Bibliography, June 2010

Read (14)
BOTM: D. Erasmus, Praise of Folly

R. Bultmann, Primitive Christianity
E.H. Carr, What is History
D. Defoe, Journal of the plague year
M. Druon, La Reine étranglée
J.C.L. Gibson, Language and Imagery in the Old Testament
H. James, The Golden Bowl
J. Jobling and I. Markham, (eds.) Theological Liberalism
E.T. Long, Existence, Being and God
H. Netland, Dissonant voices
Tertullian, Apologia
B. Unsworth, Morality Play
M. Warner, Between heaven and Charing Cross
J. Ziesler, Pauline Cristianity

Remaining - 68

I hesitate to call some of these 'read' to be honest. I picked up a set of mediocre theology a few years back and have just polished them off. Most were rubbish. It's inspired a savage and brutal cull of other remaining books as well. I've taken out about forty books in June (though I've audited my collection and added a handful as well). As a result, the finishing line gets ever closer, and I really can see it now: six months, slightly over ten books a month to get through - all be over by Christmas.

That said, I don't think I can cope with another month starting like this one. Getting through James nearly killed me, and while good (amongst the best in fact), I wouldn't try it again for a long time. Elsewhere though, this drive for completion has highlighted the gems I have sitting on my shelves. I was taught about Praise of Folly in 1995, when I started doing the Reformation for A Level, and bought this copy in 2002. Yet I failed to read it. How irritating, because it's amazing: a funny, scathing and engaging critique of the world and the church, which echoes down the ages. I can hear the account of the importance of frivolity resurface in Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, and the attack on the monks, though as old as the monastic vocation, could have been written today. I only wish my Latin were good enough to read it in the original, so I could get all the puns (my copy has extensive notes).

It's also a sensible size, clocking in at c.150 pages (incuding footnotes); people should take note: it does not take 500 pages to make an argument, or a novel - yes, Henry James, that's you we're talking about.

Bibliography, May 2010

Acquired (1)
W. Scheller, Great Estates



Read (8)
BOTM: V. Seth, The Golden Gate

D. Acheson, Present at the Creation (partial)
I. Banks, The Crow Road
D. Cruickshanks, Adventures in Architecture
I. Gilmour, Whatever happened to the Tories
V.Nabokov, Pale Fire
C. Potok, In the Beginning
W. Scheller, Great Estates



Books remaning - 105

It's been a bit of a disappointing month on the book front, though I am delighted with my book on the great estates of the US. I really struggled to read much in the States, for which a variety of factors are to blame. I was ill, we drove a lot (1,280 miles) and M doesn't read, so we didn't have that period of time where we just sat down and read for an hour or two. Finally, I foolishly embarked on The Golden Bowl which like all Henry James, I can't really get into (300 pages in) and I am really struggling to finish. I will do so, but The Ambassadors has gone in the recycling box as of yesterday.

Anyway, the books themselves were pretty good. Seth's I've pulled out as the best, but all of the novels were ones I would recommend. However, even it if hadn't been good, I would have been tempted to give the plaudits to Seth for writing a novel about Silicon valley in verse. It's a masterful feat of literary pyrotechnics. That alone wouldn't have been enough, but it's also moving, pretty rather than beautiful, and - unexpectedly - funny. It was a delight to read and whizzed by (which is just as well given the above. I read it in the appropriate surroundings of San Francisco and the wine country where it is set). I heartily recommend it, even if you aren't by the Bay.

Not wearing flowers in your hair

They've stopped the flower-wearing in San Francisco, or at least I didn't see any. Which is probably just as well.   Instead we did see what I would call the first real city of the holiday, and most welcome it was too. I still feel that like LA, it must be more fun to live in than to visit, but we had a great day pounding the pavements of San Francisco. And, while we missed out on a few things, I would liked to have got further round the Asian Art Museum than the cafe, though that was excellent, I think we did well. We were helped by having kind hosts to stay with - many thanks to A & K - and therefore did well on food and drinks also. As a city, it's clearly hard to go wrong with such spectacular natural geography as the bay area, and taking the trip to Alcatraz really highlights the glorious setting (and it's a great tour). It also means they appear to have built part of it before the roads came, and that makes a real difference.

However, the highlight for us came yesterday. I'm currently on our last US morning. Up first and sitting within sight of a winery and touching distance of vines, having spent yesterday cycling - increasingly shakily - round the local tasting rooms. We're by Healdsburg, staying in one of the wineries' own cottages, and it's been pretty close to perfect. The weather has been sunny, but not too hot (it's actually hotter in London today), the wine great, and with generous tasting options and we had a very jolly day indeed.

I'm not too surprised (though it was better than even I expected); I like the way Americans do their wine. Everywhere we have been here since LA, serving staff have been knowledgeable and crucially enthusiastic about the wine they carry. And in the vineyards, both here and New York State where I went some years ago, it's been relaxed, informal and very enjoyable to meander through the country sampling their wines. Of course, it also turns out very expensive - not of necessity, in fact most tastings are free - but we've just ended up buying quite a lot of very good wine, and we'll probably get some more today (A should have a present from this trip after all).

So, an unqualified success, and a great end to this Californian run. I'm left with the unexpected feeling that I'd really quite like to do much of this again. Next time I'll do the Vancouver - SF run south, though that's 1,500 miles, nearly 2,000 if I went to the Grand Coulee Dam (which I'd have to). That may take another fortnight, and I'd have to get A to learn to drive. I'd hate to come to these vineyards again without her. Though whether she would have approved of the right wingery on show out here is another matter. I wore my new Reagan centre T-shirt, which drew at least one approving comment and the winery we're staying by has a picture of the Governator on their bar. It's a long way from flower power, but certainly a more productive outcome.

