After spending a few days in the lovely Liverpool I found time for quite a bit of culture, some good food and some giggles about the posh-ness of the hotel room. I visited one bookshop in Sefton and managed to restrict myself to buying only 1 book. I was very impressed with myself. I did go into the Waterstones in Liverpool One but I was so put off by the prices of new books that I did not buy any. I spotted a few good potential buys though and might have to treat myself again a bit later in the year. Think I need to buy a new bike first a the rear wheel is really loose and the bike is getting impossible to use... just in time for Christmas.
So.. books bought: 1
Books to be read: 76
But fear not friends.. I have finished one as well! I think I will not be needing the spoilers for this one.
Follies - Sir Hugh Casson (Ed)
This one is a charming little book about Follies. For those that do not know: a Folly is a building that is merely ornamental, apparently constructed for a certain purpose but not actually fulfilling that purpose; a ruin that is not really a ruin, a tower that you cannot really climb etc. At times they were built as poor relief. People would work on them and get paid when times were hard and there was no other work to be had.
The book I have dates back to 1963 and reading it I did wonder how many of these follies are still around at present. Some of them were said to be in a bad state of repair at the time the author visited them so they might already be lost and fallen down.
The book is basically a list of follies, who built them, where they are and what they look like. The drawings adjoining some of the descriptions are excellent! Some of these buildings just seem so random. It makes you wonder why people bothered with these buildings. What possessed someone to build a chicken coop that looks like a pyramid made of yellow brick? Why build a Colosseum-like building, just the one circular wall, nothing else behind it. What mind wants to construct a triangular building where everything seems to came back to the number three (triangular building, three floors, rooms that are three or six-sided)? Sometimes we learn a bit about the history of why the folly was built but not always.. which is a shame. Not to the discredit to the editor. He had to work with the information he had available and it seems that it was not always recorded why these buildings were built. A lot of the follies seem to be sham castles, sham ruins or sham look out towers. Many of them have a mixture of building styles. One folly has a tower that is almost Gothic in style on one side and more broad and roman like on the other. Maybe the builders could not agree on what it needed to be and decided to go for both? Even London has some follies.... should be able to find them! Actually, after reading this book I had the idea of taking some time off and plan a trip around a few of them! It might be fun trying to find them although the author does advise to make sure you check if if is on private land before you venture towards any of them! Sound advice.
A fun little book on what kind of weird things man gets up to building in wanting to adorn their gardens and estates with something other than a run of the mill garden gnome.
Title: Follies
Author: Sir Hugh Casson (Ed)
124 pages
Chatto And Windus Limited
No ISBN nr
Books to be read: 75
Monday, 17 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
I deny everything...
now... before you start. I did say last week that I would probably do it so not sure why you would be surprised by my announcement that I have now actually bought the two books I did not buy last weekend. It was really just postponing the inevitable.. I did tell you!
One is a ghost story by Michelle Pavner and the other one is a Bill Bryson one about the home and private life. The modern ghost story should be interesting. I usually tend to read older ones. I have never really looked into too many modern authors writing ghost stories. Just reading the classics and older ones seems to keep me plenty busy. I have some good memories of reading Bryson. I remember he once described how he looked when he slept and it made me laugh out loud. Not sure how funny a book about the home is going to be?
Books bought: 2
Books to be read: 75
One is a ghost story by Michelle Pavner and the other one is a Bill Bryson one about the home and private life. The modern ghost story should be interesting. I usually tend to read older ones. I have never really looked into too many modern authors writing ghost stories. Just reading the classics and older ones seems to keep me plenty busy. I have some good memories of reading Bryson. I remember he once described how he looked when he slept and it made me laugh out loud. Not sure how funny a book about the home is going to be?
Books bought: 2
Books to be read: 75
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
The Alternative is not that attractive
I am preparing for a little trip away next week. I have all the essentials sorted out already. My hotel is booked. I know what I want to go and do and see (Tate Liverpool to see Magritte exhibition, Blundell Sands to see Gormley's Statues and do some early Xmas shopping). And, last but not least, I have found some addresses for second hand book shops that I can go and visit! I have not booked my train ticket yet but that is on the cards for later on tonight... or tomorrow evening. A girl addicted to books has to have priorities!
