2019 book reading by PGMCC - Volume V

Read in 2019

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

The Fox by Frederick Forsyth 01/01/2019 - 05/01/2019 301 pages
Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them by John Yorke 11/12/2018 - 12/01/2019 230 pages
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami 13/01/2019 - 25/01/2019 681 pages
Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen 26/01/2019 - 08/02/2019 389 pages
The Gifts of Reading by Robert MacFarlane 29/01/2019 - 29/01/2019 47 pages
Birthday Girl by Harukim Murakami 30/01/2019 -30/01/2019. 41 pages
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty 09/02/2019 - 22/02/2019 530 pages
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 22/02/2019 - 05/04/2019 750 pages
47 Seconds by Jane Ryan 05/04/2019 - 12/04/2019 ? Pages
Party trap. 15/04/2019-17/04/2019 112 pages
Pulp Literature Issue No. 22 17/04/2019-
Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers 27/04/2019-
08/05/2019. 291 pages
Black Snow by Paul Lynch 08/05/2019-15/05/2019 272 pages
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty 16/05/2019-29/05/2019 361 pages
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor 29/05/2019 - 04/06/2019 370 pages
The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen 04/06/2019 - 08/06/2019 240 pages
Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty 08/06/2019 - 24/06/2019 621 pages
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 25/06/2019 - 27/06/2019 224 pages
The Princess Bride by William Goldman 27/06/2019 - 09/07/2019 399 pages
The Unfortunate Fursey by Melvyn Wall 09/07/2019 - 17/07/2019 241 pages
The Hunting Party. DNF
The Wych Elm Tana French 18/06/2019 - 03/08/2019 513 pages
The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson 04/08/2019 - 07/08/2019 213 pages
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien 07/08/2019 - 27/08/2019 172 pages
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng 27/08/2019 - 11/09/2019 409 pages
Foreshadow: Trapped in Her Own Mind by Leena Althekair 27/08/2019 -
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks 11/09/2019 - 28/09/2019 309 pages
Grace O’Malley by Anne Chambers 29/09/2019 - 03/10/2019 143 pages
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler 03/10/2019 - 12/10/2019 226 pages
No. 252 Rue M. le Prince by Ralph Adams Cram 05/10/2019 - 5/10/2019 10 pages Short story
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall 12/10/2019 - 11/11/2019 288 pages
Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler 26/10/2019 - 02/11/2019 275 pages.
Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré 03/11/2019 - 08/11/2019 281 pages
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil 11/11/2019 - 28/11/2019 218 pages
Tik-Tok by John Sladek 17/11/2019 - 01/12/2019 192 pages
The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klein 2/12/2019 - 29/12/2019 600 pages
Reality is not what it seems by Carlo Rovelli 3/12/2019 -

Having reached 258 posts on my previous thread I think it is time I started Chapter V of 2019 reading record.

So far this year I have had some great reads, a couple of duds, and also a couple of rereads, unusual occurrences for me.

Highlights to date in 2019
Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them by John Yorke
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
The City of Brass and its sequel, The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
The Price you Pay by Aidan Truhen
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry
The Wych Elm by Tana French
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler

Duds
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Foreshadow: Trapped in Her Own Mind by Leena Althekair

Re-reads
The Unfortunate Fursey by Mervyn Wall
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Other good reads
The Fox by Fredrick Forsythe
Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Black Snow by Paul Lynch
The House of the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Grace O'Malley by Anne Chambers

Good reading so far with some excellent reads. Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler is shaping up to keeping the standard high.

E.T.A. The re-reads were, of course, excellent. They would not have been re-read had they not.

Happy new thread!

I have also received new but damaged books, which distressed me. Mine were from Barnes & Noble, and I could tell they had been hastily and carelessly boxed. There's really no excuse for that.

I am considering rereading Player of Games. I need to shave some layers off of Mount TBR before they start to slide first, though.
It really is an excellent book.

>4 Busifer: I enjoyed my re-read. I think the next Banks book I will re-read will be Use of Weapons.

>5 pgmcc: That was my first Banks. The ending horrified me, but I think it is a brilliant book. Not sure I'd recommend it as a first Banks experience, though.

>6 Busifer: I remember The Player of Games coming out next to Use of Weapons (I cannot remember which came first...but that doesn't matter right now.) and I preferred The Player of Games. Other people were favouring Use of Weapons that I did not consider as good as The Player of Games. I have always felt that I missed something the first time round and that is why I am keen to re-read Use of Weapons closely after The Player of Games.

As I had said eslswhere, I always see more in any re-read of an Iain Banks novel so I expect to see something that I missed first time round. Having recently re-read The Player of Games I am of the opinion that Use of Weapons will have to reveal major wonderous things to coax me away from preferring The Player of Games.

>7 pgmcc: In my opinion The Player of Games is far superior. Despite that Use of Weapons is chilling, well written, and absolutely not a bad story. It's just that Player is better!
Weapons do tie in to some of the other Culture books, though I cannot remember titles right now... but Surface Detail, at least? I really need to do a reread, I don't remember them well enough, considering how much I enjoyed reading (and rereading) them!

>8 Busifer: Surface Detail is the one I was thinking about that had a link to Use of Weapons. I have seen passing references to other novels that had links to Use of Weapons but I cannot remember them precisely. I think Excession or Inversions might have had one of the characters from Use of Weapons in it too.

I am never very good at noticing the character links across books. I recognise names as I read through a novel but if I find them in another novel I am not likely to spot them, although I spotted a common character between Eric Ambler's Mask of Dimitrios and his Journey Into Fear. Colonel Haki, head of the Turkish Secret Police appears in both books. Probably an easier name and character to remember from one book to another than one of Iain M. Banks's droids with their interesting and totally unpronounceable names.

E.T.A.: Surface Detail is another Iain M. Banks novel that I really enjoyed and was surprised to see people deriding. I thought it was very enjoyable.

>9 pgmcc: I too was thinking Excession and/or Inversions but am loathe to remember.
Surface Detail is one of my favourite Culture novels. PS Falling Outside Normal Moral Constraints and it's avatar Demeissen is probably my favourite space ship.

