Moby Dick again. Enjoyed a good deal of what I
read, but got bogged down when Melville started using the pseudo-Shakespearian style,
and then listing all the information about whales that he could find. Ahab seemed a false character too, which
didn't help. (I actually got further with this book the first time I tried to read it.)
Started Lilith (by George MacDonald) but didn't get far into it: very obscure
as to what it’s saying amidst the fantasy.
Read about half of If
on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo
Calvino. Interesting, but it seems
almost like a collection of short stories strung together with a separate
narrative, and not really going anywhere much. It was one of those books someone raved over somewhere.
Read a chunk of a
biography called Kiri (te Kanawa) –
only read the bits that related to London Opera Centre, and some of what
followed.
Began Little
Dorrit and got quite a way through, but
bogged down a bit; it’s very slow, and the characters aren’t as great as in
many of Dickens’ other books. Thought I might finish it, but it's not calling out very loudly to me.
Read around half of Frank
Baum, Creator of Oz by Katherine M
Rogers. Interesting and detailed, but for some reason it didn't grab me enough to
finish it.
Read about half of Funeral
in Berlin, by Len Deighton. Good, but it all seemed a bit dated, somehow,
and not enticing enough to keep on reading when I’ve got plenty of other books on my
plate.
Read about half of The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare by Robert Winder. An
attempt to write about Shakespeare and his crew coming together to write the
last, missing, historical play, but the writing isn’t strong enough, and it’s
all a bit overdone, and longwinded. Sorry, Mr Winder.
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