motorway across North Wales and then travel south to Birmingham, again by motorway. I do not know why, but we trusted the Sat Nav and it took us through Snowdonia. I did not know North Wales was so beautiful. If I every plan the trip to Portmeirion, The Village will be one stop on a tour of that part of Wales. I must check out Ffestiniog Railway.

Did you ever make it to the railway station at Crianlarich in Scotland?

I have started reading The Science of Storytelling in the hope that it will add to the valuable insights I found in John Yorke's excellent book, Into the Woods.

I am seventeen pages into the book and it has not added any new information yet, but has promised to explain how our brains work when listening to stories. He has referenced Yorke's book and actually stated the same things Yorke stated. I do hope this book is not just going to repeat Yorke's point. Storr does promise to look at stories from the position of the brain's reactions to them rather than from story structure.

Like Yorke, he has stressed the central role of character in developing empathy and intrigue in the reader.

>47 pgmcc: The rule should evidently be NEVER trust the satnav without independent checking! But in this case it paid off.

We went through Crianlarich on our way somewhere else, but missed the station.

>49 hfglen: I believe I told my Crianlarich story from 1978 here before. If you do not recall it I will seek out the post and copy it to here.

It doesn't ring a bell, sorry.

I am delighted to report that The Science of Storytelling is proving very informative and interesting. It is an excellent companion to John Yorke's Into the Woods.

It took effort to pull myself away from the book to write this post. I felt it important, however, to update you on my progress and view of the work.

I have just read page 86 and I already have two pages of one line reference notes at the back of the book. I have also underlined many passages.

The section I have just finished described the geographic origins of Western and Eastern society and how this led to Western stories being predominantly focused on individuals with Eastern stories having more to do with groups. The Western hero will have battled evil or adversity and won, while the Eastern hero will have modestly done what had to be done to benefit the family or the group.

This is just a tiny bit from the book.

Now I am going back to the book.

I was looking at photographs on a facebook page yesterday. They are on a page from a part of Donegal that I spent a lot of time in over the years, my teens and twenties mainly.

There were pictures of a local school play.

My normal reaction when I see pictures from there is to see if I can recognise anyone in the pictures. It used to be I would be looking to see individuals that I know. Then it was looking for people who might be the children of people that I know.

Yesterday I was looking for people that might be the grandchildren of people that I know. :-)

>53 pgmcc: A few months ago, a teen worker at a fast food restaurant said, "You look like my best friend's mom!" He was very excited by this. I said a cheerful thank you whilst sobbing internally.

Once, about 14 years ago, when picking son up from kindergarten, one of the teachers from another... ward (? any way, normally working with another group of kids) asked me if I was my son's grandmother.
I had just turned 40.
Gray hair seems to do that to a woman.

>55 Busifer: I'm guessing the word would be class.

>56 suitable1: Or lack of it...?

One of my best friends from school didn't become a father until his early 50's. I know for a fact that he gets the "grandpa/grandchild" thing when they are out & about. I learned a long time ago not to assume such things. The, "when are you due?" question asked of women that may or may not be pregnant is a particularly egregious example. o_O

I don't smoke but my mother-in-law does. Mrs. ScoLgo and I will therefore regularly purchase a carton of cigarettes for her. I have slowly come to realize that I am no longer asked to show ID when purchasing cigarettes or alcohol. I must admit I sort of miss those days.

>57 ScoLgo: Some 15 years ago I moved from Pretoria to Durban, which was mostly bliss. But I did find it a tad bit difficult to adapt to the local and frequently-used term of respect. Baba translates as "grandpa" and is equally used by Zulus I've never met and those I know relatively well.

>55 Busifer: For many years, I've looked younger than I am. My aunt warned me that would go away almost overnight. Apparently, a new day has dawned. Alas. Although I am not quite at the age where I'll wear my trousers rolled.

>59 libraryperilous: I don’t wear my trousers rolled either, but I have always dared to eat peaches. The mermaids have never sung to me though.

>60 haydninvienna: You can only hear the mermaids after you've worn purple with a red hat that doesn't go. Or so I'm told.

>59 libraryperilous: In general people are surprised when I tell my age; they always think of me as younger than I am. The on time when a person mistook me for older than I am (see >55 Busifer: above) I was tired, it was in the middle of the winter, and I wore a black full length winter overcoat with wide fake fur trimmings at the neck and hands. The cut was somewhat late 1800's Russian, if you get what I mean ;-)

>62 Busifer: Just keep telling yourself that. :-) That's what I do.

Between August 2009 and September 2016 I had a beard. I was amazed at how differently people treated me. In those years people offered me their seat on the bus on four occasions. I did not accept, of course. In shops I was paid more attention by shop assistants than I had been before having a beard.

My beard was shaved off the day after my wife heard the following joke:

I hate it when I see an old person and realise I was at school with them.

The day after hearing that joke my wife said, perhaps you should shave the beard. I interpreted that as her paraphrasing the joke to:

I hate it when I see an old man and realise I am married to him.

>63 pgmcc: Ouch. My wife and I frequently joke about being 2 old crocks. I think I'm a younger old crock than her though, even though by the calendar I'm 7 years older. In her case a lifetime's ridding injuries have something to do with it.

>64 haydninvienna: The ironic thing is that the beard was grown at her prompting in the first place.

>63 pgmcc: LOL! I sometimes see someone in the street and think they look somewhat familiar. Then I realize that they look like someone who I knew at fx work, 15 years ago, and should look older now, had it really been that person.

There's a thing going on among Swedish Facebookers at the moment, when people post pictures from when they were in their late teens or early twenties. Almost every time a picture pops up my reaction is "I knew that person!".

>62 Busifer: I have been dressing like a babushka in the winter since I was a teenager. Warmth is good. :)

I finished this excellent book this evening. It is a wonderful description of how we react to stories. It is full of information from psychological studies and examples from books and movies.

It explains how interdependent plots and characters are, and how stories have different levels, the plot being the surface and the protagonist's emotional and psychological response to the events of the story being the underlying level.

Apart from discussing our psychological response to stories the book also describes the psychological reactions and experiences of all of us in real life, and how our brain develops a neural model of the world in our early years that will solidify in early adulthood and dictate our world view and reactions into the future. Storr uses this to help explain how we can give fictional characters a degree of credibility and enable readers to connect with them.



I read John Yorke's excellent book, Into the Woods, last year. It was about the structure of story. When I picked up The Science of Storytelling I was a bit dubious as to how good it might be and how it would live up to Yorke's earlier publication. The content quickly proved the value of the book, its insights, and its useful advice. Storr referred to other writers on writing but held Yorke in very high regard. The other writer he referred to favourably was Christopher Booker; his book The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories was recommended with Yorke's Into the Woods as companion books to his own. I can state categorically that Into the Woods and The Science of Storytelling are well suited as a pair. I have Booker's book but have not read it yet. It will not be long before I do.



