I came across this photo the other day and it definitely made me smile!
This photo was taken by Elliott Erwitt
Felix, Gladys & Rover by Elliott Erwitt
Category: Bloggage
June/July ’15 Finish Reads
I’m rather pleased to say that my last three reads are actually books that I’d previously started but never finished.
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin – I didn’t think I’d read much of this book but a bookmark still in it tells me I had actually gotten almost 100 pages into it! However upon re-reading it I couldn’t remember anything about it at all! On the other hand in the re-read I couldn’t understand why I didn’t finish it first time around! I have the second book in the series on my shelf just waiting to be picked up.
My second read – previously I had only read a chapter or two of this book. On the other hand, I’d seen the series, the film, and listened to the audiobook – so it really was time to pick up the book and read the words for myself. Yes I’m referring to the first in the Karla Trilogy – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré! 
The series and the film follow each other fairly closely. The book was written in 1974 and the series was made in 1979 so period was in keeping with the book. There was one or two small changes made – locations – that when it came to the film they too, kept the places changed – I’m not sure I understand why. On the other hand I did enjoy the book and Alec Guinness was Smiley for me the whole way through.
Finally, I got my hands on a copy of A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
This had come to my attention last year (or was it the year before?) I couldn’t find it anywhere so in the end I ordered it in the library. Unfortunately for me the mood had passed by the time I’d gotten it. It’s a short read – 85 pages and I only got about 28 pages into it when I had to return it. So when I saw that Penguin had just released it as a Modern Classic this summer, I knew I had to get my hands on it and try it again. Now one habit of mine is to find out how many pages are in a book and figure out where the half way mark is. When I did that here I spotted that the story was signed off as such, as if it were a letter. So that was how I read it – as a letter. I devoured it which I’m rather pleased with as I’m a slow reader. I loved it – I loved that warm summer – slightly struggled with the phonetic accent but that wasn’t the stumbling block that it possibly was last time.
Now I think my next read will be a new purchase but I’m still not entirely sure which.
Holiday Plans #1
This morning, on the bus going to work, I decided to put my mind to a very important decision.
What books will I bring on holidays?
This will dictate the mood of the holiday.
I’m thinking Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and a Poirot.
& 
We’re only away on a city break for a week – I doubt I’ll even get half of one read!
My Radio
I love listening to the radio – I have one in every room in the apartment even the smallest room!
Actually, that’s not exactly true – I did have a radio on my locker but retired it for the telly. What I mean by that is we get the radio through the television and the signal is much, much better! However this morning two things happened to be bring the radio back to the locker – I woke up in time to listen to Gloria on LyricFM and the remotes were over on his locker. The radio was found, plugged in and I snuggled back down to listen. It really was glorious! The reception wasn’t too bad either.
Speaking of reception – I mentioned earlier that reception is better on the telly – well that’s not really worth anything if there’s no electricity! As was the case last week. I had just gotten off the bus when all of the house alarms started going off. It seems that when the electricity fails you don’t get silence these days. I do like having no electricity – it’s like an adventure! Anyway with no telly or internets there was only the radio left! So out came my transistor (I don’t think they can be called a tranny any more) and the reception of BBC radio 4 was PERFECT! We listened away ’til the lights came back and at that point all of the static electricity that was being generated completely destroyed the reception. Now I know some will go what did you expect but it had never dawned on me before – yes, electrical weather but household, no!
Here is my old faithful –
I’ve had her for too many years than I’d care to admit to!
Not My Father’s Son
This is the autobiography of Alan Cumming. It was read by himself on BBC radio 4 recently as the book at bedtime. For me it was a little bit past my bedtime so I got the audiobook from the library.
Can I just say WOW!
I remember watching his episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” and thinking that’s tragic but isn’t it lovely that his grandfather was held in such high esteem…
Nobody would have guessed the turmoil he was going through while the filming of that episode. That episode is used as the framework for the book – for him to tell us who he is – where he came from. On twitter I said it swung from harrowing to happy – reading it, it interchanges between the Then of childhood to the Now of filming the programme.
