Sunday, 12 April 2009
Reading conundrum
I always worry, when going away for a few days, how many books to take. I never get it right. I'm probably here in rural Shropshire for 3-4 days, so I thought 3 biggish books should be enough. Then I went to bed at 12.30 last night thinking I'd read a few pages of Mark Radcliffe's book. 2 hours later I'd finished it. Even though it's randomly unstructured and not particularly profound (Pooterish?), Radcliffe's essential niceness shines through, so it was worth reading. So that leaves two books (Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt and J. G. Farrell's Troubles, unless I rush out to the booksellers tomorrow. Perhaps I shall.
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15 comments:
Whereabouts in Shropshire are you, Vole?
'Incoherent and worthless rambling' you shall have, little fencing mouse.
Three biggish books for 3-4 days sounds like you were expecting boredom, but seeing that you haven't fed your eager rodent readers all day today, it can't have been that bad. Or have the Troubles drawn you into the space between black and white again?
Voles AREN'T mice, Anonymous. How I wish I knew who you are! I don't get bored - mostly because I always have a book. Or a newspaper - can't get through the day without an ocean of newsprint.
Ewarwoowar: I'm in north-east Shropshire but travel widely within the whole county. By bus and train, naturally.
Ah, okay. Was going to suggest that as a fan of countryside walking, The Wrekin and Ercall Woods just by me in Wellington would be a marvellous place to spend a day.
Yes, I know the Wrekin well - wonderful. Great view of it (and the Lawley and Wenlock Edge) from Caer Caradoc.
Dear purist,
Alright, voles aren't mice. But they don't eat chocolate either: 'Their diet consists of plants and occasionally insects and fungi,' says the Britannica, so I have now officially unmasked you as a non-vole. Plashing or no plashing.
But, since you liken yourself to the vole (not Boot's questing vole, though...I wonder why, for you sound inquisitive rather than wet behind the ears) I'm intrigued: are you nocturnal, diurnal or both? And since you are a cousin of the lemmings, so popular for providing such a handy image: do you ever feel suicidal? If so, please don't tell us about it!
Yes, the reference is to Boot's vole, but somebody had already bagged 'questing'. 'Plashing' also turns up in Scoop though.
I didn't know voles and lemmings were related. That explains a lot (although lemmings don't commit mass suicide - there's a lot of evidence around that the claim arose from a rather 'creative' natural history program in the 1960s).
Cynical Ben, Cynical Ben, Cynical Ben: chill out, my friend. We're cool. Some commenters do it anonymously because setting up an account just to post is a bit annoying. This 'anonymous' is just teasing!
Point made about my blog's name. The closest to the fictional vole would be 'questing' but somebody already nicked it.
I bought another couple of books today, so I'll be OK for another couple of days.
If you go to Name/URL you can put a name in and leave the URL blank. It is not difficult.
Also 'teasing' about suicide is cyber-bullying not teasing.
I don't believe that would ever happen
It is with great regret that we find these e-mails have left the office of cynical ben.
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