I continue to enjoy the work of Eric Ambler. I cannot remember who first mentioned Eric Ambler in the GD but I am thankful to whoever it was. I suspect jillmwo or Meredy. Correct me if you know better. Regardless of who it was I am very grateful to them.

Journey into Fear was published in 1940 and was very up to date. Ambler really captures the atmosphere of places he describes. The action takes place in the early stages of World War II. Ambler's writing brought me right into the scenes. I was there watching his characters interacting.

His work did not side with one party or another but it described the interactions between various European cultures during a period when the actions of one culture in particular was affecting life across the continent. Ambler is a marvel at giving the reader his characters' motivation and following through a plausible course of action given the events happening in Europe at the time of his story.

If I were to categorise Journey into Fear I would have to say it was an espionage thriller.

At last I have my hands on a copy of John Le Carré's latest novel, Agent Running in the Field. I am on page 12 and enjoying every bit of it. Le Carré's stories just flow on until you are in a web of intrigue and philosophical commentary, albeit the philosophical commentary being left to the reader to infer.

I think my non-fiction read, Prisoners of Geography, might be delayed by Mr. Le Carré.

Drama on the high seas
My wife and younger son have just returned from a ten day break in France. It was not without a few interesting moments.

On Monday, 21st October there were no plans for a trip to France. I persuaded my wife that she should go and that we should book the ferry immediately while there were still cabins available. She agreed.

It turned out that the ferry sailing on the 24th had a cabin and room for the car. Unfortunately there were no cabins on any of the return sailings for that ferry company before Sunday 3rd November, a day when my wife had to attend a course in the midlands.

A quick check with a different ferry company showed that cabins were available on the November 1st sailing that would get them back to Ireland on November 2nd. We booked the return trip with that company. That was all find and dandy. Sailing from Dublin to Cherbourg on 24th October arriving in France on 25th October. Depart from Roscoff on 1st November arriving in Cork on 2nd November.

At midnight on Wednesday, 30th October I received a telephone call from my wife. I was asleep and was not too happy about being woken at midnight. It would have been 1am on 31st October in France.

The call was very poor quality and I could not understand what she was saying until we started communicating by Microsoft Messenger. Apparently in our rush to book the return ferry trip we had omitted to book the car onto the boat. PANIC!

What could have been a disaster turned out to be easy to sort out. At half past midnight I was able to go on-line and book the car on the same ticket.

That was all great until the afternoon of Halloween. I received a text message from the ferry company telling me the sailing from Roscoff on 1st November that was due to leave at 8pm with boarding starting at 5pm was being brought forward to sailing at 3pm with boarding starting at 12 noon to avoid bad weather. Given that my wife and son had a seven hour drive to get to Roscoff I had to warn them quickly. A quick phonecall let them know about the change and they had to change their plans. They packed on the Thursday evening and planned to leave at 6:30 to get to Roscoff on time for the early sailing.

Again we relaxed.

At 9am I got another text from the ferry company. The weather was coming in faster than expected and the sailing was being brought forward with last boarding time being 12 noon. MORE PANIC!

Various telephone calls to ferry company, identification of telephone number at the ferry port in Roscoff, quick call to the ferry port by my son: Everything worked out. They made the ferry with no time to spare. One of my son's text messages stated, "We have had some creative interpretation of the speed limits."

All's well that ends well. They got the ferry and had a nice meal as soon as they go on the ferry.

My wife had not been too panicked. She reckoned that if they missed the ferry they could have another few days in France and get a later ferry.

Now, two things I did not tell my wife.

1. Apparently the sailing they were booked onto was the last sailing for the season for that ferry company. It could have been more than a few days they would be waiting to get back to Ireland with the car.

2. When I heard about the sailing being brought forward to "avoid bad weather" I thought they might have a rough sailing. I checked up the maritime weather forecast. It indicated sea conditions of "Rough" rising to "High". The definition they gave for "Rough" was waves up to 5 metres. "High" indicated waves up to 9 metres.

As it was they had their meal and went to their cabin where they weathered the storm without too much trouble.

>13 pgmcc: меньше знать, больше спать indeed!

>14 -pilgrim-: Да. Я согласен.

>13 pgmcc: Glad it all ended well!

>13 pgmcc: Isn't travel exciting! Loved the "creative interpretation of speed limits".

>13 pgmcc: You remind me irresistibly of Head over Heel on Milanese driving: "Even the most cautious Italian drives as though a pregnant passenger's waters have broken; ..." Now there are people whose normal style with regard to speed limits is seriously creative!

>18 hfglen: There was an occasion when I was actually driving like that for exactly that reason. When I got to the traffic light at a particular major intersection (it was about 3 am, fortunately) I knew that I wasn't stopping at it no matter what. The child in question (my daughter Laura, who has figured in my thread a couple of times) distinguished herself by arriving on the way to, rather than at, the hospital. Her birth certificate shows her place of birth as "Yamba Drive, Garran, ACT".

Google Maps shows the average time for that drive as being 16 minutes. I reckon I did it in under 10.

>19 haydninvienna: Just googled the locality. Somewhat unsettling to see that Woden Cemetery is marked as almost straight across the road from the hospital!

>20 hfglen: That's planning for you.

>13 pgmcc: All's well that ends well. My adrenaline levels would had been through the roof.

>18 hfglen: Which is why one never takes liberties with crossing a road as a pedestrian when in Italy, the country were you only jaywalk once...

>12 pgmcc: Agent running in the field has gotten some very favourable mentions in Swedish press.

>22 Busifer: I am enjoying it. Only about 40 pages in so far.

>13 pgmcc: Sweet cheeses. And I'll bet you thought you were going to have a relaxing few days to yourself, and instead you were probably pacing and mutter those last two days.

Enjoy the Le Carré. My mother read art books almost exclusively, but every time he'd publish something she got her hands on a copy somehow.

>24 clamairy: My wife loves Le Carré and has read all his books. I have known her to do a binge re-read of many of them a couple of times.

I have only read about half-a-dozen of his books but have enjoyed them greatly. While I am a great fan of the BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People I have not gotten round to reading the novels.

