What are you reading tonight?

[jimbo]

Oh, I've recently been reading a couple of books about the Tour by a chap called Jeff Connor who was a journalist allowed to follow the British ANC team in 1987. Really good insight into the sport and event. Recommended.

[Bruce Rioja]

I have on the 'yet to read' shelf - 20 Years with Brian Clough: by Duncan Hamilton. I believe it to be excellent, too.

I haven't read the Clough book, but Hamilton's biography of Harold Larwood is superb.

Now there was someone who really was stitched up by the establishment...

Haven't read the book but I remember watching something on television about the Bodyline series some years ago, and finished with me having this awful sense of injustice (and of disgust)at the treatment of Larwood.

[CAPSLOCK]

if you know how to, that aussie bodyline series can be obtained foc

[jimbo]

I have on the 'yet to read' shelf - 20 Years with Brian Clough: by Duncan Hamilton. I believe it to be excellent, too.

I haven't read the Clough book, but Hamilton's biography of Harold Larwood is superb.

Now there was someone who really was stitched up by the establishment...

Haven't read the book but I remember watching something on television about the Bodyline series some years ago, and finished with me having this awful sense of injustice (and of disgust)at the treatment of Larwood.

Another good book on that is Bodyline Autopsy. Can't remember who wrote it but a really good read.

[CAPSLOCK]

Friths is the book on the subject

Jeff Connor did a good book on East Stirling, titled Pointless

Bury Grammar boy

[Puskas]

I seem to recall the Aussie series "Bodyline" was ridiculously biased. Fuelled, no doubt, by the usual "whinging Aussie" take on the leg theory: "Whaa, it's not fair, and we're going to still whine on about it 70 years later, whilst completely ignoring, for instance. fast, short-pitched deliveries into the body from Lillee and Thompson. Jardine portrayed as some sort of pantomime villain. Which is especially harsh, since he was about the only member of the cricketing establishment to back Larwood. Possibly cost him future captaincies....

I have a copy of Bodyline Autopsy, not yet read. Unfortunately, I've recently moved, and it's packed away in a box in the garage and unlikely to come out for about 6 weeks or so...

Pah.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Working through the usual array at once.

The penultimate issue of The Word magazine, which has the web's second-best forum.

Having picked it up for a careers presentation I was doing at a local school, I've found myself re-reading Stephen King's how-to On Writing. There's a fairly brief how-I-started section with some eyebrow-raising alcoholism admissions, but the real joy is in the advice thereafter - wonderfully useful to anyone who wants to write anything, from a novel to a new forum thread.

Also ambling contentedly through Bill Bryson's At Home, a typically thorough and diverting history.

Football fancy tickled by Jonathan Wilson's The Anatomy of England: A History in Ten Matches. Again, the author's usual style: informative, slightly earnest, not to be digested in one go but worth returning to (the ten-chapter format serves it well).

And still, whenever finance bends my head, I return to John Lanchester's Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone And No One Can Pay. Still the best (and yet easiest) explanation of the financial f*cktardery we've all been signed up to, willingly or otherwise.

[Prufrock]

Finished 'A Tale of Two Cities' today. It's fecking ace. Like a thriller, but, you know, good. Sydney Carton. Greatest man in literature.

Now onto 'Why England Lose'. Only read a bit, but it sounds like Freakonomics, about football. And I LOVE Freakonomics. And football.

[Annoyed Grunt]

The Mrs has just bought me this.

Saw it the other week in Waterstones......liked the premise of it....will be a decent holiday read.

[Bruce Rioja]

The Mrs has just bought me this.

Saw it the other week in Waterstones......liked the premise of it....will be a decent holiday read.

This is a decent holiday read?


Root Cause:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: JSPG0036E: Failed to find resource /products/miles jupp/fibber in the heat/8687343/index.jsp
at com.ibm.ws.jsp.webcontainerext.AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.findWrapper(AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.java:329)
at com.ibm.ws.jsp.webcontainerext.AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.handleRequest(AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.java:291)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:325)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.SimpleFileServlet.doGet(SimpleFileServlet.java:258)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:743)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.serviceProxied(ServletWrapper.java:282)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheMiss(CacheHook.java:698)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheableFragment(CacheHook.java:577)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleFragment(CacheHook.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleServlet(CacheHook.java:265)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:262)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1213)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1154)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:381)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:190)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:130)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain._doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:87)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:848)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:691)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:654)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:526)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:325)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.SimpleFileServlet.doGet(SimpleFileServlet.java:258)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:743)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.serviceProxied(ServletWrapper.java:282)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheMiss(CacheHook.java:698)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheableFragment(CacheHook.java:577)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleFragment(CacheHook.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleServlet(CacheHook.java:265)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:262)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1213)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1154)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:381)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:190)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:130)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain._doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:87)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:848)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:691)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:654)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:526)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:325)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.SimpleFileServlet.doGet(SimpleFileServlet.java:258)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:743)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.serviceProxied(ServletWrapper.java:282)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheMiss(CacheHook.java:698)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheableFragment(CacheHook.java:577)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleFragment(CacheHook.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleServlet(CacheHook.java:265)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:262)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1213)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1154)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:381)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:190)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:130)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain._doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:87)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:848)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:691)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:654)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:526)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleRequest(WebApp.java:3574)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.handleRequest(WebGroup.java:269)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:831)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:1478)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:133)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:457)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:515)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:300)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpICLReadCallback.complete(HttpICLReadCallback.java:102)
at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:165)
at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:136)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:196)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:751)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:881)
at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1551)

[Annoyed Grunt]

The Mrs has just bought me this.

