The Library

[ginny]

The Library Our library  is open 24/7; the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

The December  Book Challenge!! 

  We have so enjoyed our 30 Day Book Challenges!  Let's do our own December Book Challenge to start December 1:  one for every day in December concerning our December reading.

ALL suggestions welcome and needed! To start us off for December 1:

Podcast Themes and Reactions: See Rosemary's Posts

[ginny]

 Pretty things, what a fun day you had, Barbara!

Just dropping in to say that I received a Refund Card from "AT&T" on Saturday in the mail, which turned out to be a scam. It's very well done, however, with the ATT  logos and phone numbers to call, and instructions as to how to go to the ATT website and request a paper check instead.

I did a search for it online and found people saying it's legitimate and complaining about ATT  that you have to jump through hoops to get the check but you can by going here  (phone number) or here (url) on the ATT website, etc.  I had actually received a refund from AT&T close to the amount so I thought  I needed to get the dreaded "Representative" from the robot  ATT real 800 number, (1-800-288-2020)  and lo and behold it's a fraud.

So, these people have gone to extraordinary lengths to look and sound legit, even to putting comments on websites when you go on line to look,

Bottom  line: it's a scam.

[rosemarykaye]

Hi Ginny and everyone

We get scams all the time 'from' the Inland Revenue - both of my in-laws were extremely unworldly academics, and I remember my late mother-in-law getting very agitated about not being able to claim 'all this money that the tax office owes me'.  The scam that annoys me the most is the phone call saying you or one of your family has been in an accident. I'm afraid I am not very polite when I get one of these calls, they are so potentially distressing. If my MIL were still alive she would have been terribly upset by such a call.

Anyway, I was just popping in to say two things:

(i)  I finished The Christmas Train by David Badalacci- I enjoyed it very much up to the last chapter, but I felt the denoument was ridiculous.  I know it's fiction, and I was very happy to suspend disbelief for most of it, but the last few pages went too far for me, which was a shame. I still gave it 4* though, as the rest of it was good.

(ii)  I've been listening to some podcasts by a blogger friend of mine, Simon Thomas. He does a regular podcast with a friend of his, Rachel, and in the first section of each one they discuss two aspects of books and then decide which one they prefer. Eg the one I've just heard was 'married people v single people in fiction - which works best for the reader?'  They are very good at bouncing ideas off one another, and I wondered if, maybe in the new year, we could try something like that? 

In today's podcast, they talked about how there are very few novels about happy marriages - they could only come up with Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (which I don't know) and Greenery Street, which I've read, and which is about an affluent young couple moving into their first flat in Chelsea and enjoying their first year of married life. It was written by Denis Mackail in 1925. Simon and Rachel discussed why novelists seem to prefer to write about unhappy marriages, or at best marriages that have 'gone off the boil' (The Diary of a Provincial Lady, Mr Bridge and Mrs Bridge, One Fine Day, The Tortoise and the Hare) .  They also discussed the plethora of novels written from 1918 onwards about single women - some happy, some not, some desperate for marriage, some desperate not to let their mothers marry them off. Rachel, herself a single young woman, said she was very glad to be living now rather than then.  They came up with lots of titles that fitted this category, from Patricia Brett, Spinster, to Lolly Willowes, Alas, Poor Lady!, and even Emma. And of course in my beloved Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, Mildred at the outset writes herself off as a spinster, and we tend to think she is at least 50, till she reveals that she is in fact something like 31!

Other episodes have covered things like 'Do we care what characters eat?' 'Do we prefer to buy books in a bookshop or online?' 'Are we more drawn to the books of World War One or World War Two?' 'The difference effects of using cars and bicycles in novels.' and so on. If we decide to do this from time to time, i can easily supply a few topics, culled from the podcast or made up by us, to choose from.

And if everybody hates the idea, no problem of course.

I've just been reading Kay Thonpson's Eloise at Christmastime. I always enjoy it, though I do feel a little bit sad about Eloise, who never sees her parents, too. I suppose the good thing is, she has a dependable, fun, nanny, and all the hotel staff have become her family - a bit like a light, child's version of A Gentleman in Moscow.

I'm also reading the book I recently bought about the local and social history of this area. I was afraid it might be a bit dry, but actually it's immensely readable, with lots of little anecdotes and press excerpts. I think our local paper, the Aberdeen Press & Journal, must have been quite different in those days - maybe all papers were. When a farmer finds an ancient burial chamber on his land, the paper describes every local Tom, Dick and Harry rushing over to take a look. They all decide the artefacts (including the bones) must be 'between 50 and 200 years ol'.  Then two archaeology professors from Aberdeen University drive up. They take charge of the bones and skull - and let the (tenant) farmer keep the urns, flint scrapers and some charcoal!!! (Luckily these did eventually make their way to the university museum.) They tell the assembled hoards that the remains are probably 2000+ years old. The article continues:

'Some took this statement with a good deal more than the proverbial grain of salt. They shook their heads and winked slyly to each other, as much to say "the toon billies are awful leears." (these town boys are awful liars)'

There's a loch near here that my friend and I have walked round - the book quotes some older locals as remebering when Lord Cowdray, owner of the Dunecht Estate - which includes this loch, and whichever lord then owned Craigievar Castle (which now belongs to the National Trust for Scotland) used to land sea-planes on that very water.  There was also some long-abandoned plan to turn it into a trout fishing centre, but first the landowners had to get rid of the resident pike. This they failed to achieve.  All of this does so much remind me of Monarch of the Glen.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far,

Rosemary

[ginny]

Oh what an interesting post, Rosemary ,and so many great ideas!

Other episodes have covered things like 'Do we care what characters eat?' 'Do we prefer to buy books in a bookshop or online?' 'Are we more drawn to the books of World War One or World War Two?' 'The difference effects of using cars and bicycles in novels.' and so on. If we decide to do this from time to time, i can easily supply a few topics, culled from the podcast or made up by us, to choose from.

I would love this, am totally out of creative  ideas! And it would be great to hear about the podcast as well and what books they talk about.

