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Hushpuppy wrote: "@Paul I haven't forgotten your ping, just too tired to think straight atm! "

Don't worry, I think I've just determined that I need to read the dang book before I make up mind and try to parse the good from the bad. And I'm right there with you in the zombie-like functionality

THE SEA WOLF by Jack London (1904) is a dizzying, brutal read of relentless violence and cynicism. I dont think i have read something so animal, so ice cold in many a year, since maybe Dostoyevsky and "The House of the Dead"

The prose and the elegance and consistency of its delivery is offset by the jarring absence of warmth and humanity. It is realism shorn of even a wafer thin moralistic depth, it is animal.

What suprised me as i reach the final third is London inserting a female character ,somehow the novel has lost its terrible direction and compromised into a romance. Its still brutal and uneasy and brilliant but it has lost its purpose somewhat. Maybe i will think differently when i finish it..

AB76 wrote: " THE SEA WOLF by Jack London (1904) Maybe i will think differently when i finish it..."

You've not finished it yet? I'm waiting to comment about it when I know you've got to the end.

FrancesBurgundy (113) wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Magrat wrote: "This is the book for you, mate!

Strayan Dictionary Avo, Arvo, Mabo, ScoMo and all the essential Strayan words Avo, Arvo, Mabo, Bottle-o and Other Aussie Wordos b..."

'Skerrick' is one of those old words that is still occasionally heard, having some sort of UK origin. Grey, overcast weather is described as 'dracky' (spelling varies), which of course derives from the Scots 'dreich'.

Language is intimately connected with identity. If you want to destroy people's culture you forbid them from speaking their native tongue, while the dominant culture clings to and even develops theirs.

Magrat wrote: "Language is intimately connected with identity. If you want to destroy people's culture you forbid them from speaking their native tongue, while the dominant culture clings to and even develops theirs.."

Too true... we in Wales were denied the right to speak Cymraeg in many situations (school, courts etc.) for many years - thanks, England! The Bretons, likewise, were denied by the French... and so it goes on everywhere.

No doubt the native Australian languages have suffered badly, as have the native Americans...

Many years ago, there was an excellent ethnographic series on TV called 'Disappearing World' - this series allowed members of tribal and other societies to speak in their own languages - their words being subtitled. It was ambitious and fascinating. Does the will still exist to make a comparable series nowadays? I wonder...

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: " THE SEA WOLF by Jack London (1904) Maybe i will think differently when i finish it..."

You've not finished it yet? I'm waiting to comment about it when I know you've got to the end."

Just finished! Wow....gosh...i didnt see how that would end.....my word, what a character Wolf Larsen was! a literary force of nature

Anybody read Laura Shepherd-Robinson? Blood and Sugar, a Georgian murder mystery, or the new one, Daughters of Night? About a murder in the demimonde?

AB76 wrote: " THE SEA WOLF by Jack London (1904)... Wow....gosh...i didnt see how that would end...."

I was really disappointed with the ending and the romantic interest. It started really well. That's all I wanted to say!

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "Hello everyone, thanks for the welcome back posts, it's good to be back. I'm gradually getting used to the format of this website, it's just a bit tricky getting to grips with the flow of discussio..."

which is 40 years old. Is something of this age old and or good enough to be considered a Classic within the Thriller/Crime genre?

I think particularly with genre literature, something that still is known to readers even outside the genre after 40 years can be called a classic.

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: " THE SEA WOLF by Jack London (1904)... Wow....gosh...i didnt see how that would end...."

I was really disappointed with the ending and the romantic interest. It started really well. T..."

when did you read it?
i was ok with the ending but felt the period before Maud arrived was the best part of the book

AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: " THE SEA WOLF by Jack London (1904)... Wow....gosh...i didnt see how that would end...."

I was really disappointed with the ending and the romantic interest. I..."

I read it last February and had high hopes of it. Loved it until Maud appeared when I thought it changed completely. The ending was unexpected, and sort of out of keeping with the rest of the book.

Lljones wrote: "Does anyone know biographer Lyndall Gordon (Wollstonecraft, Woolf, Bronte, T.S Eliot)? Just found Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds.

("Found" means "on ..."

Yes: I own her biography of Charlotte Bronte, which I enjoyed very much and have reviewed. Here is my review. I recommend her.

Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life. Lyndall Gordon.

I have read or own a number of biographies of CB. This one is head and shoulders the most interesting! While it covers the facts of her life and writing, it examines in great depth the extreme disjunction between her innocuous public persona and the passionate, rebellious inner woman-her "home character" as she called it.

