all five horizons

Kate’s to-read montage

Powered by Goodreads.com

Thanks to my birthday and my addicition to books, I have a growing number of books crowding my bedside table (and bedside bookshelf and bedside floor!). There are also a ton of books I have not even bought yet that I want to read. I am back to reading just one book at a time now since the only place I read is in bed.

I am still reading Lionel Shriver’s The Post-Birthday World and I am really enjoying it. The things that annoyed me about it at first are starting to fade away and I am left with a real respect for this American novelist who is so accurately protraying a British world that is very specific. The themes of love and relationships are universal.

I have still been thinking about setting up or joining a book club but I have so many books I want to read at the moment and my new course starting in a couple of months, I am thinking it might be as well to wait a while to make sure that I have the time.  I have no idea how much time the new course will take up (my guess? not as much as it should!).

Image courtesy of The Orwell Prize

George Orwell’s diaries are to be published in blog form exactly 70 years after each entry was originally written starting on 9th August 2008. I am really intrigued by this and fully intend on reading what this fascinating man had to say. I know I am not alone or at all original in thinking that 1984 is a masterpiece that can be read over and over. I am ashamed to say that I have not read anything else by Orwell (although I fully intend on correcting this just as soon as I start shifting the 9 books in my to-read pile). He did have some brilliant things to say:

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Yesterday, I discovered that Beatrix Potter shared my birthday. It made me read a bit about her which is when I realised I haven’t ever really known much about her life (I haven’t seen Miss Potter either). Born Helen Beatrix Potter on 28 July 1866, this remarkable lady was best known for her children’s books featuring a host of beloved animal characters such as Peter Rabbit, Jemimi Puddle-Duck and Squirrel Nutkin. It sounds like she had a rather interesting life. Despite having very strict parents who discouraged her from intellectual pursuits, she developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, and her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology.

It was when she was in her thirties that Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, one of my favourite childhood books. She also apparently became secretly engaged to her publisher causing a rift with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Sadly, her fiancé died before the wedding could take place.

The fascinating characters are as enchanting as ever, especially due to the beautiful illustrations.  I will leave you with this quotation from The Tailor of Gloucester which is sometimes just how I feel!

I am worn to a ravelling … I am undone and worn to a thread-paper, for I have no more twist.

Fray by Joss Whedon

Melaka the Lurk Slayer

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am fairly new to the graphic novel genre but this was an excellent place to start. I already know I love Whedon’s writing but I did not expect to get so engrossed in a comic book. The art is phenomenal with superb action and intricate expressions. I have heard that Fray will be showing her face in the Buffy Season 8 comic to which I subscribe and if that is the case, I cannot wait. She is a fantastic character and I would like to know more about her.


View all my reviews.

Having devoured We need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver, I was keen to read more of her novels.  Double Fault did not disappoint and the next one on the list, A Post-Birthday World has started promisingly.  However, for the first time while reading one of her books, the thing which I so admired about her writing has started to grate a little.  Shriver has the uncanny ability to write about flawed human characters with very real short-comings.  There is a refreshing honesty to her writing which doesn’t resort to making the protagonists perfect people.  Unfortunately, in The Post-Birthday World, I seem to have taken a bit of a disliking towards the protagonist, Irina.  The premise of this latest read is that Irina finds herself in a situation where she has the opportunity to cheat on her partner and act on the attraction she feels towards a close friend.  The book then follows this character on both journeys - the first being where she kisses the man, leaves her partner and the second where she resists tempation and stays with the partner.  I think the IDEA is a good one, which is why I am enjoying the read despite my reservations.  We all like to think in ‘what ifs’.

However, I am yet to be completely conviced that it will work for me, especially since as these are two stories about the SAME character who just makes different choices, then I do not understand why they seem so incongruous.  I am not even sure if this is the right word.  What I mean is, that I cannot reconcile the two characters leading these paralell lives as the same person which seems to defeat the point of the book.  Finally, I am also struggling with the dialogue of the supposedly devastating Ramsey.  He is meant to be a successful snooker player which makes him immediately seem more riduclous than he is meant to.  Did I miss the memo from the 1990s (which the book is set) that explained the appeal of Dick van Dyke-accented snooker players?

Still, I am only a few chapters in and Shriver’s words are, by and large, so well put together that I am happy to keep on reading to see if I can get a bit more comfortable with it.  I already know it is not Kevin or even Double Fault but I am prepared to be won over.

Ever since Juliet was interrupted during her book club meeting by Oceanic Flight 815 coming down, I have been pondering whether to join a book club.  I think the idea of this is fantastic.  I envisage a lot of sitting around drinking tea or wine and lively chatter about books and writing.  When I think about it, I picture close friends and sharing of confidences.  The problem is, the reality of joining a book club is not quite the same as my fantasy.  For a start, I do not have close-knit set of friends on my doorstep.  All my friends are scattered around the country or overseas.  So any club I join would be full of strangers (at least to start with).  Then there is the matter of finding a book club.  I have enquired at the nearest Waterstones Bookshop but that is about it so far.  Looking online is not much help unless I feel like joining Richard and Judy’s or Oprah’s club but that seems to defeat the object rather as I would have none of the lively dicussion and the tea/wine drinking would be all alone.  I suppose I should make a concerted effort to find a local club and then decide if it is for me.

