2019 book reading by PGMCC - Volume III

Read in 2019

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

The Fox by Frederick Forsyth 01/01/2019 - 05/01/2019 301 pages
Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them by John Yorke 11/12/2018 - 12/01/2019 230 pages
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami 13/01/2019 - 25/01/2019 681 pages
Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen 26/01/2019 - 08/02/2019 389 pages
The Gifts of Reading by Robert MacFarlane 29/01/2019 - 29/01/2019 47 pages
Birthday Girl by Harukim Murakami 30/01/2019 -30/01/2019. 41 pages
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty 09/02/2019 - 22/02/2019 530 pages
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 22/02/2019 - 05/04/2019 750 pages
47 Seconds by Jane Ryan 05/05/2019 - 12/04/2019 ? Pages
Party trap. 15/04/2019-17/04/2019 112 pages
Pulp Literature Issue No. 22 17/04/2019-
Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers 27/04/2019-
08/05/2019. 291 pages
Black Snow by Paul Lynch 08/05/2019-15/05/2019 272 pages
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty 16/05/2019-29/05/2019 361 pages
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor 29/05/2019 - 04/06/2019 370 pages
The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen 04/06/2019 - 08/06/2019 240 pages
Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty 08/06/2019 - 24/06/2019 621 pages
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 25/06/2019 - 27/06/2019 224 pages
The Princess Bride by William Goldman 27/06/2019 - 09/07/2019 399 pages
The Unfortunate Fursey by Melvyn Wall 09/07/2019 -

Welcome to Volume III of my literary and not so literary adventures in 2019.

Wine and cheese are available at the buffet; help yourselves and pull up a seat in readiness for a long night's conversation.

I meant to say in you late thread no II that I'll definitely took a hit on Newton's Wake, so now I'm doing that here in no. III instead. I've been meaning to read something by Ken McLeod for some time (I believe we talked about him about half a year ago?) but haven't gotten around to it yet.

On Six Wakes I believe she intended all meanings of the word Wake to apply...

>3 Busifer: I hope you enjoy any MacLeod you read. Newton's Wake would be a good sample of his space opera. He has also written near-future SF which is very interesting too; The Night Sessions and The Execution Channel are good examples of those.

Now, did you think to just gloss over the fact that your Thingaversary was forgotten by mentioning it in passing in haydninvienna's thread? Hmmmmm? We will have an accounting, sir.

Oops!

Thanks for explaining about hobs. I thought it might be the burners on the stove. Now I know they are that and more! :)

My library does not have Newton’s Wake. :( I’ll have to see if my local Barnes and Noble can get it.

A quick break from work and my wife's election campaign to expose my book related thinking to friends.

I am currently reading, and enjoying, Six Wakes. It I were to give it a single genre categorisation I would say murder mystery. It is not simply SF. It is also philosophical as it is dealing with issues around cloning and what is described as Artificial Intelligence. There are both technologies that are working their way into our real world and some philosophical thoughts around these technologies is appropriate.

Apart from Six Wakes I am dipping into We Are Legion (We Are Bob). This is another book about replicating people.

Books I have lined up to read and that I am keen to get to are:

- The Unfortunate Fursey & The Return of Fursey. I am keen to reread these. I really enjoyed them when I read them a few years ago and I feel the need to enjoy them again.

- The Kingdom of Copper which is the sequel to City of Brass which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have peeked at the first few pages and it appears to carry on directly from the first book, which is great.

- The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen. This is a new author and I have heard this story is quite the shocker. Again I have read the first few pages and am encouraged. Without giving much away it appears someone in the main character's apartment block is murdered and the main character is annoyed at this and, as far as I can tell, decides to do something about it. This book may not be for everyone as I have heard it compared to a Tarantino movie. I shall report back when I have finished it.

So, I am enjoying the book I am reading and the ones lined up are ones I either know to be good or the samples I have indicate I will enjoy them. All I need now is time to read.

>8 pgmcc: Good luck with that, Peter. Best of luck to Mrs Pete also.

>9 haydninvienna:. Thank you, Richard.

>8 pgmcc: Do you have a "media blackout" immediately before elections in Ireland, Peter? One of the few civilised features of elections in Oz was that the radio, TV and newspapers had to cease election comment on the Wednesday before an election (which always took place on a Saturday). Blessed peace.

>11 haydninvienna: Yes, Richard. Basically coverage is suspended 24 hours before election day.

Election day tomorrow, Peter? Best wishes to Mrs. pgmcc on the results.

>11 haydninvienna: >12 pgmcc: Media blackout beforehand? Oh, how I wish we had that here in the USA. Our election coverage/campaigning for 2020 has already begun - with election day ~16.5 months away. And I'm sure it will continue right up until the last possible moment... (*sigh*)

Holding thumbs for MrsPete

>13 ScoLgo: & >14 hfglen:
Thank you for the good wishes. As you can guess, nerves are on edge here at the moment.

Peter: I’m slightly confused because I thought your election was today. I may have been confusing it with the MEP election in the UK, which is definitely today. Good luck(once again) to Mrs Pete whichever day it is or was.

Our elections are Friday. We have local and EU elections and s constitutional referendum on the time a couple has to be separated before a divorce is granted. The EU elections do not have to happen on the same day in all EU countries. I am not sure but I think they are to take place within a specified period of three or four days.

Glad you are enjoying Six Wakes!

Good luck to the Mrs.!

When do we get to hear the important result?

>18 catzteach: Thank you.

>19 hfglen: With three sets of ballot papers being counted I believe it will be Sunday before we hear the results.

Thank you for the good wishes regarding my wife’s political adventures. She was eliminated on the fourth or fifth count.

That sounded impressive, so I tried reading
https://spunout.ie/opinion/article/our-voting-system1
I am now even more impressed, both with the Irish system and your wife's achievement. Congratulations are in order.

It’s quite late here, so I’m not going to read up on the Irish voting system, but I trust >22 -pilgrim-: to have it right, so - congrats!

I have learned so much from Thread II and now Thread III. I was grateful for the illustration of what a hob was. I am now on tenterhooks awaiting word on your wife's election. (We had a primary here last week, but it was rather unexciting -- to the extent that the media wasn't particularly assiduous in covering the final results -- at least in my view. Still awaiting word on who got onto our School Board.)

36th wedding anniversary today. Also the third birthday of our eldest granddaughter.

Big work event tomorrow so I cannot celebrate just yet.

Work trip to Brussels next week and secret mission trip to France the following week.

Congratulations to you and your wife on your anniversary. I hope that now the election is over and once you get your work event out of the way the two of you can celebrate.

>26 Sakerfalcon:

Thank you, Claire. We hope to go out to dinner tomorrow night. If my workshop goes well I will be in a mood to celebrate. If it goes badly the dinner will take mind off it. :-)

>25 pgmcc:

You were gone so long that they may have changed the secret drop location.

>28 suitable1: I have sent a scouting party to prep the zone. Never leave anything to chance. Suspect everyone, and suspect no one.

>25 pgmcc: I hope you get the chance to celebrate appropriately shortly.

Ah, sorry about the elimination. But from what I understand about your voting process, doesn't she still have a chance? LOL I'm teasing. But I do know sometimes people think they're out of it when they're not. And the person with the most votes doesn't always win. (Like here, sadly.)

Happy anniversary and grand-daughter's birthday!

Peter: commiserations to Mrs Pete (if commiserations are appropriate) to Mrs Pete—does she intend to have another go next time? Happy slightly belated birthday to the little one.

Congratulations on the anniversary!

I hope the work event went well, and say hi to Brussels (and have a beer) for me.

Saying nothing about the secret mission cos it’s secret, right?

I finished Six Wakes, a Book Bullet from catzteach as far as I recall.

It was interesting and held my attention. An interesting murder mystery.

