Books and stuff
Further to my earlier post about Amazing Grace we have just got back from a shopping trip in Leeds - ostensibly to buy some new clothes and shoes for the kids.
We also had lunch at the excellent Lucky Dragon Chinese restaurant which is so good it doesn't even bother with a website - it's on Templar Lane if you're interested and, if you go, ask to order off the Chinese menu.
The worst thing I can do on a family shopping trip is to say I'm off to Borders while the rest of them go fashion hunting in the mean streets of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Although to be fair, my son Frank hung out with me reading Manga and other teenage stuff in Borders while I went foraging.
Why "the worst thing I can do?", because I always end up spending too much. I went with the intention of buying one book on William Pitt The Younger. I now have seven plus a CD.
I am 50 quid bloke! This is a phenomenon that you guys in the US may not be familiar with so check the link.
So what did I buy?
For me:
CD: My Name Is Buddy - Ry Cooder (brilliant - listened to it on the way back in the car. And no complaints from the kids, perhaps because Buddy is a cat.)
Book1: William Pitt, The Younger by William Hague
Book 2: Agincourt by Juliet Barker
Book 3: Unimagined by Imran Ahmad
Book 4: Small is Beautiful by EF Shumacher
Book 5: Imperium by Robert Harris
For my sister, whose birthday is imminent:
Book 1: POSH by Michael Quinion
Book 2: Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson
Confession - this is the one retail thing I do really well and never feel guilty about: buying and reading books and listening to good music. Clothes and stuff is just a bore but books and music - bring it on. And my wife has just reminded me we have to do a grocery shop for tomorrow... sigh!
What books are you reading at the moment? - let me know.
9 comments:
Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson of 'Snow Falling on Cedars' fame. Good so far and funny. Just finished 'Watching the English' an anthropological study by Kate Fox - very clever and observant.
'Our Lady of the Forest' by David Guterson - of 'Snow Falling on Cedars' fame. Just finished 'Watching the English' and anthropological study - very perceptive.
Hi Lisa,
I rattled through Watching the English last year. It was excellent. Very funny and very disturbing when you recognise yourself in its pages.
Ian
There's a certain irony in buying 'Small is Beautiful' at Borders... Funnily enough, I bought that myself just last week - secondhand first paperback edition, for 80p.
Current reading - just finished Christopher Hill's 'The World Turned Upside Down' (about radical movements of the 17th century), and now into Nick Cave's novel 'And the Ass Saw the Angel'.
Good Point!
I've read the World Turned Upside Down too.
Small Is Beautiful was my later father-in-law's favourite books and I have never got round to reading it.
By way I have been in touch with Chris M and he talked about meeting up for a beer with Bert in Leeds. Fancy it?
Sounds good! Maybe we should start the Ex-Venturedome Book Club.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for buying 'Unimagined'.
Did you read it yet? What did you think?
Regards,
Imran Ahmad
Hi Imram,
Alas I usually have about five or six books stacked up and ready to read. At the moment I am reading Small is Beautiful and your book is next on my list. I'll do a review when I've finished. You can check me out on Twitter at Ian J Green.
Ian
I'm reading 'The Illusion of Return' by Samir El-Youssef. I makes me realise us Brits feel edgy talking about politics and philosophy. A fine book indeed.
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