That's an interesting topic on why books are not written on happy marriages so much as bad ones.   I guess you always need drama, a dramatic tension for any plot? And if there is none (how can THAT be?)  EVER between the couple then you'd want to see them doing something or confronting something somewhere else , otherwise  it would be hard to hold one's interest.  I can think of a couple of books with happy marriages,  but they weren't ABOUT happy marriages, but rather the two people in those marriages doing something else, like colonizing Africa in the Flame Trees of Thika, and.. that two old fools  thing in Spain that Barbara put in here. Those were happy marriages, with the strain coming from  what they were trying to do, the situations they found themselves in.

When you look at it like that there are quite a few books with "happy" marriages,  but they  aren't ABOUT the marriage itself.

(But whoops, both of those are non fiction!) Hmmmm  Thought provoking!

I'm totally up for it, and thank you for bringing it here!

[BarbStAubrey]

OK I'll have a go...

'Do we care what characters eat?'
According to the context but it does give atmosphere and lifestyle - grabbing a peanut butter and jelly versus the table under the window with hot apple pie and a pot of strong coffee and if a pot of tea another image comes up - I love it when the recipe and foods used are included - to me it is like the stories that describe the scenery, from a beachfront to the back alley in a city

'Do we prefer to buy books in a bookshop or online?'
IF you know what you are looking for and want a good price then for sure online - but the glory of browsing and finding books that you are not familiar with - I miss that and covid keeps the bookstores either locked or empty/

'Are we more drawn to the books of World War One or World War Two?'
Neither - if war is involved I prefer ancient up through the eighteenth century.

'The difference effects of using cars and bicycles in novels.'
Cars, pickups, planes, ships, canoes, rafts, bikes, horse and wagon, horse and buggy, combines, tractors, skates, skis, sleds, again, it is all about atmosphere and setting. For sure anyone on a bike seems more independent and self-sufficient.

Which reminds me of my latest read - been on my kindle for months A Father Before Christmas by Neil Boyd - Grantchester without crime and the detective - and instead of the 50s it reminds me of the 30s and 40s - life as seen through the eyes of a Catholic Priest - light, at times a smile - nothing too religious - really more a comedy of manners with the intricate detailed foibles that we use to take seriously - haven't gotten to the Christmas part yet, but it is entertaining and reminds me of what it was like when I was a kid - And yes, the young curate prefers his bike - I wonder if that is a thing with authors describing the clergy - Father Brown has his bike - for sure it helps date a story - bikes were a craze in the 1890s and now they are right of passage for the young and more of a sport for adults however, before cars were fast and after horses ceased being used, bikes were 'the' thing.   

[Frybabe]

'Do we care what characters eat?' I enjoy some description these days as long as it isn't overdone. So, I don't mind seeing what is on the menu when there is conversation to be had at table. In fact, I have several cookbooks based on the eating habits of several book characters, including Sherlock Holmes. When I was young, Dad always told me, because of my enjoyment of lots of descriptive passages, I should read Victor Hugo. You know what? I never got around to reading him.

'Do we prefer to buy books in a bookshop or online?' Depends. I used to spend a lot of time in bookstores, pre-online, and never lost the love of browsing the racks. I can remember George pulling me out of bookstores before I could buy any or too many books, back when we were both still in college and I really couldn't afford books or the time to read them. I was still buying books in the store when they all started to disappear around me (again pre-eReader). Now the closest bookstores are two used book stores with tons of the same (and mostly uninteresting to me) books, and our ever so lonely B&N. Since COVID-19, I prefer not to touch an in-store book, nor have I ordered any print books from the library. Now-a-days, the eReader is much easier to carry with me and reading at home is easier because the cats tend to make it more difficult to hold a print book up out of their way. The little beasts are spoiled rotten. I've not ordered any used books on-line since COVID, but have ordered some new online. Most of those are histories with maps, illustrations and photos that I prefer in print than on tablet. A few are books that are not in eBook format.

'Are we more drawn to the books of World War One or World War Two?'  Okay, here goes my chronology: Civil War, Jr. High; WWI and WWII, high school; distaste for wars stories afterward for many, many years. Now I am into Military SciFi, Roman and occasionally other ancient wars/conflicts, and "The Great Game" period of colonial history. Just recently I have gotten interested in one or two about our ongoing current conflicts, but haven't read much yet. I just sent Alone at Dawn back to the eLibrary without finishing it. The book is good, but I had already seen a documentary about John Chapman's heroic efforts, posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor), so I only read the beginning which mostly was a history of the Combat Controller Teams which I didn't know about.

'The difference effects of using cars and bicycles in novels.' Never thought much about that, but bicycles are/were quieter than cars, keep a smaller profile, and certainly help in situations where a car is too noticeable, and can often go where a car can't. I think the French resistance put bikes to good use in WWII.

[jane]

Do I care what characters eat?  No.  I’m not a foodie and don’t get excited about what anybody...real or fictional...eats. 

Do I buy books in stores or online?

For the last 10 yrs or so, I only buy ebooks. It may be because I only read fiction.  My husband, a history buff, preferred hardcover print.

WWI or WWII? Neither.  WWII was before my time...my only memory is of my Uncle Howard coming home to my Grandmother’s house.   I’ve been to Dachau and saw enough photos and “belongings” and ovens to last me a lifetime.  I don’t want to read about those horrors.

bicycles or cars Whatever fits in the telling is fine. 

Jane

[nlhome]

Do I care what characters eat? Sometimes. I can think of some mysteries where what the characters eat is part of the mood or setting, or their personalities. One older character:  Nero Wolf. 

Do I buy books in stores or online? Right now, I buy books online because all but one of the the closest book stores are 50+ miles away. I prefer to look at or touch the books I buy, especially if I'm giving them as a gift. But, this year, it's not to be, we don't go in any stores but the pharmacy or the grocery store. For myself, I am a library user, rarely buy books. I don't ever by eBooks.

WWI or WWII? I enjoy reading both, but because of some personal family research I've been doing this year, WWII books are what I've been reading.

[PatH]

Right now, I have no choice but to buy books online.  It's a risk even to go into stores, though smaller if they're handling things properly, and since I don't drive, I have to save my limited number of rides from a friend for inescapable things like medical appointments.

