2022 Series of PGMCC's reading: Episode Five

Read in 2022

I start the year with seven in-progress reads. Three of these are hangovers from 2020 and I am keeping them on the list as I do want to finish them.

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

It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. by June Casagrande 17/02/2020 -
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford 26/10/2020 -
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely 20/12/2020 –
Africa's Top Geological Sites by Richard Viljoen 02/04/2021 - 290 pages
The Economics of Inequality by Piketty 21/08/2021 - 135 Pages
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen 18/10/2021 - 449 Pages
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 27/12/2021 - 06/01/2022 393 pages

Books completed in 2022:

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

Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 27/12/2021 - 06/01/2022 393 pages
Secrets of the World's Best-Selling Writer by Francis L. Fugate & Roberta B. Fugate 07/01/2022 - 18/01/2022 286 pages
The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner 18/01/2022 - 23/01/2022 186 Pages
Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith 23/01/2022 - 05/02/2022 332 Pages
ARCADIA by Iain Pears 05/02/2022 - 18/02/2022 594 Pages
Guest List by Lucy Foley 19/02/2022 - 01/03/2022 371 Pages
Introduction to Detection Mystery Horror by Dorothy L. Sayers 02/03/2022 - 05/03/2022 48 Paged
Passport to Panic by Eric Ambler 05/03/2022 - 13/03/2022 194 Pages
Leaves for the Burning by Mervyn Wall 14/03/2022 - 20/03/2022 243 Pages
The Pigeon House by John Le Carré 21/03/2022 - 10/04/2022 310 Pages
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh 10/04/2022 - 320 pages ROA* DNF
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford 13/4/2022 - ? pages ROA* DNF
"Blood Christmas" by Ciamh McDonnell 14/4/2022 - 16/04/2022 74 pages
"Dog Day Afternoon" by Ciamh McDonnell 16/04/2022 - 16/04/2022 74 pages
The Day That Never Comes by Ciamh McDonnell 16/04/2022 - 18/04/2022 360 pages
Winter by Len Deighton 18/04/2022 - 02/05/2022 620 Pages.
Rosebud by Paul Cornell 02/05/2022 - 05/05/2022 108 pages
Angels in the Moonlight by Ciamh McDonnell 05/05/2022 - 08/05/2022 ? pages
The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup 08/05/2022 - 21/05/2022 436 Pages
Sisters Gonna Work It Out by Ciamh McDonnell 21/05/2022 - 21/05/2022 45 Pages
How to send a message Ciamh McDonnell 21/05/2022 - 21/05/2022
Last orders Ciamh McDonnell 21/05/2022 - 28/05/2022
Passage of Arms by Eric Ambler 29/05/2022 - 03/06/2022 ? pages
Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter 03/06/2022 - 17/06/2022 446 pages
Death of a Bookseller by Bernard J. Farmer 17/06/2022 - 23/06/2022
McGarry Stateside by Ciamh McDonnell 24/06/2022 - 04/07/2022
My Name Is Philippa by Philippa Ryder 04/07/2022 - 07/07/2022
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami 08/07/2022 - 13/07/2022 256 Pages
Dead Man’s Sins by Ciamh McDonnell 13/07/2022 - 19/07/2022 314 Pages
The Light of Day by Eric Ambler 21/07/2022 - 25/07/2022 255 Pages
Firewater Blues by Ciamh McDonnell 22/07/2022 - 30/07/2022 324 Pages
Slow Horses by Mick Herron 30/07/2022 - 30/07/2022 336 Pages. DNF @ page 23.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 30/07/30 - 12/08/2022 382 Pages
Signal Moon by Kate Quinn 12/08/2022 - 14/08/2022 ? pages
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides 15/08/2022 - 24/08/2022 368 pages
Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. sayers 24/08/2022 - 11/09/2022 460 pages
Snobbery with Violence by Colin Watson 11/09/2022 - 27/09/2022 252 pages + 4 page index
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami 11/09/2022 - 01/10/2022 187 pages
Walking on Glass by Iain Banks 01/10/2022 - 11/10/2022 239 pages
The Green Man's Gift by Juliet E. McKenna 11/10/2022 - 17/10/2022 324 pages
The Water Witch by Jessica Thorne 18/10/2022 - 24/10/2022 343 pages
The Final Game by Caimh McDonnell 25/10/2022 - 29/10/2022 370 pages
Howdunit edited by Martin Edwards 29/10/2022 - 543 pages

*ROA: Risk Of Abandonment due to lack of interest or pure boredom.

This is not a book bullet in the traditional sense. It came to my attention when @marissadoyle used a village name used as a generic term to refer to the well healed, upper middle class villages used in so many Golden Age murder mysteries. That prompted me to seek the origin of this village name, and my investigations brought me to Colin Watson's 1920 book entitled, Snobbery With Violence. The copy I have is the 1971 second edition which, according to the author's preface,

...has been revised only in as much as one 'revises' yesterday's date by adding one.

The rest of the preface goes on to say:
Such is the durability of the public appetite for mysteries and thrillers, and such is the persistence of established forms, that in no other field of fiction is there so little risk of obsolescence."

jillmwo has also prompted me to pick this up and comment, so I am getting stuck in.

I have not started the body of the work, but having read the Preface and the Introduction, I am convinced this will be an entertaining read.



I am also starting South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. This is a book club book and our next meeting is on September 22nd.

>2 pgmcc: What is the village name?

>3 MrsLee: I knew someone was going to ask that. Now I am going to have to backtrack to find it. If Marissa happens by she will know it off the top of her head. I have already had a quick scan through the book but did not spot it.

Happy new thread!

>5 Karlstar: Thank you.

Snobbery With Violence by Colin Watson

I am a couple of chapters into this book and finding it very interesting. I was expecting a humorous look at the crime genre within England, and that may yet come, but so far the book has been a treatise on how the old private libraries, set up by retailers to attract customers into their stores, were the major customers for books, and that they were interested in bringing people in to spend money in their shops rather than altruistically encouraging their customers to read for educational and self-improvement purposes. Their countervailing power strongly influenced the nature of the books published, and this was to the detriment of quality.

This book can be considered highly political, so I will guard my comments.

My copy of the book is currently fifty-one years old and in relatively good condition. I will not be underlining interesting passages or quotes. If I were to do that I would already have underlined most of the Introduction, probably all of Chapter 1, and most of Chapter 2. It is a book that would benefit from detailed study and pondering. I can see it linking in with other books I have read that have a socio-political slant. I can also see commonality of some themes with those in Secrets of the World's Best-Selling Writer.

Colin Watson was obviously a clear thinker, and someone who was not afraid to call a spade a shovel. I am only disappointed I do not have more time to spend on the book. There is so much in it I feel I have covered a massive number of ideas and concepts in only the few pages I have read.

jillmwo, I can see why you want someone to discuss this with. I am really enjoying it, but I am being bombarded with so many ideas I am finding it difficult to hold on to them in a coherent sequence. I have been reading the book in relaxing locations (my reading-room recliner and in bed) when it really deserves study at a desk, with a notebook to hand, and a desk lamp illuminating the pages into the wee small hours.

>3 MrsLee: The name of the Colin Watson's imagined village is Mayhem Parva. The chapter is entitled "The Little World of Mayhem Parva".

>6 pgmcc: My copy is similarly riddled with annotations by a previous owner who I suspect was an ardent member of the Baker Street Irregulars. Seems to value Colin Watson's thinking on Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Check marks where they felt Watson was onto something in his analysis. In the above mentioned Mayhem Parva chapter, the previous owner seemed to also value a paragraph or two on the subject of red herrings.

Happy new thread, Peter!

>7 jillmwo:
Thank you for providing the village name.

I think red herrings are an essential ingredient to murder mysteries. It would not do to make the solution too simple. There certainly were many red herrings in Have His Carcase.

>8 clamairy: Thank you!

