Books - What are you reading?

After reading Rogue Male, I decided I quite enjoy espionagey type novels, step forward Mr Le Carre.
Started with the obvious choice, Tinker, Tailor.....
The Little Drummer Girl is sat on the bookcase.

Friend mentioned that New Beacon Books in Finsbury Park is closing down at the end of the month due to beef with the landlord.

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"Journey to the end of the night" by Louis Ferdinand Celine.

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Great book

Shame celine went all fascist really

I’ve just started on this chonky boy. I’ll need to sit in the priority seats on the train to have room for this one.

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Is that a collected works? I don't recall it being more than a tiddler.

Yeah it’s the abridged version. Its 500 pages or so but it’s printed on very thick paper. It makes me wonder if it’s been made to be bigger going down from ~2000 pages. It’s considerably chunkier than my usual books at any rate.

Indeed. When you read the book you wouldn't expect he wrote those extremely racist and anti-jewish pamphlets.

That's a shame. I've never been there, but it says on the shopfront that they've been in business since 1966.

The poster is a bit confusing, do you think it means 25% off everything starting now, or just on the 26th?

I think they've been at that spot since 1970 something.

It's all a bit confusing. On Saturday they had a statement on their website saying they are moving online but have removed it now. Will pop in Friday to have a look. The last sale was for every day in Sept.

Pretty much all the le carre books are good.

The later ones are strange because he’s ancient and trying to write people in their 30s & 40s but without any cultural references. They still hold up

Good to know. Gonna start the Smiley series once I've finished TLDG. Think I'm receiving book vouchers for crimble, so I'll pop into the nearest Waterstones soonish, how I long to have an independent book shop (or any book shop for that matter) in the local town.

True. You can’t go wrong with LeCarre. But you must read the Smiley novels in order or you’ll be confusing the background, which will be confusing.
Outside of that they are all stand-alone. And all brilliant. And I’m sad that I’ll never read a new LeCarre.
But I’ll spend the rest of my life rereading them

Where's a good place to start with LeCarre? I've never read any. Could do with a break from reading exclusively really depressing stuff.

The spy who came in from the cold

That was his first and he was still a spy at the point when he wrote it.

Call for the Dead was his first, and no 1 in the Smiley series.
@ltc if you want to test the water before jumping into a series, any of the stand alone novels will suffice, The Little Drummer Girl is, so far (100 pages in) very good.

Well you live and learn…ok it’s number 3
But I found it a good place to start

Just started this

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Very good so far. Very Trump heavy, coronavirus incoming. The text is ridiculously small however. I feel they may have squeezed it in to keep the page count down to be able to release it for £6!

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Well you live and learn…ok it’s number 3
But I found it a good place to start

Late to the party, but yes, it's a good place to start, because the first two are really not good. They're interesting as a history of his developing skills as a writer or if you're the kind of nerd who needs to know every detail of the world an author creates, otherwise they read like some tweedy Agatha Christie imitator decided to branch out into spy novels (and I don't think much of Agatha Christie). The step change in "The spy who came in from the cold" is a big one. Graham Greene said it was the best spy story he had ever read, which is not hugely surprising since it has always seemed to me a book strongly influenced by Greene.

Most of his books between that and A Perfect Spy, inclusive, I rate highly. After that he became increasingly overtly a political campaigner and while I liked his politics I didn't think so much of the books. Ironically, his earlier - more morally ambiguous - books may have had more political impact; they did a lot to jade the public's view of the security services and I'm sure his old employers came to regret giving him the OK to publish.

A Legacy of Spies, one of his last books and the last Smiley book, isn't political but I wish I hadn't read it. He decided to tie up all the loose ends from the Smiley series and explain everything that ever happened. There doesn't seem to be much of a point to the book apart from the author revisiting old ground. Ends amateurishly and pointlessly. Possibly a symptom of old age, who can say. But I wouldn't recommend it unless you're one of those completist nerds.

I’m a big Graham Greene fan too. Maybe working for the intelligence services have you that sense of detachment.

On a different note I’m reading Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. It’s about a spinster living with her mother in 1950s suburban England it’s all represssion, make do and mend. Not exactly riveting but probably good for me.

I’m a big Graham Greene fan too.

Aye.

Maybe working for the intelligence services have you that sense of detachment.

Didn't work for Ian Fleming.

Just finished The Queen and I by Sue Townsend.

For a book that's 30 years old in 2022 it's impressive how recognisable the royals still are. It's lightweight and silly, but also manages to be critical of the royals without being cruel or snide, and make some interesting political points as well. The ending is a bit daft but then I suppose the whole book is really.

Now I've started on The Promise by Damien Galgut, which was a Christmas present. A bit of a change from the above.

Had to learn more about Sir Walter Scott for work and went down a rabbit hole for a few weeks. Way more important than I ever imagined. Anyway, I'm almost half way through Rob Roy now and the protagonist has only just entered Scotland, which surprised me.

Its a fairly tough read being in the language of the 1800's but you get into the rhythm of it. The main problem I'm having is actually with the Scottish character of Andrew Fairservice, his dialogue is extremely difficult to understand, even as a native, and I'm often just skimming through it. I hope he disappears soon.

I've never seen any of the movies but I, of course, know of the broad strokes of Rob Roy's story. Fascinating to read an historical thriller type written about the 1700's in the 1800's.