Category: Musings

  • Sally Rooney in Hebrew?

    Going sideways from the previous musing, in amongst the media hype and TV adaptations of books by Sally Rooney, I was fascinated to see she had refused to allow her work to be translated into Hebrew and thus for sale in Israel. Authors are usually delighted for their work to be sent around the world […]

  • Irish Writers

    Why are there so many well-known and successful Irish writers, particularly over the last decade I pondered. In a recent (excellent) article I read about Colm Toibin, he acknowledges the energy and power that seem to resonate through Irish fiction and indeed somewhat dominates the Booker long list. Anne Enright and Anna Burns come to […]

  • The Waiting Game

    In Heffers bookshop in Cambridge a few days ago I was tempted by 2 large, heavy, new hardbacks. The first is this state of the nation novel by Andrew O’Hagan: ‘Caledonian Road’ which every reviewer is indeed reviewing and I long to read. I have walked down said road in north London and I wouldn’t […]

  • Reading Aloud

    Do you like reading aloud I wonder? Do you like listening to someone reading aloud? Many have quite strong feelings about this, one way or the other. I don’t as yet indulge in audiobooks although I know many who do, but I used to enjoy listening to books read aloud on Radio 4. Stephen Fry […]

  • Greetings

    At the end of the Radio 3 breakfast show, the presenter Petroc Trelawny finishes by saying Good Morning. It occurred to me that using those words to say goodbye rather than hello has become very unusual, some would say quite dated and old fashioned. I then thought about how various greetings have changed over time. […]

  • Have you noticed?

    Have you noticed that if the stress is on the first syllable then the word is usually a noun. If the emphasis comes on the second syllable then it is usually a verb. object record present content

  • February 2nd

    The date of the birth of James Joyce, strangely and nicely noted and commemorated this morning on the Radio 3 breakfast programme. They then played ‘Love’s Old Sweet Song’ which runs through the narrative and is used to signify Molly Bloom. Joyce had to wait until he was 40 before Ulysses was eventually published in […]

  • Bookish Thoughts

    Authors not to read again(!): Marion Keyes Sally Rooney Emily Henry There have been very many times in my life when I have felt out of kilter with what seems to be the generally accepted opinion. These 3 authors would be another case in point. They are all phenomenally popular and successful but they just […]

  • Teeth

    I should have worked this one out for myself but I didn’t, I looked it up. Denticulated. There is the root and the clue at the beginning. Dent as in dentist; thus teeth. A denticulated gate would be one with wooden or metal ‘teeth’ at the top, to prevent intruders.

  • Bookmarks

    I read an article about bookmarks and it started me thinking about my collection. I have to admit that I do turn down the pages of paperbacks, only if they are my own I hasten to add. Sometimes I turn down the bottom corner of a page. This is code for: there is something on […]