The blog title of this new book blog was inspired by the books of two women who influenced me greatly during my teens. Harper Lee and Maya Angelou moved me to tears and they made me understand the power of writing. They helped to shape my views and their writing introduced me to a world very different to the one I occupied.

I am excited to be writing properly about books here but I will also be sharing my new foray into the world of comic books and graphic novels. Indeed I may also be mentioning some of the magazines I subscribe to here too, should I feel the need! As you will see from the Good Reads widget on my sidebar, I have a lot of books on my bedside table. I found this an easier list to share than the books I am currently reading as I find myself in a state of flux with my readin g at the moment. Having lost my 5 hour daily commute, I find that I struggle to find the time to read like I used to (another reason I want to write a separate book blog so badly – it will make me read more!). I tend now to read in bed which means starting a new book is hard. I like to have a good reading session to really get hooked and so I have picked up and starting reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, The Amazing Adventures of Kavaliar and Clay by Michael Chabon and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde only to abandon them all for The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. I will get to them all eventually but this was the book that stuck for now. I will post more on this soon.

I also am dipping into Fray by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) which is fun and beautifully drawn. It’s about a girl with the same slayer spunk that made Buffy such an icon.

I have just finished my first book of the year which is pretty shocking but I will blame my lack of reading on: no train commute, work, university study (such as it is) and Disney. The book I have just read, however, is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. I had previously only read Breakfast at Tiffany’s and to be honest, I wasn’t sure what all the Capote fuss was about. But now I am a believer! The book is essentially a piece of non-fiction, telling the true story of a family murdered in Kansas in the 1950s. It has an extensive background on the murderers, the victims and the small town where it all went down. The trial was a foregone conclusion (the murderers had confessed although there was some discrepancy about who of the two ‘friends’ actually did the deeds) yet it was interesting to have an insight into the process and also to see what abusive of the system took place.

What made me love the book, despite the rather bleak and gruesome subject matter, was Capote’s use of figurative language which described things in such a precise way. His writing style in general made for a fluid and gripping read. I think I might have to revisit BAT to see if I missed something.

Next book on the go: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (required reading for my OU course but so far, I am enjoying it).

I have just re-done my reading list page for the new year (books read last year are still listed) and I noticed a couple of books on which I didn’t comment so I thought I would put that right.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I must admit now that I am a bit of a Bryson fan. I was really keen to read this book because I hate not knowing things and there is a hell of a lot about the world that I don’t know. Bryson was able to break down complex theories in a way that made me want to read on and on. He told the stories behind the men of science that made the all-important discoveries. In short, I loved it. I just wish I could remember all the very interesting facts that he shared. I suppose I need to read it again for it all to sink in. My poor little mind cannot cope with such big ideas as ‘what is an atom made of’.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. In my quest to read all the great children’s literature I missed (as well as revisiting the stuff I did read and love), I read this much-loved book. Initially, I felt it was a tiny bit of a let-down (probably am now going to hell for suggesting this), especially after my enjoyment of Anne of Green Gables. I did enjoy it though and I could imagine falling in love with these characters if I were 20 years younger. The BBC adaptation shown on Boxing Day, though, made me appreciate the book even more and after a rather luke-warm initial impression, I was pretty put out by the poetic license exercised by the screenwriters of the BBC. A manufactured romance in the form of a widowed Mr Simpson and some important speeches being given to the wrong characters meant that I felt quite protective towards Streatfeild’s book. Such a shame because the casting of the three girls and Sylvia was pretty spot on.

So the Stereophonics were ace, as was to be expected.  We didn’t wait right to the end (being Monday night and all) but we did see all the best tunes so I am happy.

Music seems to be a very big part of my life right now.  I have always loved music but I definitely go through stages of listening to more stuff, more of the time.  This year, I have seen a lot of live music.  And I have just finished reading a book about music.  Well, a book about love, life and music.  Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music is moving, rich with lovely language and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

The novel follows a violinist, Michael, who ran away from the love of his life only to regret it ever since.  A chance sighting brings him to her and their love and passion comes alive again.  I don’t want to say too much because if you haven’t read it, I would urge you to do so.  I will say, though, that as a hopeless romantic, I surprised myself that the story that moved my most and that gave me most sadness and joy, was Michael’s relationship with his Tononi, a very old and valuable violin that has been loaned to him indefinitely (which is completely the right word since he has no idea when he might have to return it; there is nothing definite about it).

http://www.spiralskies.com/has already pointed me in the direction of the CD which accompanies the book and I can’t wait to get my hands on it and I will read the book again once I have listened to the music about which Seth writes as I felt a little lost without it.  Another reason I already want to re-read it is because it took me so long to read it and it was in so many short bursts that I don’t think I did the narrative flow any favours.