Review: 'Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World' by Simon Callow

'Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World' is the second Dickens biography that I've read properly in this year of Dickens' bicentenary (the first being Claire Tomalin's), and I think the two biographies work very well together, in a strangely coincidentally complimentary manner. 

Simon Callow's biography is much shorter, at 370 pages including notes and an index, and speeds along at quite a fast clip, passing through the events of his childhood quite quickly and onto his adult life. All the facts stand up and it's clearly very well-researched, but the point at which this biography really comes alive is when Dickens enters the theatre. It is as this point that Simon Callow has his most to say, and the most new information to impart, as, being an actor, this is clearly the aspect of Dickens' life that interests him the most.  







In My Mailbox, No. 6

It's April, which means it's In My Mailbox time again, hosted as always by The Story Siren! So...





'Ashenden, or, The British Agent' by W. Somerset Maugham is my current read, and was part of a wonderful late birthday present last Saturday. It's my first Somerset Maugham, which is quite exciting. Review to follow in a week or so.








'The Pendragon Legend' by Antal Szerb, and translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix, was the second part of my late birthday present, and it's an intriguing-sounding murder mystery/hilarious romp/'gently satirical blend of gothic and romantic genres' (according to the blurb). Yikes. Looking forward to this.






'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer marked the beginning of a little shopping spree that I had in my local Waterstones on Wednesday, when I feeling a bit down. Buying books always make me feel better, and if I chose instinctively, rather than by just buying what I need, I often end up buying books with vague answers in for me. Anyway, this was on buy one, get one half price at the front of the store, and see ing as the consensus seems to be that the film is a miss, I though now's as good a time to read this as any.








'South Of The Border, West Of The Sun' by Haruki Murakami was the next book I picked up - this is one of only a few of his that I haven't read, and I liked the thought of a slim volume that I could make my way through in a few days. Really excited about this, so might read it after 'Ashenden' above.






'Surfacing' by Margaret Atwood was bought as a consequence of three things: I had Murakami and Safran Foer in hand, and thought I need to buy something by a girl; it is also slim, and the cover is the most dreamy, calming blue; a couple of years ago, I read David Lodge's 'Art of Fiction' and this book was given as an example of a successful present tense narrative.







'The Pale King' by David Foster Wallace was my fourth pick on Wednesday, as I feel I should have read something of his by now, and also it had an offer sticker that made it my 'get one free'. The blurb sounds good, so we'll see. Incidentally, I felt quite intellectual carrying it round the store :)







That's it for now I think; what are you reading?







Review: Bulgakov's 'The Master & Margarita' - the Novel and the Play

'The Master and Margarita', Bulgakov's riotuous, surrealist masterpiece, was pressed into my hand by my lovely friend Abi, already mentioned for her fabulous book taste, several months ago, and it sat on my TBR pile until a week or so ago, when I realised the showing of Complicite's stage version, at London's Barbican Theatre, for which we had tickets, was fast approaching, so down it came.

Having both read the book and seen the play this past week, the two are now inexorably linked in my mind, so I'll explore the both, albeit separately, in this one blog post.

First of all, The Novel:

'The Master & Margarita' is as surrealist and fantastical as any book you are ever likely to read, with one of the profoundest and most exciting dangerous messages of any book I've ever read.   







B*tches in Bookshops and 'On the Road' Trailer

B*tches in Bookshops. YES. So funny. Love that people make these things.

via Literary Musings, The Huffington Post and about a thousand others...
(here's the transcript)

And really excited about this - the trailer for Kerouac's insane masterpiece, On the Road. Kirsten Stewart looks really intriguing as Mary-Lou, although Garrett Hedlund isn't much like how I imagined Dean. Might re-read it before it comes out...







Friday Miscellany

So, I've read/found some cool stuff lately, so I thought I'd share:

Firstly, I've joined  The Classics Club! Follow that hyperlink, or click the above tab, to see my carefully crafted list of 83 (!) classic books that I aim to read in the next 4 years, so by March 2016. The idea of it, cleverly crafted by Jillian at A Room of One's Own, is that you choose 50+ classics that you always meant to/fancied reading, and then set your own time limit for reading them, as long as its within the next 5 years. I'm really excited about this, and am looking forward to getting started.

This is a really interesting article from The Millions, about finding inspiration in writing class:

I LOVE the idea of the 'skinny skeleton' and the tiny boxes of ideas.

Also, I'd like to draw your attention to all the exciting new people on my blogroll, which I gave a little make-over/face-lift last week. Hopefully you know some, don't know others, and enjoy exploring these funny, quirky, clever blogs as much I did. It never ceases to amaze me how many great book bloggers out there I just haven't found yet.

And one last thing - I managed to get tickets to see Regina Spektor at the Royal Albert Hall in July, so I've been dancing now for roughly two days :D
 






Review: 'Molotov's Magic Lantern' by Rachel Polonsky

So, I thought I'd do another video review; this time for 'Molotov's Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History' by Rachel Polonsky.

What I basically said was:







'Girl Reading' by Katie Ward

'So Maria must go to the library. She balances on the step, stretches to her full height to reach the shelves, turns books over, sorts them into piles and replaces them. New books and old books, books she has never seen before. Flicks and fans through pages. What would Angelica want to hear? What is Maria prepared to read?'

'Girl Reading' by Katie Ward is another book from the pile very kindly sent to me by the More4 TV Book Club, but isn't one that requires a video review (for my attempt at that see here).

The basic structure of this story is that it is not one story at all, but rather 7 short stories, linked by the common theme of featuring a girl reading. The quote above is from the third story, 'Angelica Kauffman, 'Portrait of a Lady, 1775'; the other six feature a hospital orphan in 1333 Siena, a servant girl in the house of a 17th century Dutch painter, a spiritualist and her twin in Victorian London, a female academic, her sister and the man who comes between them in 1916 Arnault, an MP's researcher in 2008 Shoreditch and, finally, a virtual lady programme in 2060. The books are obvious in some, less obvious in others.