#### SPOILER ALERT ###
Fatherland - Robert Harris
I am not sure I would go as far as to call it "stunning" as apparently The Times did at one point in history but this one definitely is a good read! The book is blessed with a good mix. Let me explain.
The story is set in an alternative reality where Germany has won the Second World War. Peace with England and America has been achieved and Germany rules most of Europe with an Iron fist. Well apart from the bit that borders on Russia. There are some skirmishes going on there and things might be worse than the people of the Proud Germany Nation are told but we don't like to talk about that.. ehm, I mean the Fuhrer does not like people talking about it... so we don't.
The world that Harris is based partly in fact. it is based on his interpretation of what the world might have been like if the Germans had won he war. He has set it not too far away from the victory as the story plays out in 1964 so it does not feel too modern. It feels like I would expect a totalitarian state to feel in 1964. The society we find is sober and controlled. There is to be a large government influence in people's lives and the place feels controlled, organised and (somehow fittingly) a bit dreary.
The story starts several days before the Fuhrer's Birthday and starts with a corpse. From then on the plot leads you up one garden path and down the other before it reveals what it is actually really about. At first we are led to believe it is about murder, then it seems it might be art fraud and in the end it turns out to be about the Final Solution that Hitler had planned for the Jewish population of Europe.. probably the world if he would have had his way. As the story is presented each of these options come along and they all seem equally plausible. I even thought when it went towards the Final Solution Plot that perhaps that was another red herring and it was all about making money of art illegally obtained during the War. It seemed a more comfortable thought to have. The body at the start of the book is not the only one we see. there are several ones and apparently the killing has been going on for a long time. These men are killed for what they know and what they might tell. The story of the Final Solution is based on fact but Harris has brought his own artistic interpretation in to develop it more and make it into a good book plot. It works for me. The historic facts give the story a good solid basis and the added poetic license used by Harris sits well within that.
The characters are a bit predictable. March is the dogged detective. He may seem casual and not very imposing but he never shows you all his cards and he notices more than you think. March is divorced and his son is more fond of his new uncle who tows the party line than his own father. There is the female foreign journalist who becomes March's lover. She is a free spirit who shows March what the free world is like. She is also a pain in the backside for March and seems to only be after a good story. However, she becomes involved in the story and ants to help March get it out to the world. Naturally, becoming personally involved with March is essential for that. Globus is a brute. He is described as one and behaves like one. He is the enforcer. Most of the other police officials we meet are brutal, dedicated to the Party and would never think of stepping out of line. Only Arthur Nebe has a bit of character. He is one of those guys that has managed to stay alive and in a position of power for years. He seems to be made of Teflon as not hing bad has ever stuck to him. Not a bad way to be in a totalitarian society. March has a partner he works with (Jaeger( and he is the dumber half of the investigative team.. well that is what we are made to believe at the start. Mr Jaeger turns out to like his toast and knows which side the butter goes. That is really the only surprise in the characters.
What saves March as a character is the fact the he seems to be a bit of a rebel and he seems to still have the power of individual thought in a totalitarian society. He does not join the right groups, does not attend the right parties, he certainly does not bow down to the right party officials. He does not live the right kind of life. You feel that deep down he has doubts about the country he lives in, about how they won the war and about what his country has become. He is not sure he likes the way it treats its people. There is doubt in him about the State in general and about the state of affairs his life is in. He feels that he is not being told the truth and that he deserves to know.This is what drives him to find out what is going on with the murders, it is what leads him to discover the truth and it ultimately leads him to his death. The moment he is caught he knows he will be interrogated. He knows that most likely he will die and he seems okay with this. He goes through all of it so he can keep the prying eyes of the investigators turned onto him and away from his journalist lover. He needs to give her enough time to get to the border and out of Germany with the incriminating papers that will expose the German government and its plans for the Jewish People. She is his only hope to ensure the rest of the world learns the truth about the German plans. We never know if she makes it. Like March I hope at she did.
So, although the characters are not always that great the story is good and it moves along at a nice pace. The fact that the nation is preparing for Hitler's birthday adds an extra pressure to the investigative work and keeps the story moving along. March is by far the best character of the bunch and makes up for the mainly stereotypical other characters. He is a hero you can identify with and you want the best for him. You kind of know that that will not happen but there is at least the glimmer of hope that the story got out and his death will not have been in vain.