I would recommend this book to anyone interested in storytelling, either from the viewpoint of writing fiction, or telling a story in a business context. It is also a help in understanding conflict and people's reactions to opinions that do not agree with their own.

>68 pgmcc: So if you had to pick one of the two that you've read to recommend which would it be? I see one of them has a slightly higher rating here on LT, and I'm curious to know if you actually preferred one over the other.

>69 clamairy:
That would be a tough call and the answer would depend on what the person seeking the recommendation wanted from the book.

If I were to presume the person wanted more than a storytelling discussion, I would recommend The Science of Storytelling as it deals with the psychology of conflict and explains why people react violently to views that do not match their own. It explains that a person’s neural model of the world is their control mechanism, the thing that enables them to operate in the world, and if something arises that disagrees with their neural model, it will threaten their model of the world and hence their control mechanism thereby threatening the foundation of their very being; this explains why people react so violently to differing political or religious views.

I think you would like it.

>70 pgmcc: Thank you. I'll see if I can get my hands on it. (BTW, Into the Woods is the one with the higher rating.)

>71 clamairy: I cannot be called to account for the errors of others. :-)

I would say Into the Woods would be of a more general appeal. In my recommendation, which I did say would be a difficult choice, I presumed you would be interested in more than the storytelling aspects; The Science of Storytelling provides that extra je ne sais quoi (actually I do know but GD guidelines make it difficult to state here) that would appeal to you. My recommendation to you was tailored. :-)

My preferred recommendation to people would be to read both if you have the time and can afford to. They work really well together.

Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor

With most of the country keeping to their homes, a friend of mine suggested having an on-line book-club read. This was her second suggestion when it turned out her first choice as only available in hardback and the Kindle edition is not yet available.

I have my reservations about reading a book by Joseph O'Connor. I have already read two of his books:

Inishowen


and

The Secret World of the Irish Male.


The first of these, Inishowen, was a mediocre crime novel set in Ireland. I disliked the way the author created landscape that does not exist in the places the action was supposed to be taking place. Looking back I see I gave it a 2-star rating.

The Secret World of the Irish Male was a puerile, school-boyish view of the world which I gave up on half-way through. I thought it was pathetic.

Joseph O'Connor is one of the authors greatly praised by the Irish Literati. Why is this, I ask myself. His work is not of any great merit as far as I can tell. Have I missed something?

Or is it the fact that his sister is Sinéad O'Connor who has achieved fame and notoriety as a singer and general rabble-rouser? I do not know, but he has not impressed me in his writing or in any interviews or panel discussions he has been on. I suspect it is a case of being a celebrity because he is a celebrity and not because of his talent. His celebrity, I suggest, is his relationship to a very talented sister who has had a rocky road in her life and who has become famous for many reasons.

"So," I hear you ask, "why have I agreed to read another book by an author whose work has not impressed me in the past?"

The reasons as far as I can assess are:

1. I do not want to let my friend down by rejecting a second choice book,

2. I am going to give O'Connor another chance to prove himself to me,

3. Now that I am equipped with the knowledge I have gained from Into the Woods and The Science of Storytelling I will be able to make a more educated assessment of what I like or dislike about this book. It is, you might say, an experiment to see if I can see elements in a novel that I might hitherto have missed.

4. The story is a fictionalisation of the life of Bram Stoker. I have read at least one biography of stoker and have been involved with a group known as, "The Friends of Bram Stoker", which has included a number of Bram Stoker's descendants, including Dacre Stoker who has travelled the world promoting his own books on Dracula. Having attended a number of talks and discussions about Stoker, his life and his work, I have a modicum of knowledge about his life. I want to see how O'Connor's work matches reality.

If I enjoy this book it will show that I have undergone a change and have been persuaded to set aside initial prejudices to give a work a fair chance. If I hate it and throw O'Connor once and for all into the category of, "I will never read any of that tosser's work again!", you will simply say I was biased from the very start. I cannot win. If the former occurs I will have demonstrated that my neural model of the world is flawed and the very foundation of my existence will have been smashed to pieces. If it is the latter that happens, then my story will be seen as a tragedy in which I reverted to the sanctuary of my flawed perception of reality.

We shall see. Stay tuned to discover how Peter reacts to this new novel by a mediocre writer who has not impressed in the past.

>73 pgmcc: We shall see. Stay tuned to discover how Peter reacts to this new novel by a mediocre writer who has not impressed in the past.
Had to laugh out loud :D
We'll see, indeed, but expectations are not that high, are they? ;-)

The Science of Storytelling sounds like a piece of writing that I'd enjoy. Added to my list.

>74 Busifer:
Pella, I wish you the best for your birthday. Under the circumstances I am sure you recall better days. Keep safe and well.

I think you would enjoy The Science Of Storytelling. I learned a lot from it. If you take its argument to an extreme it could be seen to demonstrate that we could all be living in The Matrix.

>73 pgmcc: The cover of The Secret World ... isn't inspiring, is it? I will be interested in your opinion, Peter, but at present I find it even less inviting than Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, just on the basis of that cover.

>75 pgmcc: If you take its argument to an extreme it could be seen to demonstrate that we could all be living in The Matrix.
In a way we do, don't we? The Matrix can be interpreted as an allegory for the system as a construct... depressing to think about, right now, though, so I rather put that on hold until (hopefully) brighter days are here.

"Sinéad O'Connor Is Still in One Piece".

I made a start on brother Frank's Star of the Sea and didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

>78 libraryperilous: As has been mentioned, my expectations are low. That could be my downfall. :-)

>79 pgmcc: Never have high expectations if you can at all help it. Life is so much easier that way.

>80 clamairy: Amen!

George took a selfie of himself and Willow.

>82 pgmcc: LOL!

>82 pgmcc: Cuuuuuute!

>82 pgmcc: cute!

George is obviously very smart (to be able to take selfies), as well as cute.

A very cute pair!

>82 pgmcc: Which is which? I do not remember these things. The dog is handsome, but the cat is stunning!

>88 clamairy: George is the cat, the one reaching out to take the selfie.

George is the sole survivor of the four kittens we adopted in 2013 when we found them in our garden. A lot has happened since then.

Willow was a rescue from being dumped in a pound because the owners' circumstances changed and they could not look after her.

They both look like wonderful companions. Sorry that you lost all of George's siblings. I don't let my cat out, because if a car didn't get her I'm sure a raccoon, fox, hawk or something else would.

O'Connor is trying too hard. The details of the relationship between Stoker and Irving do not match the biographies. I have to take this book as a total fiction.

The writing jars a bit.

>68 pgmcc: I'm not sure whether to regret not taking the chance to get The Science of Storytelling on special offer from Audible when I saw it the other day or relieved, because it strikes me I would enjoy it more in paper form,.

