Current reads

With the summer holidays I'm trying to catch up with some leisure reading, rather than savouring the delights or otherwise of my work reading (such as the Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Act 2001, the Animal Diseases Act 2000 or the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act 2003.)

So I tend to have a book in each room of the apartment and as I wander about, just pick one up and start reading. Or continue reading. Occasionally I've even been known to move a book from one room to another, if it's really good.

So what's got my attention lately ?

First and foremost is Margaret MacMillan's superb Paris 1919, a look at the six months of the Paris peace conference which led to the Treaty of Versailles. Far from the 'traditional' view that the treaty inexorably led to WWII, because of a naive Wilson, bitter Clemenceau and crafty Lloyd George, excessive reparations etc, MacMillan's tells a more subtle tale of the errors of the conference. This is definitely a book I carry from room to room.

Another peripatetic book is Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled - Unlocking the Poet Within - what can I say ? The uber-excellent and all-round wonderfully wonderful Mr Fry has done what no English teacher was able to do and has kindled in me an interest in the mechanics of poetry and through that, a wider interest in this art. The Man is a natural teacher and I am constantly amused and delighted by this charming polymath. Mr Fry's book lives in my study and occasionally makes a visit to my bedroom. Just as I wish the author would. Sigh. He is so sexy.

But I digress.

I'll persevere with William Rosen's Justinian's Flea, the story of the last Roman emperor with the epithet "the great", although some of Rosen's factual errors and awkward phrasing are a little irritating. However the impressive achievements of Justinian are worth delving into. Dining room reading.

Delizia! - The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food by John Dickie is perhaps a little too sensationally written for my tastes, but another one I'll persevere with. Bathroom reading.

As always I find Patrick White's novels heavy going, but immensely enjoyable. Riders of the Chariot is no different. There are times you just have to savour a particular phrase, or stop and reflect on White's observations, both of Australia in the 1960's and his wider views on the nature of good and evil, of lost opportunity, the trauma of existence. Deeply satisfying reading. Definitely the Loungeroom for this tome.

Time to switch this wretched machine off and go do some more reading...