36P

The Penguin boardgame

 

Book 13: Dark Star Safari, Paul Theroux

This book is a bit like seeing a fight between husband and wife in public: you really don't want to watch or eavesdrop, but you can't help it. A bit like an infuriating lecturer because he's so pedantic, yet the subject is so fascinating you can't help wanting to listen more. 

I have fond memories of reading Paul Theroux when I was younger, he was the first travel writer I read and I couldn't wait to go to China after reading Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China (in fact, I credit him with wanting to go to China in the first place). It was all so romantic and foreign and new and exotic. And he still manages to take me with him on his journeys. But boy do I want to take him by the shoulders and shake him and tell him to stop being such an idiot. He knows he is an idiot I think. But that's the way he is. That all sounds horribly unkind and that really doesn't reflect how much I enjoyed the book. 

This is the second book from the Penguin Celebration series with the subject matter of Africa and I'm glad they were included, I don't think I would've picked them up myself but I've really enjoyed both. Thank you Penguin. 

The book-year 2009

The stats for 2009: 30 books read, 3 of which were Penguin Celebrations. 30 books is the lowest of the 4 years I've been keeping track of my reading habits online (though I've been tracking my books since 1999 in paper form), and it reflects this year where there were plenty of distractions from reading, some of my own choosing, and some not so much of my own choosing. 

I bought a number of books this year, a couple of new bookshelves, and visited Hay on Wye, which was exactly as I thought it would be. We only had a few hours, and I intend to go back to explore some more. The Oxfam shop on Portobello Road is a new discovery as a good (though as with most charity shops an unreliable one) source for books. I love living close to the Travel Bookshop, and working close to one of the good design/art bookshops in London (on Rivington Street). 

Bookish delights expected in 2010: read more of the Penguin Celebrations, and I intend to read more fiction. 

Book 12: The shadow of the sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski

I know very little about Africa, embarrassingly little actually. And it's not one of these topics/continents I think about much, it's not on my radar. So I wasn't rushing to read mr Kapuscinski's book, but boy, I should've done. Beautiful, light writing with compassion, wonderment and a touch of weariness, this book is wonderful. He tells the reader about the background of so many African conflicts, about how the history of the continent has scarred it, and throughout it all, his deep love for Africa and its people shines through. Highly recommended. 

Book 11: The Classical World. And epic history from Homer to Hadrian by Robin Lane Fox

I flunked my Ancient History class when I was at university. I admit it. I didn't see the point, couldn't make the connection to the rather dry textbook and the interesting reality of the Ancient world and to top it off the professor didn't have the key to open the secrets of Ancient world to me. So it was with slight hesitation that I started on the 'Classical World'. 

I kept it in my bag to read on the way back from work, and I slowly worked my way through. And there's a lot to get through, centuries, civilizations and rulers. I liked Robin Lane Fox's frank and clear writing style, and the way he took me by the hand and told me the highlights. But, and this is not the writer's fault, it was only the highlights. Scratching the surface, an overview (which I knew it was before I started reading it), and sadly no room or time for in depth discussion. 

Book 9: Leonardo da Vinci. Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl

It's been a while, but I've returned to my Penguin Celebrations. Book 11, which I've been reading for a while, put away, picked up again, put away again, is now finally read. 

So what did I think? I'm in two minds about it. Leonardo da Vinci is such a fascinating subject, living in very interesting times and I appreciate his achievements so much more now that I know more about his life. And I love reading a good biography (though it is always a tad weird, reading about someone with hindsight knowledge, it's like screaming at a character on the screen when you see a monster heading towards him but that he doesn't see yet). But Mr Nicholls, with all respect to him, got in the way. Perhaps it's his sense of humor, or maybe it's his off-hand remarks which didn't sit well with me, but he got in the way between Leonardo and me. Still, I got sucked in and enjoyed the book more as Leonardo ages. 

