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I've been reading more lately.
I got through three of the Richard Hannay books, sequels to The 39 Steps. They were quite entertaining but peculiarly old fashioned - accepted attitudes of the period now seem jarring and incomprehensible. The stories are Boy's Own adventure with pluck and Britishness winning out over dastardly foreign brain power - intelligence obviously being something to be mistrusted.
Next was The Age of Innocence. I wasn't expecting much, but I was curious about Edith Wharton (no idea why, though). It's about 19th century New York society, which doesn't sound too promising, but there's a pleasant balance kept between acceptance and distrust of the social minutiae. The book also managed to make me care about the main character despite him being an idle spineless rich self indulgent lawyer. I had a Wordsworth copy and they always have an introduction by some academic which they tell you to read after the book. In this case the introduction was mostly about how awful the book was in a number of senses, which made me smile. I disagreed enough that I'm looking forward to another Wharton book.
Now I've started Don Quixote which is fun so far, but I wonder how it's going to sustain its enormous length.
I got through three of the Richard Hannay books, sequels to The 39 Steps. They were quite entertaining but peculiarly old fashioned - accepted attitudes of the period now seem jarring and incomprehensible. The stories are Boy's Own adventure with pluck and Britishness winning out over dastardly foreign brain power - intelligence obviously being something to be mistrusted.
Next was The Age of Innocence. I wasn't expecting much, but I was curious about Edith Wharton (no idea why, though). It's about 19th century New York society, which doesn't sound too promising, but there's a pleasant balance kept between acceptance and distrust of the social minutiae. The book also managed to make me care about the main character despite him being an idle spineless rich self indulgent lawyer. I had a Wordsworth copy and they always have an introduction by some academic which they tell you to read after the book. In this case the introduction was mostly about how awful the book was in a number of senses, which made me smile. I disagreed enough that I'm looking forward to another Wharton book.
Now I've started Don Quixote which is fun so far, but I wonder how it's going to sustain its enormous length.
