The free spirit versus the stern editor

Edited and moved to Scribbles and Diversions with a recorded reading of the reflection at Audioboo

Sunday Salon: A quiz

Removed to the Blog Dusty-box

Holiday from Hell and Books from Heaven

Edited and moved to Scribbles and Diversions with a recorded reading of the reflection at Audioboo

Sunday Salon: Sunday thoughts

Edited and moved to Scribbles and Diversions with a recorded reading of the reflection at Audioboo

Sunday Salon thoughts from Bristol

Removed to the Blog Dusty-box

Sunday Salon: another week gone

Removed to the Blog Dusty-box

Sunday Salon 15th June Review

Removed to the Blog Dusty-box

Family Life and The Sunday Salon

Good morning, I hope your Sunday morning is going well mine is not! Away in a dream (since you ask, some film noir version of my childhood no doubt triggered off by last nights 50 word story**) until jolted out of it by a pre 7am phone call. Naturally, deaths of family households or the need to make one King of England as half of the UK has just…well you get the picture… sprang to mind. Wife went into confused polite mode and I groped around to find watch and glasses and the flee the country overnight bag. It was a friend of the Wife wanting to know if she could come to lunch (the Wife, not friend to us…I think). I got the stare when I dared to mutter a faint protest so out of bed, made a cup of tea and decided time to do the Sunday Saloon blog…shush, wife’s gently shouting for tea, need to whisper as wife-blogging is forbidden, something about you talk to strangers but not to me followed by door slamming, way over my head).

Anyway, another mixed reading week, as I have failed yet again to start Yellow Fever by Steffan Piper although a review calls. I also now have the latest Librarything Early review, The Collector of Worlds by Iliya Troyanov on the must read list. Naturally, I get distracted so instead I am reading Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark but have only read tools 1 to 4 which of course you have noticed applied in this post. All about use and order of verbs so far, and apparently dear reader Ian Fleming has this sorted so buy a James Bond novel and gasp in amazement. Added to the enjoyment of reading, I have just started to do meme’s (didn’t even know what the word meant at the beginning of May!) I did posts for Booking through Thursday, Tuesday Thingers and Weekly Geeks.

I have read The Pirates! in an adventure with Whaling by Gideon Defoewhich was a fun short read but not as good as The pirates! : in an adventure with scientists. My main read of the week was Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore , which is a brilliant reconstruction of the early years of Stalin which challenges a whole range of myths of a man you would be foolish to have irritated. Strangely, I was reminded of man who I worked with once…charming, paranoid, bully and vindictive who sacked or exiled any one( I was exiled) who was a rival or failed to deliver that day’s “the thing that must be done”. Any problem was always down to poor quality workers never the vision or leadership. Irritatingly, down to the last two chapters and the book went missing somewhere between Bristol and London so had to buy a replacement.

I have a heavy workload next week so although having hours on trains I also have to do a lot of writing and workshop design for work so unsure, what reading will be done so...Oh My God. Guess what, just turned round and finally noticed something odd about my home made bricks and floorboard bookshelf. Its collapsed and yet been reassembled with books stacked rather then racked and the surplus piled on the floor. It appears, after a frank and open exchange with the teenage Son, that it’s my fault and that he has helped me by exposing flaws and showing what improvements needed…sigh. Time for more tea, opening the book and listening to Wife and teenage Son doing Bob Dylan duets and so dear reader, another Sunday gets underway.

PS well almost, it appears that none of my Hyperlinks worked but for the one below so I had to remove them so just look at the label lists if you want...mutters, and scratches head.

** I try to write a Random Short Stories with a picture to illustrate it inspired by the daily post on First 50.

The Sunday Saloon: how to stare defeat in the face

The week started with such high hopes. It was the week of the big book. The choice was David Foster Wallace’s Infinitive Jest. Given it fluffs up to over 1000 pages and get your glasses out print, this was seriously big. Not a problem… snitch to read over a fortnight max… right? Wrong, a clear case of the Hubris blues. Try snatching the odd chapter and page on trains and between meetings and the enormity of the book’s themes and construction soon hits you between the ears. When reduced to running a spreadsheet on the POV, format, period… (you get the picture) of each chapter, you know its time to throw in the towel. So crawl away and abandon? No, I retreated and retrenched to order Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest’ by Greg Carlisle. Yes, it is over 500 pages but I get a bird’s eye view of the book and explanations. As they say…Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

Sadly, to defer left me in crisis… no book to face the two-hour journey home. Summoning up the loins (no sniggers in the back please) I went fourth to buy a book (yes I know 900 books at home unread but give a guy a break). This forced me to have to spend time in bookshops and one of these was at the LSE (a seriously prestigious university). What caught my eye was Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. This examines the early history of Stalin before entered the Soviet Government. The failure of democratic politics in Russia fascinates me as much as its counterpart of the failure of Western revolutions. And don’t get me started on why the USA alone failed to create a political party of labour in the late 19th.

Finishing Young Stalin book and reading yet another LibraryThing Early Reviewers book is the plan this week. I have The Collector of Worlds by Ilya Troyanov which is about Richard Burton- translator of 1001 Arabian Nights not … Other reviews in the pipe line is the free Henry James penguin classic when it finally comes(Surely not a publicity sham?) and Yellow Fever a book sent by the writer for me to review.

It’s a public holiday weekend here so its weather warning rain of course. Hope its better where you are and that you have a great week.

Sunday Salon whilst listening to Wes Madiko

Not been a very productive reading week as been distracted by discovering a range of book blog networks to join. Apart from Sunday Salon I have now caught up with Booking Through Thursday and the emerging Librarything book ring which is yet to be formally named but can be tracked down at Tuesday Things. However I have finished The Contractor by Charles Holfefer(sent to me by the writer!) which I shall review later. And I decided that as good as Raymond Carver's short stories are they confirm why I don't like short stories. His photo a moment in the lives of various dysfunctional relationships so you are left with a unresolved emotional image. I also intend to review him later today if time.

I plan to read and finish today the fun The pirates! in an adventure with whaling by Gideon Defoe. If you have not read any of these rush out and grab one you are in for one hell of treat...oh you have to get British humour and irony,

For the rest of the week I have two ARC to read. One is the self published Yellow Fever by Steffan Piper and some Henry James book sent by Penguin Classics if it arrives as it was bagged some weeks ago. If it doesn't then fancy either The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor or Blood Kin by Ceridwen Dovey. Click on my poll and let me know!