Ausalba
  • Tempus fugit
  • Photography
    • 3D stereo
    • Portfolio
  • Astronomy
    • Sun
    • Moon
    • Other Solar System
  • Contact

A book at bedtime

28/8/2011

 
I came to reading relatively late in life. As a child, I loved browsing the family bookcase, with Newnes Family Encyclopædia, Pears Cyclopædia, The Wonderful World of Nature, and other such worthy tomes, but I don't recall reading an entire book until I borrowed Lemon Kelly and the Home Made Boy from the library when I was around 10. Thereafter, I was a sporadic and infrequent reader, and could probably count on the fingers of three hands the number of books I read in the next decade or so. My wife, on the other hand has always loved reading, becoming utterly absorbed in various lives and adventures from an early age. I slowly started the reading habit only once I was well and truly old enough to know better (probably after I had developed the habit of routine sobriety), but initially it was through picking up books that my wife was reading, and delving into them occasionally. In this way, I read a few of the Earth's Children series, beginning with Clan of the Cave Bear. However, I did not make it all the way to the end, unlike she-who-must-be-obeyed, who waited patiently for the recent release of the final book in the series, The Land of Painted Caves.

I have not read Lord of the Rings, Catcher in the Rye, The Picture of Dorian Gray, or countless other works that I really ought to. I have read Catch 22, some le Carré, a little SF, and odd thriller/espionage titles that catch my eye, usually lurking on charity shop shelves. What I have found increasingly absorbing is biography, with First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong being a recent favourite (even if it was rather exhausting).

I have left a few books unfinished—some intentionally, others not—and have an increasing pile 'on the go', which I shall definitely work through in the not-too-distant future. This stack includes The God Delusion, Life: An Unauthorised Biography, and a collection of Ian Rankin's short stories, Beggars Banquet. The current bedtime favourite is A Beautiful Mind, the biography of genius mathematician John Nash, from which was produced the film of the same name. Like First Man, it is a substantial work, and equally compelling. I can't begin to understand the variety of maths that Nash and his colleagues worked on, but as a portrait of a man suffering a catastrophic loss of his mental faculties, it is a very human story that manages to bewilder, amuse, and inspire. It will probably take me at least another month of bedtimes to complete. Once that is out of the way, I shall pick up another biography, that of Keith Richards, Life. I am determined to resist the temptation to leave yet another book unfinished before starting upon it. But now, enough writing: I have a date with a wacky number-cruncher.

    Author

    I take photographs, sometimes with obsolete technology. I look at the night sky. I drink coffee, and whisky (Scotch, or possibly Irish). I read and sometimes write. I Tweet, occasionally (@ozalba). I might ruminate and fulminate from time to time.

    Archives

    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Astronomy
    Books
    Children
    Christmas
    Coffee
    Diy
    Driving
    Free Time
    Friends
    Gps
    Grumpy
    Moving House
    Pain
    Photography
    Sun
    Work

    RSS Feed


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.