Books bought last month:
- none
Books read:
- Murder as Usual (Hugh Pentecost)
- Brenner And God (Wolf Haas) Abandoned
- Mojo January 2020
- The Polysyllabic Spree (Nick Hornby) On-going
- Swimming Home (Deborah Levy) On-going
- That Glimpse Of Truth (short story anthology) On-going
- The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas (John Boyne) On-going
The idea for the above list is down to Nick Hornby who compiled his monthly literary essays (?...not articles, not reviews) about his monthly reading habits for US literary magazine, Believer. Each essay in the collection begins with his list of books bought and books read. So, there you go.
Of course, being insanely wealthy and living in north London means he can cruise around trendy niche bookstores and supplement the plethora of free books that drop regularly through his letterbox by buying up large. Must be nice.
Lucky sod! I bet he's a regular visitor to Upper Street's Waterstones and I bet the remainder stores he talks about used to be across the road, just down from Caffè Nero, and the charity shops.
In contrast, I bought diddley squat. Nada. Zip. Nought.
But I read a surprising amount, or tried to, at the very least.
Petty jealousies aside, I've loved Nick's stuff since I picked up the jacket of Fever Pitch in Auckland's Unity Books back in 1992, and noted that he was the same age as me (born in 1957), he had a teaching background, and he supported the same team as me (Arsenal F.C.). Not only that - he lived overlooking Highbury.
If there was ever a book written for me by a bloke who could be my brother, Fever Pitch was it!
The essays in Polysyllabic Spree are pretty addictive. I know - a book about reading books, right? But the lad does well. Back of the net for the most part.
I was looking to expand into the hard boiled detective genre (if Patti Smith and Rory Gallagher love them, there must be a reason) , which explains Murder As Usual (good enough but not overly exciting) and Brenner And God (which had a tiresome narrator so I ditched it).
The Glimpse Of Truth is that nifty short story anthology that Jade bought me last year - it's the one I read aloud at night to Jacky. Patchy best describes the standard of stories. The dire life conditions of Victorian Britain produced some pessimistic writers/stories if the ones in Glimpse are anything to go by. But we have had one hilarious story by an Australian writer about his dog and we're currently reading/listening to a Stephen Crane story about a western marriage which is memorable.
Teaching a Year 9 English class explains why Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas is in the list and the Deborah Levy is there because I love her writing and happened upon this short story collection before Christmas at the Little Red Book Shop. I've only just started it.
Speaking of the Little Red Book Shop - clearly, I need to get back there and stock up so that I fill that Books Bought column.
Love and peace - WNP
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