Despite that I have pre-ordered his last few novels and read them as they became available.

>25 pgmcc: I was I introduced to John Le Carré by the BBC TV series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This propelled me into reading the book, which I found to be even more nuanced than the TV serial. And given Sir Alec Guinness was playing Smiley, that is saying something!

(N.b. I have also seen the 2011 film. I regretted doing so.)

>26 -pilgrim-:
The film was not a patch on the BBC adaptation. Alec Guinness was a marvelous Smiley. We have the DVDs and have watched the series twice in the past three years. It would be “comfort viewing” for us.

I was quite dubious about the film. When I saw it I admired Gary Oldman because he did not try to act as Alec Guinness; he did his own thing for the character. Apart from that I thought the film was a poor imitation.

>27 pgmcc: We concur completely.

I apologise for any political message in the attached video, but it is just so funny I had to share it.

https://www.facebook.com/pat.gibson.56481/videos/1200988526758427/?t=133

>29 pgmcc: Dear gawd... beans. I'm surprised they weren't on toast. Very funny.

>29 pgmcc: Zut alors, mon brave!
I am surprised that they did not include "pastiche" in their list.

>31 -pilgrim-: They may have thought that too cliché.

>32 pgmcc: One would have thought it de rigueur.

>33 -pilgrim-: Touchez!

I have to say I have a queue of books lined up that I am keen to read soon. The choice is great. The primary ones are:

- 9 by Andrzej Stasiuk (BB from -pilgrim-)

- Melmoth by Sarah Perry (Apparently a BB hit on -pilgrim- from me) :-)

- Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil (BB from a number of GDers, including Busifer I believe)

- Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (Recommendation by random person in Hodges Figgis bookshop)

- Tik-Tok by John Sladek

- In The Woods by Tana French

Currently reading and enjoying Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré which is proving great.

Also currently reading Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall which I an about two thirds through and should really finishe after Agent Running in the Field before starting anything else.

I have also acquired a number of Eric Ambler novels that I am keen to read.

>35 pgmcc: I am afraid you also hit me with a BB regarding Eric Ambler, after your description of The Mask of Dimitrios. However, since I half-remember the plot from the film, I decided to try another book by the same author. Judgment on Deltchev is now awaiting me on my Kindle (although I am currently reading The House of Shattered Wings, a BB from another Dragoneer).

As Agent running in the field is now tempting me, in retaliation I shall recommend to you Red to Black by Alex Dryden - the pseudonym of an author with a background similar to Le Carré's.

Let the sniper war continue!

A propos (cf #29) Hodges Figgis: I presume the Hodges is the same as that in Hodges, Smith & Co. who published the first three volumes of Flora capensis in 1859--64, which makes this establishment a respected bookshop of remarkably long standing (someone get them a chair to sit down in!). William H. Harvey, the senior author, was a professor at Trinity College Dublin. (His colleague, Otto Wilhelm Sonder, lived in Hamburg.)

>37 hfglen:

You are correct. It started out as a publisher and bookshop. It handled the Trinity publications. Last year it celebrated its 250th birthday. It considers itself the oldest bookshop in Europe. Its heritage and culture is why its branding and a certain degree of independent thought and action has survived being owned by Waterstones.

It has the claim to fame of being were haydninvienna and I met for the first time. It will also be in the general proximity of our meeting for the second time on Friday 22nd November.

>36 -pilgrim-:

You are getting too good at this book sniping.

By the way, I was also hit by The House of Shattered Wings BB. It is waiting for me in my Kindle account, just beside the recently arrive Red to Black. I hope you are happy now. :-)

For those that are interested in Paul Cornell's Wiches of Lychford stories, the 4th book in the series, The Lights of Out in Lychford, is due our on 19th November, 2019; 10 days from today.

Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin


Many of you will know that I avoid reading introductions to novels until after I have read the book. Today I went back to read the Introduction to Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer. It is thirty-one pages including notes.

I am glad I did not read the Introduction before reading the novel. At best it would have given me some key elements of the story; at worst it would have stolen the opportunity to discover the story by myself, and allow my mind to interpret the text on my own. As it is the introduction has raised questions in my head as to some things I may have missed but has also left me challenging some things the author of the Introduciton, Victor Sage, has stated.

My decision to leave the introduction until after reading the novel has once again been supported by evidence. I would have been reading the book looking out for certain things rather than reading the book and discovering it fresh with no preconceived knowledge of the story or tainted attitudes and thoughts influenced by another's interpretation of the story. I know if I had done that I would have missed some things that I found interesting and revealing.

Well, all you sharp-shooters who fired Weapons of Math Destruction shaped bullets at me can take pride in yourselves knowing that I have started this book.

So far I have read the Introduction. As this is a non-fiction book I am happy to read the introduction.

When I read introductions, I usually regret it - for the same reasons as you do; I don't want to be told plot details before I encounter them either.

You may be happy to learn that I have just read Dmitry Glukhovsky's introduction to The Doomed City. And it was excellent in explaining the context in which it was written, and the reception it received in Russia on first publication without revealing plot details. Amazing! An introduction that actually introduced a work, instead of paraphrasing it or critiquing it - do you think the concept could catch on?

>43 -pilgrim-: I see what you tried to do there, but I ducked and you missed.

I read Roadside Picnic and did not feel inclined to read more by the brothers so, nice try, but you do not win the cigar. :-)

An introduction that actually introduced a work, instead of paraphrasing it or critiquing it - do you think the concept could catch on?

Never. It is too logical.

>44 pgmcc: Drat, must adjust my sights.
I really do recommend The Doomed City to you. I know that Roadside Picnic is their book best known in the West, because of Tarkovsky's film, but it is definitely not their best work.

Picnic was written for publication; it was butchered to get it past the censorship.
City was written "for the drawer". In its layers of allusion it is reminding me of Bulgakov.

I may have failed to tempt you, but I will nevertheless enthuse properly once I have finished it. It is certainly keeping me on my toes to catch all the references. (The translator here is Marian Schwartz.)

