Stuck in a Book

And here we are!
I’ve spent my day in the kitchen, making my vegetarian Christmas dinner to freeze (artichoke and wild mushroom pie) so I don’t get in Our Vicar’s Wife’s way come Christmas Eve. Also made some mince pies (and variants with syrup and with honey as the Carbon Copy doesn’t like mince pies) and something made entirely of cream, chocolate and Baileys. Mmm.
At the end of that, which was great fun, seems right to share 2007’s top reads. I know you’ve thought of little else for the past week…
Here goes…

10. Three Men In A Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
Wonderfully funny, and must read the sequel before too long. More here.

9. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead – Barbara Comyns
Surreal but special – in the 50 Books… here.

8. Watching the English – Kate Fox
Fascinating pop-anthropology about my very own English people. Also in the 50 Books… back when I took much effort over my photgraphs… here.

7. The London Scene – Virginia Woolf
Our friend Ginny has appeared in ’04, ’05, ’06 and ’07. What an accolade for the lass.

6. Cymbeline – William Shakespeare
Not one of his most popular plays, but read the final scene as comedy and you’re away.

5. Speaking of Love – Angela Young
Neighbour to Billybob, Angela! Another 50 Books… entrant; look out for the paperback in 2008.

4. A Winter Book – Tove Jansson
Read it on a beautiful beach – maybe I should give this book a re-read in more wintery temperatures. More here…

3. The Love Child – Edith Olivier
A bit like Miss Hargreaves in that it’s domestic life with a fantasy twist, the protagonist conjures to life an imaginary childhood companion, but power tussels ensue… more on The Love Child soon.

2. One Pair of Hands – Monica Dickens
Been ages that I’d intended to read some Monica Dickens, and what a treat I’d been missing. Makes the fourth 50 Books… this year. So what beat it?

1. The Bible
No, not the first year I read any of the Bible, of course, but I did finish reading it this year. Started with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and ended with “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen”. Not really going to be any competition, is there?

Getting very close to this year’s list, but before I let you in on 2007’s top ten, here’s what made the grade last year. As always, it is ones I’ve enjoyed most, rather than those which are most meritworthy. Otherwise I might have some trouble justifying my choice of no.1 over my choice for no.5…

10. A House and Its Head – Ivy Compton-Burnett
ICB is a love-or-loathe author, and luckily I love her. Preferred Mother and Son, but this is quite wonderful too.

9. There Were No Windows – Norah Hoult
Another Persephone Book (not often they aren’t good enough for my top ten) and one which is both heart-rending and very funny – about an authoress with dementia.

8. The Two Doctors – Elizabeth Cambridge
She appeared on my 2004 list, and this is a worthy follower.

7. Discipline – Mary Brunton
Jane Austen mentions Mary B a couple of times in her letters, quite sardonically, and she is certainly worth reading. The 1980s introduction to my copy kind of misses the point…

6. The Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver Goldsmith
Very funny, and finger-on-the-pulse theologically too. Nice combination.

5. All’s Well That Ends Well – William Shakespeare
Saw this with Dame Judi Dench in it, which probably helped me choose this Billybob play. No two entries by the same author, doncha know.

4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
Lisa (Bluestalking Reader) sent this one in the dovegreybooks postal group – we don’t often disagree on books. Brilliantly Gothic and a classy page-turner.

3. Evelina – Frances Burney
See here…

2. A Writer’s Diary – Virginia Woolf
Leonard Woolf edited Woolf’s diaries into this book, which deals mainly with her literary output. Good place to start with Ginny.

1. The Letters of… – Elizabeth Myers
Only from Myers side, these letters are to all sorts of people (including Walter de la Mare) and reveal a gentle, humorous and ultimately slightly tragic figure. Myers died quite young, and, as the letters are divided into sections for each recipient, you feel this death coming on again and again and again… Still, this collection has a fragile beauty which cannot be forged.

2005 wasn’t a great year for reading. Not for me, that is. Somehow I only managed to compile a top five of the year, since nothing else I’d read qualified… shame. It was the first full year of university, and I suppose that meant I read mainly chapters of things and so forth. Did get through Ulysses, but that didn’t come close to making the top 5, believe you me… anyway, without further ado:

5. Lady Into Fox – David Garnett
Which I talked about here…

4. Jacob’s Room – Virginia Woolf
Ginny strikes again.

3. The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
Still the only Eliot I’ve finished, and surprised I only placed this at number three, since it’s one of my favourite novels. Very strange title, if you think about it.

2. The Long Afternoon – Giles Waterfield
Angela sent this out on the dovegreybooks postal book group, and I thank her for it. Look out for it in my 50 Books…

1. Blind Man’s Buff – Richmal Crompton
Must eulogise about Ms. Crompton at greater length, one of these days…

Here we are, then, with the Top Ten as decided in December 2004… I’ll work my way up to this year’s list bit by bit. Sadly three of the books are currently in Oxford, and one has gone astray – if anyone out there borrowed the Richmal Crompton, just let me know! Must emphasise again that the lists are how much I enjoyed/valued the books, not anything else…

10. The Haunted Woman – David Lindsay
Entered the 50 Books… only the other day.

9. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
And three years later, the rest of the BBC-watching world agrees…

8. Someone at a Distance – Dorothy Whipple
See this post for more Whipple/Persephone Books musings.

7. Hostages to Fortune – Elizabeth Cambridge
Another Persephone Book, still one of my favourites, though the copy photographed is actually an original hardback edition.

