The Big Read: Treasure Island

This book has languished in dim, dark corners of my bookshelves since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Finally, with inspiration from The Big Read I dusted it off and set to reading this Victorian tale of pirates, treasure and adventure.

Be warned, there is murder and mayhem aplenty. And you get to learn a whole new language - a 19th Century version of 18th Century seafaring speak.
You'll learn about 'hawsers', 'the black spot', 'yawing', 'broadsides', 'forecastles', 'sheets', 'coxswains' and 'laying to', among others.

You will also get to know the refrain:

Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest -
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

You might even find that you will want a dictionary for some of the more obscure and archaic sailing terms that for landlubbers are a dense fog of mystery.

This book is a great read in the tradition of a "Boys Own" adventure. It is gruesome in parts, but not overly graphic. It is simple storytelling, but still gripping enough to want to know what happens at the end.
The characters aren't deep or complex, with perhaps the exception of Long John Silver. But do you really expect that in a simple adventure story?

I dare you not to want to slap Squire Trelawney for his naivety and stupidity, and to perhaps actually feel some sympathy for old "Barbecue". This last one will be the hardest as he is alternately vile and pathetic. Which of these finally gets the upper hand with you?

I read this over the weekend, so it is not a difficult or time-consuming book despite the archaic and specific seafaring terminology. It is a ripping yarn and for the sake of saying that you have read this "classic", I can genuinely say that it wouldn't be a complete waste of your time.

I am not sure if the PC brigade have been through this classic with their censors eye, and as I am old enough to have in my possession a book that predates this obsession with sanitising our children's stories, I am not completely sure that the murderous "gentlemen of fortune" are still dispatched in the same brutal manner. So if you find my comments a little puzzling it may be time to take a trip to that grotty old secondhand bookshop and look for an older edition.
And before this launches into a Bleat! about political correctness and children's literature, I will end here by saying that my next victim has been chosen and is another classic that has lived on my bottom bookshelf for just as long as Treasure Island.

BBC The Big Read - Top 200

While I'm in book mode I thought I would mention this rather wonderful list I found today on shewhohashope's blog entry while browsing Technorati.
The original BBC site can be found here, if you feel like investigating what this is all about. I recommend you take a look.

My idea was that I would work my way through those books that I haven't read, and maybe even blog about the process. It sounded like an interesting and less random way of spending a few hundred hours reading this year.

If anyone wants to join me in this slightly mad idea that would be fantastic. Otherwise, sit back and watch this space.

First stop is to tick off those books that I have actually read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (Read it.)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Read it.)
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling (Read it.)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne (Read it.)
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (Read it.)
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling (Read it.)
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling (Read it.)
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling (Read it.)
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien (Read it.)
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (Read it.)
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen (Read it.)
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen (Read it.)
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton (Read it.)
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (Read it.)
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding (Read it.)
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (Read it.)
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist (Read it.)
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel (Read it.)
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer (Read it.)
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome (Read it.)
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle (Read it.)
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon (Read it.)
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco (Read it.)
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach (Read it.)
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett (Read it.)
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (Read it.)
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

On the back of a quick count I have only managed to read 19.5% of the BBC's Top 200 Reads. In all fairness I have actually watched another 15 books in either film or television adaptations and have made attempts at reading about the same number again.

Oh, and I absolutely defy ANYONE to tell me that Gormenghast belongs in the Top 200 Reads, let alone the Top 100. It is unbelievably painful. I gave it three attempts and just couldn't face it again, so it will have to remain on my lifetime unread list.

So that's the introduction to a new OhWaily series.
I'll see you here again when I've chosen my first victim.

What's On The Bookshelf? - V

Installment five begins with the large bookshelf. I'll start easy on you, I'll do the one shelf that is only a single book deep.

