I'm heading off to Greece for a couple of weeks, where I expect there will be a little of this:
And quite a lot of this:
I have been deliberating for the best part of a week on what reading matter to take. After all, the last time we went to Greece, I read ten books, so I want to ensure I have taken enough. Here's a list of what I'm planning on taking at this point in time (although it may well change before 10am tomorrow!)
1. Dumb Witness - Agatha Christie
2. The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
3. The Serpent and the Moon - HRH Princess Michael of Kent
4. Collected poems of T.S. Eliot
5. The Gourmet - Muriel Barbery
6. Tom Holt omnibus
7. Mary Anne - Daphne du Maurier
8. The Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith
9. Up a tree in the park at night with a hedgehog - P. Robert Smith
10. Sacred Hearts - Sarah Dunant
Have a lovely fortnight - I look forward to regaling you of my adventures!
When the weather is like the picture above (that's a view of St Mark's square from the Grand Canal, Venice, in the biggest rain storm I've ever seen) what's the best thing to do? Yes - read.
I think October must be my favourite month to immerse myself in literature. It's so wet, and dull. No late Autumn frosts to encourage you out on a good long stomp, just the tempting sofa on which to curl up.
I've already finished four books in the last week, and my appetite is simply craving more. Here are my favourites from the past few weeks ....
The Glassblowers of Murano by Marina Fiorata
This was one of my holiday reads - indeed in painted a better picture of Venice than the one I was witness to. I honestly think I would've have been drier if I had chosen to swim up the grand canal! Anyway - the book follows the fortune of an immensely talented glass maker, and his descendant who comes to Venice to change her life, and finds more than she ever expected. It's a cleverly woven tale, and the process of glassmaking - so important to Venetian life - is wonderfully depicted.
The Information Officer by Mark Mills
I think Mark Mills' writing style is wonderful. Clear cut, but with just enough mystery around the edges to leave you wondering. I had read 'The Savage Garden' and loved it for it's Italian setting and the way it drew you in. This novel - set on the bomb ravaged island of Malta during WWII - draws you in too, but makes you feel the danger heightened by wartime activities. There were times I could almost feel the vibrations of the bombs falling. Mills is an author I would recommend to anyone, he has the universal touch.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I think I'm a bit late coming to this particular party (but that's fashionable, right?), but I absolutely adored this book. I'm always on the look out for what my Father calls 'a ripping yarn', and I struck gold with this one. Spanning three generations, two of which are hunting for the answer to a young woman's heritage. It rattles along at a great pace, and takes some surprising turns in its quest for the answer. I love the fact that it uses fairy tales to help the plot along, and that the different voices telling the story don't drown each other out. I couldn't put it down - in fact I spent an entire evening in a pub finishing it (300 pages in 3 hours, not too bad going), which goes to prove how captivated I was.
Which leads me onto my next subject .... but that deserves a post of its own. I shall leave you with a view of Lake Garda after the weather had cheered up considerably!
I am just off for a week to Italy, and as usual I have had the heart wrending decision over what to take, book wise. However, seeing as I am leaving in a few minutes, I think I have the final list, and here is what I will be reading:
Sonnets from the Portugese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Footsteps - Kate McMahon
East of the Sun - Julia Gregson
The Food of Love - Anthony Cappella
Captivated - Piers Dudgeon
Roman Fever - Edith Wharton
Burning Bright - Tracy Chevallier
I think that's enough to keep me going, and at least I can't buy any books whilst on holiday - I can't read Italian.
Arrividerchi everyone!
Bye bye everyone - for a week at least!
With no access to the Internet, I would like to direct your attention to my twitter account - This I can update from my mobile, and hopefully I can use it to tell my reading tales. Expect lots of references to D du M!
Still not decided on the final short(!) list of books, so twitter is the best place to find out what I've picked!
Have a good week all!
It's that time of year again - I'm going on holiday, and as usual I am presented with the problem of what on earth to read.
It's not as if I don't have a lack of choice. I have three bookcases full of tempting titles that I would love to read. However, I am only going for a week, and I can't cart 800 books to Cornwall. I've decided to take the train, and I don't think I'd be popular.
So, I've been pulling books from shelves, replacing them, grabbing more, and there are now quite a number on the spare bed. Look.
That's 21 books for a week. I don't think I'm being very sensible. And besides - I'm going to du Maurier country ... surely I ought to take more of her work? I'm not spoiled for choice there either - there's an entire shelf asking me to take my pick ....
Which one do I read?
I need help - I need directing. Someone come to my rescue!
P.S. I'm also planning on buying at least one of the new Bloomsbury reprints that Simon has ordered me to read .... that takes my pile up to 22 .....