For early 19th century women, this gap was the result of the "Angel in the House" ideal that forced them to live lives of silent repression. "Ladies" were not allowed to use their skills and talents for any real work, or even express an opinion with any vehemence for fear of being called "coarse".

CB caused much outrage by challenging this and making the case for what she called "passion" in women's lives. She demanded the right to be "known", to express the "fire" inside. Her heroes, Mr. Rochester and M. Paul Emanuel, are adventurous enough to "see" Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe for the unique, passionate individuals that they are, not merely socially repressed, quiet, self-effacing, passive figures. CB transformed the losses of her life into enduring art that shows life refracted through a woman's point of view. This was new, disturbing, and unacceptable to her generation. It is still not fully accepted today.

Thanks to whoever jogged my memory on Elizabeth Harrower, i am about to start reading her debut novel Down In The City(1957) set in Sydney

It will be third sydney novel in four years after "Kangaroo" by DH Lawrence and "The Refuge" by Kenneth Mckenzie

Harrower died in July 2020 and only published four novels, all in a spell of six years after her debut.

Sydney is a fascination of mine, its origins, its development and the urban and social character of the place. The best non-fiction book i have read about the city is Leviathan by John Birmingham which describes the tortuous history of city situated around a beautiful harbour but with very little natural drinking water and its dark secrets...now a metropolis of 4 million people...

A literary gift....

I own several washable fabric masks including a fantastic Moomin mask (featuring Moominmamma and Little My), a Xmas gift from a Finnish friend, bought in Lapland.... and perfect for double masking, to say nothing of being an object of literary envy for these times......

Made by Finlayson and can be bought online. Mine came with matching potholders AND FAZER chocolates! A wonderful gift!!

A few from this week, but nothing particularly special..
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, translated by Marlaine Delargy.
Published only a few months after Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (in Sweden) my initial feeling on finishing this was that it was mutated copy, but it can't have been, just a coincidence that the subject the books deal with, organ harvesting, is the same.
But Ishiguro's book stands head and shoulders above this. Despite the dark subject matter, I am not sure its horror though in either case, Ishiguro blends all sorts of other interest into his characters, Holmqvist falls far shorter.
In this case, all childless women over fifty and men over sixty are classified as “dispensable� and removed to facilities where they take part in scientific experiments and eventually donate all of their organs to the 'more needy'.
There are some aspects of her dystopian future that confuse. Though flirting and other sorts of sexual advances have been criminalised, the protagonist Dorrit still manages a relationship, from which the plot takes its shape in the second half of the book.
In its favour though, is that its message is quite different to Ishiguro's, though not helped by media pushing it as horror. If intead it is seen as a metaphor, it comes over as being much cleverer, to highlight and appraise assumptions about what is generally accepted as being the meaning of life - Should each citizen contribute to socitey? Is it criminal to live life just for yourself? Do people who are not successful, or even achieve greatness, in their chosen field have any value?

How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada, translated by Elizabeth Bryer.
Using initials as names, M relates her memories of how, as a young girl in Chile born in the early 1970s, she accompanied her father D as he travelled around the country selling to hardware stores. It is a charming account of those early years of partnership and the traveling salesman life.
But as the early 80s arrive life changes, though much is left unsaid; this is a repressed Chile under Pinochet, and before long comes to the fore, and M's life is turned around, she must try and make sense of a world she doesn't know a lot about, but enough to know it isn't right.
Ferrada's writing is with delicate skill, as much about what isn't said as what is; the carefree attitude towards her travelling life giving way to a cold sadness, and inevitable loss of innocence.

Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith
An American whose young wife has recently committed suicide, Ray Garrett, and his father-in-law, Ed Coleman, find themselves in Venice, both grieving, but in very different ways. Coleman blames Garrett for his daughter's death, and his acrimony soon turns to psychosis and he is determined to kill him. Garrett is slow to pick this up, despite two attempts in the first few pages, and even when he does he is convinced he can talk Coleman out of it.
There's chases, and spectacular backdrops, but the plot has holes; Coleman's motives are unclear, and the people of Venice seem very tolerant of the antics of the pair.
Unlike Highsmith at her best, there is no great climax here, rather a feeling that the sprint for the line started a bit to soon.

Which are your favourite places to read in just now?

This week, I have been in a little nook each day, reading for a bit. It's been wonderful.
Happy to share this place with you. Here are views from all directions of my retreat.
You might try and imagine abundant birdsong and a murmuring river to go along with the images.


Looking up:


Straight ahead:


To the left:


Where you see the backpack, that's the sort-of seat:

(Gets kind of uncomfortable after about an hour, but until then, it's perfect)


Hardly anybody seems to go there, I have only met people there once in many months. It is a little bit like an enclosure, not quite easily accessible, but no dangerous activity involved.
The day before yesterday, a young couple smiled at me from a passing canoe - that made a nice difference.