I have given it three stars which, in my rating is a good book.

The way it revealed the history of the characters did not sit perfectly with me. I felt it was a bit like some Agatha Christie stories that construct all these strange linkages between characters that a reader could not identify without being very creative and building the backgrounds of the characters outside the main story with very few clues or hints.

There was good misdirection exemplified by my thinking the AI might be the murderer but giving up on the idea as I could not work out how it wielded a knife.

I also thought the "Sallie" might have hidden herself on board and was causing the problems.

I asked the question before about what "Six Wakes" referred to. As catzteach said at the time that there are six awakenings. I also saw reference to holding a wake for the dead. I think it was Hiro said it at one point. I also suspect the author added in the meaning of "wake" as in the wake of a ship or boat, with the former lives of the characters leaving wakes that rolled into the future and gave rise to the mayhem faced by the crew.

An entertaining read.

Now to tackle a new author for me, I shall be reading The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen.

My big workshop with the senior management team went well. Now I can go to dinner with my wife to celebrate our wedding anniversary a day late.

Yesterday was tainted by news that my eldest brother has been diagnosed with lung cancer and has been given two to three months. He only took sick about a month ago. He is 78 years old and they say he is too weak for any treatment. I will go to see him at the weekend. I hope I can hold it all together when I get there.

>34 pgmcc: I'm terribly sorry, what awful news to get. And what a terrible end. I hope it will be a relatively painless one, and that he'll go surrounded by friends and family, if that's what he want (not everyone want that, in my experience).
Strength to him, you, and your families.

>35 Busifer: Thank you!

We are all close and his own family is close, so he will have people around him.

>34 pgmcc: Oh Peter, how awful. My heartfelt best wishes to you and to him.

>37 haydninvienna: Thank you, Richard.

>34 pgmcc: Horrendous news! Strength to all of you.

>39 hfglen: Thank you, Hugh.

>34 pgmcc: Damn. My love to you and your family.

>34 pgmcc: So sorry to hear about your brother. My thoughts will be with you and your family.

>34 pgmcc: Oh no. I am so very sorry, Peter. Supportive hugs to you and your whole family.

>41 MrsLee: >42 NorthernStar: >43 clamairy:

Thank you for your support. It helps. The GD denizens are the best.

>34 pgmcc: There is no adequate coping mechanism for that kind of news and my heart goes out to you and yours. I'm so very sorry.

>45 jillmwo:
Thank you, Jill. The support from the Green Dragon members is very comforting. I find myself regretting not winning the lottery and having the means to do a grand Green Dragon World Tour to meet all the lovely people I have met here. That would be the first thing on my list if asked what would I do if I won the lottery.

I suppose I should buy a ticket. I think that is a prerequisite to winning, or so I am told.

>46 pgmcc: I think a lot of us share that view about the world tour, Peter! I have been lucky enough to meet you and Hugh, at least.

>34 pgmcc: So sorry to hear the sad news about your brother. I hope you and your family will be able to spend time with him in the next couple of months and make the time as good as possible. Keeping you all in my thoughts.

>46 pgmcc: That would be wonderful! If I win the lottery I will help fund your tour. Of course, I too would have to buy a ticket.

>34 pgmcc: There is not a lot I can say except to add my sympathies. Cancer is a SOB that jumps on you unawares when you were trying to simply get on with your life. Trying to work out how to make the best use of a suddenly abbreviated timeframe is an unwelcome lesson in what really matters in life.

Your brother is lucky to have you and your family beside him at this time. My best wishes to you all.

>34 pgmcc: Sad news to hear. Good to know that you have the family support network around you to help cope with this terrible situation. Know exactly what you're going through as we've had one family member taken from us earlier this year and just waiting on the dreaded call for another. My heart goes out to you, your families and anyone else who finds themselves in this situation.

>47 haydninvienna: Richard, it was a great pleasure meeting you and it was a lovely blending of the real world with the virtual world. Thank you for getting in touch when you were coming to Dublin.

>48 Sakerfalcon: Thank you Claire. The GD members make up a great support group.

In relation to the Grand Green Dragon World Tour, I think we might have to hire a coach.

>49 -pilgrim-: Thank you for your words of support. You're right about the SOB. As you say, this sort of thing really puts things in perspective. I had a big workshop with the senior management team yesterday. It was on a project I am managing and it would not be inappropriate for me to have been a bit apprehensive. The news about my brother helped me go into the workshop with an attitude of, to quote a famous film, "Frankly, my dear, I..." It really helped me move the workshop to the conclusions and decisions I wanted.

>50 AHS-Wolfy: Sorry to hear about your family members. One thing about the Green Dragon is that most people have experienced, or are experiencing this type of situation and so there is a great understanding for one another's circumstances. Thank you for your support.

It is great to have the Green Dragon, and it is great to have books. My next post will be about books.

It had been my intention to start, The Price You Pay but I had finished Six Wakes on my bus trip to work yesterday and did not have The Price You Pay with me when going home. I had to use my fall-back book on the Kindle app on my phone. Some time ago I started reading We are Legion (We are Bob). Well, reading that on the bus got me hooked so I shall finish it before starting the Aidan Truhen book.

We Are Legion is amusing and is a playful mix of geo-politics, philosophy, and allusions to old films, and some more recent ones. It is trucking along nicely. I cannot remember who suggested it but the guilty party is here somewhere. You know who you are. Do not be under any illusions. I will look for you. I will find you. And I will thank you.

>52 pgmcc: As to those who recommended it; We are Legion.

As a sidenote, I have named my sourdough starter "Bob."

>53 MrsLee:

Thank you!

>47 haydninvienna: >51 pgmcc: Richard, I second all that Pete said, just substituting "Durban" for "Dublin".

When the coach comes here, you'll need to stay several days. The bookshops are widely scattered.

Oh yeah, about the book bullet you took on Six Wakes... I think that was a rare triple ricochet from Busifer. It nailed me first, and then it got Catzteach before hitting you.

...but I'm sure I got it from someone else - I just can't remember who, embarrassingly enough. So I guess it was one of those bullets that hits a lot of stuff before finally losing momentum.

On the World Tour, wouldn't it be grand if it could be a train tour?! Not that it is possible, what with gauge widths and, signalling systems, and whatnot. But the glamour of it, Orient Express style, without the murders ;-)

>57 Busifer: Perhaps just one or two? Of 'redshirts?' Just to keep in interesting. ;o)

>58 clamairy: As long as the core team is kept intact ;-)

>58 clamairy: Note to self... do not pack the red shirt...

EtA: Just caught up on the rest of this thread... So very sorry to hear about your brother Peter. I wish you strength and fortitude during this weekend's visit and hope that your family is able to spend quality time with him in the coming months.

>34 pgmcc:

That news is a real bummer. Tough to hear.

Oh, so very sorry to hear about your brother!

>57 Busifer: Hey, it could work, sort of, if you ignore a few inconvenient oceans! From Sweden across to the UK and then to Ireland (all quite doable by train), across the pond by another means unless we are in Harry Harrison’s universe in which there’s a transatlantic tunnel, then round North America ... Now how do we fit South Africa into this?

The Pub really is the best place I know of on the net.

ETA Peter and Hugh, thank you for the kind words. It was great for me meeting you both (and Renee and Melissa and Jess the dog).

>57 Busifer:, >63 haydninvienna: I like this idea! We might have to continue from the west coast of USA across the Pacific (by ship, obviously) to Oz to see Seanie then get to SA from there.

>64 Sakerfalcon: That makes sense although Seanie doesn’t seem to have been in the pub for a while.

