Welcome to The Midnight Bell (a virtual pub and general discussion thread) (2024)

[Jan C]

Reading resolutions? I would still like to make some progress on the amount of unread books - both physical and on the Kindle.

[G]

I just toted up my reading. I counted books rather than authors.

Female/male authors: 71/46

UK: 50
US: 26
Can.: 10
Other: 26, of which 11 were non-European

Translated work: 28 (21 were either written or translated by women, or both)

I'm dismayed to see that apparently I only read 12-15 books by writers who do not identify as white.

In the coming year I want to read more work in translation, somewhat more non-European work, and significantly more work by persons of color.

[Susan_MG]

My Female/male is 128/29
I added a shelf for reading the 20th century That means the book was mentioned/recommended on a group thread. 61 of the books I read this year fell into this category.

[Blaine]

And my 2024 statistics

28 books written by women, 28 written by men (not planned that way)

47 fiction, 9 non-fiction (a broad category)

14 published in the 2020's (surprisingly high for me)
5 published 2000-2019 (yes, I know the century started in 2001, but still)
33 published in the 20th century
4 published earlier (not counting Montaigne's essays and the Heptameron, which hopefully will show up in next year's stats)

21 written by British writers
19 by writers in the USA (including 3 by Joyce Carol Oates and 3 by Kurt Vonnegut)
7 written in English elsewhere
9 translated

I'm hoping to find some time in 2025 to revisit some philosophy texts that were important to me in university. With another stab at Proust, my unfinished Montaigne and more JCO, it doesn't look like it will be a year for light reading.

[Roman Clodia]

Susan_MG wrote: "I added a shelf for reading the 20th century"

I did something similar in that I added a shelf for books read with this group - just over 30 either group reads or buddies in 2024 so about two and a half books a month shared with you lovely people.

[Roman Clodia]

I'm two books off my reading challenge of 150 so need a couple of shortish books to finish (just for neatness, you understand!)

One is the new Annie Ernaux - any suggestions for a second short read, maybe a novella, to round off my year?

[Roman Clodia]

Ben wrote: "With another stab at Proust, my unfinished Montaigne and more JCO, it doesn't look like it will be a year for light reading."

I, on the contrary, am intending to do more light reading in 2025. Having enjoyed the Magpie Murder series and Day of the Jackal so much, I realized I'd been passing up pure fun/entertainment reading so need to get that back into balance in the new year.

[Sonia]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I'm two books off my reading challenge of 150 so need a couple of shortish books to finish (just for neatness, you understand!)

One is the new Annie Ernaux - any suggestions for a second short re..."

Not sure what to suggest to someone so widely read. Carys Davies and Claire Keegan spring to mind as contemporary authors. For old books maybe Passing by Nella Larsen or The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

[Susan]

I have Elizabeth Bowen: short stories: Harper’s Bazaar on my TBR list, RC. Only 3 stories, 46 pages and apparently not in the collected stories.

Three classic short stories by the novelist and short-story writer Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973). ‘So Much Depends’, ‘The Easter Egg Party’ and ‘The Needlecase.’ Country house fiction.

[Susan]

Brian

Mentioned in a Books & Authors podcast and sounded really intriguing. 180 pages.

Perennially on the outside, Brian has led a solitary life; he works at Camden Council, lunches every day at Il Castelletto café and then returns to his small flat on Kentish Town Road. It is an existence carefully crafted to avoid disturbance and yet Brian yearns for more. A visit one day to the BFI brings film into his life, and Brian introduces a new element to his routine: nightly visits to the cinema on London's Southbank. Through the works of Yasujirō Ozu, Federico Fellini, Agnes Varda, Yilmaz Güney and others, Brian gains access to a rich cultural landscape outside his own experience, but also achieves his first real moments of belonging, accepted by a curious bunch of amateur film buffs, the small informal group of BFI regulars. A tender meditation on friendship and the importance of community, Brian is also a tangential work of film criticism, one that is not removed from its subject matter, but rather explores with great feeling how art gives meaning to and enriches our lives.