On the road again

We’ve hit San Francisco now, having spent much of the last three days on the road. Since leaving LA, M & I have gone up Highway 1 up to Monterey, crossed the state to Yosemite and rolled into SF. We dropped the car off today with 1280 miles on the clock for six days, and I didn’t even crash once.

The places we managed to get to on the road have been the highlight of the trip so far: Highway 1 itself, especially around Big Sur, was beautiful; Hearst castle barking, yet brilliant; and getting to Yosemite, though a brutal drive on the way, was worth every minute (hour). We've also eaten well on the way. The food and wine in Cambria and Groveland (outside Yosemite) was exceptional, especially Cambria. 

For me, it's the first time I've really done a driving holiday; rare are the occasions that we venture out of the confines of cities and public transport normally (this is why I haven't read much this time, in contrast to my normal demolition of a book every few days, this time, I'm only on book two). But it makes sense in America, and it has helped me makes sense of the country as well. Firstly, it's so big. I feel like we drove for ages, but we never really got very far from a small number of centres. Secondly, transport is a major deal. We went to the Wells Fargo museum in LA, where the centrality of the railroad in the development of their fortune and American prosperity is rammed home to you. These have both contributed to a decentralised and local approach that is is marked contrast to the European. There are lots of reasons for this, but I think I needed to go see the other bits of America to get a sense of this, and it helped by listening to all their election broadcasts on the radio.

They were odd, but I loved the country and want to spend more time around it; for the first time, I can look back and say I wish we'd spent more time driving, more time in the country, and cut the cities a bit.

LA

We've not had the best runs into LA. Firstly, I was ill; secondly, on arrival, M became ill; thirdly we appeared to be staying in what I hope isn't representative of motels in the country, but I suspect is.

We fixed most of these things pretty quickly. After a good sleep (and some excellent Japanese art), I was fine. M recovered though towards the end of the stay, both helped by a switch after one night (and a dreadful morning with no hot water) to a new hotel. We did some good things too. The LACMA was excellent, and the source of the Japanese art in question above; downtown interesting; Dodger Stadium and the baseball exciting and the Getty a fantastic site as well as a decent repository of art. The last hampered by the fact that the its exhibitions put the whole thing into unfortunate perspective. The best thing there at the moment is Donatello’s Bearded Prophet on loan.

I still don't really get it as a city though. It’s sprawl is notorious but really is debilitating to any conception of the city as a whole, and having been to a number of its various neighbourhoods, I cannot think of any of them that I would wish to live in, in fact few I would want to visit again. It’s as if the city has just sprung out of the boulevards, rather the other way round, and it still takes ages to get anywhere.

In fact the most exciting thing of our time in LA was on the exit when we called in on the Reagan Presidential Centre, which is amazing. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stay and do the tour but we did look at the grounds and the giftshop. I’ve got a great T shirt now.

Beyond the back of beyond

No-one goes to Nipton. That's not quite true, but even the car hire people hadn't heard of it. You should though (go, that is).

We went there straight out of Vegas (based on the visitors' book, so had several others) and wanted to find a tranquil place to sleep and attack the Mojave the next morning (you should go there too). It was bliss, as far from Vegas as can be imagined, though physically near enough for our hotelier to go there frequently for shopping. It felt like a relic from the American past with a working railway line through it, freight only and no stopping, a small store that did everything and a community so straightforward that our hotel just left the hotel open and a envelope with the key in a postbox outside. Then we found them in the bar next door (they run that too). The countryside is also beautiful, as you'd expect near the desert parks.

There's very little to do, but it does it well. Skip Vegas and go. From the look of the visitors' book, Matt tells me that's most people wished they'd done.

Viva Las Vegas?

So, Vegas. I thought I would hate it; and I wasn't keen, though not for the reasons I had imagined. 

Everybody who'd been (and those who hadn't) told me it was clearly not my thing: modern, brash, not enough classical ruins and so forth. But actually those things were fine. Clearly there aren't enough classical ruins, but its tackiness is somehow glorious. I spent a day going up the Strip looking at the horrifying badness of the various hotels. While many were absurd, Caesar's palace remains my favourite on account of both the pool and the - wait for it - animatronic statues in the mall. Similarly, gambling isn't unfun, especially if you win, which we seemed to. I pocketed $230 in the two days. And none of it was a surprise: you know what you are getting with Vegas - they'll be gambling, and drinking, and overblown nonsense, I'm happy to roll with it.
But, although there is a lot of the flash and the plastic and the rest, it's still all a little bit desperate and worse a bit, well, dirty. I don't mean literally, though that's also true, especially in Paris, despite it's half scale Eiffel Tower, where I was poisoned by a poor lunch, incapacitating me for days. Take the sleaze for example. I know that there will be dancing girls in shows; I know there will be prostitution and strip clubs somewhere, but I don't want my taxi driver home to suggest he take me to one, and get me free drinks. It's ugly. Likewise, gambling, I know people will come and some will win and more will lose, but nothing had prepared me for the cud chewing ranks of the middle aged cranking out slots. Where's the fun in that. They certainly didn't seem to having any. Not that the young were any better. Nowhere else have a seen a hotel which had an off-licence on the premises and watch various groups of people retreat to their rooms with a six pack of beer. If you don't want to drink here, why have you come?

I had fun (until the food poisoning kicked in), but as a backdrop, it left a lot to be desired.