Owner: Eloise by the Book Piles URL:http://eloisebythebookpiles.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:06:55 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog mainly about books, reading and writing with an emphasis on pre-1950s literature and an obsession with ghost stories. Site statistics:Click here
Time to fish or cut bait 2008-03-15 08:29:00 I'm about half way through Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm, which I am substituting for Cat's Eye because of the library's lack of foresight in allowing someone else to borrow it when I needed it for a reading challenge, but it's decision time, time to fish or cut bait (to use a lovely expression that I first heard on Three Men and a Little Lady).I don't hate it but I can't say I'm really enjoying it. The main character Rennie, whom I initially found sympathetic because of the breast cancer that she is attempting to deal with, I now find irritating; she gives everyone mental make-overs and goes on holiday without any books! And then constantly whinges that she wishes she had a book, but not to read, to hide from conversations.And nothing is happening. I can take books with little action, I'v
A long overdue introduction to Georgette 2008-03-20 03:03:00 There's a nasty stomach bug going around, which seems to have hit quite a few bloggers too, and yesterday I had a little dose and was sent home from work straight away by my manager with dire warnings of how much I was going to be ill over Easter. Luckily my iron stomach seems to have fought most of it off now, but I was very glad to be at home and near my own facilities. I also took the opportunity of an unexpected day at home to finally become acquainted with Georgette Heyer.There have been so many reviews and pieces about her work in the blog world in recent months, and with Elaine's article in Estella's Revenge and another article in the Winter Slightly Foxed, I decided to finally see what these books are that my parents have been reading as long as I can remember.I picked up The Toll
Dreaming of a white Easter 2008-03-22 13:05:00 It's snowing, big fat beautiful flakes that float down from the sky, rather than fall. I am having comfortable visions of being snowed in for the weekend, as a number of American bloggers have written about over the past couple of months, where there is nothing for it but to sit in front of the fire with hot drinks and a pile of books.Unfortunately, though, this is England in March, and I can already see blue sky where the wind has blown the snow clouds over and it looks as though the sprinkling of icing sugar on the garden is all we are going to get. This is a shame; I love the quiet of a day where there has been thick snow and as it is Easter
Sunday tomorrow, with few shops open, there would have been even fewer people trying to drive past the house through the snow and disturbing the pe Read more:Dreaming
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 2008-03-25 04:25:00 This is a monumental book but the thing that amazed me the most about it was how tightly controlled the plot was. I had got the mistaken impression that it wandered about a bit, and contained stories within stories but, although at times it appears to be heading in this direction, everything is ultimately connected to the Count and comes back to him. The story is well known, a brief recap is all that is necessary: Edmond Dantès, a young man about to be made captain of his ship and marry the girl he loves is falsely arrested for being a part of a Bonapartist conspiracy and spends fifteen years in the prison on Chateau D'If with an Abbé who tells of a magnificent treasure hidden on the island of MonteCristo
. Some twenty five years after the arrest the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo eme Read more:Alexandre
Spooky New England by S E Schlosser 2008-03-27 12:42:00 I love the cover of this book of New England
ghost and folk tales; there are illustrations in the same style throughout by Paul G. Hoffman. The book is published by The Globe Pequot Press, ISBN: 978-0-7627-2827-5.It is unusual for a book of regional ghost stories in that it is portrayed as fiction rather than a series of experiences. Occasionally I felt I would have liked some of the stories to have been in a more reportage style, hearing genuine people's experiences, but I suspect the stories are ones that have passed into New England lore, and tracking down someone who claimed to have had the actual experiences would be difficult.The stories vary but a number are around the sea such as one where a couple of girls sheltering in a strange house from a storm are woken by a figure of a man i Read more:Spooky
The allure of Mr Bean 2008-03-26 13:50:00 No, I'm not talking about Rowan Atkinson, but Sheffield's finest, Mr Sean Bean, specifically as Sharpe. Apologies to male readers, this is going to be a girly post.I didn't watch Sharpe when it was first shown in the mid-nineties as I was a flighty young twenty-something gadding about town, and it didn't interest me. The History Channel has been showing them recently though and I've caught a couple and have become obsessed in a quite unseemly way for an old married woman. Recently I have been finding Sean Bean more and more attractive, and in these programmes he is in his prime as the noble and brave Sharpe, fighting Napoleon's armies.I decided to treat myself today; yesterday evening when I had had a day off and J had been let loose on his own in Sheffield he snuck into the house with a P Read more:allure
