Reading journal, entry no. 1, for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – full of potential spoilers so beware. May also contain bad grammar and egregious typing errors because I want to get back to the book and read more.

I‘m reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë and really feel I need to write something about it at this point. For those who have read it, I am at the point where Gilbert‘s narrative has ended and Helen‘s narrative has just started. I deliberately didn't read about the story before I started reading it and just about the only thing I knew about it before commencing is that it's probably a romance.

Such a storm of emotions already, falling occasionally over the verge into highly enjoyable melodrama: Gilbert falling violently in love with Helen (quite believably, I think, people being prone to fall for those they see as unavailable), H repelling him but eventually showing signs of loving him back (not quite as realistic as his feelings for her as it isn't explained why she would love him), and G assaulting the man he believes H is having an affair with, possibly in the belief that the victim has seduced her and is using her, or possibly because G is, when it comes down to it, a jealous boor with an anger-management problem. So far this looks like the beginning of a juicy big mis plot. Add to this that once G and H have a chance to clear everything up, they skirt the issue so adroitly that I'm sure this is going to be one whopper of a big mis.

I mean, really: what rational man attacks another over a suspicion and a slightly jeering comment? Ok, a lot of men probably would, but G has represented himself as quite sane, civilised and stable up to that point and then he suddenly lashes out? Not quite believable in my opinion, unless he has problems with anger management or a mental problem. However, this being melodrama and (I think) romance, he's probably just supposed to be violently jealous to the point of irrationality). Going back to check on his victim and actually worrying for his own safety should the victim press charges (or whatever they called it back in Victorian times) is, however, a nice touch and establishes him as a somewhat caring and realistic person, even if somewhat lacking in empathy for others as he makes little of the other man's injuries afterwards. This makes it practically certain that he is meant to be a sympathetic hero.

I can‘t really comment on Helen yet, as I have only seen her from Gilbert‘s perspective, but I am looking forward to seeing her from the inside. From G's perspective she seems like someone who has had a hard time prior to the beginning of the narrative and to be trying to make the best of things and avoid complications which, however, G and the maliciously gossiping neighbours are making it hard for her to do. She also clearly has a secret, and what little I have read of her narrative so far and between the lines in G's narrative, it seems connected to a man.

Is she an unwed mother, (that most dreadful and pitiable of creatures in those times), a widow with a bad marriage and bad debts behind her, or an abused wife or mistress on the run? Whatever it is, it must be connected with alcohol abuse, as she seems to have succeeded in purposely making her son quite disgusted by wine.

I just hope this doesn't turn into a bleak read like sister Emily's famous novel. Come on, Anne, I need this to have a happy ending so I can use it as a springboard for rereading Wuthering Heights.

Gosh, I'd forgotten how much I used to love Victorian novels!

Friday book list # 5: Narrow Dog to Carcasonne by Terry Darlington

Books mentioned in Narrow Dog to Carcasonne by Terry Darlington.
This book actually has a list of references at the back, which was a tremendous help to me because I clean forgot to start jotting things down until I was on chapter ten. This list, however, is not copied straight from that list, as some of the references are not to titles but rather quotations or allusions, and I did find one or two titles that were mentioned in the text but not in the list of references. And of course the fictional books are not included in the list.

As before I have only included anything when an actual title was mentioned. For many of the poems they are not given in the main text of the book but only in the reference list.

Publications:

The Guardian
Guide Navicarte (probably a partial title)

Le Monde 
Le Sénonais libéré

Whippet Breed  Standard by the Kennel Club

Novels:

Le Charretier de la Providence (by Georges Simenon). The link goes to my review of this book.
Jack the Disemboweller - this is a funny back-translation of the title of Patricia Cornwell's book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed
The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag (Mentioned in a fake interview at the end, which I think must have been added in the paperback edition)
The War of the Worlds (by H.G. Wells, although he reference might just as well have been to one of the movies)

Poems: (links to both French originals and English translations, and author links to Wikipedia articles)
The Drunken Boat (Le Bateau Ivre) by Arthur Rimbaud
The Albatross (L'Albatros) by Charles Baudelaire
A Prayer to Go to Heaven with the Donkeys (Prière pour aller au paradis avec les ânes) by Francis Jammes
Cemetery by the Sea (Le Cimetière Marin) by Paul Valéry. This link goes to a side-by-side of the French original and an English translation.

