Subject: Punching well above our weight.
I'm subject to binges, not liquor binges, the call to those has long gone. My binges are books and authors, genres which ebb and flow depending on what has caught my eye.
I'm subject to binges, not liquor binges, the call to those has long gone. My binges are books and authors, genres which ebb and flow depending on what has caught my eye.
Many years ago I bought every spy novel by John le Carre, fascinated by his story telling and intrigued by the murky world of espionage. It was such a pleasure to take up his story line each day, the intrigue and the cross dealing, never quite knowing who's side who was on.
Books by Philip Roth who novels about America and the American psych are spellbinding, as is the textured travel writing of Jonathan Raban with his insight into the open spaces of the USA and his love of a coastal sea on which he meditates about the country sitting just across the strip of water between him and the shore. The pathos and hedonism which spoils so much of what goes on on land. Another American author Richard Ford, is great for his complex gritty plots which have you squirming.
Travel writers though are my favourite. Paul Theroux takes the journey onto a different level, his narrative is full of characters he meets along the way. Their stories are the backdrop of the place he is visiting and bring to life the essence of each country.
At the moment I am captivated by the prose of Colin Thubron an English travel writer in the 1980s, his trips through China and Russia, the steppe, the immensity of space and the effect that space and history has had on the people makes the read fulfilling. But it's more than the story and the detail he describes, it's the way he describes it, his choice of words and his skill of knitting the words into a slow subplot. The story comes alive as each sentence is examined as a work of art. I read him slowly like sucking a boiled sweet the flavours revealing themselves, all in good time.
The ease at which you can go on a trip into the unknown, no jet lag, no queues only a £9 fee paid up front and off you go.
From political intrigue to financial skull
duggery. From the biography of a childhood hero to the historical perspective of wars fought generations ago but which in their time warped the world and may well do so again.
Human beings, in all their stark disingenuousness, perhaps more nature than nurture, more confused by the system we use to evaluate our sense of right and wrong than a desire to do harm.
Books on the quantum and the quark, books on time and it's implications which have no meaning in our observable universe. Concepts of space and time which sets us not at the centre of anything but an inconsequential blip right at the edge of just a small part of the universe.
Books on theology and religious observance, books on belief and conflict due to that belief. Books on evolution which place the biblical story somewhat adrift in time. Books of philosophy which try to reason our reason for reasoning, and books of human involvement which make one realise that given our inconsequentialness we never the less seem to continue, as a species, to punch well above our weight.
Books by Philip Roth who novels about America and the American psych are spellbinding, as is the textured travel writing of Jonathan Raban with his insight into the open spaces of the USA and his love of a coastal sea on which he meditates about the country sitting just across the strip of water between him and the shore. The pathos and hedonism which spoils so much of what goes on on land. Another American author Richard Ford, is great for his complex gritty plots which have you squirming.
Travel writers though are my favourite. Paul Theroux takes the journey onto a different level, his narrative is full of characters he meets along the way. Their stories are the backdrop of the place he is visiting and bring to life the essence of each country.
At the moment I am captivated by the prose of Colin Thubron an English travel writer in the 1980s, his trips through China and Russia, the steppe, the immensity of space and the effect that space and history has had on the people makes the read fulfilling. But it's more than the story and the detail he describes, it's the way he describes it, his choice of words and his skill of knitting the words into a slow subplot. The story comes alive as each sentence is examined as a work of art. I read him slowly like sucking a boiled sweet the flavours revealing themselves, all in good time.
The ease at which you can go on a trip into the unknown, no jet lag, no queues only a £9 fee paid up front and off you go.
From political intrigue to financial skull
Human beings, in all their stark disingenuousness, perhaps more nature than nurture, more confused by the system we use to evaluate our sense of right and wrong than a desire to do harm.
Books on the quantum and the quark, books on time and it's implications which have no meaning in our observable universe. Concepts of space and time which sets us not at the centre of anything but an inconsequential blip right at the edge of just a small part of the universe.
Books on theology and religious observance, books on belief and conflict due to that belief. Books on evolution which place the biblical story somewhat adrift in time. Books of philosophy which try to reason our reason for reasoning, and books of human involvement which make one realise that given our inconsequentialness we never the less seem to continue, as a species, to punch well above our weight.
No comments:
Post a Comment