50 years a reader |
An exploration of half a century of reading. |
I made my quote by the skin of my teeth - again... and if my calculations are correct then it may well be that The Thirty Nine steps was the 25th book - half way through my list. It’s John Buchan’s birthday on August 26th. I didn’t know that, or more precisely, I didn’t remember that, when I started my Buchan-fest of the month. I sat down to read The Thirty Nine Steps (for the first time, unless my memory is really a lot worse than I think.) Like most people I’ve seen the film, or several versions of the film on TV and in cinema over the years and think I ‘know’ the book. Earlier this year I watched the 1935 Hitchcock version and found it sadly lacking. I have seen the 1959 version too but for me the most memorable was the 1970’s version with Robert Powell. I think I may have missed the most recent remake in 2008. And I think that, over the years, I’ve started reading the book on more than one occasion. I find reading Buchan a strange experience. It’s a problem I have with thrillers in general, I find that while reading them my mind wanders and I miss the subtle nuances of what’s going on – fatal in the kind of thriller that requires you to work out clues from the twists and turns. And for the life of me I can never remember (I’m not sure I ever worked out, or maybe I just keep forgetting) what the significance of the 39 steps themselves is. So this time I determined I was going to read the whole thing - and ended up doing so in one long sitting (it’s been that kind of wet summer!) I made sure I read it carefully and didn’t allow my mind to wander. It was quite a new experience. The style and particularly the language are quite different from the earlier Buchans. But actually, it ended rather abruptly for me, as those earlier ones did. He’s not a man to hang around at an ending, Buchan. I did enjoy it, but as much as anything for the growing awareness of the propaganda element of it. A couple of weeks on I think I can even remember the relevence of the steps – but I have long ago accepted as a fortunate boon that I have the facility to forget the endings of even the most memorable of stories, soon after I have read them. I may be unusual in that respect (though it’s handy when you want to re-read books) but I suspect many people share the ‘don’t remember the detail clearly enough’ syndrome I also suffer from. When going back to a book years later (same with films) I could swear the narrative worked in a different way, often a different sequence, from what the words on the page tell me. I think this is less a significant point about my personal memory (and its failings) and more about the way narrative works – plot and story can get all mixed up in one’s mind once one has read or experienced a narrative the first time – it’s that thing of once you know something you can’t unknow it. You can forget it, but it also seems you can re-order it to make a sense of story which can actually be at odds with the plot in favour of the overall narrative. Anyway, it’s something I find very interesting and is another reason I’m more than happy to read works several times. BOOK 26: But Buchan ends abruptly. I have the complete stories of Richard Hannay in one BIG volume so I moved straight on to Greenmantle. It’s a book I know I’ve never read, but one of my brothers (the one who reads) has always rated it. Though I didn’t know what to expect, still I was surprised by it. It was published in 2016, so it’s celebrating its centenary. Buchan’s style is very much of the period – which I don’t mind – as someone who reads a lot of 19th century work its ‘modern’ in style without having the density of modernism or the terseness of contemporary. The ‘Britishness’ of it I find a bit personally cloying and indeed Greenmantle is about the Eastern Front during the First World War. As such it is riddled with the propaganda of the time. But a century on its central themes still have much relevance. The Greenmantle of the title is a ‘dangerous’ Islamic fundamentalist prophet (or is he?) and the novel is very concerned with the Middle East and ‘what we should do about it.’ !! At times I found the propaganda quite jaw-dropping, but it’s fascinating to see what was ‘acceptable’ fiction a century ago. Maybe Buchan thinks he’s a master at ending on a cliff-hanger but I have to say I was mightily disappointed at the end – it was the open ending to end all open endings and even as I was reading the final sentence I knew I didn’t understand what or who Greenmantle actually was. Will I forget the ending? Maybe not, because I’m still so aggrieved that I can’t work out what the final sentence means. I feel like I’ll have to read it again, even more slowly, to do that. But not now. There are plenty more Hannay stories to work my way through, but I’m giving myself a wee break from Buchan now, having paid my homage to him on his birthday month. BOOK 27: I moved on to another book I realised I’ve never actually read – Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Another revelation. I’m not sure I’ve even actually seen a film version of this – certainly not a cartoon – but it’s one of those stories that are almost embedded into the psyche. I remember from childhood the immortal lines ‘Take this Black Spot to Blind Pew,’ which in fact is never actually said – Blind Pew is the one who brings the Black Spot. And of course, she who pays little attention never really managed to work out what the significance of the Black Spot was. I know now! I think Treasure Island was like Batman and Biggles for me as a child – we played games around the basic stories, but we made them our own and the books never really came into the equation. Reading it as an adult, in the 21st century, I’m baffled by how this could ever have been considered acceptable fare for children in the 19th century. Indeed, perhaps that’s part of its ‘fame’ – that it was rather too edgy to be good for children and that’s why they loved it. I’m not a big fan of pirates – had my fill of them with Barrie’s Peter Pan to be honest – and as I say, I’m not really the target audience for the book so I won’t lie and say I loved it – I appreciated it for what it is and was glad to have read it properly in its entirety for what it teaches me about Stevenson in a broader sense – and how much more of his writing I really must explore. For me these days, no reading is ever wasted. I’m not just reading for ‘enjoyment’ or ‘escape’ but also to find out more about writers, about narrative, about history, about Scotland and its place in the world, and, it seems about the workings (or otherwise) of my own memory. BOOK 28: As always, coming up to the end of a busy month, I cast around for something short to read. I found it in David Humes Autobiography ‘About My Life’ I feel like a real cheat because you can’t call this a book, it’s more an essay. And it doesn’t give a lot of detail (there isn’t time and he doesn’t have the will) about anything. It does give something of a sketch of his life and times and how and why he published his philosophical works – which were my entry some 30 years ago. My intention then is to re-read (and read afresh where necessary) some Humean philosophy – a thing I haven’t done since 1982. I still own a couple of his ‘texts’ but huge sections of pages have fallen out and indeed fall out on the floor every time I pick one up. So I’m going to engage with Hume in September and beyond through the delights of Delphi Complete Classic ebooks. In the meantime I leave you with an 'you've worn the tee shirt, now read the book' moment! Oh yes... but fiction gave me an endless supply of friends for life!
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AuthorIn 2016 I will have been reading for 50 years. I'm going to celebrate this by reading even more and sharing what I'm reading. Archives
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