[Blaine]

Good shortish reads

JL Carr's Month in the Country -- 5*
Anything by Muriel Spark or Barbara Pym

[Susan]

Tell

Co-winner of the 2022 Novel Prize, Tell is an exuberant, intensely fluid, and probing examination of the ways in which we make stories of our own and of other people’s lives Jonathan Buckley’s Tell is a probing, exuberant and complex examination of the ways in which we make stories of our lives and of other people’s. Structured as a series of interview transcripts with a woman who worked as a gardener for a wealthy businessman and art collector who has disappeared, and may or may not have committed suicide, it is a thrilling novel of strange, intoxicating immediacy. Calling his work “captivating,” John Banville has “Why isn’t Jonathan Buckley better known?”

200 pages. Another one I came across from a podcast.

[Roman Clodia]

Thanks everyone!

I love most stuff published by Fitzcarraldo so those look tempting, as is a re-read of Pym, Larsen or Chopin - but I'm most tempted by the Bowen short stories: great suggestion, Susan!

[Susan]

Welcome :)

[Susan]

I thought of Brian as I am going to the National Theatre this evening to see, 'The Importance of Being Earnest'! I used to go to the BMI when I was a student.

[Nigeyb]

Here is A Necklace of White Pearls...


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[G]

Nigeyb wrote: "Here is A Necklace of White Pearls...


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

Thank you so much!
A small but important correction: the translator's name is missing its first "e"

[Nigeyb]

Ah

[Nigeyb]

Corrected

[G]

Nigeyb wrote: "Corrected"

👍🏻

[G]

If I wanted to read Joyce Carol Oates, what are 3-4 titles to start with?

[Barbara]

My stats for the year:
books by male authors 47
by female authors 33
fiction 71
non fiction 9
by American authors 24
by British authors 43
by Canadian authors 1
by Italian authors 1 (translated)
by Asian authors 2 (translated)
by New Zealand authors 1
by French authors 8 (in French)

The male/female mix seems ok, but only 9 nonfiction books all year? Yikes.
And VERY white...where was there any diversity in my reading this year?
I need to broaden my horizons in 2025!!!

[Blaine]

G wrote: "If I wanted to read Joyce Carol Oates, what are 3-4 titles to start with?"

I have been slowly going through a collection of wonderful short stories she selected over an 40 year period under the title High Lonesome.

I've just finished Them, the third of an early Tetralogy she called Wonderland, which portrays a precarious family living in Detroit and nearby rural and small town communities over a thirty year period 1937-67. Them are the people who are not us, the literate, the educated.

I plan to finish the tetralogy early in 2025 and to read Blonde, her novel about Marilyn Monroe, and one other during the year, and to just keep going.

I'd love to know what others recommend. She is intimidatingly prolific.

[Roman Clodia]

Ben wrote: "G wrote: "If I wanted to read Joyce Carol Oates, what are 3-4 titles to start with?"

She's so prolific that it's hard to make recommendations as her books are so different but the ones which left me 3-star disappointed were: My Life as a Rat, Hazards of Time Travel and A Book of American Martyrs.

Everything else has been 4-5 stars. I probably wouldn't recommend The Accursed as a first JCO though it's a tour de force. High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 that Ben mentioned is fantastic and I've loved her recent Butcher, Babysitter and 48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister - just be warned, JCO can be very dark and confronting.

[Roman Clodia]

For those in London, I can highly recommend the Mughal exhibition at the V&A:

www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/great-mugha...

The website photos don't do it justice, and there are some amazing manuscripts and books. Seeing the show has inspired me to re-read My Name Is Red for its discussions about different forms of art and aesthetics.

If anyone goes, do pop into the Natural History Museum's outdoor fern garden with dinosaurs and fossils as well.