Title: Fatherland
Author: Robert Harris
386 pages
Arrow
ISBN NR 0-09-926381-5
Books to be read: 73
#### SPOILER ALERT ###
Fatherland - Robert Harris
I am not sure I would go as far as to call it "stunning" as apparently The Times did at one point in history but this one definitely is a good read! The book is blessed with a good mix. Let me explain.
The story is set in an alternative reality where Germany has won the Second World War. Peace with England and America has been achieved and Germany rules most of Europe with an Iron fist. Well apart from the bit that borders on Russia. There are some skirmishes going on there and things might be worse than the people of the Proud Germany Nation are told but we don't like to talk about that.. ehm, I mean the Fuhrer does not like people talking about it... so we don't.
The world that Harris is based partly in fact. it is based on his interpretation of what the world might have been like if the Germans had won he war. He has set it not too far away from the victory as the story plays out in 1964 so it does not feel too modern. It feels like I would expect a totalitarian state to feel in 1964. The society we find is sober and controlled. There is to be a large government influence in people's lives and the place feels controlled, organised and (somehow fittingly) a bit dreary.
The story starts several days before the Fuhrer's Birthday and starts with a corpse. From then on the plot leads you up one garden path and down the other before it reveals what it is actually really about. At first we are led to believe it is about murder, then it seems it might be art fraud and in the end it turns out to be about the Final Solution that Hitler had planned for the Jewish population of Europe.. probably the world if he would have had his way. As the story is presented each of these options come along and they all seem equally plausible. I even thought when it went towards the Final Solution Plot that perhaps that was another red herring and it was all about making money of art illegally obtained during the War. It seemed a more comfortable thought to have. The body at the start of the book is not the only one we see. there are several ones and apparently the killing has been going on for a long time. These men are killed for what they know and what they might tell. The story of the Final Solution is based on fact but Harris has brought his own artistic interpretation in to develop it more and make it into a good book plot. It works for me. The historic facts give the story a good solid basis and the added poetic license used by Harris sits well within that.
The characters are a bit predictable. March is the dogged detective. He may seem casual and not very imposing but he never shows you all his cards and he notices more than you think. March is divorced and his son is more fond of his new uncle who tows the party line than his own father. There is the female foreign journalist who becomes March's lover. She is a free spirit who shows March what the free world is like. She is also a pain in the backside for March and seems to only be after a good story. However, she becomes involved in the story and ants to help March get it out to the world. Naturally, becoming personally involved with March is essential for that. Globus is a brute. He is described as one and behaves like one. He is the enforcer. Most of the other police officials we meet are brutal, dedicated to the Party and would never think of stepping out of line. Only Arthur Nebe has a bit of character. He is one of those guys that has managed to stay alive and in a position of power for years. He seems to be made of Teflon as not hing bad has ever stuck to him. Not a bad way to be in a totalitarian society. March has a partner he works with (Jaeger( and he is the dumber half of the investigative team.. well that is what we are made to believe at the start. Mr Jaeger turns out to like his toast and knows which side the butter goes. That is really the only surprise in the characters.
What saves March as a character is the fact the he seems to be a bit of a rebel and he seems to still have the power of individual thought in a totalitarian society. He does not join the right groups, does not attend the right parties, he certainly does not bow down to the right party officials. He does not live the right kind of life. You feel that deep down he has doubts about the country he lives in, about how they won the war and about what his country has become. He is not sure he likes the way it treats its people. There is doubt in him about the State in general and about the state of affairs his life is in. He feels that he is not being told the truth and that he deserves to know.This is what drives him to find out what is going on with the murders, it is what leads him to discover the truth and it ultimately leads him to his death. The moment he is caught he knows he will be interrogated. He knows that most likely he will die and he seems okay with this. He goes through all of it so he can keep the prying eyes of the investigators turned onto him and away from his journalist lover. He needs to give her enough time to get to the border and out of Germany with the incriminating papers that will expose the German government and its plans for the Jewish People. She is his only hope to ensure the rest of the world learns the truth about the German plans. We never know if she makes it. Like March I hope at she did.
