Never decreasing piles

I think I've solved a problem...

...however much I read the piles around the house never seem to get smaller. I do pass books on when I've read them, whether to friends, family or charity so in theory the number of the books should either stay the same or decrease. With my eReader this should be doubly true (we won't talk about how much there is on there that I've not read yet).

This isn't the case and it was bothering me a little but I've had an epiphany.

Whenever I read a book about a new subject then I automatically want to read more about the subject.

Take last week - the failed theatre trip lead to me downloading the script to Three Days in May and devouring it.*

The topic was so interesting that I've instantly hunted out a couple of history books covering the events of May 1940 to learn more about it. Obviously these have bumped to the top of the to-be-read pile and once more books that had nearly reached the coveted position of 'next-to-be-read' have dropped down the pile.

Add in the new library books that are due any day and it is easy to see why I'll never get through the books waiting to be read.

I suppose that I could ban myself from buying/borrowing/downloading anything new until I've read everything that I own but we all know that is never going to happen!


* Let's not talk about how sad I am that I won't see this performed

Best laid plans

This was supposed to be a review of the first piece of theatre I plan on seeing in 2012 - oh well plans are nice!

I think that the trip was doomed from the start as the tickets never arrived (company I ordered them with were great and had arranged for them to be at the box office for me).

Today I awoke to the news that there had been a fire next to the rail track which had melted the over head power cables - no trains and no alternative route that could guarantee I could get there on time. Added to that the worry about how I'd get home afterwards. The train company hopes there will be trains but also suggested a new route. This alternative would mean the two carriage cross country train would be holding the equivalent of two intercity trains - no thanks!

Amazon have the play script available for the Kindle, I shall stay in the warm this afternoon and read the play instead. Not quite the same is it....

Less regular than usual

While I know that I am not the most prolific and regular of bloggers I have a feeling that service may get even more sporadic over the next 2 months.

But I do have a good reason as I am heavily involved in the planning and running of the first Norwich Crime Festival, as well as being in charge of creating the online content.

Crime isn't a genre I generally read a lot of but I am quickly learning that I might have dismissed it too quickly. I'm never going to be a fan of the gritty, violent books. Or those based on pathology but thrillers and historical crime is certainly growing on me.

Anyhow the Norwich Crime Festival runs from March 21st through until March 31st and all of the details can be found here on the official website.

Trying New Things

Reading Rut

With my reading currently being stuck in a bit of a rut - since Christmas I've read just one new book but in the most part have just re-read old favourites such as Little Women - I thought I would try something new. Not just new but a real departure for me.

A graphic novel.

I think I can count on one hand the number of graphic novels I've read. Looking through my reading journals I can see Persopolis, Maus and Fun Home plus one about the dropping of the atomic bomb in Japan in 1945 listed. All pretty intense novels about topics I'd read in traditional book form.

300 was a slight departure from this although it is still about a weighty topic that I'd read about in traditional format! This one was in full colour and the action took place over entire double page spreads rather than in small boxes which are read left-to-right and top-to-bottom.

I think I enjoyed it, I liked the way that the story was simplified and through the use of the illustrations I could really see the differences in the armies, something that is harder to do from just text.

But...

...I don't think it was very historically accurate, and I think that a lot of things were glossed over, especially about the history of the Spartans themselves.

I can't help thinking that if you are writing a book, a book of any genre, about a historical event then it should either be accurate or clearly marked as a 're-imagining'.

This isn't a criticism of the genre at all and I will be searching out more graphic novels - all recommendations gratefully received.

The dawn of cinema

2012 New Year Resolution

In my round up of 2011 I stated that I wanted to see more films this year. Last year I only saw 4 films at the cinema - already this year I've seen half that many so I am on track to keep this resolution.

The two films I've seen so far this year seem to be diametrically opposed at first glance - Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. One is a special effects laden film based on a children's book and the other a homage to the silent movies of the 1920s.

However when you look deeper they are actually both about one thing - a love of early cinema.

While Hugo is an adventure story, and a 3D one at that, the under current is the discovery by the children that Papa George is actually Georges Melies - the innovative early film maker. The last half of Hugo was all about how he made his films and then the chance to see some of them on a big screen.
The film was a fun watch, the acting good and the story lovely but I expected the latter as Hugo is based on the wonderful book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. As ever with an adaptation I did find the book better but it was faithful to the book and the only thing making me wince was the 3D. Watching 3D films when you already wear glasses is not the best experience in my opinion.