Actually, which translation of Roadside Picnic did you read? I have a friend who has read it before, and is now rereading it in the Bormashenko translation. He says that the previous translation that he read was about 30% shorter and significantly different, in such matters as the sequence of events!

>45 -pilgrim-: The doomed city is on my TBR pile. You may have convinced me to move it nearer the top.

>45 -pilgrim-:
You are tenacious. I will give you that.

I already have, but have not read, The Master and Margarita. Soon. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon.

I enjoyed We by Zamyatin. It just struck me as classic Soviet underground Science Fiction, an impression supported by its being published in English almost sixty years before it appeared in its original Russian.

In relation to Roadside Picnic I read the same version as is pictured in your post; the SF Masterworks edition.

It is not that I did not like the story. I was just not bowled over by it. I suggest it was a matter of expectations; my expectations having been high due to people's enthusiasm for the book and then it not matching those levels of expectation.

I also note that you have recruited Sakerfalcon in your attempts to wound me with The Doomed City.

>46 Sakerfalcon: I see you, Claire. Stop hiding behind @-plgrim- .

>47 pgmcc: It took me a while to get round to The Master and Margarita too. After I had amassed 4 different copies, all different translations, given to me by 4 different people, I embraced the inevitable. And it was... masterly.

On the other hand, I have not read We. Yet.

>48 -pilgrim-: My recollection is that We was published in English in 1920 and it was some time in the 1980s that it was first published in Russian.

Please make allowances for temporal distortions to dates due to fautly recall. We can remember it for you wholesale but that will take a whole new thread.

>49 pgmcc: Oh, I possess a copy of We. It is just sitting on a slope of Mount TBR that I am unable to physically access at present. It calls mournfully to me from time to time.

The Strugatskys never attempted smuggling The Doomed City out. They kept a single manuscript copy until fearing their flat might be raided after the "Heifetz-Etkind case", they made 2 more copies and shared them to 1 Muscovite and 1 Leningrader, selected as being "on the one hand, unimpeachably honest, above even the very slightest suspicion and, on the other hand, not obviously numbers among our closest friends, so that if things took a turn for the worse, no one ought to come to them." It was finally published in the late eighties, 18 years after it was written.

Admittedly, those were better times; the Strugatskys feared confiscation rather than the fate of a dissident author in an earlier epoch. But they are also considerably more outspoken.

Do you have any other Soviet era science fiction authors to recommend?

>50 -pilgrim-: As I stated earlier, "you are tenacious." I see myself as pinned down behind some form of cover with The Doomed City shaped book bullets whizzing by on every side.

I cannot thinkg of any other Soviet era science fiction authors to suggest. I have a Serbian friend who had a TV show in the former Yugoslavia in which he discussed Science Fiction. I must ask him if there are Soviet SF authors he would recommend.

I think he was probably busying himself with Western Science Fiction. When he was doing his military service he was put in the brig for a week because he went AWOL to watch Dune in the local cinema. He had asked permission which was refused. He know things were probably not going to go well for him when he met and greeted two officers in the cinema.

>51 pgmcc: Sorry to keep piling on but The master and Margarita is an amazing read. I can't recommend it highly enough. I read the translation by Glenny but there are several others that are supposed to be good.

>52 Sakerfalcon: I have had a copy of The Master and Margarita sitting on my shelf for.. 25 years? It was an SFBC purchase I never got around to reading, I'll put it on the list to read as soon as it is unboxed!

I ran out of gas about a third of the way through The Master and Margarita. Given other recent experiences, it may be that I will enjoy it if I try again after regaining my health.

>54 Jim53: I didn't make it through the first time that I tried it; when I tried again, I thought it was wonderful. It is one of those books where getting the right translation matters.

>54 Jim53: >55 -pilgrim-: Uh oh, anyone know if the science fiction book club version is a good one?

>40 pgmcc: WOOHOO! I skipped the novella that LT counts as the third in the series. Will that be a problem, do you think?

>56 Karlstar: It is not that there are bad translations exactly.

But there are a lot of things that happen in the novel that are never explained. To a Soviet audience of the thirties, they are easy to interpret, but the explanations are never spelt out openly (that would have been far too dangerous for the author). So some imagery to interpret requires a knowledge of Russian slang, or is based on a pun in Russian, or simply requires the reader to know that (for instance), the NKVD routinely cut the buttons off detainees' clothing (so a man who reappears after a long absence with no buttons on his coat can be assumed to have been having some extremely unpleasant interviews).

The issue is how the translator handles these double entendres and implied meanings - how much background knowledge do they assume in the reader? Where a word has several possible meanings do they pick just one (Bulgakov probably intended all of them!)? Or do they try to explain?

It is a question of which way you prefer your translation. Too literal - and it is simply confusing, if you are not familiar with the symbolism. Too interpretive - and a lot of the subtlety is lost. A lot of explanatory footnotes - interrupts the reading flow for some people.

Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice.

The only bad translations are ones where the translator decided "ignorant foreigners couldn't possibly understand this" and just omits the more difficult bits completely!

>57 clamairy: I will not know until I have read the fourth. I would like to think it would not matter.

The third was a bit of a rant about the attitudes and views that led to Brexit so it may have left some people less enthusiastic for it than the others. I understand the fourth is the final story. :-(

It is supposed to be on my Kindle account but I cannot see it there just yet.

On "The Weird Tradition" group there is a discussion thread for a short story by Mervyn Peake called Same Time, Same Place. I noticed it was in an anthology I had called "The Weird" and was only five (very big) pages long. I read it and was pleasantly surprised to realise after the first page that it is a story I read when I was about 13 (five or six years ago) and which has stayed in my mind ever since. At the time the name of the author meant nothing to me but I remember enjoying the story and thinking of it often.

One of my brothers had a few books of horror stories and I used to read stories from his books when I could get my hands on them. This was one of those stories and I never realised it had been written by Mervyn Peake.

>60 pgmcc: The price on that cover suggests that it was printed rather a long time ago ;-)

>61 hfglen: It certainly does.

I just feel the need to add to the general hausse of The Master and Margarita. It's a rewarding read even when one, like me, doesn't have an intimate understanding of every detail in the subtext.

