Bath Festival of Literature Part #2

There were  a couple of events which I should have liked to see, as part of the festival, but could not as they clashed with my London trip (it's  hard life!).

However, on Friday evening I was back in Bath, at the Guildhall,to see Kazuo Ishiguro interviewed about his new novel, The Buried Giant. 

It was an interesting evening. Ishiguro began by reading the first few pages of the novel, and was  then interviewed by Alex Clark.

He explained that he had been thinking about writing a novel about the issues covered in The Buried Giant for about 15 years, and that he had wanted to write a book which , unlike most of his earlier novels, which are written in the first person and address issues of individual memories, and that he has always been interested in how nations remember and forget.

He talked about the issue of when is it (is it ever?) the right thing to do, for a nation to bury dark memories. 

This book is, he explained, an exploration of that process of remembering and forgetting applied to a marriage and to a nation.

He decided to set the book in a distant and mythical time and place, despite thinking about lots of modern examples, such as the situations in Rwanda, in Kosovo, in France during and after WW2 in part because he is not a journalistic novelist, and does not do lots of factual research in a way that would be necessary if the novel were set in a specific, recent time and place, but also because "that is not the kind of truth I am trying to create" - he was thinking of patterns that recur over and over, and did not want to be nailed down to one specific point in history.

He was then asked about whether the book was fantasy, bearing in mind that it has ogres and pixies in. I was a little disappointed at his response. It would have been nice to hear him say, yes, it's fantasy, and it is also a literary novel. But he didn't. Instead, he spoke of his surprise that the issue had got much attention, that he felt that boundaries between genres are shifting and that he had 'felt free' to do this - he even went so far as to say that if there were sides, he was on the side of the ogres, and did not want "the imagination police" leaning over his shoulder to tell him what he could or could not write. .  .but only after carefully identifying himself as a 'literary novelist', using fantasy as a tool. It would have been nice had he simply said "Yes, it's fantasy".

Be that as it may, it was an interesting discussion, and I am looking forward to reading the novel.

World Book Night

It was back in December, I think, that I saw that World Book Night was inviting people to sign up as 'givers', to distribute free books on World Book Night - 23rd April - chosen as it is UNESCO's 'International Day of the Book', Shakespeare's birthday, and death-day, and the day Cervantes died (although I learned today that Cervantes and Shakespeare in fact died on the same date, in the same year, but on different days, as Spain had adopted the Gregorian Calendar and England hadn't)

Anyway, I liked the idea of joining in, to share my love of books and reading, and to get the chance to give away books to people who might not otherwise be reading, so I sent in my application, and forwarded the links to friends I thought might be interested in doing the same, and then I waited. And in February, I got an e-mail to say my application had been accepted, and I would get to play.

I'd had a hard time picking which of the books to ask for, but decided upon 'Good Omens', partly because it's a great book, one which I go back and re-read on a regular basis, and partly because I felt it was more approachable than some of the other books on the list, and that a book which makes people laugh might encourage them to read more in the future.

This is, after all, supposed to be something you do for pleasure! (Don't get me wrong, I love Pride and Prejudice, for instance, which is another of the books on this year's list, but for people who have been put off reading at school, I suspect Austen may just feel like more of the same...)

Last week I got an e-mail to say I could pick my books up, and so on Friday night I went to the Library to collect them - 24 beautiful new books!

Opening up the box and unwrapping the books, I felt like a child on Christmas morning. And, since I had to take the books out of the box anyway, in order to write their unique ID numbers in the front, it seemed only right to play with them a little, and make an interesting heap out of them...

Then, today, it was time to start giving the books out. When I applied, I explained that I would aim to give some of the books out via work - in particular to clients involved with Social Services. I hoped to give some to neighbours, too, as it's long been clear to me that books and reading are not a big part of the lives of most of my neighbours.                                                                           

It turned out that I had to be in court today, so I packed half the books into a bag and took them with me. The court was less busy than I'd expected, but I was able to give a copy to one of the security officers at the door, one to a server at the coffee shop outside, and one to lady waiting for hearing.

