Saturday 14 January 2012

Cold and frosty day

It is very cold here today and I don't think that the frost is going to lift. I've been out this morning, doing errands, but I'm planning to stay in where it's warm for the rest of the day. Billy has a friend here to play, so  I'm hoping that they will amuse each other and leave me some reading time. They have left me a walkie talkie so they can contact me to ask for drinks and snacks if needs be!

At the moment I am reading Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope. I'm reading it for the Back To The Classics Challenge 2012. I'm not very far into it yet, but enjoying it so far. I'm also reading The English Novel by Walter Allen. I love reading about books, and in this book 'the development of the novel is followed from Pilgrim's Progress to James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence.' It's a classic apparently, but I haven't read much literary criticism, so hadn't heard of it before I saw it on ReadItSwapIt. The joy of my new kindle is that when Allen praises a novel I hurry over to  Amazon, and if it's available for free I download it there and then. I've got Coningsby and Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli, Peter Simple by Frederick Marryat and Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love. Marryat and Love I've never heard of before. I've heard of Disraeli of course, and knew that he wrote novels, but have never read any of them. Now I just have to find time to read them.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Joanne,

    One of the very early Penguins with a blue spine is a biography of Disraeli by Andre Maurois, and it is fascinating to read, for the insight it gives into his life and the times in which he lived. It is probably one of the easier old Penguins to come across; it must have been very popular.

    I think you give one of the best arguments I have yet seen in favour of e-readers, although not one that will tempt me, as I have so many physical books still to get through.

    By the way, I envy you your cold weather. We are experiencing the kind of heat that makes it difficult to do anything other than lie on a couch listlessly and ignore everything that needs doing. Luckily it is only 3 weeks now until I get on a plane and head to Europe, and escape the warm weather.

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  2. Hello Karyn,

    I'll keep an eye out for that biography of Disraeli, I'm woefully ignorant of such an important figure in British history. I did read a biography of Gladstone not so long ago - a complicated and slightly odd man.
    "Escape the warm weather" - that's not a phrase we hear very often in my part of the world! In fact, when people here are dreaming of emigrating to Australia, the warm weather is one of the main attractions. I can sympathise though, my sister lives in Dallas, and at its hottest she says that its difficult to leave the house. I hope your trip goes well and the weather doesn't disappoint.

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  3. 'Can You Forgive Her" by Trollope is supposed to be good. You've inspired me to get it and finally read it!

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  4. Sunday - I'm enjoying it, I'm still not very far through it but so far so good. It's the first Trollope I've read, I seem to be more attracted to the Victorians as I settle into middle-age!

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