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12. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
This month's Bibliogoths book. I read it first in 1991 on a train from Edinburgh to Leeds and loved it. When I re-read it a few years ago I was less impressed, so I wasn't going to bother again, afraid it was a case of diminishing returns.
But as I have a 6-second memory I decided I'd better make the effort, and I'm glad I did. The bits that stuck with me (the M25, Milton Keynes, tapes in the car) are just as funny as ever. What I'd forgotten was the wealth of little details that are by turns lovely, hilarious and fascinating.
Yes, there are bits where they are trying way too hard. And I hope that after all his years living in the US, Neil is suitably embarrassed about the lame cracks at Americans.
We discussed whether it's dated or not; personally, I think that the message - "the devil made me do it" is not a valid excuse, because there's nothing the forces of heaven & hell can dream up that humans haven't done to themselves 100 times worse - is even more important today than it was in the early 90s.
So yes, still highly recommended.
13. Hunt for the Southern Continent by James Cook
Volume 7 of the Penguin Great Journeys series. I picked up a random selection of these at a charity shop a while back. The previous two volumes that I read, Mary Wortley Motagu's Life on the Golden Horn and Mas'udi's From the Meadows of Gold, were little treasures.
I struggled with this one. Too much nautical stuff, not enough ethnography, and even Cook's impressions of South Pacific cultures aren't very informative. On the other hand, before I read this I was only aware of Cook as an explorer of the South Pacific islands; I didn't know that he'd made a serious (and very close) attempt at reaching Antarctica.
It's all worth it near the end when they end up on an island where the volcano is erupting and Cook and his men try to climb to the mouth of the volcano, but can't get to it because the natives (wisely) won't take them there.
For reasons unknown, the editor left out the account of the discovery of New Caledonia, which had been previously unknown, and left in a bunch of things that must have been much less interesting. Also, he "preserves Cook's idiosyncratic spelling", which doesn't exactly make it any easier to read.
This month's Bibliogoths book. I read it first in 1991 on a train from Edinburgh to Leeds and loved it. When I re-read it a few years ago I was less impressed, so I wasn't going to bother again, afraid it was a case of diminishing returns.
But as I have a 6-second memory I decided I'd better make the effort, and I'm glad I did. The bits that stuck with me (the M25, Milton Keynes, tapes in the car) are just as funny as ever. What I'd forgotten was the wealth of little details that are by turns lovely, hilarious and fascinating.
Yes, there are bits where they are trying way too hard. And I hope that after all his years living in the US, Neil is suitably embarrassed about the lame cracks at Americans.
We discussed whether it's dated or not; personally, I think that the message - "the devil made me do it" is not a valid excuse, because there's nothing the forces of heaven & hell can dream up that humans haven't done to themselves 100 times worse - is even more important today than it was in the early 90s.
So yes, still highly recommended.
13. Hunt for the Southern Continent by James Cook
Volume 7 of the Penguin Great Journeys series. I picked up a random selection of these at a charity shop a while back. The previous two volumes that I read, Mary Wortley Motagu's Life on the Golden Horn and Mas'udi's From the Meadows of Gold, were little treasures.
I struggled with this one. Too much nautical stuff, not enough ethnography, and even Cook's impressions of South Pacific cultures aren't very informative. On the other hand, before I read this I was only aware of Cook as an explorer of the South Pacific islands; I didn't know that he'd made a serious (and very close) attempt at reaching Antarctica.
It's all worth it near the end when they end up on an island where the volcano is erupting and Cook and his men try to climb to the mouth of the volcano, but can't get to it because the natives (wisely) won't take them there.
For reasons unknown, the editor left out the account of the discovery of New Caledonia, which had been previously unknown, and left in a bunch of things that must have been much less interesting. Also, he "preserves Cook's idiosyncratic spelling", which doesn't exactly make it any easier to read.