First Shelf, Large Bookcase

• The Ludlam Triad
  
  
  
  • The Holcroft Covenant
  
  
  • The Matarese Circle
  
  
  • The Bourne Identity
  
  
  
  


• The Grass Crown - Colleen McCullough


• Gai-Jin - James Clavell


• Food and Healing - Annemarie Colbin


• Awaken the Giant Within - Anthony Robbins


• The Biogenic Diet - Leslie Kenton


• Leonardo, the First Scientist - Michael White


• The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A.Milne


• The Family Guide to Homeopathy - Dr Andrew Lockie


• Triathlon - Erin Baker & John Hellemans


• The First Emperor of China - Arthur Cotterell


• The Prehistory of New Zealand - Janet Davidson


• The Making of Mankind - Richard E. Leakey


• A History of Rome - M.Cary and H.H.Scullard


• People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory - Brian M. Fagan


• Truckers - Terry Pratchett


• The Ghosts of Sleath - James Herbert


• Jack Higgins Omnibus
  
  
  
  • Confessional
  
  
  • A Prayer for the Dying
  
  
  • Day of Judgement
  
  
  • The Thousand Faces of Night
  
  
  
  


• The Tao of Abundance - Laurenc G. Boldt


• Atlas of Ancient Archaeology - Jacquetta Hawkes


• The Complete Book of Massage - Clare Maxwell-Hudson


• The Book of Pilates - Joyce Gavin


• The evolution of Early Man


• Hanyu for Beginning Students -Peter Chang, Alyce Mackerras & Yu Hsiu-Ching


• Japanese flower arrangement: Ikebana - John March-Penney


• Cerebral Mutterings (A collection of thoughts) - Lynn Steedman


• Austin Healey Sprite, M.G.Midget 1958-1980 Parts catalogue


• Oor Wullie


• The Art of Gardening - Colin Hutchinson


• The World's Most Mysterious Places - Reader's Digest


• Practical guide to Home Landscaping - Reader's Digest


• The Encyclopedia of Aromatherapy, Massage and Yoga


• The Make-it-Yourself Gift Book - Reader's Digest


• The Art and Science of Wine - James Halliday and Hugh Johnson


• The Artist's Way at Work - Mark Bryan, Julia Cameron and Catherine Allen


• Stretching - Bob Anderson


• Body Flex - Body Magic - Anja Langer with Bill Reynolds


• Acadamie du Vin Wine Course - Steven Spurrier & Michel Dovaz


• The Complete Illustrated Guide to Shiatsu - Elaine Liechti


• Classic and Sportscar: M.G. File - Martin Buckley


• Great Marques Poster Book: M.G. - Chris Harvey


• The Classic M.G. - Richard Aspden


• Fantastic Cocktails & Mixed Drinks - Family Circle


• Gardening in a Small Space - Lance Hattatt


• Car Repair Manual: M.G. Midget


• M.G. The Book of the Car - Anders Ditlev Clausager

What this tells us is:

no matter how much I might like libraries, it would probably not be safe for me to be left in charge of the organizational layout of one!

It also tells us that I still have my very old university text books out on public display, mixed in along with my car books and manuals. It even indicates that I let my hippy/alternative persona out at the bookstore every once in a while.

And I can even boast my own little collection of words amongst the published tomes, courtesy of a dear husband who thought it would be a great gift to collect my Cerebral Muttering emails together in a bound edition.
Bless the man who knows his way to a bookbinder, it can do wonders for your ego.

On that note, I can issue the final warning - the next "What's On The Bookshelf" will be a double depth marathon. Read it at your peril.

Christmas 'Miss'-ives

For those of you who were beginning to wonder if I had been abducted by aliens, please feel reassured that this has not been the case.

As it turns out, I just had a great month of doing nothing. Unfortunately that extended to not sending out the obligatory greetings and merry messages. :(
On the one hand I could take the pious road and suggest that I simply wasn't willing to pander to the excesses of consumerism that the Christmas season is now espousing. But you all know better.
And knowing my karmic potential, the soap box would be whipped out from under my metaphorical feet and there on the ground I'd lie, limbs splayed out at all angles; humbled, winded and looking like an abandoned Raggedy Ann doll.
Damn that karmic law, I'll have to come clean with the truth. My only excuse is denial and avoidance. (Not of you, but of the fact that it was finally Christmas!)
My last Christmas gift was purchased on the Saturday before the big day... that should give you some idea of how organised and on to it I am at this time of year. So to all those who ought to have received a missive wishing glad tidings, happy events and all sorts of good things for the holiday seasons please accept my apologies for being a slacker.

Hmmm. I'm not sure that the truth is better than the soap box?

Belatedly...

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year !

 

Love,
Me.