The Book Tower

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.

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I’m about halfway through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I was expecting a pulp sci-fi novel that I would easily tire of but it’s actually an excellent book. I’ve rediscovered science fiction and I’m a convert to Philip K.Dick.

I’m also pretty close to pre-ordering Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon’s new novel. I’ve never been much of a fan of his but somehow I feel drawn to his latest. I keep returning to the Amazon website and hovering the cursor over ‘pre-order this item’. Now’s the time to decide whether he really is as good as they say, or if I still think it’s a case of the emperor’s new clothes…

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There’s a possibility that I might be renaming and moving this website as I’d like to use the domain name for something else I have in the pipeline. The problem is, I’ve really been having trouble trying to think of a new name. For about five seconds I thought about using Fully Booked, which ties in with my recent commitment to reading challenges. But I think this is (or was) a Saturday morning children’s programme, and I also think it’s a name I could quickly tire of.

Looking around, it appears to me that every conceivable name for a blog has already been used (I’m only counting the inoffensive and sane here). So if anyone can come up with any suggestions, I’ll be eternally grateful – and if I like anything so much as to actually use it I won’t rule out giving a small token of my appreciation…

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This is from Kate’s Book Blog. It’s all about the process of becoming a reader and our earliest reading experiences. Questions by Kate, answers by me.

Continue reading Early Reading meme

As I get deeper into Dominic Sandbrook’s White Heat I’m inspired to do various sixties-related things:

Watch episodes of The Avengers.
Listen to various classic albums of the decade – The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society is on in the background as I type.

I’m still only about a third of the way through this book. There’s a lot more on The Beatles as I plough on, although it’s clear that Sandbrook is a McCartney fan. And he doesn’t like Lennon. Commenting on The Fabs’ LSD intake:

Although McCartney and Starr, the more down-to-earth members of the band, were always rather suspicious, Lennon became a great fan. LSD suited his self-pitying, self-indulgent and pretentious personality…

At least he does try to redress the McCartney/Lennon balance, tipped more and more unfairly towards the latter since 1980, and I’m all for a straight 50/50 in this redress. They were equally gifted. Yes?

I’m racing to get through White Heat because I want to get on with Brave New World. I’ve read the first couple of chapters and it’s surprising how fresh the writing is. It reads to me like the sort of dystopian vision that Margaret Atwood would be producing now.

Brave New World is number one in my From the Stacks reading challenge. I’m also aware of my pledge to read a percentage of the 1001 Books in the next year. Managed to find a second hand copy of Lord of the Flies only this afternoon…

Continue reading Bits and Bobs