6. The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Thanks Lynne (dovegreyreader) for introducing me to this one

5. The Gypsy’s Baby – Richmal Crompton
LOVE her novels, and though this one isn’t one of her best, my year of Crompton-gorging was 2003

4. The Waves – Virginia Woolf
Sublime. For more on Woolf… well, most of my posts seem to mention the lady.

3. Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte
My copy is in Oxford, and this remains my favourite of all the Bronte novels. Just wish I could remember how to get the accent in.

2. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
What a great year for novels this was… and what a shame I immediately followed this classic with the abysmal Rebecca’s Tale.

1. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
The final Austen for me to read, and of course it is utterly brilliant.

For 2005, come back tomorrow…

Very nice to be back in the rural idyll that is Chiselborough, Somerset, England. I’m not back to work until January 10th, by which time I might have forgotten quite how early 7.30am feels. Since most of the people reading this probably rise at 6 or thereabouts, so I shan’t moan – but nor shall I get up early for the next couple of weeks if I have anything to say about it.

So why have I taken leave and come home to Somerset early? Well, since you ask – for the West Chinnock Christmas Extravaganza. In case you’re compiling a catalogue of my various abilities, don’t pop acting on the list. Before you think I’m being modest, the crowd at West Chinnock Christmas Extravaganza wholly agree with me. We’ve just come back from delivering our sketch, and it was rather a tough crib – but lots of nice people said they enjoyed it afterwards. The Carbon Copy penned the script, which was very funny, and we all played ourselves, preparing for the Extravaganza. A bit of metatheatre, if you will. Lots of bits of sketches and awful puns and the sorts of things which village shows require – though we refused to provide their favourite fare of semi-nudity and toilet humour. They’d have loved Renaissance drama…

I’ve been busy compiling my Top Ten Books of the Year, more difficult this year than I remember it being before, but I’m going to whet your appetite over the next few days with 2004, 2005 and 2006’s top tens. And I might even give you a run down of all the books I’ve read this year. Something to look out for…

A while ago my friend Mel set up a website called The Pygmy Giant – not entirely sure (or at all sure) where the name came from, possibly Mel’s diminuitive stature, but that needn’t worry us right now. The website is for flash fiction – which Wikipedia describes as “fiction characterised by its extreme brevity”. Poems or stories of under 2000 words, more or less, which one can read easily in one go, and which generally has some quick, singular impact. Great fun, and interesting to see what people can do with few words.

Anyway, I submitted a poem the other day, and it is now in place. Not the most cheery ditty in the world, but I quite liked it. If any of you are budding writers, or just fancy the challenge of seeing what you can write in a short space, then I’m sure Mel would love to hear from you. Email thepygmygiant@googlemail.com but do check the submission guidelines first; for one thing, I think everyone submitting work is British, or at least living in Britain. That’s because there are lots of American flash fiction websites out there, and Mel wanted to try something a bit different.

Do go and check out the site, there’s some really interesting stuff going on over there. And if I ever performed by friendship role better, I might even be an assistant editor. I’ll settle with contributor for now.

I saw the Magna Carta today.

I also learnt that there are more than one – dozens of the things, actually, since it was issued several times, and each time one was sent to every county. Frankly, I’m surprised I haven’t tripped over one before. Anyway, the Bodleian is currently displaying some of them, and I went along to have a look – was quite a surreal experience, but very fun and interesting. Our Vicar would be proud.

That opening sentence was quite unusual – which leads me to remark; Danielle had a good idea the other day, well I think she may have borrowed the idea, but it is good nonetheless. The idea is that you type out the first sentence from the first day/entry of each month, on your blog, and thus present a progress of the year. Just one sentence per month. Well, I only started in April, but I’m going to count the 10th April as a ‘first day’.

April – Why, hello there.

May – May 1st is coming to an end in England, and thus comes the close of Magdalen’s May Day.

June – We’ve all heard about the difficulties authors have with their second books – especially if these authors have had phenomenal success with their first books.

July – I don’t read Science Fiction, but I think it’s true to say that a lot of it is about making humans.

August – I’m back, I’m back!

September – This year has been one of lengthy absences in the world of Stuck-in-a-Book, and for that I apologise.

October – I’m sure most of you have been in this position: you want to tell someone a funny quotation you’ve read, only you can’t remember the book, author, page or even the quotation properly.

November – If you’re not singing Dolly Parton in your head right now, then either a)you’re too young b)you’re too sophisticated, or c)you’re too sane.

December – Another week of being rather lax with blog posting – as I scroll down the section in the column which categorises posts by months, I’m astonished that I managed 28 in October and May.

What a strange collection of month-openings… and many of ’em apologising for my reticence. And not much about books there! How accurate a cross-section of my logging this is, I leave up to you…

I attended rather a fun Secret Santa party this evening, and this is what I got:

1) All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
2) A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
3) The Go-Between on DVD

Doesn’t Santa know me well? Helps that I talk a lot about my literary likes and dislikes – always feel bad when I realise I don’t know the preferences of those around me, when mine are well known. Perhaps because, where many of my friends have devotion towards certain sports or instruments or activities, I profess a deep-set adoration for Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen. Hmm. BUT these wonderful gifts are much appreciated, and perform that wonderful feat of being both beautiful and having great contents. Or so I assume – have not read/seen any of them, but am most confident. And now I can join in Cornflower’s Book Group!