[ebooktalk] Re: BOOKS OF MY LIFE
- From: "Trish Talbot" <trish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 09:59:10 +0100
Hmmm! Maybe I'll have a go at the David Banks vreading of LOTR one day.
Elaine seems to think I hate the book, I don't, it just didn't grab me in the
way it does other people.
Oh great! Someone else who remembers and rates the Bernard Cribbins reading of
"Winnie-The-Pooh"! I love it, but so many other people seem to think the
definitive version is that read by Alan Bennett. The Bennett version is good,
but not, inmy opinion, as good.
We haven't mentioned women readers so far, apart from Joan Walker, who is
certainly one of the best. Top of my list has to be Carole Boyd, with Kate
Binchy and Caroline Lennon for Irish books. Anne Dover (Is that real her real
name!) is also pretty good.
Martin Jarvis has to be the definitive reader of the "Just William" stories, in
fact, he can read just about anything and make it sound good, while the Harry
Potter books and Stephen Fry are inseparable in my mind, I'd find it hard to
listen to anyone else reading them.
Trish.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Macrae
To: ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 9:26 AM
Subject: [ebooktalk] Re: BOOKS OF MY LIFE
One of the reasons I continue to love re-reading LOTR Elaine is that there is
a brilliant reading of it in the RNIB talking book library by David Banks. He
avoids many of the cliches and stereotypes in terms of finding voices for the
characters. True, Sam remains a bit of a yokel but the Orcs have a kind of
Yorkshire menace rather than being cocknified yobs and his Smeagol is every bit
as inventive as Andy Circis's in the Peter Jackson movies. Don't know whether
it would turn any avowed Tolkien disparagers, But this would be a good reading
for a newby to start with.
As for Gabriel wolf, he would certainly be one of the readers of my life. A
very early radio memory is of him reading ring Of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
and that must have been in the mid or late 50s. Incidentally, he is also
responsible for the RNIB reading of The Hobbit and makes a rather disappointing
job it in my view. Other readers of my life would include the legendary david
Davis, Bernard Cribbins for a magnificent Winny The Pooh in the 1970s and,
more recently David Thorpe, a reader of great versatility and inventiveness.
On 28 Jun 2013, at 06:45, Elaine Harris (Rivendell) wrote:
Oh, wow!
I’ll have to think about these and submit a list later – probably over the
weekend.
Ian, I love Tolkien; I have both the BBC Radio drama version on CD and the
entire book read (acted in full) by the wonderful Rob English whom I was
privileged to meet in about 1987 when he was touring his one-man/one-hour show
of The Hobbit.
Another much-loved but lighter Tolkien is “Farmer Giles of Ham”.
I will work on my list but “Watership Down” is definitely on there and it
would be all too easy to choose a book read by Gabriel Wolf; he’s on my
short-shortlist of readers along with Tony Robinson, Martin Jarvis, Stephen Fry
and, as mentioned once before, Stephen Thorne.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is Margaret Atwood’s best to my mind but so utterly
terrifying I don’t know that I would ever re-read it.
I had to list my three favourite books last year but can now only remember
two of them so shall check back.
More when I can make up my mind.
Take care,
Elaine
From: ebooktalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ebooktalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Trish Talbot
Sent: Friday, 28 June 2013 6:03 AM
To: Ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ebooktalk] Re: BOOKS OF MY LIFE
Having read Ian's five favourite books, thought I'd have a go at choosing
my own list. I have to say it was almost as bad as trying to choose my "Desert
Island discs" (I've never yet managed to decide what my favourite 8 tracks
would be). Like Ian's list, mine might be very different in six months, but
these are my thoughts today, and although they are numbered, the numbering
doesn't indicate preference:
1. George Eliot, "Middlemarch". We read this book for A level, and I have
read it since, as well as watching TV versions and hearing it on radio. Each
time, it says something new to me. I think Eliot was well ahead of her time,
her views are very feminist for the Victorian era. All the characters are
superbly drawn, and I particularly enjoy the contrasting characters of Dorothea
and Rosamund - both strong women, but with very different ideas about life.
