Reading - August 2022

For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming (1960)

A collection of five short stories. Three of them have titles that will be familiar: "From a View to a Kill", "For Your Eyes Only" (I always hear Sheena Easton in my head as soon as I read those words!) and "Quantam of Solace", which now seem like classic titles for films, of course, although the plots of the stories here bear no relation to those of the films with which they share their names. And yet the other two stories have terrible titles for films: "Risico" - clearly some sort of South American cop/buddy film - and "The Hildebrand Rarity", which would be a dry, character study of an elderly historian and would therefore be a shoe-in at award season. Anyway, the stories here are entertaining but now essentially period pieces because of their attitude to women, which is now glaringly sexist and borderline off-putting. I don't remember the other Bond novels being quite this bad in this respect.

Bernard Who? by Bernard Cribbins (2018)

I think this would work much better as an audiobook, read by the man himself (although I can't tell if such a thing exists, oddly). The style is very much his, a chatty, anecdotal wander through his life. I found it made for a nice easy read but too many of the stories seemed like they lost something on the page - or perhaps they weren't very funny in the first place. Still, he seems to have had a nice life, and I'm pleased I found this in the library a couple of days after reading his obituary.

Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz by Chris Donald (2004)

I was never much interested in Viz: after buying the obligatory couple of issues when I was a student (at its publishing height in the late 80s, it turns out), I found it amusing but repetitive and never bothered again. However, I saw a recommendation for this book by Chris Donald, Viz's founder and editor for just over twenty years, and I'm pleased I bothered. He's frank, funny and acerbic, describing some of the nonsense around the amazing rise of the magazine with an outsider's eye and a keen sense of the ridiculous. I'm also amazed to discover it's still going, another twenty years later. I might go so far as to flick through it next time I see a copy in WH Smith.

Laughter in the Rain by Debbie Macomber (1986)

Potboiler romance that I thought would be more interesting than it is. Very slight and yet too long, as the plot becomes repetitious.

Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace by Kate Forster (2021)

This is better - a more complex (for relative values of "complex") romance with some depth to it. I liked the view from multiple characters' perspectives, casting new light on what had previously seemed like one-dimensional behaviour. The two main people had too many silly misunderstandings, and too much over-reaction to them for my liking, but overall it's a sweet story with a happy ending.

When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron (1989)

I'm reading a book about screen writing at the moment, which says you can find plenty of screenplays on the internet. I put it to the test and found this. It's a quick read (less than an hour) and, of course, it just replays the film in my head because I know it very well! I think the book means you should study it more ...

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)

B recommended this and since I have a couple of weeks off (can you tell by how much I'm reading?), I thought I'd give it a go. I enjoyed it very much, as it was an easy read and a good length (i.e. not too long!) - a sweet book, with an conclusion full of pathos, although the ending came a bit suddenly. The plot was a little thin, but was disguised well by the way important facts are gradually revealed; it can be summarised as Asimov's Robot novels meet Toy Story. (After I finished the book, I had a look online to see if anyone had caught the obvious similarity with Asimov's work, and in particular The Bicentennial Man. I was struck by reviews of the book, which, since Ishiguro writes "literature", appeared to be written by people who had never read any real science fiction (as that's not literature). So they burbled on about how imaginative it was and how it raised fascinating questions about the interaction between humans and robots. I guess they are fascinating if you haven't come across the ideas before - but I feel I should point out that real science fiction has been exploring this area for over sixty years ...)

Why is Sex Fun? by Jared Diamond (1997)

Similar in content to the equally misleadingly titled The Secrets of Love and Lust, this is not a how-to manual but a popsci guide to human sexuality, wherein it attempts to explain it in evolutionary terms and by comparison with other animals. Diamond highlights some of the unusual aspects of human sexuality and reproduction, such as concealed ovulation and the menopause, but, crucially, doesn't actually answer the book's title. I could attempt an explanation based on the themes (why do humans enjoy sex? Because historically those that did were more likely to reproduce) but I would have been more interested in what the experts think here!

Out of Time by Miranda Sawyer (2016)

In the last chapter, Sawyer explains that this book was written, as much as anything, as a way through her own mid-life crisis. The sub-title - "midlife, if you still think you're young" - kind of gives the game away: it's for people who never grew up, never wanted to or never believed they had or would. Maybe that's more prevalent in certain types of jobs or life-styles, maybe those in the media perhaps? Much of what she has has to say is interesting but I can't feel it applies much to me. It could be that I've missed my mid-life crisis, or it hasn't happened yet, or it's happening right now and I won't realise until five years' time, but not much resonated.

Moonraker by Ian Fleming (1955)

I started reading a copy at work that I had found in the book exchange and remembered what a good story it is - and nice and short too! Of its time, but classic.

Fugutive from the Cubicle Police by Scott Adams (1996)

This book was in an abandoned cupboard at work, and at the back was a printed newsletter dated 1998. This all seems appropriate. However, I should have checked, as I read this eight years ago and found it hit and miss then, so could have saved myself the bother this time round. Scott Adams has developed an odd crush on Trump in recent years and has generally become a bit weird, but sometimes Dilbert hits the mark.

Journey to Cubeville by Scott Adams (1998)

The second of three Scott Adams books I found. Since Dilbert is hit and miss (somewhat understandable for a daily cartoon), repackaging all the strips from two years as a book seems a little pointless. That said, I'm guessing it worked for Adams.

Bounce by Matthew Syed (2010)

Syed examines the idea (probably) first given mass exposure in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, the idea of "10,000 hours of practice" that makes an expert, and gives it a more in-depth assessment. The sub-title, "The myth of talent and the power of practice" gives a good flavour of what he's saying. The research findings are quite clear: notwithstanding physical attributes (tall high-jumpers etc), there's no such thing as someone who is inherently good at a given sport, or musical instrument - or, by extension, any activity. Experts are made, first by circumstance and chance - being born at the right time of year, attending a school with a world-class teacher - and then by application, although of course this second factor is heavily influenced by the first. People want to believe that stars - of sport, music, business or whatever - got there because of some innate specialness. People want magic! But there's no magic, which should be inspiring: anyone can achieve greatness.

One Train Later by Andy Summers (2006)

A very readable, first person (and present tense, which I found a little disorienting at first) account of Summers' life up until the demise of The Police in the early 80s, with a two page afterword on his life since then. It's honest and entertaining and gives a real sense of how hard he worked to achieve his musical goal: not just the hours and hours of practice (see Bounce above!) but the decades of persistence. I knew he was a bit older than Sting and Copeland but hadn't realised that he was a contemporary of Clapton, Page, Hendrix and so on during the 60s. Perhaps that makes the brief madness of extreme fame he experienced more sweet (The Police lasted a surprisingly short time, six-seven years); he seems to have taken advantage of it, but come out the other side eventually.

The Joy of Work by Scott Adams (1998)

The third of the Dilbert books I found in a cupboard at work, this is an actual book rather than just a repackaged collection of cartoon strips. Most of the book is a long-form expansion of what you might say is the Dilbert ethos: work is pointless and dull but you can enjoy the ridiculousness in a number of ways. Aside from the section on office pranks, which mostly just seem mean (as do most "pranks" to me), it's amusing. The last section segues neatly into a serious discursion on creativity (and a minor come-back at a critic). It's a nice way of putting serious material into a book that was likely to be widely read.