READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

My reading these days is confined mainly to Private Eye. Not sure why..... perhaps it's because nothing grabbed my attention. Well done Ken for persevering...

[plaques]

Popped into Colne library after yesterdays sheep shearing session at the hairdressers. 39 Steps by John Buchan. One of the old fashion spy thrillers. Nothing too complicated it filled in a wet day. I vaguely remembered Hitchcock's 1955 version. At 115 pages more of a short story very enjoyable.

[Wendyf]

Popped into Colne library after yesterdays sheep shearing session at the hairdressers. 39 Steps by John Buchan. One of the old fashion spy thrillers. Nothing too complicated it filled in a wet day. I vaguely remembered Hitchcock's 1955 version. At 115 pages more of a short story very enjoyable.

Did you go upstairs to look at the exhibition of Colin Bean's photos?

[plaques]

Did you go upstairs to look at the exhibition of Colin Bean's photos?

Sorry Wendy never gave it a thought. I was just heading back to the carpark and grabbed two books from the 'Classics' stand. In and out in two minutes. I will be taking 39 steps back on monday so I give myself a bit more time. Thanks for the head up.

[Tripps]

I bought the 39 Steps book - having watched the various film versions many times. Hitchcock's version with Robert Donat from 1935, (Private Fraser is in it !) - The Kenneth More version from 1959, and the Robert Powell version from 1978.
I was surprised how thin it was, and doubt I could find it amongst all the others now, but of course I'll have to spend the rest of the day trying to do so. It's a while ago, but was also surprised that it bore little resemblance to the films.

Enjoy your 'short story.

[plaques]

Tripps, Next up is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway May as well pull this out during your search.

[Tripps]

Well - I've found it which was easier than I had thought.

What do you know - it was very near to an Ernest Hemingway "A Farewell to Arms" which I didn't even know I had.

I think that's a bit spooky.

Buchansteps.JPG

[Wendyf]

It's interesting to read that Roald Dahl's wonderful children's books are being rewritten to remove offensive words such as fat, ugly, black and white. The BFG's cloak will no longer be black and no-one will turn white with fear any more. Scary?

[Tripps]

It looks like the decision was taken by the publishers Puffin Books.

I think the experience of JK Rowling must have influenced them. They must be terrified of offending some group or other, and getting cancelled. It could happen - and there is still big money in print publishing.

Where this leaves the rest of English literature and culture I don't know. If those rules were applied more widely we might as well give up.

I - of course - shall be boycotting all Puffin books forthwith.

[Wendyf]

Should we burn the original copies? Fahrenheit 451 here we come. I must read that again....

[Stanley]

Before it's banned. Is Golliwog a forbidden word now? I think it's worth the time to read THIS Wikipedia article. I particularly liked this....
In July 2018, a YouGov poll asked 1,660 Britons whether it was "racist to sell or display a golliwog doll", to which a 63% responded "No", 20% "Yes", and 17% "I'm Not Sure".
That sounds about right to me.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz gave me a copy of Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins for my Christmas present. I've been reading it slowly, savouring every page. It's an excellent book and Rob Wilkins is a very good writer as well as being the person who knew Terry as well as or even better than his wife. Wilkins was Terry's `PA', odd job man etc and had to spend more time with him than Terry's wife. It's a cracking good read, from Terry's birth and early days in a cottage at the end of a country lane at Forty Green, with a few houses and a pub (but what a pub! The Royal Standard of England.), through his schooldays, early work as a reporter for Bucks Free Press then other newspapers, then a press officer for the CEGB's nuclear power stations in the South-West and on to his success as a writer and all the excitement, good and bad that came with that. (An example of the latter being when he collapsed at the CEGB during a genuine nuclear emergency.)

There's humour on almost every page, even black humour in the 'embuggerance' of the Alzheimer's period. Also plenty of Pratchett philosophy, especially when dealing with agents, publishers, TV and film producers. Various other well-known people make an appearance in the book because Terry frequently latched onto those who he felt could help him with ideas. Rather than me going on about the book at length just get a copy yourselves and read and enjoy it..

World of Books has copies here: WOB

[Stanley]

You've sold it Peter, I shall get a copy when it becomes cheaper. (I've spent all this week's spending money on engine castings.....) My next read is Ransome's two Racundra cruises, talking to David yesterday triggered me off. I have both of them of course and knowing me that will trigger off Joshua Slocum

[plaques]

Talked to one of the volunteers at the Samaritans book stall. He said they had been given some Pratchett's books which they advertised on Facebook. They sold the lot to a single buyer. I noticed some months after Pratchett's death his books disappeared from the shelves. I think they are now a collectors item.

[Stanley]

Not the 'real' Pratchett fans then..... Vultures!

[Stanley]

Reports this morning that in a revision before re-publishing, Ian Fleming's Bond books have been 'revised' by sensitivity readers.....

[plaques]

Made In China. Wuhan, Covid and the Quest for Biotech Supremacy. By Jasper Becker. Lancashire libraries. Apr 2022.

Well researched going back to the days of SARS. and what's going on in the world of biotechnology. Rather frightening to think that all the major countries are experimenting with chimera type viruses and add-on gene editing with unknown outcomes. The excuse being that if someone can develop a novel bioweapon we can neutralise it with a vaccine. Doesn't come to a definite conclusion but the evidence strongly points towards the lab in Wuhan.
Well worth the effort to read it at 300 pages lots of background information.

[Stanley]

Ken. I find that every time I read a book that gives the inside story on anything connected with Biotech or Intel I end up being frightened to death. I always end up with the same question..... "Do I really need to know this?"

[Stanley]

I've started re-reading Racundra's First Cruise. Always comforting to go back to an old favourite and different times. Escapism I know but we all need a bit of that occasionally.....

[Tripps]

I've just bought The Diaries by William Allingham
It's a Folio edition and comes with a srong outer cover. First time I ever got one, and it was a factor in the purchase.

He was a Victorian Irish poet

Up the Airy mountain
Down the rushy glen
We dare not go a hunting
For fear of little men

Medmories of Aunty Josie and childhood again.

I really don't need any more books - but it's from Emaus in Oxford which is a good cause so I succumbed.

I'm not regretting the decision.

[Stanley]

So that's where that poem came from! My kids learned it at school and taught it to me.....

[Tizer]

Information from this new book is being serialised in The Times by Anthony Seldon. I've read a summary and it's scathing about Boris and how he played off his wife against Dominic Cummings and ministers. Seldon has plenty of contacts in government and the Civil Service and he's using them to the full!...
`Johnson at 10: The Inside Story' by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell. LINK

[plaques]

I have ordered the Library book, Boris Johnson: the rise and fall of a troublemaker at Number 10.

It may be worth comparing the two books. `Johnson at 10: The Inside Story' by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell. LINK

[Stanley]

I'm being very retro and re-reading Racundra's Third Cruise (The successor to 'First Cruise).
When I have finished this I shall read Joshua Slocum again. 'Sailing Alone Round the World'.

[Tripps]

This book has just arrived. Just had a dip in.

Post-War Childhood It's by Simon Webb a daily Youtube poster whose work does not find favour with everyone on here.

I'm usually impressed, and thought it time to read one of his many published books. I'm not disappointed. A scholarly work'