Given a choice, I would almost always prefer a bookstore.  There's a lot of serendipity; I've found authors I didn't know existed and would never have discovered any other way.  I get a chance to check out the writer's style.  If it's a translation, I get to compare different versions.  Even if it's a cut and dried purchase, I'll buy it in a store if I can; they need the ordinary business to support the unusual, quirky stuff.  Besides, I like just being there.

Maybe in a year I'll be back in the stores.

[rosemarykaye]

Hello everyone, from an extremely wet and dark Deeside.

I'd actually thought we might take these ideas one at a time - but it's great that everyone has dealt with them all, I can find many more on Simon's old podcasts.  (He is, incidentally, delighted to hear that we're making use of his and Rachel's material!)

I realise I haven't actually answered the questions myself yet, so here goes:

Do we care what characters eat?

Yes, I very much do. I think it says so much about them. Barbara Pym is brilliant on food, and I remember so many telling little details about her characters' choices (or lack of choices). Mildred (in Excellent Women), with her string bag containing 'just a small loaf and my library book', Her vicar friend Julian and his sister Winifred, at whose table Mildred sits down;

'without any very high hopes, for Julian and Winifred, as is often the way with good, unworldly people, hardly noticed what they ate or drank, so a meal with them was a doubtful pleasure...tonight Mrs Jubb set before us a pale macaroni cheese and a dish of boiled potatoes. and I noticed a blancmange or 'shape', also of an indeterminate colour, in a glass dish on the sideboard.'

By contrast, when Mildred has her annual lunch with William, brother of her friend Dora, he insists on taking her 'to a restaurant in Soho where he was known', and fusses endlessly over the menu; 'the liver would probably be overdone, the duck not done enough, and the weather had been too mild for the celery to be good...it seemed as if there was really nothing we could eat...A bottle of wine was brought. William took it up and studied the label suspiciously...."A tolerable wine, Mildred" he said, "Unpretentious, but I think you will like it."' - which just about says it all regarding William's character (both she and he are still in their 30s, yet she feels she is already on the shelf, and he most definitely 'was not the kind of man to marry.')

Then there's all the wonderful food in The Wind in the Willows; Ratty's winter stores, the fabulous picnics he packs for his expeditions with Mole;

'"There's cold chicken inside it (the basket)" replied the Rat briefly, "coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater..."
"Oh stop, stop" cried the Mole in ecstasies: "This is too much!"
"Do you really  think so?" inquired the Rat seriously "It's only what I always take on these little excursions..."'

and the delicious supper Ratty knocks up at Mole's house while Mole himself is wailing about 'not having anything in' - I think The Wind in the Willows would be so much the poorer without Kenneth Grahame's descriptions of these delicious meals, and they all add to our view of Rat as a thoroughly good, resourceful and decent bloke.

There are also a lot of banquets and magical foods in the Harry Potter books, which my children loved (though having said she was not going to get into a lot of rubbishy merchandise, Rowling seems to have been OK with the sale of sweets, etc that were really not that great.)

Food is also very much tied up with class in the UK (perhaps more so in England than in Scotland) - in my much loved Posy Simmonds Wendy Webber books, the left wing intelligentsia of North London eat borscht, quiches, lentils and muesli (this was the 1970s - now they would be much, much more foodie, and it would all be vegan, 'clean', organic...), whereas the locals in the Cornish villages on which they all descend to teach their children about Nature (sanitised version) live on chips, ready meals, shop cakes and Fray Bentos pies.

However, I cannot stand the plethora of modern novels that feature cupcakes, pies, biscuits, etc and even include the recipes at the back (or worse, in the actual text). If I want a recipe I will look at a cookbook, not some twee nonsense about a heroine who is inevitably dragged back to her perfect country village childhood home, much against her wishes for of course she is a high-flying city girl with no time for the country - only to find that she loves the slow way of life, has a hitherto unknown talent for baking, opens a cafe in the lovely little cottage/shop that Granny has left her (for Granny, naturally, is the only one who really understood her..) makes a roaring success of it, and - just as an aside - crosses swords with the local market gardener/coffee supplier/ice cream man, who in no time at all proposes. 

Sadly this nonsense seems to be increasingly popular, I never saw so many paperbacks with the words 'cosy', 'cupcake', 'cafe', 'Cornish', 'Devon', 'By the sea', 'wedding', 'sweetshop', 'chocolate', 'bakery' and 'beach' in the title. I suppose it's escapism, which we all need from time to time, and I'm certainly not immune to it, but a tiny bit of reality once in a while would improve things.

I'll stop here and discuss the other points in another post!

Rosemary

[nlhome]

Rosemary, you made me laugh.
Thanks.
It's not dreary here. We had about 6 inches of snow from yesterday afternoon through this noon. It now looks "a lot like Christmas" and so I am writing Christmas cards. It seems important to send them this year. We have received several already, including one from a nephew we rarely hear from, so maybe it's important to others as well.

I am trying to think of other books where food is important. I can remember all the Spencer books by Robert Parker, where food and drink were always part of the story. One book I read this year, The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen, had a lot of food mentioned. But when it comes to some of the books with recipes, or the cozy mysteries set in cafes or coffee shops, etc., I lost interest fast.

[ginny]

hahaha, Rosemary on the twee books and the returning granddaughter.  I agree with nlhome, you are SUCH a hoot.

And we need it this time of year.

 I am also excited that Simon is happy we are making use of his material. Podcasts are for me like Zoom was, a new frontier, so this is a great way to hear about what they discuss.


Do I care what characters eat? Absolutely not. Am on a diet. I was shocked to go to the doctors (against my will) and to have gained 14 POUNDS since March! Who on earth gains 14 pounds eating everything in sight and never moving? Hmmm? Sitting here, eating all manner of sweets and Diet Pepsi.  I swear it has about killed me. No more. I don't want to hear about food, period. Have already lost 6 of those pounds and intend to continue. As they say, "nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." It feels good to be losing weight!



Do I buy books in stores or online?  Makes no difference. Amazon apparently is using that huge huge warehouse they put up the road about 24 miles from here, for books, this is new,  because  I can order a book on Sunday and get it the next day, and I live practically in Outer Mongolia,  so that IS a big draw for me. Also I'm not going in bookstores now. Also I can get books hard to find faster than B&N.

