Book Diary – January 2015

‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’ by Alain De Botton

Thursday 1st January – Sunday 4th January

It’s much easier to write a critical review of a book than to pin down exactly why it is that I love one. This falls in to the latter category. Over the course of ten or eleven chapters, ADB spends time with a range of people in different jobs and tries to explain the value as well as the costs of working life. He manages to produce a book that is amusing, thought-provoking and in places quite moving. His skill lies in presenting the people in a non-judgmental way, whilst at the same time revealing quite intimate details of their working lives and personalities. I’m preparing to have a clear-out of my books soon and will only keep those which I intend to read again. This will definitely be kept as I think it is the sort of book that can be read repeatedly, at different stages of life, and each time will reveal different things to the reader. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

‘American Tabloid’ by James Ellroy

Tuesday 6th January – Sunday 25th January

As always, following a great book is a poisoned chalice. So now what I tend to do is grab a book I know and love to ease the transition into the next book. That way, my craving for something new outweighs the desire for something good and allows me to run the risk of drawing a dud from the ever-present pile of unread stuff. On this occasion, I chose to re-read James Ellroy’s American Tabloid, his reimagining of the events leading up to the assassination of JFK. As ever, he gets you involved with some of the most amoral and/or repulsive sleazebags I’ve encountered in literature and keeps you turning those pages until you reach the end. I’m still in a state of uncomprehending awe at his ability to weave together the thoughts and actions of half-a-dozen or more characters (some of them real and high-profile) into an entirely plausible narrative.

‘The Art of Travel’ by Alain De Botton

Sunday 25th January – Sunday 1st February

In a few weeks’ time, we will be visiting Rome for the first time. I’m very excited about it as I have heard almost exclusively good things about the city. I’ve also had an urge to visit Italy for several years and this will be the moment at which intention becomes act. I am really determined to enjoy the visit but at the same time concerned that I am building myself up for almost inevitable disappointment. Therefore it was of great interest to me that ADB had written a book on the subject of travel – why we do it, how we do it, the ways in which we get it wrong and what we might do to enjoy our travels more.

Whilst I am unlikely to lavish this book with the same degree of praise as I did ‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’, I still enjoyed it greatly. It was a slower starter, but once again contained passages which gave me the feeling that ADB was somehow reading my mind and articulating my thoughts more accurately than I ever could. The truth is however, that he is often simply collating and quoting the thoughts of others.

The chapter which struck the loudest chord with me was chapter 2, in which ADB describes how Gustave Flaubert felt more in tune with ‘the Orient’ (or Egypt to you and me) than his native France. I must admit that I felt very much at home during the two long weekends Emma and I spent in Amsterdam and at the time of writing would very happily move there permanently.

I don’t think the book is quite as good as ‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’ but still provides plenty of food for thought.

Book Diary – December 2014

‘The Potter’s Field’ by Andrea Camilleri

Wednesday 3rd December – Wednesday 10th December

I won’t go into too much detail here as I think I have already written everything there is for me to say about Andrea Camilleri’s novels. Even then, I am probably repeating myself.

What I enjoy most is not so much the story as the opportunity to spend time with the characters. Even though I’m not sure I’d like them as much if they were real people, I enjoy reading the books a great deal and it’s always because of the characters rather than the pretty grim stories.

‘Art as Therapy’ by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong

Wednesday 10th December – Friday 19th December

This was a bit of treat with the rest of my leaving-present voucher. It had first caught my eye in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam back in the spring.

In this book, de Botton and Armstrong argue that art is consumed in the wrong ways currently. That we are often left unimpressed because we are told that a painting is impressive without a proper explanation as to why. They contend that we need different art for different purposes and that carefully selected pieces can make us more rounded, balanced individuals.

This is the kind of argument that at first reading can sound like the ramblings of delusional intellectuals or the insight of someone who is capable of looking from a different angle and declaring that in fact the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. Their arguments are certainly persuasive, not least because at times they managed to articulate something which had nagged at the back of my mind when visiting galleries – that a piece of world-famous art isn’t actually all that engaging.