Your reaction so far makes me relieved that I didn't go for Shadowplay when the library was adamant it should be my next read.

>92 Peace2: O'Connor is starting with a handicap as far as I am concerned and he has not shown me anything in this book so far that indicates I should change my opinion of his work.

In relation to The Science of Storytelling I definitely needed the physical copy. I have four-and-a-half pages of page reference notes in the back and have dozens of pages with underlined sections. I do not know how I could do that with a Kindle.

>93 pgmcc: I suspected it may be a book that would need more than just the auditory input for me to appreciate fully - your words have confirmed the impression - it will take me longer to get to it, but I shall bookmark it for the 'one day' pile.

I have been tidying up a room that we have used to store things while we had a new floor laid in our dining and sitting rooms. As there were about five book cases in those rooms and they had to be moved for the floor operation, there were one or two books stored in this room in piles on the floor. Unfortunately my wife did not allow bookcases to be put back in those rooms so the books have arrived on the floor for some time.

This can be looked at in a positive light when one realises that some of the books involved are books I like very much and which I have not seen for some time. The first picture is of a crate of books I had displayed in the sitting room. The second picture lets you see the front cover of the Roget's Thesaurus. It has been fun rooting through books and meeting old friends.





Unfortunately the room also contains the detritus of two of my children, books of the third, and all the old odds and sods (old laptops; disparate power supplies; discarded clothes; etc...) that gather with a family of six, and occasionally a partner, living in the house full time. We are left with only one fledgling, but the other three have let it be known, albeit by insinuation, that they do not want "their" rooms to be absorbed into general household use. That is stopping now.

:-)

>95 pgmcc: The fairy tale editions are gorgeous!

>96 libraryperilous: I like them a lot.

>95 pgmcc: "Unfortunately my wife did not allow bookcases to be put back in those rooms"

Did you try negotiating on this edict a bit more vigorously?

I will finish this book but if I were not reading it for a book club discussion I would probably have abandoned it. The writing is not bad but I do find it tedious the way O'Connor relies too much on techniques that he obviously considers as good. One tedious writing tick (and that is the correct spelling for my meaning) he has is the way he introduces a new place or scene a character comes across. For example, when his Stoker enters a market we get a litany of all the types of vegetables present in the stalls; when Stoker is at a theatre we get a litany of all the types of reprobate that attend the theatre; when Stoker enters a street for the first time get two litanies, one of the type of buildings/stores in the street, and then the litany of all the different types of people on the street and working in the various buildings on the street.

His repeated use of this technique reminded me of Stieg Larsson's use of sex scenes in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to set up info dumps that took place while the participants in the scene had their post-coital cigarette. In that book, every time someone received a gentle caress, or two people exchanged a lingering look, my mind shouted out, "INFO DUMP COMING!". My mind was always correct.

I am ready to go to bed, but my book is still charging.

>100 pgmcc: You know you can read it while it's charging.

>101 clamairy: The socket is too far from the bed.

>102 pgmcc: Go find an extension cord. 😄

>100 pgmcc:
First world problem!

>98 clamairy:

Did you try negotiating on this edict a bit more vigorously?

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!...

Good one, Clare.

I was buying something recently and it was advantageous to accept the Amazon Prime free trial for a month. I reckoned I could watch the Amazon Prime Video seasons of things like Season 3 of The Expanse that I could not watch otherwise. I feel like the person in the song who joined the navy to see The World, but what did they see, they saw the sea.

Everything I want to watch on Prime Video is, "Not available in your area." :-(

Guess I will not be signing up for Amazon Prime on an on-going basis.

>104 suitable1: They are the best ones to have.

>106 pgmcc: Oh no! Why is that? Are there a bunch of things you can watch that I can't, then?

>108 clamairy: It must be to do with licensing. Picard is one such show that is not available.

>106 pgmcc: Must be licensing issues. In Sweden I can watch Picard on Prime, and The Expanse.

As a little distraction I thought I would post this picture of one of the hills you see as you wind your way through the foothills of the PGMCC TBR Mountain Range.

>111 pgmcc: This kind of stacking is very familiar to me, and has its own loveliness.

>112 clamairy: It is the highest form of art. It can only be a higher form of art if one stacks right up to the ceiling.

>111 pgmcc:
Are these the books that were banished from the dining room?

>114 suitable1: No. Those books are in a different room.

Beats the towering stack on my bedside table (parts of which has been relegated to the floor beneath, for reasons of avalanche safety procedures)!

>116 Busifer: There is a small stack on my bedside cabinet; perhaps four or five books. George, our cat, often ensures these books decorate the floor.

>113 pgmcc: Looks like you are nearly there!

I have many piles like that on my bedroom floor.

Just get rid of them. Once this isolation clears off, take half the books to a charity shop or something. Cut, cut deep, cut until it hurts ;-)

>119 BookstoogeLT:

Surely you jest!

>120 suitable1: Not even a little...

>121 BookstoogeLT: You are heartless...

>122 -pilgrim-: I'm guessing you meant me? If so... ABSOLUTELY!!!! :-D :-D :-D

>106 pgmcc: But is Follow the Fleet available in your area? That is the real question.

>124 libraryperilous: Fred and Ginger are always great. I must check if it is available.

I read BookstoogeLT's comments and I have gone funny all over. It will be some time before I recover.

>126 pgmcc: What parts of you were funny before you read his comments?

Don't take them too seriously, though. It takes me months to get rid of books. I'm constantly puling things back out of the 'donate' pile. I don't want them turned into pulp. :o(

>127 clamairy:
That is a very personal question. I will have to PM you. ;-)

I have managed to finish Joseph O'Connor's ShadowPlay and can report it did not convince me to read any more of his works. This is the third of his books I have read and it is the last.

Those people following my thread will know that I started reading this book with a poor opinion of the first two novels of his that I have read. One was totally puerile and based on nothing but a schoolboy humour level of content (The Secret World of the Irish Male) and the other was a mediocre police drama that failed to excite and made up terrain that does not exist where he based his action (Inishowen).

You will also note that I made a conscious effort to wash my bias out of my mind and approach this book with an open mind and willing to evaluate it on its own merits.

Those of you who have not been following this thread will be wondering why I read another O'Connor book given my disappointment at his former efforts. A friend has come up with the idea of a Covid-19 Lockdown Book Club with meetings on Zoom. Her original book suggestion was not available for a few months and this was her second suggestion. I did not want to reject her second suggestion and become that guy who was never happy with anything.

The book is about the lives of Bram Stoker, Sir Henry Irvine, and Ellen Terry. Bram Stoker, as many people will know, wrote Dracula, hence the image of the first edition above. (I do not possess a first edition myself but I do know those that do.) Sir Henry Irvine was a greatly acclaimed actor who asked Bram Stoker to leave Dublin and manage his theatre in London, The Lyceum. Ellen Terry was a famous actress of the time.