Cookery books and a culinary challenge 2008-03-30 11:59:00 Not content with devising the Russian Reading Challenge for this year, Sharon at Ex Libris has created another great but completely different challenge, one that I was powerless to resist: The Soup's On Culinary Challenge. The challenge is to review six cookery books in a year, starting from April 1st. You don't have to read them cover to cover but give an impression of the sort of book they are. And, since we are talking cookery books here, you also have to make at least one recipe from them. That was what swung it for me, as I am slipping back into prepacked ready meals already this year and need a push to get creative - and less lazy- in the kitchen.I love food and I also love to cook; little makes me feel more contented and at peace with the world than baking a cake. And as a result I Read more:Cookery
New Books 2008-04-02 06:35:00 A couple of new books have found their way into my house, mostly directly leading on from other reading. Firstly I have, as I mentioned the other day, a copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, that I am resisting the lure of at the present. Elaine warned in a comment that it will take over my life when I start to read it, which I think I guessed. I am going to hold off for as long as I can as there are other things that I need to do that have been neglected for books recently, like getting the seed potatoes chitting and trying to remove the last of the bramble before it begins to grow again. Winter is over already, it doesn't get dark till past seven o'clock at night, and I am not prepared.A book which has been a cause of this garden neglect was Abarat by Clive Barker Read more:Books
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke 2008-03-31 02:33:00 '"Miss Parbringer, I will give you a piece of advice in return for yours (for I am certain that it was given in good faith). Magic, madam is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk. A successful spell is as potent a loosener of tongues as a bottle of good claret and you will find the morning after that you have said things you now regret."With that he bowed and walked back through the orchard into the house."A magician in Grace
Adieu," said Miss Tobias thoughtfully, "and at such a time. Well, let us not be disconcerted. We will see what tomorrow brings."'I have seen so much about Susanna Clarke
and her novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell that I really did not want to like her writing. I have this tendancy, to react against the things that everyone else thinks a
If only I had the money... 2008-04-04 10:55:00 Just a quick post. Tomorrow J and I are attending our graduation for our Open University law degrees (we studied them together); I, being the most clumsy person in the world, twisted my ankle quite badly yesterday. Don't ask me how I did it, I was sober (it was seven o'clock in the morning) wearing walking boots not heels, and walking along a flat piece of pavement. I didn't even fall over, just stumbled a bit but managed to completely turn my ankle at the same time.The swelling has gone down since yesterday evening when it looked like someone had inserted an egg under the skin of my ankle but it is still a bit painful to walk on. I think I am paying now for wearing platform shoes in the early nineties and going clubbing in them, resulting in many turned ankles that seemed to have no effec
OpenLearn 2008-04-06 01:24:00 I managed to get across the stage alright for my graduation yesterday with my hurt ankle for my two seconds of glory, but more importantly I learned of a fascinating new initiative from the Open University during the Vice Chancellor's speech that others might also be interested in.OpenLearn is a resource being developed by the OU where they put learning resources up on their website. I checked it out as soon as we got home and expected it to be just a random set of resources available for browsing, but it is much better than that. They have put up a series of mini-courses that anyone can access for free. So if you have an interest in something and want to learn about it in a structured way but don't want to commit to a full course you can undertake these courses.They are learning for its o
Plutarch's Cicero 2008-04-07 07:33:00 I was reading about Cicero the other day and the piece quoted Plutarch's Life a couple of times, which reminded me of my ongoing project to read the Lives and inspired me to see what Plutarch thought of this man.The general impression one is left with is that Cicero was enormously intelligent but arrogant, with a big mouth that got him into trouble. He was a statesman and philosopher but it appears that he was almost more famous for his biting quips, a classical Oscar Wilde, such as when the rich Roman Crassus denied ever having said that members of his family never lived beyond sixty and asked why he would have said such a thing, Cicero replied: It was to gain the people's favour, you knew how glad they would be to hear it. The victims of his wit did not always appreciate being the butt o
Rediscovering an old love 2008-04-09 12:16:00 I've really been enjoying doing the OpenLearn What is Poetry course. As I worked on it I suddenly remembered that I used to love writing poetry some twenty years ago, and wasn't that bad at it either. So why did I stop?Today, to further my quest to understand poetry better, I bought Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled and in the first two lines he supplied the reason:'I have a dark and dreadful secret, I write poetry.This is an embarrassing confession for an adult to make.'And he's right, I stopped writing poetry because it felt vaguely embarrassing and adolescent. It's not what grown-ups do. Now the poet within me, kept in a dark and well-locked cupboard for many years, has been unleashed and I have begun again, but don't panic! I won't be inflicting my attempts on you here on this blog.