I just got the One by One by Ruth Ware and am excited to begin it.

WWI or WWII?  Neither.  I don't think enough time on earth is left to try to understand the ancients, much less WWII, but WWI now, I have read some on. Awful thing.


bicycles or cars .
   Not sure how this would make a difference to a reader? Perhaps to a cyclist?

On the Organic issue, I was nonplussed at the grocery when there was no price on the produce and I told the checker, I think it was  about radishes, that it was organic (which normally here raises the price) and she informed me that "all produce is organic. Organic means it grows in the ground."

Well, Sir.  They need to stop charging more for it then, right?

[Frybabe]

On the Organic issue, I was nonplussed at the grocery when there was no price on the produce and I told the checker, I think it was radishes, that it was organic (which normally here raises the price) and she informed me that "all produce is organic. Organic means it grows in the ground."

Oh, dear, that is sad. I am afraid that I would have been tempted to hold  up the line to explain to the clerk just what organic gardening/farming is about.

Not much to report on the reading front just now, except that most of my nicely spaced holds decided to become available almost at the same time. Not much to say about them so far.

Medieval Europe by Chris Wickham, which I have been listening to, so far is mostly an overview of the gradual advancement of various political/territorial entities without actually getting into the details of whys and hows territories and political establishments came into being and grew. While not boring, very little of it is sinking in. Overviews (or gloss-overs )are never appealing. Well, I guess that would be a little too much to ask of one volume when it takes whole books and volumes of books to describe events such as wars and the pressures to establish new political, economic, and civil procedures and laws. Heck, the evolution of the Christian church, so much a presence and force to be reckoned with during this period, takes volumes.

[Tomereader1]

Reading about food:  I loved the series with the Detective (Italian I think) whose wife fixes up all these wonderful meals for him.  Can't think of the series or the titles.

[Frybabe]

Tome, is that Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series? I got away from reading the series a few years ago. Not sure why, the series is very good.

[rosemarykaye]

Yes, Donna Leon came to my mind too - one of the best things about those books is the food, both the wonderful dinners Paola cooks and the details of shopping in Venice, the markets and the daily visits to them (as no-one has a car).

Yesterday we visited a fish merchant in Aberdeen. This is one of the wholesale places down by the docks, but it is also open to the public.  We were fed up with the supermarkets stocking less and less choice of fish - many have now closed their wet fish counters completely (not because of Covid but because they make more money for less bother if they use the space for pizzas) and even the ones that are still open seem only to stock salmon fillet, cod, and the smoked fish that is traditionally eaten in NE Scotland - smoked haddock, herrings, smoked cod, smoked mackerel.

This new place was fantastic - the public counter was just in the main hall, with a wet floor and no niceties, but the ladies serving were great and the stock was fabulous. We came away with tuna steaks, sea bass, and eel steaks - we’d never even seen these before and were surprised at how big eels must be - we thought they’d be thin things like worms but they are huge. We also bought a small piece of smoked eel. Eel seems to be the new thing, and they told us that it is very good roasted, so we willl try it. Although we bought two of everything each fish or steak was so enormous that we have frozen them separately and will probably have one between us. The prices were low too - the whole lot cost us around £30, whereas in the only other decent fish shop we know, which is a very smart one in Edinburgh, we would probably have paid twice that, and in a supermarket the only things we might have found would have been the tuna steaks, and even then they may well not have had them. It was a great experience!

[Tomereader1]

Yesss, and thank you for reminding me!  I could not for the life of me put all the pieces together.  I have read almost all of those books, but not the latest ones.  I have my list somewhere.  I usually copy the lists in the front of the book, so I can mark them off as I read them.  I have a lot of these author's series lists.  At this stage in my life, probably won't get to half of them.  But Hope springs eternal!

[rosemarykaye]

Re the question of where we buy books - these days I buy mostly online.  I do enjoy browsing charity bookshops, but we don't have any in our immediate vicinity and I don't have the kind of days out that I once did, when I'd take myself into town for a wander round the galleries and bookshops, charity and otherwise. I must admit though, that even before the virus I rarely bought a full price book in a bookshop. I'd browse, make a note, then see (i) if the library had it (ii) if I could find it in a charity shop or from a cheaper seller online.  I know bookshops need our support, but I find it hard to shed the money-saving habits of a lifetime. Also I rarely want this year's publications, and the things I do want are therefore rarely on a bookshop's shelves - Waterstones, which along with Blackwells is our main commercial bookshop chain, seems only to want to sell the new stuff and the celebrity biographies. (Actually Blackwells is a bit better as it is the official supplier for many universities and schools.)

I did buy a local history book direct from the author recently, and I was happy to do so. But I found another such book being sold by someone on ebay and I was delighted to buy it there - especially as the seller turned out to be a student living not 10 miles away, so i was able to collect it from her door.

As for WWI or WWII, I have enjoyed quite a few books set in the latter - but they are always set in the UK, not in the battlefields. The Village, which I read this year, is about the social changes that have taken place in a small community as the war ends, and how the various inhabitants adapt, or fail to adapt, to the new order. But it is also a great story about an unhappy girl finally breaking away from her class-obsessed (but now also impecunious) upper middle class parents and finding happiness with a local tradesman.  Dear Mrs Bird, a more recent book, is also set in London during the war, and mainly about a girl working as a secretary for an agony aunt at a magazine, and secretly answering all the letters that the old battleaxe employer puts in the bin as 'unsuitable.'

I think the only two books I've read set in WWI would be Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain and Edith Bagnold's A Diary Without Dates. They were both good, but I read them many years ago and nowadays I don't think I'd want to read them. WWI has been done to death over the past 4 years in the UK, and while I do of course appreciate the enormous sacrifices that were made, from what I have heard most people who were actually imvolved in it at grass roots level (including my own grandfathers) just wanted to forget it, and saw it as an appalling, unnecessary waste of so many lives to please the egos of a few rich men. And now, in England particularly, both wars have just been hijacked to bolster up this dreadful anti-foreigner sentiment that is fuelling Brexit. The people who celebrated the anniversary of the war banged on and on about it, but they were all too young to have experienced even WWII personally. Jingoistic nonsense, and very dangerous nonsense at that.