>64 Sakerfalcon: Indian-Pacific to Perth, easy. Then charter a cargo ship to Durban, or what? Make sure you're in Durban for the last Sunday in the month and the Umgeni Steam Railway excursion from Kloof to Inchanga and back. Then charter a Rovos Rail expedition Durban to Dar es Salaam. Then either you fly to Istanbul (and train home) or you need a time machine to go back about 90 years to when a train / lake / river steamer journey to Egypt was safe and practicable. The S.A. Railways booklet Cape To Cairo, produced in 1926, suggests you may still have to walk the 92 miles from Nimule to Juba (Sudan).

>60 ScoLgo:
Thank you. We will take the trip tomorrow. Apparently he enjoyed a visit from another of my brothers. They reminisced about better times.

>61 suitable1:
It is indeed.

>62 catzteach:
Thank you.

I knew it was going to happen some time but one is never quite prepared for it and it is never easy. Apart from a sister who died of meningitis at the age of two in 1943, 14 years before I was born, this is the first of my siblings to come to this stage.

I am getting interested in this Green Dragon Grand World Tour. I like the train idea, and yes, it would have to be Orient Express style. Not so sure about doing away with the murders. The murder would add to the excitement.

I believe New Zealand has featured in the map of my LT friends, so I think we need to call in there. If nothing else it would let me see my two nieces who settled there. Also, I think some of the GD denizens would like to see where LOTR was filmed. (By the way, next year's Sci Fi WorldCon is in New Zealand.)

I know a lot of people who think the Trans-Siberian railroad is a treat (some has travelled to Vladivostok to get on a boat to Japan), but it feels like that would be the long way around from Oz or NZ to South Africa...

When I was a student my ambition was to ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Minsk to Vladivostok. That was the driver for my trying to learn Russian in the summer of 1978. That did not go far. The only sentence I can say in Russian at this stage is, “I do not speak Russian.”

I finished We Are Legion (We Are Bob). An entertaining read. The humour kept my attention for the first quarter of the book. I got a bit bored with the exploration and striving for colonization. Do not think I will be reading the follow-up books. They will probably involve encounters with the aliens who denude systems of their metals and protein; there will be resurgence of intra-human conflict; the deltans will develop religion and it will feed political conflict.

I hope to get into The Price You Pay next. Then for a reread of The Unfortunate Fursey followed by The Kingdom of Copper.

>71 pgmcc: I made the same predictions about the the rest of the books, and came to the same decision not to read the rest. I liked the first book, it was fun, but by the end, I was finished with that particular fun.

>72 MrsLee: We are of one mind.

I picked up City of Brass from the library the other day. I started it last night.

>74 catzteach:
Is it proving of interest to you?

>74 catzteach: I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did! (Am. Still a handful of pages left. Putting it off until I get Kingdom of Copper...)

>75 pgmcc: >76 Busifer: I am a little over 100 pages in and am liking it. I was lucky enough to see Kingdom of Copper at my library, too. It’s sitting on my TBR pile to be read when I’m done with City of Brass. :)

>77 catzteach: :-)

I am enjoying The Price you Pay by Aidan Truhen. Someone described it as "Tarantino on Steroids". I can see where they are coming from. It may not be everyone's cup of tea. I understand the author wrote it as a release of pressure about things that were happening in the world of politics.

>68 pgmcc:

We need a volunteer to be the victim.

>80 suitable1: Riley, it is very gracious of you to offer yourself up as the victim. We will always remember you.

About to set sail on The W. B. Yeats. First leg of the secret mission.

>82 pgmcc: I don't believe that you're on a boat. No self-respecting secret agent would be that up-front about his or her mode of transport. You're using that as a cover and are likely on a helicopter, headed for the Arctic Circle. I find it more plausible that you're trying to get closer to the Trans-Siberian Railway to see if either Vladivostok or Minsk will suit as a rendezvous point.

Makes sense to me.

>83 jillmwo: But I saw his pics! Lord knows he couldn't have faked those. ;o)

We have surfaced near Arcangelsk.

Oops!

>86 pgmcc:

You used a submarine?

Well, my brother did not make it the two to three months. More like a week and a half. He has been spared a long, drawn out period of suffering.

One can only offer strength and sympathy to you and your family. No words that I know of are adequate.

oh goodness, that is sad. I wish you peace.

>88 pgmcc: Nobody wants to see anyone suffering especially a loved one but it still hurts to lose them. My condolences to you and the families.

Oh dear, Peter. How desperately sad for you all. I wish strength and comfort to you and your families.

Oh, Peter... I am so very sorry for both his suffering and for the pain you're all facing now.

Oh man! Condolences to all.

Peter, my heartfelt condolences... I wish you strength and comfort, to you and your families.
*hugs*

So sorry to hear about your brother. My condolences to you and your family.

Very sorry, Peter. Condolences to all his family and friends.

My deepest condolences to you and your family. I am so sorry to hear this news.

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your brother. Condolences to you and your family. (((hugs)))

Thank you all for your condolences and good wishes.

I'm so sorry to hear this news, Peter. All best wishes and condolences to you and your family.

>101 Sakerfalcon: Thank you, Clare.

I am extremely sorry to hear of your loss. An unexpectedly early death is always hard on the family, but I think you are correct in saying that is better for your brother this way. It is the awareness of that impending long drawnout stage that is terrifying me.

>103 -pilgrim-:
Thank you, . I agree about long, drawn out situations.

Aw Pete, I haven't been reading in many threads the last few days. Just catching up. It's never easy, is it? No matter how we lose one we love. My heart is with you and yours. *Hug*

Hi Peter!

Belated condolences to your wife, congratulations on your 36th wedding anniversary and third birthday of your eldest granddaughter.

I finally ordered a trade paperback of The Unfortunate Fursey. I’d prefer to have found a first edition at a Friends of the Library Sale, but no such luck.

I am so sorry to hear about your eldest brother’s death.

>106 karenmarie:
Hi Karen,

Thank you for the condolences and good wishes. It has been a busy few weeks.

We buried my brother yesterday. He had a good send off. About three hundred at the church. The grave was about 35 miles away and there were about seventy people at the grave who stayed for soup & sandwiches in a local hostelry.

Like all these sad occasions it proved a great reunion. My kids in their thirties got to meet cousins they had never met before or only met when they were very young. I met friends I have not seen since our wedding 36 years ago.

The newspaper my brother had worked in for his whole career (51 years) did a big obituary piece, including photographs, that was a great testimony to how much he was thought off at work.

Of course we have all agreed to a meet up so that we can meet at something that is not a wedding or a funeral. :-)

I was cheered up this morning by a post on social media telling me that one of my favourite authors (is it possible to have one of my "favourite authors"? Is favourite not the superlative and would therefore mean there is only one? Whatever!) has a new book published. It is:



by Kevin Barry.

For once this book is published and available in Ireland before its release date in the UK as stated on Amazon.

Kevin Barry is an Irish author who has won many prestigious awards, including the Dublin based IMPAC award that is the highest valued award (€100,000) for a work of fiction published in the English language. The books that are added to the IMPAC long-list are nominated by librarians across the world.

I was introduced to Kevin Barry's work by a friend who ran a bookshop in Dublin. I was asking him for a reading recommendation. Kevin Barry's first book of short stories, There Are Little Kingdoms, had just won The Rooney Award for Irish Literature and my friend wanted me to read it and give him my opinion. He had not read the stories himself but wanted my views on them. He said if I didn't like the stories he would refund me the price of the book.

I loved the stories and in the intervening years have read and loved Kevin Barry's two novels and his second book of short stories, all of which won literary awards.
The City of Bohane
Dark Lies the Island
Beatlebone

Because I had read all his work and am very enthusiastic about it, I was asked to interview Kevin Barry at a literary convention. It was a fantastic experience. He is a lovely, down-to-earth person. He has been accepted by the literati but has not been assimilated; he has no airs and graces and he is a pleasure to meet. He is extremely talented and is very humble.

