Books to read in hospital

-
I'm trying frantically to get my desk (and my mind) clear before Thursday 24th, as I am then, in theory, due to go into hospital to have my nose mended. I am only in overnight (again in theory) but I have a dilemma - what do I take in to read?

I am halfway through Rosy Thornton's Hearts and Minds, for which many thanks to Juliet. I am thoroughly enjoying this portrait of the poisonous politicking of student and staff, but I fear I will have finished it before Thursday, and I know I don't have the discipline to leave the book alone now I've got my teeth into it.

On my bedside table is the very unfinished The Blair Years, which is not quite the thing when you are on your bed of pain and want your mind taken off life, rather than being so irritated you burst your stitches. I keep picking this up, reading a few pages and then putting it down again, so desperate with the longing to give all the major characters a sharp slap that I can go no further.

I don't want to take a precious book in case I lose it/drop it in my supper/bleed all over it/hurl it in fury at the next person who asks if I am in for a nose job (no - my undistinguished but basically OK nose should stay pretty much the same. I hope.)

If I hadn't read absolutely everything Dick Francis has ever written many times, I'd take one of those.

So, what I'm after is something that doesn't take dragoons of concentration. Which means Keirkegaard is out - as is anything edgy, modern and difficult. Anything tear jerking is out, so Black Beauty will stay at home, as will Rosalind Belben's Our Horses In Egypt, which won't actually stay at home as I haven't actually got one yet: haven't yet got it any further than my BookRabbit checkout.

If you have any suggestions, please tell me. It will be one less thing for me to be twitchy about!

Comments

Juliet said…
Jane - very best of luck for Thursday! I have just searched your blog for 'nose' because you first mentioned it before I had discovered BM&C.

There's just something about rounders, isn't there? My nose has a bump in it for exactly the same reason. It was Alison Maynard wot did it to me when I was six. I'd been off school on the day of my class's first-ever rounders lesson, so I didn't know what to do. I hit the ball and turned round to the next batter, by then standing behind me, to ask 'where do I go now?' Both she and the bowler completely ignored my presence and carried on as if I were invisble, so the bat hit my face and the ball hit the back of my head. Talk about double whammy!

Glad you're enjoying Hearts & Minds. But what to replace it? Hmmm. Can't think of anything horsey, but authors I can always trust to be completely snuggleable-down with while confined to bed or barracks are Kate Atkinson, Anita Shreve, Maggie O'Farrell (oh, and I recently re-read my way through several Mary Wesleys and found them surprisingly delicious from my now more 'mature' perspective).

Maybe you should also take along your lovely Penguin Classic? If you're not going to tackle it while you're a captive audience, I'm not sure that you ever will!
21 July 2008 at 16:39
Unknown said…
I recommend Jasper Fforde's books (I recemmonded them for every occasion, to almost everyone I know, actually).

Very readable, funny, imaginative, very appealing to lovers of books and the English language. Start with the first of the Thursday Next books, 'The Eyre Affair'.
The audience participation version (a la 'Rocky Horror Show') of 'Richard III' is a delight.
22 July 2008 at 10:17
Unknown said…
Oh, and I meant to say, best wishes for the operation.
22 July 2008 at 10:18
Anonymous said…
Good luck tomorrow! I should take an iPod if you have one.
23 July 2008 at 16:20
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more