Category: Booking through Thursday

Hero – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

You should have seen this one coming ‘¦ Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

Last week I opted for Elizabeth Bennet as one of my favourite female lead characters, so it’™s no surprise that this week that one of my favourite male characters is Mr Darcy? Why? Because he is such a good match for Elizabeth and he is full of both pride and prejudice, but is capable of overcoming both in realising his love for her.

Other heroes are the fabulous Scarlet Pimpernel, because he is such a dashing hero, rescuing French aristos from the guillotine and always incognito.

Also Sydney Carton in Tale of Two Cities, seen to be a drunkard and useless but because of his unrequited love of Lucie he goes to the guillotine in place of her lover Charles Darnay. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known”.

Not such a nice, unselfish man as the others and I can’™t explain why but I also like the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses ‘“ such a bad man! I loved the film Dangerous Liaisons with Glenn Close and John Malkovitch.

A more modern hero, although one from Tudor England is Matthew Shardlake in C J Sansom’™s books, Dissolution, Dark Fire and Sovereign. Shardlake is a hunchback lawyer who solves a series of murders ‘“ such a clever, resourceful man.

Heroine – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

Thursday has come round very quickly – it’s Booking Through Thursday again.

My immediate response to this question was Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, for her quick wittedness, good sense and spirit, then Jo in Little Women because of her independence and intelligence and Cousin Helen in What Katy Did as she was such a good person. But these are all characters from books I read a long time ago; there must be some more modern female characters that I like.

Again, one that came to my mind quickly is Lyra in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, for her courage and determination. Then there is Grace in Margaret Atwood’s Amazing Grace, aptly named as I think she is amazing and enigmatic and like the other female characters I like she is full of courage in her desperate situation. Susan Ward in Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner is another strong female character; and Astrid in Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson – she is reclusive and an introvert and also a strong, determined woman.

It seems I like strong, determined women with a mind of their own and able to cope with difficult situations. So why is Elizabeth Bennet such a favourite, after all she didn’t have to cope with serious illness, or live in poverty, or deal with manipulative, domineering, homicidal men, or make a home in the American west? I think maybe it’s because I see her through rose-coloured glasses and because she is the first female character that caught my imagination when I first read Pride and Prejudice, possibly the first adult book I read.

Format – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret11 Comments


Booking Through Thursday’s question this week is – All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

In a perfect world I’™d have both.

I like reading hardbacks (hardcovers) although their weight is often a problem if they are long books, both in carrying them home from the library and also when reading, particularly when reading in bed. These days some hardbacks are just as liable to fall apart as paperbacks, but on the whole I do think that last longer. Some paperbacks have those covers that curl open once you start reading and some are so tightly bound that you have to break the spine to keep the book open whilst you read it. But a paperback is much easier to carry around and I like to take a book with me just in case there’™s an opportunity to read.

Booking Through Thursday – After the Honeymoon

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.
Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?
This question has made me think, once more, about just who are my favourite authors and why they are favourites. They are favourites because most importantly I enjoy their books, then because I like the way they write and I like what they write about; they are authors whose books live in my memory (for a while at least) and make me think. To qualify as a favourite author I have to have read more than one of their books.
I can’t say that I have “fallen out of love” with a favourite author. I may think one book is better than another or I may enjoy one more than the next but I can’t think of a book that was so bad it would stop me from reading their work. This week I’ve read various comments about the lack of “authority” of book bloggers to express their opinions and not post negative reviews if they don’t like a book. But reading is a very subjective matter. Other people may, and do, think differently and come to a book with different expectations. What one person likes is not necessarily the same for everyone and it’s useless to think otherwise. I like to know what other people have read and what they thought about it.

Coming to a new (to me) author I have found that the first book may appeal to me, but the next won’t and then I may not pick up a third. I’m thinking here of Maeve Binchy. I’ve only read one – Nights of Rain and Stars. I enjoyed it, easy to read (I was in the mood for a fast read), interesting story, believable characters, etc etc. This is not a well-thought out review of this book just memories of a book I read at the beginning of 2007. It was good enough for me to want to read more of her books, so I bought Whitethorn Woods. I started it – put it down – started it again – put it down and haven’t picked it up again. The reason being that it seems disjointed, trite and well – boring. Maybe I’ll read it sometime but life is just too short to carry on reading a book that I’m not enjoying.

Booking Through Thursday … But, enough about books’¦

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Okay, even I can’™t read ALL the time, so I’™m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well’¦ What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

Although I do love reading and always like to have one book or more on the go, I do like doing other things too. I’m later than usual writing Booking Through Thursday as Thursday morning I go to the course (it’s only for 6 weeks) on Dante’s Florence, so you can guess from that that I like art history, Florence, Italy and history. I like to visit anywhere with historical connections, castles, stately homes, churches, museums, etc etc and take photos. I’d like to learn more about photography and improve my photos.

I’ve written before that I do cross-stitching, but recently I haven’t done much – too much reading and writing. I suppose writing does take up more of my time now than it used to, so perhaps I should say writing. Then there is family history – that has been very time consuming recently. I like going to the theatre and cinema too.


I have several Keep Fit type DVDs but the last one I bought has proved to be really hard. It’s Strictly Come Dancersize. I love the show and was so impressed with the fitness of all the dancers and celebrities that I bought the DVD. It is so hard. First of all you have to be able to dance a bit before you can start to follow the routines. Karen and Erin go through the moves and I think I’ve got it until the music starts and some of it is fast! They go through the Salsa, Jive, Quick Step Samba and the Cha Cha. I thought I knew how to jive at least, but no I couldn’t do it – the quick step and the salsa aren’t too bad. I shall persevere.

Also to keep fit we do a bit of walking, although we’re really only fair weather walkers. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, although a little cold, so we did get out and walked to the lake shown in the blog header. There were swans, ducks and Canada Geese on the lake and as we walked up a heron flew up onto its nest at the top of one of the tall trees at the side of the lake.

Being with the family is one of the best ways to spend leisure time. We have three grandchildren and we love doing things with them, or just being with them. So for example, we’ve been on farm visits, parties, ten-pin bowling, which I love but am terrible at, watching the ballet. Of course one of the most enjoyable things to do is going out for a meal, although after watching Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares progammes I’m not so sure I should!

Quirky – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

This week’s question is suggested by (blogless) JMutford:

 

Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?

I take ‘quirky’ to mean characters that are odd, who act in unexpected ways, are a bit peculiar or different, maybe a bit outrageous or unusual in some way. They’re the type of character that makes a book either very good or boringly bad. It really depends on the situation and whether they fit into the story or are there just for effect.

There are so many characters that can be described as quirky but one that came to my mind as I read the question is Alice in Pinkerton’s Sister by Peter Rushforth. She is certainly eccentric and peculiar, nothing she does is what people expect of her. The book starts off: ‘The madwoman in the attic was standing at the window.’

Her neighbours think she is simple, strange and definitely mad and are outraged by what she says and does. It’s a bizarre story mainly seen through Alice’s mind which because she lives mainly in the world of books is a very strange place indeed. It’s funny, well ludicrous at times, full of literary and musical references and I got lost in it for hours.