Reading Matter

I am a Reader. Not in the academic sense, but in the sense of someone who seems to be genetically wired to read Everything. Put a cereal box or a wine bottle on the table, and I'll read it. Road signs, adverts, hoardings, magazines in waiting rooms, papers left on the train, I'm there. I almost always have something to read while I'm eating (living alone has its advantages) whether it be the Ravelry forums, something from my novel collection or a knitting book. I have a fairly ridiculously large library (1000+ books on LibraryThing, and I don't think that's all of them)and no intention of pruning it. I have seen numerous people de-cluttering and de-junking and downsizing, making their lives more Zen and reducing their possessions, but for me if you took my books away it would be like cutting my head off. You may as well try to part me from my stash.


(this isn't all of them. Maybe 20%.)

You see, the thing is, it's genetic. My mother got me reading when I was, what? 18 months old? I have no idea. I was very young, in fact I can't even remember learning to read. My mum always has a book on the go. She has read her way through the local library so many times she's stopped going now. My parents had to extend the house to make space for all her books. No kidding. So there was really no hope for me :-) She instilled a love of good science fiction and the belief that the money spent buying a book is never wasted. She also introduced me to the joys of the charity shop and the second-hand bookshop :-) where of course, your book money goes so much further. In return I have hunted books down on the internet for her, and squirrelled out oddball selections from the second-hand shelves. We have often shared our libraries, though I think she still has some of mine on her shelves :-) She has not managed to get me to love Catherine Cookson though, and I cannot get her to like Douglas Adams, Tolkien or Iain Banks. Horses for courses I suppose...

All this brings me to today's bargain. I had to make a trip to the Post Office and fetch supplies. Handily enough, the Ayrshire Cancer Care second-hand bookshop is in between the Post Office and the Co-Op :-)

Now, to explain. I just finished "The Honourable Schoolboy" by John Le Carré. It's the only one of his I've actually read, and I really enjoyed it. (I love me a good spy thriller.) However, I have never read any of the prequels, never seen the films, so to be honest I only have a vague idea of what was going on :-) I decided while I was in the bookshop, that I ought to have a look and see what else they had of his. I have a couple on my shelves already, but, well, look what I came back with:



Yes, I seem to have ended up with two copies of "The Tailor of Panama". Oops. Got a bit carried away. Never mind, at 80p I think I can stand it. Now I need to make a list and scour the other shops to see what else I can drop on. I wonder how long that lot will keep me going for?

I also dropped on an absolute gem. You will like this. A wee book on weaving, and...



Alice Starmore. Oh yes. A lot less than I paid for the last one I dug out of a second-hand shop - "Scandinavian Knitting" cost me over £20. This one was £1.50 :-)

I have also been knitting, but I will show you those later. Now I need to go research John Le Carré...

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LibraryThing Book Review - The Kitchen Linens Book by EllynAnne Geisel

Note to readers: This book was received as part of the Early Reviewer's Group on LibraryThing. My thanks to LT and the publishers for a copy of the book. This review can also be found on LT.

This book is a celebration of the everyday textiles which are taken for granted, used, abused and often thrown out. Interspersed with memories from a range of people, a few recipes and ideas for using vintage linens, this is a sweetly nostalgic trip through the author's collection, and by extension, lifestyle. If you find the thought of entertaining friends with afternoon tea, dished up on a table dressed with hand-embroidered tablecloths and linen napkins, whilst wearing a 1950's apron completely alien, this is not the book for you. However, if you are interested in a celebration of an area of handwork that is often overlooked then this may well be of interest. This is not a serious text on textile history or sociology however.

The author gives a range of ideas for making use of vintage linens of all kinds, and many memories are shared of these pieces being used and loved over generations. One minor quibble - the author describes Scottish Terriers as being an English-bred dog. I think an entire nation of Scots may be offended by that one!

