I am not supposed to be buying any more books, I am running
out of room and when a new one turns up another has to go, I also want to
support my local Library van, they have sold off the land the original Library
stood on and have cut the mobile unit down to one hour every fortnight. This too
will disappear if no one uses it, but then who will use it between 1045 and
1145 every second Monday, not including holidays when it doesn’t arrive at all.
Despite these good intentions I have bought several new books over the past
couple of weeks. First up the one I am reading now; Snow and Steel.
This is a strange military history, the battle does not
begin until at least halfway through the book and it seemed a bit disjointed to
me, I did not get that sense of ‘shock and awe’ when the Germans did attack.
And although there are maps, like many of the troops, I felt lost trying to
work out where people were. Having said that, the analysis of why the Germans
attacked at the end of 1944 and the state of their forces, along with the potted
biographies of the commanders and main personalities, is superb. The author is a
battlefield guide, and this comes through in the book as he goes off at a
tangent and describes a helmet or bullet clip found on the battlefield, or gives
you a potted history of an area. It is an interesting book and an easy read.
In the book locker is “Operation Sealion” a new
interpretation of the possible invasion of Britain and what it meant for both
us and the Germans.
Then another delve into the Dark Ages with “Ceawlin: The man
who created England”, personally even with what little I know, I think this is
pushing it a bit far, but I shall approach it with an open mind. So far my
reading of the Dark Ages has left me, well, in the Dark.
Up until several years ago I was an avid reader of the
Sunday Times, the best part of which was the book reviews in ‘The Culture’,
these inspired me to read a broad range of books but when they got Nancy Del
Olio to write a column I thought this was a dumbing down too far for me. I have
now taken out a subscription to ‘The Spectator’ and it has some very
interesting book reviews, a small list of which I am gathering even as I type.
The first try out is “Went the Day Well” about Waterloo, if this is a success I
may have to find more room and more money.
Last is a recipe book, I do not watch much on television
these days, but now and again to pass some time I find myself looking at “Diners,
Drive In’s and Dives”, it is hosted by an over the top ‘celebrity’ chef. If you
get past the ridiculous white hair and annoying patter, the food served in
these American restaurants makes me want to catch the next flight out,
something I might do next year if any of them are close to a Civil War
battlefield.
Now for a movie, if you get a chance to watch Nightcrawler then
put your prejudices aside and let it grow on you. Within the first ten minutes
I was ready to switch off as I could not empathise with the main character and
found him disturbing at best, certainly unlikeable. He doesn’t get any better
but the movie is superb. Jake Gyllenhaal playes the odious Lou Bloom, a modern
product who wants to become a successful video news person(?), someone who
films accidents etc. on the streets at night and sells the end result to TV
news stations. The story is such that I cannot say much about it without
ruining your enjoyment, but I will say, do not miss this.
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