[Susan]

I was at the V&A just before Christmas, RC. I think it is one museum in that great street which is often overlooked but it is such a beautiful space.

Was at the National Theatre yesterday, walking along the Thames and thinking how beautiful London looks on a cold, winters evening :)

[Susan_MG]

I am envious of your recent London adventures. It’s not that far to fly from the US to UK but I only tolerated flying when I was younger. I wish I had experienced Shakespeare in the theater in London. I was too shallow minded at the time of my first London visit to even think of seeking out theater and Shakespeare.

[Roman Clodia]

Susan wrote: "I was at the V&A just before Christmas, RC. I think it is one museum in that great street which is often overlooked but it is such a beautiful space."

Oh, it's my favorite in South Ken. Henry VIII's big bed, the Renaissance galleries and the best museum shop in London.

London is beautiful on winter evenings when the grey fog of the day is swapped for lights.

[Roman Clodia]

Susan_MG wrote: "I am envious of your recent London adventures."

Ah, sounds like you would love The Globe then and the smaller Sam Wanamaker theatre on the South Bank. Maybe in the future when there's a tunnel between London and New York...!

[Susan_MG]

That would be a long tunnel RC. Fortunately there are sources today to enjoy a play online, I think. I just started looking.

[Susan]

Oddly, I am experiencing some Shakespeare tomorrow as I am going to see The Tempest at the Theatre Royal. I seem to have been to the theatre a lot recently. It has had terrible reviews, but I am going to try to be open minded!

[Susan]

Susan, I hate flying, so I sympathise.
The National Theatre have an online service: National Theatre at Home. You might enjoy that?

[Roman Clodia]

Susan wrote: "Oddly, I am experiencing some Shakespeare tomorrow as I am going to see The Tempest at the Theatre Royal."

Is that the Sigourney Weaver production? The Guardian quite liked it. I went to see the David Tennant Macbeth a few weeks ago and loved it - very intense.

[Susan_MG]

Susan, I haven’t even been in a movie theater for ages. I found the National Theater you mention because I web searched The Globe that RC mentioned. I jumped onto the Globe presentation of King Lear. I should not have been surprised but I was astonished when I recognized Saskia Reeves (Catherine Standish, Slow Horses) as a disguised “Kent” in the Globe production. All the acting is excellent. The play seems “modernized” to me but I am no expert. I have the Peter Brook 1971 production linked for watching next.
I hope you enjoy your coming program. Reviews are just one or a few reviewer’s opinion.

[Susan]

Yes, Sigourney Weaver. My hubbies birthday present, so I hope it's good.

There is a lot of online theatre, Susan. If you do look at the National, I highly recommend The Other Other Bronte, which I saw earlier this year and loved. Nye is supposed to be good too and I booked to see that next summer. Both are online I think.

[Susan_MG]

Thank you for the suggestions. Always intriguing and helpful posts here.

[Hester]

Wonderful to imagine London, both Susans . The V&A was a favourite haunt of my childhood : free entrance for a family of six

children and a mother who sat down with the latest baby in a heavy push chair while we roamed free . Heaven .

I've just come back from Hathersage , near Sheffield , staying up on the edge of the moors with family . There's a Charlotte Brönte connection there that is underplayed , unlike Howarth , although the latter has a much greater claim . It was here ,while staying with her friend ,the vicar's sister, that Charlotte learned of the Eyre family and the story of a woman in the attic in their manor house close by. Jane Eyre is a real person with a grave in the churchyard . We had a meal at The George , a coaching inn in Charlotte's Day , and , again , no visible Brönte reference there ....it's somehow refreshing to experience trenchant non commodification in our " celebrity" culture ..

[Susan]

Wonderful, Hester. I have been to Haworth and driven through the Moors. Fantastic to hear of a Jane Eyre buried in the churchyard. The Yorkshire Moors are stunningly beautiful.