Bicycles or cars?  That's an interesting one, and one that would have a different implication depending on the time at which the book was written.  If someone were cycling everywhere now, they would probably be making a very eco point. The parents at Madeleine's Steiner School were obsessive cyclists who ferried their younger children around in those little enclosed carts you can tow behind you (should you have both the muscles and the inclination - Edinburgh is full of hills and cobbles). I know cycling is much better for the environment, and many people took it up again last summer around here as a means of getting exercise. Most of them have vanished back into their cars as the winter weather has arrived. I am sorry to say that I find cyclists on the main roads an absolute menace. As a driver, it's very hard to pass them safely, we have almost no bike lanes, and when I hold back from passing them I end up with a string of cross (usually male) drivers behind me, who then overtake at sharp bends and blind corners. Also so many cyclists seem to think the rules of the road do not apply to them because they are so saintly. Hence they regularly jump traffic lights, switch from road to pavement and back again to avoid those lights, often have no lights on their bikes, nor bells (which are a legal requirement) so if you are walking, they come right up behind you and scare the living daylights out of you. On our little country lanes that have no pavements, they also seem to think it is OK to ride 3 or 4 abreast so that it is impossible for you, as a pedestrian, to keep your distance from them even if you are right at the side already. Grr.

BUT if a character is on a bike in a novel set, say, in the 1930s-50s, that would be quite normal in most parts of the UK. Very few people had cars unless they were wealthy or were doctors. And because there were so few cars, cycling was not really dangerous. So someone cycling in one of those novels would not be making a point, just travelling in their usual way.

And even now, there is a difference between the eco-warrior types and the mad keen club cyclists, who are dressed in lycra from head to foot, head down and wanting to get from A to B as fast as possible. If a character was like that, I'd think of them as obsessive and possibly a bit geeky.

In the TV adaptation of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, Daphne Manners (an aristocratic young woman sent to India to live with her titled aunt because her parents have died in WWI) rides a bike to the mission hospital where she volunteers. This would have been quite normal even for someone of her class, and it is also pivotal to the plot, as when there is a sudden downpour on her way home, she goes into the Bibighar gardens for shelter - if she'd been in a car, she'd obviously just have carried on. What happens there is absolutely crucial to the first book, and really to the whole quartet.

Enid Blyton's Famous Five started almost all of their adventures by cycling off into the countryside. Putting aside the fact that very few parents today would let a bunch of 12 year olds pedal off alone anywhere, let alone on an unsupervised camping trip, such a scene simply would not be realistic today, it would just be too dangerous on our modern roads. The eco cyclists say it would not be dangerous if we all cycled, but while this may be true in the south of England, where the weather is milder and the places much closer together, up here towns and villages are a long way apart, and I doubt many people really want to return to the days of only ever seeing their immediate neighbourhood (and neighbours.)

And I've just found an old Guardian article which says that Sidney & Beatrice Webb, Thomas and Emma Hardy, William Morris, Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife, PG Wodehouse, Simone de Beauvoir, HG Wells, Henry Miller and even Henry James (once he'd moved to Rye) and Samuel Beckett (in France) were all avid cyclists (though not without plenty of accidents, even then.)

Rosemary

[Frybabe]

First, I just saw that John Le Carre has died. RIP! I don't think I ever read his books, but I did watch the TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I preferred the first version.

RosemaryKaye, you just reminded me of All's Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. My Dad used to occasionally let me stay up late to watch the silent movies with him (as well as Ernie Kovaks). This movie was one of his favorites. I ran across an old copy of the book at the used book store some years ago and read it. It may be the only novel set in WWI that I have read. Most of my WWI reading was non-fiction, including a biography of Manfred von Richthofen and, of course, Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence. I have read one or two WWII novels; the only one I remember is Run Silent, Run Deep by Commandar Edwin L. Beach. Again, the others were non-fiction.

I very quickly dispensed with two library novels that just were not that interesting. One was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I did read a fair way into it but must have skimmed half in the end. It read more like a teen/young adult type novel, but the prime character is 35 and quite depressed. After over dosing, she goes through a series of possible alternative lives (ad nauseum). The second was A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe. This is a mystery novel about a woman who borrows a "re-clone" of a mystery writer to help her solve the mysterious deaths of her father and brother. Sounded interesting, but wasn't, not to me anyway.  Both are listed as Science Fiction which I didn't know until after I borrowed them.

Now I am reading one of Jonathan Moore's mysteries called Blood Relations. The books of his I have read already have always had a supernatural element to them. This one involves a disbarred attorney turned PI. Lots more interesting.

[Dana]

Just dropped in to say that I have started (finally) to read a book that was recommended here a few months ago, Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.  I don't remember the connection, but I know BellaMarie said she really loved it and I think other people did too.  I am starting to enjoy it very much. Perfect for reading in bed.  By that I mean it pays to be relaxed and read it slowly and savour the descriptions of the countryside and the customs and the clothes and the people.  You really do start to feel "immersed in the middle ages" ....which I have to say is not a historical period in which I have ever been interested  (certainly not in Norway!)
And there are 3 volumes!!!

[PatH]

Dana, that book really sucks you in, doesn't it.  We discussed it here, and really enjoyed it.

[PatH]

When I add in detective stories and spy stories, I realize I've read more WWI and II books than I would have thought.  Dorothy L. Sayers' The Nine Tailors, mentioned in our list of snowy, Christmassy books, has some memorable WWI bits.  John Buchan's The 39 Steps is leading up to WWI, and his next two books about Richard Hannay, Greenmantle and Mr. Standfast, are WWI spy/battle stories.  Agatha Christie's detective pair Tommy and Tuppence have one book for each war.  Frybabe mentioned John le Carre and also All Quiet in the Western Front.  I never could get through that one.  British writer(s) Manning Coles, actually two people, wrote a long series, and the first few, one for WWI and several for II, based on Coles' spying experience, are quite good, but then they deteriorate.

