Liz's Dusty Bookshelf Challenge

[Liz, Moderator]

Just starting my next dusty read: Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald...

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "Just starting my next dusty read: 'Offshore' by Penelope Fitzgerald..."

I have to get back to the dusty end of my bookshelf. I find myself attracted to my newest purchases these days.

[Liz, Moderator]

Offshore was very enjoyable. It's not a plot driven book, but it's gently satirical look at the barge-living neighbourhood of Chelsea Reach, as lives come adrift...

[Liz, Moderator]

I haven't been updating my Dusty Bookshelf Challenge. I'm making very good progress and have also finished:

Heat and Dust - very good: atmospheric, with well drawn characters.
A Dance to the Music of Time: 2nd Movement - 2nd part of this massive quartet: the upper classes imploding just before the 2nd world war. Again great characters (although many unpleasant and/or foolish!)
The Monk - Gothic classic: completely bonkers. Probably enjoyed it more than I should have!
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art - fascinating non fiction account of an epic con.
The Warden - my first Anthony Trollope. A very gentle poke at power and the church.
The Pillars of the Earth - epic cathedral building, but too much bodice-ripping for my taste and at over 900 pages you really notice the repetitions...



Only three remain!
The Angel's Game, Moon Tiger and Any Human Heart...

[Liz, Moderator]

So, Any Human Heart was excellent - I enjoyed seeing the main character evolve over the century.

The Angel's Game was a fun gothic read, but it really went over the top in the final quarter - not as good as The Shadow of the Wind.

Now only one to go... Moon Tiger

[Liz, Moderator]

Woohoo! I have completed my dusty book shelf challenge, 3 months early!

Moon Tiger took a while to get into, as it continually changes perspective without warning, but I enjoyed it in the end.

[Liz, Moderator]

I triumphed with the dusty bookshelf challenge in 2023, but it's going to be a whole lot harder in 2024.

This time I am going to focus on my physical bookshelves rather than my virtual ones - I have 17 books that really need my attention. Definitely upping the ante as I usually only tackle 10 dusty tomes a year!

Something tells me this might run to two years - as I have so many other challenges on the go...

1. A Dance to the Music of Time: 3rd Movement - Anthony Powell
2. The Beast Within - Emile Zola
3. A Month in the Country - J.L Carr
4. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
5. Hag-Seed: the Tempest Retold - Margaret Atwood
6. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
7. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
8. Educated- Tara Westover
9. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - Michelle McNamara
10. A Little History of the World - Gombrich
11. The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis
12. My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell
13. Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones
14. Leviathan- Paul Auster
15. Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup
16. This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor - Adam Kay
17. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

[Kate, Moderator]

Wow Liz, that's quite a list! Good luck!

[Liz, Moderator]

Thanks, I think I may allow myself longer as life's quite busy right now...

[Liz, Moderator]

I've yet to make a start on my dusty shelf... The next book will definitely be one, but which one?

[Liz, Moderator]

Finished my first dusty read: Educated.

I completely understand why this was such a bestseller when it came out. It's a jaw-dropping memoir and she writes very well.

(view spoiler)[I have to say the numerous car crashes (you'd think her Dad would learn from the first one...) and incidents at the scrap yard will stay with me for a long time. (hide spoiler)]

[Liz, Moderator]

Two more in quick succession, both recommended:
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald and Twelve Years a Slave.

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "Two more in quick succession, both recommended:
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald and Twelve Years a Slave.

[bookcover:Twelve Y..."

You're moving right along.

[Liz, Moderator]

Yes, I have a lot of ground to cover....

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "Yes, I have a lot of ground to cover...."

I was looking through my dusty shelves and most are series and not the one I need to read next. But I will work on it.

[Liz, Moderator]

Ha ha! I am stuck in the middle of a couple of series myself and getting hold of the next one doesn't seem to be as straightforward as it should be...