Snobbery with Violence

One of Watson's objectives in this work is to ascertain the social preferences of the reading public from the books that were popular at the time. His argument is that the main outlets for books, the retailers who set up lending libraries in their stores, were focused on making money, so they only wanted to buy the books that were popular and that would draw people into their shops to spend money. To this end they wanted books that the majority of readers wanted to read, and hence the best-sellers/most borrowed books, ended up reflecting the mores and prejudices of the majority of book borrowers. He does point out that the target market for books is limited to specific socio-economic groups.

I am in a chapter where Watson is referencing the Richard Hannay novels of John Buchan and the Raffles stories by E. W. Hornung. I have to confess to the smug feeling I have due to familiarity with the works of these two authors. Knowing the works does add to the pleasure and benefit of reading this volume.

In relation to the Buchan books, Watson reports that T.E. Lawrence was inspired by the Richard Hannay stories (The Thirty-Nine Steps; Greenmantle; Mr Standfast; The Three Hostages; The Island of Sheep) and infers that both Lawrence and Buchan were filled with the desire for adventure, that this inspired Buchan to realise his desire through creating Richard Hannay, and that Lawrence was more direct in his realisation of the Hannay inspired yearning for adventure. In terms of Watson's objective of learning something about the readers of books, or at least of the author’s target readers, we can infer from the way he refers to T.E. Lawrence he expects the reader to know who T.E. Lawrence is. A present day reader might need the clarification that T.E. Lawrence is better known today as “Lawrence of Arabia”.

Likewise, Watson's quotes from Hornung’s Raffles stories indicates a target audience of a racist nature, with the “N” word used without any sense of impropriety. This was not carried over into the 1977 television series of Raffles in which Anthony Valentine played the eponymous hero and Christopher Strauli played his loyal friend. The popularity of the Raffles stories indicates the reading population was intrigued, if not awed, by the concept of a gentleman thief.

jillmwo has mentioned taking note of books mentioned by an author in their works. In passing, Watson has referred to the publication of a collection of stories edited by Dorothy L. Sayers in 1928. This was a two volume set entitled, Detection, Mystery and Horror. It was a collection I knew nothing about until last September when I picked up the first volume (which contains the Detection and Mystery stories) in an antique shop in Wexford. I bought it primarily for Sayers’s introduction, which is an essay on the development of the three types of stories alluded to in the title, and is well worth tracking down. The stories in the collection are used to illustrate Sayers’s points, and are presented in categories such as, “In which the detective knows the answers to all the clues but does not reveal them until the end”. Even reading those headings is entertaining.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Snobbery with Violence was first published in 1920 and that my copy is a 1971 edition. Watson states in his preface that this edition ...has been revised only in as much as one 'revises' yesterday's date by adding one. The number of references he has made to books published after 1920 indicates he did more than simply add one to the book.

Bottom-line: I am really enjoying Snobbery with Violence.

>7 jillmwo:
Check marks where they felt Watson was onto something in his analysis.

On my first reading of this post I thought you were referring to Dr. Watson as I had just read the previous sentence, which ends, "...thinking on Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson."

:-)

>11 pgmcc: Well, I was probably responding a tad hastily and not thinking through potential ambiguities.

Unlike you, I've read only a limited number of the Raffles stories so may have missed some of C. Watson's insights (see what I did there?) when it came to Hornung. What I did particularly enjoy was his frequent humor in sharing individual quirks – like that poke at A.E.W. Mason “who had to borrow a prayer book from his chauffeur’s wife whenever he wished to play squire in the church near his country estate.”. Or this one from the chapter on the Golden Age:

“Almost as many people turned to crime-writing as to keeping poultry or starting mushroom farms. Authorship required smaller capital investment and the public was less fastidious about the freshness of plots than of eggs” (pg 97 in my edition) He gets off some fun shots like that throughout his text, and he's scathing in his comments on the social attitudes around characters like Fu Manchu..

Whether because of what the social environment in England was back in the ‘70’s or because of his personal attitudes towards the aristocracy, I thought it was interesting that he really didn’t seem to care much for Sayer’s Lord Peter or respect much of her work. He was slightly more tolerant of Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn – at least in part because one has the sense that he saw Alleyn as being more true to life.

>12 jillmwo:
Well, I was probably responding a tad hastily and not thinking through potential ambiguities.

When I was preparing post >10 pgmcc:, I typed the text into a Word document and then copied and pasted it into the LT dialogue box. When I am feeling careful I do this to minimise the chances of typographical errors getting through to a post.

Having posted the text I got occupied in other activities. Subsequently I went back and had a quick read of the post. For some reason I had written "Wilson" instead of "Watson" whenever I was referring to the author. I had to do a quick search and replace to make all the Wilsons Watsons, especially before the East Coast of the US woke up. Your potential ambiguity is nothing in comparison to my massive error. I was saved embarrassment by a time difference.

Yes, I did see what you did there. Thank you for the total unambiguity of your meaning. :-)

I have not read anything by Peter Straub but have always intended to. To mark the death of this very popular writer, and it would appear he was also a very popular person amongst those that have had the pleasure to have known him, I decided to buy a copy of his famous story, Ghost Story. When I ordered it on Amazon the system indicated 13 copies in stock. I should known something would go wrong. Today I checked my order to learn that the arrival date is expected to be October 17th and that the book is "Temporarily out of stock!" I am obviously not the only person thinking of picking up a copy.

I cancelled the order and bought the Kindle version.

>14 pgmcc: I'm reading it now. It's very good so far.

I remember liking it quite a bit. Still have my paperback from the 80s. For a more mind-bending option, check out Shadowland. It's pretty epic in a teenaged-angst sort of way. I plan to re-read The Hellfire Club after I get done with the latest Stephen King novel.

jillmwo will probably be disappointed that I am only approaching mid-point in Snobbery with Violence by Colin Watson. For this I apologise. There is nothing in the book that is causing my slow progress. It is that pesky Real Life that is limiting my reading time.

I am enjoying the book a lot. Watson’s turn of phrase is humorous, and I love the way he will convey a fact and qualify it with a little quip at the end of his sentence. Take for example a section where he is describing how authors comply with the accepted norms of the genre when portraying their characters’ habits and practices:

”There is no deviation from time-honoured behaviour. All the characters are regular churchgoers, if only to reinforce their alibies. Meal-times are scrupulously observed even when the host lies transfixed or garrotted (no murder is ever committed in a dining-room). The hours of darkness are strictly for sleep or crime, never for sex.”

There are many quotes I would like to post here, but with reading time in short supply I do not want to spend it typing up quotes when I can be reading the book. This post is my little message to the masses following this thread to let you know that I have not disappeared, that I am still reading the book, and that I am finding it very entertaining.

Nor have I abandoned South of the Border, West of the Sun. I have not read it for a couple of days, but I want to finish Snobbery with Violence before returning to the Murakami.

>17 pgmcc: You never disappoint, my dear man. You're very good about posting regular updates about where you are and the various assorted agency activities that send you off to the hardship assignments in Southern France. Besides, I spent MT weekend writing rather than reading so my thread here in the Dragon continues to languish a bit. For the record, I have moved to some extent to a follow-on to Watson's work. I'm reading the slightly less lively, more serious Deadlier Than The Male by Jessica Mann from 1981.She focuses on Christie, Sayers, Marsh and Allingham, but also covers the same development of the genre.

>18 jillmwo:
In post >17 pgmcc: I had intended reiterating how I found common themes across Snobbery with Violence and Secrets of the World's Best-selling Writer, as previously referenced in >6 pgmcc:. There is a clear parallel between the development and popularity of the murder mystery in England and the pulp fiction market in the US. Watson talks about the quality of the books not being of the highest calibre and draws the comparison with the more literary novels. Fugate & Fugate draw a similar comparison for the US and describe Erle Stanley Gardner's efforts to get into the higher quality novel market. They also show his approach to invading and occupying the less literary environment.