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you've all got lovely things planned - day trips, reading marathons, anything really to make use of these few lovely days we have off. I myself am going to Somerset, and will be tramping the countryside with eleven children, ten adults and three dogs - think of me when you are curled up in an arm chair with that extra thick book you've been saving for this holiday!
Hopefully I will get some reading done too - I know I'll get some buying done, as there's a particularly wonderful second hand bookshop in my grandmother's village. Anyone like to take a bet on how many books I'll buy?
Posting will hopefully resume normal service when I return - the first month of the new job is over, so hopefully I will have more time!
Happy Easter everyone!
Je suis tres fatigue ... I am back from Paris, where I have pounded the streets, seen a great amount of art work and eaten some good food. I shall post some pictures soon, but I need to select the best, and when one has taken over 700, it might take a while!
Hope everyone has had a good few days, what have you all been up to?
Fear not - I am not about to launch into a great ream of French ... although I suppose it might be a good idea if I spoke a bit more than I actually do. I am off to Paris for Bank Holiday, and I'm slightly nervous, as I will be on my own, but I'm looking forward to walking along the banks of the Seine, prowling around the Louvre and spending at least a couple of hours in the Shakespeare and Co bookshop!
What have I been doing with myself that has meant that I havn't posted at all in the last week or so? Well, apart from seeing a couple of films and having high tea at the Randolph (an experince I will repeat as long as my bank balance permits), I have of course been reading.
I finished The Behaviour of Moths on Wednesday, which I loved. It's a fantastically woven story, although I did feel that the description of moth procedure was slightly overdone in parts, but that is a big part of the narrator, so it does fit well.
I am usually loath to liken books to others, because I feel it detracts from the authors achievements, and might even in some cases put others of reading it, if they have not liked the other book. However, I had an underlying feeling as I was reading this that it was quite similar, in tone at least, to Engleby.
I'm now reading A Long Long Way, which is good, but isn't really grabbing me.
I must go pack. Apart from not knowing what clothes to take, I am again struggling over books. I have decided upon The Phantom of the Opera, but need to decide on one or two more, as I'll probably finish Phantom on the train!
Au revoir for now!
... Well, actually it was grey for most of the time. A cold steely grey that reflected the overcast skies up above. But that's the middle of the Atlantic for you, I suppose.
Yes - here I am writing up the second part of my holiday. Don't all go and have a heart attack at the shock, will you? I know it's been a while, but my excuse is that my head was jammed full of cotton wool for most of the week.
This is going to be harder, because I didn't write it up whilst it was going on. It didn't seem worth it, because it was so much more relaxed than the frenzied madness of the New York section. Also, some of my better pictures are trapped on my non digital camera ... I've just taken a load of pictures of my books so that I can take the film into Boots tomorrow.
So, ok - where were we?
Well actually, I'm going to rewind a bit from the post on New York, because I can't just jump straight into sailing for six days without giving a little background.
Ok. So we got to the ship. It was huge. (3,000 passengers and 2,500 crew and always room to breathe). Stuck in front was a big shelter, through which we walked to register ourselves (our luggage having been taken away with the warning 'yeh may not see it for couple hours, ok?') So long as we saw it at some point, I didn't care!
So, no pictures of huge boat at dock from the land side. Sorry about that. But here are a couple I've filched off the net:
Actually, the second one is probably what we looked like as we sailed out ... There weren't that many boats, but we were probably worth a pretty penny to the helicopter tourists.
Anyway - to continue with the story, we went to our room to check it out, and have a nose and this is what we found:
As you may have noticed, I didn't take the pictures of the room when we got there, which might have been a good idea. Still, not much changed, so they're better than nothing. I love the picture of the corridor - it looks like it goes on forever, or has been done with mirrors ...
Sorry, I'm wittering on.
So, we'd seen the room, and we went back up on deck to watch as we slipped out of harbour. I have a feeling that standing at the stern wasn't such a good thing, because it didn't feel like we were moving at all, but it was good to watch the empire state slipping into the mist and the statue of liberty shortly doing the same.
You know those last two photos are rather odd ... Goodness only knows what has caused me to sneer like that, and obviously the champagne from the glass that you can just see has gone to my head, to judge from my stupid expression. Thank goodness for the rail I was leaning on! You can also see the corner of one of the six swimming pools there were onboard. I only went in the Spa ... who wants to go and swim outside when in mid Atlantic?
So, yes - off we sailed, having been delayed by two people who had had a race across the country on a train ride for 18 hours (that's including the 3 hours it was delayed) and then a mad dash from the station in a taxi that had no idea where it was going. This probably gave Alison Weir a chance to slip off the ship without anyone realising - but more on that later!