[Nigeyb]

On a less highbrow tip, I'm off to see ABBA Voyage this afternoon in East London

[Susan]

One of my students went and loved it, Nigeyb. I can hardly pretend to be highbrow, as I watched 4 football matches on Boxing Day :)

[Roman Clodia]

Hester wrote: "Jane Eyre is a real person with a grave in the churchyard".

Wait, I thought I knew about the Brontes and yet didn't know that? Amazing! (Or did I know and have just forgotten 🥴?)

Completely with you about the commodification of culture though and how shallow it is.

[Roman Clodia]

Nigeyb wrote: "On a less highbrow tip, I'm off to see ABBA Voyage this afternoon in East London"

Cool! You know I have no patience with any of that highbrow/lowbrow nonsense. I'm planning to catch up with Christmas Strictly and then try the vintage series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which is on iplayer. For some reason I had it in my head that Donald Pleasance played Smiley... duh 🤦

[Hester]

Does Jack and the Beanstalk at Barnsley Civic qualify me for everyone's company . Behind you !!!

[Sue]

Susan wrote: "I was at the V&A just before Christmas, RC. I think it is one museum in that great street which is often overlooked but it is such a beautiful space...."

It’s my all-time favourite museum Susan! We used to go there when I was growing up in London. (The Science Museum was great too, with all the buttons to push and levers to pull on those little working models. Bet they don’t have those any more!)

In more recent years we went up to London for a few days and I signed up for a tour of the V&A’s Theatre department. I turned out to be the only person booked that day. So he asked me what I’d like to see and gave me a personalised tour. I felt very special!

Did you go up to see a particular exhibition or just for a mooch?

[Susan]

I went just for a mooch. It was my daughter's choice as it was her birthday and we had a nice time. I love a museum and there are some exhibitions I am really looking forward to next year at both Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery.

I have no patience with cultural, or bookish, snobbery either. Life is too short, like what you like. I don't want to spend the time I have left doing things I don't enjoy.

[G]

Roman Clodia wrote: "G wrote: "Several of you mentioned that you keep a book journal. I used to, but never found a satisfactory way of using it. Would any of you who keep one be wiling to say how you use it, and how yo..."

Thank you. That is helpful, actually. I've never worked out a way to keep any kind of journal that is both sustainable and helpful. I abandoned my paper journal after I joined GR because I found myself simply writing each book title at the top of a page and then writing nothing more. Seemed a waste of paper to keep doing that, but I find myself wanting to try a paper journal again.

[Blaine]

I seem to have become a victim of the notifications black hole. None received for over 20 hours, despite activity in my groups.

Is this a problem for everyone?

[Nigeyb]

Very much enjoyed ABBA


BBC 70s adaptation of Smiley is excellent RC

[Kit]

Hey peeps! I dropped off with reading for lot of this year and haven’t been on GR for ages! It has been a v different reading year for me 2024.
I read 122 in total.
94 by women
28 by men
Fiction 25
Non fiction 76
Poetry 21
The vast majority of books were by POC writers.

I hope you’re all well and wish you all a wonderful 2025! Xxx

[Sue]

Susan wrote: "I went just for a mooch. It was my daughter's choice as it was her birthday and we had a nice time. I love a museum.."

Whenever we go away somewhere, I like to see which museums are on offer. And in the case of bad weather it’s a great way of getting my steps in!

Our local one has been closed for a couple of years for a huge refurbishment so I’m looking forward to that opening again in 2025.

Susan wrote: "I have no patience with cultural, or bookish, snobbery either. Life is too short, like what you like. I don't want to spend the time I have left doing things I don't enjoy. "

Couldn’t agree more.

I noticed today that our local library is now offering Iris Murdoch audiobooks through Borrowbox. I was tempted by The Sea, the Sea but then saw it had won the Booker. And my first reaction was - well that will be hard work then! And I moved on. Unfair perhaps, but I’m always put off prize-winning books by the thought that they will be difficult, and no fun. Life is, as you say, too short for that, for me personally!