Later on, after getting home, I was able to give one to a neighbour (she told me she wasn't really much of a reader, I explained that meant she was exactly who the book was supposed to be for, and she smiled, and accepted it) and then walked down to my local chip-shop and gave several more to people waiting for their food. My favourite was the young man in a hoodie, slouched in the corner of the shop. He watched as I gave a book to the woman ahead of him in the queue, and then when I offered him one, he replied "really? No-one ever gave me a book before!" he seemed so surprised, not only to be given a book, but also, I think, that he was offered one, just the same as the other people waiting. I do hope he reads it. I do hope he enjoys it.

I still have quite a few copies, and I shall be trying to give away more tomorrow, when I shall be at my local Social Services offices. And then to the supported house for teenage mums, and the half-way house for those overcoming addiction. I'm sorry I couldn't make it to both of those this evening, but I believe that giving the books away 'on or near' World Book Night counts, and this way I should have time to explain a little why there is a strange woman showing up on the doorstep and pressing books on the residents!

Happy World Book Night, everyone!

Family & Culture

I had a call from my sister, to ask whether I would be around on Friday and Saturday, as she & her fiance would be in the general area and would like to pop by. This may have something to do with the fact that it was forecast to be a VERY cold weekend, and at times like this, one can see the appeal of visiting friends and family who have central heating, rather than staying at home on a boat which is sitting in a big heap of cold water. I'd like to think that some of it was because they'd like to see me, tho'!

Anyway, I thought that sounded like a good idea, and so on Friday I left work very promptly in order to come home & start cooking Boeuf Bourginon. (I misread the cooking time at the list-writing stage, and had to skive off a little early in the hope of getting to eat sometime before midnight)

K&C arrived bearing sparkling wine, on the basis that an engagement cannot be celebrated too much, and we had a most convivial evening (and the Boeuf Bourginon turned out to be yummy, although it was a little late by the time we ate it)

On Saturday, after breakfast, K&I girded our loins and set out to look at Wedding Dresses. It seems that just down the road from here is one of Oxfam's bridal centres, and K thought that that would be agood place to start looking to get a feel for different syles etc, without the pressure you get in a 'real' bridal shop. I'm not normally a huge fan of shopping, so I will admit that I had some reservations (I well remember from our teenage years that I tend to reach my 'get-me-out-of-here' point a LOT sooner than K) but she is my sister, and she wants to get married, so, off we went.

It was actually more fun than I expected. It turns out that the bridal department was on the third floor, and so they basically showed us a room full of wedding dresses and let us get on with it. We spent the next 2 hours slotting K in and out of dresses, with my role being to do up zips, buttons and laces, to striaghten skirts, and then undo them all again. (And some of those dresses, you could get lost in...)

Because they are al 2nd hand dresses in a charity shop they are not precious over the designs, so we were able to take lots of photos so K can hone her thoughts about what style she fancies, and how to achieve it, and although she didn't have an 'o god this is so amazing I'm buying it right now' moment, we both got a look more girly and excited than we had expected!

Although I must confess that after 2 hours I was ready for a break, which was fine, as after 2 hours it was time for us to go home and lunch. (C had stayed home, doing his homework and the washing up)

All in all, it was lovely to see them both, and to have some time with my sister. K&C left after lunch to spend some time with C's parents, and I had a few hours to relax before heading back into Bath for another Lit. Fest. event - this one with Michael Frayn, who was there to promote his new book - Travels with a Typewriter which is a collection of articles which he wrote for the Observer (in order to pay the bills) in between novels. My familiarity with Mr Frayn comes from having read his novel Headlong, and from occasional reviews etc on the theatre pages, but I thought the evening might be interesting, and it was.

Mr Frayn was 'in conversation with' Sheena MacDonald, who is a journalist - I found her a little irritating as several times, she interrupted a perfectly good anecdote with an unrelated question.. (she also fidgeted a lot, which when you are seated on stage with lots of spotlights focussed on you, is rather noticable!)

