Followers and Endings

Well I am surprised and delighted to find that this blog has its first follower.  Thank you to Mel U at The Reading Life who has the dubious honour of being the first!  As I am very new to this blogging lark, any suggestions for improvements would be most welcome.  And thanks to The Reading Life's post on The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, I have taken my as yet unopened copy and finally started reading it.  And what an absolute delight.  I love the honest irony and sharp observations from the two narrators Renée, a Parisian concierge and Paloma a twelve year old girl who lives in the same building.  But what really got me reading was the fact that Mel U loved the book but disliked the ending.  So of course, not knowing how it ends, I just had to start and find out....

Here is Renée describing Violette Grelier, the housekeeper for one of the wealthy families who live in the same building,

"All day long she jabbers like a magpie, busily rushing here and there, acting important, reprimanding her menial subalterns as if this were Versailles in better days, and exhausting Manuela with pontificating speeches about the love of a job well done and the decline of good manners.
'She hasn't read Marx,' said Manuela to me one day.  The pertinence of this remark uttered by a Portuguese woman who is in no way well versed in the study of philosophy is striking.  No, Violette Grelier has certainly not read any Marx, for the simple reason that he does not appear on any lists of cleaning products for rich people's silverware."

This is going to be a good read.

Another book I have enjoyed recently, again for its irony, this time both very funny and very sad, is John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.  This is the story of Hazel and Augustus, both teenagers, both with cancer and both falling in love.  Not an obvious subject for a hugely enjoyable read, but the writing is so compelling that I could not put the book down.

At the start of the book, Hazel and Augustus meet at the cancer support group,

"So here's how it went in God's heart: The six or seven or ten of us walked/wheeled in, gazed at a decrepit selection of cookies and lemonade, sat down in the Circle of Trust, and listened to Patrick recount for the thousandth time his depressingly miserable life story - how he had cancer in his balls and they thought he was going to die but he didn't die and now here he is, a full-grown adult in a church basement in the 137th nicest city in America, divorced, addicted to video games, mostly friendless, eking out a meager living by exploiting his cancertastic past, slowly working his way towards a master's degree that will not improve his career prospects, waiting, as we all do, for the sword of Damocles to give him the relief that he escaped those many years ago when cancer took both of his nuts but spared what only the most generous soul would call his life.  AND YOU TOO MIGHT BE SO LUCKY!"

I laughed and cried reading this book.  I also hated the ending, not because it felt wrong within the world of the story, but because I so wish it could have been different.

But where else can you go from being a fifty-four year old Parisian concierge to an American teenage cancer patient other than in the pages of a book?  And between the two I joined Harold Fry as he walked the length of England in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but more of that later.

Baking Bliss

Over the last few evenings we have been enjoying the Comic Relief version of the Great British Bake Off.  Ever on the hunt for something new,  I borrowed this gorgeous looking book of bakes from the library this afternoon.

One of the wonderful things about the Comic Relief programmes is that they feature projects which the charity has helped.  Tonight's programme showed the Virtuous Woman's Bakery in Accra, Ghana.  The Bakery was set up several years ago and not only provides employment for single mothers and widows, but also provides a safe place for their children whilst the women are at work.  A small profit from the Bakery has enabled these mothers to engage a teacher so that their children also receive an education rather than being left to fend for themselves which would otherwise happen.

So get baking for Comic Relief and as Jo Brand said on tonight's programme, you can always sell your rubbish ones to the people you don't like!  But while tucking in to the good ones, spare a thought for the Virtuous Woman's women bakers in Ghana.

Blog Bliss

This morning's visit to one of the blogs I follow has proved to be one of those journeys of discovery and delight.  Reading the post at Stuck in a Book I found my way to My Porch and there read simply the most amazing quote ever.  In A Dance with Dragons George RR Martin wrote this

a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies

the man who never reads lives only one

So that is it.  I have changed the title of this blog from Wisdom and Wonder (true, but far too pretentious) and have borrowed Mr Martin's words for my new title.  I hope he doesn't mind.  But it captures perfectly how I have always felt about books but have never found the way to express it.  Thank you Mr Martin.

As for the other book lovers out there who are well established bloggers on the subject, I thank you too.  I am having a wonderful time among such titles as Book Puddle and Bride of the Book God.