As I mentioned above, I had intended adding the above comparison to post #17, but I forgot. I had not expected, however, to be hit between the eyes by another jillmwo special book bullet. Deadlier Than The Male sounds very interesting and has been ordered. It took some finding as there appear to be many films, books, and other such issuances using the title, "Deadlier Than The Male", most of them sporting scantily dressed females carrying guns. I passed through two pages of "Deadlier Than The Male" titles and did not find the book in question. Adding Jessica Mann to the search solved the problem and I was able to order the last remaining hardback from a secondhand bookshop. It will not be here until the end of the month, or possibly October.

Thank you, Jill. You are a prime source of book bullets that have proved interesting and fun.

Now I have to get back to the day job.

The Green Man's Gift (No Touchstone yet.)

The fifth story in The Green Man series by Juliet E. McKenna is due for publication on 6th October. I have it on pre-order.

I have read the first four and enjoyed them. They are focused on the life of a man whose mother is a Dryad and, as a result, he has the ability to see supernatural beings. It uses English folklore at the core of its stories. Each of the books is a standalone tale, but the stories do tend to build on one another so they are best read in sequence.

My gardening exploits tend to coincide with the publication of books in this series. When I was cutting back a wall of ivy, I could not get the idea out of my head that the ivy was creeping towards me and trying to wrap itself around me and drag me into the bushes. This is the type of thing that happens in these books.

>20 pgmcc: thanks for this - I didn't realize another book was impending. She writes fast compared to some authors. I will preorder it too!

>21 Darth-Heather: She was on a writers' retreat a few months ago and took the opportunity to draft this volume.

PROUD DAD MOMENT!



My son's company just won the Social Impact Award at the Diversity in Tech Awards.

Congratulations to the Access Earth team.

>23 pgmcc: Congratulations! Clearly your son was brought up well!

>24 hfglen:
Thank you, Hugh. He is making out ok.

>23 pgmcc: Congrats! It is always good when someone making a positive impact is recognized.

>23 pgmcc: I'm so happy for all of you! (Worthy son and proud family!)

>23 pgmcc: When will you get around to sewing all those buttons back on your shirt?

Very pleased for you all, well deserved, I know.

>23 pgmcc: Great trees from little acorns grow...Congrats to your son.

Thank you, everyone. I have passed on your congratulations to my son and he is very grateful. As you can imagine, he is on a high. He and his fiancée are coming over tomorrow night for dinner. We are ordering Indian food. :-) I have not told him, but I have put a bottle of Veuvre sparkling white in the fridge so we can have bubbles to celebrate the win.

>23 pgmcc: Congratulations!

An interesting, yet typical, quote from Snobbery With Violence by Colin Watson.

"Then, as now, the pipe man had certain advantages over the smoker of gaspers*. He was more likely to be considered manly, thoughtful, honest and clean-living. Stanley Baldwin probably owed his premiership to that air of calm wisdom and homely reliability which diligent pipe-sucking confers upon the chronically inept."

*Cigars and cigarettes.

>23 pgmcc: Congratulations, and I hope your son and his fiancée enjoyed the bubbly!

>33 libraryperilous: They did indeed. We had a great family evening.

My son challenged me to a chess game. I met the challenge.

I really enjoyed this review of English crime fiction. It was 'jillmwo who hit me with this particular Book Bullet and I am eternally grateful to her for so doing. It surprised me that it took me so long to read a book that I was enjoying as much as I enjoyed this one.

I am now getting back to South of the Border, West of the Sun.

I just watched a documentary called, “2001: The making of a myth”. It proved very interesting to me. It was on Amazon Prime. It brought back a lot of memories about the film, who I saw the film with, when I saw it, and my recollections of reading the book. Just writing that I suddenly recalled who recommended I read the book.

Belated congratulations to your son and to you on his behalf. Peer recognition for accomplishments can often be more gratifying than financial rewards.

>37 Meredy:
Thank you, Meredy. He was really pleased. I think he was more happy about beating Google than he was about the award itself. :-)

>38 pgmcc: And rightly so! They're the ones to beat.

>23 pgmcc: (Belatedly) Well done that company! But remember when Google’s motto was “Don’t be evil”? Not so much now. Beating Google is a Good Thing!

>40 haydninvienna: I think their delight at beating Google was more focus on beating a massive, well funded, highly resourced, mega-sized tech company, rather than beating a massive, well funded, highly resourced, mega-sized evil tech company. More like Ireland beating The All Blacks at rugby rather than David killing Goliath.

Would I read more books by this author?
Definitely!

Would I recommend this book to anyone?
Yes.

Who would I recommend it to?
Someone who likes books that deal with real emotions and makes you think.

Has this book inspired me to do anything?
Not particularly, other than to continue reading books written by Haruki Murakami.

I have just finished South of the Border, West of the Sun. As with every one of Murakami's books that I have read, I have found this one puts you in the mind of its main protagonist and makes you feel his emotions and share his thoughts. The book is a narration of the main character's life from early childhood to his late thirties. It does not hide his failings or his mistakes, and it exposes his uncertainty about his decisions as he grows from childhood, through puberty, into adulthood.

It traces his path through life and brings to light the delights and regrets he experiences, and addressed how past life, and how we remember it, can affect one's later life.

At first I felt it was slow moving, and was not typical of the Murakamis I have read in the past. Then it picked up the interest level, and earned its four stars.

I recommended this book for our Book Club so I was a bit anxious that it would not be a typical Murakami.

I have just come across a quote from Hilary Mantel's memoir, Giving Up The Ghost, which captures the essence of what South of the Border, West of the Sun is about.

‘When you turn and look back down the years, you glimpse the ghosts of other lives you might have led; all houses are haunted.’

I have started reading Walking on Glass by Iain Banks. This is a re-read for me, but it would have been about 1991 that I read it previously. There are several books that I had planned to select my next read from but I have chosen Walking on Glass because the organisers of the 2024 Worldcon in Glasgow are going to be at the Dublin convention, Octocon, in two weeks, and they will be hosting a session at Octocon on Walking on Glass. It is billed as a hybrid book club and the book for discussion will be Walking on Glass.

Having enjoyed the book, loved everything Iain Banks wrote, and having signed up for Glasgow 2024, I thought this would be a good session to take part in to get to know some of the Glasgow team, discuss a very interesting book, and talk about an author we all loved and miss.

Nunkie Theatre productions has issued its tour schedule for its M. R. James and other ghost story sessions. Some of the UK members may be able to find a date and venue that would suit them to attend a session. I have waxed lyrical about the performances of Robert Lloyd Parry before on this thread, and I would encourage anyone who likes a cosy ghost story to take the opportunity to go to a convenient session and put yourselves in the hands of M.R. James as he tells his wonderful stories.

The schedule and booking links are HERE!

For the curious, I reproduce the schedule below. I love that it builds up to an online ghost story on Christmas Eve, a traditional time for Ghost Stories to be broadcast in the UK. I think most of the ghost stories broadcast by BBC at Christmas were written by M.R. James.

2022
OCTOBER
Saturday 1

A View From A Hill by M R James. Conisbrough Castle, Doncaster. Tickets here.

Sunday 2

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Tickets here.

Thursday 6

A Pleasing Terror - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Armitt Museum and Library, Ambleside. Tickets here.

Friday 7

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Heron Theatre, Milnthorpe. Tickets here.

Saturday 8

Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad by M R James single story, Furness Abbey, Barrow-in-Funress. Tickets here.

Sunday 9

The Archive of Dread, Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Tickets here.

Thursday 13

A Warning to the Curious - Two Stories by M R James. Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin.. Tickets here.

Saturday 15

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Hemingford Grey Manor, Cambs. Email diana_boston@hotmail.com.

Sunday 16

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Hemingford Grey Manor, Cambs. Email diana_boston@hotmail.com.

Thursday 20

A Pleasing Terror - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Gladstone’s Library, Harwaden. Tickets here.

Friday 21

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Old Electric, Blackpool. Tickets here.

Saturday 22

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James. Part I. The Chapeltown Picture House, Manchester. Tickets here.

