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here we are again. Whilst I write this I'm listening to 'In the Red' on BBC7's listen again. This has Steven fry as its lead and I'm very partial to him.
Beethoven is radio 3's composer of the week and there have been some interesting performances. yesterday evening there were some Lieder and I hadn't realised that besides his orchestral and piano pieces he composed songs.I've several books on Beethoven which I've now put on my TBR pile. I have more on Mozart though .
I have read 3 books for the Canada Challenge. These are all by Louise Penny and are detective novels set in an idyllic village called Three Pines a few miles from Montreal. I have chosen to read by province for the challenge thus broadening my knowledge of Canada and which authors wrote about each area.Not only does she have good plots but the characterisation is excellent. So often with thrillers they are driven by plot and the characters are secondary.
I've also been reading Bulgakov for the Russian Challenge. The first one I read was 'A Dead man's Memoir', which is partly autobiographical and concerns turning a novel into a play. At the beginning we are told that the narrator committed suicide and I continued reading expecting to be told the why of this but we are left to surmise.I found most interesting the satirisation of Stanislavski's Method' acting. I feel Bulgakov found this pretentious rubbish. Now i am reading 'TheMaster and Margharita' which began slowly but has now hooked me.There is an account of Christ's Crucifixion by a strange man, who claims to have been there.This bares little resemblance to the Gospels but makes one think. I wish I knew of a biography of Bulgakov to see what his own attitude really was. I know people like Barthes says the author doesn't count but I'm afraid I think s/he does and is a good reason for biographies being written and read.
I read a lot of what is called 'non-fiction' and have been very disappointed with the last two. The first was 'Justinian's Flea' by Michael Rosen. There are many interesting anecdotes in this book and it is interesting about the eastern Emperor Justinian but when it comes to the plague, which I thought was going to be the main theme of the book it is muddled.I was left wishing Rosen had chosen either the plague outbreaks or Justinian and concentrated on them. The other book is Agatha Christie' by Laura Thompson.She is very sound on the books but I have found myself bored more than once. Now this could be because the 'life' is so familiar to me. I have read everything I could about her and don't feel this biography has added anything new.I was glad I ordered them from the library and hadn't bought them. I usually do this if I'm not sure and then if it's a book I really like I buy the paperback.
As light reading I have been reading Dornford Yates. This is my in bed reading because I find Yates both relaxing and exciting, which sounds a paradox.In 2006 when I stayed with my bro in Norfolk I managed to find nearly all the Yates I was missing. He kindly lent me the money because there were about 17 books and if one waits they are gone and Yates is not easy to find.Then in the 'little room' I have started to put a book which I only read there. The last 10 days this has been 2 Inspector Montalbanos by Camillieri. They are very funny and not to be read when hungry because Montalbano likes his food and there are numerous mouthwatering references.
Lastly I've discovered Susan Lewis and she is 'unwind' reading. Her books encompass several genres and I first 'read' them by having them on tape. I always have a story tape in the kitchen and one in the bedroom as I'm a dreadful sleeper but my eyes are too tired to read so I listen.
Nearly forgot BBC7 has just read all of 'Vanity Fair' a book I love but in the library I found a new book called 'Dancing into Battle' by Nick Faulkes.This is about the ball before Waterloo and the battle and is written in both a scholarly but highly readable fashion. I didn't know that after the battle people came in their coaches to see the battle field and gawp at the dead.
Now i seem to be able to type faster I shall keep up this blog. I wonder how one gets it known so people read it.One of my favourites is Mary Beard, who blogs at Times on line about all things Classical. Then I always read Randomjottings blog.She is a wizz on (19th literature. At the weekend I'll see if I can sidebar the blogs I read. There might be unfamiliar ones.Many of mine I found by clicking on others sidebar.