Speaking of remembering seeing Alan on television – I saw him on The Late Late Show (RTÉ) talking about his relationship with his dad and I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say it wasn’t a happy go lucky childhood. However listening to his lilting accent, his voice somehow protects us from his words. You really are routing for the “Then” & “Now” Alan to come through, despite the fact that you kind of know that he has, you are so wrapped up in the story.
This story is very redemptive – by the end of it I would have loved to say to Mary Darling (his Mam) – you did a great job! to Grant – please keep looking after him, he’s mad about you. To Alan, Thank You! Thank you for The HighLife, the photos, and your honesty.
If you don’t read (auto)biographies then listen to this one!
How to Make a Bolster Pillow – A Beautiful Mess
Try it, You know you want to!
How to Make a Bolster Pillow – A Beautiful Mess.
via How to Make a Bolster Pillow – A Beautiful Mess.
The Organised Criminal
Last week we were at a book launch – it was a friend of ours that was having the launch.
A book by a friend is always a dodgy thing. It could be great but it might not.
Well today I finished The Organised Criminal.
Generally I’m not a great one for florid writing but in this time I lapped it up. In this instance the sentences were short and sharp, maintaining a steady pace.
The voice of the book is that of Jay O’Reilly who is also the main protagonist.
On the opening page we find out that he’s heading home for a family funeral, home being Crossmaglen, Northern Ireland. He’s not overly happy about being back – no that’s not right – he’s not comfortable being back but it’s good to see some old friendly faces.
I don’t want to say anything else about the story as that would give the story away. A good sign for me is that as I come to the end I just don’t want to put it down – I have to find out how does it all work out and in this particular instance I couldn’t put it down. Now all I want to is to read more by Jarlath.
Slow Progress
Confession time – I hurt my hand from playing Nintendo 😦 At the time I was also making a baby blanket for my cousin, so the blanket kind of ground to a halt.
Ok it wasn’t just that my hand/thumb was killing me – it was also the fact that I’d decided to make this blanket with stripes that encouraged me to put off picking it back up again. Don’t get me wrong – I love this blanket – it goes up lovely when you’re doing it all in the one colour. However, a different colour for every row is a pain in the bum! For the first few rows I didn’t weave in the ends – figuring I’d do it with the border – however I realised it was going to have to be done with each row if it was going to be well hidden.
On Friday night I dreamt that my cousin’s wife had, had a baby boy. This would have been a good thing ’cause I was making a blanket for a girl – this might have been my sub-conscience trying to ease my guilt. So although the plan for the weekend was to read I put it on hold and picked up hook & wool.
As I type I’ve got 50% of it done (no photo) – the fact that it’s 100 rows makes it easy to see your progress. I also decided to post updates on Instagram as I went along:
BTW the blanket is from this pattern: www.Lemonlaneblog.wordpress.com
If you do it – enjoy it.
I’ll post another photo this evening to show where I am by bed time.
A Scream In Soho
I did it!
I bought a copy of A Scream In Soho from the British Library during the summer last year and started to read it shortly after Christmas but found it very slow going.
It took me a while to get used to the style of writing. Words are spelled out using accent phonetics – if there is such a thing – you knew if you had a Cockney, Italian, Irish or upper class British character. The other thing I found was that for the first 50 pages or so it was mainly scene setting and hypothesising and theories – it felt a bit turgid – like wading through tar. On the other hand, once the first corpse is located, it takes off at a gallop. It took me 3wk to read the first few pages and the other 200 pages took 3 days.
I must add that I was under a cloud for the first while got a confidence shot last week, which might also have boosted my reading concentration…
(Click on Image to be taken to the British Library Shop – better still go to the actual shop it’s heavenly)
Change of direction…
I have another WP blog but I’ve decided to use that one for photos and hopefully witter away about life it’s ups downs and questions.
It does mean that the out put might be increased a little bit but only just a little as let’s be honest I’m a bit rubbish about posting. Mind you – you’d never know maybe 2015 might be the year I figure it all out…
My Corner of The Internet 