Sunday 23

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James. Part II. The Chapeltown Picture House, Manchester. Tickets here.

Thursday 27

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Constitutional Farsley. Tickets here.

Friday 28

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Guildhall, Leicester. Tickets here.

Saturday 29

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Leper Chapel, Cambridge. Tickets here.

Sunday 30

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Leper Chapel, Cambridge. Tickets here.

Monday 31

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Society of Antiquaries of London. Tickets here.

NOVEMBER
Wednesday 2

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. The Continental, Preston. Tickets here.

Thursday 3

Oh, Whistle - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Tickets here.

Friday 4

The Archive of Dread. The Leeds Library, Leeds. Tickets here.

Saturday 5

Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook & Byland Abbey Ghost Stories, by M R James. Wass Village Hall, Yorks. Tickets here.

Wednesday 9

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Otley Hall, nr Ipswich. Tickets here.

Thursday 10

A Pleasing Terror - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber. Tickets here.

Friday 11

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Lit and Phil, Newcastle. Tickets here.

Saturday 12

A Warning to the Curious by M R James single story, Birdoswald Fort, Cumbria. Tickets here.

Sunday 13

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Theosophical Society, Glasgow. Tickets here.

Tuesday 15

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Innerpeffray Library, nr Crieff. Tickets here.

Wednesday 16

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, Edinburgh. Tickets here.

Sunday 20

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Lyric, Belfast. Tickets here.

Monday 21

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Lyric, Belfast. Tickets here.

Thursday 24

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Met, Bury, Lancs. Tickets here.

Friday 25

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Theatre41, York. Tickets here.

Saturday 26

Dead Men’s Eyes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Rievaulx Village Hall, Yorsk. Tickets here.

DECEMBER
Thursday 1

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Christchurch University, Canterbury. Tickets TBA.

Friday 2

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Rondo, Bath. Tickets here.

Saturday 3

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Arlington Court, nr Barnstaple. Details to be announced soon.

Sunday 4

Dead Men’s Eyes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Arlington Court, nr Barnstaple. Details to be announced soon.

Tuesday 6

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Town Hall, Colchester. Tickets here.

Thursday 8

Count Magnus - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Great War Huts, nr Bury St Edmunds. Tickets here.

Saturday 10

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Quarry Theatre, Bedford. Tickets here.

Monday 12

Dead Men’s Eyes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Guildhall, Leicester. Tickets here.

Wednesday 14

A Warning to the Curious - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Tickets here.

Friday 16

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Hemingford Grey Manor, Cambs. Email diana_boston@hotmail.com.

Saturday 17

A Pleasing Terror - Two Ghost Stories by M R James. Hemingford Grey Manor, Cambs. Email diana_boston@hotmail.com.

Sunday 18

Oh, Whistle… Two Ghost Stories by M R James. All Saints Church, Cambridge. Tickets here.

Tuesday 20

A Pleasing Terror - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Folly, Settle. Tickets here.

Wednesday 21

Ghost stories at The Bijou Cinema, Southport. Email roblloydparry@hotmail.com.

Thursday 22

Casting the Runes - Two Ghost Stories by M R James, The Portico Library, Manchester. Tickets here.

Saturday 24

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas by M R James single story. Live online. Register here.

I am making good progress with Walking on Glass and am enjoying re-reading Iain Banks. It is taking me back to the first time I read this book, and it is reminding of why I like his works so much.

Having read it before and having witnessed Iain Banks explain the book to a room of about four hundred people, I am more aware of what is going on, and I am conscious of the meaning behind parts of the story. This is not spoiling if for me as it has me reading the book in a different way to my first blind venture into this book.

It would have been 1990 or 1991 when I read this book last, so I have forgotten a lot of the detail. This means I am coming fresh to a lot of the detail, while still remembering the overall storyline.

When I went to bed last night I could not resist the urge to see if The Green Man's Gift had arrived on my Kindle. I was not going to start reading it as I am currently reading Walking on Glass and I want to get that finished first.



So, the first chapter is a very good introduction to the story. I found it compelling and I had to consciously stop myself reading any more. A good start.

>42 pgmcc: That's a pretty solid BB hit, Peter, although I have to put up some resistance. I have enjoyed some of Murakami's novels and been vastly irritated by others. And all of them make me feel like I have a cramp in some portion of my brain.

>47 Meredy:
With some of his bigger books I have felt quite exhausted and in need of light relief. I have enjoyed the books immensely but I have felt I have just gone through a significant emotional experience.

>46 pgmcc: I've been pondering that one too, will be interested to see what you think of the rest of it.

>49 Karlstar:
I will finish Walking on Glass and get back to The Green Man’s Gift. Stay tuned to the same bat channel at the same bat time.

Are the Green Man books only e-books?

>51 catzteach:
They produce hardback and paperback too.

I have completed my re-read of Walking on Glass by Iain Banks. It was interesting to be re-reading it. My first read was over thirty years ago. When I first read it I enjoyed it, but I did not see all the links between the three story streams in the book. Shortly after my reading it I attended my first Science Fiction convention. I had gone the convention with the intention of meeting Iain Banks who was one of the guests. During one of the convention sessions Iain explained the links between the stories. His explanation was hilarious and I can only say it was a great, comedic performance. I only remember one or two things from his explanation, but it was enough for me to be watching out for them as I re-read the book.

Would I read another book by this author?
Definitely!

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

Who would I recommend the book to?
Iain Banks was a great writer and his books are full of fascinating things, but many of his books are not for everyone. The book could be seen as dealing with the innocence of growing up, and the dangers to innocents in the World. In that context I suggest anyone who is interested in coming of age books would find it interesting.

Has this book inspired me to do anything?
Yes, to continue re-reading Iain Banks books.

I was inspired to re-read this book to prepare for a book club session about Walking on Glass sponsored by Glasgow2024 (Worldcon Science Fiction convention) which will be held this Saturday at the Octocon Science Fiction convention in Dublin.

Are you planning to volunteer to work on the Glasgow Worldcon effort? Or are you just going to discuss Banks' title at the book club session they're sponsoring?

>54 jillmwo:
My days of running conventions and working at them are over. I am just going as a punter who is there to enjoy himself.

I am looking forward to discussing the Banks book and possible getting to know some of the Glasgow team. I have signed up for the 2024 convention and it would be nice to know some of the organisers.

Yesterday I went into town and worked from my office. I could say it was part of my returning to the office, something that is being encouraged by the powers that be. It will appear to be part of my returning to the office, but it was actually so that I could meet up with a friend after work. Enough of the explanation as to why I was in town. The main reason for this post is to report the consequences of my being in town.

At lunchtime I browsed the Eason bookshop near the office and found The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. I really enjoyed his A Gentleman in Moscow so I decided to give this book a chance.



On my way to meeting my friend after work I had to walk past Books Upstairs. Well, I did not just walk past Books Upstairs. One does not just walk past Books Upstairs.

After a brief browse I was intrigued by The Tattoo Murder which claims to be a classic Japanese locked-room murder mystery. Having read the cover and half of the first page I was hooked. This was a total impulse buy of a book I had never heard of before.



Not related to my being in town, but rather related to a book bullet fired by our very own jillmwo, the person who has hit me more times than any other marksperson in these parts, there was a book package waiting for me when I staggered arrived home. It contained Portable Magic.



By the way, I had a great time chatting to my friend. He is a colleague who retired in 2019. Before retiring he did a degree in history and now spends three to four morning's a week giving historical tours of Dublin city centre to private groups. He loves it and is a fascinating person to talk to.

This morning my copy of A Private Spy, the letters of John Le Carré 1945-2020, arrived , the day of its publication.

I am obviously very susceptible to book bullets at the moment. Haydninvienna mentioned this book in a thread and I was intrigued. I did a bit of investigation and was powerless to prevent my ordering it for my Kindle. Richard, you have scored a hit.

