Veronica decides to die-Paulo coelho

Not got one on the go, which is a surprise for me. Need a good one.

[quote="darkhorse57"]Charles Baudelaire's 'On Wine and Hashish' lies unread next to my bed (will start it tonight if I don't get interrupted).

Why it lies unread? You don't read it by the same reason as me cause Charles Baudelaire is the author of the only theme i.e. drug addition, inner world of the hashhead and bla bla bla

[quote="heidyj"]

darkhorse57 wrote:

Charles Baudelaire's 'On Wine and Hashish' lies unread next to my bed (will start it tonight if I don't get interrupted). Why it lies unread? You don't read it by the same reason as me cause Charles Baudelaire is the author of the only theme i.e. drug addition, inner world of the hashhead and bla bla bla

Exactly

This could sound revoltingly pretentious but it's not meant that way - but I've just been reading a collection of poems by Pablo Neruda called Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon - the translation into English by Stephen Mitchell marches alongside the original Spanish, and it really adds to the poetry.

Always liked Neruda's stuff for the gorgeous imagery he uses and also how he writes about the little things along the way - Ode to an Onion/to Laziness/to my Socks - theyre not nonsense poems but he gets such great stuff out of simple things.

Once you've read the English version and then read the Spanish - even though you might not understand it all, it definitely adds something - Spanish sounds beautifully liquid at the best of times, but it's even better here.

Ok, I was right - revoltingly pretentious! But I don't care

Today I read an old Fat Freddy's Cat comic, but since it's not a book, I suppose I should really start a Cominc thread.......

On a slightly more candyfloss note book-wise - though there's nowt wrong with candyfloss - I've just been re-reading The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris - the not-quite-a-sequel to Chocolat.

It's the perfect book to bring out the latent witch in every woman

I call it candyfloss in comparison to the debate on whether poetry loses its essential meaning and flavour when it's translated into another language. I didn't mean it in an inferior sense - there's a place for candyfloss AND meatier slabs of erm..... nourishment??? I dunno, can't think of the right word...

Oh and I've read Mister Pip - thanks to Darkle for the nudge - had been trying to read it for a bit but had other reading that I 'had' to do for big school. I really enjoyed it - quirky, and one of those great books that make a part of the world that you may not have given a second thought to previously, stay lodged in your mind afterwards.

Just finished reading Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb - first read it in a Reader's Digest Condensed volume when I was about 11 and it has, without drama, haunted me ever since. They made it into a film starring Robert Mitchum, directed by Charles Laughton I think, and it really did justice to the book.

Found a second hand copy in the student union book sale - it's a book that highlights so well the loneliness children can feel when they're burdened with stuff beyond their years - it stays with you long after reading it. Not what you'd call the most comfortable read - it's dark, and scary, but you have to keep reading because the suspense is too much.

Sometimes when you revisit a book that made an impression on you when you were a kid, it falls flat. This definitely didn't. Harry Powell has to be one of the creepiest men in book and cinema history. Forget blood and gore for chilling you - this book does it without any need of anything like that, just through the eyes of a young lad.

Going to try and find a copy of the film now - just to scare meself a bit more, y'see?

I have just restarted Frazer's The Golden Bough because I got about half way through and stopped many months ago.
I don't recall a single word, so this time best I pay more attention, eh?

Tales of Beddington village - Clayton Cook

a little book about the history of the place i grew up in