So, although the characters are not always that great the story is good and it moves along at a nice pace. The fact that the nation is preparing for Hitler's birthday adds an extra pressure to the investigative work and keeps the story moving along. March is by far the best character of the bunch and makes up for the mainly stereotypical other characters. He is a hero you can identify with and you want the best for him. You kind of know that that will not happen but there is at least the glimmer of hope that the story got out and his death will not have been in vain.
Title: Fatherland
Author: Robert Harris
386 pages
Arrow
ISBN NR 0-09-926381-5
Books to be read: 73
Monday, 3 October 2011
The Resistance
I was very good this weekend when doing my food shopping! I managed to not buy two books. They tugged at my heartstrings, messed with my brain. I stood there looking at them and then at the price offer.. two books for only £7.-. That is a good deal... and I really did want them... but I resisted. I picked them up, held them for several minutes and then put them down again and walked away with a pain in my heart.
Funniest thing is, I know am just postponing the inevitable. I will probably get them next weekend. I have no backbone when it comes to not buying books. This much I know to be true. Self knowledge is a great thing and can also be expensive! Ah well, as the Borg said "Resistance if Futile"... why fight it?!
I have finished one more but the review will have to wait a few days as laundry is poling up and needs to be done. I can hear my mum tut her disapproval from here. I'm off to do some folding.
Funniest thing is, I know am just postponing the inevitable. I will probably get them next weekend. I have no backbone when it comes to not buying books. This much I know to be true. Self knowledge is a great thing and can also be expensive! Ah well, as the Borg said "Resistance if Futile"... why fight it?!
I have finished one more but the review will have to wait a few days as laundry is poling up and needs to be done. I can hear my mum tut her disapproval from here. I'm off to do some folding.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
The Devil's in the details
I got another one!! A book that is. I finally made my mind up which book about Scotts final polar trip I wanted. I opted for the Journals. The fact that a man gave everything he had to get to a very very cold place amazes me and I am really looking forward to reading the journals to find out what drove him to this extraordinary feat of human endurance.
At the moment books are a very welcome distraction for me. Work is really busy.. too busy really but I am coping as best I can and trying to remember that I can only do so much. Also heard last week that one of my friends has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and needs an operation. The two combined have been keeping my brain quite busy. Work being busy tries to make me believe that it is important to perform, do well and achieve. My friend being ill makes me realise that actually people are so much more important than work.
I would rather get to the end of my life and look back at all the people I have shared it with, remember the good times I have had with them and the great memories they have let me with than take pride in how much money I have left in the bank. The strange thing is that even if I believe and know this to be true it is still hard to let go of the work stuff and to relax. My life is still a work in progress. I guess this is probably the way it should be. What fun would it be if I knew everything there was to know already. You can have so much fun making mistakes and trying out what suits you best. Mum and I always joke about why all the other people in the world cannot be as perfect as we are as life would be so much easier then. We both know we are not perfect and we both would not have it any other way.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Part of the surprise of this one had already been "ruined" by my good self by going to the exhibition in the British Library several months ago. It was one of the books that was discussed in one of the displays as an example of science fiction literature and it mentioned some of the premise of the book. Fortunately for me I could not remember all the details (I have slept since then) but I remembered it was about body parts and people being "grown" for them. Unfortunately for me, that is sort of the whole crux of the book and in a way it was a bit of a shame I already knew. But... the book is still a surprise! On the one hand it seems to be mainly a story about friendships and relationships but it is much more than that. Then there is the the part about the people being grown for body parts. But put together it becomes more that those two parts and it makes you think! I like that about it. I did not think too much about it all when I was reading it. I was focusing on the story and what was happening to the characters. Now that I am looking back I tend to think more about the situation these people were in. How it shaped their lives and what those lives might have been like to live. I wonder how their world differs from my world... or how similar it is.
The story is told by Kathy H who has been a carer for 11 years and she will soon become a donor like all of her friends before her. Initially you do not know really who she cares for or why. Donations are mentioned later on and the fact that she is from Hailsham seems to be important. Even though these people seem to live in a world very similar to ours you pick up on something being off. These people do not live in the same world as we do. Something is different about them. They are here for a specific reason, they are treated differently for a reason.