Non-spy WWII: Don't go near the Water by William Brinkley is a humorous tale of service in the Pacific.  The events are somewhat improbable, but it accurately captures the spirit of some aspects of that time.  And Mr. Roberts, a serious book about the same time.  Humorous but grim, Catch 22.  Humorous but grimmer and fantastical, Slaughterhouse Five.  The war segments of Brideshead Revisited.

I'd better stop before I think of more.

[Frybabe]

Oh, yes! The 39 Steps. I was quite disappointed when COVID came along to shut down our local theater's production of it. Who knows if they will ever get around to re-staging it. I'll have to dig out my e-copy of Greenmantle. Surely I would have read it (instead of it languishing in my TBR pile) had I known it was a sequel. Mr. Steadfast I do not have but will look try to find.

I've seen the Catch-22 movie and have the book, but have not yet read it. I know they made a movie of Mr. Roberts (think I saw it or part of it), but didn't they also make one of Don't Go Near the Water?

For some reason I have an aversion to reading Slaughterhouse Five. I remember contemplating reading it several times, but if I actually finally did or attempted it, I have forgotten about it. I am even trying to remember if I actually read Cat's Cradle. I think I did, but again can't remember any of it. I did read The Sirens of Titan, but again, don't remember the content. It is probably safe to say that Vonnegut's  writing and I didn't get along well.

I've finished Jonathan Moore's Blood Relations. It didn't have any supernatural elements to it at all, but was good never-the-less. Moore's Bay Area books highlight the darker side of criminal and police activity. I think I would put these books squarely in the noir genre of crime fiction.

[rosemarykaye]

Hi all

I wondered if you had already seen this 'meme' (whatever that may mean - I've asked my daughter but I still didn't really understand the explanation...)?

I am going to have a go at it - I hope some  of you will join in, it looks like fun (though a friend who did it on her blog said it is much harder than it looks, especially if most of the books you've read this year have 'death' or 'murder' in the title!)

The idea is that, using only the titles of books you have read this year, you complete the following (I have left my friend's own responses in brackets so that you can get the idea - obviously we need to delete those and insert out own.)

Describe yourself: (The Provincial Lady Goes Further)

How do you feel: (Happy Old Me )

Describe where you currently live: (Castle Skull)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: (The White Road Westwards)

Your favourite form of transportation: (Crossed Skis)

Your best friend is: (The Woman in White)

You and your friends are: (The Thursday Murder Club)

What’s the weather like: (Crimson Snow)

You fear: (A Watery Grave)

What is the best advice you have to give: (Escape to the French Farmhouse)

Thought for the day: (Dashing for the Post)

My soul’s present condition: (All Passion Spent)

What do you think?  Will we give it a try?

[rosemarykaye]

Frybabe - I was interested in your comments re Matt Haig.

He has really cornered the market in books about depression, etc here. I heard him speak at an Edinburgh Book Festival event a while ago, and he did come across as a genuinely good person - BUT he has now become the favourite guru of the younger generation, so he only has to open his mouth on twitter to get hundreds of adoring responses.   I do feel sorry for young people, I really do, but I wonder if all this emphasis on 'me and my personal happiness', is actually sometimes detrimental to their mental health. I think they are persuaded (especially by social media) to think that if everything in their lives is not absolutely perfect, something is wrong. But I appreciate this makes me sound very old and uncaring. I don't mean to be. I hope I am always here for my children, and I would support them in anything they chose to discuss, but sometimes I think people manage better if they just press on (obviously not if they are in major crises, but these things seem to be a permanent state of affairs for some...)

A young person whom I know slightly (not one of my own!), and who seems to be permanently at the doctor's, was incensed when their GP told them to stop Googling symptoms and start living their life. I know that sounds very harsh, but also knowing the YP in question I can imagine that the GP might have been having a bad day and felt at the end of his/her tether.

I'll get off my soapbox now 

PatH - I too didn't know that Greenmantle was a sequel to The 39 Steps (which I enjoyed as an audiobook earlier this year.)  I'll look out for it - thanks for that.

Rosemary

[PatH]

Rosemary, I like your quiz, but if we try it, it would be good to allow books read (or reread) in the last two or three years, since some of us are just coming out of a non-reading slump.  It does look hard to me, but fun.

[Frybabe]

Sounds like fun, Rosemary. I copied off the list to work on later. Most of my titles will likely be Scifi  . I assume this is just novels or can non-fiction titles count?

My goto for old books is Project Gutenberg. So, I checked up on Greenmantle and Mr. Steadfast. They are both there. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Greenmantle&submit_search=Go%21

Speaking of non-fiction, I just downloaded and started reading The Revenge of Geography by Robert O. Kaplan.

[rosemarykaye]

Hi Pat and Frybabe - I think we can really make our own rules for this, so why not make it any book you have actually read, fiction or non-fiction?

[rosemarykaye]

I have given it a shot!  You were so right Pat - I could not have done this just from the books I have read in 2020, it was enough of a struggle looking back at my list of books covering the last 13 years!


Describe yourself: The Last Hillwalker (John D Burns)

How do you feel: Dead Cold (Louise Penney)

Describe where you currently live: O Caledonia (Elspeth Barker)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Rose Cottage (Mary Stewart)

Your favourite form of transportation: The Christmas Train (David Balducci)

Your best friend is: Another Marvelous Thing (Laurie Colwin)

You and your friends are: Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)

What’s the weather like: The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Graeme)

You fear: Trouble in the Village (Rebecca Shaw)

What is the best advice you have to give: Don't Tell Alfred (Nancy Mitford)

Thought for the day: We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

My soul’s present condition: A Glass of Blessings (Barbara Pym)

[BarbStAubrey]

Rosemary i did not think Vonnegut wrote Catch 22 - however, I did read and was awed reading Slaughterhouse Five -

I've read this bit many times - it hit something so that all I can do is nod it is true, it is true...

"He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.

But the Gospels actually taught this:

Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn’t well connected. So it goes.

The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn’t look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again:

Oh, boy–they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch _that_ time!

And that thought had a brother: “There are right people to lynch.” Who? People not well connected. So it goes.

The visitor from outer space made a gift to the Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.

So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn’t possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.

And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections.”

Oh Pat thanks for piping up - I've read so many books this year but few novels and so by broadening the choice I could play -

frybabe I'm afraid without Pat enlargening the list instead of Sci Fi it would have been motivation, clearing out, and what next after retirement.