>56 pgmcc: I love both A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, but I'm on the fence about this one. I hope you enjoy it.

>58 pgmcc: Rereading my notes about this novella, I see that I compared it to W. H. Auden's poem, "The Secret Agent." I think it explores something similar: the loneliness of a covert life in service to a shadowy, unethical organization and the ways you try to hold on to your humanity. Since you like espionage fiction, you might find the way they play with that genre interesting. Time for a reread for me, I think.

>58 pgmcc: I wasn’t even aiming! And Peter, I will wait with great interest to find out what you think of it.

>56 pgmcc: I am envious! I have to wait until November. I think I will borrow the ebook first, and if I love it then I will buy it.

Are you sure that Claire hasn't shot you more than Jill has? LOL

>59 libraryperilous:
Your post has added to my sense of intrigue about this book. I am even being reminded of "Enemy Mine" (I cannot remember the author) and "Q" by Luther Blisset/Wu Ming. I have not read Auden's "The Secret Agent", but I will be investigating.

>60 haydninvienna:
This demonstrates just how dangerous you are. I suppose you are going to say you BB gun just went off in your hand without your doing anything.

>61 clamairy: It is a nice volume and is sitting just behind me as I type. :-)

According to my records, Sakerfalcon has hit me several times, but @jilmwo's score leaves Claire way behind. According to my records, Claire's score is 2, Jill's is 9. By the way, your score is 3.

>62 pgmcc: I assume that's only since you started keeping track. (Which I don't do.)

>63 clamairy: Correct! I only really started keeping track a year or two ago, so the actual scores could be vastly different.

>64 pgmcc: I'm sure they are. In the early days of LT I recall the BBs came from multiple directions, with MrsLee, jillmwo, GeorgiaDawn and littlegeek being the main culprits. Now it's a free-for-all. I am hit regularly by sakerfalcon, you, tardis, NorthernStar, Meredy, libraryperilous, Bookmarque and Karlstar, just to name a few. And before she left us YouKneek got me between the eyes multiple times.

>64 pgmcc:, >62 pgmcc: I'm falling seriously behind, I see. Well, hats off to the leads, to be sure, but I feel obliged to up my game.

I have finished The Green Man's Gift. The location for this clash with the forces of another world was North Wales, the area known as Snowdonia.

Questions answered before I ramble:

Would I read another book by this author?
Yes!

Would I recommend this book?
Yes!

Who would I recommend it to?
Anyone who enjoys stories of magical experiences rooted in traditional folklore.

Has this book inspired me to do anything?
I am inclined to do a bit of reading-up on Welsh folklore, and also on Snowdonia.

Apart from enjoying the story, there were other aspects of this novel that pleased me. (Here I start to ramble.)

A few years ago, in the dim and distant years of the Pre-COVID era, my wife and I traveled to Birmingham (England) to visit our daughter and her family. We took the ferry to Holyhead in Wales. To get to Birmingham we put our trust in the mysterious power of the SatNav. Some people would think the result was an inefficient and time wasting journey, but to us it was an eye-opener. The SatNav took us through the mountains of Snowdonia and we got to see the amazing landscape and the debris of what was a massive slate quarrying and mining industry. We were on narrow, winding roads through valleys with steep walls barren of vegetation, and covered in slate scree. We passed through tiny villages that date back centuries. It is a dramatic and beautiful place, full of history and mystery.

Why do I describe our drive through Snowdonia? Well, this is the land where Juliet E. McKenna set The green Man's Gift. Her description of the area brought me right back to our drive through that terrain and it was totally accurate, even down to the getting stuck behind slow moving vehicles; not being able to find a parking space, either because any available spots to stop were already taken by day-trippers visiting the area or there were no spaces to stop; and to being forced to a stop by hill-walkers taking up space on the road as they try to find their path onto the mountains. Her descriptions are perfect and they capture the beauty and the reality of the place.

In the story, some of the characters venture into the old mines of the area. By chance, within the last year, I saw a TV documentary about mining in this area. There were images of the quarries and footage from trips into the mines showing the equipment left behind when the mines closed. Juliet's descriptions of the mines match up perfectly with the images shown on the documentary. This author's research is impeccable.

Another key contributor to my enjoyment of the book was the inclusion of Welsh folklore and myths. This was mostly new to me and I hope to delve a bit more into the myths and legends of Wales. I only have a few sketchy notions of Welsh supernatural tales.

The Green Man's Gift is a very enjoyable addition to the series and I look forward to the next adventure for Dan and his friends.

I have started The Water Witch by Jessica Thorne.

A colleague sent me someone's book related post. I thought it very appropriate for the people here.

"It's ceased to be a to-be-read pile of books and has become an art installation on the passage of time."

I believe that makes many people here artists.

That being the case I would like to present my latest art installation.

>69 pgmcc: Oh, my goodness. It's possible I'm playing out of my league. (I have to study your art installation a tad more closely and then eyeball what's crawling up the baseboards here. But you have a healthy start there.)

>69 pgmcc: I love it! I used to have multiple stacks in various places around the house. Now I still have books in boxes...
:o(

>71 clamairy:
I must be a greater artist; I have both.

>70 jillmwo:
Share images of your stacks.

I really enjoyed The Lincoln Highway, partly because I love the whole idea of a road trip going across America. (Someday I want to do the one from Newport, Oregon all the way to Boston, Mass. on Highway 20.) But also because I really like the way Towles develops his characters. I hope you enjoy it!

>67 pgmcc: Thanks for the review, I think I've seen enough positive reviews on this one to give it a try.

>69 pgmcc: I just have one short stack and one short row, you are indeed a greater artist than I.

>69 pgmcc: That is a thing of beauty!

>76 Sakerfalcon:
I knew you would appreciate my art.

I am enjoying The Water Witch. It is a supernatural romantic adventure, if that makes sense.

The location is the most westerly point of Brittany. A group of archaeologists is hunting for the lost city of Ys which, according to legend, was swallowed by the sea. This story weaves ancient Breton myths with current day events, and juxtaposes the old traditions of the area with the lives of some very 21st century characters.

I have just learned that S.A. Chakraborty has a new book coming out in March of 2023. Yes, I have pre-ordered the hardback.

My current book pre-order status is:

Due for release on November 8th, 2022


16th February, 2023


2nd March, 2023


23rd March, 2023
Beyond the Reach of Earth: Book Two of the Lightspeed Trilogy by Ken MacLeod. (No cover image available yet.)

4th May, 2023

>80 pgmcc: There are two books by Caimh McDonnell releasing soon which are missing from your pre-order list. I'm just saying.

>81 MrsLee: I was not aware of that. You can credit those to your BB hit score. I will rectify that omission immediately.

Following >81 MrsLee: shooting me in a barrel, I must update my Pre-order status thus:

15th December, 2022


9th February, 2023

Ok, I will now lower my gun.

>84 MrsLee: ...till the next time.

I know how you operate.

>83 pgmcc: Oh, that Stranger Times title brings me Joy (Division).

A new S. A. Chakraborty? Yay!

The rest of your list looks very good, too.

The cover for Ken MacLeod's "Beyond the Reach of Earth" has been released. I like it.

A new Ian McDonald is always reason to celebrate! And I can hardly wait for the next Stranger Times book!

I have enjoyed The Water Witch by Jessica Thorne. It is a supernatural romantic adventure set in the west of Brittany and using genuine myths of the region.

Would I read another work by this author?
Yes.

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

Who would I recommend this book to?
Anyone who likes supernatural mystery novels with a romantic thread thrown in for good measure.

Has this book inspired me to do anything?
Yes. I am now inclined to dig out a book I have on Breton myths and legends.

I am now going to start The Final Game by Caimh McDonnell.

>58 pgmcc: I came across a mention of This Is How you Lose the Time War on Five Books (https://fivebooks.com/best-books/speculative-fiction-ken-liu/) by Ken Liu:

Yes. Both Amal and Max are extremely lauded and well-recognized authors in their own right. So it’s amazing to see the two of them come together and produce something that’s even grander than the sum of both parts: they’re both already fantastic authors, and combined together they become a super author.

