[ebooktalk] Re: BOOKS OF MY LIFE
- From: "Trish Talbot" <trish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 19:38:57 +0100
Thanks for the guidance, Ian, but the bits I found most readable were the
beginning and the little diversion about Tom Bombadill. I just got bored with
all the battles involving long lists of names of those who took part - lists of
dwarves and other little people who only figured in the story for a short time.
I may be doing the book an injustice, as it is many years since I read part of
the book andheard all the radio dramatisation, but that is my lasting memory of
it.
Trish.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Macrae
To: ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 11:30 AM
Subject: [ebooktalk] Re: BOOKS OF MY LIFE
Trish, the bits people normally struggle with are the rather twee beginning,
and the section involving tom bombadill. This was cut from both the radio
adaptation and the screen play. Hardly surprising as the same person had
overall responsibility for both. The bombadill bit can be skipped without
interrupting the flow of the story and he features only in a very minor way
elsewhere in the tale. The thing to remember about the early chapters in The
shire is that behind it lies a massive historical spread and a long story with
which the hobbits are about to become very closely involved. By the way, there
is at least one powerful female character in there and a second who faces a
tough choice. Even as I write, I'm feeling the urge to go back and read it
again
On 28 Jun 2013, at 09:59, Trish Talbot wrote:
Hmmm! Maybe I'll have a go at the David Banks reading 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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