Eric Idle Online
Reading
Sunset Park by Paul Auster - Mar-2011
A brilliant book. He just damn well keeps getting better and better. The brilliant way these different character stories interrelate is extraordinary. I could read this whole thing again. I may have to. Thanks to memory loss I may never have to buy new books again. Though one of the few things that get better with age is re-reading books you know and love.
And Furthermore by Judi Dench - Mar-2011
Because I adore her I adored it. But to be fair, it’s a tad too correct to be entertaining. She has to be nice about everyone in everything she was ever in, and we like a little more than that in our memoirs, especially theatrical memoirs. I understand her reluctance to tittle tattle but she doesn’t really reveal herself, which is a pity as she is much sharper and funnier in real life. Lucky for me to know that.
Inside WikiLeaks by Daniel Domscheit-Berg - Mar-2011
In case one felt Assange wasn’t paranoid enough here is someone exposing Wikileaks. Daniel Dumbshit hasn’t much of interest to say though he reveals what went on etc.
The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester - Mar-2011
A most annoying book in which the author in great detail discusses the portraits of Charles Dodgson without reproducing them. In fact but for the book jacket we wouldn’t have a clue what he is talking about. But surely a book like this must be a book of photographs with text. It is sublimely pointless and nonsensical and deeply irritating to discuss pictures in great detail which we cannot see!
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson - Mar-2011
Of course this, the first one of his I couldn’t finish, wins the Booker. Is it me? Of course. But I didn’t get on with this one at all and I have read absolutely everything of his for years and years. So while I am happy for him I put this book aside and I promise I’ll try again another day. I do find that often I am completely wrong and later pick up a book and thoroughly enjoy it. So books can be timely for us.
The King’s War (1641-1647) by C.V. Wedgwood - Mar-2011
Further reading of this arrogant man’s folly. (Charles 11nd) An old paperback edition I have had since school days…er 1958. Gosh.