The Artist was a true delight. Starting in 1927, when the silent movie was at its height, we meet the heart throb of the moment George Valentin and also wannabe actress Peppy Miller. Through the rest of the film we see one star wane as the other rises as the talkie takes over from the wonderful silent movie.
The Artist isn't entirely silent, every so often there are sound effects and voices and, as they are meant to, these really leap out at the viewer and for me broke the spell a little. It was also filmed in colour and converted to black and white and as a photographer who sometimes uses this technique I could see this occasionally and again it pulled me out of the movie for a moment.

I am pleased that I went and saw both of these films on the big screen but I think, surprisingly, that it was The Artist that is the film which worked best for me. Silent movies, with their beautiful sound track and text boards explaining the plot, make for an immersive experience and I think that watching this at home on a smaller screen, with the distractions of the house, just wouldn't be the same. Hugo, while enjoyable on the big screen in 3D, will be just fine as a 2D DVD!

Last night saw the Golden Globes being announces and both of these films won awards. Best Director went to Scorsese/Hugo and then Best Motion Picture (comedy or drama), Best Actor (comedy or drama) and Best Original Score went to the Artist.



Now if only my other resolution (to actually read the books set for book group) was going so well!

That was 2011...

The obligatory review of the year post.

Hmmm... 2011 turned out to be the year of theatre rather than the year of books, which wasn't something I predicted last January.

In fact in 2011 I actually only read 141 books. This is probably the lowest number since I learned to read. More shockingly for those who know me is that I only read 18 books meant for children or young adults.

In contrast I saw 19 plays/musicals live at the theatre and 3 plays as part of the National Theatre Live. I saw four stand up comedians and saw 3 episodes of a radio comedy taped. I also did one behind the scenes theatre tour, saw one major art exhibition and went to a classical music/carol concert at the Royal Albert Hall. No wonder I didn't have that much time for reading.

More surprising than the lack of books this year is how little any of them stand out. I do think that the top few books from my self imposed World Book Night challenge are probably the best books I read all year. In fact apart from them I think that some of the plays I read this year are my personal 'bests' for 2011.

I've been thinking about this for a while because I am an occasional poster on the Norfolk Library Book review Blog and we were asked for our top reads of the year. I was looking through my reading diary and what quickly became clear was that it was the books I loathed that stuck out more clearly and this became the post Turkeys of 2011.

So I wonder what 2012 has in store?
More theatre that is for certain, more films too as already there are several being trailed that look exciting. I am hoping that I read more, and enjoy more books in 2012 but I will settle for quality over quantity...

As for resolutions - well I think that will have to be to actually get over my mental block about books I have to read for book groups. And on that note I suppose I should stop blogging and get back to Doctor Zhivago!

Happy New Year!

Theatrical Interlude 21

Collaborators, National Theatre Live (encore), Cinema City, Norwich. December 2011

Tickets to see this in London appear to be like gold dust and to add insult to injury when I tried to book tickets to see this Live it had also sold out. Luckily my local Picture House cinema put on an 'encore' performance and so I did manage to get tickets.

It still feels quite odd to go to the cinema to see a play but once I managed to get my head around the concept I was sucked in.

This is a very odd play and not one I can sum up easily. Like many tales about Stalinist Russia it is not always a comfortable watch. Sticking to your principles and ideals under such circumstances must have been very hard and seeing how a passionate man became corrupted was shown very convincingly.

The actors were very good, although at the very start Simon Russell Beale did seem to be playing Ricky Gervais rather than Josef Stalin. Alex Jennings was very good as Bulgakov and the rest of the cast supported brilliantly.

Collaborators is currently being performed in the Cottesloe Theatre at the National, and this small, versatile space worked well for the staging. This was very much theatre in the round and a limited space for the stage really did mean the set was used in a truly innovative way - I do wonder how the transfer to the Olivier Theatre will work.

I think that at times the metaphors were over egged a little, and I felt very uncomfortable during much of the play as I was feeling sympathy for Stalin - happily the end did manage to recreate the more traditional view of the dictator.

On the whole this was a really enjoyable play, one that I am very glad that I have seen but not one that I will be sad that I only saw at the cinema and not actually at the theatre live.