Beware the Cat by WIlliam Baldwin 2008-04-12 07:06:00 I picked up this curiosity (published by the Huntington Library Press, ISBN: 0-87328-154-3) in the bookshop of the British Library. It is subtitled 'The first English novel', with an introduction to explain why and also lay out some of the historical context for the work.The scholars who have prepared this book for publication (William A Ringler Jr and Michael Flachmann) trace the works that precede this to firmly and convincingly stake Beware
the Cat's claim as the first real novel in English:'Until William Baldwin
's Beware The Cat, written in the first half of 1553, we can find no original work of English fiction of more than short-story length in which we see consistent character portaryal and a sequence of events that form a coherent plot.'Having read it, it certainly does have these
A Modest Poetry Challenge: An Ezra Pound Poem 2008-04-11 12:31:00 Firstly thanks to Kate for organising this month-long ModestPoetryChallenge
. It may not be National Poetry Month in the UK, but it is in this house, and my love of poetry has been reawakened. Although I have still occasionally read poetry over the past few years, I don't think I've thought as much about it since I was at school and it has been very enjoyable.As I mentioned I've been using OpenLearn to do a short course on poetry and this by Ezra Pound
is one of the poems that is used as an example on the course where it is not discussed in any great detail other than to show the power a short poem can have. For me it is quite a perfect and beautiful poem. (It also reminded me how much I used to love Ezra Pound's writing, and I was saddened to see the other day that, according to Sheffie
The Joy of Metre or, a complaint about my schooling 2008-04-15 13:00:00 I am enjoying Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled so much, I really can't recommend it highly enough if you would like to learn about the technical side of poetry. It is written in an intelligent, unpatronising way (he refers to other works on prosody throughout and even dares to disagree with Nabokov at one point) but thankfully he does not assume any previous knowledge; every term is clearly explained. Fry no more expects you to automatically know what metre is than what an acephelous anapaest is [it is a foot of three syllables, two unstressed then one stressed, with the first unstressed or weak syllable docked. This is effectively an iamb (a foot of two syllables- unstressed, stressed) but because it begins a line in a verse written in anapaestic metre it can be thought of as an aceph
Tales from the Hanging Court by Tim Hitchcock and Robert Shoemaker 2008-04-16 12:25:00 I have a great interest in the history of the legal system in England and how it developed and Tales
from the HangingCourt
, which looks at crime and punishment in the eighteenth century as illustrated by the Old Bailey Proceedings, covers one of the most interesting times.This century is the one where formalities were introduced, such as the presence of counsel for the defence and prosecution or the introduction of the Bow Street Runners as the beginnings of a formal police force.At the start of the century a cry of 'Stop Thief!' or 'Murder!' meant that every law-abiding citizen in the area was honour bound to drop what they were doing and run to help. In an age where we often hear of horrific crimes happening while passers-by do not dare interfere there is a charm to this, but it was als Read more:Hitchcock
, Robert
More metric excitement 2008-04-18 13:10:00 Is it wrong to be so excited about poetry? I can't help but feel it is. There are going to be a lot of posts like this as I work my way through Stephen Fry's book The Ode Less Travelled, and I'm still only in the first section on Metre. There's Rhyme, Form, and Diction and Poetics Today still to come, I'm afraid. Usually I like to read a book, let it settle for a bit and then write about it but I am so enthralled by this that it is spilling out of me.This morning on the train as I opened it and realised the section I had got to the evening before I felt the excitement bubble up inside me like a child who has been given a present - the metre of Anglo-Saxon poetry! There, aren't you just as excited at the thought?Okay, I'll admit I think I probably need help. However, it really is interestin
Blind poetry tasting 2008-04-21 14:19:00 I think I'm pretty secure in the fact that I read the things I read, poetry and prose, because I enjoy them and not because they are works that you 'should' read. I would hate to become that sort of person, who spouts the names of authors to impress other people rather than because I have a genuine pleasure in reading their works.It is always nice to have this reaffirmed, though, as it was yesterday. I was idly opening the Penguin Book of English verse at random and reading the odd poem. This book is arranged chronologically, rather than in chunks of single poets, a method I really like. The other day there was a discussion in my office about the Mona Lisa and someone was saying what a disappointment it was; this is not a surprising view, it is such a familiar image that when some people a Read more:Blind
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman 2008-04-24 11:07:00 After Coraline I was anxious to read this collection of short stories for adults by Neil Gaiman (this review has been a long time coming), and this is most definitely a collection for adults. I found it a little up and down; some stories were sublime, some were so-so. I suspect most people, apart from the most ardent Gaiman fans, would think the same, but which stories would be classed in which category would vary from person to person, as it is an extremely varied and very inventive collection.The first story in the collection, A Study in Emerald, is a good introduction; it allows you to get your bearings and work out the sort of territory you are entering for the relatively uninitiated into Gaiman's work, such as me. It is available to read for free on Neil Gaiman's site here, and I can