As I said, Kathy is the one who tells the story of how she got to be where she is now. She tells her story in constant flashbacks which is sometimes a bit tiring. I am all for looking back but to flashback inside a flashback, inside a flashback is sometimes a bit much. Ishiguro does the trick of "let me tell you about this thing even longer ago whilst I am telling you about something not so long ago" quite a bit and at times it gets a bit old. However, the story that unfolds is very interesting. We find out about how Kathy has grown up and the friends that Kathy has made at the school she was sent to called Hailsham. I am just remembering now that I do not remember parents ever being mentioned and I just realised as well that I never questioned that. These kids just are. It is like they come out of nowhere and just all are in these institutions being prepared or something. The other main characters in the book are Ruth and Tommy. The three of them seem to have a kind of connection or bond that inevitably keeps them drifting back in and out of one another's lives. In a way all the stuff they go through is what we all know from our own childhoods. They go to school, make friends, have arguments value the little things in life. But their lives seem different. The school they go to is not like the ones you and I went to. They do not really learn as much as we do. They are taught about the outside world an how it is different from their world. There are people called guardians and at time some of them seem to step out of line just that little bit and a veil is lifted on what the kids' lives will really be about. Bit by bit you get more information. You learn that they are prepared for donations not for "real" life. They will never have families as they cannot have children, they are not prepared for jobs as they job is to give.
Some of the best bits are between Tommy and Kathy. Although they spend most of their young lives just being friends at Hailsham you can tell that they understand one another at some deeper level than just friendship. The fact that they do not get it together is due to Kathy's friends Ruth. She gets in there first and has a relationship of sorts with Tommy. For my life I do not see what he sees in her. I do not like Ruth very much. She seems to me a domineering, shallow and vindictive kind of person who needs to be the centre of attention. At the end of her life she does help get Tommy and Kathy together but then for both of them the time for their happiness seems to have passed. Their moment was back at Hailsham when they were kids and now they can never quite get back the promise of the past.
What I find interesting to observe in myself when reading this book is that once I worked out what exactly was going on I considered myself not one of the Hailsham kids but one of the outsiders, normal people who get the organs donated by these people created for harvesting. It is perhaps rather telling that I tend to see myself as that. I guess it ties in with wanting to believe that I have a choice in my life, I have a soul, I am a full and complete human being. I am not created to make someone else's life complete or to be subservient to them. I am the stronger not the weaker. I wonder if anyone reading it thinks of themselves as a Hailsham kid? Why is that? You understand Kathy and what she experiences, you even identify with all the emotions that she feels and yet you know that she is not like you and you do not really want to trade lives with her either. Perhaps that is part of what Ishiguro want to make you think about as a reader.
I know this review does not tell you much about the story line of the book but that is because for me it is not about the story but about what it evoked in me and what it made me think about.
Title: Never Let Me Go
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber and Faber
ISBN nr 978-0-571-27212-9
Books bought: 1
Books to be read: 75.. what.. still.. I demand a recount!
.....
Well, I counted them again and also figured out that the one mentioned in my post from 25 July, the one my mum was bringing over... that one was added twice. One that date and again on 4 September. So.. actually I get to deduct another one.
Books to be read: 74
At the moment books are a very welcome distraction for me. Work is really busy.. too busy really but I am coping as best I can and trying to remember that I can only do so much. Also heard last week that one of my friends has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and needs an operation. The two combined have been keeping my brain quite busy. Work being busy tries to make me believe that it is important to perform, do well and achieve. My friend being ill makes me realise that actually people are so much more important than work.