Also wondering - how are you getting along with Weapons of Math Destruction? (No plot points revealed in the Introduction ;-) )

>63 Busifer:
I read the Introduction. :-)

I have about 80 ages left. My progress has been slowed by my tick-tacking between WMD, Tik-Tok and Same Time, Same Place.

I find I can only take a chapter at a time of WMD. It is giving plenty of examples. It is quite depressing if you think about it too much at one time.

>64 pgmcc: I too found I could only take so much of it and had to switch between that and other things or I'd combusted.

"Happy Thanksgiving" to my U.S. friends.

I completed this on Thursday and gave it to my new colleague who has just completed a Masters degree on Analytics. I am sure there will be nothing technical in it that he will find new but the strength of the book is in its showing the range of areas where these systems are de-humanising human society. I cannot say there was a lot new to me in the way in which these systems punish their victims, but it was a useful exercise in reviewing the extent of their use and the damage they cause.

I felt the book was a bit wordy and could have given its message a bit more succinctly. Also the conclusion was a bit wishy-washy and did not give a clear path forward in combatting the use of these systems.

I am reading Tik-Tok by John Sladek on the Kindle App on my i-phone. It is difficult to know where I am in it. The % complete is not readily visible on the screen. I believe I am approaching the 75% complete point.

The first half of the book is very much an allegory of how black people have been treated in North America. The main character is an autonomous robot and this book is about his (yes, he is a male robot) experiences of prejudice and discrimination as he gets involved in "human" activities.

The book has now transformed into a bit of a wild adventure and the allegory element appears to have fallen into the background.

I have finished Tik-Tok by John Sladek. While this was an allegory about the treatment of black people in the USA it turned into a comment of corruption in politics in the last quarter. I discussed the possibility of a criminal standing for Vice President.

Next up is The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klein. I received this as a gift from my friend who runs "The Swan River Press". I helped him run his stall and refused payment so he bought me a copy of this horror book that is one of his favourites.



It is quite a hefty tome so I expect I will be reading it for most of the rest of the year.

>69 pgmcc: I looked at the date of first publication of Tik-Tok: 1983. At least one criminal had already been Vice-President: Spiro T Agnew, who resigned in 1973.

>71 haydninvienna: The implication in the book was that all politicians are, and have been, criminals, and that those that make it to President...

A book bullet fired by hfglen which took immediate effect. I tried to order the physical book but was informed Amazon did not deliver it to Ireland so I had to make do with an e-book. :-(

I have started by reading the introduction, not something I would do with a novel, and like the tone of the conversation. Thank you, Hugh.

>73 pgmcc: *bows* My pleasure, Peter. Enjoy the book!

>70 pgmcc: I am so glad you posted this! I read something about this book a while ago (perhaps here when you first acquired it) and thought it looked good, then I forgot all about it. Recently I was trying to remember it but couldn't recall anything useful about it besides that it was a chunky horror novel from the 70s or 80s. Thank you for putting me out of my misery. I gather that I can look forward to many more such memory problems in future years ...

The Prologue in The Ceremonies could be tha back-story for Twin Peaks.

The first few chapters could be the start of The Whicker Man.

Plenty of ominous, brooding otherness in this book. Not for the faint hearted.

I am 68 pages in with 540 to go; just over 11% complete.

I have been reading more of The Ceremonies than Reality is not What it Seems, but I have not totally abandoned the latter. I am still in the first chapter but am enjoying the tracing of thoughts of Physics from the earliest times.

I am reading The Ceremonies because a friend gave it to me as a gift for something I helped him out with. He loves this book and wanted to share the joy with me. Unfortunately I am not as overwhelmed with it as he is.

The story is set in a New York city and the New Jeresey countryside amongst an Amish-like community. The story is ok but I am afraid it is a bit predictable and slightly tedious as a result. It is a horror story and it is obvious there will be an attempt to sacrifice someone and that there will be manifestations of Ancient Ones, portents, great upheaval of the earth, and nature will rise against the humans. I have not hidden this behind a spoiler mask as I am only 200 pages into the 600 pages of the book and my comments on conjecture about the content of the last 400 pages. My biggest terror is that my conjecture is correct as it will make for a relatively boring read.

It is well enough written but I cannot find myself loving the book. Of course, there are many people who love this book; I am just not one of them.

As stated in my first sentence, I am reading The Ceremonies because a friend gave it to me as a gift ... I feel obliged to finish it. It is not terribly onerous but had I borrowed this from the library I would probably return it unfinished.

I get the feeling that it is a book written by someone who wants to create/support a mythology for a population that does not have a mythology. I understand it is part of the Cthullu mythology world. It is readable enough but so predictable and so long.

>78 pgmcc: How much have you read of the Cthulhu mythos - whether by Lovecraft himself or others?

I have tried a few times, particularly when I had been invited into a game of Call of Cthulhu, which is set in that world, and I have never been able to finish any but a few short stories.

Lovecraft himself I found turgid to an almost unreadable degree, and the whole genre incredibly predictable.

>79 -pilgrim-: Yup-yup.

>80 MrsLee: So glad that I am not alone in my reaction.

>90 Sakerfalcon: >91 jillmwo: May I join you ladies? I too find Lovecraft unreadable.

As far as I can recall I have only read two Lovecraft stories. One was At the Mountains of Madness and I cannot remember what the other one was.

I found his use of language quite florid and amusing. At the Mountains of Madness was entertaining but not particularly exciting. I must say recent discoveries from radar surveys of Antarctica reminded me of this story when they revealed the presence of large mountains under the ice.

The other story was real nightmare material.

I have not read The Call of Cthulhu but I am skeptical about stories that are written in the Cthulhu Mythos.

I will read some more Lovecraft but I do not see myself buying into the idea that his work is amazing.

I do not see myself giving more than three stars to The Ceremonies but that is more due to its not committing any major offences rather than it being a good book. Although, on thinking about it I feel the characterisation is a bit lame and there is also another element that I am not happy with. I shall explain that behind a spoiler mask just in case anyone is tempted to read this book.