Saw it the other week in Waterstones......liked the premise of it....will be a decent holiday read.

This is a decent holiday read?


Root Cause:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: JSPG0036E: Failed to find resource /products/miles jupp/fibber in the heat/8687343/index.jsp
at com.ibm.ws.jsp.webcontainerext.AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.findWrapper(AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.java:329)
at com.ibm.ws.jsp.webcontainerext.AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.handleRequest(AbstractJSPExtensionProcessor.java:291)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:325)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.SimpleFileServlet.doGet(SimpleFileServlet.java:258)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:743)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.serviceProxied(ServletWrapper.java:282)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheMiss(CacheHook.java:698)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheableFragment(CacheHook.java:577)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleFragment(CacheHook.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleServlet(CacheHook.java:265)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:262)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1213)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1154)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:381)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:190)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:130)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain._doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:87)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:848)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:691)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:654)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:526)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:325)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.SimpleFileServlet.doGet(SimpleFileServlet.java:258)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:743)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.serviceProxied(ServletWrapper.java:282)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheMiss(CacheHook.java:698)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheableFragment(CacheHook.java:577)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleFragment(CacheHook.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleServlet(CacheHook.java:265)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:262)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1213)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1154)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:381)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:190)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:130)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain._doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:87)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:848)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:691)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:654)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:526)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:325)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.SimpleFileServlet.doGet(SimpleFileServlet.java:258)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:743)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.serviceProxied(ServletWrapper.java:282)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheMiss(CacheHook.java:698)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleCacheableFragment(CacheHook.java:577)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleFragment(CacheHook.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.CacheHook.handleServlet(CacheHook.java:265)
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:262)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1213)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1154)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:381)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:190)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:130)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain._doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:87)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:848)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:691)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:654)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:526)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleRequest(WebApp.java:3574)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.handleRequest(WebGroup.java:269)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:831)
at com.ibm.ws.wswebcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:1478)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:133)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:457)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:515)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:300)
at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpICLReadCallback.complete(HttpICLReadCallback.java:102)
at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:165)
at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:136)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:196)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:751)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:881)
at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1551)

It's either that or the Mrs's Fifty Shades of Grey.

Actually, it's this - http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesw ... t/8687343/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Prufrock]

Did you need to quote it ?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Did you need to quote it ?

I found it riveting. Never saw it coming that Thread Pool Worker dunnit. (Sorry for spoiler.)

[Annoyed Grunt]

Did you need to quote it ?

Did you need to quote it ?

I found it riveting. Never saw it coming that Thread Pool Worker dunnit. (Sorry for spoiler.)

Ruined!!!

[Little Green Man]

Apparently this tour de horse comes highly recommended.

[Puskas]

Fifty Shades Of Grey seems remarkably popular.

Never have I seen so much porn being read on the tube before. I may get out a copy of Razzle to read on the way home. Just to be in with the crowd.

Stickier seats than usual, too.

[bobo the clown]

Fifty Shades Of Grey seems remarkably popular.

Never have I seen so much porn being read on the tube before. I may get out a copy of Razzle to read on the way home. Just to be in with the crowd.

Stickier seats than usual, too.

Oh do .. Do.

[William the White]

Back from holiday and had a good reading time, on a beach, with three fish restaurants on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other... sky blue, sea tranquil, sardines beckoning, pages turning...

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan is excellent. A story of jazz, and blues, and Europe between the wars, and Americans, and Germans, and Paris, and being young and into music when the times are getting evil... and of a betrayal... That is revealed earlyish, but only finds its explanation in the final chapter... Pages turned...

Owen Jones's Chavs is fab if you're on the left. I liked all of it, agreed with much of it, was very disappointed with the final chapter on the way forward... Makes me think, once more, that the critique the left has is strong, humane and right, but the remedy needs to be bold and comprehensive, and to tackle capitalism seriously...

Paco Ignacio Taibo's Leonardo's Bicycle was the most ambitious book I read... Part a bizarre thriller, touched by magical realism, part social realist, part historical novel, this is a post-modern novel with multiple strands - like who kidnapped the female basketball player and stole her kidney? did Leonardo da Vinci really design the first bicycle? what did the Barcelona anarchists do to resist the murderous ruling class in the 1920s? (my favourite strand ); what craziness is the Vietnam vet prepared to unleash... This was a flawed but really gripping novel, and my fave...