I would rather get to the end of my life and look back at all the people I have shared it with, remember the good times I have had with them and the great memories they have let me with than take pride in how much money I have left in the bank. The strange thing is that even if I believe and know this to be true it is still hard to let go of the work stuff and to relax. My life is still a work in progress. I guess this is probably the way it should be. What fun would it be if I knew everything there was to know already. You can have so much fun making mistakes and trying out what suits you best. Mum and I always joke about why all the other people in the world cannot be as perfect as we are as life would be so much easier then. We both know we are not perfect and we both would not have it any other way.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Part of the surprise of this one had already been "ruined" by my good self by going to the exhibition in the British Library several months ago. It was one of the books that was discussed in one of the displays as an example of science fiction literature and it mentioned some of the premise of the book. Fortunately for me I could not remember all the details (I have slept since then) but I remembered it was about body parts and people being "grown" for them. Unfortunately for me, that is sort of the whole crux of the book and in a way it was a bit of a shame I already knew. But... the book is still a surprise! On the one hand it seems to be mainly a story about friendships and relationships but it is much more than that. Then there is the the part about the people being grown for body parts. But put together it becomes more that those two parts and it makes you think! I like that about it. I did not think too much about it all when I was reading it. I was focusing on the story and what was happening to the characters. Now that I am looking back I tend to think more about the situation these people were in. How it shaped their lives and what those lives might have been like to live. I wonder how their world differs from my world... or how similar it is.
The story is told by Kathy H who has been a carer for 11 years and she will soon become a donor like all of her friends before her. Initially you do not know really who she cares for or why. Donations are mentioned later on and the fact that she is from Hailsham seems to be important. Even though these people seem to live in a world very similar to ours you pick up on something being off. These people do not live in the same world as we do. Something is different about them. They are here for a specific reason, they are treated differently for a reason.
As I said, Kathy is the one who tells the story of how she got to be where she is now. She tells her story in constant flashbacks which is sometimes a bit tiring. I am all for looking back but to flashback inside a flashback, inside a flashback is sometimes a bit much. Ishiguro does the trick of "let me tell you about this thing even longer ago whilst I am telling you about something not so long ago" quite a bit and at times it gets a bit old. However, the story that unfolds is very interesting. We find out about how Kathy has grown up and the friends that Kathy has made at the school she was sent to called Hailsham. I am just remembering now that I do not remember parents ever being mentioned and I just realised as well that I never questioned that. These kids just are. It is like they come out of nowhere and just all are in these institutions being prepared or something. The other main characters in the book are Ruth and Tommy. The three of them seem to have a kind of connection or bond that inevitably keeps them drifting back in and out of one another's lives. In a way all the stuff they go through is what we all know from our own childhoods. They go to school, make friends, have arguments value the little things in life. But their lives seem different. The school they go to is not like the ones you and I went to. They do not really learn as much as we do. They are taught about the outside world an how it is different from their world. There are people called guardians and at time some of them seem to step out of line just that little bit and a veil is lifted on what the kids' lives will really be about. Bit by bit you get more information. You learn that they are prepared for donations not for "real" life. They will never have families as they cannot have children, they are not prepared for jobs as they job is to give.
Some of the best bits are between Tommy and Kathy. Although they spend most of their young lives just being friends at Hailsham you can tell that they understand one another at some deeper level than just friendship. The fact that they do not get it together is due to Kathy's friends Ruth. She gets in there first and has a relationship of sorts with Tommy. For my life I do not see what he sees in her. I do not like Ruth very much. She seems to me a domineering, shallow and vindictive kind of person who needs to be the centre of attention. At the end of her life she does help get Tommy and Kathy together but then for both of them the time for their happiness seems to have passed. Their moment was back at Hailsham when they were kids and now they can never quite get back the promise of the past.
What I find interesting to observe in myself when reading this book is that once I worked out what exactly was going on I considered myself not one of the Hailsham kids but one of the outsiders, normal people who get the organs donated by these people created for harvesting. It is perhaps rather telling that I tend to see myself as that. I guess it ties in with wanting to believe that I have a choice in my life, I have a soul, I am a full and complete human being. I am not created to make someone else's life complete or to be subservient to them. I am the stronger not the weaker. I wonder if anyone reading it thinks of themselves as a Hailsham kid? Why is that? You understand Kathy and what she experiences, you even identify with all the emotions that she feels and yet you know that she is not like you and you do not really want to trade lives with her either. Perhaps that is part of what Ishiguro want to make you think about as a reader.
I know this review does not tell you much about the story line of the book but that is because for me it is not about the story but about what it evoked in me and what it made me think about.
Title: Never Let Me Go
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber and Faber
ISBN nr 978-0-571-27212-9
Books bought: 1
Books to be read: 75.. what.. still.. I demand a recount!
.....
