Spotted a link to this meme on Lisa's blog, and as it is too hot to think - I mean, christ, the last post where I mention all but one of the Kaiser Chiefs tracks on their album, Employment, in the body of post about Celtic was a consequence of me trying to use my brain in this weather - I thought I would be shameless enough to nick it, use it and discard it in the time it takes Lisa to watch once again 'Phew Paisley!', the compilation DVD she has recently put together and is trying to get the Renfrew Tourist Board to pick up and market.
1. One book that changed my life - Sad but true, but it is probably 'The Monument' by Robert Barltrop. An unofficial history of the SPGB that was published by Pluto Press in the mid-seventies, I remember thinking when reading it the late eighties that this was an organisation that, for all its studied eccentricity, was also a tradition that through difficult times had sought to stay true to the original vision of what socialism was actually meant to be about: " . . . a completely voluntaristic society in which we shall freely give according to our abilities and freely take according to our self-determined needs."
2. One book that I have read more than once: There are too many to mention, but a book I've reread in recent weeks is Gordon Legge's 'The Shoe'. A wonderful book that I know I can always get lost in anytime I have a few hours to spare, and I want to read something familiar and enjoyable.
3. One book I would want on a deserted island: 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' by Dave Eggers. How else can I remain true to my New York Resolution to Kara that I would finally get round to reading it?
4. One book that made me laugh: Brian Behan's 'With Breast Expanded' has to be the funniest political memoir ever written.
5. One book that made me cry: Do people actually cry when reading books? Christ, I feel a bit of a cold-hearted bastard 'cos the last time I can remember welling up when reading a book was that scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe where Aslan was killed by the witch. I was about 7 or 8 at the time. However, I do also remember crying genuine tears of laughter when reading Alan Bleasdale's Scully and Joseph Heller's Catch 22 a few years after that.
6. One book I wish I'd written: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. That way I would have known how it had ended, and I wouldn't have fucked up my English Literature O Level exam.
7. One book I wish had never been written: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'.
8. One book I am currently reading: Phillip Pullman's The Subtle Knife.
9. One book I have been meaning to read: Jonathan Rabb's Rosa
*Echo and the Bunnymen
8 comments:
BWAH! Ah, now please Darren, where can I get that "Phew Paisley!" DVD!!!
Sorry, you probably heard that laughter over in NYC!
PS good list, though interesting that I cry to books and you laugh. Any good laughter inducing boks you could recommend?
PPS get a hankie ready for The Amber Spyglass...
Phneh, not a big fan of the Amber Spyglass. It was just so...unnecessarily...LONG. It just went on for ever, and ever and ever...plus, I thought that...
...wait, hang on, shouldn't say that. Spoilers.
Northern Lights is excellent, though.
Would passing an Eng Lit exam have really made a difference?
Oh. And have you seen the news? Sheridan won!
Lisa,
You've probably already read it but I really loved Confederacy of Dunces, and though I'm really slacking when it comes to reading this weather I am really enjoying the Subtle Knife.
Will,
well, maybe doing well in the exam would have meant ensured in later life that the quality of my blogs would have been better than they currently are. ;-)
I've been following the Sheridan case on the BBC website and on the various left discussion lists I'm known to haunt.
What's my take on it? I pretty much agree with what Kevin W. wrote on the matter here, but I also think that the comment Jackie C. made on the whole business in the thread is interesting as well: if it was common knowledge for a number of years within the upper echelons of the SSP that Sheridan was dishonest, and nothing was being said 'cos he was seen as too much of a political asset, then they have to accept a certain degree of culpability.
I find it hard to believe that there was this grand conspiracy of 18 SSP members in the witness box to bring Sheridan down, and that they were prepared to collude with News International to do it. And neither am I convinced that it was a hatchet job by the establishment to destroy the SSP. Why now, if that was the case? And again, its a nonsense to suggest that those SSP members who spoke against Sheridan in the witness box would be a party to this.
As has been suggested elsewhere, I think the majority verdict was a combination of the jury wanting to give the News of the World a bloody nose, and the simple fact that people like Sheridan. He's a charismatic bloke, after all.
2-1 ...just want to be the first to say it ;-p
Alan,
I was the first to say it, but my version was: "Shit, two fucking one. I don't bastard believe it."
Confederacy of Dunces - cracking book!
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