It's a Bit Rummy, What?

Designated Holiday Reading

So, that’s that.  I’m now on the penultimate day of my holiday.  At least the sun peeked out for a couple of days so that I could wash my windows and pot up some tomatoes and corn.  After an absolute scorcher this morning, the clouds are rolling in backed up by thunder (it was just too good to be true).

I feel ready to go back to work, and the upside is that I should get more reading done when I do.  Now that sounds odd I know, but  so far my days have been so unstructured that I just can't get any decent reading done. Mind you I have been busy sewing too (Tanya, the curtains and the Raphael  mask will be posted to you tomorrow J).  I haven't touch the pile of books next to my bed which was my designated holiday reading and books to be finished off so I'll have to think of some good themes for my book club to suit them.

I did listen to a couple of Jeeves and Woosters by PG Wodehouse - The Code of the Woosters and The Inimitable Jeeves.  They were nice and light for a bit of fun, and it WAS fun, I really love the humour.  The dialogue is so catchy that I find my own internal dialogue is saying things like - "It's a bit rummy, what?" or "What-ho" and "Great Scott!"  It's just delightful.

Adam Bede has been a bit of a tester for me, I really struggled with it for the first half as I just couldn't see where it was going and the dialogue is a bit hard going, being written in the local accent.  Again, I am finding that the title of the novel is a little misleading.  I'm 3/4 of the way through it now and Adam hasn't featured in it a great deal, the focus has been on Dinah the Methodist, Hetty the dairy maid and Arthur Donnithorne.  Arthur has seduced Hetty unaware that Adam is in love with her and has plans to marry her.  Dinah was the main focus at the beginning of the novel but after the death of Adam's father she has been placed into the background.  Adam is a great character though, he's strong, hard working, caring and loving; though the object of his love is not deserving of him.  He must see much in Hetty as we are only shown her selfishness.  Tragedy is about to strike, however, as Hetty has run away in search of Arthur who is with the Militia.  Unfortunately she finds out that he has left Windsor so now she is planning on killing herself.

Another novel I am struggling with is Opposing Energies by J W Collier.  I don't mind some teen literature - I quite like Scott Westerfield etc but I just can't place this one.  It's reading a little like a male teen fantasy, which is okay but I guess as I'm not a male teen I just can't relate to it.  I am of the Magnus Magnussun ilk however ("I've started so I'll finish") and will continue with it once I get my work-life balance back on track.  It may improve as I go along but one thing that is really annoying me are the printing errors in this.  Misspellings, grammatical errors and even an 'a' was missing on the last page I read.  I know that there will always be the odd mistake in printing but I've only read a few pages and they really should have been picked up when proofed.  

My next audio is On Beauty by Zadie Smith, this is a 1001 read.  I did a bit of it last night and the narrator is American or Canadian and a bit over the top with the dialogue so I'm not enjoying it terribly.  I'm a bit funny with my narrators as they can make or break the book.  I like them to be English if possible, though the narrator for The End of Mr Y was too English and I found the bad language more shocking because of this!!  I loved the narrator for Shalimar The Clown, he was Indian and was excellent and the female narrators for Rebecca and Memoirs of a Geisha were fantastic.

It's 3.00pm and so dark I need to put on the lights to finish this so will sign off now and close my windows before the storm hits us good and proper!