My enthusiasm for him forces me to rank him as the best Irish writer I have come across. His short stories are of a similar nature, in terms of giving a sense of place and character, to Joyce's "Dubliners" collection, but I rank Barry higher than Joyce; a brave statement for Bloom's Day.

Well, I was so cheered up I made an excursion into town and bought a copy of Night Boat to Tangier. There will be a reading in a local bookshop on June 27th so I hope to have it read before then. That means finishing off The Kingdom of Copper very quickly and putting my other reading plans on hold for a little longer.

Do I need to say that I recommend Kevin Barry's work very strongly?

>106 karenmarie: I do not think you will be disappointed with The Unfortunate Fursey. I look forward to learning your views on it.

Last Friday night I was driving north from Dublin to Belfast. The sky was a surreal mix of yellows and grey. As I approached the toll booths at Drogheda I could see, off to the left, the towers of the Platten cement works reaching into the sky like a rocket ready for launch. (Yes, I did once wind up my Wisconsin son-in-law that this was the Irish space programme centre.) A plume of smoke issued from the top of the towers rising at an angle of about thirty degrees from vertical and fanning out slightly as it rose. The scene was backed by a yellow sky that was cut off by the horizontal edge of grey cloud that extended up and over my head. It looked like the artwork on an Iain M. Banks novel.

It was 11:15pm when I reached my destination and there was still light in the sky. By 11:30pm it was dark.

I woke at 4:30am to a cloudy but fully bright day.

It was still almost a week away from the longest day of the year.

>110 pgmcc: It does sound surreal. Did you get any photos of the scene?

I do love the extra light at the end of the day this time of year. I'm not so pleased about it in the morning.

>111 clamairy: I was on a motorway travelling at 120 kms/hr so I did not feel it appropriate to grt my phone out of my pocket and take pictures. Under other circumstances I would have.

I did inform the toll-booth attendant that she was sitting facing the wrong way and was missing a beautiful sunset. “Story of my life,” was her response.

>110 pgmcc:, >112 pgmcc: Surreal. Extra points for the Banks' reference - it made a perfect image. Toll-booth attendant included.

>113 Busifer: Thank you.

>110 pgmcc: Good story. Your available hours of sunlight are more/longer than mine. (All hours have 60 minutes to them, but Philly is a bit further south than Dublin, I think.)

>115 jillmwo: Philly is south of New York, New York is south of London, Dublin is north of London, and Peter was north of Dublin at the time. QED.

>116 haydninvienna: That is such a hard fact to keep in my brain.

I was in Greece a couple of weeks ago and I had to work to remember that Rhodes, Madrid and New York are all on about the same latitude.

>115 jillmwo: During midwinter you (and I) can gloat that you've (we've) got more sunlight* than Peter has. ;o)

Albeit weak sunlight.

>119 clamairy: When you say it like that, I can gloat now that I have more sunlight and am slightly warmer than Peter will have / be in six months time :-)
(sunrise 7 am, sunset 5 pm, minimum 9°C, maximum for tomorrow 27°C -- there's a Berg wind; otherwise it would be about 21)

Tomorrow, 21st June, 2019:
Sunrise: 4:57
Sunset: 21:57
Astronomical twilight: The rest of the night.

Tomorrow, 21st June, 2019:
Sunrise: 5:17
Sunset: 20:25
Astronomical twilight starts: 3:09 am
Astronomical twilight ends: 22:33 pm

I am in the final quarter of The Kingdom of Copper. It is holding my attention and keeping me coming back to read at any opportunity I can make.

I find it much more that simply a Fantasy tale. It is a far-reaching discourse on prejudice, political manipulation, abuse of power, and the everlasting cycle of wars that the world appears to be unable to break. You can view this book as dealing with conflict on a regional basis or on a global scale; the parallels are there and are applicable everywhere.

The personal interest is maintained by having well rounded characters from every faction involved. Chakraborty used these characters well to inform the reader of the views of people in each faction. She also uses their personal relationships and feelings to portray the struggle of individuals tied up in undesirable situations not of their making. The sad thing I see is the repeating ebb and flow of cruelty and war in the book reflected in the real world with us currently witnessing the resurgence of behaviours and attitudes that we thought were stopped for good seventy-five years ago.

>123 pgmcc: I am so happy to hear you're enjoying this one. Perhaps I'll be pushing this series closer to the top of my TBR.

>124 clamairy: I would encourage upward mobility for these books.

>121 pgmcc:, >122 clamairy:

Today
Sunrise: 4:59
Sunset: 23:26
Astronomical twilight: the rest of the night

Happy solstice!

>123 pgmcc: Well put. I’m on my final third, so you’re a bit ahead of me.

Solstice fell at 17:52, local time, down here.
Sunrise: 03:34
Sunset: 22:07

Had we been up at the cabin sunrise would had been at 01:12, with sunset at 23:56.

Belated happy solstice!

>126 NorthernStar: & >127 Busifer: Yikes! Enjoy all of that extra light! (I have a hard enough time sleeping past sunrise here!)
:o)

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

(Lets compare sunrise & sunsets in another 6 months!)

It is 02:33 here. I have just taken my son’s girlfriend outside to show her light in the sky. I am sure my son will not object.

>129 pgmcc: Will you tell us if he does... 😉

>130 clamairy:
My son did not object to the light in the sky.

>128 clamairy: In six months I’ll be complaining about the darkness and the cold, for sure.
The light nights are a mixed blessing. I love the light, but it can be hard to go to sleep after reading late when the birds starts the morning orchestra. Not to mention the ”the sun’s up, I’ll have work tomorrow, and I’m still awake”-stress...

>132 Busifer: I think in the Winter I could deal with the lack of light if it weren't so cold. Or the cold, if it weren't so dark! 😂

I'm considering purchasing some inexpensive blackout curtains for my bedroom. Though with the windows open the birdsong is also an issue, just like you. (As is the occasional sound of wild turkeys gobbling.)

>133 clamairy: We have blackout curtains in the cabin or we’d never sleep during summer, up there.

Down in the city it’s the heat more than the light thatis the issue: ac is almost unheard of in inner city flats, so we need to have the windows open... and then the starlings starts to sing at sunrise, and then the gulls starts up...

Definitely with you on the cold/darkness. I could take the cold if it weren’t so dark, and vice versa. But, I live here, so I just have to do the standard human thing: adapt ;-)

>123 pgmcc: I just finished The Kingdom of Copper. And I do mean, just. Oh my! It was better than City of Brass. The characters! The plotting! The mistakes and decisions made. :(

You described it well.

And now we wait for the third one. Ack! I hope it’s out soon.

>135 catzteach: I believe it is out in February. I have it on pre-order.

>136 pgmcc: oh, a much shorter wait than I was expecting! Yay! I wonder if I can put it on hold at the library. :)

I finished Kingdom of Copper yesterday and, like >137 catzteach:, am now waiting for the third instalment, Empire of Gold.

I do not have much to add to what I said in >123 pgmcc:. I found it a great read and am eager to read the next book.

Last night I started Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry. It is living up to my expectations. Barry has a great knack of capturing character and evoking place and atmosphere. He is really adept at using the way people speak and using the style of their language that is real. When I read his work it oozes authenticity, not just in the words used, but the way they are used, and in the characters he portrays.

As I have mentioned before I plan attending a reading from this book by the author on Thursday night. I have met him a couple of times before and he is a very pleasant and unassuming person.

>139 pgmcc: Oh, how wonderful! Please report back on all the details.

I attended a performance of "Peg O'My Heart" by J. Hartley Manners staged by the Lucan Drama Society. It was good fun and to cap it all I won a bottle of wine in the fund raising raffle at the end.

>141 pgmcc: Good on you, Peter, you deserve some fun. Hope the wine's good.