That's the way back from the retreat:



And on the way back today, I even saw wild geese:



The sun keeps shining.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we were snowed in!


(and this photo reminds me that I, too, would like to go to a hairdresser...)


@Tam/jediperson: Looking forward to reading and reporting on your blog later tonight, at last!

Now a coffee is in order.
An enjoyable afternoon to everyone!

Thanks for the help in locating MB's post last week HushPuppy.
AB.... stir-crazy, yes a little... but I am very aware that my life in our small Lakes village is not much disturbed compared to so many others.
I missed a trip to the Caucasus, but that will hopefully happen in the next few years. I've a new van, which is getting decked out in March with a view to spending a large portion of each year in it, with the bike and the dog of course... First trip most likely to Scotland, hopefully in May, inspired by some of the places described by Patrick Baker in his book .
In late summer hopefully Spanish Lapland, Laponia Española, or Montañas Vacías, and Andalucia and Sierra Nevada.
Trips by air I guess will have to wait for a bit...

Hopefully now, with a glimmer of a light at the tunnel's end, we can all plan for the future..

Shelflife
Are they beech trees?
They’re not so common here but the woods in Somerset on the other side of the valley were glorious with them.

Andy wrote: "A few from this week, but nothing particularly special..
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, translated by Marlaine Delargy.
Published only a ..."

i really enjoyed this andy, read it about 2 years ago and i was sort of sealed in the world of the novel for a few weeks (i tend to read modern novels slowly, no real reason, i guess i'm juggling other books too)

Andy wrote: "Thanks for the help in locating MB's post last week HushPuppy.
AB.... stir-crazy, yes a little... but I am very aware that my life in our small Lakes village is not much disturbed compared to so m..."

good luck with those trips andy, i think cautious planning can be started, there is deffo a glimmer of light at the end of that tunnel....

CCCubbon wrote: "Shelflife
Are they beech trees?
They’re not so common here but the woods in Somerset on the other side of the valley were glorious with them."

i think the large ones are oaks, where are you based shelflife?

Attention Korean lit fans, i saw a review in the NYRB for a 1988 North Korean, yes, North Korean novel called "Friend" had been published and its on my pile, to follow the Piglia novel

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Which are your favourite places to read in just now?

This week, I have been in a little nook each day, reading for a bit. It's been wonderful.
Happy to share this place with you. Here are views f..."

Now I have an indelible image in my head of your current hair style!... I don't know how you manage to get actual photos into your text. I seem to have only ever conquered putting in a link to the photos!... anyway well done for working it out... and I hope you are truly refreshed by your holiday. the spot by the river looks lovely

Tam wrote (#138): "Now I have an indelible image in my head of your current hair style!..."

Same here, that made me guffaw.

I don't know how you manage to get actual photos into your text. I seem to have only ever conquered putting in a link to the photos!...

Try again with what I replied to you a while back: /topic/show/.... Let me know if you need more of a step-by-step approach.

Hushpuppy wrote: "Tam wrote (#138): "Now I have an indelible image in my head of your current hair style!..."

Same here, that made me guffaw.

I don't know how you manage to get actual photos into your text. I seem..."

well I will try with Lisa's cat tribute again

Nope it just goes back to the link. I have followed the instructions and it just produces this with the direct link selected

Tam wrote: "Nope it just goes back to the link. I have followed the instructions and it just produces this with the direct link selected"

perhaps there is some 'arcane' knowledge that some people are just not meant to know!.... I felt like that many years ago when I did an official academic 'web-site production course' at the OU... It drove me up the wall!...

Tam wrote: "Tam wrote: "Nope it just goes back to the link. I have followed the instructions and it just produces this with the direct link selected"

perhaps there is some 'arcane' knowledge that some people ..."

Does this mean that I get to be included, with the likes of John Dee and Newton, as a failed 'Alchemist'?...

Tam[143]
Nope it just goes back to the link. I have followed the instructions and it just produces this with the direct link selected

When you reply to a post, you will see the legend (some html is okay), in blue, immediately above the reply box to the right. This will give you a list of basic html stuff, one of which is 'Image'. I haven't tried it, but if you play with that it should work (but I can't help feeling there's probably an easier way).

Tam wrote (#140-143): "Nope it just goes back to the link. I have followed the instructions and it just produces this with the direct link selected"

Sorry Tam, was offline.

