We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson)

Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Another odd book. A by turns dark and comic story about two sisters who live shut off from the world except traumatic trips into the local village, a dotty uncle and the rare formal visitor. The reason is soon explained and the rest of the book is about the sisters relationship with each other and their complex personalities. A big change comes blowing in which turns things upside down which I won't spoil the story. The ending is sweet in a way although I would say fairly unlikely given human nature. Despite that this is a very readable book although not too sure I want to wade through Ms Jackson's other stories - the subject matter seems very dark. We'll see... There is an afterword which analyses the girls' personalities and the point of the story - not really that enlightening although interesting bits about the author. Worth whiling away an afternoon, or a few tube journeys, on.

Cyclepedia: A Tour of Iconic Bicycle Designs (Michael Embacher)

Michael Embacher

Cyclepedia: A Tour of Iconic Bicycle Designs

As it says - about 100 iconic bike designs with a bit of history of each. Beautifully illustrated. Foreword by Paul Smith. One book you can definitely judge by the cover. Coffee table stuff.

Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov)

Vladimir Nabokov

Pale Fire

An odd book by the author of Lolita which I should read again. Starts with a foreword setting the scene. Our narrator is an academic who comes from a north European fictional country who settles in the US at a college. He befriends a poet who he adores and having finished an epic poem he is then killed and the narrator publishes the poet's work with notes. Next is the 999 line poem. I'm not a lover of verse but this is readable veering from anecdotes, musings on things and a lot about the death of his daughter and further musings on death itself and the afterlife, or not. The bulk of the book is the narrator's notes on the poem but this is where the book's story line comes out interweaving a few different stories of which I won't give any spoilers. Suffice the say that the narrator's view of his relationship with the poet is obviously out of kilter with a strange ending leaving me wondering as to what actually happens throughout the book and how much is fiction (as in unreal within this piece of fictions reality, if you see what I mean). I must go google the book to see if my assumptions are similar to the critics. Great book though. Only downside is having to skip back and forth between poem, narrator's notes / story and the glossary / index (which to be honest I couldn't be bothered with most of the time) which standing on a tube ain't easy and results in bookmarks dropping like snowflakes on a winter's day. There's poetic imagery for you!

P.S. Having Googled interpretations of the plot it seems that my view of it (ask me before I forget it completely) may well be true as it seems there are differing schools of thought and indeed a lot more writings giving possible interpretations than contained in the book. Even seems that the author (the real one, Nabokov) isn't certain about what he wrote. All adds to the fun of reading ambiguous stories.

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything

A very readable romp through the universe's history, and future, from the wider universe to sub atomic particles and how they can fly through space and time instantaneously. I think. As ever when you read things like this you think wow - how can this have just happened. Maybe there is a higher being. But that's the default answer for anything humans don't know and anyway who made them. A skipped history of human evolution too and how amazing we are. Pity we don't use that for good. It's a while since I read any Bill B and forgotten how readable he is. All our facts are presented with anecdotes around the people who discovered them, or at least wrote them up, as some majorly amazing facts seem to be hidden by those who thought them up for decades for various reasons. It's the people facts and how odd we all are, even brainbox scientists, who make this book fascinating. Well worth a read. Along the way I was wondering how much our thinking has changed as this is 15 years old. One thing I think that's been agreed recently is that unless we have very recent African ancestors we're quite a lot part Neanderthal which may explain rush hour tube train behaviour. Sorry, a cheap joke at the expense of Neanderthals who I'm sure would never have pushed their way past people at Bank Station, or through the marshland or glacier that would have been there way back when.