THURSDAY THIRTEEN #4

I’ve been a bibliophile since childhood, an avid book reader, voraciously reading what I enjoy, casting aside what I don’t.  By the time I moved to the USA I had a collection of well over a thousand books, and heartbreakingly I had to dispose of a few hundred of them when I shipped my  belongings over here.  Mind you, I buy books as frequently as I ever did, and the numbers are ever growing. For this week’s TT, I have scanned 13 covers of books on my shelves.  I picked them totally at random – eyes tight shut, taking from the shelves without seeing what I had chosen. I have my fiction books on shelves along one wall of my study, and non-fiction on the other.  I chose only from the fiction shelves.  By coincidence, most of them are books I have had for a long time, several probably out of print by now.  So, for what it’s worth, I offer you thirteen books from my shelves.  Comments from people who have read and enjoyed, or hated, any of these will be most welcome.

Will Shakespeare by JOHN MORTIMER. Written by the man who created Rumpole.  An entertaining romp in Renaissance London with young Will as the hero.  There was obviously a TV series based on it (or maybe the book came after the series) but I have never seen it, and as far as I can tell it has never been available on video or DVD.

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The General Danced At Dawn by GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER. One of my favourite books, by the man who wrote the Flashman series of novels.   These are stories, humorous for the most part, based on his experiences as a young officer in the army immediately after the war. This book actually made me laugh out loud – something  that until then only P.G. Wodehouse had managed to do.  I’ve probably read this eight or nine times.

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The Pillars Of The Earth by KEN FOLLETT.  A long, satisfying hovel of twelfth century England.  This is not just a snack, but a feast.  One of those books – and I love it when they come along – that you enjoy reading so much that you resent every second you have to be doing something else.

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Living Death In The Buying Department by FRANK DICKENS.  This book is a collection of Bristow cartoons from the London Evening Standard.  Great fun, and the only one of these 13 that appears to be completely unavailable today. Amazon has no listing at all, not even for used copies.

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The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin by DAVID NOBBS.  “Now a hilarious BBC television series”  says the cover.  The TV series is now history, having been a great success, and spawning at least one sequel.  There might even have been more had it not been for the early death of Leonard Rossiter.   I have only read this once but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.  I didn’t get where I am today by getting rid of books!

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Armageddon by LEON URIS.  Some of Leon Uris’s books are pretty heavy going but as I remember this one, about the Berlin airlift, was not.  I have had this book since the late 1970s but so far I have only read it once. 

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Flanagan’s Run by TOM MCNAB.  The only book in the 13 that I actually started and didn’t finish, though I can’t for the life of me remember why. Out of fairness to the book I should try again.

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A Year In The Merde by STEPHEN CLARKE.  A funny book that doesn’t take itself, or the French, too seriously. A novel to make you smile rather than laugh out loud, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

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The Dark Light Years by BRIAN ALDISS.  All I can remember about this is that I read it on holiday in North Africa many years ago.  I find this cover art particularly attractive. And intriguing.  I should read it again.

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The Bonfire Of The Vanities by TOM WOLFE.  When it came out, this book was all the rage, and like loads of other people I bough a copy (at Makro in Enfield, though why I should remember that detail I do not know).  However, it sat on my shelves for several years before, after a few false starts, I finally read it.  It wasn’t at all bad, I have to admit, and much better than the film that came after.

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The Firing Squad by JAMES BARNETT.  I used to belong to one of those book clubs that sent you a book every month unless you specifically said you didn’t want it.  I dropped the ball one month and they sent me this. I’m glad they did, for it is a very entertaining read.  I must have read it three or four times over the years, and will again in a year or two.

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A Kiss Before Dying by IRA LEVIN.  This is an early edition of an excellent novel. From the man who gave us Rosemary’s Baby and The Boys From Brazil.  This is far better than those two.  There have been two movies made of it, and neither comes close to doing it justice. Don’t see the film, read the book!

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August 1914 by ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN.  I bought this at the campus bookstore at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay , Ontario when I was twenty, and one day I will definitely read it.

Comments

[Robin]

Sadly, the only one I've actually read is Bonfire of the Vanities. I did see the show about Shakespeare many years ago, and I love Rumpole, so I'll have to see if I can get my hands on that one.

Happy TT.

[Naeva - Mom of 2]

Wow, you have such a great collection of books.

[PJ]

These all look really interesting, but I've not read any of them. In fact, the only one I've heard of is Bonfire of the Vanities. Happy TT.

[she]

I'm constantly reading and have had to suffer the pain of culling my bookshelves over the years as well. I find bookcrossing helps dull the pain. That said, the only book on your list that's currently in my library is Solzhenitsyn's August 1914.

[Wylie Kinson]

Great sample of your collection.
I read Pillars of the Earth and it remains on my TOP 20 list of great reads.
Also enjoyed Wolf's Bonfire. I read the book in lieu of seeing the movie and am very glad I did!

[Beth]

Great List. I love to read, but to be honest I don't think I have read any of those. They look interesting. Will have to check them out.

[Amy Ruttan]

Some great books that I'll have to check out. I haven't read any of those, though I have heard of Bonfire of the Vanities and a Year in Merde.

Great list, Happy TT and thanks for dropping by mine.

[Thomma Lyn]

What a neat list -- fun to see the book covers and read the descriptions. And A Kiss Before Dying has been on my to-read list for a while but after reading your description of it, I'm going to bump it up higher!

Happy TT, and thank you for visiting my blog! :)

[Dewey]

How cool, I did a similar Thursday Thirteen, and I recently wrote a review of A Year in the Merde in my blog!

[EuroPosh]

I am looking forward to your list of non-fiction books. that's my kind of literature. I do read fiction occasionally, even sci-fi, like once a year...

[C D]

I think I've read Pillars of the Earth - I like Follett. A Prayer for Owen McMeany by John Irving made me laugh out loud -- on a plane... the scene of the Christmas Nativity 'disaster' -- I didn't finish the book because I hate too much intimation of the sad ending, which it did a lot. But yeah, I love it when books give me the opportunity to laugh out loud.

Anymore the only time I really read is when I'm flying... need to change that. I miss it.

[Arletta]

I remember reading two of them, for a certainty: Bonfire of the Vanities and Pillars of the Earth

The former was great sentence structure and descriptive phrases that led to nothing noteworthy at all. It wasn't a story, it was a sensationalistic diatribic character study of several with no other goal than to titillate while alledgedly denegrating the faults of persons that it actually applauded. The writing of the book is in and of itself at least as nasty as anything the characters got up to as far as it's impact on society.

Pillars of the Earth, however, was wonderful. There were bits I didn't like, for much the same reason as the formerly mentioned book, but in the end a great story emerged from the muck and slime of the pointed out faults of mankind. Which, if you think of it, is appropos for something so entitled.