>142 haydninvienna: Thank you, Richard.

Possibly my favourite living author.

The reading was great and Kevin Barry once again proved himself to be a lovely person, a genius, and a wonderful writer. This book has humour, pathos and darkness.

His latest novel is:

Night Boat to Tangier

I finished it this morning and can say it is a masterpiece.

If anyone is thinking of reading his work I suggest you start with his first short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms.

Where was the venue for the reading, Peter? Bookshop, library ...?

>145 haydninvienna: Hodges Figgis; the first floor of the bookshop where we met.

On my way to work yesterday I finished reading Night Boat to Tangier. That was convenient as I was going to a reading from this book by the author last evening. I had hoped to finish it before the reading so I was quite happy to have finished it. I had not expected to finish it, but I did.

Since I had not expected to finish Night Boat to Tangier I had not brought my next planned read, The Unfortunate Fursey, with me. This was the cause of my abibliophobia.

Kevin Barry is a great writer and there had been quite a bit of social media mention of his reading, so I expected a big crowd. There is only a limited amount of space in part of Hodges Figgis they use for the readings so I decided to get over there a bit early. I got there at 5:15pm; the reading was due to start at 6:00pm. There were already a few people there for the reading. Someone had already taken their seat amongst the thirty chairs put out.

"I shall take my seat and hold on to one for my friend" thought I.

"But what will I read?"

Worse than that, my wait for the start of the reading was not the only book-free time-slot I envisioned. I still had to go home by bus afterwards; what was I going to read on the bus. This was getting serious.

Aghast I rushed to the fiction section downstairs. I saw plenty of great books but I had either read them or have them on my shelves awaiting my attention. I was getting desperate. 05:30pm arrived and I still had not spotted a book.

And then it happened. I spotted a copy of The Princess Bride. The book the film was based on. As it happened I had loyalty card points that gave me €10 towards the book so for an extra €2 I was able to become the proud owner of The Princess Bride and dismiss my abibliophobia.

Long story short, I have started to read The Princes Bride.

>147 pgmcc: And that is where we differ. I see a selection of railway books on the shelf behind the speaker: any one of these would have done me well, and I could have pacified SWMBO by passing it on to the Railway Society library afterwards.

What >148 hfglen: said, except for passing the book on: they just stack up, at home.

And any author you mention favourably tickles my interest, so I'll try to find out if any of his books are available locally.

If I were you I would try some of his short stories first. He has two collections: There Are Little Kingdoms and Dark Lies the Island. He uses dialogue containing a lot of slang local to the characters' upbringing. His first novel, The City of Bohane has a lot of phonetic dialogue for characters with very strong accents.

Hehe, not the last one, then. Not as a start, anyway.
Thanks for the tip.

Proof I was at the reading.

This was one of the secret meeting places when I was on my mission to "you-know-where". It strikes me as coming straight of a Cold War movie.

>146 pgmcc: thought it looked familiar.
>153 pgmcc: looks kind of familiar too.

And you’ve never read The Princess Bride????

I read The Princess Bride while in high school. The film had not yet come out. It came out later that year. I loved it! And, then loved the movie, of course. :)

>152 pgmcc:

Are you sitting down or standing up?

>156 suitable1:
Do you think Kevin Barry is a hobbit and that I am a gray wizard?

Perhaps I should grow my beard again.

>152 pgmcc: Proof? I'm not buying it! He's probably a stunt double to give you an alibi while the real you is off doing something nefarious elsewhere. ;)

>152 pgmcc: It looks like you had a wonderful time, so I'm quite pleased for you!

I'm hemorrhaging from a book bullet or three now, though. I am not a short story fan, so where would you recommend I start?

>147 pgmcc:, >155 catzteach: I read The Princess Bride before the film was even thought of. I loved it!

The film, when I eventually got round to watching it, was something of an anticlimax. Dispassionately, I can think of no major criticisms of the film; it just bore too great a weight of expectations.

>160 -pilgrim-: I am not surprised. I had no knowledge of the story when I first saw the film so I had no expectations. I found it funny and entertaining and have watched a couple of times since at the prompting of my offspring. I am finding that know the story from the film is neither helping nor hindering my reading of the book. As I know the story from the film I am missing the benefit of not knowing everything as I read and not knowing what is going to happen next.

In general, in relation to book/film comparisons, I have managed to get myself into the mindset of looking on a book and a film based on that book as two separate entities. This has helped me avoid frustrations when I realise the film maker has left out my favourite character, turned the villain into the hero, and totally changed the ending. This mindset has saved me much anxiety and improved the level of enjoyment I get from screen adaptations of books. Umberto Eco's book on translation, Mouse or Rat: translation as negotiation assisted in this process. He talks about book being a different medium to film and that translation from one medium to another is going to, by definition, involve differences that will make the two resulting entities being different.

The first film I watched that followed the book virtually step by step was The Name of the Rose. There was a change to the ending but it was not significant.

>149 Busifer:, >151 Busifer: & >159 clamairy:

Where to start with the works of Kevin Barry?

That is a very good question.

His short stories are probably the more accessible route. My experience of his stories is that he captures moments and locations perfectly. As most of the situations in his first collection were set in Ireland and were typically Irish I am wondering how much I appreciated them because I recognised the situations, interactions and reactions as totally real and could relate to them in my own life, and does this mean a reader from another country would not relate to them as well as I did. The praise for his work and the awards he has been winning would appear to nullify that idea.

To avoid that problem perhaps a new reader should start with his second collection of short stories, Dark Lies the Island. One of the stories in this book is Beer Trip to Llandudno, and is about a group of English real ale enthusiasts on an annual beer trying trip. They are travelling by train and are, on this occasion, going to Llandudno. (It's in Wales in case you were wondering.) He won the Sunday Times Short Story Competition for this one. It is an amazing story.

Of his three novels, The City of Bohane, Beatlebone and Night Boat to Tangier, the first one is probably the one that might give the most difficulty. It is set forty years in the future in a rather dystopian environment in which gangs rule a city in the West of Ireland. The difficulty is that he has created a dialect that one has to get into to really appreciate the story. He has spelt much of the dialogue phonetically and I find the accent to be a mixture of an Irish rural brogue (but not stage-Irish; real Irish accent) intermingled with a Scottish accent and with bits of the accents of people from the Irish Travellers community. It took me a few pages to get into it but I found it very worthwhile.

Beatlebone is an easier read. Night Boast to Tangier is probably a relatively easy read but you may have to ask about the odd word hear and there.

I would suggest these would be good books to test our through a library lest you end up investing your hard currency on something that you find you do not take to.

By the way, if you ever get the opportunity to attend one of his readings, take that opportunity. He performs his story rather reading it.

ETA: Having had another look at Kevin’s latest book I would say it is a good place to start. The Night Boat to Tangier.

>158 YouKneeK: Please, be a little more discreet. You might blow my cover.

I'm glad you got to meet your favourite author in person and had a great evening. Also that you narrowly escaped the dire fate of being away from one's library with nothing to read.

>164 Sakerfalcon: Saved by The Princess Bride.

I'll check the library system for Night Boat to Tangier, then. Thanks.
Phonetic spelling of to me obscure dialects and languages is a bit too much for my limited abilities, whereas the odd word is easy to check up on, one way or another: I'm pretty used to that, what with a lifetime of reading all sorts of books and texts in my not native language ;-)

I have finally finished The Princess Bride.

The edition I have was first published in 1999 while the original was published in 1973. In my edition William Goldman added more to the story around the story and I felt it was too much and took away from the enjoyment of the book.

The core story was entertaining but having watched the film my enjoyment was less than it might have been as there were no surprises for me. This is a book that should be read before seeing the film.