Well, I counted them again and also figured out that the one mentioned in my post from 25 July, the one my mum was bringing over... that one was added twice. One that date and again on 4 September. So.. actually I get to deduct another one.
Books to be read: 74
Monday, 12 September 2011
BP but not as you know it
Finished another one!! Hurrah.
Not sure I am really going to need spoiler alert for this one as it is a factual book. However, if you do not want to know about the amazing work carried out during the Second World War by so many people in a small part of present day Milton Keynes then look away now and go and paint your toe nails or sort your laundry.
Station X - Michael Smith
This is the amazing story of the codebreakers that worked in Bletchley Park (BP) during the Second World War and everyone should read this one!
The efforts of the people who worked on breaking into the codes that were used by the Germans and Japanese are simply amazing. The way that they laboured on day after day trying to get one step ahead of the enemy is such a wonderful and interesting story and shows the true dedication of the people selected for the task.
The main thing that the people working at BP tried to do was break into the messages sent by the Germans about the movement of all the separate parts of their armies. The Germans were not making it easy for the Brits by using a thing called an Enigma machine. Basically it was a sort of typewriter with keys used to type the message, a keyboard to read off the encrypted letter and several wheels that would turn every so often changing the link between the letter typed and the one encrypted. Sounds easy to figure out but was not. You have to remember that this was all before the time of computers and fast mainframes. All they had in BP was pens and paper, an awful lot of very, very clever people and a lot of black coffee.
The book tells the story of who the people were that did this decoding work and how they approached their job. It gives you a very good insight in what it was like to work in an environment where you really only knows what you do and not what someone in the building next door is doing. Nor do you know what the consequences of your work are. All you know is that you have solved your part of the puzzle and that would make you more proud than anything in the world. One of the best parts of the book is the little anecdotes that the survivors tell of the people that worked there. some of them were as brilliant as they were eccentric. One of my favourite stories tells of one of these men standing by the lake on the grounds with a cup of coffee in his hands. After he had finished it he looked kind of at a loss at what to do with it so he threw the cup in the lake! Other stories tell of the antics they got up to with laundry baskets and games of rounders with the Americans that nearly started another war. then there are the stories of the excitment that was felt when you knew they had broken a code and that you had contributed to it in one way or another. These people took real pride in their work and are some of the unsung heroes of WWII. Some historians say that the work carried out in BP took about 3 years of the duration of the war so their contribution must not be underestimated.
What you have to remember is that there was not just one code that the Germans were using.. oh no the crafty invaders used several different codes for each part of their military machine. There were an Enigma code for the Navy, Army and all of them changed on a regular basis. The only reason the English were able to get into the codes was that the Germans were so convinced that they were the master race they were not always as careful as they should have been in how they used their coding en encrypting. Sometimes it seems a really insignificant, almost stupid mistake that gave the codebreakers a way in. It could be that they send the same message with different enigma settings, forgot to encode part of a message or simply not bother to change the settings on the enigma machines.
It is hard to imagine what the world at the time of BP was really like but this books gives you a really good insight into the people that worked in BP and how they experienced the war. It tells of the geniuses that contributed to the code breaking, the challenges they faced, the prejudices they had to overcome to get their contributions recognised and the impact their work had on the shaping of the new world post WWII. It is a fascinating read and I cannot recommend it highly enough and I am so proud that I live in the city where the museum is now based. It is a great place to visit.
By the way, BP is also called Station X. Not for any super cool reason and to make it sound all fancy but simply because it was the tenth station station in the line.
Title: Station X
Author: Michael Smith
Pan Books
ISBN nr 978-0-330-41929-1
Books to be read: 75
Not sure I am really going to need spoiler alert for this one as it is a factual book. However, if you do not want to know about the amazing work carried out during the Second World War by so many people in a small part of present day Milton Keynes then look away now and go and paint your toe nails or sort your laundry.
Station X - Michael Smith
This is the amazing story of the codebreakers that worked in Bletchley Park (BP) during the Second World War and everyone should read this one!
The efforts of the people who worked on breaking into the codes that were used by the Germans and Japanese are simply amazing. The way that they laboured on day after day trying to get one step ahead of the enemy is such a wonderful and interesting story and shows the true dedication of the people selected for the task.
