Books acquired (TBC)
A number of these, but technical issues (the house is a mess) prevents them being logged.
Books read (9)
BOTM: J. Barnes, Cross Channel
J.M. Coetzee, Youth
G.M. Fraser, Flashman & the mountain of light
R.H. Haggard, She
J. Heller, God Knows
A.Miller, The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation society
R.P. Jhabvala, Get ready for Battle
F. Stark, Ionia
A. Wilson, Hemlock and After
One of the problems with reading only the books I already own is that the quality dips. This is inevitable assuming I don't simply read books at random, as I will have read the best options before now. This year's selection has simply not been as good as last years. Nothing disastrous, but simply average. For example, this month, while Cross-channel was a delightful set of short stories, it doesn't really compare For a start I read 20 books last July - though I did go on holiday. Actually, now I look at that list they weren't brilliant, but two, possibly three, were better than Barnes, while some of the other books on this list were a real slog (Does Heller know his books overstay their welcome, I wonder?). I have a feeling that this is going to get worse as I churn through the unread pile*. Time for some throwing out I feel.
By the way, this shouldn't put anyone off reading Barnes, which was a good, if not entirely substantial, book of short stories about France, some of which were delightful. And is an excellent example of the short story writer's craft (now increasingly rare).
*It's not literally a pile. There are over a hundred books in it and they are all on shelves
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1 comment:
Nobody should ever be put off reading Barnes. He's been one of my reading themes of this summer and I'm enjoying him hugely. Nothing To Be Frightened Of, his sort of memoir on death, was excellent.
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