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Jun. 24th, 2003 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanA rash of work seems to be coming to an end, though there'll probably be a new chunk in the diary tomorrow now I say that. So I've decided to have a lazy afternoon playing on the internet and reading. Hurrah.
I finished Shadowmancer. An interesting book, well written, but some may find the overtly Christian sentiment not to their taste. I certainly found it grated a bit, but I am fairly sure that in the same way Pullman explicitly wrote His Dark Materials as an answer to C.S.Lewis, this was an answer to HDM, and a fair one even if you don't end up agreeing with it, as I doubt most of those here would (and I don't). Taylor does at least make an attempt to address some of the fundamental philosophical questions raised by Christianity -the problem of pain, the possibility of redemption, &c-. And, after all, the man is an Anglican vicar... Incidentally, like Pullman he makes the angels active characters in the novel, and does so very effectively. He also writes better than Pullman, and a hell of a lot better than JKR, though to be fair the main intended audience is probably slightly older. I freely acknowledge that I love childrens' books, but the current post-HP rash tends to use more simplistic language than my favourites of the old Puffin school and it occasionally bugs me.
Love in the time of cholera I haven't finished yet, but is going swimmingly. After that, there's a Kazantzakis I haven't read, God's Pauper, waiting on the LalPile: it seems Faber and Faber may be trying to bring some of his less well-known stuff back into print in English translation. One of these days I shall get my hands on a copy of his Odyssey (which takes up where Homer leaves off), oh yes. Oh, and Mill on the Floss appears to have arrived in my currently-reading pile, I'm not entirely sure how or why.
I'm looking forward to Friday, though I'm not entirely sure I will go to Wimbledon then after all. I could really do with a day off from everything, and Wimbledon requires effort. Not to mention getting up at an ungodly hour. I shall decide tomorrow, depending on how bruised I feel when I come out of my hearing in the QBD.
But I wish I was going to Glastonbury. It's foolish I know, but I attach some importance to the fact that once a year I shed my suit and tie and my status as a pillar of the establishment, and turn into a hippy/indie kid again, just for a weekend. It reminds me of a part of myself I occasionally think I'm losing touch with. Plus I invariably have a fantastic time, and yes, that does include the Wet Years. Ho hum. Spilt milk and all that.
Watched Spooks last night. What an absolute load of tosh that programme really is. But enjoyable, and I have a longstanding thing for one member of the cast, whose name I forget and can't be bothered to look up.
I leave you with the observation that detachable shirt collars are a fantastic invention that should never have fallen into disuse. I suspect barristers are the only people who regularly use them (because we have to wear a stiff collar with bands in full court) but the point is that you can get away with not wearing a collar at all unless you have a meeting, but can put the bugger back on in a flash, without the need for a convenient phone box or anything if someone who expects you to be wearing a tie turns up. What the point of collars is at all if you aren't wearing a tie completely escapes me.
Ho hum. We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
I finished Shadowmancer. An interesting book, well written, but some may find the overtly Christian sentiment not to their taste. I certainly found it grated a bit, but I am fairly sure that in the same way Pullman explicitly wrote His Dark Materials as an answer to C.S.Lewis, this was an answer to HDM, and a fair one even if you don't end up agreeing with it, as I doubt most of those here would (and I don't). Taylor does at least make an attempt to address some of the fundamental philosophical questions raised by Christianity -the problem of pain, the possibility of redemption, &c-. And, after all, the man is an Anglican vicar... Incidentally, like Pullman he makes the angels active characters in the novel, and does so very effectively. He also writes better than Pullman, and a hell of a lot better than JKR, though to be fair the main intended audience is probably slightly older. I freely acknowledge that I love childrens' books, but the current post-HP rash tends to use more simplistic language than my favourites of the old Puffin school and it occasionally bugs me.
Love in the time of cholera I haven't finished yet, but is going swimmingly. After that, there's a Kazantzakis I haven't read, God's Pauper, waiting on the LalPile: it seems Faber and Faber may be trying to bring some of his less well-known stuff back into print in English translation. One of these days I shall get my hands on a copy of his Odyssey (which takes up where Homer leaves off), oh yes. Oh, and Mill on the Floss appears to have arrived in my currently-reading pile, I'm not entirely sure how or why.
I'm looking forward to Friday, though I'm not entirely sure I will go to Wimbledon then after all. I could really do with a day off from everything, and Wimbledon requires effort. Not to mention getting up at an ungodly hour. I shall decide tomorrow, depending on how bruised I feel when I come out of my hearing in the QBD.
But I wish I was going to Glastonbury. It's foolish I know, but I attach some importance to the fact that once a year I shed my suit and tie and my status as a pillar of the establishment, and turn into a hippy/indie kid again, just for a weekend. It reminds me of a part of myself I occasionally think I'm losing touch with. Plus I invariably have a fantastic time, and yes, that does include the Wet Years. Ho hum. Spilt milk and all that.
Watched Spooks last night. What an absolute load of tosh that programme really is. But enjoyable, and I have a longstanding thing for one member of the cast, whose name I forget and can't be bothered to look up.
I leave you with the observation that detachable shirt collars are a fantastic invention that should never have fallen into disuse. I suspect barristers are the only people who regularly use them (because we have to wear a stiff collar with bands in full court) but the point is that you can get away with not wearing a collar at all unless you have a meeting, but can put the bugger back on in a flash, without the need for a convenient phone box or anything if someone who expects you to be wearing a tie turns up. What the point of collars is at all if you aren't wearing a tie completely escapes me.
Ho hum. We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