Short story:
The Birds (by Daphne du Maurier). I did find the full story on the Web, but as I think it's still under copyright I decided not to link to it. The Wikipedia link has a summary for those who wish to know what it's about.

Non-fiction:
The Oxford History of England
The Book of Common Prayer


Fictional titles:
Your Dog Will Get You in the End. I quite like to read this one, having known one or two dogs so inclined.
How to Stop Your Dog Behaving Like a Bloody Animal.
Boating for Fun magazine. I could find no such publication, so I'm putting it on the fictional list.

Probably fictional, possibly not:

Your Dog is Watching You. There is an actual book by that title, written by one Jim Heath, but considering Darlington's the sense of humour he might just as well have invented this title. I am inclined to believe the latter, because that book and this were published in the same year.

Friday book list # 4: Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers

(?) after the title means I'm not sure if it's a real publication/book.

Literature mentioned in Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers.

There were so many authors mentioned in this book that I didn't jot them down and have only included actual titles. I listened to an audio version of the book and the titles were gleaned after the fact from my print copy by scanning for italicised phrases. Therefore I may have missed some and this is by no means a definitive list.

Fiction:
The Aeneid (by Virgil)
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Anatomy of Melancholy (by Robert Burton) 
The Bible
Brave New World (by Aldous Huxley)
"A Chaucer Folio"
"Kai Lung" (by Ernest Bramah) - no particular title is mentioned
"Three Kelmscott Morrises"
The Man of Property (volume 1 of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy)
Religio Medici (The Religion of a Doctor) by Sir Thomas Browne
 The Search by C.P. Snow
 "A Shakespeare First Quarto"



Publications: 
The Times
The Telegraph
The Daily Trumpet (?)
The Daily Headline (?)
The Morning Star
Flashlight (?)
Punch



There were so many imaginary books mentioned that I couldn't help including them. 
I owe my thanks to The Invisible Library for most of this list:

By Harriet Vane: 
Death 'twixt Wind and Water (work in progress)

Sands of Crime
A Study of Sheridan Le Fanu (proposed work)


By others:

Ariadne Adams by unknown
Dusk and Shiver by unknown
Modern Verse-Forms by Mr. Elkbottom (this was not in in the Invisible Library list, but I couldn‘t find any proof of its existence, so on the list it went)
Gas-Filled Bulbs by Jacqueline Squills
History of Prosody by Mrs. Lydgate (work in progress)
Jocund Day by unknown
Mock-Turtle by Tasker Hepplewater
Passion-Flower Pie by Mrs. Snell-Wilmington
The Position of Women in the Modern State by Mrs. Barton
Primrose Dalliance by unknown
Serpent's Fang by unknown
The Squeezed Lemon by unknown

Top Ten Tuesdays: Top Ten Books When You Need Something Light & Fun

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish. This week we post the top 10 books we go to when we need something light and fun. My list is below, and you can find more here.