The main character is a lecturer in horror literature. He is preparing a course on Gothic literature and the author of The Ceremonies is using the opportunity he has given to himself to let people know he knows the major works of the Gothic genre; a bit of a cheap shot in my opinion.

This use of someone studying horror literature within a horror novel reminded me of a week long writers' holiday I attended in Wales in 2003. At the start of an exercise in writing crime fiction we were told not to have our crime take place at a writers' holiday as this would be too naff*. I feel the author is trying to give himself some credibility by showing that he knows of more than one book (which would obviously be Dracula if he knew only one Gothic tale) but it is a clumsy and puerile way to do it in my opinion.)

As you can tell, I value my friend's friendship and do not want to abandon the book he obviously values.

*meaning uncool, tacky, unfashionable, worthless. "Naff" does have other meanings but this is the meaning as used in this context.

I think I am getting a clearer view of what I find wrong with The Ceremonies apart from its being a totally contrived scenario to create tradition where none exists and its not having any characters worth worrying about. Not once in the 238 pages I have read have I had the urge to underline something, not once have I sat back and sighed, "Wow! What an insight.", not once have I found a clever witticism that I laughed at.

Sorry, T.E.D. Klein, I am finding your work tedious. It is my friendship with the person who gave it to me that is keeping me going.

Peter, my mom would say you're earning yourself a higher place in heaven.

>85 Jim53: My mum would have said something similar: “Your reward will be great in Heaven.”

At times reading this book does make me feel that I am in Purgatory.
:-)

Visit to London

I am going to London for a few days in January and would love to meet up with any GDers or LTers who happen to be around. I will be arriving late on Monday 6th and departing late on Thursday, 9th. Those are work days so I appreciate that people may not be able to get free for a meet up. I plan to visit Foyles bookshop so that might be an appropriate place to rendezvous if anyone is free.

I am staying in The Caring Hotel in the Westminster Borough. It appears to be quite central; just 11 minutes walk from Paddington Station. Even a small bear could manage that on a single marmalade sandwich.

I look forward to hearing from any of you who could meet up for at least a cup of coffee.

>87 pgmcc: Hmmm.

This morning I had an Haruki Murakami moment. His writing uses small changes in one's normal environment to highlight parallel worlds. I took a slightly later bus to work this morning. The people onboard were not the usual group of passengers I would see. The bus was a slightly different model. There were seats free; a rarity on my normal bus.

This was definitely a different universe from the one I normally inhabit.

>87 pgmcc: I can manage a meet up at Foyles after work one day. In addition, if you wish to experience Daunt Books in Marylebone I could meet you on Marylebone High Street for lunch and a bookshop browse. I've done this often with Darryl (kidzdoc) from the 75 books group. It will be great to meet another LTer in person!

Adding my name to the list of those who cannot make it through anything by Lovecraft. Turgid is a good word.

Also I'm adding The Unfortunate Fursey to my wish list. Oh, and anything by Tana French is worth your while.

>91 jillmwo:
Merry Christmas.

I have Tana French’s In the Woods and looking forward to it. I thought her The Wych Elm was very good.

I have officially moved over to The Dark Side.

Thanks to my wife I am now the owner of a Kindle.

>93 pgmcc: Hopefully with some good books on it. There are times (in the bush, far from libraries or bookshops) when they can be quite useful.

>94 hfglen: I have been using the Kindle app on my phone so I do have an embryonic e-library already. The one that is the current Kindle read, only 13% complete so far, is your recent BB, Reality Is Not What It Seems. I have been distracted by my efforts to get The Ceremonies out of the way.

I hope you are having a great Christmas.

>94 hfglen: If you are in the bush are you not also far away from power sockets to charge a Kindle?

>93 pgmcc: No, no, you’ve moved over to The Light Side! Especially since I think all the current Kindles have the frontlighting now, so you can be assured of good reading light no matter what the ambient lighting is like.

I hope you enjoy it.

>96 pgmcc: Not necessarily. Most rest camps in Kruger have electricity, and at least one (Tsendze) that doesn't, has arrangements with a nearby camp that Kindles, cameras etc. can be recharged at the office. It's quite common to notice, while checking in, a veritable forest of cables from the office power socket to visitors' chargers.

PS to the above: Most camping shops around here will sell you (for a hefty price) a kit of solar PV panel, battery and inverter, that will allow you to run an electric fridge, charge the Kindle etc.

I have come here to start my 2020 Reading Thread and discover I am fifty-two posts away from being able to start a link to my next thread. :-( I have not had the foresight of hfglen with respect to starting a piffle party early enough to start my 2020 thread at the turn of the year. I shall have to carry on with this thread for a few days.

Can we take that as an invitation to a piffle party now?

>101 hfglen: But of course. :-)

>101 hfglen: In relation to the topic of natural gas being used in place of coal-gas, as raised at Hugh's piffle party, I have a few comments about that transition in Dublin. I moved to Dublin in 1982 and The Gas Company (yes, that was what the company was called) was in the process of changing over from coal-gas to natural gas. The gas pipe system in Dublin was extensive and dated back many, many years. The pipes were earthenware pipes and the inner surfaces were coated with a thick layer of residue from the coal-gas. This residue had built up over the years and was quite thick.

A lesson learnt by The Gas Company when natural gas was pumped through the old pipes was that the natural gas had an interesting effect on the coal-gas residue; it started to dissolve it and it began to peal away from the inner side of the pipes. As the residue flaked off the inner surface the gas reached the earthenware shell and began to seep through. Where there were cracks that had been sealed by the coal-gas residue the gas simply passed through the cracks.

A number of explosions ensued and there was loss of life as some buildings were destroyed.

Another problem was the odourless nature of the natural gas. It was quickly decided to use a smelling agent to make the natural gas smell like the old coal-gas so that people would be alerted to leaks.

The immediate impact of this situation was the emergency digging up of anywhere a gas leak was reported or suspected and the patching of the pipes to block the gas. Because there were so many incidents the repair crews did not have time to fill in the repair holes before rushing to the next reported leak. Dublin in the mid-80s was peppered with open repair holes. In line with true Dublin wit the city was Christened "The Holey City".