2. Richard Addams, "Watership Down". Often misjudged as a children's
book, just because its characters are rabbits, it is, in fact, a book about a
team of creatures, all very different in character, but using their skills and
talents to achieve their aim. It has its sadness as well as its happier
moments, and the story keeps moving. This was the first book I ever (to use
Ian's word) chain read, which has to make it a special book for me.
3. Andrea Levy, "Small Island". I read this a couple of years ago, and
couldn't put it down! There is so much misunderstanding from people who think
they understand, so many conflicting views, but the author manages to convey
the fact that not every white British person is hostile to the new West Indian
imigrants. I'm glad I read it as an audio book, though, it definitely gained
something from being read by readers who could make sense of the Jamaican
dialect.
4. Margaret Attwood, "The Handmaid's Tale". A disturbing, but
thought-provoking book, which, once I read it, stayed with me.
5. J K Rowling, "Harry Potter And The Gobblet Of Fire." (There had to be
one.) I loved the whole series, with reservations about the last one, but this
one was, to my mind, the best. It has everything - characters who are, by this
stage, well developped, humour, suspense, and a brilliant story. I suppose the
series being set in a boarding school appeals to me as well, knowing how it
feels when you're away from home and have to think for yourself and/or include
our friends.
I struggled to limit the choice to five, as I narrowed it down to six and
couldn't decide which to leave out. Cheating, I will sneak in the fact that I
wanted to include:
Winifred Holtby, "South Riding", the stroy of life in a Yorkshire town
prior to the creation of the Welfare state. I love this book, and I think it
can tell us a lot about where Britain seems to be heading.
Anyone else up for "Desert Island Books"?
Trish.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Macrae
To: ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10:50 PM
Subject: [ebooktalk] Re: BVOOKS OF MY LIFE
I'm sure some of you will think this very predictable and disappointing,
and, of course, if I was asked to draw up the same list in six months time, I'd
come up with something a little different. But here we go and I'll fill in
some of the background and detail for my choices.
1. The Lord Of The rings: J R R Tolkien - like many of my generation I
discovered Tolkien in my teens during the 60s. There are other books I read
back then such as For Whom The Bell Tolls, Catcher In The Rye and Catch 22
which simply no longer work for me. But I re-read LOTR at least once a year.
I appreciate all that's wrong with it - the master servant relationship, the
slightly old fashioned values, the literal denegration of black, but it remains
a story which never fails to chime with me.
2. F Scott Fitzgerald: the Great Gatsby: the first book I ever chain
read. that's to say, like a cigarette, as soon as I'd finished it, I started
again. The sense of suffocation and frustration coupled with the mystery (or
not) surrounding Gatsby himself combine to make this possibly the most perfect
novel ever written.
3. A self compiled anthology of 20th century poetry: this would include
the Georgians, WW1 poets, eliot, the protest poetry of the 30s, poems from WW2,
philip Larkin, on through the beats and Liverpool scenes and up to ~John
cooper-clark and beyond.
4. John le Care: tinker Taylor Soldier Spy: Having gone through
institutions all my life, I find his evocation of the inner workings of the
intelligence service utterly convincing, although it may well be total hooey.
Smiley is a central character without compare and le Care's style is perfectly
suited to the subject and genre.
5. Alan Clark: Diaries 1983-91: No-one takes you quite inside politics
like Clark. I hate him as a politician and despise him in many respects of his
life, but no-one takes you inside politics, and particularly Tory politics like
he does.
On 26 Jun 2013, at 22:17, Shell wrote:
You can't expect us to wait for that one Ian. Please tell us straight
away!
Shell.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Ian Macrae" <ian.macrae1@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 9:15 PM
To: <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ebooktalk] BVOOKS OF MY LIFE
> Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to RNIB talking book studios in Camden
north London to record my Books Of My Life feature for the October issue of
Read On. Five favourites from all these years of reading. Would people like
to know what they are or would you rather wait till the mag comes out?
>
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