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

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

Small but perfectly dark in tone, The Cement Garden is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Not because it's not beautifully written, but because you will find yourself laughing out loud at some outrageous situations, and then looking around shiftily: "Did I really laugh at that?" It's a tragedy too, and a lesson in how keeping yourself to yourself can be a Very Bad Thing.

Day 306; book 296

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

This is skillfully and poetically written, but then I'm not actually looking for poetry when I read prose. Not too much plot either. I really like more to HAPPEN when I'm reading a book*.

I also re-read The Virgin and the Gypsy by D H Lawrence. There's the usual Lawrentian guff about feelings (for feelings, read sex). There's a Freudian candlestick. There's also an hilariously-agonising description of the tedium of a never-ending evening en famille at the rectory. The book is worth reading for that alone (I don't usually associate Lawrence with hilarity).

Just edited to add: to be fair, the Napoleonic Wars happen, and we march on Moscow ... perhaps I should have said I prefer a book where the plot is more complex.


Day 305; book 295

New blog on my reading list

Scroll down on the left to find the hilarious Craftastrophe where people make things and you really wish they hadn't.