Bookshelf Porn

Here for your delight is a link to a blog which comprises entirely photos of books, bookshelves and libraries: Bookshelf Porn It is really rather gorgeous and apparently is ever changing. I had thought that blogs usually contained words, however my resident IT consultant informs me that tumblr blogs (for bookshelf porn is one) are frequently used just for pictures.

The images are luscious and make me long for a proper home library, but the Facebook style comments are something that I just fail to understand.

Even The Dogs

I couldn't let the A level season pass without mention of an extraordinary book that Celia studied for her English. Gone are the days of a fiction syllabus defined by George Eliot and Jane Austen; instead, bring on the contemporary fiction..... and they don't get much more contemporary, or hard hitting, than Even The Dogs by Jon McGregor which was published in 2010. It is a remarkable book, written in a fractured, dislocated style (which takes some getting used to) from which the stories of a collection of homeless people emerge and from which we see how deprivation and addiction create a social underclass. In this world, in a nameless British city, sex, alcohol and drugs distort relationships and addictions fill barren lives. Despite this, in its way this novel is a thing of beauty and there are some memorable passages. Vivid characterisation, from Falklands veteran to teenage smack addict, makes this an entirely believable and engaging novel.

Rather startlingly, we saw Even The Dogs played out on the streets of California this summer. The sheer number of homeless in Los Angeles and San Francisco was startling - all ages, both sexes and clearly many were addicts. It was sobering to realise that the US veterans problem is obviously not a media or political fabrication.

Ahola from Hawaii

After a hectic 10 days on the move in California, a week in Hawaii has provided the chance to indulge in holiday reading and to trial remote blogging. The day here involves difficult decisions: pilates or massage, scrambled or poached, beach or pool, wine or cocktail, Ahi or Ono (or another obscure fish dish). However, today we escaped our resort and visited a large Barnes & Noble in order to replenish Laura's supply of books. And what an eye opener it proved to be. Teen fiction here falls into 4 distinct categories. First, anything to do with vampires (pass); second, anything to do with high schools (think Glee the novel); thirdly, teen romance with notable examples being Withering Tights (no, really), Anna and the French Kiss, Tweet Heart and These Boots Are Made For Stalking; and finally anything with summer in the title (The Summer of Skinny Dipping, The Summer That Changed Everything, We'll Always Have Summer, It's Not Summer Without You, Sixteenth Summer, Seventeenth Summer etc). We emerged shell shocked into the searing heat clutching 2 suspect looking titles selected from the B & N offering which Laura started reading as we walked to the car and hasn't put down since.