For the purposes of increasing the effect of the piffle party the next comments will be in another post. Why use one post when dozens will do?

>103 pgmcc:
Ultimately The Gas Company initiated a pipe replacement programme to substitute the earthenware pipes with pvc pipes. This did, of course, take some years to complete.

>104 pgmcc:
The Holey City did cause a bit of drama for the birth of our first child. To put this in context my daughter's labour was only three hours.

When my wife started having contractions we started the 18 mile journey to the National Maternity Hospital in the centre of the city. This required us to drive along the north quays of the River Liffey pm a busy Saturday afternoon. These quays did not escape the purge of the city and were riddled with open repair holes that were obstructing the traffic and making things even worse than normal.

As my wife was in labour and I was urgently wanting to get to the hospital, I did end up blowing the horn, sticking my head out the window and shouting, "My wife is in labour. We are trying to get to the hospital."

It worked. Drivers mounted the footpaths to get out of my way. We managed to get to the hospital in time.

>105 pgmcc: Oh my, such drama! Sounds worthy of a clip in a movie at least. :)

Happy New Year!

I am avoiding the 2020 threads for now because I haven't got my reading list sorted yet.

It's not my fault. A friend dropped by for champagne and talk and so I was distracted, then my husband wanted help connecting and disconnecting some electronic stuff. Also, I'm procrastinating.

Oooh, a piffle party! Haven't had one in ever so long. And I love the explanation as to why Dublin might be christened "The Holey City". But you left a critical element out of your story regarding transporting your wife while she was in labor. How long was the delay and how quickly upon your arrival at the National Maternity Hospital did the baby come?

Piffle Party! Woo hoo!

>108 jillmwo:
Well, when we arrived at the hospital we had my mother-in-law with us. The midwife examined my wife, saw she was 4cm dilated, and said it would be hours before the baby would arrive. I was told to bring my m-i-l home, get something to eat, and to return with a good book. Having been dragged up to do what I was told I did as I was told.

We had two pork chops that we had planned to eat. I reckoned I would be in the hospital for some time so I ate both chops, picked a book and headed leisurely into town.

When I arrived at the hospital I told reception I had brought my wife to deliver our baby and was directed to the expectant-fathers’ waiting-room. When I got there I stopped a nurse and asked for any news about my wife. She ushered me into the waiting-room and padded off in search of news. After a few minutes she returned and brought me into a small room where my wife and our little baby girl were resting.

Apparently after my m-i-l and I left the delivery ward to go home the midwife checked my wife again and she was at 10cms and the baby arrived.

My daughter has never forgiven me for leisurely eating two pork chops while she was arriving in this world. What is worse is that I have not been able to remember which book I had brought to the hospital.

>110 pgmcc:
That little baby that arrived in The Holey City is now a mother of two and is currently expecting her third.

By the way, my other daughter, who has one child, is also pregnant. Both daughters are at relatively early stages and both used the holiday to tell us their news.

How is that for good piffle-news.

Another thirty-nine posts after this one required for this piffle party to meet its objective.

Are YOU Up to the PIFFLE CHALLENGE?

We shall see.

I'm thinking about going Pro.

Well, if you get us women started talking about our birth experiences...

I will spare you that. Your wife is a trooper for handling that on her own! Perhaps though, hospital birthing experiences are different where you are, or the times are different? My husband had/got to sit with me through every last minute in the hospital and the nurses wouldn't have thought of sending him home.

When my middle son was born, he went out to tell his parents and sister the good news. He said, "We have a baby boy, and I was only one penny off on my budget at the end of this year." His sister will not let him live that down.

My cat ate a bird today. Now she is sitting on my chair pretending to be an angel.

>115 MrsLee:
The plan was that I would be with my wife for the duration but the nurse felt my m-i-l did not have to be there for hours and that I should take her home.

I was present for all the other births.

>117 pgmcc:
The labour duration for our first child was three hours. Our second child took one-and-a-half hours.

Well... If piffling is needed...

...and the target is 150, then...

... That should leave 30 to go.

No wait, I guess that makes 29.

Drat! I don't think I quite have the hang of this piffle thing after all.

>123 ScoLgo:
On the contrary, I believe you have it perfect.

What, you mean I’m missing out on a Piffle Party?

My younger daughter Laura, who has figured in my thread a couple of times, was born on the way to the hospital in the car. The Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages insisted that the certificate had to show the exact place, so instead of “John James Hospital, Curtin, ACT” (as we intended, and as her older sister’s does) it shows Laura’s place of birth as “Yamba Drive, Garran, ACT”.

Re Laura: it provoked an amazing response when I walked into the maternity unit at John James Hospital at about 3 am and said something about a baby in the car. In the blink of an eye there were nurses coming from everywhere.

And in a tip of the hat to the medical profession, my wife’s obstetrician remitted part of his fee because he had not actually attended at the birth.

My wife had the same ob/gyn throughout her childbearing career. Good guy.

>103 pgmcc: I think Johannesburg used cast iron. They have a dry climate.

>103 pgmcc: What became of the gunge dissolved off the pipes?

>103 pgmcc: Did it mess up new gas appliances?

>103 pgmcc: If so, who paid to clean up?

Are we there yet? Happy to add my contribution to the piffle party!

>129 hfglen:, >130 hfglen:, >131 hfglen: I believe it simply cluttered the pipes and was removed with the old pipes as they were replaced.

>103 pgmcc:
The gas smell introduced to the network to make natural gas smell like gas was fed from portable gas cylinders. Apparently the smell of the agent in these cylinders was very concentrated and very strong. We were presented with evidence of this in the latter half of the 1980s.

While at work one day I noticed a strong smell of gas. The smell was in the street outside the office. Many people reported the smell. It was not just in the street outside our office but in the street outside many offices, and outside many homes. In fact the smell covered a circular area a couple of miles in diameter.

The smell was eventually traced to a scrapyard that had tried to crush one of the gas smell agent cylinders. They had not realised that when they cracked open the illegally obtained piece of metal that it would have a residue of the gas smell agent.

It took about four days for the smell to dissipate.