I suppose you could call it a time travel story. It takes place across all history, and features two protagonists, two women who are essentially spies—saboteurs for rival visions of the future, who are trying to twist the timeline to lead to their respective faction’s visions. But then they fall in love with each other, and it becomes a story about how love drives us to resist the oppressive, all-encompassing worldviews of all totalitarian visions. How do individuals carve out their own timeline in the face of impersonal authority?

The story is incredibly beautiful and moving, and the language is so poetic. You get such a great sense of the two protagonists, their distinct personalities, their distinct ways of viewing the world, of seeing time. You traverse across all history; episodes that are often not well-known to your standard Western historical education are highlighted. So I think this is just an incredible book to pick up. It’s also short. The two of them packed so much into so little space. It is just a concentrated dose of beauty that explodes in your brain and overwhelms everything.

See? I’m even recruiting well-known SFF authors to advocate for it.

>92 haydninvienna:
IBM put me through a week long sales course. One of the golden rules of sales taught on the course was, "When you have made a sale, stop talking!"

The logic was that saying anything more will not win the sale any more. It is already sold. By continuing to speak you might say something that persuades the customer to change their mind.

I am looking forward to reading this book. The concept intrigues me.

>93 pgmcc: Fair comment. Just that I really, really liked this book.

In other news, I think I've just proved I'm not superstitious. We are having a couple of rooms re-carpeted. In the course of the necessary shifting around of years of accumulations, I found an old boarding pass for a flight from Dublin to London City on 25 September (no year specified, but it would have been 2008, 2009 or 2010). The interesting bit was the seat number — 13A.

>94 haydninvienna:
I thought they deliberately excluded row 13 on planes.

>94 haydninvienna: Not on Air France, which is what it was. I think I've been in row 13 on BA too. Quick check on Seatguru shows that Qantas and BA still have row 13 on at least some aircraft types, but Cathay Pacific doesn't (no surprise there).

I had to go into the office today to give a presentation. It went well and I managed to get out of the meeting in time to have lunch with a friend.

My afternoon was quite busy but I managed to head home about 5pm which left me time to pop into Books Upstairs.

Well, you know how weak I am. The first book that grabbed my attention was:



Once Upon A Tome: The misadventures of a rare bookseller by Oliver Darkshire. How could I resist. A book about books.

Well, the second book was one of a different genre. The recent screen adaptation came in for a lot of criticism because all the Japanese characters in the Japanese book the film is based on were played by Western actors. I did not think that type of thing could happen these days.

As it happens, my son had asked me to take him to the film when it was in the cinema. This did not happen and we still have not seen the movie. When I spotted the novel I thought it would be good to read the original, albeit in English translation. I can also give it to my son as he was interested in the film.



Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka.

>98 pgmcc: Once Upon a Tome looks incredible. Well done.

I have Once Upon a Tome on order. Hope it arrives soon as everything I've seen about it says it's great.

>99 clamairy: & >100 tardis:

I am glad there are people in this world who understand me.

Today I finished reading The Final Game by Caimh McDonnell. This was as good as the other books from this author and I really enjoyed it.



The November book club meeting will be discussing the fairytales of Oscar Wilde. I think I will read those next.

With all this spooky book reading going on, I have succumbed to a recommendation I spotted on an M.R. James page on FB. It is Ghosts from the Library edited by Tony Medawar. The calibre of the names in the contents showed me it is going to be a good read.

Contrary to what I said in >102 pgmcc: I have not started reading the Oscar Wilde fairy tales. I have started reading Howdunit instead. This was a BB from, I think, @haydinvienna. It is a real treat and I am enjoying it very much.

>104 pgmcc: Very cool cover, although I can't read what the words say.

>104 pgmcc: Not guilty, Peter, although I mentioned another of Martin Edwards’ titles a while ago.

>106 haydninvienna:
It might have been Hugh, hglen. Whoever it was mentioned that there was an entry in this book written by Eric Ambler, an author whose work I am very fond of. That triggered my purchase and now that I am reading it I am very grateful to the person who fired that BB, even if they did it without intending to hit me directly.

>105 MrsLee: The words in red are, "HOWDUNIT", "A MASTERCLASS IN CRIME WRITING BY MEMBERS OF THE DETECTION CLUB", and "EDITED BY MARTIN EDWARDS".

The letters in black are the names of the ninety members of The Detection Club who contributed to this book. The contributions are pieces of writing by the contributors explaining their views on various elements of crime writing.

>107 pgmcc: Thank you for scratching that itch.

>108 MrsLee:
You are welcome.

>107 pgmcc: Not guilty, but if I ever were to meet that book, I'd read it!

>110 hfglen: & >106 haydninvienna:
It looks like I have some investigation to do in an effort to compensate for my faulty recall.

>110 hfglen: & >106 haydninvienna:

Mystery solved. It was Jim (Jim53). He slipped in his shot on May 4th 2021.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/331653#7497820

Thank you, Jim. I am really enjoying the book.

Howdunit has captured me. I am reading it, pen in hand, and jotting down references on a sheet of paper for future reference. Normally I will jot the notes inside the cover and on any spare sheets at the back of the book. The inside cover sheets are red, so not suitable for good contrast when writing with a black-ink pen. Also, there are no spare sheets in the book as the index runs right up to the cover sheets. This is a fascinating book. The entries are generally about one page with the occasional one reaching four or five. It is tremendous for reading a section at a time, or polishing off a few of them in a sitting. The editor has brief linking paragraphs between the contributions and these are as helpful and informative as the main contributions.

Yes, for those who are curious, I am underlining and adding some marks to the book itself. Each mark is referenced on my sheets of notes. These notes will be typed up later and a printed copy stored in the back of the book.

With 90 contributors, and most of them providing little gems, I am having to take note not just of the point made but also who made it. I had to backtrack in the early sections as I was getting confused about who had said what. Now I am being more meticulous.

>112 pgmcc: You are very welcome!

>113 pgmcc: Are you planning on writing your own mysteries?

>115 Karlstar:
I can see how you might think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment.

I started reading This Is How You Lose The Time War when I went to bed last night. Howdunit is too big to hold while lying down, so I used my Kindle for this bedtime story.

>102 pgmcc: Complete with cover illustration by Aubrey Beardsley. I am a great admirer of Oscar Wilde.

>118 Meredy: It is a copy I am quite happy to own. I do not recall where I bought it, but it was during the late 1970s. My copy is from a 1975 reprint and I bought it new for £3.75. That price dates the purchase as a long time ago. It is one of the 300 books that I transported to Dublin when I moved here.

One of the things I am enjoying about Howdunit is how applicable many of the comments are to genre fiction in general and not just crime writing. One contributor, Kate Charles, expressed the view that theme can unite books from different genre. Some of you may recall that I regard genre is a tool used by marketeers to simplify their message and focus their marketing, and by librarians to provide some logical order to their collections. Some of the books I have loved most defy categorisation into a specific genre and contain aspects that would be comfortable in a number of genres. Kate Charles's claim of theme transcending genre makes a lot of sense in my book, if you excuse the pun.

Another appealing comment in Howdunit was that the snobbery of the literati in relation to genre fiction can often be explained by "literature" being judged by its masterpieces while genre fiction is often judged by its failures.

A testament to how much I am enjoying this book is that I am picking it up to read at every opportunity while only reading my fiction read, This Is How You Lose The Time War*, when I retire to bed in the evening. The fact that I already have six pages of summary notes already when I have only reached page 130 is another piece of supporting evidence to my liking the book.

*This is no fault of This Is How You Lose The Time War; it is simply an indication of how much I am enjoying Howdunit.

>120 pgmcc: The category of 'literary fiction' is itself both a marketing ploy and a genre of fiction. Of course, the marketing geniuses have made it seem as if it's separate (better) in order to sell more titles. When one starts to study the publishing industry, one realizes it's just as incestuous and profit-driven as other forms of entertainment. It's no accident that the same handful of books are listed as Most Anticipated Reads and reviewed by prominent critics each month.