I like visual humour, so it is really no surprise that more than half my choices are picture books of some kind. The rest are reliable light and humorous novels. In no particular order:

• Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie. He's 30. She's 40. She has a funny dog. It's a match made in heaven.
• Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Golden age Hollywood in a fantasy setting with horrible monsters from another dimension, blazing egos and talking dogs? Yes please.
• Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. English humour at its finest.
• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Takes me back to what it was like being six years old.
• The Hitch-hiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. A classic.
• One of my Lucky Luke comic books.
• One of my Calvin & Hobbes collections.
• One of my Mad Magazine books (e.g. spy vs. spy or Sergio Aragones).
• Angels on Horseback by Norman Thelwell (or A Leg at Each Corner or Thelwell's Riding Academy). There is endless fun to be had out of little girls on horseback, and Thelwell explored the subject thoroughly.
• The Terror of St Trinian's by Ronald Searle (this is borderline, as some of the drawings are quite brutal and most of them have dark undercurrents. For the same reason I didn‘t mention the work of Edward Gorey, as it is anything but light even if it is funny as hell).

Friday book list # 3: Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

(?) after a title means I'm not sure its a real book/publication.

Literature mentioned in Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Newspapers:
The Morning Star and The Evening Banner (?). I know the Star exists, but am not sure about the Banner. It may have at the time of publication (1933).

Non-fiction and reference:
The Directory of Directors
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
The Globe edition of the Works of William Shakespeare
The Children's Encyclopaedia
The Times Atlas
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (as Brewer)

Novel:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (mentioned as Alice in Wonderland) (by Lewis Carroll)

In addition, P.G. Wodehouse and Edgar Wallace are mentioned, but none of their books.

Reading report for April 2013

I read 20 books in April, all but one of which I started and ended within the month. The exception was Tim Moore‘s Nul Points, which I was reading last year but set aside as I found it somewhat bleak. I picked it up again and finally finished it, discovering that either I wasn‘t in the right mood when I first began reading it, or the last three chapters were more upbeat than the previous ones. I even got some laughs out of it. It's not as good as some of his other efforts, but as always very informative. This time around he was digging into the history of the Eurovision Song contest and going around interviewing the people who came last in the contest with zero points.

Of the 20 books, 8 were TBR books, which puts me at 31 TBR books read this year, which is not bad at all. It looks like I may reach the goal of 50 before the end of the summer, and since I am currently reading more of them than I am buying, the purpose of the TBR challenge has been achieved.

I have been spring cleaning and rearranging my living room and got a number of unabridged audio editions of Dorothy L. Sayers‘ Lord Peter Wimsey novels to listen to, since it's impossible to read while dragging around furniture and mopping floors. Three of those were re“reads“ (Whose Body?, Strong Poison and Have his Carcase) and the remaining two were new to me. All were read by actor Ian Carmichael, who did it very well. I am now considering buying (if they are available) the DVDs of the TV series in which he starred as Lord Peter.

The month‘s stand-outs were Can Any Mother Help Me? and Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight. The former gives an insight in the the lives of British women in the 20th century, and the latter a by turns horrific and fascinating look at the lives of a family of white farmers in Africa during the 1970s and 80s in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. I also enjoyed The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo, although I wish they had included more of his fantastic romance novel covers in the collection.

As a modern retelling of a beloved Jane Austen novel, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star was a nice effort, but would have been better if there had been less sex in it. I know there is supposed to be lots of sex in rock star romances, but it's not good when the sex begins to take away from the romance.

The Books:
Jenna Bailey: Can Any Mother Help Me?. Women‘s history.
Alexandra Fuller: Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight. Memoir.
Paul Gallico: Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow. Humorous novel.
Rachel Gibson: I'm in No Mood for Love, Crazy on You and Rescue Me. Romance, contemporary.
Chris Mattison: Snake. Ophiology.
Tim Moore: Nul Points. Music history.
Heather Lynn Rigaud: Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star. Romance, contemporary; Pride and Prejudice retelling (and bonkfest)
Nora Roberts: The Next Always, The Last Boyfriend and The Perfect Hope . Romance, contemporary.
Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison, Whose Body? and Have His Carcase . Murder mysteries. Rereads.
Dorothy L. Sayers :Unnatural Death and Murder Must Advertise . Murder mysteries.
Arthur Upfield: Wings Above the Diamantina. Mystery.
Boris Vallejo & Lester del Rey: The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo. Art. Book covers.
Patricia Wentworth: The Watersplash. Murder mystery.