Fun list Rosemary - will take a bit of time to fill it out... exhausted - finally got all my packages wrapped and sent - in the process found I had a couple of addresses incorrect - and then I sent out my cards except for my cousin and her daughter - both I owe letters that i just must write to accompany a card and I do not have the address for the nursing home where my cousin lives now. So close to getting it all done... for now I think a long nap is in order - hate to sleep away the day - it is cold and crisp but the sun is bright and so flannel shirt weather rather than winter coat weather...



   

[BarbStAubrey]

Did read Sunday night a Christmas chit chat book - interesting - must have only been written - no bakery or coffee shop - but yes, the whole romance with this time a grandmother nudging on the grand-daughter - there is always a nudger in these chit chat books that I think now they are calling chick novels - anyhow she looses her job as a 911 provider after the police funding was cut - devastated as she thinks of the countless especially women in threatening situation that she helped until the best that she could offer was to call on a neighbor and now she cannot even do that - grandmother has a summer house in the mountains that she offers rent free, saying it will be safer with her in it as a house sitter while she figures out what next...

Then good looking guy next door comes to his fishing shack after his bicycle store was smashed into and ransacked badly injuring him in the process - his employees drag him the 10 blocks to the hospital and board up the destroyed business - He too needs to recoup and although insurance will cover almost three quarters of his loss he is not functioning. After his release and dinner out with his parents a gang disrupts the diners at the restaurant and that was when his Dad says to go to the family fishing shack. he ends up using some of the insurance money to make the shack into a solid mountain home and the story goes on from there as they both go through the steps of grief and trauma coming out of it with a running fishing creek bolstering the spirit and some wise words from grandma assisting both of them about forgiveness.

Interesting how these quick, light reads always have not only a happy ending but they always are built around a lesson to learn. Nothing deep and the lesson creeps up on the reader but easy enough that while reading my head is nodding in approval, which makes these books a nice respite now and then. This one was called, Christmas at Cedar Creek by Jarvis, cost all of 99 cents on Kindle.

Still reading  Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature by Viv Groskop that I will probably be reading for months - one of those that is almost like a road map to French Lit so that reading a few of the books mentioned and discussed for me will be a necessity - Never did read Françoise Sagan and she is the first author discussed - I think after Christmas I will start her first book, Bonjour Tristesse.

And another I just downloaded -  Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road by Bernard Ollivier - evidently a French journalist who after his wife died had taken this long distance walk from his home in Paris to Santiago in Spain The experience only raised for him more and more questions and so, he has taken other walks and this is book one of his walking the Silk Road - all three books about this walk have been translated to English where as some of his other walks are only available to read in French - He is starting from the other end traveling east rather then as Colin Thubron's journey, that we read here a year or so ago, The Shadow of the Silk Road, starts in China and travels west.

Still reading lots of books on International economics, banks and trade - whew lots I had no idea how the system works - how financing a nation is so different than financing local government or even a large corporation - another topic that reading one book takes reading several others for each chapter in order to understand - I've got a tiger by the tail with this topic - had no clue when I started with a simple question wondering what the World Trade Organization did.

I wonder if there is a book titled "Curious" - that would probably best describe me...

Ha found one - have not read it but I ought to ... Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It by Ian Leslie - maybe not my future but I have always been curious as if my life depended on my knowing - since I was a kid this has been going on and I would judge a relative or teacher based on their ability or willingness to answer my question - oh dear - Mom never measured up to my Father and Grandmother on that score... 

[ginny]

 OH what fun, I'll play but unfortunately I have to bend the rules as PatH says, some of us have not been reading lately, so here are mine:

Describe yourself: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (poem)

How do you feel:    Jude the Obscure

Describe where you currently live: The Egg and I

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Road Less Traveled

Your favourite form of transportation:   Murder on the Orient Express

Your best friend is:    Auld Lang Syne (song)

You and your friends are:   Curious George

What’s the weather like:  The Winter of our Discontent (Richard III)

You fear: Ozymandias (poem---Shelley)


What is the best advice you have to give:   Never Give Up

Thought for the day:   Never Give Up.


My soul’s present condition:    Through the Looking-Glass


Well, that was cathartic!

[nlhome]

Wow, that was some list. I used books I have read within the last year, so going back to December, 2019.

How do you feel: Gone to Dust (Matt Goldman)
Describe where you currently live: Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek (Terry Shames)
If you could go anywhere, where would you go:  The Shallows (Matt Goldman)
Your favourite form of transportation: Slow Horses (Mick Herron)
Your best friend is: The Scholar (McTiernan, Dervla)
You and your friends are:   The Zoo Gang (Gallico, Paul)
What’s the weather like: Broken Ice (Matt Goldman)
You fear: The Rising Tide (Jeff Shaara)
What is the best advice you have to give: Treacherous is the Night (Ann Lee Huber)
Thought for the day: Unto Us a Son is Given (Donna Leon)
My soul’s present condition: Gone Tomorrow (Lee Child)

[Tomereader1]

Strangely enough (LOL) I had to go back mostly to 2019, and a couple even further, because my list of Books Read 2020 consisted of 10 books checked from library from January 2020 to Feb. 13th. I had returned most of those books and in March, the libraries closed.  So my list is as follows:
Describe Yourself: A Good Enough Mother - Bev Thomas
How Do You Feel: The Storm Before the Calm - George Friedman
Describe Where you currently live: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet - Jamie Ford
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? - The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George
Your Favorite form of transportation: Sailing Alone Around the Room - Billy Collins
Your best friend is:   Bossy Pants - Tina Fey
You and your friends are:  Small, Great Things - Jodi Picoult
What's the weather like:  The Winter People - Jennifer McMahon
You fear:   Midnight in Chernobyl -Adam Higginbotham
What is the best advice you have to give:  Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - Lori Gottlieb
Thought for the day:  Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
My Soul's present condition:   A Thread of Grace - Mary Doria Russell

This is so much fun.  One never knows what "readers" will come up with.

