Reading Journal: Wednesday 19th August 2009
August 19, 2009 by Rob
Filed under Reading Journal
07:00 – My journey through Ox-Tales: Water (Profile Books) rolls on and this morning I had the pleasure of reading a story from Joanna Trollope called The Piano Man. The story actually turns out to be the first chapter of a novel which is being published in 2010, under the title, The Other Family. Despite being an extract it reads incredibly well. A wife and three daughters return home from the hospital to their empty house. It’s the same evening of the day on which their father, a professional ‘piano man’, was taken unexpectedly ill and passed away. It’s an opening chapter that’s raw, honest, grief-stricken and ultimately, quite sad. It certainly piques the interest for what the full novel may hold (there’s one big red light looming in the first chapter that’s sure to have big consequences – sorry folks, no spoilers).
12:00 – It was Chekhov yesterday lunchtime, so today I thought I’d honour Maupassant by reading one of his shorts during munchies. The story I went with was the one in the Leisure Circle Library edition titled as Rust. Not surprisingly for Maupassant (and my bias towards him 
) Rust turned out to be a really good story. The basics concerns Baron de Coutlier, a man who’s obsessed with all forms of hunting. He eat, sleeps and drinks the pastime. That is until a bout of illness, and a plan concocted by his friends, gives him something new to think about. Clever, funny and a little bit saucy – it’s got to be Maupassant (although for the life of me I can’t work out what other name this story may have as I can’t find it anywhere online *puzzled*)
20:00 – Ask me if I’m in heaven? Go on ask me! [the assembled masses in lethargic tone]: Are you in heaven Rob? You bet I am. I received a copy of Penguin Classic’s Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters yesterday (there’s a story behind this. I’ll tell it in my Daily Bookshot tomorrow), and I’ve been dipping into it through the day. What a stunning, stunning book to own. I’ve always been completely and utterly fascinated by letters from writers, and to now read the correspondences of Chekhov (and to pause after each while contemplating it, with book held close to chest), the feeling is indescribable. I suppose such a revelation begs the question why I haven’t bought this title sooner? The answer is I don’t really know. Overlooked? Budget? Kept putting it off? Whatever the reason I own it now and it’s really warming my bookish soul.
I admit that curiosity got the better of me from the outset with this letter collection from Penguin, and I headed straight to the back to read the letters written only days before Anton’s death (he died on 2nd July 1904, and his last letters were dated 28th June). These final letters are heartbreaking really, and not because they contain the words of a dying man. These letters are upbeat and positive. Chekhov has no idea he’s living his final days. And that’s what makes them heartbreaking to me. I admit to this too dear readers – after reading these letters a tear rolled down my cheek.
22:00 – Stately progress made on Mark T. Sullivan’s Triple Cross today. I’m now three-quarters of the way through it and I’m still gripped by it. It’s difficult to really say anything more than that without giving away spoilers, which I guess that speaks volumes in illustrating how tight the storyline is. I’m hoping to have this thriller finished tomorrow so I can move on to Richard Holloway’s fascinating essay on standing up to the seductive power of evil, Between the Monster and the Saint (Canongate Books).
‘Reading Journal’ provides an unedited, on-the-fly record of the bookish highlights in Rob’s reading day.
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
