in between the painting and the writing there is time for books which are -
scotland's books by robert crawford which i'm eking out slowly just so that i don't have to finish it. a fabulous thing, a brilliant thing, it takes a lot of reading but it's worth it, for the interested reader anyway. instantly essential. a pint for mr crawford at the very least.
i am a cat by soseki natsume. more brilliance. the world as told by a cat with no name who lives with his waster teacher (nothing changes!) owner. again, i;m reading it slow because once it's done it's done.
1848 by mike rapport. because it's always good to have at least one fat ass history book on the go. the clue is in the title and that in itself makes it a complicated read not least because of rapport's individualistic sequencing. once you get by that tho, it's engaging, if depressingly familiar stuff
the edinburgh book of twentieth century scottish poetry. very different from the douglas dunn edited version and doesn't suffer at all by it. some of the poets are the same but most aren't. plus some familiar and welcome names, yes you colin will. quirky and readable.
state of absence by tahar ben jelloun. shamefully this appears to no longer available but it's long been one of my favourite collections of short stories and comes a something of a relief after having just finished john updike's collection, trust me. not because i didn't enjoy the updike just that it seemed alien in comparison to ben jelloun's tales of the mafia and italy. some of his stuff is available in english but, if you're of a mind to get that french to work, it's worth it. he says...
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I love Soseki! he is said to be Japan's Dickens, but in pondering over the huge difference one may come to understand better what makes Japan so different than us. I read many novels by him, but not this one, which is maybe his most famous. or maybe the Three-Cornered World? I can only recommend it too, and highly.
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