Theatrical Interlude 20

Roald Dahl's Matilda, Cambridge Theatre London, December 2011

This is another performance that I'd been looking forward to for a while, and indeed I'd booked tickets shortly after the box office opened way back in the summer.

Now nearly a week after seeing Matilda I am still not entirely sure what I thought of it. There was lots to enjoy.

The acting was amazing, the child actors were very good especially the girl playing Matilda. Miss Trunchbull (played by Bertie Carvel) was outstanding and it was very hard to believe that it was a man playing the role.

I quite liked the set, it was clever and eye catching but at times it was distracting, all too often I found myself trying to spot words formed by the letters. The way the props appeared from being set into the stage was very clever and I did like the way that you saw how the staging was working.

However, for me, there was lots that made this an outing that was merely 'meh' rather than 'wow':

• there were no catchy tunes that I came out humming, in fact each act seemed to only have one song that was reworded...
• the plot had been changed. Matilda the novel isn't an overly complex book and in changing the story I felt that you really lost just how exceptional the child Matilda was.
• The book is all about championing books and stories and I felt this was lost totally, especially in the scenes just after the interval where audience members were mocked for reading (and for taking part in the audience participation!)
• at times I really couldn't hear when the adults were singing
• what was the point of the extra story lines when Dahl had created a perfect book in the first place?!
• I couldn't take Mr Wormwood seriously as he just reminded me of David Tenant's Doctor Who and I was expecting to hear the TimeLord every time the character appeared on the stage.
  

Oh dear, this is becoming a totally damning write up and I don't think that it was truly that bad there were just so many niggles (and that is before I even think about the behaviour of the audience).

I suppose that in a way it is my own fault, this was after all an adaptation of a favourite book and we all know how much I squirm through films made from favourite books!

On the whole I had a good time, just from the reviews I expected to be blown away and I wasn't. For me I felt that Matilda didn't know if it was a play, a musical or a pantomime, if it had only been just one of these things it would have been so much better.

I think that Matilda will go on to win lots of theatre prizes and I think that those awarded to the actors are fully deserving I am just not sure of those awarded to the piece as a whole.

I'm off to re-read the book now...

Author events

In my current job at the library (and when I worked for Waterstone's) planning events with authors is a routine part of my job and over the past 10+ years I've been lucky enough to meet many authors.

However as the person organising the events I haven't always been able to enjoy them thoroughly. I'm on edge during them, making sure that the building stays relatively quiet, that the author doesn't need anything etc etc.

This week I went to see Alan Hollinghurst at UEA where he was speaking as part of the Autumn Literary Festival and once I remembered that I could just sit back and relax I really enjoyed the talk.

I've admired Mr Hollinghurst for a few years now and while a lot of the talk was about the newest novel (The Stranger's Child) there was also a lot about the other novels and the influences on Hollinghurst's work. I didn't find the new book to be my favourite novel but hearing about it from the horse's mouth (so to speak) did make me look at it in a different way and I now understand a little more of why it is structured as it is.

Mr Hollinghurst had a fantastic voice, as well as being very interesting speaker, and it was a delight to be able to sit for the whole hour and just listen without having to be on duty.

I am pleased that I get the chance to meet so many fantastic authors, and I'm already well under way planing events for next spring, but I must try to go to more talks where I can concentrate on the speaker!

Theatrical Interlude 19

Driving Miss Daisy, Wyndhams Theatre London, November 2011

This trip came about almost by accident. My normal theatre going companions and I saw a poster for this on one of our other trips to London and all of us instantly said "I love that film". To think is to act and we quickly booked tickets to the first matinee that all three of us could make.

Using Lastminute.com our seats were allocated on arrival and while we were quite high up in the theatre we had centre seats and a fabulous view - well once the vertigo had vanished the view was good!

This is a cleverly staged play. As we took our seats the stage was dominated by a large staircase in the middle with assorted items of furniture dotted about, and as the play continues this remains the only staging. However all of these items are on runners and move in and out of the centre stage as the scenes change. Small props are used and it is up to the actors to move them on and off set as needed - it is a very stark play in this way.