After relaxing on a deck lounger and watching the last small points of land slip past, I retired to our cabin (having lost my mother to the hairdresser) to dress for dinner. Informal this evening, but still mindful of making an effort. Dinner on a ship like this is a rather grad affair, no matter what you're wearing. Mum had made sure we were placed on a table with others rather than by ourselves, and we found ourselves with two couples who were rather season travellers. The Americans were ok - if a little too interested in the difference between New York and London prices.
If I thought that American portions were enormous, I really wasn't prepared for four courses, of superb food, and even better wine. I quickly decided after that first meal that lunch would have to be forgone if I was ever going to make it through! (Unfortunately I forgot about afternoon tea .... I don't think there's a time when you can't eat when onboard!).
We didn't stay up too late that night, although since we put our watches forward an hour each day, not too late doesn't mean a thing.
Don't worry, I'm not going to go on and on in minute detail over every thing that happened. The layout of our days can be described as going something rather like this.
- Breakfast (yummy pancakes and French toast)
- Then onto lectures. This is where Alison Weir comes in, or, rather, doesn't. I was very excited about the idea she would be talking. I don't particularly like the way she writes - far too crammed with facts to be able to concentrate - but I thought it would be interesting to hear her speak. But it seemed she got off the ship, just before we sailed. Later in the voyage we met some people who said they had run into her mother in the bookshop. What on earth does one make of that then?
But still, we had a speaker by the name of John Maxtone Grahame who gave some very enlightening talks on ocean crossing, and one on a first class stewardess on the Titanic whose memoirs he edited. I'll write about them once I've read them.
- From lunch until dinner there were a variety of things I could do. I could read, have massages, watch a film, have high tea, and take brisk walks around the deck hoping to blazes my skirt wouldn't fly above my head.
- And then the evening. Black and white balls, elegant evenings and ascot dances. Here's an assortment of pictures.
Look! Justine's book is on the QM2! And quite bizarrely the first bit of land I saw was Cornwall.
Anyway, if there's anything else you would like to know, then ask questions. This has taken two days to write. Oh dear!
I decided earlier on today that I am going to ban myself from buying any books for two months (aside from a brief respite at Dartington because the oportunity will be too great to pass up). Initally it was going to be one month, but I've just spent £275 on a trip to Paris at the end of August, so I can't afford any books until I get to Shakespeare and Co on the left bank.
To add a bit more of an incentive to me not buying books, I would like to say that the first person to catch me out by any means they choose will get a book of their choice (upper limit £15) sent direct to them!
I've decided what to read whilst on this trip (thank you all for your suggestions), but before I disclose my final list, I'd like to share some pictures of my reading activities whilst in some rather beautiful places.
In Mykanos at the age of six, I read a book on the Island. I scare fishes with the size of my glasses!
At the age of nine, my reading material had evidently matured, as on another Greek Island, I try my hand at Schindler's List. I appear to be using Dilly the Dinosaur as a pillow.
A year later, I am in Egypt, where I take A Little Princess, because obviously the view isn't up to much.
Here I am in 98 (roughly) in the Uffizi, clutching a copy of 'Anne of the Island'. I distinctly remember sitting in front of Venus rising from the sea reading this. I was such a heathen!
And bringing the catalogue roughly up to date, here I am in Italy in 2005, proving that no matter what age I am, I will always find a place to read!
And the books that made the final cut are: (I feel like I'm announcing a very mixed Orange award!)
'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont'
'Hons and Rebels'
'A Fool's Alphabet'
'The Turn of the Screw'
'The Parasites'
'My Mother's Wedding Dress'
Of course, if 'Letters from Menabilly' turns up in the post tomorrow morning, I will bump 'The Parasites'.
I need to stop making inappropriate metaphors about packing. Saying I have enough to sink a ship does not bode well for anybody!
So, it's bank holiday weekend, and I intend to go find some nice coffee shop and read until my eyes fall out - or I need to sleep!
This is my intended list.
- 'Lolita' - Nabokov
- 'Mary Anne' - Daphne du Maurier
- 'The Great American Mousical' - Julie Andrews
- 'The Progress of Julius' - Daphne du Maurier
- 'I am Madame X' - Gioia Diliberto
In amongst all this reading, I shall write some of my novel - although I can see myself becoming too absorbed with Du Maurier. Ah well - that wont be too painful!
And quite a lot of this:
I have been deliberating for the best part of a week on what reading matter to take. After all, the last time we went to Greece, I read ten books, so I want to ensure I have taken enough. Here's a list of what I'm planning on taking at this point in time (although it may well change before 10am tomorrow!)