The whole story around the story did not work for me. At first he had me fooled into thinking his father did read the story to him but then I checked up his life and the names of his wife and child in the book did not appear in reality. Once I knew it was all fiction I found the story around the story unnecessary and tedious. His attempts to blur the line between reality and fiction was a nice trick but he took it too far when it was obviously bunkum.

I am starting my re-read of The Unfortunate Fursey and The Return of Fursey. I am reading these in the combined edition having first read them in the excellent limited edition Swan River Press separate volumes.

These books are a real treat and I am looking forward to enjoying them again.

This post is a re-post of my weekend report from the weekend thread for 5th - 8th July 2019. I am putting it here as I will find it easier to find than in a weekend thread. I had a wonderful weekend and I want to be able to read about it from time to time to remind myself of such a wonderful time I had. It will be a bit like Gwendolin's diary:

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

Having started this thread with enthusiasm for a long weekend in Donegal and a three day book fair, I feel I owe you a full weekend report.

As with any event there were negatives, but despite the negatives I had a wonderful weekend.

I took Friday and Monday as annual leave so the first thing I did on Friday was get up at my usual time of 06:00hrs and head into town to pick up the car I was hiring for the weekend. (Quick head-nod to the car hire company. I have used as many of the car rental companies I know over the years but I have settled on a favourite. It is probably inappropriate to mention the enterprising company I use but it has corny advertisements about customer service but it lives up to the promise. I mean the customer service is excellent; not corny. I have rented from them in three countries and found the service of equally high quality every time. If I need to hire a car for any enterprise, and I mean any enterprise, I chose this enterprising company first. I believe it is US based. I forgot to say I also find their rates very competitive.)

The car was ready and waiting for me and agent had me up and running in no time at all. I learned a few weeks ago that the hire company has Nissan Qashqais as their fourth level car. While this was three levels up from the cheapest rental rate I discovered that the price difference over the four day hire was only €6. As I drive a Qashqai I was delighted to hire a car that I am used to driving.

So, I had the car.

Headed home, picked up George (our cat) and headed to the cattery. The place we use is great. We have been using it for years. We started with our dog Indiana who loved it so when we got cats we used it for the cats too. It goes by the great title of The Canine Country Club and Cattery. Again, great customer service and reasonable priced. The first time we left Indiana there while we were on holiday she did not want to go home with us. We went to collect her; she came out with her tail wagging; ran over to us and had cuddles all round then headed back into the kennels as if she had enjoyed our visit and we could now go home.

I digress.

I got on the road to Donegal about 13:00hrs. I expected to be in Donegal about 17:00. I got there at 20:15. The direct route is not motorway and dual carriageway the whole way. In fact most of it is normal A-grade country road, which in Ireland is a two way road with a single lane in each direction. It was on one of these roads in Northern Ireland (my route took me through Northern Ireland) that I met a traffic jam. Apparently there had been a three-car pile-up at a junction about a mile up the road. I checked google maps for an alternate route to find that I would have had to add about seventy miles onto the journey to bypass the point where the accident was. At the time I was not even sure where the accident was. I could have been eight miles up the road. When I first tried to check Google maps I found I had no coverage so was a bit peeved.



Anyhow, I adopted my usual approach in one of theses situations; I did not let it annoy me. I knew it must be an accident and I was sure the people in the accident had more to complain about than I had, so I sat back to await the inevitable crawl forward when the emergency services have done their work. The accident was severe enough to be reported on the traffic news for Northern Ireland. I saw one ambulance leave the scene with its lights and sirens on but I did not hear how many people were injured.

Anyway, that delayed me for some time. I eventually got out of the car and collected my copy of The Princess Bride from the boot. I should have started reading it earlier because I had only read one page when the cars began to move.

The accident happened at a point where another road joins the main road from the right. I suspect someone was edging out and someone else was going to fast and, and, and… I hope no one was seriously injured.

I had been able to communicate by text message with my sister so she knew not to stop the rest of the clan from eating dinner until I arrived.

As I got to the top of the hill above my sister’s cottage I took a picture (with the camera on my phone) of the lake and the hills. I have a habit of doing this as it is a view that takes me back to happy days in my teens and early twenties. I then drove down, parked, and made my entrance. Ta da!



My sister put out a great, huge, piled-high plate of chicken casserole for me. She obviously wanted to clean the casserole dish and she had been telling everyone else not to eat too much as Peter was coming and he would be hungry. Of course, as always happens on such occasions, everyone would have had a modest portion so as to leave some for Peter and Peter ends up with a treble modest portion. It was delicious which made it easy to finish off.

As Inch Island is just over 55 degrees North it was still bright until close to midnight, so we had a great chin-wag and a cup of tea before going to bed. My sister and her husband have been at the cottage for a few months and one of my nieces is home on holiday from New Zealand with her two young boys. The are seven and five and so, yes, as you can imagine, the arrival of the fabled Uncle Peter caused excitement and I was therefore guaranteed of a six o’clock alarm call as the two boys sneaked upstairs to the attic to see if Uncle Peter was going to get up and play with them.

Before we get to the book fair, I have to report another very annoying negative, but it is more of a first world problem than a serious, life changing event. One of my intentions in going to Donegal was to take photographs with my “good” camera. I checked it before I left home and it was working great. I checked it in Donegal and it was saving pictures as blank, black rectangles. ☹ This became additionally annoying when my niece introduced me to “Fluffy”. Fluffy is what the children had christened a fledgling swallow that had hatched in a nest in the porch, and who, with his mother, was hanging around the house totally oblivious to the presence of the human residents, and who would let you get to about two yards of him before making a move to fly away. Talk about a great opportunity to photograph these fantastic little birds and my camera decided to sit down and go on strike. (Update: I took the camera to The Camera Shop (That is actually the name of the shop where we bought the camera) and it is on its way back to Canon for repair. I am told it is a six to eight week turnaround time. ☹ )



Now for the book fair.

The book fair is organized every year to raise funds for charity. The local Catholic and Presbyterian parishioners organize it and gather books from around the county. The charity this year was The Donegal Hospice.

The fair is held in a large church hall. It is quite large and rows of tables were arranged in parallel for the length of the hall. The books were mostly fiction with a biography section, a gardening section, and then a assortment of non-fiction. There was a section of religious book which was an interesting mix of Catholic, Presbyterian and Church of Ireland texts. I say interesting in the context of the church hall being only about two miles from the border with Northern Ireland where there was sectarian strife for decades. It was nice to see how closely people work together when the have a bit of sense.

I saw many excellent books there but I have either read them or have them on a shelf waiting to be read. The first book I selected for purchase was Farside Gallery. I love the Farside cartoons. I bought this to have a giggle at and to leave at my sister’s place for the rainy days. (Did I mention that the weather was fantastic and that I had to keep moving into the shade because I was getting too hot in the sunshine. The light was perfect for photography. Damn!)

I then found a copy of Kipps by H.G.Wells and picked it up because I was afraid I would have next to nothing to buy. Most of the locals use this event to buy their reading for the long winter nights and they had big bags, boxes, and trollies loaded with books.

My next find was The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller. She won the 1998 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; at €100,000 this is the highest valued literary award in the world for a work in English. What is unique about it is that the books selected for the award are selected by librarians around the world. Any librarian in the world is free to nominate a book for the long list.
For a bit of non-fiction I picked up a book by Bob Curran entitled, The Truth About The Leprechaun. 😊

Then I spotted Bridge on the River Kwai, the book on which the film, “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”, was based. I like the fact that this book was originally written in French by Pierre Boulle and that another of his French works is, The Planet of the Apes. I think a great quiz question would be, ”What is the connection between ‘The Bridge Over the River Kwai’ and ‘The Planet of the Apes’?

Having found that book I had hit a vein that obviously had come from the same person’s collection and picked up:
The Dam Busters
The Colditz Story and
Santorini.