The 'car' is a park bench and two dining chairs all set on a revolving part of the stage and as movement is needed for the plot the stage moves and a projection plays in the background. Writing it down makes it sound a little tacky but in fact it worked splendidly as a visual effect - even from the height we were sitting.
The use of projection throughout the play also highlighted the passage of time and managed to give the impression that there was a larger cast.

There are only three actors in the whole play - Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines and all three were superb the day we saw them. It took just a little while for me to get my ear attuned to the deep south accent but very quickly I was swept away and found myself totally immersed into the story, and by the end totally moved.

The play is set in the deep south of America from the late 1940s through until the 1970s and at times the racism and the language used made me uncomfortable but obviously was totally in keeping with the setting. I don't remember it being quite so overt in the film but it has been well over a decade since I last saw the film so this may just be a false memory.

It was a lovely day out and I am very pleased that I got to see this play during the limited London run. It won many awards in New York and I hope that it wins something at the London theatre awards.

Theatrical Interlude 18

War Horse, New London Theatre, November 2011

This is a play that has been on my 'to see' list for a long time but as the booking period stretched through until 2013 it wasn't one I wanted to see urgently. However once the film version was announced I knew that I wanted to see the stage show before the film.

I've long been a fan of Michael Morpurgo and I've read the novel War Horse several times but I was still a little nervous about seeing the show - after all I'm renowned for sitting there going "it didn't happen like that in the book!"

I needn't have worried from the first instant that actors appeared on the stage I was captivated, everyone raves about the model horses but it is true - after a couple of seconds you really do forget that they are puppets, it really is just like live horses are on the stage. I'm not a great horse lover - the ones I've know have either tried to bite me or have trodden on me but Joey and Topthorn could easily win me over to being a fan. It was the goose that repeatedly stole the show however...

The story has been altered from the book but for me it worked totally and to include everything from the book would have given the play an impossibly long run time. Like Black Beauty the original book is told from the horse's view point and to try and do this on stage would have diminished the power of the play.

I can't put in to words how I feel about this play because it was so totally absorbing and moving. It is incredible that the brutality and horror of war can be so comprehensively portrayed without any violence or fake blood being used. I wonder if playing on the very British love of animals to depict the war is one way to bring the horror home?

I laughed and cried throughout the play and if it had been possible I think I would have stayed in my seat and watched it again straight away.

I'm looking forward to the film but I will be going to see this play again - as soon as I can manage.

Pioneering

The Harvey Girls - Lesley Poling-Kempes

One of the first books I remember buying for myself was The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - all about the story of an American pioneer family moving West towards the end of the 1800s as America itself spread west.
I devoured the whole series of these books and later as an adult read biographies and critical responses to the books and despite now being able to see their faults, racist attitudes and hidden messages, I still love them and the whole idea of the growth of the Wild West.

As I may have mentioned (!) we've just come back from the west of America and one of the things that still surprises me is how new the area is in terms of being a place where westerner live. We went to towns that were younger than my grandparents and even the state of Arizona is 100 until next year.

In a lot of the gift and book shops we visited this book kept catching my eye, and on getting home I did treat myself to a copy and it was a lovely, if a bit disjointed, social history of the working women who helped open the west of America for white migrants.

Harvey was strongly connected to the railroads and as they expanded west he made sure that he built hotels and restaurants along the lines so that where ever the trains stopped people could get consistently good food and lodging. As well as employing local people he took advantage of the growing freedom of women, and economic need, and employed women from all over the country. As well as their wages they got full bed and board and often became some of the best wage earners in their families.

The Harvey hotels are mostly gone now but the legacy lives on as his family still run some of the gift shops at some of the west's National Parks - only fitting as it was Harvey that opened the areas up to the public but building hotels and extending railway lines to encompass them!

This book is a mixture of Harvey's history, the railroad history and the personal history of the Harvey Girls and is a fascinating read if, like me, these things interest you. It is pretty niche to be honest but still fascinating and a reminder that in some places history is far more recent than in the UK!

Sequally Surprised

House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

I've mentioned before how I keep getting my hopes up when reading sequels to much loved books, and how they keep getting dashed. That notwithstanding I still keep doing it on the grounds that at least once it will have to be a success.

The House of Silk is for me that success story - hurrah.