>132 Sakerfalcon:
Claire, welcome. Everyone is welcome to the piffle party. I am glad you could make it.

>125 haydninvienna:, >126 haydninvienna:, >127 haydninvienna:
That is a super story, Richard. Great drama.

>134 pgmcc: Sounds like something that would happen all to normally and easily here. Especially the "illegally obtained" bit.

>137 hfglen: The scrapyard tried to deny any involvement but with a two mile circle centred on their premises it was hard for them to keep the denial up. The weather was warm and still for those days. No wind. It was not a pleasant few days.

Only eleven posts after this one required to reach 151. Can we do it? I have every faith in you. One last dash and we will be there.

hfglen, you must know me very well. When you hit me with the book bullet for Reality is Not What it Seems I was intrigued. I had a quick check of my catalogue and it was not there. I quickly bought it for the Kindle and started reading it using the Kindle app on my phone.

Over the holidays I was doing some tidying up in my study and I discovered I had bought a physical copy some time ago and forgotten to catalogue it. I had spotted it in the Books Upstairs bookshop and thought it was interesting before you mentioned it here. By the time you mentioned it I had forgotten about having bought it.

I am now reading the physical copy. It is so much easier for unlining and annotating. This morning's underlined quote:

"We imagined a flat Earth because of the limitations of our senses, because we cannot see much beyond our own noses."

I’ve been wandering Cardiff with Katherine and Eddie again. I’ll post on my own thread about the various book acquisitions over the past 48 hours, but I thought I’d just mention it here.

>141 haydninvienna: I am glad you did. I will pop over to your thread for the list later.

T minus nine posts.

>142 pgmcc: If you look at my thread, you will see that my daughter Katherine (tokengingerkid) has joined the Pub. I think see she would be an able piffler once she gets the hang of it.

Hey there folks! I'd love to join in on the piffle party, if you'll have me.
I've inherited a love of reading from haydninvienna so really it's all his fault. I wouldn't have it any way.
Currently working on Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman and some fantasy books as well, but haven't catelogued anything else yet.

>144 TokenGingerKid: Welcome to the Pub, TokenGingerKid. The humans are mostly friendly and caring, but I'm not sure that the same can always be said about the Roombas, water-buffalo and SPITTING COBRAS. (Though the last-named haven't been seen for a while.)

>144 TokenGingerKid: I am delighted you could join us. Richard has told us so much about you. :-)

Utopia for Realists sounds like an oxymoron. I must have a look at it. I see you are as adept at firing book bullets as haydninvienna.

>146 pgmcc: I’m kind of responsible for Utopia for Realists. I gave TokenGingerKid and Eddie 3 books for Christmas (Utopia for Realists, The Armageddon Rag by George R R Martin, and Logicomix by Apostolis Doxiadis—Eddie is doing a maths PhD) without specifying which one was for whom. Part of the reason was to get them talking about how you get from idea to implementation.

ETA the not specifying was deliberate. I thought they would work it out for themselves, and they did, but not in the way I expected.

>146 pgmcc: Oh dear, should I be worried? I'm sure it's only the good things...

Never mind! Tonight my fiancee and I are making our favourite mushroom risotto for haydninvienna and talking about books. I'm looking forward to joining a bookwormy community so book bullets are welcome and I will fire as many as I can.

Well, that’s 3 out of 4 of the gang with some sort of presence in one way or another on LT. I’ll get David (elder son) here eventually too.

>148 TokenGingerKid: When I read >146 pgmcc: it did occur to me that Pete has evidently forgotten about the late great Dr Murray Banks. He had a wonderful sketch about how if you introduce someone by saying "... has told us so much about you" the introducee is apt to thing "OMG maybe they know!". No, Your Dad has told us so many good things about you.

Pete, do you think we should lean on TokenGingerKid to start her own reading/chatter/piffle thread? Maybe get haydninvienna to show her what buttons to press?

This should take you over the threshold needed to start your 2020 thread.

A piffle party? And I missed it. And after Peter has piffled so ably in some of mine too.
*hangs head in shame*

>147 haydninvienna: Do I take it that you are another fan of The Armageddon Rag?

>151 hfglen: Well, the prize goes to Hugh. He brought us to post 151 and permitted me to start a new thread for 2020.

>148 TokenGingerKid: I think you safe from any worry on the basis of what haydninvienna told us. By the way, I have had the pleasure of meeting him twice in Dublin when he visited for concerts. (We all know the concerts were only the excuse for visiting multiple bookshops.)

hfglen has also had the pleasure of his company.

>147 haydninvienna: So you are claiming the BB hit for Utopia for Realists. Will you not let TokenGingerKid have this one? You have has so many bulls-eyes before it would not hurt to let her have this one. :-)

>152 -pilgrim-: You made it to the end. That counts as full involvement, although I would have been delighted to host some of you artful piffling.

>150 hfglen: I saw part of an episode of Graham Norton online during the holidays. I do not know who the guest was but she was very amusing. She was talking about phrases that are useful to have in reserve and can have great effect. Phrases such as:

"I will be the judge of that."

"Really?"

Graham Norton said that Lucile Ball had a great phrase that she used at dinner parties. When a guest would return to the table having paid a visit to the rest-room, she would turn to another guest and say in a loud voice, "Tell her that to her face!"

I used the phrase, "Richard has told us so much about you." in such a fashion. I wanted to see the reaction.

>153 -pilgrim-: Never read it, no. I took a BB from your review, the sense that I thought “This doesn't sound like my kind of book but does sound like Katherine’s”. So we shall see. At the moment Katherine is sitting next to me paging through Logicomix.

>156 haydninvienna: yes but I think Eddie might just take issue with me starting another book before finishing the ones I'm already working on.. Maybe I'll just take it to work with me..

pgmcc ah I see, seems I am woefully underequppied in dinner party, er, not quite etiquette..

>157 TokenGingerKid: I am bemused that you answered my post when I’m sitting next to you! This is the internet age, obviously.

>158 haydninvienna: TokenGingerKid probably thought you would believe what she said if you read it rather than listening her say it while you were focused on your screen.