Reading as a cheap hobby

Coxy11

I’m currently reading Death of an Airman by Christopher St John Sprigg (aka Caudwell) from 1935. Not my usual genre but I’m enjoying it. It involves a mysterious plane crash (obvs) and a cocaine smuggling racket! Loving the language and the tally ho dialect. 

Brie

Coxy11 said:

I’m currently reading Death of an Airman by Christopher St John Sprigg (aka Caudwell) from 1935. Not my usual genre but I’m enjoying it. It involves a mysterious plane crash (obvs) and a cocaine smuggling racket! Loving the language and the tally ho dialect. 

There's a lot of novels written early 20th century that do have a lot of "jolly hockey sticks" type language.  I loved it when I went through a phase of reading a lot from that period like The 39 Steps where women were admired for having "the slim figure of a young school boy" which made me wonder about the male (normally) authors. 

Irrelevant side note - The 39 Steps was written by John Buchan about 20 years before he became Governor General of Canada.  While he didn't serve in this position for very long he did in his time manage to set up the Governor General's Literary Awards to promote writing by Canadian authors in both English and French.

Wednesday2000

I'm rereading Wuthering Heights at the moment as I saw the trailer for the new film at the cinema the other day. I read it at sixth form so a few decades ago! I don't remember it being so horrible. I knew it wasn't really a love story, but the characters are all so unlikeable and it is very dark. 

Floss

Wednesday2000 said:

I'm rereading Wuthering Heights at the moment as I saw the trailer for the new film at the cinema the other day. I read it at sixth form so a few decades ago! I don't remember it being so horrible. I knew it wasn't really a love story, but the characters are all so unlikeable and it is very dark. 

Just to let you know that the film is quite raunchy & expected to have an 18 certificate - one of the young actors is quite likely to have to miss the premiere as he's under 18 😂

Wednesday2000

I'm not seeing the film as I read a very bad review on Reddit. I stopped reading WH as I could remember the general ending from A Level.

I am reading two books today. I'm finishing off the end of Buddhist Book Camp and then reading a bit more of Why Woo-Woo Works - Dr David R Hamilton. It feels chilly today so a perfect day for snuggling under a blanket on the sofa and reading.

MrsCD

Floss said:

Wednesday2000 said:

I'm rereading Wuthering Heights at the moment as I saw the trailer for the new film at the cinema the other day. I read it at sixth form so a few decades ago! I don't remember it being so horrible. I knew it wasn't really a love story, but the characters are all so unlikeable and it is very dark. 

Just to let you know that the film is quite raunchy & expected to have an 18 certificate - one of the young actors is quite likely to have to miss the premiere as he's under 18 😂

Just delurking...... 🤦🤦🤦 you couldn't make it up!

Brie

MrsCD said:

Floss said:

Wednesday2000 said:

I'm rereading Wuthering Heights at the moment as I saw the trailer for the new film at the cinema the other day. I read it at sixth form so a few decades ago! I don't remember it being so horrible. I knew it wasn't really a love story, but the characters are all so unlikeable and it is very dark. 

Just to let you know that the film is quite raunchy & expected to have an 18 certificate - one of the young actors is quite likely to have to miss the premiere as he's under 18 😂

Just delurking...... 🤦🤦🤦 you couldn't make it up!

Same thing happened before with Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet which was released in 1968.  Juliet was played by Olivia Hussey who was 17 when it was released and therefore not able to watch it herself due to the R rating..  

elsien

I’ve not read any reviews, but I did read something before it came out saying that it is taking it back from a simple love story (which it really isn’t) to the complexities and the abusive relationships. Which is probably not what a lot of people are expecting. 

Floss

elsien said:

I’ve not read any reviews, but I did read something before it came out saying that it is taking it back from a simple love story (which it really isn’t) to the complexities and the abusive relationships. Which is probably not what a lot of people are expecting. 

It's directed by Emerald Fennell who directed Saltburn....

Ditzy_Mitzy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81851588#Comment_81851588

Ooh, you'll have to tell us more about the end-of-the-world peppers! Are they red or green?

I've just finished London Fields by Martin Amis - some say it's his magnum opus and others that it's a bloated mess. I'd meet both half-way and suggest it's a curate's egg. Very good, often great, at the sentence level but overly circuitous plot-wise. The other issue is the metafictional side - the bit the conventional feminist (or lib, because the eighties) critics didn't get at the time - it's a book about a mediocre, male writer (not Amis) constructing a warped vison of a real world in which the environment is familiar but the people, often, are archetypes and devices. They aren't real people.

Feminist critics tended to take issue with the treatment of Nicola Six, the femme fatale character, because she is a victim. That somewhat misses the point, in that her role is 'victim'; she's the plot device of the mediocre writer mentioned above, so isn't a 'real' woman at all. Six is the man's dream of the ideal female, so is a hollow vessel.

It also doesn't really matter what happens to the other characters. Such a thing serves the postmodern conceit of the story, but is it enjoyable to read? Yes and no.

Having said that, one doesn't read London Fields, one inhabits it. That is, ultimately, the mark of a good novel. London Fields is a good novel, therefore, but also a bad one - a good, bad book, if you like. Do read it.

Money is better.