I approached the book cautiously, for me, took my time reading it and I wasn't disappointed. I couldn't find any anachronisms and the writing style felt natural, unforced and not at all like a pastiche. Conan Doyle probably wouldn't have written about such a topic but the way Horowitz did was sensitive, discreet and just how it could have been written at the turn of the last century.

I thought I was going to have historical fact issues with the book when Horowitz mentioned Arizona in the 1880s/1890s. Having just come back from there and finding that Arizona only became a state in 1912 I thought he'd made a mistake, however he did just say 'Arizona' not the 'State of Arizona' and the name was in use before 1912. Once I realised that I felt more comfortable and nothing else jumped out.

I think the book is being received positively, the reviewers mostly seem to have enjoyed the book and I certainly felt that it slotted in well with the originals - however I am a latecomer to Sherlock Holmes, if I'd been a fan for years (like I have been with some of the other sequels/prequels) I do wonder if I'd feel the same.

It doesn't matter I enjoyed the book, I will re-read it and I am quite happy to shelve it alongside the originals and not give it straight to charity in disappointment!

Busy Week

Double Celebrations

This week was one of the best I've had at work for a while. The Forum (pictured, and where the library is situated) turned 10 this week.

In 1994 a catastrophic fire destroyed Norwich City Library, lots of books and historical documents. The BBC has a great piece here about the fire.


Out of the ashes came the wonderful building we now have, this opened to the public in November 2001 and was officially opened in June 2002 by the Queen. I can't believe that it has been ten years time does fly.

We've had lots of activities planned to celebrate the birthday - story time sessions with Maisy Mouse making a guest appearance, a quiz, author event, a huge 'create the birthday bunting' competition and of course a birthday party complete with cake:


What made the day even more special was the release of this story by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy stating that for the 5th year running the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library is the busiest in the country.

Wow - for half of the library's current incarnation we have been the busiest in the country.

In fact the statistics get better for not only is the city the busiest library but Norfolk is also the busiest Shire County when it comes to Library use.

We are very proud - there are lots of jokes about Norfolk, few of them flattering, but we are obviously doing something right in this time where there only seems to be bad press for libraries.

Now comes the hard work - keeping the standards this high for the next 10 years!

World Book Night 2012

The 25 books that have been picked at the 2012 World Book Night titles were announced today and I am trying to decide if I will attempt to read all 25 by the time 23rd April rolls round.


The list this year reads:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks
Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Take by Martina Cole
Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell
Someone Like You by Roald Dahl
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Room by Emma Donoghue
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Misery by Stephen King
The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Let the Right One In by John Ajvde Lindqvist
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
The Damned Utd by David Peace
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

Reading them all by April would be easier - there is a lot more time for the challenge this year, and I've already read 10 of the titles...

but...

the list doesn't excite me at all this year. Perhaps making myself read them would be good but if I read these will I miss better, newer books?

I think I'll sleep on it for a while, after all there 6 months until WBN 2012...

Incredibly Cross

I think that regular readers to this blog know that I work in a library.

In fact I work in (currently) the busiest library in the country - in the last year that we have figures for 1,502 449 people came through our doors.
Every morning there are people waiting outside the doors to come in.

These are people from all walks of life, some come in for advice, others for books, some to use the computers and others for the regular training or story sessions that we run. The one thing I know is that we are busy from the moment we open at 9am until the minute we shut the doors at 8pm.

I'm lucky, I work for a council that sees the value of libraries - unlike many areas around the country.

Just this week the author Nicholas Rankin gave a talk here in Norwich, he started it by saying that he'd spent nights this week camping outside his local library to stop it being shut. There is currently a legal challenge in progress trying to save his library - Kensal Rise - which was ironically closed 111 years to the day since it was opened by Mark Twain.
It isn't just authors and celebrities that are trying to save local libraries whole families are standing vigil trying to save these precious resources.

Just today figures were released showing just how many children joined the Summer Reading Challenge in 2011. This is an annual game that is run through libraries during the summer holidays. Children are encouraged to read six books during the holiday and are rewarded throughout and then on completing the challenge come to special ceremonies where they receive a certificate and medal. This challenge has been proven to help participants with their school work in many ways.

Libraries are important for so many reasons - personal and national - which is why articles like this one in the Telegraph make me so angry. Happily it seems that most people agree with me and not the author and the Twitter and Blogosphere are full of examples showing just how wrong this article is.