[Liz, Moderator]

I forgot to mention I'd finished This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor. Very good - a reminder of why the NHS is so special and why we need to look after our doctors and nurses (better pay & support, and realistic work schedules) so they can look after us! In turn: funny, shocking and heart-breaking. Every Brit should read this.

[Liz, Moderator]

My next dusty bookcase read will be A Dance to the Music of Time: 3rd Movement, the third volume of the quartet, following the lives of a bunch of the ruling class blundering through the 20th century. The first two books were full of sharp observations and flawed characters - I'm expecting more of the same! This time we're heading for war...

[Liz, Moderator]

Mister Pip is next along my dusty bookshelf. Great news is that it's set in Papua New Guinea, so I will get another country for my around the world challenge!

[Liz, Moderator]

The Beast Within by Emile Zola was a surprising page-turner (despite the detailed description of the workings of the 19th century French railway system!) No character is free of their beast within....

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "The Beast Within by Emile Zola was a surprising page-turner (despite the detailed description of the workings of the 19th century French railway system!) No character is free of their..."

I've only read one book by Zola, The Ladies’ Paradise, and it was surprisingly good. The Paradise, a British TV series, was based on the book... Oddly enough, I've got La Bete Humaine on my bookshelf. Maybe you've given me boot to finally read it.

[Liz, Moderator]

I thought it was really good.

[Liz, Moderator]

Two more in quick succession: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell - beautiful descriptions of Corfu and excellent characters - I found it very entertaining. A gem.

Then A Month in the Country by JL Carr - still processing this slim but rich novel. Healing, yet melancholy. More about atmosphere and incident, than plot. Beautiful.

Why do I leave these excellent books so long, before I get around to reading them?

Onto the next: Leviathan by Paul Auster. First time I've read him. Seems appropriate given that he died earlier this year. Let's see how it goes...

[Liz, Moderator]

My next dusty bookshelf read will be: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

[Liz, Moderator]

That's only 11 out of 17 read. I am confident I will get another done before the end of the year, probably Kingsley Amis' The Old Devils, the dustiest on my shelf!

The remaining five I may have to roll over to next year. They will be:

1. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
2. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
3. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
4. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
5. A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich

[Liz, Moderator]

I managed to squeeze in The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis, before the end of the year.

Written in the 1980's, you can clearly see how attitudes have changed (in this case, for the better). There is probably only one sympathetic character in the whole book, but I think that's the point. It's about a group of 'friends' desperately clinging together into old age, although they don't seem to really like each other anymore.

Amis definitely enjoys being cruel to his characters, exposing their hypocrisies, as they drown their provincial bitterness in booze (so much booze!), pining for what should have been. I think this cruel streak is a shared trait between Kingsley, and his son, Martin Amis.

The writing's still good, very sharply observed, but it feels like a time capsule. It wouldn't have been my choice for the Booker Prize that year - Margaret Atwood was in the running with The Handmaid’s Tale, which has definitely come out the stronger book in the intervening years.

[Liz, Moderator]

Song of Solomon was very good, I had forgotten how much I enjoy Toni Morrison's writing and now I'm back with another favourite author, Margaret Atwood, and Hag-Seed. I've only just started, but having spent time working in theatre, I instantly recognised the self-important artistic director...

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "Song of Solomon was very good, I had forgotten how much I enjoy Toni Morrison's writing and now I'm back with another favourite author, Margaret Atwood, and Hag-Seed..."

I'll be interested in your thoughts on Hag-Seed.

[Liz, Moderator]

I enjoyed 'Hagseed', but it's not my favourite Atwood by quite a wide margin. Prospero's revenge was satisfying, but I found the writing a little self-conscious - I am usually completely caught up in a Margaret Atwood book. Have you read it? What did you think?

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "I enjoyed 'Hagseed', but it's not my favourite Atwood by quite a wide margin. Prospero's revenge was satisfying, but I found the writing a little self-conscious - I am usually completely caught up ..."

It wasn't one of my favorites either, but I liked the concept of the play within the play.