However, despite this, it was an interesting and entertaining event - Mr Frayn started out by saying that he thought all fiction writers ought to spend some time as journalists in order to remind them of the messiness of real life, and then went on to talk about his early experience working for the [Manchester] Guardian, which included telephoning all the local fire stations and police stations every hour during the night to check whether anything had happened... he was an engaging speaker, very entertaining - he learned Russian as part of his National Service (Which has stood him in good stead, as he has translated a number of Russian plays in addition to his own writing. He cliamed that he keeps turning down invitations to go back to Moscow as he doesn't want to expose his poor spoken Russian!

The Q&A included one question from another ex-National Serviceman who had done the same, and started his question with a comment in Russian, although this was not translated for the benefit of the remainder of the audience!

I had been in two minds as to whether to attend, as I have only ever read one of his books, but I'm glad I went, as I enjoyed myself, and will definitely look out for any productions of any of his plays in the future.

On Books, and Reading

Earlier today Phiala posted a link to this story.

Although I have seen similar reports in the past, I still find it hard to comprehend the idea that reading 4-9 books a year would class as 'avid' and that 1 in 4 [American] people read no books at all. I'm pretty sure I've seen similar figures for reading / book buying habits here, too

The thing that got me, though, was the thought that 4 books per year is the average. A lot of us read a lot more than that, though, so presumably at the other end of that scale there are a great many people reading even fewer then that.

The article also mentions younger people not reading as much. I'm not certain whether that is true, but if it is, I can't help thinking that children who don't see their parents, or the other adults in their lives reading, are unlikely to see reading as a normal, pleasurable thing to do.

I used to babysit quite a lot when I was teenager, and I used to see a lot of houses where there were no books, except perhaps a box, or a single shelf with some books for the child, but no sign that any adult in the household ever read. I used to find it sad, and a little disturbing. I still do. It is seems to me unsurprising that many children brought up in those houses grow up to be adults who don't read.

Books are not particulalry expensive, particularly when compared with other kinds of entertainment such as DVDs, computer games etc. And if you can't afford to buy, you can borrow them, free of charge, from libraries. Growing up, buying a new book was a rare treat, usually happening only following Christmas or a Birthday when someone had given me book-tokens (always welcome) or money. But we went to the library on a very regular basis, and there were 2nd hand books from charity shops, church fetes and 2nd hand book shops, too.

I grew up in a house full of books. Books in every room, and an assumption that picking them up, looking at them, touching them, reading them, was perfectly normal. (We have a family joke, that a sociable family gathering consists of us all sitting in the same room, each immersed in a different book...)

I don't remember a time when my parents didn't read to me, and to my siblings. Reading a bedtime story was a constant, and we were read to at other times as well. I am sure this is how I learned to read (I don't ever remember not being able to). I'm also sure that this helped us not to lose interest, as being read to allows a child to enjoy stories which she might not yet be able to read independently. I remeber my younger brother choosing 'The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy' & Asimov's Robot books as bedtime reading when he was 6 & 7 (I believe that my parents may have very slightly edited as they went along, if only to avoid being asked to explain the significance of the triple-breated whore of eroticon 6..) As he is dyslexic and was a slow starter where reading was concerned, I suspect that without this he might well have turned into a non-reading adult. And think what he would have missed out on.

As a final thought, I decided to make a list of the books I've read in the past 7 days, and those I am currently reading...

Read

In search of England -Michael Wood

Tall, Dark & Dead - Tate Hallaway

Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong

In the Garden of Iden - Kage Baker

City of Ships - Mary Hoffman

Reading

A Kind of Intimacy - Jenn Ashworth

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer

Kitty & the Silver Bullet - Carrie Vaughn

Women in England 1500-1760 - Anne Laurence

Leonardo - The First Scientist - Michael White

Undead & Unwed - MaryJanice Davidson

Quite heavy on the urban fantasy this week, but not an unusual quantity or selction, for me. And so much enjoyment from so little outlay!