However our libraries are under threat so please if you are reading this and you don't usually visit a library please find your local branch and borrow a book or two. They might be there at the moment but once they are closed I can't see that they will be reopened and we need libraries.

For more information about campaigns to save libraries please have a look at Voices for the Library or The Bookseller's Campaign. For up-to-date information on library closures Public Library News is place to look.

Currently 428 libraries are under threat of closure in the UK - sign the petition to save libraries.

Reality Reading

Ranger Confidential by Andrea Lankford

While we were in America we actually only went into a couple of bookshops, and they were second-hand specialists not 'new' bookshops. However many of the National Parks we visited had dedicated bookshops within the gift shops and I saw a great many books that I wanted to read.

Luggage allowances didn't let me buy too many at all, but free wifi in hotels and a Kindle did mean that I could download this one on the road.

I've admitted to liking biographies and exposes in the past and this is another in that style.

Lankford was a Park Ranger in several of America's parks and in this book she talks about the ups and downs of the job. Like in all jobs there seem to be a lot more 'downs' than you'd originally think.

The park rangers that we met were unfailingly smart, informative and polite but after reading this book I am not at all sure how they manage it. In our time in the 5 parks we visited we saw no trouble at all, and only one idiot blatantly ignoring the signs saying to keep behind the railings however it would seem that we were lucky and that usually there are plenty of rule breakers in the National Parks, and that is before Mother Nature decides to intervene.

I realise that Lankford is going to pick the 'good' stories to tell but my hat goes off to all the park rangers out there. Like other emergency service workers you do a great job and do not deserve some of the things that happen to you.

This wasn't a comfortable read, and I am glad that I read it after we'd visited the Parks but it was informative and moving.

Grand Canyon from Mather Point - taken Sept 2011.

All a bit quiet

No reviews of either plays or books at the moment as I've just spent the last few weeks in the USA on an epic road trip with my parents and Mr Norfolkbookworm.

I managed to read 2 books in just over 2 weeks - both good and worthy of a review, but didn't convince anyone to come to the theatre in Las Vegas!

The trip was amazing and all of the books about photography that I read before going seem to have been beneficial as on first glance I seem to have taken some pretty nice pictures. However I took over 2000 thus all of my free time for the foreseeable future will be spent editing them!

I'll be posting them to Flickr as they become ready and the first batch are up here already.

Travel guide with a difference

London's Theatres by Mike Kilburn

It can't have escaped readers' attention that I have been to the theatre quite a lot during 2011. It has been wonderful and I have more trips already planned for before Christmas.

I think that my colleagues think I am slightly insane for spending so much time traveling to and from London but one was very quick to point out the arrival of a new book to the library, and even went and found it on the library shelves for me.

The book is wonderful, it is a guide to the 52 central London theatres, it has lovely pictures, tells you of their history and all manner of quirky facts about them. Even though I've been to the theatre so much lately I've still only seen shows in 10 of them - bank balance look out there are another 45 to visit!

Mathematics

The Genius in my Basement by Alexander Masters

Back when I was reading all of the World Book Night books I discovered, and was blown away by, Stuart: A Life Backwards by Masters. A couple of months ago, when reading through publisher catalogues I saw that he had a new book coming, it instantly went on reserve in the library.

The book arrived and I duly put aside everything else I was already reading to start this one. It wasn't the joyous read I was expecting.

Again Masters has written a biography about a person who isn't a typical subject for a book. Simon Norton was Masters' landlord and a friendship grew up between them:

One of the greatest mathematical prodigies of the twentieth century stomps around the basement in semi-darkness, dodging between stalagmites of bus timetables and engorged plastic bags. He eats tinned kippers stirred into packets of Bombay Mix. Simon is exploring a theoretical puzzle so complex and critical to our understanding of the universe that it is known as the Monster. It looks like a sudoku table - except a sudoku table has nine columns of numbers.

The Monster has 8080174242794512875886459904961710757005754368000000000.

I am not sure if it is because I don't understand the maths (confession after the 3rd chapter dedicated to the Monster I skipped those bits), if is because the subject isn't actually that interesting or if it is because the book seems to be too much about Masters rather than Norton, but I found the book a slog.

I'm not totally put off reading Masters' next book - if he writes one - but I won't be looking forward to it with such excitement. That makes me sad because I really did find Stuart a gem.