My Family and Other Animals

I'd never read this so thanks to Philippa for filling in this gap in my reading. I loved this, mainly for the author's description of his family, rather than the wildlife, although I did love reading about young Gerry's pets who were all proper little characters. Those were the days when you could go out and dig up wild flowers or remove young birds from nests without thinking anything of it. Of course it was a much freer existence altogether. Gerry and his family certainly didn't worry about stranger danger. Of course if wasn't all idyllic because the family leave Corfu in 1939, just before the start of the War.

I also read a Dr Seuss which Jo thoughtfully lent me on the grounds I could read it really quickly - an excellent thought at this stage in my book-a-day year! The Rock Chick first learned to read with a Dr Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat. ETA no it wasn't! I've just looked this up and it's a different book ... in the Rock Chick's one somebody tries on lots of different hats. Wonder what it was?

Finally I read The Body Artist by Dom DeLillo. This is a very clever book but if that's your overall impression of a book I think there's something wrong. It didn't exactly employ the stream of consciousness technique, but it might as well have (grrr). Plus you are not exactly going to warm to a main character who is a conceptual artist of the sort whose audience walk out when they can't stand the tedium of her performance. I didn't walk out - I stayed to the end of the book but I won't be reading any more by this author.

Day 316; Book 306

Elizabeth's cunning plan

She thinks I should read the Beatrix Potter books to get me to the end of my book-a-day year without too much effort! I may stop off at the children's library on the way home ... although I won't read anything too whimsical. I don't like whimsical, which is why I could never make any progress with Winnie the Pooh.

The Hills is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith

Lillian Beckwith based her light, humorous books on her stay in the Hebrides during and just after the war. Read more about them here. I thought I'd read this but it must have been another one in the series, so it was fun to read the very first one. A nice gentle read (which nevertheless doesn't shy away from life in the raw). I wouldn't have been too pleased by my portrayal if I had been one of the locals, but then the author does poke fun at herself as well.

I think my mum would like to read these again too, especially as I've just read that Lillian Beckwith lived at Breakish on Skye during the War (so did Mum! I wonder if they ever met?)


Day 313; book 303

Cockburn's A-Z of After-Dinner Entertainment

£2 from an antique shop in Dunkeld! And Mr F paid!

This was an amusing book about after-dinner speaking, written by Giles Brandreth. It starts with some tips for the would-be speechmaker (practise a lot, be prepared for things going wrong and keep it short!) Then there's examples of jokes. Unfortunately as the book was sponsored by Cockburn's Port, there are a lot of references to it which make Mr Brandreth look rather sycophantic.

Day 311; Book 302

Scandal Takes a Holiday by Lindsey Davis

I'm nearly at the end of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries! Thanks to Anna for keeping me supplied with these. As usual with Falco you get a mystery plus more developments in his extended and often annoying family.

Then I read the short novel Special Delivery by Iselin C. Hermann. It's in the form of letters, not usually my favourite style, but the author manages to transcend the form to give a clear picture of Delphine and her life. I wasn't expecting the ending ...

Day 310; Book 301

Test your navigation skills

This week's New Scientist has a feature by Chris Berdik called Lost: "Birds, rats and hamsters are able to find their way around with consumate ease. So how come we can't navigate our way out of a paper bag?"

This is a very interesting article, especially if you've ever struggled to find your car in a car park. It features a report on "developmental topographical disorientation" as identified by Giuseppe Iaria of the University of Calgary and Jason Barton at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

You can test your own skills in association with their study here.

Richard Bach

I read three Richard Bach books over the weekend. Thanks to David for lending me these and other short books as I try to reach my target (less than 2 months to go!)

I didn't take to Mr Bach's works though, in fact I thought it was a lot of hippy nonsense. I would say it was well-meaning hippy nonsense, but in The Reluctant Messiah particularly there is a lot about how you only allow things to happen that you want to happen. This seems to be blaming people for their own misfortunes (which may be true some of the time but certainly isn't all of the time). It makes Mr Bach seem rather smug and uncaring, which is not how he planned to come across I'm sure. The Reluctant Messiah is also full of "meaningful" quotes which invariably made me think of that 60s/70s saying:

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.
Just walk beside me, and be my friend". *

Bleurrgh!

Here's an antidote from Mr F:

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.
Don't walk beside me either; in fact, just b*gger off and leave me alone".

Ah, that feels better.


*I looked at quote sites and they variously attribute this to Albert Camus and to Tennyson ...

which is amusingly unlikely.

Day 309; Book 299