What are you reading now?

[Petrushka]

Just started Colditz by Ben Macintyre. I had it for Christmas 2022 but only now got round to reading it!

[Historian]

Every decade or so I re-read Robert Irwin’s Arabian Nightmare in the vain hope of disentangling the real from the dream worlds it creates, and fail. ... Irwin is a specialist of Arabian literature and has written a scholarly tome on The Thousand and One Nights, which is clearly a model for the novel’s nested dreamscapes.

Once upon a time he was a lecturer at SOAS and (briefly) taught me. However, he left to move on to greater things.

[smittims]

Virginia Woolf : Between the Acts. Her last novel and I think one of her best. A comfortable companionable book with an interesting range of characters. I mean to re-read rhe Woolf canon every ten years but I haven't always managed it. There are few novelists I find as rewarding.

[Belgrove]

Once upon a time he was a lecturer at SOAS and (briefly) taught me. However, he left to move on to greater things.

Sad to learn that Irwin died earlier this year.

[vinteuil]

Every decade or so I re-read Robert Irwin’s Arabian Nightmare in the vain hope of disentangling the real from the dream worlds it creates, and fail.

... I haven't read it - but I understand it is based on Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. Have you read that? - I've tried several times, but have been defeated several times. Perhaps I should give it another go...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manuscript_Found_in_Saragossa

I had an 'Arabian Nights' period when I was based in the Middle East - Robert Irwin's The Arabian Nights : A Companion was invaluable

.

[Historian]

Sad to learn that Irwin died earlier this year.

I had missed this, thank you. No great age, 77. I worked with him when he was a part-time academic and author (not that that's particularly important)..

[Petrushka]

Just started Colditz by Ben Macintyre. I had it for Christmas 2022 but only now got round to reading it!

Just remembered that one of the directors of the company I worked for in the 1970s was imprisoned in Colditz during the war. I would have loved to have talked to him about his experiences but in those days it was unthinkable to ask something like that of one of your directors!

[gradus]

Osbert Sitwell's Tales my Father Taught Me, a book of essays that I bought s/h years ago and hadn't got round to reading. Entertaining as it was intended to be.

[groovydavidii]

Percival Everett’s novel ”Erasure,” a hilarious plot, narrated at an acerbic witty pitch. Now a major film–“American Fiction.”

[Pulcinella]

Percival Everett’s novel ”Erasure,” a hilarious plot, narrated at an acerbic witty pitch. Now a major film–“American Fiction.”

Stylistically similar to his Booker Prize shortlisted James, I understand (so I'm unlikely to like that either; see a few posts above/below).

[eighthobstruction]

Has anyone on here ever read Leonora Carrington's - The Hearing Trumpet....??

[Pulcinella]

Not right now, as only just ordered and due next week.
Somehow this passed me by:

https://www.prestomusic.com/books/products/9625851--the-cambridge-stravinsky-encyclopedia

I'm astounded at the price difference between the hardback (£126) and paperback (£28) editions, but no doubt ts could explain.
Presumably once the initial print run has been done/sold, it's time to consider wider circulation at a much reduced price.

[gradus]

Osbert Sitwell; I have started his autobiography, Left Hand, Right Hand! Books I've ignored on my shelves for many years, how silly of me.

[smittims]

'Great Morning' I think was my favourite. All four volumes are beautifully-written and his depiction of his father and Henry Moat is a classic of literature in a way. It's only fair to point out that Sacheverell Sitwell claimed repeatedly that Osbert's portrait of their father was inaccurate and that Sir George was a kinder, more pleasant man than Osbert implies. Of course one does not expect autobiographies to be strictly accurate, let alone 'the whole truth', and particularly when it comes to a son describing his father, well-exemplified by Matthew Spender's character-assassination of his own famous father in 'A House in St. John's Wood' , for all that it is a delightful read. I may say that that is the main reason I've delayed writing mine; the old boy is no longer here to put his side of the story.


I'm coming to the end of a re-read of Indiana, George Sand's first novel . It's a very odd book and I can't say I found it as enjoyable as Trollope, but I think it did me good to read it ; like listening to Womans Hour, it's a wayof broadening one's horizons.

[LMcD]

The Making Of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece - a novel by Tom Hanks.