After that we went for coffee in a coffee shop called, The Gap, where my niece had a Gap Bap and video called her husband twelve time zones away to show him she was eating a Gap Bap. He was not impressed by being woken up but was impressed by the Gap Bap. He is coming over in a few weeks’ time and has insisted on going to The Gap for a Gap Bap.

Sunday was a big occasion day. One of my sister’s sons has just had a big promotion. He invited everyone to lunch in a local posh restaurant. There were eight adults and six children under twelve. It was a glorious day weather wise and it was a fantastic family get-together. My sister is twelve years older than me and is, in fact, my Godmother. We have always been very close and her children and I have always had a great relationship. It was a fantastic day and we took over four hours at lunch. I was the first to break things up as I had to head back to Dublin and they were all aware of how the drive had taken seven hours on Friday.


That is Inch Island across the water.

I had an interesting encounter. One of the waiters was the younger brother of someone I had spent a lot of time with when I was a teenager. He had known me back then and I knew who he was but I could see he was not sure who I was. He knew my sister, her husband and their children but when I said, “Hi Peter. It’s a long time since we met.” (Yes, his name is Peter too.) He replied, “Aye! It is.”

I could tell he was having difficulty. I said, “You’re having difficulty placing me.” He said, “Naw!”, pointed at my sister and her husband and said, “You’re one of their sons.” That got a laugh.

When I told him who I was and how I had hung around with his brother and sister her remembered me and said, “That was a while ago!” When he said that I agreed and then realized it was the 1970s. We shall not discuss this further.

My drive home was not seven hours and I was back in my home territory in three and a quarter hours.

That was my fantastic weekend!

That is a fantastic weekend! Glad you had an amazing time!

>170 catzteach: It was a great weekend. One of those weekends that will be a reference point in future family conversations.

>169 pgmcc: In the third picture, what's flowering red in front of the pillar? It looks a bit like an aloe, which I don't believe.

>172 hfglen:

Hugh, this is a picture of the plant from a previous year. I cannot remember the name of it but I like it a lot. My sister gave me a couple of the plants and I now have them in my own garden.

>173 pgmcc: Looks like Crocosmia - maybe 'Lucifer'. Gorgeous, but not hardy in my region so I've never grown it. I've seen the odd person grow it as an annual.

>173 pgmcc: I'll agree with tardis; thought it was "one of ours"! Tsk tsk, Crocosmia is a summer-rainfall plant in nature; I should have spotted it sooner.

>169 pgmcc: Amazing weekend. Thank you for sharing. (Sorry about that traffic jam, though!) Love the photos.

>174 tardis: I often find that things that I'd like in my garden up at the cabin won't survive. It's not unusual for plants that SHOULD survive to die as well. Deep frozen and a metre of snow on top is one thing, but when it melts in the middle of winter, sometimes several times, the ice ends upp killing every other plant. It's getting markedly warmer, up there, and it's not a good thing.

>174 tardis: Thank you for the name.

The plants in my own garden have survived our month or so of snow and the prolonged drought we had last year. I thought we would have lost them but they are booming away at the moment, I am happy to report.

My sister's plants in Donegal have been surviving for years.

>177 Busifer: While there has been flooding at the lake by my sister's place it has stopped short of the their own garden so the plants have not been swamped. Are you experiencing the melting of permafrost?

>175 hfglen: The resolution of the picture in my weekend report is very poor so you should not beat yourself up for not identifying the plant straight away. Do not let your professional confidence be shaken. :-)

>176 clamairy: I really enjoyed writing up the weekend experience. I have intended doing that after other weekends or holidays and never actually did it. While the traffic jam was inconvenient I am annoyed about the camera fault. I suspect the sensor has a fault. I think it is very disappointing that such a basic element of a camera fails when it is only 2.5 years old. The six to eight week turnaround time for repairs sounds ridiculous in this day of same-day/next-day e-commerce deliveries. One would think the same approach would be applied to repair cycles. The fact that I will be without my camera for two months in the summer is very disappointing and has shaken my view of Canon products.

>178 pgmcc: I've put two plant pictures (one of what it reminded me of, the other of its wild cousin) on my thread at #183-4.

>177 Busifer: No, no permafrost in northern Sweden, but normally the ground is frozen from at least December to April, as far down as a 60-100 centimetres. Before that it's pretty dry, so not to much "ice" in the ground. But lately there has been periods of thaw during mid-winter, and when a metre of snow melts only for temps to return to 15-30 below zero in no time, sometimes repeatedly, then everything gets iced in and iced over. And lots of plants die, then. The snow insulates, when the insulation melts and refreezes everything suffers.

>179 hfglen:
I saw those posts.

What was that remark about endless rain? :-)

>178 pgmcc: Sorry about the camera. Repairing anything has become an issue these days. Maybe it always was and I'm just more aware of it now, but it seems like the increased complexity of our gadgets and tools has made rapid repairs a thing of the past.

>182 clamairy:

I remember it always taking this long to repair something like a camera. The irony is that the new devices have so many diagnostic tools fitted they can probably identify the problem remotely and almost instantaneously if they have it in hand. The way things are designed now they just replace a module to fix a fault rather than actually fix the problem.

I think they need a consultancy job on making the process LEAN. I wonder where I should send the proposal.

>181 pgmcc: In all seriousness, the Highveld where the aloe grows expects five months of total drought every winter, so the aloe can't tolerate wet feet. The Crocosmia grows in an area where they declare a drought after four consecutive sunny days.

>178 pgmcc: It could be the mirror is stuck down. I had that happen to my Nikon DSLR a few days into my first trip to Costa Rica. The camera bag slipped off the back of a chair, and fell 15-20 cm onto concrete. No visible damage, but pictures were nothing but black after that. Camera was dead weight for the rest of the trip. Sent it for repairs, for which I paid, then it happened again shortly after it came back. That fix didn't cost me.

>185 NorthernStar: It is really frustrating when something like that happens.

The guy in the shop that sold it to me went through a lot of checks, including the mirror being stuck, and he got more worried with every check. He concluded it was serious enough to send to Canon. My fear is that the sensor is faulty. Replacing such a fundamental and highly technical part is probably going to be as expensive as a new camera. :-(

Well, I myst look on the bright side. At least weather is fine. Just perfect for taking photographs...

>186 pgmcc: sounds like you have a great camera shop, anyway. Glad the weather is perfect, you'll have to take virtual pictures!

>187 NorthernStar:. That really is pushing the bright side. :-)

I think I would be doing that anyway. A friend said that people who take pictures see the world differently and are always looking for shots and framing images. It was only after he said that I realised I am always doing that so I think you are correct; I will be taking virtual pictures.

>188 pgmcc: I hear ya. My mother was an artist. When I see a scene that she would have liked to have captured with watercolors I take a photo with my phone.

>189 clamairy: That is lovely.

I am currently re-reading The Unfortunate Fursey by Mervyn Wall. I read this a few years ago and loved it. It is very funny and I am enjoying it all over again, even though I know what is going to happen.

On Saturday, as I have mentioned, my wife and I went to the seaside. As a result I did not get to do any reading.

On Sunday morning, while sitting having breakfast in the garden with the sun beaming down, (Yes, I am at home in Ireland. It does happen on occasion. Temperature reached 24C.) I was reading the culture supplement from the Sunday Business Post newspaper. It had an article on the 20 "must reads" for the summer*. The list included The Wych Elm by Tana French, a book I have on a shelf awaiting attention. This article captured my interest and I was wondering should I try to read these books to get a feel for what the two reviewers considered to be "must reads" and I was thinking I will start with The Wych Elm.

