The Book Tower

Even though I’ve seen one or two interesting book challenges this week I’ve decided not to take part in them. Not that I’m really struggling with my current challenges, I just feel a bit challenged out. There’s also the worry that I’ll be proposing a reading challenge for books left over from reading challenges challenge in six months time.

Reading challenges are great fun but I’m not so keen on all the planning ahead. Rather than know what books are lying in wait for me I prefer to find them as I go along. Sometimes other books jump out of the shadows, sometimes you just change your mind.
I pass my pile of reading challenge books every time I walk down to the kitchen. Henry James is there staring at me with a “when are you going to read What Maisie Knew then?” Charlotte Bronte gives a conspiratorial nod with “and he hasn’t even touched Jane Eyre yet!”

I’ll get to them, but The Thirteenth Tale is going to be in my stocking this Christmas so that might take precedence.

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One of the highlights of my Christmas is the Radio Times double issue; the nerd within makes me sit down with a marker pen to highlight all the films I want to watch over the holiday period. Here follows some random thoughts about films I associate with Christmas. Some of the following are on television this year and others have disappeared into the vaults forever…

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• Since picking up William Golding’s Lord of the Flies I’ve been looking for symbolism in the novel. This dates back to my subjection to The Spire as as A level English student. According to my Golding-mad teacher, everything in that book was symbolic. So with Lord of the Flies I’m thinking about the meaning of the boys and their roles, the island, the fire, the wild pigs. Even the palm trees on the island caught my attention. Golding describes them as growing to a certain height and then falling to the ground, the sand unable to support them any more. Something to do with the future of the shipwrecked boys?
• I’m already worried about Piggy. If first impressions really count, he’s doomed right from the start. Unjustly given a name he will never shake off in the first few pages, this boy only appears useful for the strong lenses in his glasses used to relight the fire on the mountain when it burns out. If natural selection plays its part, this boy isn’t going to get out of there alive.

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