Welcome, everyone! My New Year’s resolution to make more time for reading hasn’t worked out as well as would have liked, and yet, the time I have made and the books I have read so far in 2014 have been very rewarding, indeed. My time gets easier by the middle of the month - no, I shouldn’t even say that! I’m beginning to believe in jinxes…
I have two books still on the go - Stephen Booth’s Blind to the Bones, which is the fourth novel in the Ben Cooper/Diane Fry series. It’s an odd mix of police procedural and soap opera, set in a corner of the UK that you just don’t hear much about. And yet, for all those elements that interest me tremendously, it never seems to elevate itself much beyond a rainy weekend at the cottage sort of book. I’ve got more of his books that I’ll probably read, but it’s sort of like the MAS*H re-run of literature - it fills the time, and two months later, you can’t quite remember if you read that one or not…
Much more engaging is Frederic Morton’s ‘A Nervous Splendour’, which is a fascinating look at ten very specific months in the history of Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian empire. (Late 1888 to 1889 - we’re spending a lot of time discussing the Crown Prince Rudolf, setting up the idea of what was lost in January, 1889 when Rudolph killed his mistress and then himself.) Morton is also stressing the incestuous interconnectedness of Vienna at that time, showing how Freud, Wolf, Bruckner, Mahler, Klimt, Schnitzler, et al. were on the cusp of their greatness, and running around the same social and intellectual circles. A fantastic bit of social history!
And you - whatcha readin’?
A link to last month’s thread.
For those of you unfamiliar with him, Khadaji was a long time doper with a kind heart and an encouraging word for everyone. One of his passions was books, and he started this long chain of book discussion threads many years ago. When he died in January of 2013, it was decided that the best way to honour his memory was to continue these threads, and name them after him. May his corner of heaven have a well stocked library, a comfy chair and lots of light.