I prefer not to ponder too often and just read what I like. It's taken me a number of years to get there. I used to feel as if I were not a 'smart' reader because I don't seek out 'literary' titles.

theme can unite books from different genre

I have a teeny collection of Wild Hunt-themed novels, each of which I'd put in a separate category, but they are next to one another on my shelves.

>117 pgmcc: I liked This Is How You Lose the Time War. Hope you enjoy it!

>120 pgmcc: and >121 libraryperilous: The idea of organizing by theme is tantalizing, but I'm not sure my brain could handle separating author's works on my shelves. It would be like leaving a drawer cracked open.

>120 pgmcc: Speaking for myself, I don't think that genre should be viewed as a pejorative term. As labels, the groupings do tend to be used to describe a very broad swath of certain types of works. They serve as a kind of shorthand between publisher and reader. And sometimes, the shorthand isn't as good as communicating the nature of the work as it might need to be.

That said, I agree with Charles that theme probably SHOULD trump genre. But then the question becomes do all books come with a theme? Some do and some don't (IMHO).

>123 MrsLee: I read a Twitter post recently that was both tantalizing and hairy-sounding. Someone posted that they shelve their books in the order they read them. Very personalized, but also: maximum chaos!

If I expand my personal library and buy my favorite science fiction, I may attempt to organize those books by subgenre, rather than alphabetically by author.

>124 jillmwo:
My storage of books is not very systematic, as some people noticed when I posted pictures of my new reading room. The books in my study, as opposed to the reading room, are grouped by author within high-level genre, e.g. one bookcase is horror, another is science fiction. There are notable exceptions; all my Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks books are together.

Now do not be losing the run of yourself and assuming that while my books are grouped by author within high-level genre that they are in author alphabetic sequence. That would be no fun. With some authors I have ordered the books by publication date. That would be the case with my collection of George A. Birmingham's sixty-six novels. I have attempted the same with my John Buchan collection. I have done it with my Lord Peter Wimsey books, but my Daphne Du Maurier books are grouped by read and unread with no further effort devoted to their shelving order.

I suspect my books will become slightly more organised when I retire from the day job. Only 110 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes and 10 seconds to go, but who's counting?

Some books come with more than one theme or topic. I recall writing my review of Ken MacLeod's The Corporation Wars: Dissidence. In preparation I drew up a list of the topics and themes touched on in the book. Here is my list:

Politics
Philosophy
Technology
Love
Loss
Economics
Exploitation
Loyalty
Deception
Betrayal
Manipulation
What is life?
Sentience/self determination
Free will

When I say, "touched on", I am not doing justice to Ken's treatment of these issues. I was blown away by this book.

I posted my review, which includes the above list, late at night on Twitter. When I woke up the following morning I noticed I had a "like" and a "retweet" against it. Ken MacLeod had liked it and retweeted it. Yes, I did feel good about that.

>123 MrsLee:
One issue with organising books by theme is the need to read them first to determine what the theme might be. As many books have more than one theme one may have to buy multiple copies to ensure the integrity of the thematic organisation. Also, it might lead to differing organisational approaches for the read and unread books if one cannot determine the theme, or themes, until having read a book.

I am afraid leaving a drawer cracked open is only the tip of the iceberg.

>122 ScoLgo:
The premise intrigues me. I only hope I can give it the attention it the attention it requires to get a view of the interwoven timelines.

>121 libraryperilous:
I prefer not to ponder too often and just read what I like. It's taken me a number of years to get there. I used to feel as if I were not a 'smart' reader because I don't seek out 'literary' titles.

I have travelled that path too. It did not take me too long to get to the end point of just reading what I wanted and not bothering about the genre or comments by critics. I was helped along this path by taking a "Hottest books for this summer" list and trying to read the ten recommended literary novels. I did not rate a single one as worthy of spending any time with.

Another comment I read in Howdunit* which appealed to me was (and I paraphrase), "I would rather readers remembered what I said than how I said it." The comment was made in the context of describing how some literary writers tend to focus on their phraseology rather than the story they are supposedly trying to tell. Good phraseology is important, but it is not everything.

*Every time I put the Touchstone brackets on Howdunit the system pops up the Touchstone link to a book on poison. I wonder if there is a maniacal serial killer lurking in the Touchstone programme.

>126 pgmcc: Organizing by genre can also be difficult. I try, but then you have Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" and for me they are equal mystery and equal fantasy, so they are on my fantasy shelf, near my mysteries. Then there is Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan series and the Discworld collection. Both of those series incorporate the "mystery genre, but are mainly scifi and fantasy respectively. So again, they have their own little group near my beloved Golden Age mysteries, but not touching.

Before anyone objects to the genre classifications I assigned above, they are my own in my head, not official to anywhere else except my shelves. I don't know how to explain how I differentiate between scifi and fantasy, but I get there by intuition.

>130 MrsLee:
Your classification makes sense to me. There is a reason that Science Fiction conventions over hear tend to include Fantasy and Horror too. Very often books can fall into two, or even three, of those genre; and who cares. If people are enjoying the books, even if they are scaring the bajaysus out them, all is good.

I have mentioned a bookcase that houses my Horror books, and another that accommodates my Science Fiction. I have not mentioned the other ten or so that are quite a mish-mash of genres. (We have about 23 Billy bookcases, but there are other people in this house with books other than myself.) My Ian McDonald books sit comfortably beside my Haruki Murakami and a load of what many would call mainstream literary books. I tend to find that many of my mainstream literary books blur the borders of that, as >121 libraryperilous: would agree to call it, genre. E.g. José Saramago's Stone Raft is a well recognised literary work that deals with the consequences of the Iberian peninsula separating from the European continent and drifting off into the Atlantic Ocean. Definitely mainstream literature; also a great read.

Now that I look at that bookcase it appears to be the home of my books that are translations from Spanish and Portuguese. It houses my collection of not only José Saramago books but also the books of Isabel Allende, Roberto Bolaño, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Márquez. It is also home to my Jasper Fforde, Alistair MacLean, Peter F. Hamilton, Philip Kerr and Elmore Leonard volumes. Of course, the English translations of my Arturo Perez Reverte novels are in a separate bookcase that houses overflow from my Horror bookcase, as well as a selection of foreign language/English-English/Foreign language dictionaries. (Italian; French; German; Russian; Latin; for those who want to know)

Another bookcase contains the entire suite of Swan River Press limited edition hardback books. Swan River Press is the only Irish publisher dedicated to gothic, supernatural, and fantastic literature. That collection takes up one shelf, albeit to a depth of two books (about 50 in all). The shelf above houses my Philip K. Dick novels (the short stories are upstairs in the reading-room). On a couple of lower shelves one will find the bulk of my John Buchan collection. My Mártín Ó Cadhain translations are also in this bookcase, along with Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Adam Sisman's biography of John Le Carré, to name but a few. John Le Carré's novels are all together in a bookcase in my wife's office. (Given my wife's political work we refer to her office as "The West Wing". It does happen to be located in an extension on the west side of the house.)

Iain Banks volumes are stored on two dedicated shelves and are ranked, within genre, in publication date sequence. Ken MacLeod novels have their own special place too. Nick Harkaway's volumes are all together. Now Nick Harkaway is someone whose books defy classification. That is one of the things I love about them.

My collection of Eric Ambler books is located in the reading-room, as are my other espionage related books. It is not true that I have a key-pad and CCTV camera above the door of the reading-room. The camera is across the landing and access is achieved by eye-scan.

As you can see from the above, I run a tight ship and adhere to the most rigid of book classifications. Which reminds me, my Umberto Eco books, both fiction and non-fiction, can be found on three different bookcases, one of those bookcases being in a different room. The logic is irrefutable.