So I have the perfect justification to keep reading (and buying more books); why live just the one life when you can live a thousand? This afternoon I will be back in the library to track down A Dance with Dragons, but before that I may just Google the quote to see if I can buy a print to hang above my bed.

And when I run out of shelf space, there is always the stairs!

The Daylight Gate

Yesterday afternoon, at around a quarter to five, I was driving the lanes.  It was the time of day when you can see, but not see.  The sky and the landscape merge into various greys, outlines of trees and hedges blur and the endless rain hastens the night in from the east.  It is a threshold, or liminal time.  The journey was the perfect backdrop to the haunting story I have just finished - The Daylight Gate.

It was not yet dark, but it was not light: the Daylight Gate.  And if you could pass through - to what - to where?

These words seem to me to be the essence of Jeanette Winterson's story.  And the writer does stress that this is a work of fiction, not a factual re-telling of the Pendle witch trials.  Not yet dark, but not light and this atmosphere is created and held throughout the book.  The in-between time, a time of questions and as a reader I was left with many questions thanks to the skilled weaving in to the story of the characters of Dr John Dee and William Shakespeare.  The enigmatic Alice stands at the heart of the tale; a love story in which the lovers are caught up in a time with events which are not of their making and not of their choosing.

Every so often a story comes along which holds my attention, all other books are put aside to allow for intense reading and engagement with the characters and the paths which their lives take.  Afterwards the story demands reflection and stays with me, raising its questions at odd times of the day and night.  One of those books I have to read to the end, but can't bear to finish.

And as for the cover - perfect for this season and a journey through the lanes ...

Invitations and Dreams

The first day of a new year.  On this day, as usual, I have several books on the go at once; Fingerprints of Fire.. Footprints of Peace by Noel Moules, Who is this Man? by John Ortberg and Here All Dwell Free by Gertrud Mueller Nelson.

But the old favourite Simple Abundance has also made an appearance and the entry for 1 January suggests that 'only dreams give birth to change'.  Agreed, but sometimes we do not know what to dream, sometimes we do but the dreams seem too big or unattainable and we don't know where to begin.

Then I noticed that the authors of Fingerprints of Fire and Who is this Man? are both writing about the invitation of Jesus to follow him.  John Ortberg describes the impact of this man Jesus on history as 'unparalleled'.  As we start another year and look at the state of the world, surely we need many things to change in ways we have never seen before.  But people and governments seem unwilling and unable to do so.  Fingerprints of Fire also offers an invitation - 'to join a thrilling conversation and to continue to explore together on the journey into the wonderful mystery of life'.  If this invitation of Jesus has anything real to offer us then perhaps we truly can start dreaming.  If he has the power he claims to have, then perhaps, just perhaps, we can dare to dream big.  Maybe this year should be one of dreams and an exploration of that invitation for I sense that both are needed.

So many books....

Tomorrow will be the start of another new year.  Several years ago I used to keep a list of all the books I read during a year, but for the last few years I have not done this and so lost track.  It seems a good use of this blog to record the books as I read them and to post the wisdom, wonders and discoveries in the hope that they may one day be of use to someone else.

A good idea to start the new year.  The only problem is that there are so many books and so little time...

Pilgrim's Pleasure

In the autumn of 1998 a friend introduced me to a book which has found a very special place on my bookshelf. Simple Abundance by Sarah ban Breathnach represents the very best in book pilgrimage. Each of its daily meditations is drawn from a particular source and as a result of the author's magpie like eye for inspiration, this book has the most amazing and varied bibliography. Perfect for the book pilgrim! And so I have enjoyed many years of one book leading to another which led to another, which led....

More recently the same friend pointed me in the direction of Persephone Books. With their gorgeous dove grey covers and beautifully reproduced end papers these books are absolute bliss. And as one good thing always leads to another it was, I suppose, only a matter of time before the Persephone path led somewhere too. Having finally mastered the art of (very basic) Facebooking, and having signed up to posts from the Persephone Facebook page, I was introduced one day to Slightly Foxed - the real reader's quarterly. A quick visit to their website, a quick click through the secure payment process and a trial copy was on its way.

Pilgrim's pleasure at its very best, for it arrived this morning, together with a catalogue, an index and details of back issues, all printed on paper the colour of clotted cream and tied together with a dark blue ribbon. Now that is real style and a perfect delight to open. Thoughtfully included in the package was a subscription form. And so once again a new landscape to be explored opens up on the pilgrimage. Who knows where this one may lead.