Penguin notebook at Selfridges

 

Book 10: What a carve-up! by Jonathan Coe

[where book 10 is really the 8th book I finished, I'm still reading the da Vinci biography and the book about the universe]

I realised that apart from Claire Tomalin's book, most of what I've read has been the orange-coloured books, fiction. And reading Jonathan Coe was reading my first green-backed book. Or was it? No, hang on, I'm starting to doubt myself, let me check. Oh no, it was an orange back. Strange, because it could have been a greenback, a thriller. The story is intricate and everything and everyone's connected to everyone else, which of course I didn't start figuring out til a third of the way in. Although now that I come to think about it, that might have been the intention all along.

Special edition

 
spotted at Foyles at the Westfield shopping centre.

Blurry Penguins in Bath

not the greatest pic, but you get the idea. there was penguin goodness in bath.

I'm a mug

A line-up of Penguin goodies at Foyles in Westfield shopping centre, west London.

Quantum of Solace

spotted in Selfridges

Penguin table at Selfridges

My review

My review of Winter's End got published today here at Blog a Holiday Read. 
Haven't had much time to read lately, due to work and personal busy-ness, started Paul Auster last night, enjoying it lots.

Penguin notebooks

Penguin notebooks on sale here

plus

a talk about Penguin Covers at the Design Museum in London (which I'm ashamed to admit I've not been to yet):

Monday 12 January, 7.15pm £15
PENGUIN COVERS THEN AND NOW

Over the decades Penguin has sustained a reputation for generating innovative and influential cover designs as seen in the work by Alan Aldridge in the 1960s. In this cross generational discussion, early Penguin designers and former Penguin editor Judith Burnley will talk about the factors behind their particular Penguin heyday to be compare with recent achievements and future direction described by current Art Director Jim Stoddart.

Booking
T 020 7940 8783
E tickets@designmuseum.org

Holiday reads

So I was optimist and brought both the Leonardo da Vinci Penguin I'm reading at the moment, and Alistair Cooke's Penguin (I try and read local if I can, so a US book for a US holiday seemed appropriate)... and read neither. Instead I ended up buying a stack of books, some design, some business, some travel, some novels, mostly at Borders and Half Price books (how good is Half Price books! I absolutely loved them, that is my secret tip). Read a few of them (see the bar on the right hand side of this blog), so no progress on the Penguin Celebrations front yet. Must get back into the Celebrations at one point. Oh, and must move sometime soon-ish. I have too many books and too little room to put them. Or I can just stop buying books I suppose.

Penguin chair, spotted in Blackwell's on High Holborn

Book-packing

Over the next few days I have some serious book-thinking and packing to do. Today's my last day at work before my hols, and that means from tomorrow plenty of time to read (well, that's what I think now, the list of things I want to do is so large I'll be happy if I read anything more than emails and signage on the street) and thinking about which books to bring on holiday. One for the flight out, maybe a spare one in case the original one doesn't work or bore me. I'm going to Dallas and am presuming there'll be plenty of opportunity to buy books there, but even so I'm considering bringing my own for the way back too. Once I figure that one out, it's time for the next dilemma: which magazines to bring. Vacation's hard work!

Mark Ritson on Penguin meets Match

One of my favourite professors at b-school has written an article on the Penguin-Match marriage and co-branding here.

Book 9 is on the way

Book 9 is Charles Nicholl's 'Leonardo da Vinci'. Finding myself having to get used to his style a bit, maybe Claire Tomalin spoilt me. But so far, so good.

Book 8: William Boyd 'Any Human Heart'

Book 8. Tick. The Bank Holiday weekend provided ample opportunity for a bit of a reading binge. And then the stack of Celebrations on my desk is more than willing to provide the goods. So book 8, William Boyd's 'Any Human Heart'. It's a diary novel and since I'm quite partial to diaries, I loved the form. Better than an autobiography I think, autobiographies are always written with hindsight, connecting the dots forward, where I think that if you're living your life, there's no way you can do that. So the diary form works better for me. And William Boyd does a masterful trick in aging the boy/student/man over the years. He sounds like petulant teenager, a know-it-all student, a cocky young male, an wise old man. Read the whole book in one go, foregoing a houseparty in Brixton for it. I just couldn't put it down.

More on William Boyd on his homepage, on Wikipedia, a review of the book in the Observer, and the Wikipedia page on the novel which has an elaborate plot outline and the Penguin page here. 

In a weird synchronous serendipitous way, I read this obituary in the New York Times today, this guy could've been the model for Logan Mountstuart.

