Mr and Mrs McMuffin

top 10 books...ever

I seem to be in a bit of a listing frenzy. This is my top 10 books of all time. Again I am not going to say anything about them, except they are all brilliant stories, and you can buy them all through amazon.

books by the bed

So here I am, mid cleaning, and listening to Bob Seger. I have decided to take a break and list the books I've read over the last couple of weeks which were in a pile by the bed. In no particular order of merit:

The other side of silence Andre Brink (****)
The photographer's wife Robert Sole (***)
The girl in the red coat Ronnie Ligocka (**)
The six wives of Henry VIII Antonia Fraser (*****)
Star of the sea Joseph O'Connor (****)
Holy Fools Joanne Harris (***)
Odd Thomas Dean Koontz (*)
Cold Mountain Charles Frazier (***)

Re reads:

Year of wonders Geraldine Brooks (*****)
An instance of the fingerpost Iain Pears (*****)

It's not been a bad crop, but I'm going to have to get down to Waterstones to buy the next batch. I'm sorry I can't make the list easier to read, anyone know how to tab in Quickpost?

Mrs McMuffin

one hundred years of solitude

Norah Nick has been reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I read it a few years ago when my mind was younger, and perhaps more flexible, and I could sit with the magical realism stuff. In the spaces between there is a pretty good story, I seem to remember. I have never been able to work out what you are supposed to do with the fantasy. Are you supposed to interpret it in some way, or just soak up the atmosphere created by the images? I remember the good old days when I used to lose myself in a library or a bookshop. I used to read a lot of fiction, but then I discovered that all of those writers out there are really only re-writing the same story over and over again. An incident occurs which forces the main character to examine their life. Marquez's book seems more complicated on the surface, but really it is just a retelling of this same old story. I think I stopped reading fiction, or rather stopped reading 'serious' fiction, I still read the greats, of course, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and other writers who seek to do nothing more than entertain me with a story, around the same time that I started my training as a psychotherapist. In part, I suppose, I just didn't have the time to read anything else, but really I think I just stopped being entertained by people examining their lives. The struggle of real people coming to terms with their experiences is very often incredibly painful for them and is rarely as straightforwardly reduced as many writers would have us believe. I am often amused by some of the things that my clients say, but rarely am I entertained by the pain and longing that underlies their humour.

I am not sure where this entry is going...so, I'll end it here!

comics...

Retro Girl has got me thinking about comics. This has always been one of my favourites. It came out in a five part book in 1989, but had been in print before that in the pages of 2000AD. I even have a bit of a connection to the comic. When we lived in Orkney we lived a short distance from Jim Baikie's house and were friendly with one of his daughters. She used to say, "my dad draws comics", but I was probably the only person around who knew that he was in fact one of the early mainstays of 2000AD. Unfortunately I was too cool to gush, and I never got to meet him.

Anyway, who could resist this:

A country torn apart from within. A country revolutionised by genetic engineering. A country where every state has it's own superhuman and one of them is running for President. Now, after six years in exile, five maverick Statesmen are brought back for the annual reunion. But things have changed. Corruption has set in, and they soon find themselves fighting the dark side of the American dream.

oor wullie...

Who remembers Oor Wullie? This was one of my favourites as a kid, and I always got an album at Christmas time. I think he was probably more of a Scottish character. I am sure he is still around because Mrs McMuffin got me an album one Christmas a few years ago. I think he appears in a strip in one of the Scottish newspapers. I am not sure he travels well, so it is unlikely that many of of our American cousins will have heard of him.

Oor Wullie was such a naughty boy. He was always up to something. I used to love him. You can sample his adventures here. This is probably typical of the sort of story the strip followed.

mr mcmuffin's holiday reading...

I read the first fiction I have read for absolutely ages while I was on holiday. I couldn't quite make up my mind what books to take with me, but I was persuaded by Steve's recommendation for Neal Asher's Line of Polity. He was right, it was great. Big space opera. However, very, very derivative, but not in a bad way! I could see elements of Peter F. Hamilton, The Matrix, and many others. I immediately decided to read some more his stuff, but on checking with Steve, it seems that Asher's other books are not so good, and that coming from a fan. The other book I read, or perhaps I should say am reading, is Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-time. A very different book, but equally as good. I like the consistency of his main character, who has some form of autism. I worked with people with autism for a while some years ago, and some of them were just like this. When he spells out the thinking processes, I can almost recognise people I have known. If you're looking for a good read, then you could do a lot worse than choosing one of these books.

mrs mcmuffin's holiday reading...

Mrs McMuffin reads much faster than me. I am sure she will want to update this post later with her views on the books she read while on holiday.

Seeing as Mr McMuffin has done all the hard work, I think it would be churlish of me not to comment on my holiday reads.

It took me a while to get round to 'Oryx and Crake' as I feel quite ambivalent about Margaret Atwood. When she's good she's very, very good...and this is quite good. I don't understand why her science fiction is seen as 'literature' yet other, better books aren't.

'The Last Party' was an entertaining account of the post Smiths musical wilderness. I was never very keen on Justine Frischman (but loved the frist Elastica album) but actually grew to like her from reading about her. Sadly, I never found out whether she gave up heroin.

James Frey author of 'A Million Little Pieces' gave up everything he was addicted to and tells us in gory detail about his substance use. Yuck. However, I just love books about people overcoming their drug/alcohol problems as in my working life, it's rare to see this happen.

'The Distant Echo' and 'Something Might Happen' were lent to me by Ms Ginger Cake and both chart in different ways the impact of a murder on people. I liked them both.

I didn't actually read the Bill Bryson book, as Mr McMuffin had finished the Neal Asher one, so I started that instead.

As you can see, I do read very quickly. I actually read one book and half of another on the outward flight.

important health information

If you are suffering from your own evil bug, then I think a daily regime of multivitamins may help. It certainly helped me over the last few weeks until I stopped taking them. Yes, that's right, if something works then why not stop doing it? It was a stupid thing to do and I'm paying for it by feeling too poo to leave the house. There are distinct advantages though, I have finished reading the Anne Tyler book I started Friday and have watched two films.

I also watched some crap tv about Heavy Metal. It wasn't totally crap as I found out that Saxon (Saxon? Fipping Heck) were the inspiration for Spinal Tap and I have been marvelling at the refusal of Lemmy to age or ever look completely ridiculous. That man certainly has something, I don't think I want it, but he's got it.