Another reading challenge, this time from A Reader’s Journal. I like this challenge, firstly because it’s a simple idea. Read five classics in January and February 2007. You’re also permitted to overlap other challenges, so hopefully I can cheat a little with the From the Stacks challenge.
Stop reading now if you’re bored with the whole Rachel Cooke and Susan Hill and John Sutherland debate. I’d read countless blog posts criticising Cooke’s views before I decided to go and read her original article for myself. Now I’ve read it I think it’s time I added my own tuppence worth.
The mouse is no longer hovering over Amazon’s ‘pre-order this item’ for Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day. Instead I opted for what I hope will be a much easier read, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I’ll get round to Pynchon. One day.
I’m finding it difficult to write anything substantial at the moment, although I’ve thought of a couple of ideas for memes. Coming soon.
I’ve almost finished White Heat, Dominic Sandbrook’s story of Britain in the 1960s. I like this, an account of the infamous Rolling Stones drug bust of 1967:
They were clearly amused by the fact that Marianne Faithfull, having taken off her muddy clothes before her bath, was wrapped in an enormous fur rug. But when the rug slipped, whether by accident or design, to reveal her naked body, the constables kept their cool. ‘She wasn’t anything to look at anyway,’ said (PC) Rambridge dismissively. ‘She was obviously a drop-out type.’
I’ve booked tickets for Casino Royale tonight. I think it’s time I tried a film review.