‘The Outsider – A History of the Goalkeeper’ by Jonathan Wilson

Friday 19th December – Thursday 1st January 2015

I don’t think I’m stumbling across anything new when I say that certain writers write a certain way. I don’t think George Pelecanos is capable of writing anything other than a crime novel that ends in a violent shoot-out (and the bad guy inevitably dies), and I don’t think Jonathan Wilson is capable of writing in a different style from this. It suffers from the same flaws as ‘Nobody Ever Says Thank You’ but has the same redeeming qualities too. As ever, the level of research that has gone into this book makes me wonder if Wilson ever sleeps (knowing as I do that he combines his time between South America, Africa, the UK, editing the Blizzard magazine and writing for any sports website/publication that will pay him) and there is lots of interesting information conveyed to the reader throughout.

As mentioned above, it does have flaws: the slightly dry style, a common theme with ‘Nobody Ever Says Thank You’ and the inclusion of some rather dated and seemingly pointless anecdotes which led me to believe that the text was being padded somewhat. As a result, I would question who decides that this book needs to be written as a book, Wilson himself or his publisher. In the end the book goes from a history of the role of goalkeepers in general to a succession of detailed pen-pictures of significant keepers over the last century or so, loosely grouped according to the theme of the chapter. I guess this is where the book comes from – it’s too long to make a readable article on a website (and probably requiring too much research to make such a prospect profitable for JW), but probably lacking enough material for the full-length book to be an outright success.

Perhaps I’m casting JW in the role he identifies the goalkeeper here and picking up on a few mistakes rather than highlighting the many successes of this book. It is successful in analysing the origins of the role and identifying why it is regarded with such wariness by most people, and charting the subsequent evolution of the role, influenced by the changes in rules and tactics over time. In all, it should be applauded for covering all the angles and not remembered for straying from its line occasionally.

Book Diary – July 2014

‘August Heat’ by Andrea Camilleri

Thursday 10th July  

Finished inside a day! And a work day at that.

As this is the fifth or sixth Montalbano book I’ve read, there isn’t a great deal more I can add to what I’ve already written. Suffice to say, the books are an absolute pleasure to read despite their often sleazy subject matter. It’s no surprise that I’ll be following this with another straight away (although this is influenced by the impending library deadline to a certain extent).

‘The Track of Sand’ by Andrea Camilleri

Friday 11th July

Two days, two books. I’m on a roll! It’s unlikely that I will continue at this rate though.

 

‘The Architecture of Happiness’ by Alain de Botton

Sunday 13th July – Sunday 20th July

I probably profess to like a great number of things, greater than I can possibly devote enough time to in order to sustain a decent level of interest. However, despite this I will now claim to like architecture. One of the best bits of a trip to London is looking at the new, modern blocks of apartments rising from the ground as the train passes through Stratford and the like. I have also been known to watch repeats of Grand Designs, so what more evidence would I possibly need to provide that I Like Architecture?!

It’s this interest which prompted me to borrow this book from the library and I was richly rewarded. It’s not a long book, and many of its 267 pages are occupied with photos literally illustrating the point Alain De Botton is making. Despite that, there are a lot of interesting points raised and thoughts provoked.

He has some very interesting theories regarding attractiveness, the meaning of the home, fashion and our duty to replace the natural beauty of the countryside with something more attractive rather than endless mass-produced identikit homes. As somebody who has occasionally entertained the idea of building his own home, this book gave me a lot to think about.

‘The Apple’ by Michael Faber

Sunday 20th July

Following on from ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ comes this collection of short stories.

Now, I’m not normally a fan of short stories. I often feel that if the idea were good enough it would be written into a full-length novel and as such many books of short stories are little more than collections of half-formed ideas and unfinished work – closer to a sketchbook than the finished canvas of the novel.

However, this book is somehow different. Each story really is a story and despite being a little different from what I am accustomed to reading, I really enjoyed it. In fact, in a bout of insomnia, I finished the book in one evening. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, but especially those who have read ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ as I think the background knowledge does add something to the enjoyment of the shorter stories.