sigelphoenix

Read book 92. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach, 1970, a fable, as the characters are literally seagulls, about how the Flock are inspired by joining an obsessive flying-and-starving cult that it would be insulting all round to describe as Buddhism-lite-for-libertarian-Christians. It gave me the feeling of a late 60s hippy cult trying to manifest, and very much Of Its Time as it was written 1967 ish (at last, a realistic use for the phrase "of its time"). Not my thing / out of five, but I can understand why some people find it interesting or useful in the same way people can find inspiration in bland self-help platitudes or undemanding mass-market spirituality, because the inspiration is contributed by the reader (or their Genius / Juno / whatever).

However, remember that the unexamined life is definitely worth living: look at dogs! Be honest, reincarnation as a domestic dog or a wild seagull? Dogs, innit.

Won't be around for the next few days as I will quite literally have my head in the sand. /duneroamin'

With Jonathan Livingston Seagull (4 votes) on my phone and Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop (5 votes) in my rucksack. Imagine, the library could've provided BERYL BAINBRIDGE's much maligned English Journey (after J. BOYNTON Priestley's earlier English Journey). Or I could've cheated and borrowed Mr Lucton's Freedom by Francis BRETT Young which I saw on a returns trolley.

Two books diverged at a sandy shore
And, sorry I couldn't leaf through more
And be one reader, branching out
I took each text as far as I might
Re-turning leaves in autumn light.

- Book blurbs: the trend for covering the outside of a book with meaningless blurbs (often from off-putting authors) while hiding any description of the actual contents, such as whether it's even fiction or non-fiction, on an internal dust jacket flap is annoying to me, especially when browsing in one of those posh bookshops with rubber bands around the books to prevent them being opened by anyone except the purchaser. And if I use my phone to look up whether Tom Cox's latest hardback is another novel or more essays then the sales assistant probably assumes I'm checking if it's cheaper online (which, yes, it would be). /grit in my book oyster

- Reading: 92 books to 17 Sept 2025.
- To Read shelves 8 September 2025: 78 (down from 90 on 1 Jan but up from 68 at lowest ebb this year so far).

85. Endemic, Exploring the Wildlife Unique to Britain, by James Harding-Morris, non-fiction natural history, 5/5.
Engaging citizen science via travel memoir, but probably only of interest to UK readers for obvious reasons. I would happily have read a similar book twice the length, even though some of the individual chapter subjects don't especially interest me (the Elms are haunting me though). I can see why the author is employed as a science communicator.

89. Lady Susan, by Jane Austen, 1794, epistolary novel, 4/5.
This is not a moral tale, lol. Fun though, and I note that ALL the women get more or less what they wanted: Lady Susan ensures her place in society at the expense of a gullible man, the Vernons and De Courcys keep their precious respectability, Frederica remains unmarried, and Mrs Johnson remains secure although she gets her comeuppance to some extent for being a Bad Friend - the one sin Austen never forgives in a woman. The 2016 film, confusingly titled Love and Friendship, was also fun with many glorious costumes.

90. The Hotel Avocado, by Bob Mortimer, 2024, comedic crime novel, 5/5
Entertaining sequel to The Satsuma Complex. Very Bob Mortimer. Better read with the first novel freshly in mind. I sensed the set-up for a third novel featuring the corrupt councillor and Brighton underworld.
Warning for descriptions of physical violence, including to children by other children.

92. Current reading quote: pg28 [Corrour railway station] "was featured in the film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, the remote station to which Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, and Tommy travel in a bid to remove themselves from the pharmaceutical temptations of Scotland's Central Belt." (I'd just borrowed this train-based travel book from the library yesterday when Born Slippy drove past so fate clearly decreed I would simultaneously indulge two types of trainspotting.)

...and the person I reported it to didn’t seem too concerned Content advisory: ableism, and also sexual harassment. ( Read more... )

gift link (with three other questions answered)

My husband and I moved into an apartment complex recently. We befriended some of our new neighbors while sitting around the swimming pool. We have discussed politics with some of them, having been given hints that we are all on the same page. But one couple — whom we like a lot — has provided no information about their politics. We have no idea where they stand! The state of the country is very important to us, and we are willing to socialize only with people who support our beliefs. Should we continue to see this couple whose politics are a mystery, or should we tell them where we stand and see how they react?

NEW NEIGHBOR

( answer )

I began an A-Z (ish) reading challenge involving going into a library fiction section and choosing an available book from the next letter. I decided to prioritise the shortest books I haven't read in each section out of laziness and got off to a good start with Jane Austen juvenilia (Lesley Castle, and "Catharine, or The Bower"), but today's B offering was Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, lol, which I've managed to avoid reading until now. I browsed further for a book outside my usual reading zone and picked Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum because most of the other translations were either terminally literary or murdery or both. I mean, I enjoy occasional excessively literary fiction but more at the experimental end than the navel-gazing middle. Anyway, I can't decide which to read so it's up to you (you're going to engineer a dead-heat so I have to read both, aren't you?).

ALSO, when I emerged from the stacks, squinting into the pleasantly warm yellow air, a new-ish hatchback, with the windows rolled down, cruised past banging out Born Slippy which, ok, it was big hit at the time and I understand nostalgia but rly? Although it's definitely hatchback muzak: "Mega, mega, mega going back to Romford / How am I at having fun?"

...After a Family Death. ( Read more... )

1. What is your favourite fruit?

Oranges. /not...
My favourite fruit is J, in the rhyming slang sense, obv, although that's more an answer to "who is your favourite fruit?" Anyway, she's a complete and utter costard! The costard of my eye. A pearmainent feature of my life. She tickles my ribs, and is my other half... in a way. She is absolutely pipping and my top of the pips. I would never take her on the costard with the hilt of my sword, or throw her into the malmsey butt in the next room (which we have not got), not even for remuneration.
Or my favourite fruit is damsons, if you want the straight-forward answer, because the fruit tastes almost as good as the scent of damson flowers in spring.

2. What is the last book you read?

I have not yet read my last book (I hope!). The latest was Lady Susan, by Jane Austen (yes, I have also seen and enjoyed the film).

3. Do you like any of your school photos?

I don't possess any of the few school photos ever taken of me. No, I didn't "like" any of them although the photo of my entire primary school class dressed up ridiculously in homemade red, white, and blue accessories for Liz R II's silver jubbly was at least lolarious. :D

4. Do you ever blowdry your armpits to get the deodorant to dry quicker?

No, is that rly a thing? With most commercially produced western European liquid deodorants the best way to make them both work and dry faster is to gently rub your arms backwards and forwards as if you were running (not chaffing yourself, obv). This works the same way as rubbing your hands in an air dryer, which is faster than merely blowing, or working in liquid hand moisturiser &c.

5. What was the last film you watched?

Can't remember the last feature length fiction, but the last "film" I watched was a USian "rockhound" looking for Ordovician fossils in Kentucky. He makes a lot of excited noises and refers to his finds as "big boy" &c and my friend says that without the visuals he'd sound like a pr0n actor, lol. I also watched over 2 hours of Time Team's latest 3 episode documentary "Digging for Disney"; and the Tim Traveller's 13 minute race to the top of Monaco, between our Tim walking up stairs and Matt Gray walking on the level and using public lifts:
In Monaco, Elevators Are A Form Of Public Transport. So We Raced Them.