Colm Toibin's The Blackwater Lightship - a Booker shortlist for 1999 - was pressed on me by my wife, a Toibin fan... I really didn't get it - an AIDS novel, that plods its way through an Irish family's history without, for me, engendering any real spark... I'm clearly wrong on this, given the reviews and my wife's insistence... but, you know, did not bake my banana...

Currently, I'm nearly at the end of Mourid Bharghouti's memoir I Saw Ramallah in which a Palestinian exile returns to his home after 30 years. Passionate, compassionate, fierce, moving and just wonderful.

[William the White]

I finished Barghouti's I Saw Ramallah.

It's wonderful. Heartbreaking in its exposure of the cruelty of the Israeli occupation. Uplifting in its sense of enduring perseverance and resistance. Powerful in its evocation of Palestinian society. Loving in its stress on the importance of family and friendships, the need to comfort, to praise, to embrace. Challenging in its emphasis on the individual's responsibility for their thoughts and actions.

And written by a poet who uses language beautifully (and translated in a way that brings this home to an English reader).

I finished this on a train journey back from London. And started James Shapiro's Contested Will. Here he tackles the 'vexed' question of 'Who wrote Shakespeare's plays?'. I tend to the view that Shakespeare did. Having already enjoyed Shapiro's vivid and accessible account of Shakespeare's life and work in 1599 I anticipate enjoying hugely. Up to page 34 and it does not disappoint.

[TANGODANCER]

Some people have no sense of humour. I posted a condensed modern version of Pride and Prejudice on a Jane Austen site and got a warning off the mods.


Mr Bennet is actually a banker who got rumbled for giving himself one bonus too many and was retired early to avoid a public scandal. He doesn't want to lose his detached property in the stockbroker belt, so he needs one of his five daughters to marry money. His daughters need the very best in dresses, Vuiton handbags and three hundred pound shoes, etc, and can't manage on the proceeds of Mrs Bennet's tanning salon. They need to be in town in order to meet rich and famous football stars at the local up-market night club, where celebrities, mainly from Essex, do the soft shoe shuffle with crown princes and members of boy bands and drink two hundred pound bottles of bubbly and eat prawn sandwiches whilst dancing sambas, rumbas and tangos till five in the morning.

The Bennet girls have a cousin Phil (Collins) who's a somebody in the church, plays folk music on his guitar and rides a motor bike. He'd like to marry one of the elder girls but they all have plans, so he marries Charlotte Chapel - a girl who sings in the local choir and is a part-time barmaid at The Red Lion -and whips her off to meet his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a rich old girl who invites him round every Thursday for a snifter of sherry and a game of dominoes. Her daughter, Annie, a pale-faced sickly type, wears a red dress and black lipstick and never goes out in daylight, and spends her time doodling on a ouija board and listening to records of her cousin Chris.

The eldest girl, Jasmine, meets a profesional golfer called Charles Dinglethorpe and looks set for marriage, but his mate, Desmond Darcy, a local rich kid with a pet Irish wolfhound called Dermot, and a penchant for gold painted Llamborghinis and wearing sunglasses when it's raining, tries to talk him out of it. Desmond then spots her sister Eliza-Beth, but decides she's beneath his attentions since she drinks pints of Pina Colada, dances the Macarena and doesn't swoon when he walks by. She couldn't care less as she's met Walter Wickham, a member of the Household Cavalry from Buckingham Palace and thinks she's madly in love.

Much later....Desmond asks her to marry him but she refuses him because she thinks he's done Walter an injustice .Darcy is crushed and asks her, "Do you know who I am?" He then sends her a long e-mail and reveals that Wickham is a mercenary rogue who left the golf club without paying his fees or a hefty bar bill and tried it on with his fifteen year old sister in a tent at a Ramsgate pop festival. .

Eliza-Beth mistakes Darcy's home for a health spa and is shocked when he appears out of his, glass-roofed swimming pool in just his Kalvin Klein briefs, Raybans and riding boots. She tells him she's staying at the local Trusthouse Forte inn with her aunt and uncle. Her uncle is a well known gardner who does TV shows and owns a Range Rover. Darcy invites them all to join him in his jacuzzi but they leave hurriedly.

Eliza-Beth then gets a text from her sister Jasmine telling her that Walt Wickham has taken off for London and persuaded the youngest girl, Trixie Belle,a wild-child type who ran away from her convent school after she got drunk on vodka and started singing Irish rebel songs at morning prayers, to run off with him...

...Much later still Eliza finds out that Darcy sped off and found the lovebirds and forced Wickham to marry Trixie-Belle or he'd tell the local loan sharks where he was and send the heavies in. Eliza-Beth is full of gratitude and decides she'd like to marry Desmond after all. Demond tells his mate Charles that it's okay for him to marry Jasmine and they all have a big-fat Gypsy style wedding and live happily ever after.