[BarbStAubrey]

Describe Yourself: Get Unstuck Now - Laura van den Berg-Sekac

How Do You Feel: A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

Describe Where you currently live: The Great Betrayal - Emle Bradford

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? – Lunch in Paris - Elizabeth Bard

Your Favorite form of transportation: Blink – Malcomb Gladwell

Your best friend is: Caretakers of Wonder - Cooper Edens

You and your friends are: Desperate Circumstance, Dangerous Woman – a narrative poem – Brenda Marie Osbey

What's the weather like: Southern Nights – Allen Toussaint

You fear: 1984 – George Orwell

What is the best advice you have to give: Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer - Richard Rohr

Thought for the day: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up – Susannah B. Lewis

My Soul's present condition: The Dark Night of the Soul – St. John of the Cross


With so much variety in our answers we could use a synopsis of these books and why they were chosen - was it the title, the storyline, the characters - yep, I'm curious...

[rosemarykaye]

I just wrote and lost an entire post, but hey ho, I'll try to remember my words of wisdom...

Firstly, I think we all did a fabulous job with the latest game, Thanks so much to all who joined in. It's especialy good to do things like this with such well-read people - so many interesting answers!

I've been looking through my notebook of books read each year, and I realised that, far more than ever before, I can remember where I was when I was reading many of them. Beside the Dee, sitting on a bench in the sunshine, in my own garden, listening to the birds singing, with a cup of tea beside me, or perched on a tree stump in the woods; it was a glorious summer. And as the winter has come along, I've listened to Ethan Frome, The Railway Children, The Wind in the Willows, The Portrait of a Lady and now Wuthering Heights as I trudge along the lanes and wade through the puddles. or wander around the village graveyard. I've been so much more aware of the seasons coming and going in 2020, and as (I think?) Shelley said:

'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?'

(Well let's hope not anyway.....I doubt Percy Bysshe knew an awful lot about climate change..)

Meanwhile, when it's not raining, the sunsets have been absolutely spectacular here lately. When I turned to walk home yesterday afternoon I had to keep turning around to amaze myself yet again with the blazing sky - it was quite something. I'm giong to try to post a photo - apologies in advance if it doesn't work:




Having indulged myself with a Debbie Macomber over the last few days, I'm now reading a 1967 children's book, Noel Streatfeild's Caldicott Place. The father of a happy middle-class family suffers a brain injury in a car crash. Until and unless he recovers, the family is left with almost no money, and has to move from its comfortable suburban home to a tiny flat in London. The children have to share bedrooms. The beloved dog cannot accompany them and is left with the family now renting the old home (where he is well looked after, I hasten to add.) Everyone is miserable. The doctors say the father needs a long period of convalescence in the country, and the best thing for him to do would be fishing.  (Yes, I too have no idea why...)

The youngest child, Tim, tries to take flowers from the old garden to his father, but is not allowed to see him outwith visiting times - so he wanders off into the private wing of the hospital (no security whatsoever - you do wonder how children's books can actually be written these days, when so many adventures would be simply impossible!) and handily comes across the old lady whose car (driven by her chauffeur, who was killed) hit his father's. She is very ill, but listens to Tim's tale of woe, which largely concerns the fate of the dog.

A few weeks later the mother receives a solicitor's letter, and - SURPRISE! - the old lady has died, but has left Tim (aged 9...) a huge, dilapidated, country mansion, complete with its own park and trout river. The decision of whether to keep it or sell it is entirely his. Needless to say, the lawyer advises Tim's mother that it should be sold, but Tim has other ideas - and hey presto, the lawyer's grandson, newly recruited to the firm, knows of some immensely rich wards (think Bleak House) who have tons and tons of money but nowhere to live....

Well, who would have thought it?

But I have to forgive Streatfeild, because she writes well and there is something very reassuring about her stories. Also, she doesn't make the adults infallible; the mother has to get work as a secretary, but is terrible at it and is demoted to the typing pool; she ends up pouring all her woes out to the oldest boy, who is only 13; the father is not pleased to see the children when they do visit - he hardly recognises them. In the end the children have to save the day (and again, how would they be able to do that, realistically, now?  Maybe that's why I still like these old books.)

And it is almost Christmas

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Rosemary

[PatH]

Well, it took me a while, but here's my list:

Describe Yourself: The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)

How do you feel: Herself Surprised (Joyce Carey)

Describe where you currently live: The House of the Four Winds (John Buchan)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: A Year in Provence (Peter Mayle)

Your favorite form of transportation: Night Train to Paris (Manning Coles)

Your best friend is:The Third Man (Graham Greene)

You and your friends are: Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

What's the Weather Like: Iceworld (Hal Clement)

You fear: A Severed Head (Iris Murdoch)

What is the best advice you have to give: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (Jean Kerr)

Thought for the day: Reach for Tomorrow (Arthur C. Clarke)

My soul's present condition: A Mixture of Frailties (Robertson Davies)

[PatH]

I never thought I'd regret not having read A Journal of the Plague Year, but it would have come in handy.

That was a surprising amount of fun to fool around with, and somehow cheered me up a lot.  Thanks for sharing it, Rosemary.

Barb wanted to know how the books were chosen.  Solely for the titles, in my case.  I tried to think of ones that accurately described me, or else were funny, but sometimes had to settle for something that just logically fit the question.  Like Ginny, I went back in time for some of them.  But I would recommend most of them.

[ginny]

Well why don't we? Why don't we go back through and explain why we chose it, titles or content or idea? That might be fun.

I'll start with my first 5:

Describe yourself: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (poem by T.S. Eliot)

Chosen for the Content.

Quote:

" No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind?   Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me."

I recite parts of this poem  more times than I care to admit.



How do you feel:    Jude the Obscure  Chosen for title but I really thought when I read it it was the greatest thing I had read.


Describe where you currently live: The Egg and I  Title, but a lot of it resonates. We live on a farm and have chickens. She was a lot more patient than I am.

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Road Less Traveled Title again but almost all the books associated with it are useful as well.

Your favourite form of transportation:   Murder on the Orient Express Title again, travel to exotic places, with a little mystery tucked in, because I always carry one for long train journeys, usually with similar themes to this one by Agatha Christie.

How about you all?

[PatH]

You left out my favorite line though, Ginny:

    I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.