So why am I doing this?

What possesses a person to order a series of 36 books and read them, and then write about it? I don't really know. The best I can come up with is because I can. Because the mountain is there. But that's not enough. It's an exercise to discipline myself into reading consistently, and to reflect and record what I read. Also, it's a great way to veer outside the narrow confines of my own natural reading tastes. Not all of these books I would've chosen myself if I had to buy them seperately, either out of ignorance or out of prejudice. But it's good they're here. I enjoy having them around.

Dazed and confused

Just finished Pat Barker's Regeneration (what a great way to start a weekend, reading a good book in bed), and not quite sure what to think. The book felt and still feels slightly out of my reach. Slightly beyond what I understand, I couldn't quite grasp it. Like one of those arthouse movies that I never quite seem to get. Does that mean I didn't like the book? Not at all. I loved it. But more on a feeling level than a comprehension-rational level. Dr Rivers I took too immediately. I know him, more than I know some people in real life. He is real to me. Sassoon remains aloof, distant, I couldn't get to him, he never emerged from mists. Or maybe I'm supposed to know more about him (painfully racking my brains to remember my secondary school English lessons, where I remember reading Sassoon and Owen), it's this conspiracy, if you're English you'll have some innate knowledge that as a foreigner I just don't have. But Dr. Rivers, now there's person I felt I'd known for a long time, I understood him, knew why he was thinking what he was thinking. I think I felt I read about part of me, weird as that sounds.

Maybe this is what good art is supposed to do. It left me feeling dazed and confused, and even though I finished the book, this is one of those books that will never finish with me.

Newsflash: Penguin Dating went live

Just saw on Twitter (you have to love Twitter) that Penguin Dating (using Match.com database) has launched, haven't had a chance to check it out properly, but will do so over the weekend.

[edit to add that the Penguin blog has more info on Penguin Dating]

Halfway through book 7: Pat Barker's Regeneration

Decided to climb back on the Celebrations-reading-horse. Oh, that sounds like it's a chore, but it's not. I was actually looking forward to the next book. So far, I've enjoyed all my Celebrations-books (yes, even book 1 which is slow going, but that's more my fault than the author, I'm being lazy about it, I promise I'll return to it), and I couldn't wait to see what was next. And this is what's next: Pat Barker's Regeneration. So far, so gripping.

I love this jacket design

spotted at the bookshop behind security at City Airport in London

Reading desert

After what was a veritable reading binge a few weeks ago whilst I was cooped up in bed trying not to sneeze my brains out, the reading now has dwindled to a small trickle. And as I'm typing that, I remember that I actually read a book over the weekend. Ahum. And I read Winter's End, my BlogAHolidayRead, for which I need to write a review (will do over the weekend). Just logged onto BlogAHolidayRead and saw that the first reviews are up, I'll have a little browse and see what my 'colleagues' are doing. And I've been a good reviewer so far, I haven't checked what other people are saying about 'my' book. I can't wait to dive into my stack of Celebrations again though.

More Penguins in the wild

Book 6: Claire Tomalin 'Jane Austen'

A biography is the legal way of voyeurism. Taking a peek into someone's life whilst they're not watching (or dead). I have an ambivalent attitude to biographies (and outright usually don't like autobiographies): I am like every other human being not averse to a spot of voyeurism, but at the same time, I hate the linearity with which autobiographies are written. You travel through someone’s life from birth to death and before you know it, events seem inevitable, and are interpreted in hindsight. Real life just ain’t like that.
Having said all that, I love Claire Tomalin’s biographies, perhaps because there’s as much the personality of the biographer in there as well as the life of the subject. Her biography of Pepys was the best biography I’ve ever read (when Pepys died at the end of the book I felt like I had lost a friend), and her Jane Austen one, which is part of the Celebrations series, is pretty darn ok too. It’s well-written, engaging, and sensible, which are all good attributes in a biography, indeed in any book. I loved it, and hope Ms Tomalin continues to write biographies, and I’ll continue reading them.

Practical info on Claire Tomalin: from the Penguin website, an interview with the Guardian, a detailed review on My Weekly Book.

A stack of Penguins, waiting to be read/shelved