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LibraryThing Book Review - Attention. Deficit. Disorder. – A Novel by Brad Listi

Note to readers: This book was received as part of the Early Reviewer's Group on LibraryThing. My thanks to LT and the publishers for a copy of the book. This review can also be found on LT.

Attention. Deficit. Disorder. – A Novel by Brad Listi

I was quite prepared to hate this book, as it had taken four months to arrive, and I really wasn’t in the mood to read it when it finally arrived. However, I can say I am generally pleased I did make the effort.

The book follows the wanderings of Wayne Fencer, a young man who discovers his ex-girlfriend has committed suicide. He finds out at her funeral that she had been pregnant with his baby when they split up, and had had an abortion. In trying to come to terms with the situation, he sets off on a road trip that leads him across part of the States, to Cuba and finally to a crazy festival in the desert.

The book reflects its title, in that it is written in short chapters, some barely making two pages, as Wayne’s mind hops from one thought to another, interspersed with dictionary definitions, the recipe for making Molotov cocktails and a short biography of van Gogh. We follow his tortured thoughts as he tries to process the feelings of loss and guilt, and searches for an epiphany to guide him forward. Sometimes highly funny, sometimes heartrending and on occasion downright surreal, any reader who has lost someone can empathise with Wayne’s predicament.

This is a trip of a novel, but I found some drawbacks. The character of Wayne began to grate near the end, when I found I just wanted to slap some sense into him. The disjointed style, although quite appropriate, eventually began to give me the literary hiccups, and I found the ending somewhat limp and lacking closure.

In all, worth the read, but probably not deserving some of the hype.

LibraryThing Book Review - "Fresh" by Mark McNay

Note to readers: This book was received as part of the Early Reviewer's Group on LibraryThing. My thanks to LT and the publishers for a copy of the book. This review can also be found on LT.

Fresh by Mark McNay
This gritty modern novel is set in present-day Glasgow, and charts one fateful day in Sean O’Grady’s life – the day when his wayward brother Archie is released from prison. This wouldn’t be a problem, except Sean was looking after some money for Archie and he has spent it. We spend the day with Sean, working in the chicken factory (from whence the novel gets its title) sharing his fears, daydreams and increasingly desperate attempts to obtain the cash to pay off his brother.

The concept of the entire novel lasting only one day of Sean’s life is an interesting one, but fell a little flat for me. It seems to drag in places, and the reader’s concept of time can start to slip – there seems to be too much happening at one point, and not enough at others. What exacerbates this is the use of flashbacks to illustrate Sean’s relationship with Archie, and Archie’s slow slide into serious crime, drugs and violence. However, these are vital to the plot, and illustrate how one can be exposed to such influence, without ever totally succumbing to them. Sean manages to rise above Archie’s behaviour, and even though he is bullied into helping him at times, never falls fully into the same trap, instead concentrating on his work, his family and a few pints at the weekend.

A couple of technical points. The novel features a lot of dialogue between characters which is written in Glaswegian dialect and pronunciation and uses virtually no punctuation to define speech (such as quotation marks.) This can be confusing at first, and the reader who is unfamiliar with Glasgow speech and dialect may get a little lost at times. The conversations between characters are terse, partly through their familiarity and partly down to the speech pattern of this part of the world. However, it adds an edge of reality and gives a real flavour to the writing. The author is obviously very familiar both with Glasgow and its people, though it is unlikely that Glasgow Council will be using this book as an advertising tool any time soon. It paints a picture of a life lived on the edge of crime, poverty and violence, of a man trying to do right by his family when all around is temptation to take the easier path, and of a dirty, grey, uncaring city with a dark underbelly of housing schemes, neglect and drugs.

Overall I enjoyed this novel. There are a couple of moments where you fear the author is going to follow a well-trodden and overly obvious path, but he veers away and leads you in a different direction, culminating in an ending that is both shocking and utterly inevitable. The novel, at its best, positively reeks of Sean’s fear, his hand-rolled cigarettes and the abscessed chickens in the factory. This is not a novel for the squeamish or the vegetarian.

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