Sunday, August 20, 2006
Critics
August 20th.
StanandTel's point is well taken but without any reviews there would be no publicity for new work. Would Sun readers buy more modern novels if they had a book 'review' section each week? Actually they might have one for all I know but I never got beyond page three.
Were it not for the plug that Amazon gave to Manuel Vasquez Montalban I would never have read any of his books; nor would I have discovered Leonardo Padura. On the other hand I wouldn't have bought Gunter Ohnemus which was indifferent(The Russian Passenger). I have only read one of the two books by Niccolo Ammaniti praised by Michael Dibdin in the Grauniad and am yet to be as excited as he was. Having got through Kalooki Nights I am about to relax a bit more with the latest trip to Venice with Inspector Brunetti. I will be making a note of his meals as he is another member of the international detectives with a hearty appetite. Jokes, please on a postcard offering a name for this group. What has happened, I hear you cry, to Anna. Well, she has been shelved for a while as I'm not in the mood for her. What has happened too to the Graniud misprint department?
I did swim 32 lengths on Friday but I am not happy with the new goggles; I feel as though my left eyeball is being slowly sucked out of its socket. I think I am swimming a bit faster probably because I'm taking shorter breaks. I'll have to get a lot faster as the number of lengths increases or there wont be time in the day to finish. Since the last swim there has been far too much feasting and boozing to leave me with sufficient energy to swim again and virtually the only exercise I have had was to clear a tree blocking the narrow road on the way to to visit a potential allotment site. I have abandoned thoughts of that site- it seems to be in dense woodland with trees falling down in heavy rain. Unfortunately I was force fed a sea-food paella although I had planned to avoid rice which should be easy as I'm not really very fond of it anyway. But you have to be sociable . Will the Government try to stop us eating in groups in the same way they want to stop us buying rounds of drink?
The first picking of the spinach was a great success today. No great skill is required to grow spinach; you just put the seeds in the ground, water regularly and when they come up, pick and cook. The plums are really delicious and if you have a space where you can grow a small tree well worth growing your own. You just cannot buy plums in the usual shops and supermarkets as good as home grown plums eaten straight from the tree. You only need one tree if it is a Victoria as it is self fertile.
StanandTel's point is well taken but without any reviews there would be no publicity for new work. Would Sun readers buy more modern novels if they had a book 'review' section each week? Actually they might have one for all I know but I never got beyond page three.
Were it not for the plug that Amazon gave to Manuel Vasquez Montalban I would never have read any of his books; nor would I have discovered Leonardo Padura. On the other hand I wouldn't have bought Gunter Ohnemus which was indifferent(The Russian Passenger). I have only read one of the two books by Niccolo Ammaniti praised by Michael Dibdin in the Grauniad and am yet to be as excited as he was. Having got through Kalooki Nights I am about to relax a bit more with the latest trip to Venice with Inspector Brunetti. I will be making a note of his meals as he is another member of the international detectives with a hearty appetite. Jokes, please on a postcard offering a name for this group. What has happened, I hear you cry, to Anna. Well, she has been shelved for a while as I'm not in the mood for her. What has happened too to the Graniud misprint department?
I did swim 32 lengths on Friday but I am not happy with the new goggles; I feel as though my left eyeball is being slowly sucked out of its socket. I think I am swimming a bit faster probably because I'm taking shorter breaks. I'll have to get a lot faster as the number of lengths increases or there wont be time in the day to finish. Since the last swim there has been far too much feasting and boozing to leave me with sufficient energy to swim again and virtually the only exercise I have had was to clear a tree blocking the narrow road on the way to to visit a potential allotment site. I have abandoned thoughts of that site- it seems to be in dense woodland with trees falling down in heavy rain. Unfortunately I was force fed a sea-food paella although I had planned to avoid rice which should be easy as I'm not really very fond of it anyway. But you have to be sociable . Will the Government try to stop us eating in groups in the same way they want to stop us buying rounds of drink?
The first picking of the spinach was a great success today. No great skill is required to grow spinach; you just put the seeds in the ground, water regularly and when they come up, pick and cook. The plums are really delicious and if you have a space where you can grow a small tree well worth growing your own. You just cannot buy plums in the usual shops and supermarkets as good as home grown plums eaten straight from the tree. You only need one tree if it is a Victoria as it is self fertile.
# posted by Bob @ 3:11 pm 
