The Alternative Kitchen Garden and A-Z

Earlier I said I would provide a link to my review of Emma Cooper's The Alternative Kitchen Garden an A-Z.
I have now written the review and have posted it here.

http://onefile2.blogspot.com/2010/10/alternative-kitchen-garden-a-z.html


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So Many Books...

I have been overwhelmed with potential reading material after going overboard buying books. I addition to my excess purchases I have received a copy of The Alternative Kitchen Garden an A-Z to review. As the title indicates this is a gardening book, and it was written by Emma Cooper, presenter of the internet podcast The Alternative Kitchen Garden. This is a wonderful book that I’ll write about in more detail on my gardening blog when I’ve read more of it (my article will be linked here after it has been written).
It’s not the kind of book I want to rush through. I prefer to read and enjoy an article at a time and there must be around 150 separate entries of around two pages each.

To get a good idea of what the book is like, I recommend listening to the podcast which can be found here: http://coopette.com/akg . There are currently 109 episodes.

A recent discovery I've made has been Jasper Fforde and I am now enjoying the first of his novels The Eyre Affair. I’ve had another of his books for a few years but never took the time to read it, but my interest in his work was stirred after hearing some interviews he’s done. I then had a look at his website (see side bar) and decided to buy the first of his books so I could read his work in order. While I could have bought it locally for a few dollars less, I decided to buy through the author’s website and get an autographed copy.

Not only do I have an abundance of new books, I was finally able to rescue my existing library from packing boxes where it has been stored for many years due to lack of space for book shelving. The boxes made access very difficult and I even forgot that I had some of the books in my collection. While the bookcase situation hasn’t improved, I now have a compromise solution. I bought two cupboards that are like bookcases with doors. All of my books have now been relocated to these cupboards in the garage and it is much easier to access them, so I have no excuse for not reading them – apart from lack of time.

Author Interviews on mp3

Do you like hearing authors talking about their books and their work practices?

I have added links in the sidebar to sites having recorded interviews with a variety of authors, some recent and some going back 20 years. Most of those I've heard so far have been very good.

I'll be adding more links as I find them.

Perhaps those I haven't liked so much have been from the ABC - but that is a matter of personal taste regarding the authors featured and a tendency for them to over-analyse books.

Tell Me a Story...

My “literary” tastes are extremely changeable – which is perhaps why I started so many books I didn’t finish. My attention was easily drawn to something I’d rather be reading than what I’d begun.

The one consistent thing about the books I enjoy is the telling of a “good story”. I have little patience with books that are primarily a vehicle to show off the writer’s skill with language. A writer may have the most beautiful way with words – but if I’m continually being drawn back to a beautiful sentence at the expense of the flow of the story, my interest won’t be maintained.

Those kinds of writers are also a discouragement to the ambition to write. They make that ambition seem unattainable. I much prefer those deceptive books that make writing SEEM easy and natural while telling an enjoyable story. At least they give me encouragement to try, and by the time I realise the extent of the deceit, I’ve had a productive and enjoyable time giving it a go.

My Top 3 Choices

Best of the books so far (up to 11 August 2010)

Of the books I’ve read since starting this blog, the following are my top three fiction and top three non-fiction titles.

Fiction (in order of preference):
Worldshaker, Richard Harland
Slam, Nick Hornby
Blackout, Connie Willis.

Non Fiction (no particular order)
Foxeys Hangout, Cathie Gowdie
Animal Vegetable Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Our Hands Are Stained With Blood, Michael Brown

Honourable mentions.
A Man on the Moon, Andrew Chaikin
Howards End is on the Landing, Susan Hill

Rediscovering Nick

I have rediscovered Nick Hornby.

On the weekend I bought An Education on DVD. Hornby wrote the screenplay for which he received an Oscar nomination. I haven’t had time to watch the film yet, but I did start reading his “first teenage novel” Slam last night and have now almost finished it.

My introduction to Hornby was Fever Pitch. I can’t remember now whether I read his book or saw the film first. I think it may have been the book. Fever Pitch was a memoir centred on Hornby’s relationship with English football team Arsenal. It helped revive some of my own childhood memories of going to the football with my Dad but I didn’t have the chance of attaining the same kind of obsession as Hornby. I left England when I was 13 and the last football game I attended was on my birthday in 1971. It was never the same again. My team, Stoke City didn’t have the profile of an Arsenal or a Man United, so it was hard to keep in touch from the other side of the world. However, they did beat Chelsea to win the League Cup, and not long after toured Australia. I was lucky enough to see them play in Sydney but remember nothing of the match.

And hidden in that last paragraph is a key to why I enjoy Hornby’s writing. He manages to add a degree of familiarity to his stories. As if I’ve ALMOST experienced what his characters are going through. It’s not in the details. Their stories are not like my own – but I can imagine that they COULD have been.

Reading Israel

Although I’ve added a few more titles to the list of books I’ve read this year, I haven’t written about them on this blog.

My recent reading has all been related to Israel and the Jewish people and “reviewing” those books here would not be in line with my intentions for this blog. Instead I have addressed issues relating to these books on my “theological” blog ONESIMUS FILES .

I am currently reading Mission Survival, edited by Ruth Bondy, Chad Zmora & Raphael Bashan. It is a continuation of my interest in Israel, examining 1967’s Six Day War. Compiled from letters and articles written at the time, the book gives a very personal insight into the Israeli people facing a massive Arab attack on their land, with the Arabs threatening to annihilate the 20 year old nation. A very real threat that has not gone away more than 40 years later – but a threat that the majority of the media ignores with their clear anti-Israel bias.
I haven’t added this book to my reading list in the side bar because I’m not confident of finishing it. It is a library book and I’m content to read as much as I can during the loan period without feeling pressured to get to the end.

The common link with all of these recent books is the amazing story of people who were dispersed from their land almost 2000 years ago; were scattered through almost every nation on earth, were continually persecuted like no other race throughout history – and STILL managed to survive to return to their ancestral land.

Not only did they return, but they survived and thrived through several attempts by their neighbours to drive them out, and in surviving these attacks, they increased their land as their attackers fled from the much smaller Israeli forces.

All of this should be seen as “miraculous”, but most people ignore, or have forgotten, how unlikely the survival of Israel has been. Everything in history has been against them and yet they survived to become and remain the centre of world attention for over six decades. Has a day gone by without something about Israel being mentioned in the media?

Maybe a significant reason that people ignore the incredible odds that were against the survival of Israel – is the fact that their whole history of rejection, loss, persecution and restoration had been foretold thousands of years before. To recognise the miracle of Israel it would be necessary to recognise the God who revealed their history in so much such detail from their very earliest days.
These predictions are not hidden. They are found in one of the world’s most successful books, The Bible, which is found in most homes in Western nations but rarely read.