Friday book list # 2: The Next Always by Nora Roberts

Time for another Friday book list. Last Sunday I finished - in one afternoon - The Next Always by Nora Roberts, in which the heroine is a bookshop owner. However, none of the book titles mentioned in the actual book were mentioned in connection with the bookshop, but rather with the inn which the hero and his family are renovating, in which each room is named after a pair of literary lovers (as is the case with the actual Inn BoonsBoro, which is owned by Roberts and her husband). There was also mention of other books, with no titles mentioned, but if you want to know what they are, just visit the inn's website and check out the list of rooms.

The books, novels all:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

Happy World Book Day!

Time for some Top Ten Tuesdays goodness

Today's task is to list "Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did"

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted on The Broke and the Bookish. I recommend heading on over there to see some more answers to today's question when you've finished reading mine.

I decided to do 5 of each:

5 books I thought I would like MORE than I (eventually) did:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coleho. This is supposed to be a fantastic great revelatory philosophical parable, but I found it to be rater trite. The only reason I got through it was that I listened to the audio book version which was read by Jeremy Irons, who has a soothing and sexy voice that I would  listen to even if he were reading from the phone book.
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I love a good thriller and I can overlook a host of writing crimes if the story is good, but his prose defeated me and I gave up reading it after about 50 pages.
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I didn‘t hate it – even liked it –but I suppose the praise heaped on it had me prepared for something out-of-this-world fantastic, which it isn‘t.
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Another much-hyped novel which could have been great – if it had had about 200 pages of fat trimmed away.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if I had‘t come to it having read all those fangirl ravings about the breathtaking romance between Heathcliff and Cathy and read it expecting just that. When I found only bleakness, cruelty and obsession in place of romance I was disappointed beyond belief. In hindsight I probably should read it again and reassess my opinion, but the experience was so wretched that I probably will not.

5 books I thought I would like LESS than I (eventually) did:

• An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer. This seems to be a book people either love or hate, I guess depending on which they like better: military stories or romance (in that order). I guess I listened too much to the latter camp, because I thoroughly enjoyed it and it is among my top 5 favourite Heyer books.
• The Bible. Before I was assigned parts of the King James version for a course on classical influences in English literature I had mostly just read the gospels and the bowdlerised Bible stories for children. I ended up reading all of it, not in a religious way but much as one reads a book of myths and legends. Seen as such, many of the tales are quite thrilling, and I keep coming across allusions and references in the most unlikely places that I wouldn‘t otherwise have recognised as biblical.
• The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I was expecting something different from what it turned out to be and ended up enjoying it more than I expected.
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I expected something heavy, dry and gloomy, but found instead quite a good psychological thriller.
• Laxdæla saga. This is one of the longer Icelandic sagas, one that, for some reason, I had the idea would be dry and boring reading. This may in part have been because it was set reading for Icelandic literature at middle-school and my experience with set reading thus far had not been good. However, Laxdæla is a heroic epic full of romance, feuds, blood and betrayal and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I really had to add a bonus book, because it fits into both categories:

• Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I came to it a Dickens fan and expected it to be good, but disliked it intensely when I first read it. It was set reading for a university class I took on 19th century British literature and I suppose I really disliked it so much because it is so long and I felt we should have read a shorter Dickens novel and instead maybe two or three more novels than we did, because I really didn't think (and still don't) that 4 novels (none by Austen, BTW) and a handful of poems are enough to give one a good overview of British literature in that century. However, I am aware that age and maturity can change one's opinion and so I embarked on a rereading of it and am now reading it for pleasure and finding it quite enjoyable.

Book chair

This chair, made from books hung on a steel frame, is currently on display on the 5th floor of the Reykjavík public library.

The chair is named Málfríður and was designed by Sunna Ósk Þorvaldsdóttir of SOSK design. 

Click here to see the frame without books (slide show).

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