The Afterword

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Books Worth Re-Reading

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There are very few books I have read from cover to cover repeatedly for pleasure. Study and work don’t count. Nor reading aloud to a child. Neither books you dip into now and then. Twice is not “repeatedly”. I think there are quite a lot that I’ve read twice. More than that?

For me, just six, here in order of frequency:

1. Alice In Wonderland – Lewis Carroll. So many depths to this. I’ve appreciated it differently at different points in my life. 2. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee. The writing is so perfect and the emotions so intense. 3. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller. Still makes me laugh out loud. 4. Crime And Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky. I was obsessed with this as a student and it manages to disturb me today. 5. But Beautiful – Geoff Dyer. Gorgeous writing that matches the artistry of its subject matter. I’ve bought multiple copies and inflicted them on people, telling them it’s beautifully written and not about Jazz but about extraordinary black Americans and one white one. 6. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens. There is a rhythm to the writing that enraptures me every time.

How about you? » Continue Reading.

ATM – David Mitchell (the author)

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I know that reading is very much a personal thing, but has anyone got any thoughts on the books of David Mitchell?

Cloud Atlas has been sitting on one of my shelves for years, unread, as has (I think) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, but I am preparing (mentally) to go through a (physical) clear-out of books and I’m not sure that I can bring myself to even make a start on either to find out if I might like them, preferring instead to go by the fact that “if you haven’t picked them up in the last five years, ….”.

Based on the review of Utopia Avenue in today’s Guardian, I am not tempted by what the reviewer calls Mitchell’s ongoing “metanovel” or by the following lines from the review:

“… the frustrating, elusive magic of wresting melody out of four strings and a pick-up is vividly evoked, as Jasper “slams into an amp-blowing, bent-string howl and fires off a scale of triads, sliding from high E, all the way down”.”

I am not sure what I find most remarkable about that: the possibility that Jasper (a lead guitarist) might find it a little less frustrating » Continue Reading.