Before I start commenting on the book I will point out that I have, over the years, read at least one biography of Bram Stoker, been in close association with a group loosely calling itself "The Friends of Bram Stoker" which includes a number of his direct decendants. I have also been associated with many people who are aficionados of things Gothic and of Stoker in particular. This did not help Mr. O'Connor in his efforts to win me over to liking his work.

From the off I was conscious of discrepancies between what O'Connor was writing about Stoker and his circle of friends, and what actually happened in Stoker's life. I started asking if I was incorrect and was I mis-remembering things, has O'Connor uncovered sources that the academics I know have not found, or was the author taking liberties with the facts. There were several of these discrepancies but I had to put those aside to see if I could judge the book as a simple piece of fiction. So, the first major problem I had was that O'Connor took the lives of three famous people and created a total fiction about their lives and relationships.

When I got the end of the book O'Connor had included a caveat that he had taken liberties with the dates and facts and that his work was totally a work of fiction. While this satisfied me that I was not imagining the discrepancies it angered me that someone would take such liberties with facts. I like novels that base their story around factual events but I like them when the ask the question of, "What would happen if?", in a particular historic context and then go on to tell a story that respects the facts and dates and leaves the reader thinking, "Yes, that could have happened." I give the example of 54 by Wu Ming. What O'Connor did was wrote a novel that an unsuspecting reader might consider biographical and their perception of the people involved will be tainted for the rest of their lives by this tosh.

Stripping all the frills aside, this is an attempt to write a book about love, loyalty and friendship. Using famous characters appears to me to be a simple ploy to get attention for the book, one of only many attempts to create intrigue for a mediocre novel that uses techniques and contrivances to play on the readers' emotions. One could say that any novel does this, but in this case it was fairly clumsy. O'Connor did not fail to use any opportunity to link the lives of his characters with incidents of the time and did it in a rather ham-fisted fashion. The litany of things he tried to tie in include:
- the suffragette movement for votes for women
- Jack the Ripper
- the Northern Ireland troubles that started in 1968
- sectarian feelings between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland

Was it well written?

I cannot fault the writing but I do think O'Connor was over using some techniques. Every time one comes into a new scene there is one or possibly two paragraphs presenting a litany of things about the scene. It is trying to give the reader a snappy picture of the scene but when used on every fourth of fifth page it becomes wearing. The first time I noticed it was when Stoker is first seen in a theatre. In an attempt to indicate that the theatre in Dublin at the time was for lowlifes and not for the sophisticated members of society, O'Connor presents a list of every type of reprobate and evil-doer he could think of. Two pages later we find Stoker entering a market street and we get a litany of every type of fruit and vegetable one could imagine being sold there. There were times when he used this technique and got caught up in quite a frenetic mishmash of incomprehensible, meaningless prose.

Other techniques he uses to give the impression of depth to his book was the random inclusion of words of wisdom from some of his characters, the creation of a ghost who haunted the Lyceum Theatre, and the dropping of hints as to how and where Stoker came up with ideas for his most famous novel, Dracula. This last element was another minefield for O'Connor.

Thanks to several visits to Archbishop Marsh's Library in Dublin, the second oldest library in Europe, I am well aware of Stoker's visits to the library and the books he accessed. By chance, I have a copy of a book produced by the library and compiled by the Curator of the library, that catalogues Stoker's visits to the library and the books he read. The Curator has taken the trouble of identifying where in these books he found the perfect location for Dracula's castle and where he may have first come across the name "Dracula".

Marsh's Library has a strong academic vein with many of its staff undertaking research and producing academic articles on different aspects of the books and other materials on the library's shelves. Dacre Stoker, the great-grand-nephew of Bram Stoker has produced publications based on the author's note books and has worked with Marsh's Library to research the sources used in the book's creation.

O'Connor would have the reader belief Stoker came up with the concept of the book when he went to England, but the evidence from Stoker's own notebooks indicates he had been doing tireless research for the story well before travelling to London.

Dracula is dedicated to Hommy-Beg, the nickname for Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, a then famous author and actor from The Isle of Man. Apparently Bram Stoker and Hall Caine were extremely close friends. In O'Connor's book Hall Caine gets a passing mention towards the end, in fact the mention is as part of a fantasy meeting Stoker imagines or lies about to give people the impression that he is still in contact with old friends.

Character development?

Not a lot.

Bottom line, this book annoyed me and left me with the question "Why?"

It is obvious any author wants an idea for a book, but O'Connor, by his own admission at the end, has taken the facts and ignored them. What he has done is written a book that the casual reader might take as biographical and end up with a totally erroneous view of the history of the characters involved, and of their reputations. To my mind O'Connor has created a romantic novel and tried to make it popular by randomly throwing in causes and incidents of the era and later, and has used the names of famous people for his characters and, in the process, totally twisted and mangled the reality of how these people lived.

My poor impression of Joseph O'Connor's work remains intact.

>129 pgmcc: You have my commiserations. I feel that biographical fiction can often become the lowest form of literature.

Of course, when writing about a distant or obscure figure, it may be necessary to fill in the gaps with fictional episodes based on elements of contemporary life. But when an author simply uses famous people as pegs on which to hang the product of their own imagination, thereby blackening the memory of real men and women, I think this sort of travesty simply shows the author's awareness of their own weakness as a writer, and a belief that their fiction is of insufficient quality to stand on its own merits.

The dead are still real people, and deserve a certain respect. Even where they were not admirable people, I feel that they deserve only to be castigated for their own failings, not imaginary ones foisted onto their posthumous reputations.

>130 -pilgrim-: Exactly.

I think this sort of travesty simply shows the author's awareness of their own weakness as a writer, and a belief that their fiction is of insufficient quality to stand on its own merits.

I think you put it perfectly.

I have been working from home for four weeks now. I am happy enough with it but my wife gets cabin fever very readily. Thankfully the weather has been quite good and we have been able to get out into the garden for part of the day. There are many things in the garden that brighten our day so I thought I would share some of them.











ETA:

This is the third Eric Ambler story I have read since discovering his writing last year. I am finding the writing excellent and the intrigue, well, intriguing. How can you not love a book that fills you full of questions from the very first sentence which informs us that the main protagonist has disappeared and has not been heard of in two weeks.

Ambler has a knack of giving the reader factual information, but wording his telling in such a way as to create humour and add another layer of mystery into the plot. Ambler has not disappointed me yet and I expect I will enjoy this novel as much as I enjoyed the others I have read.

>132 pgmcc: Lovely! I think you're a few weeks ahead of us.

Nice garden! I look forward to seeing mine some day...

Ambler is one of my favorite authors. His stories feel timeless and yet steeped in the times in which he wrote them.