First, the thing you want is an actual link to an *image*. So as mentioned in my comment, when you upload that - fab - illustration on postimage, *below* the image, they give you a series of links. The first one is the short one, such as the one you've used, which has ads around and does not do the trick. The second, which is the one you want, is a *direct* link to the image, say postimage/blabla.jpg (try it, you'll see, there are no ads and it's just the picture itself). That's the link you want to use.

Second, for it to appear embedded in your text, you need to use the instructions given in the (some html is ok) at the top right of the comment box.

So in that case, it's:
[img src="/image..." width="40" height="100"/]

You need to replace the [ by < and ] by >, as well as the link by a real link to an image, such as the one you have created from the first step.

Then replace the width and height with a corresponding width and height of your image (info you can get when you saved it on your computer). If it's too big (max allowed here is 400 for width and 1,000 for height) go for the right ratio. So say if your image is 600x800, then 300x400 would work for instance.

Don't forget to press (preview) next to the Post button: this will allow you to see if this has worked properly.

Good luck!

Edit: @Max, nope, sadly, this is the only - fiddly - way to embed pictures (unless they're book covers of course).

Lljones wrote: "Edward Gorey’s Illustrated Covers for Literary Classics"

It reminds me of the days when I was involved in producing, on a subscription basis, a bi-monthly magasine. It was 'alternative' at the time, and so everything was done as cheaply as possible, so a print-run would involve just two colours on the cover. You could get extra depth where the two colours overlapped and created another shade. This is the basis of silk-screen printing, but really it is phenomenal how print media has moved on in the last 40 years. Full colour covers are probably of marginal extra cost these days. So these book designs were very much a product of their time. I like the 'Old Possums book of Practical Cats' one though....

Lljones wrote: "Edward Gorey’s Illustrated Covers for Literary Classics"

Thank you for that!

AB76 [96]

I think you recommended this back on Guardian TLS Max and glad you have jogged my memory!

You're quite right, I did, I'm surprised anyone rememembered! I only revisited it here because the title would certainly have put me off if my friend hadn't kindly sent me a copy.
Another, much better known example is 'The Killer Angels' by Michael Shaara which I thought was a dreadful title, and still do. Probably the title is a quote with which I'm not familiar. I can't remember what made me read it but of course it's a superb, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the action at Little Round Top at Gettysburg. I'm pretty sure the film Gettysburg was based on it, most of which I thought was pretty turgid, but I loved the book.

Hushpuppy wrote: "Tam wrote (#140-143): "Nope it just goes back to the link. I have followed the instructions and it just produces this with the direct link selected"

Sorry Tam, was offline.

First, the thing you ..."

thanks I have saved that info for another day. So the next time I try an image inclusion I'll give it a go! I still quite like the idea of including myself, on my CV, as a 'failed alchemist' though!.. But I think I'm probably beyond 'new employment' status these days...

Tam wrote (#151): "I still quite like the idea of including myself, on my CV, as a 'failed alchemist' though!.."

To be fair, the entirety of humanity to date qualifies too! (Technically)

Tam wrote: " I like the 'Old Possums book of Practical Cats' one though......."

That 1982 edition is still in print. I just ordered it a week or so ago, after CCCuban posted a poem from it. Forty-second printing, same cover, some more lovely illustrations inside.

scarletnoir wrote: I never saw Matthews, but saw Best (and Charlton, Crerand, Law, Stiles etc.) several times in the mid-60s. Best was undoubtedly the most naturally gifted player I ever saw... you do know the anecdote which finishes: "George - where did it all go wrong?" I hope!

reply | flag *
Indeed. Along with "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars, the rest I just squandered"

Was a waste of a good liver transplant which could have gone to someone who would make better use of it. Same with Clough.

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Magrat wrote: "This is the book for you, mate!

Strayan Dictionary Avo, Arvo, Mabo, ScoMo and all the essential Strayan words Avo, Arvo, Mabo, Bottle-o and Other Aussie Wordos b..."


As someone born oop North and living in the Midlands I haven't heard that expression, but a few I have - don't just stand there like cheese at fourpence, and get a jildy on.

Drum roll please - hairdresser booked for 15 April by which time:

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Which are your favourite places to read in just now?

This week, I have been in a little nook each day, reading for a bit. It's been wonderful.
Happy to share this place with you. Here are views f..."

Thanks for sharing your photos, where you were seated looks very beautiful. I life near a couple of forests/woods and try to go for walks as often as I can. It's been a bit too wet (or freezing cold) to sit on the benches there.

Pre-Covid, on some my days off I would go for walks and then go to a coffee shop or the library and read there for a couple of hours.

Almost all of my reading is at home. I always bring a book to work, but if there's a bit of chat in the socially-distanced tea room, I usually end up listening to the chat rather than reading.

