{"id":399,"date":"2005-04-04T12:50:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-04T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/04\/04\/books-etc\/"},"modified":"2008-07-21T09:49:42","modified_gmt":"2008-07-21T09:49:42","slug":"books-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/04\/books-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Books etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

I appear to have been nominated by Phil Hunt at Cabalamat Journal<\/a> to do the bloggers’ book questionnaire thing that’s been doing the rounds. As it doesn’t look like it’ll take long and I’m rather busy, here goes:<\/p>\n

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?<\/b><\/p>\n

Due to my awful memory, I should probably go for something short. As I’d also be liable to alter things by mistake, it’s probably best to go for something which has been altered a load of times already, so I’ll opt for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy<\/a> by Douglas Adams. Someone else can handle the sequels.<\/p>\n

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?<\/p>\n

<\/b>I will confess to having a bit of a thing for Jennie Lynn-Hayden<\/a>, aka Jade, the daughter of the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott. I think it’s the green skin thing… Other than that I’ll probably opt for the fairly unimaginative choice of Becky Sharp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last book you bought is:<\/p>\n

<\/b>Two, both second hand:<\/p>\n

Death in Midsummer and other stories<\/a>, a collection of short stories by Yukio Mishima intended to keep me in a Japanese mindset while I try to learn the language.<\/p>\n

Foucault’s Pendulum<\/a> by Umberto Eco – because I haven’t read it for a few years and realised I didn’t have a copy. For those who haven’t read it, this is probably Eco’s best – basically an intelligent conspiracy thriller which that God-awful Da Vinci Code nonsense ripped off like an absolute bastard (and ripped off very, very badly to boot).<\/p>\n

The last book you read:<\/p>\n

<\/b>Cover to cover, probably War and Peace<\/a> by Leo Tolstoy, as it was about time. Well worth it – now one of my favourites.<\/p>\n

What are you currently reading?<\/p>\n

<\/b>Just finishing off Ulysses<\/a> – again, because it was about time (and not just because I’m a pretentious arse or anything, honest). It’s not as “difficult” as I’d been led to believe, although I will confess there were chunks where I got utterly lost. Also flicking through Parliament in the 21st Century<\/a>, edited by Nicholas Baldwin, which I would heartily recommend to anyone interested in British politics. Thanks to the day job, I am also reading John Sudgen’s Nelson: A Dream of Glory<\/a>, following the naval hero’s life up to 1797, and N.A.M. Rodger’s superb two volume naval history of Britain – The Safeguard of the Sea, 660-1649<\/a> and The Command of the Ocean, 1649-1815<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Five books you would take to a desert island.<\/b><\/p>\n

In Search of Lost Time<\/a> by Marcel Proust, which I am also chugging through at the moment.
\nThe Invisibles<\/a> by Grant Morrison – preferably all the collected trade paperbacks sellotaped together to make one book…
\nNovember 1916<\/a> by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (because I read August 1914<\/a> years ago, and it was brilliant, but haven’t got around to this one yet.)
\nLife: A User’s Manual<\/a> by Georges Perec – because I never got around to finishing it, and I’m intrigued to see if I can work out the puzzle.
\nCollected Fictions<\/a> by Jorge Luis Borges. No explanation necessary.<\/p>\n

If you can’t tell, I’m assuming I’ll be on the island a fair while…<\/p>\n

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?<\/b><\/p>\n

Tim\/Manic at Bloggerheads<\/a> to give him a chance to plug his new book project<\/a> again, and because I don’t think he’s done it yet.
\nChicken Yoghurt<\/a>, because I also don’t think he’s done it yet, and his rage over the current state of British politics could probably do with a break for a bit…
\nGuy at Non Tibi Spiro<\/a> to get a multilingual perspective, and bunk it across the Channel for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I appear to have been nominated by Phil Hunt at Cabalamat Journal to do the bloggers’ book questionnaire thing that’s been doing the rounds. As it doesn’t look like it’ll take long and I’m rather busy, here goes: You’re stuck … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}