Thanks for those pictures, Peter. All I can see outside my windows at present is dust, and it's going to be in the mid to high 30s today so little incentive to go out.

>137 haydninvienna: Richard, you have my sympathy. I have been commenting to my wife how lucky we are to have a 20ft x 40ft patch of garden when many people are confined to apartments with at most a balcony for sitting out in. I hope the pictures give you some pleasure.

>136 libraryperilous: I am really enjoying the Ambler books and still have many to read.

I am enjoying the historic settings, but also how some of the elements are as current as today. The Intercom Conspiracy is all about "fake news" although it does now use that term. :-)

I can see why John Le Carré described Ambler as one of his inspirations.

>132 pgmcc: Very nice, thanks for the pictures. Is the first one Chelone/turtlehead?

>140 Karlstar: My research indicates it is Yellow Archangel. Apparently it is not regarded as a bit of a pest in the wild.

As you will know, if you have been paying attention, I have become enamoured of the writing of Eric Ambler. His stories of international intrigue are wonderfully plotted and told with a clarity that makes them a delight to read. John Le Carré and Graham Greene have both praised his work and claimed it as inspirational in their own writing endeavours.

I am currently reading The Intercom Conspiracy and noticed a note in the back of the book suggesting one visit www.ericamblerbooks.com if one is interested in Ambler's books. On entering that URL into my browser I was whisked away to a website that offered me two free Eric Ambler books.

Too good to be true, I thought. Needs some research.

I looked at the associated links and found that this page was linked to the literary agency that handles Eric Ambler's literary estate along with the works of many other authors. The offer appeared to be legitimate, so I risked taking the step of providing an e-mail address in return for my first free Eric Ambler novel. I used an old e-mail address that I use when suspicious of an offer.

The result of my providing my e-mail address was my receiving an e-mail and giving me a link where I could download the book in the e-format of my choice. I followed the instructions and now have a copy of The Care of Time on my Kindle. I am also informed that my second book will arrive in a few days and that I will thereafter receive only one e-mail a month.

There is no choice of the titles they send, but I am happy that the first two are novels I have not yet acquired.

My only explanation for such an offer is that they hope you will be hooked with the free books and be impatient for more. Also, they have links to their on-line sale of books from all their authors.

I thought I would pass this on as I have come to love Ambler's books and would be delighted if some of my friends benefited from this offer and enjoyed his books too.

I am so glad you have such a lovely place to be confined to, and lovely weather, to boot! Thanks for the photos.

>143 MrsLee:
We have been very fortunate with the weather. I am glad you like the photographs.

>141 pgmcc: Thank you! That is an interesting looking plant. I was trying to figure out how Chelone could possibly be blooming at the same time as your other plants.

>142 pgmcc:

Wait! We're supposed to pay attention?

What do you recommend for a first Eric Ambler read?

>146 suitable1:
I started with The Mask of Dimitrios. I believe it is his most famous. It did me no harm.

I will attempt to read them in chronological publication date.

>147 pgmcc: Did you ever watch the film of it?

>148 -pilgrim-:
Not yet. I hope to soon. I love Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.

Online book club discussion of Shadowplay this evening. I have three pages of notes. :-) Typewritten notes.

Let the games commence.

I just received an invitation to a friend's virtual birthday party tonight. It clashes with my virtual book club meeting. So, that appears to be a real clash in a virtual world.

I know the birthday boy through our both attending Science Fiction events. We never thought we would be living through the Science Fiction we have been reading over the years.

Must go and shower my avatar.

Drip dry

Great book club session. It was or first meeting and it went well. Next meeting in 3 weeks time. The chosen book is Golden Hill.

>153 pgmcc: Did other group members have similar responses to the book as you? Or did they enjoy it more and weren't aware of the problems you saw in it? Sometimes a book that causes polarised reactions can make for a great discussion.

My big concern is that people would read this book and think it was biographical. Some of the reviews in the UK national papers were written by people who obviously made this mistake. One of the club members reported on a few of those reviews.

Two of the people present (in a virtual way) read the book with no former knowledge of Stoker's life or Sir Henry Irvine or Ellen Terry. They thought is was biographical and love the book, but were quite disappointed to find out that the author had played with dates and facts and had totally fabricated the relationships.

I admit the book was well written, but I was too conscious of the techniques the author was over using to create atmosphere and excitement. I would have forgiven that had the story been about totally made up people rather than using the names of famous people simply as a publicity stunt. I felt he conned his readers at the expense of truth and the reputations of the people whose names he did use.

Knowing how litigious Bram Stoker's descendants are I would not be surprised if they did something interesting. They would know it would not be possible to sue for libel or defamation of character, but as they have gone to a lot of trouble to protect the legacy of Bram Stoker they might take some action relating to damage done to their heritage. Of course, it would come to nothing and give O'Connor free publicity that would simply promote his book more. Sad state of affairs.

:-)

Despite all the difficulties I had with the book, I did not find it difficult to read. It conjured up images in my mind as new scenes were described and it did create atmosphere.

Yes, I was the only one who had bad things to say about the book and that was due to my knowing too much about the lives of two of the main characters.

So did you virtually race to the party right after book group?

>156 clamairy: I virtually, and literally, did not. I downloaded the next book, Golden Hill, onto my Kindle.

I read the first two sentences. They are very long; I mean very...long. He pulled it off, however. I shall provide word count later. Very long.

Long sentences don't work well for me much anymore. By the time I get to the last phrase I've often forgotten what the beginning was all about. :o(
I'm only partly joking.
Actually, now that I think about it, I've never been a fan of long sentences. :o)

This is my new read. It is the next book for our on-line book club.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Eric Ambler has not let me down.

John Le Carré thought highly of Eric Ambler and this book had a Le Carré feel to it. Of course, it was Le Carré who regarded Ambler as one of his inspirations, not the other way round.

The apple blossom is looking beautiful.

>158 clamairy:
First sentence has 191 words.

>162 pgmcc: That's ridiculous!

>161 pgmcc: I can almost smell that.

>161 pgmcc: Great picture!

>162 pgmcc: Now I know where to point when people accuse me of writing overly long sentences!

>163 clamairy: & >164 Busifer:

All the advice to authors is keep the sentences short. Keep to the guidelines (not really rules). Only break the "Rules" (guidelines really) if you know what you are doing.

While I would usually be a bit dubious about a sentence that starts on the first page and ends on page three (Kindle pages; not real pages; also I think my font size is not the smallest.) I found this start quite good. While I was half way down page two I became aware that I was still reading the first sentence, I had no difficulty following what the author was telling me.

After three short sentences, we find another marathon containing 154 words. Once again, this is normally ill-advised but I found it worked.