At home, my favourite place is sitting on my Poang chair (plus blanket/hot water bottle), next to my bookcase in the living room. I do live slightly dangerously by keeping a cup of coffee on said bookshelf along with pens, a notebook, a dictionary. Chocolate or crisps may also be in the vicinity, especially at the weekend.

Max (Outrage) wrote: "AB76 [96]

I think you recommended this back on Guardian TLS Max and glad you have jogged my memory!

You're quite right, I did, I'm surprised anyone rememembered! I only revisited it here becaus..."

bad book titles and blurbs are always tricky, when in fact they are probably better than they sound or are summarised. i've been "blurbed" a few times, 200 pages into a book and wondering why nothing in the blurb has happened, or 50 pages in and everything in the blurb has happened, either way...bad blurb

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Which are your favourite places to read in just now?

This week, I have been in a little nook each day, reading for a bit. It's been wonderful.
Happy to share this ..."

walking is the biggest freedom we all have right now, i think its a very good pasttime, combined with just observing the changing seasons

AB76 wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "
walking is the biggest freedom we all have right now, i think its a very good pasttime, combined with just observing the changing seasons"


So true. I regularly meet a friend and we go for a walk in the local area - St Chad's (see my photos) or Attenborough Nature Reserve or the local rivers or canals. All the better if you can grab a coffee to finish to trip. But it has been a bit too muddy in some of the places over the last few weeks.

Wenn ich nicht Peter Panter wäre, möchte ich Buchumschlag im Malik-Verlag* sein.

(If I wasn’t Peter Panter, I would like to be a book cover published by Malik publishers)

I came across this quote in the wonderful Tucholsky biography by Michael Hepp (PP was one of Tucholskys pen names).

Apparently there were indeed customers who ordered the book covers only. They were designed by John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld) and/or George Grosz.

*

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "
walking is the biggest freedom we all have right now, i think its a very good pasttime, combined with just observing the changing seasons"


So true. I regularly mee..."

its getting drier where i am but i agree its been a wet muddy winter

I don’t know that I will ever be up to inserting a picture or photo, but I just love what Shelflife and others have been putting up.

AB76 wrote #94: "i parked Eddo Lodge to read Ruth First's prison memoir but i was finding it a good read, the first section on the 1930 study into dual heritage kids in liverpool was very interesting "

Excellent, thanks for letting me know.

@Tam/ jediperson: Can only agree with Georg and Paul that your blog is worth more than just one look. I just sent you an enthusiastic, detailed response via the blog site, hope you received it?
I look forward to your next monthly posts!
Like Georg, I will need some time to ponder your paper on Dix and Kollwitz. But we will get there, tortoise-wise, and it is fun that way. Also, did not the tortoise arrive first in the tale?

@Georg: I love the dragon image, too! Not often have I seen a more alluring train bearer. Until I realized the dragon does not bear the train, but is swallowing Margaret! A gulp from me there. Love the image anyway, though.

@Hushpuppy: Thank you for the excellent embedding explanation! It helped a lot the other day, too.

@CCCubbon and AB76: When it comes to trees, it is always best to ask Georg, I find! I would say that the tree seat and the other huge one to the left are beeches. There are also some oaks in this little wood (with a rougher-looking bark).

@Tam and Hushpuppy: As regards current hairstyle, well, the colour is wrong and not such an extreme puffing up of split ends (yet), but this is what it feels I look like some days! Congrats to giveusaclue. The image you linked to lets me suspect that your hairdresser may feel like a sculptor (whittling away at an abundance of material)!

@Gpfr: Wow, so Machenbach's bad writer brought about quite a number of departures! Did you like the book?
I would very much like to see these wax effigies some time:
I was absolutely fascinated on reading in various history books that they were carried around on top of the coffin for grand funeral processions, and/or shown in church.

@ LL: Thanks for the covers! I like the Poe one especially. This is a Poe book which won an award for book design here recently:
The orange is a bit strong, of course, but I would say it works. The book feels great, too, linen and all.

@Fuzzywuzz: Welcome back from me, too! I have always fondly remembered your anecdote about the bookshop and the tackling down.
Thanks for telling me about your favourite places. It's important to have these favourite places for reading, inside and/ or outside, I find.
As Mr B could not take this week off, I have time to roam on my own.

@Georg: Yay, Tucholsky! That's good to know. Machenbach has tempted me into rereading Castle Gripsholm at some point soon, too, I just remembered.


@ All: I really hope it is o.k. to produce such long posts with multiple replies assembled in one? It helps me getting less confused here. But if it should be confusing to others, I may have to rethink it.
Anyway, probably won't happen next week... back to work, and thus much less chatty. Promise.