Not having read from The Unfortunate Fursey since Friday's bus trip home from work I was wondering if my lack of reading was due to some reluctance to pick up the book. Had my re-read been reduced in fervour by familiarity with the story? Should I put it on hold and start The Wych Elm?

I went into my study/library/storage-room to get both books. I almost started reading The Wych Elm but thought I would read a bit more of The Unfortunate Fursey before making a final decision.

An hour later I was still reading The Unfortunate Fursey and my wife asked me what I was laughing at. I had been laughing out loud as I was reading the book. No, The Unfortunate Fursey has not lost any of its appeal. My lack of picking the book up was obviously the result of my family returning home and other distractions. I am itching to finish today's work and get back to the book.

For those of you not familiar with the book it is about a lay-brother in the ancient monastery of Clonmacnoise, a monastery established by St. Kieran in the sixth century, and which is still a fascinating place to visit as a tourist to see the ruins, the round towers, and the Celtic crosses that contain some Egyptian symbols in their carvings that indicate the origin of St. Kieran and his companions who sailed up the river Shannon and established the settlement.

The story is set in medieval times and Fursey is a lay monk in the monastery when its security against evil spirits is breached by demons. Fursey has a hesitation in his speech and as a result is not as effective as his fellow monks in saying the prayers of exorcism when he encounters one of the demons or other vile creatures from hell.

This is a comedy story but it is also a commentary on the political power of the church in Ireland of the Twentieth Century. As I said earlier, I have been laughing out loud as I have been reading the book. What I did not mention was that this has happened me not only in the back garden at home, but also in Starbucks.

*Before you ask, yes, I shall be posting the list in this thread. I must also state that the authors of the article are obviously not totally up to date with the latest releases as they did not include Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry, a book that I am sure will outshine any of the twenty books included in the article.

Having reached over 190 posts I am of a mind to start the fourth strand of my 2019 reading thread.

>191 pgmcc: I believe I would like to read the Fursey books. Is there any advantage to the print versions vs. e-books, (illustrations, etc)?

>193 ScoLgo: I see the demons of Clonmacnoise have visited you and put vile terms in your vocabulary. e-books indeed. I suppose you think the "e" stands for electronic. AND the use of the word "book" in that term is the greatest sacrilege. I see we will have to put you to the question and use the skills of the inquisitor to loosen your tongue and correct your line of thinking.

Apart from that the story is text based and you will get the story from an e-book. :-)

I have been spoiled in that I first read the two Fursey books in The Swan River Press editions. They are works of art in themselves and not only are the dust covers beautifully decorated but the cover of the hardback is also used to present a work of art produced for the edition.

This is the cover of The Unfortunate Fursey from The Swan River Press.


This is the cover of the sequel, The Return of Fursey, from The Swan River Press.


This is the cover of the Wolfhound Press edition that I am currently reading.


I got this copy in a secondhand bookshop for €13. When I checked Amazon to see if there were e-book editions I saw a Wolfhound Press edition on sale for £175.48. I think I got a bargain.

I see there are e-book versions available of each book for about £6 each.

Let me know how you get on with Fursey. I am really loving him.

>194 pgmcc: I always assumed the 'e' in e-book stood for evil...? Potential abominable properties aside, and for various other reasons, I actually read a lot of e-books. They really are very good reasons - some of which even help keep my marriage alive! ;)

I concur that you got a bargain! A used Wolfhound Press edition of The Complete Fursey can be ordered here from Abe Books for $115.00 plus $15.00 for shipping, (from Canada - but not Canadian dollars, unfortunately).

I had read your previous post where you showed off your Swan River Press copies and immediately looked into ordering them. But the price... yikes! There is currently one available used copy of the Pilot Press edition of The Unfortunate Fursey here in the USA. It is on Biblio.com and is being offered for the sum of $250.00 plus $4.00 for shipping. The description reads, "Owner's signature on front free endpaper. Spine panel and top and bottom extremities a bit sunned, a very good copy in good dust jacket (priced 8/6 on the front flap) with shallow loss at spine ends and corner tips and faded spine panel. A decent copy of a very scarce book." This is for the first book only. The sequel would be a separate purchase.

Copies of your Swan River Press editions are also available on the used market and can be ordered from Ireland. Both volumes in a package deal for €110.00 plus €18 for shipping, ($147.78 USD). Less expensive than, and much nicer-looking than the Pilot Press edition - but sadly, still far out of my price range.

Amazon.com offers Valancourt Books new paperback editions for $16.99 each. Today's "Prime Day Sale" is offering $5.00 off so that is both books for around $30.00 after tax. Tempting.

Or, I can purchase the kindle versions for $7.99 each. Hence my question as to whether the print versions add anything.

As gorgeous as those Swan River Press books are... I think I will be going with the e-books...

>195 ScoLgo: It is soooo much easier to hide ebook purchases! Plus they are generally cheaper. And, in my case, they are easier on the eyes.

>196 clamairy: Yep. That is certainly one reason ;-p ... although I generally borrow more e-books from Overdrive than purchase them.

Selecting a word or phrase for immediate dictionary/wiki lookups is something my print books refuse to accommodate - no matter how often I try it.

Also, no lamp on while reading helps the spousal unit get a good night's rest while I perform my nefarious night-owling duties...

Yes, OverDrive is wonderful! 😍 As are the quick lookups.

>196 clamairy:, >197 ScoLgo:, >198 clamairy:

I see you two are hell-bent on justifying your heresies and scandalous behaviours. If the good Bishop Flanagan of Cashell were here he would soon put paid to your e-book ways.

>199 pgmcc: I'm incorrigible, and I shall never repent.

>200 clamairy: I think I learned that about you very shortly after meeting you in the pub.

This pleases me.

>200 clamairy: You. I like you.

In truth, I read all forms of books. I usually have one print book and one or two e-books going at any given time, (currently working on two of each). The print book is for when I have the opportunity to sit still with the reading light on. E-books are for on-the-go, (waiting in line, pumping petrol, etc), or late at night reading.

I have also been known to purchase on-sale e-books of printed books I already own. They make for nice reading copies, (for books that I wish to keep in new shape), and they allow for the aforementioned look-ups, which is very handy when reading someone like Gene Wolfe!

I also purchase print copies of e-books I have borrowed and enjoyed enough to want on hand to flip the pages. For instance, I just ordered the boxed set of Le Guin's Hainish books a couple of hours ago. I already have them all in paperback but... it was on sale and... allowing that I had a pile of credits on hand to mitigate the price... and... yes, I am rationalizing the decision... However, I expect the box will look very nice sitting next to my copy of The Book of Earthsea.

>203 ScoLgo: I see that now I have mentioned the good Bishop Flanagan of Cashell and put the fear of God into you, you are trying to back pedal and show what a good book person you are. You are making a good case...but I will be watching. :-)

I have only 21 pages of The Unfortunate Fursey left to read and will be getting back to that in a few minutes. I hope you read it and I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

>203 ScoLgo: I like you, too. :o)

I moved and sadly about a third of my books are still in boxes. They'll be going in bookshelves when my basement flooring is installed. Until then I am not buying (many) print books. I did have some B&N gift cards to use up, so the last time they had a 10% off sale I ordered two Tolkien books that I wanted. But I admit that I almost exclusively read on my Kindle now. It's easier to hold, I can prop it up almost anywhere, the font adjusts, the light adjusts, and the ebooks I buy or borrow appear on it as if by magic! What's not to love about it?

>205 clamairy: Given that you are a determined and unrepentant e-reader you should pick up The Unfortunate Fursey. I think you would enjoy it. It is beautifully sacrilegious.

>206 pgmcc: I added it to my amazon wishlist.

>204 pgmcc: Whew! That was close...

>307 On my Amazon wishlist as well. Now to build up those slow shipping credits again...

> 208 Same. I'm afraid I'm at 2 cents right now...