Both sentences were very effective at painting the scene, introducing characters, and show the reader what was happening. Reading these lengthy sentences was not a matter of wondering what was happening and going back to see what I had missed, but the experience was one of watching a picture being painted and being with the characters as they moved through the scene. They were also very effective at building up the excitement of the main character's arrival in a new country. What it also did, which is something I have seen Haruki Murakami doing very effectively, is building up curiousity, i.e. causing the reader to ask "What happens next? What is going on here?"

>157 pgmcc: >165 pgmcc: How long a sentence a writer can get away with is a matter of the writer's skill. Evidently Spufford has the skill. I understand that one of the current "must-read" novels (not for me though), Ducks, Newburyport "consists of mostly a single sentence, running over more than 1000 pages". People are apparently managing to read it.

Really, isn't the problem that "sentence" means a "series of characters between two full stops"*? I could argue that for the purpose of working out how difficult a piece of prose is to read, we need a more nuanced definition of a sentence. I don't know what it would be though.

One clue might be whether the essential bits of the syntax (subject, verb and so on) are properly connected. For anyone who is interested in a really nasty sentence, here's one I posted about once before. In that masterpiece the subject and the verb are 141 words apart.

*I say characters because one of P G Wodehouse's best jokes consists of these two sentences:

"?"
"!"

>166 haydninvienna: "How long a sentence a writer can get away with is a matter of the writer's skill."
Definitely. There's a Swedish author of some renown (Ulf Lundell) famous for opening one of his books with a sentence that's a page long. I'm not a fan of his, but that's more for his topics than his authorial skills. I just can't remember which book it was.

I myself have worked hard to shorten my sentences. The problem is I sometimes feel that, given the topic and format, too short sentences and too simple a language makes the author (me) sound amateurish, untrustworthy. Often when I write reports in English I get accused (by non-English speakers) of having a too advanced language, they don't know the words that I'm using. Long sentences, or convoluted sentences - see where I'm going, here ;-) - works to confound that impression.
Native speakers, on the other hand, mainly mentions that my, ehrm, Northern Germanic heritage shines through in the way I structure my sentences.

I regard Wodehouse's joke favourably nonetheless.

>167 Busifer: Haruki Murakami, in an essay about his early writing said that he wanted to avoid the traditional Japanese practice of writing very long and ornate sentences. As his first language was Japanese and at the time he was not as proficient in English has he is now, he decided to write his stories in English, a language he was not fluent enough in to ramble off into long sentences. Once he had written a story in English he would then translate it into Japanese. This resulted in very snappy Japanese that was criticised by some Japanese critics for not following the traditional style. Obviously other people liked it. :-)

In Write to the Point, Sam Leith recommends that a writer not make the reader work too hard. This is his argument against long, convolute sentences. Spufford does, as >166 haydninvienna: said, have the skill to use a long sentence without the reader having to work too hard. You could, of course, read the start of the book on Amazon with the "Look inside" feature.

I definitely agree with not making it hard on the reader, but sometimes too short sentences can make reading a struggle, too. Striking a balance is key, but I think "keep it short" is good advice in general.

Can I put in a plug here for one of my favourite books that isn’t as well known as it should be: Style by F L Lucas? I love this book so much that I think I have 4 copies. If I start quoting from it I will end up writing out the whole book, but I’ll just say that he has 3 chapter headings starting with “Courtesy to the reader”. If I had ever read English at Cambridge I would have loved to have had Lucas as a tutor. The book was reprinted in 2012 and is still available.

Further to #170, I see that there is a free kindle book called How to write Powerful Prose by F L Lucas—same Lucas. This is in fact an essay which amounts to a summary of Style. I need to stress that that godawful title was not Lucas's. According to the publication details at the front of the kindle book, the essay was "First published 1960 in Holiday magazine as 'On the Fascination of Style'.".

>171 haydninvienna: Snagged. Cheap at twice the price.

I have also ordered the paperback of Style. Your strong recommendation and the opening page that I read on Amazon have me believing this is a book I will like to have in my hands with a pen nearby to facilitate underlining and annotation. From what you say I may end up underlining the whole book.

>172 pgmcc: (quietly cutting another notch ...)

During our book club discussion of Shadowplay last Thursday evening, Kevin Barry's name popped up. I said I loved his writing, both his short stories and his novels. In talking about his work the novel, Beatlebone was mentioned and I said I thought it was great.

The story is about John Lennon spending some time in Ireland to get some peace and quiet. It was post-Beatles time.

Anyway, one of my friends asked why I liked Beatlebone so much yet objected to Joseph O'Connor's Shadowplay because it used real people in the story.

I have undertaken to prepare a reasoned explanation for my apparent contradictory attitudes to O'Connor's use of real people in his novel and other authors' use of real people in their novels. My comments will, of course, be reported here.

The books below are those that I have enjoyed that incorporated real people in the story. I have also added the names of the real people woven into the stories of these novels.

Beatlebone by Kevin Barry - John Lennon

54 by Wu Ming - Cary Grant; Grace Kelly; Alfred Hitchcock



Drood by Dan Simmons - Wilkie Collings; Charles Dickens.



If you spot any other novels involving real people in my library please let me know and I will, if I have read them, include them in this list.

>173 haydninvienna: Not that quietly. I can hear it from here. :-)

It probably counts for two notches.

Speaking of book bullets, I have also acquired the Kindle edition of Transcription by Kate Atkinson, a BB from someone here. Was it you, clamairy?



E.T.A.: It was @jilmwo who hit me with that BB.

Clare's denial put me on the hunt for the real culprit. :-)

>176 pgmcc: I have not read that one, but I adore her writing. Life After Life is still one of the best things I've ever read.

>177 clamairy: It was jillmwo. Another source of my many BB wounds.

>178 pgmcc: Well now that she's barely posting you'll be spared at least a few hits!

>179 clamairy: I would rather she were posting and I was being riddled.

>180 pgmcc: Same. But she's got to do what she's got to do... :o/
And I know all too well how easy it is to fall out of the habit of posting.

>142 pgmcc:

Too good to be true, I thought. Needs some research.

The big reveal approaches.

I received my second free e-book from the Eric Ambler books website. The e-mail that provided the link stated, "In my next e-mail I will make you and offer you will not be able to refuse."

>182 pgmcc: ...but no chopped off horse head, I hope?

>174 pgmcc: I have been avoiding Drood because the GD discussions made it clear how much it misrepresents the character of Wilkie Collins.

>171 haydninvienna: Ouch, your BB got me too on the pass through.

>183 Busifer: Not yet, but I open my eyes with trepidation every morning.

>184 -pilgrim-: That was one of my issues with it too.

I had to read it because I liked The Mystery of Edwin Drood and I wanted to see what Simmons did to it. He did nothing other than misrepresent the Edwin Drood and borrow a few characters from the book. I remember thinking I would be very upset had I been a descendant of Wilkie Collins.