The Awakening by Kate Chopin 2008-04-28 12:21:00 'It would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define to his own satisfaction or any one else's wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children. It was something which he felt rather than perceived, and he never voiced the feeling without subsequent regret and ample atonement. ...In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The motherwomen seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. ' [Spoiler alert:I can't write about this small book without al Read more:Chopin
I must be cursed 2008-04-27 12:28:00 This afternoon I planned to do some planting but put it off until I finished The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry and on finishing it I can confidently say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. A proper review will be forthcoming when it's settled into my brain properly, but this is my instant assessment.After I finished the book I pulled on my wellies and gardening gloves and got myself settled on my kneeling pad, happily weeding the dug-over patch of the garden and thinking about poetry. Then I began to plant some lettuces.I had only planted four out of twelve when the heavens opened. Not just a shower you understand, I was prepared to keep gardening in that, but a full blown thunderstorm.I carried on regardless to finish the row but by then it was too much and I had to run
The need for sympathy 2008-04-30 11:10:00 When I posted my thoughts on The Awakening I had a feeling that a lot of people would not agree with my rather lukewarm feelings, and it was interesting to read other people's views. Amateur Reader posed a good question though - how important is it to sympathise with a main character to enjoy a book?I found myself wondering about this after I replied - I responded that without empathy for a character in a book like The Awakening which is, in essence, about one person's feelings and experience, it makes the reading experience hollow.First though, there is a need to think about the words. Sympathy and empathy are not quite the same things, although I may at times use them as synonyms. Sympathy is the ability to share someone else's feelings, empathy is the ability to understand them and rela
A post about being lax 2008-05-03 08:46:00 I seem to have been rather lax with the blogging recently, both posting and keeping up with everyone else's, there don't seem to be enough hours in the day. And that is only going to get worse as we have Grand Theft Auto IV in the house and as soon as J leaves the playstation alone for a moment I will be spending some serious quality time with Niko Bellic, stealing cars and taking on drug dealers and the Mafia.I've been reading quite a bit too though, often to the background noise of gunfire and car chases as J plays the above mentioned game, but it didn't stop me losing myself completely in the last part of Anna Karenina which I finished this morning; what a masterpiece it was, there is no other word for a book so rich and compelling. I also read a collection of stories by a Polish writer
A ramble and how other people buy books 2008-05-06 13:20:00 Today was my only day in the office after the magical vanishing Bank Holiday (gone before my very eyes!) as I am here, there, and everywhere this week, attending workshops and conferences. This is tiring, but does mean that I will have a few hours on the train for some quality book time with no distractions, which will be very welcome. I hope to finish both books I'm in the middle of - Pandora in the Congo, and How to read a Poem and fall in love with poetry by Edward Hirsch.The latter I picked up after reading about it on Fiske's blog. It is a good follow-up to the Stephen Fry book; I was anxious not to have my newly reawakened passion for poetry peter out and to fall back into the lazy habits of only occasionally picking up a poetry book on a rainy afternoon. I want poetry to be a perm Read more:people
Auden's Notebook 2008-05-10 04:41:00 One of my trips this week involved a visit to London and, as my train arrived half an hour early, I managed to squeeze in a short visit to the British Library, one of my favourite places on this planet.I was intending to see if I could find any curiosities in the bookshop, but for some reason it was closed and instead I visited the Ritblat collection, the Library's permanent exhibition of some of its treasures such as the Magna Carta.I had a quick glance at some of my favourites, Edward VI's diary, Captain Cook's journal and a letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra. I discovered a journal written by Samuel Johnson while on a trip to Wales with Mrs Thrale which I have never noticed before and lingered over that for a while, examining this hero of mine's handwriting, but what really Read more:Notebook
In Sarah's House by Stefan Grabinski 2008-05-12 11:48:00 'Suddenly the silence was rent by a terrible, piercing scream. It was so terrifying, so searing, that despite my previous resolve I ran back into the salon.It was dark inside. A moment ago it was awash in streams of light, and now it was shrouded in a thick pall of darkness. The electric lights were off; gone was the glitter of the fantastic girandoles. The scream stopped abruptly. Into the room s Read more:Sarah
, House
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