>130 MrsLee:, >131 pgmcc: I enjoy both sci-fi mysteries and historical fantasy mysteries. Hybrid genre fiction is fun!

>129 pgmcc: Yes. I'd say I read for plot, then character, then prose. If I'm in the mood for prose over narrative, I might dip into a favorite poet's works.

I was helped along this path by taking a "Hottest books for this summer" list and trying to read the ten recommended literary novels. I did not rate a single one as worthy of spending any time with.

I attempted The Idiot, by Elif Batuman, and lol: very much not for me. In looking at the books I've summarized on LT as domestic fiction, I see that I enjoyed them. Something most have in common is a strong, propulsive plot or interesting characters. The most poetically written one is Edeet Ravel's The Cat.

I have more patience for prose stylings or narrative fireworks in classics. E.g., I've read and loved both If on a winter's night a traveler and Last Words from Montmartre.

I used to say that if a book was praised as “beautifully written”, it became as broccoli to me. Now I realise that beautiful writing is not the problem. Being beautifully written is not an end in itself: “beautifully written” is almost the icing on the cake, but the cake has to be there, and has to be good, no matter how beautiful the icing. If you see what I mean. If you describe a book as “beautifully written”, but can say nothing else in its praise, I don’t want to know. If it’s good for x, y and z reasons, and is also beautifully written, I might be interested.

>133 haydninvienna:
Hear! Hear! Although your "became as broccoli to me" does not work with me. I love broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

>134 pgmcc: So do I, actually. The bit about becoming as broccoli I stole from Noel Perrin.

>131 pgmcc: I would love to say my shelves are more organized than that, but I can't. The main library room is fantasy and scifi by author, in series order if there is a series, otherwise publication order. But then there's the bookcase in the corner that is H-I scifi/fantasy, gardening books, history books and general fiction. There's also the 'almost' alphabetical order Tolkien books taking up 1 2/3 shelves; the shelf of signed and/or special editions; the random collection of reference, history and scifi in the living room, the 3 shelves upstairs of also random books, mostly fiction and history and so on.

Basically, similar organization to yours. One of these days I'll post some shelfies.

>133 haydninvienna: There are a couple of authors that I often feel write beautifully, especially Patricia McKillip and her stories have enough plot to be interesting, to me. I see you don't have any by her in your collection, have you read any at all? Just wondering what your thoughts are on her writing, if you are at all familiar with it.

>136 Karlstar:
I love shelfies.

>137 Karlstar: Don’t know Patricia McKillip at all, but >132 libraryperilous: mentioned Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller. Calvino’s Invisible Cities is one of not many books I’ve knowingly bought a second copy of, while I was living in Ireland. The first copy was still in England so I hoofed down to Hodges Figgis to buy another so I wouldn’t be without it. Although almost nothing happens, and the book is almost entirely a big shiny bubble, that’s beautiful writing. Beautiful as poetry.

Come to think of it, in my own thread I just mentioned The Lady’s Not for Burning by Christopher Fry (another book I’ve knowingly bought a duplicate copy of). There’s not really much substance to this one either, but oh my the language is beautiful.

Now I’m thinking that what I don’t care for is beautiful writing that seems forced. I’m going to think about this some more—it’s bedtime now.

>139 haydninvienna: Good thoughts, thank you.

>140 Karlstar: Thanks, Jim. I’m taking this to my own thread now so as to stop hijacking Peter’s.

>141 haydninvienna: I have no worries about the thread being hijacked. As you will have seen, I have followed and joined in with the discussion on your thread. I even suffered a cunningly aimed BB while reading your thread. At this stage the Kindle version of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books is residing on my electronic reading device. (I did not want to use the word "Kindle" twice in the same sentence, especially as we have been discussing style.)

One of the British Library's Celebrating 100 British Library Crime Classics books that I have is Death of a Bookseller. I recall seeing in the book that it is number 100 in the series.

>143 pgmcc: Awesome.

>132 libraryperilous:
I remember having an eye-opening moment when I read Gormenghast. Up to that point I had very much been reading for plot, story, excitement, and was naive enough to openly criticise books with very little story or plot. My reading of Gormenghast opened my eyes to the wonderful world of characterisation. There is very little plot in the trilogy; it moves along at a pace that matches the age of the castle; and yet I loved it; well, I loved the first two books and regretted the author's health reasons that meant the third book was not of the same calibre.

I have heard Gormenghast criticised for not being literary, and I will leave that judgement to others better qualified than I to decide, but I loved its characterisation. When I think back on the books, it is the characters I remember. I particularly remember the excellent way Peake portrayed the teachers in the second book. Of course, Dr. Prunesqualler (I may not have the spelling correct, but those who know the book know of whom I speak) was my favourite.

A re-read is overdue.

It is November 8th, the publication date for Haruki Murakami's new book, Novelist as a Vocation. The Evil Website informs me that my pre-ordered copy will arrive to day. Yay!

Sorry Richard, but when I pick up a book it is Howdunit. I have not abandoned This is how you lose the time war, but Howdunit is the one that is dragging me on.

>146 pgmcc:

Novelist as a Vocation has arrived. It is a collection of essays by Haruki Murakami on his personal thoughts about writing. The essays were published in 2015 in Japanese, and Murakami makes a point in his Foreword to say that a lot has happened in The World and in his own life during the seven years between the essays being published in Japanese and the publication of this English translation.

Murakami makes no claim to his essays defining a recommended, or best, way of writing a novel, but they do represent his views at the time he wrote the essays, and he puts them forward as a record of his personal thoughts rather than as a guide to any would-be author. He makes the point that if you asked 100 novelists about the best way to write a novel, you would end up with 100 different answers.

This book has arrived at a good time with my being in the middle of "Howdunit"*, a book of personal views on writing crime fiction by 90 writers of crime fiction.

I am looking forward to getting into this book and have already read the Foreword, but I will finish "Howdunit" first, then This is How You Lose The Time War, before I start reading Murakami's essays.

* I put the "Touchstone" brackets on "Howdunit" and, as usual when I try to touchstone the book I am reading, the serial killer in the machine threw up the touchstone for "The Book of Poisons: A Guide for Writers" by Serita Stevens. I was prepared for this and clicked the "(others)" option to scroll down the list of touchstones to find my book. LT had a technical issue and started posting message. The message were updated every few seconds. They were, and I paraphrase a little:

Sorry, Librarything is having a technical issue.

This might take a while.

We could be here for some time.

Perhaps you should start reading a book.

Perhaps you should start writing a book.

I found that quite amusing, but also very apropos given that I was looking for the touchstone for a book about writing books. I gave up on waiting, but was tempted to stay on just to see where the error messages would take me.

>148 pgmcc: Maybe the messages would have eventually become a book?

>143 pgmcc: hahahaha love it!

>104 pgmcc: and beyond: You didn't just fire a shot with Howdunit. You scattered a barrage of pellets, and I think they all hit me. I ordered it last night.

>149 Karlstar:
That is what I was thinking. It has already spawned a GD post and two responses. These could be sub-plots.

>151 Meredy:
Glad to be of assistance.
:-)

>150 Narilka:
I thought it would appeal to people here. It is a perfect example of the way children can be very literal in their view of the world, and how they point out things that are staring adults in the face but which the adults have not seen.

>139 haydninvienna:
My wife is attending a conference in Limerick tomorrow. She wanted me to keep her company on the train, so I am venturing South-West on the 7am choo-choo. While Mrs PGMCC is at the conference I am to amuse myself. Guess what I am investigating. Yes, you are correct. Bookshops in Limerick.

I have discovered a few bookshops and have judged them on the basis of the stock they purport to carry. Quay Books claims to have Invisible Cities on hand, so I will make my way to that place of business with the intention of picking up a copy. I have If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, which I am ashamed to say I have not read yet, but then one can say that about many of the books I have. Your comment that you have knowingly bought a second copy of it means it is a book worthy of investigation. You can chalk up another BB hit.

I shall report any book acquisitions on my trip in due course.