>183 Busifer: & >186 pgmcc: Bwahaha! Thank you for that.

You could visit here: https://townofhorseheads.org/

>182 pgmcc: Dr. Frigo, I presume?

>189 ScoLgo:

Correct.

>190 pgmcc: They sent me the same two books. ;)

I have been reading Golden Hill for the past week and I have just noticed that I have made no comments on my progress or views of the book.

It is the next book to be discussed at our on-line, COVID-19 quarantine book-club.

The book is set in New York in 1746. I am finding it easy to read, but I am not a brilliant book. While we are following events from the main protagonist's viewpoint I am finding it difficult to relate to the character. So far I am 83% through the book (Kindle set on % rather than pages) and I have recognised the standard structure hypothesised by John Yorke in his book Into the Woods. I am also noticing that the main character is not growing.

In addition, the main character has a secret mission and this is mentioned occasionally to keep the reader reading. I do not think the author made enough of this as it does not come across as a significant element in the main character's motivation. The main character does not always act as if he has a particular duty.

I am finding it hard to care for this eejitt (Irish slang for a stupid eejitt). When something goes wrong it goes wrong in a stupid fashion and is too obvious.

I cannot find any of the characters to care about.

I do have a hypothesis about his secret mission. He has suggested that he is in New York to find private accommodation for a German prince. The New Yorkers think he is referring to the English prince who would be of German descent. They then think he is joking and he does not dissuade them of this impression. I think he has used reverse psychology to hide his mission. I suggest he is there to find the type of accommodation he describes for a German prince, but it may not be the one the population supposes. I am encouraged to this solution by the text capitalising every noun when we are reading about his exploits, trials and tribulation.

I think I will be left with a "so what?" feeling when I finish this book. I feel it does not have a real purpose. It is easy to read but it does not give me anything to go "WOW!" at.

I do not think I will be scoring this book over 2.5 stars. I just do not see the plot delivering any great thrills, and I do not think the great reveal will be that great.

One of the club members suggested it would be interesting to read about New York in 1746. There is a degree of that, but it is not bowling me over.

At this stage I do not think I will be reading any more books by Francis Spufford.

I made a start on this when it was released and noped out rather quickly. I remember feeling that the book was both boring and obnoxiously written. And pretty obviously written to capitalize on the kinds of reviews its quirks were sure to garner it.

Spufford also is the author of The Child Books Built, which I read back in the days when I didn't DNF books once I'd started them. It, too, was both boring and obnoxiously written.

>192 pgmcc: "Irish slang for a stupid eejitt"
How does a stupid eejit differ from the ordinary kind?

>194 hfglen:
It was hyperbole, Hugh. Duplication for emphasis. :-)

>192 pgmcc:, >193 libraryperilous: You two are depressing me.

I have two books by Francis Spufford on my TBR list: Red Plenty and The Child That Books Built.

I have been wary of the former, given my views about blurring the boundaries of historical fact and fiction. However I make an exception to those views with respect to Russian/Soviet authors. From that region, any book marketed as autobiography is liable to be a) boring and b) only partially true. A legal code that has no statute of limitations, covers crimes committed in author jurisdictions, has a tendency to include acts that have been defined as crimes at a date subsequent to the performance of that act, and whose courts give any written document the legal validity of a deklaratsia renders making any such written statement about one's life an act that involves rendering that life, and that of anyone mentioned therein, unpleasantly interesting.

So I had been giving Spufford the benefit of the doubt, and assuming the fictionalising was a similar device to product the still-living personages appearing in his book.

But I had been interested in The Child That Books Built because I am of the author's generation, although different social environment, and was enjoying the same books as he mentions. Given the similarities, I was interested as to how the differences in our background might have affected out reactions to these books.

Now I dread opening them.

Finished Golden Hill. It did not win me over.

Why I have read books on The Kindle

It will be no secret to many of you that I prefer physical books to e-books. I have said why this is a number of times.

Some of you will also be aware that I have read some books on an e-reader and that I even got a Kindle at Christmas. Before that I read some books on the Kindle App.

Why, when I prefer physical books, have I read anything on an e-reader of App?

I have looked at the books I have acquired and read on the Kindle App or on my new Kindle to answer this question.

Before the Kindle I had a Sony e-reader that is now defunct. All the books I read on that were classics that I acquired from Gutenberg. The books I read on the Sony were mostly no longer available in physical form. Also, they did not cost any money.

The list of books I read on the Kindle or the App is presented below. After the list I present some statics on the reasons I read these books using Kindle rather than get a physical copy.

Golden Hill by Francis Stufford

Journey into Fear by Eric Amlber

Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor

Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes

Lychford Witches series by Paul Cornell

Tik-Tok by John Sladek

The Black Snow by Paul Lynch

47 Seconds by Jane Ryan

The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stephenson

We Are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley

Chalk by Paul Cornell

Keeping up with the Joneses by Nick Harkaway

Digital Vertigo by A J Keen

Planes Runner by Ian McDonald

Reasons for reading books with Kindle

I identified six reasons why I would have read a book on the Kindle. These reasons are not mutually exclusive, e.g. I may have acquired a book on Kindle because of price but also because it was a quick way of getting the book.

There are fifteen books on the list and the breakdown of my reasons for using the Kindle for these books are:

The Scores From the Dublin Jury are:

Price – 7
Quick to get – 10
Only format available – 4
Not sure I would like the work – 3
Review copy format – 1
Old text from Gutenberg or other source – 1

It appears my desire to get a book quickly is the primary reason I have acquired books on Kindle. The second most popular reason is price.

I have acquired quite a few Kindle books recently. Some of them have been book bullets from members of the Green Dragon and I have wanted to get these quickly. These include:

Transcription by Kate Atkinson - jillmwo (BB sniper)
How to Write Powerful Prose by F.L. Lucas - haydninvienna (BB sniper)
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert - ? (BB sniper)
Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds – Mentioned in the Science Fiction reads thread
The Night-Comers by Eric Ambler – Physical copies not delivered to Ireland by seller
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino – I have misplaced my physical copy and want to have access to this book

Convenience (get quick), price and only format available appear to be the main reasons I am reading books on the Kindle.

What kind of Kindle did you get?

>199 clamairy:
It was a Kinle Paperwhite. I also got a Merlot cover. I think it is a shade we would have called Burgundy when I was growing up, but the World has become so much more sophisticated that the name of a specific grape has been adopted. By chance, Merlot happens to be my favourite wine. The consequence of this happenstance is that as I read my Kindle and my drink match. Now there's POSH for you!

I have started "An English Murder" that is also known as "The Christmas Murder"; neither title appear to have a Touchstone. The novel is by Cyril Hare. It was jillmwo who introduced me to Cyril Hare's work with Tragedy at Law. That was her first Hare BB. When I told her I had read When the Wind Blows, another Cyril Hare novel, she said, "...but his best is An English Novel". The novel I have just started is therefore, the second BB Jill has hit me with for one author. She is good at the BB game.