The main thing that the people working at BP tried to do was break into the messages sent by the Germans about the movement of all the separate parts of their armies. The Germans were not making it easy for the Brits by using a thing called an Enigma machine. Basically it was a sort of typewriter with keys used to type the message, a keyboard to read off the encrypted letter and several wheels that would turn every so often changing the link between the letter typed and the one encrypted. Sounds easy to figure out but was not. You have to remember that this was all before the time of computers and fast mainframes. All they had in BP was pens and paper, an awful lot of very, very clever people and a lot of black coffee.
The book tells the story of who the people were that did this decoding work and how they approached their job. It gives you a very good insight in what it was like to work in an environment where you really only knows what you do and not what someone in the building next door is doing. Nor do you know what the consequences of your work are. All you know is that you have solved your part of the puzzle and that would make you more proud than anything in the world. One of the best parts of the book is the little anecdotes that the survivors tell of the people that worked there. some of them were as brilliant as they were eccentric. One of my favourite stories tells of one of these men standing by the lake on the grounds with a cup of coffee in his hands. After he had finished it he looked kind of at a loss at what to do with it so he threw the cup in the lake! Other stories tell of the antics they got up to with laundry baskets and games of rounders with the Americans that nearly started another war. then there are the stories of the excitment that was felt when you knew they had broken a code and that you had contributed to it in one way or another. These people took real pride in their work and are some of the unsung heroes of WWII. Some historians say that the work carried out in BP took about 3 years of the duration of the war so their contribution must not be underestimated.
What you have to remember is that there was not just one code that the Germans were using.. oh no the crafty invaders used several different codes for each part of their military machine. There were an Enigma code for the Navy, Army and all of them changed on a regular basis. The only reason the English were able to get into the codes was that the Germans were so convinced that they were the master race they were not always as careful as they should have been in how they used their coding en encrypting. Sometimes it seems a really insignificant, almost stupid mistake that gave the codebreakers a way in. It could be that they send the same message with different enigma settings, forgot to encode part of a message or simply not bother to change the settings on the enigma machines.
It is hard to imagine what the world at the time of BP was really like but this books gives you a really good insight into the people that worked in BP and how they experienced the war. It tells of the geniuses that contributed to the code breaking, the challenges they faced, the prejudices they had to overcome to get their contributions recognised and the impact their work had on the shaping of the new world post WWII. It is a fascinating read and I cannot recommend it highly enough and I am so proud that I live in the city where the museum is now based. It is a great place to visit.
By the way, BP is also called Station X. Not for any super cool reason and to make it sound all fancy but simply because it was the tenth station station in the line.
Title: Station X
Author: Michael Smith
Pan Books
ISBN nr 978-0-330-41929-1
Books to be read: 75
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Post Holiday Update
It almost seems that all I do nowadays is travel, have holidays and time off. I can assure you that is not the case.... if only. What bliss it would be if one could make a living of just traveling around, not doing very much of anything. I must remember to buy that lottery ticket. Apparently you have to be in it to win it!? I am not going to be greedy and ask for a big win. Just a little one will do. All I really need is enough to keep me off work for a little while and/or make my dream come true.
No books finished but do have another one to declare. It is not really a reading book but one with all sorts of puzzles and riddles in it. I did think for a moment not to include it in the list but as I have included "You are what You Eat" as well I thought I kind of had to include this one as well.
Books received from mum during holiday: 1
Books to be read: 76
Also.. if some weird stuff happens over the next few days with this post then it is Blogger's fault. I just clicked a location tab and it seems to now think I am in 3900 Rd, Coffeyville, KS 67337 USA... I'm not.. let's see if we can fix this... ahah.. found the remove button!
No books finished but do have another one to declare. It is not really a reading book but one with all sorts of puzzles and riddles in it. I did think for a moment not to include it in the list but as I have included "You are what You Eat" as well I thought I kind of had to include this one as well.
Books received from mum during holiday: 1
Books to be read: 76
Also.. if some weird stuff happens over the next few days with this post then it is Blogger's fault. I just clicked a location tab and it seems to now think I am in 3900 Rd, Coffeyville, KS 67337 USA... I'm not.. let's see if we can fix this... ahah.. found the remove button!
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