>198 pgmcc: Most of my reading is physical books also. The few I've read on my Kindle are also due to price. If I'm not positive about a book, I'll spend less to read it on the Kindle. Plus that way it won't take space on the shelves I don't have yet.

>202 Karlstar: We are soul-mates.

>201 pgmcc: Touchstones don’t seem to be working today.

>203 pgmcc: I've found many of those here!

>204 haydninvienna: Can't do the treasure hunt because search isn't working either. I think their servers are missing the touch of their humans.

A book bullet arrived today.

>206 pgmcc: Lovely cover!

>206 pgmcc: Gotcha!

>207 clamairy: Yes, it is a lovely cover. As I said somewhere above, I have at least 3 copies of this book in various editions, and this is the best of the covers.

>207 clamairy: & >208 haydninvienna:

Yes. One might even describe it as stylish.

Dives for cover.

>207 clamairy:
>208 haydninvienna:
>209 pgmcc:

Those three posts were like watching a beautifully set up and executed volleyball shot.

>209 pgmcc: "Goes off in search for Nerf gun..."

>209 pgmcc: *groans*

I have completed this cosy murder mystery. jillmwo is responsible for introducing me to the work of Cyril Hare. I am glad she did.

This story was set in an old English stately home over Christmas. On Christmas Eve the snow begins to fall. By morning the house is cut off from the outside world and one of the guests has been murdered. This is a very enjoyable whodunnit.

I have commenced The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna. This is a sequel her first Green Man book, The Green Man's Heir, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

These stories are set in the world of English folklore.

I sat in the garden today and read the first chapter. It had me wanting to start sketching the scenes Juliet described. Her descriptions conjured vivid images in my mind and I was sucked in.

Our COVID-19 Lockdown Zoom Book Club discussion of Golden Hill was held last night. It was a great event. We had eight people on-line.

Once again I was the one who was not totally happy with the book. I consider it well written, it moves along with pace, but I could not find myself caring for many of the characters. There was some good characterisation but I felt the main character was inconsistent in his actions and thoughts. He was in New York in 1746 with a mission which he could not share with anyone. It was a mission he was very keen to accomplish. However, when he hit problems he tended to forget the mission until the last moment. Also, when he was accused of something that he knew he was totally innocent of he gave up and resigned himself to being executed, rather than protest his innocence. I thought this a bit inconsistent.

The writing is very good; the portrayal of New York at the time creates great images; there is a good indication of the politics and tensions of the time in a pre-War of Independence colony. However, I could not find myself caring for more than one of the characters. Achilles.

Would I seek out any more writing by this author. No.

>215 pgmcc: Were you the only one who didn't like it, or were some of the others less than thrilled?

>213 pgmcc: I do remember thinking that one looked good.

>216 clamairy:

An English Murder, also known as The Christmas Murder, was good.

Yes, I was the only one that did not sing the praises of the book. :-( Why is everybody else so wrong.

Everybody is mad but me and my monkey, and I have my doubts about the monkey.

I finished The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna this morning.

This book is a sequel to The Green Man's Heir which I read and enjoyed a few years ago. The books should be read in sequence to gain the full benefit.

These books are set in the present day and deal with English folklore magic. The Green Man of the title is a mythical supernatural character linked to nature, growth and rebirth. As you might expect the stories are about the interactions between the world of humans and the spirits of nature who are still present in the modern world. The supernatural beings do not wish to be discovered but they still influence the world of humans, some for good and others for evil. Of course the stories are about the goodies fighting evil.

The main character, Daniel Mackmain, is the son of a human man and a Dryad (tree spirit) mother. He is human but has inherited some of his mother's abilities.

Juliet E. McKenna has put a lot of effort into using authentic English folklore and the supernatural creatures she has in her story are ones that have appeared in English mythology from archaic times.

Her stories are set in rural England and she portrays that world very accurately, both in terms of the human world, and that of the supernatural. She also weaves her story between the real world and the world of spirits in a gentle and convincing fashion. She deals with real societal issues, such as social deprivation and the consequences for teenagers left with feeling there is no hope for the future, and their manipulation by unscrupulous characters.

I would describe these books as gentle folk horror, the type of gentle folk horror found in Paul Cornell's Witches of Lychford stories.

Juliet's descriptions are very evocative. While reading the Green Man's Foe the world of the Cotswolds formed in my mind in a most vivid fashion. The pictures were wonderful and I really felt I was there.

I understand a third Green Man novel, "The Silence of the Green Man", is coming out in August (Corona virus permitting) and I will certainly be ordering a copy.

>218 pgmcc: Ouch. That was a BB direct hit. Sneaking up on me, using the English countryside as cover....

>219 -pilgrim-:

Hee! Hee! Hee!

>200 pgmcc: "as I read my Kindle and my drink match" this is, of course, very important!

I will have to check out those Green Man books, I'm intrigued. Creepy cover on Green Man's Foe, though!

>221 NorthernStar: Creepy cover on Green Man's Foe, though!

While I would describe it as a "cozy horror" there still has to be a horror element to it. It is not too scary though.

What I did find creepy, however, was my working in the garden after finishing the book. As mentioned, the book is about spirits of nature, woodland, streams, lakes, etc... Well, I was pulling ivy off the garden walls and trees. I couldn't help sensing the tendrils of ivy slithering out to capture me and string me up in revenge for all the damage I was doing to their companions. This was put to some creative effect later. We have a chipping machine for grinding down our garden waste, such as branches, etc... I fed the ivy into the machine. There were many lengthy bits of ivy. I would put one end of a length of ivy into the machine and it would pull the rest into it gaping mouth. With my imagination in the horror mode, I videoed one of the tendrils slithering across the ground and into the machine. Later I played it in reverse. Bwahahahahahahaha!

It was not good enough to share, but I now know how to reverse a video and will plan my next ivy filming adventures to a higher standard. :-)

>222 pgmcc: I hope you don't dream of that ivy slithering in your window at night!

>224 pgmcc:
I wasn't planning to, but now you have put the thought into my head. Aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!

>222 pgmcc: "I was pulling ivy of the garden walls and trees. I couldn't help sensing the tendrils of ivy slithering out to capture me and string me up in revenge for all the damage I was doing to their companions."

Nice imagery!!!

(I almost always feel guilty killing green things. Not so much the ones I'm growing to eat, for some reason.)

>225 clamairy: Not so much the ones I'm growing to eat, for some reason.

:-)

>224 pgmcc: and how did you sleep? Did the ivy slither through your dreams?

>227 NorthernStar: Like a log, which has been entwined by vines of ivy and is being sucked of its nutrients by this parasitic plant.