We’ve been a bit quiet this week. Kind of like a library.
You can have your drink if you tell us what book you will donate to the Uborka library, and why.
July 5, 2013
Bar’s Open
Uborka
your weird cousins
We’ve been a bit quiet this week. Kind of like a library.
You can have your drink if you tell us what book you will donate to the Uborka library, and why.
Is the library for grownups, or Younger Members?
Grownups : Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (which I think you’ve already got) and/or Earth by David Brin.
Younger Members : Roald Dahl in general, or Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy. (ignore the film version, it was shit)
Drinks wise, I’ll have a Librarian (cognac, Antica Formula Vermouth, cherry liquor and Peychaud Bitters) please. (Sourced from The Lanesborough Hotel )
Ah come on, none of us will donate one book only. I give you “how to avoid a soggy bottom” because you will find it interesting and informative for your new-found hobby; the river cottage bread book because I am sure it beats that Hollywood chap’s efforts; and night circus by Erin Morgenstern because it is the best book I have read for ages and I have told you to read it at least twice (and I know you have taken no notice).
As those who *have* read it will understand I will drink black and white please .
…and David Walliams for the lad to read, if he hasn’t already discovered him.
For older readers: Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe by Norman Davies. It’s a massive, at times rambling, tome that attempts to chronicle some of the now defunct kingdoms and nations of Europe from the last millenium. In places it could do with some editing (particularly the tourist guide-style introductions to each section which, frankly, sound like they were lifted wholesale from Wikipedia or Time Out), but generally it helps the reader to more fully understand some of the heritage of the problems and attitudes that still persist across Europe.
For younger readers: the collected works of Roald Dahl, naturally (although Boy and Going Solo are perhaps only suitable for teenagers and older due to some rather gory and unpleasant sections).
For youngest readers: either the collected works of Dick Bruna, or perhaps the collected works of Oliver Jeffers. But, if you want your child to enjoy both reading and illustration, two recommendations spring to mind: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen is a brilliant story around issues of theft, lies, trust and revenge, ideal for three year olds and up. Alternatively, if you want to develop your child’s sense of the surreal, have a go at the wonderful Egg and Bird by Alex Higlett. If only Miss Higlett had come up with more children’s books, because this one is excellent. I must have read it 100 times and we still love it – it particularly lends itself to silly voices. Ideal for ages 1 to 100.
As for refreshment, for all ages I recommend a very large caipirinha, please and thank you.
I was trying to work out my top three books the other day. So far I have only decided on two of them for certain, so you can have those: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett and American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
And I’ll share a bottle of mead with anyone around the table.
With the weather looking distinctly summery I’ll start with a Pimms and then possibly move onto to a classic Rum punch (with lots of ice)
The book I really want to be reading is Return of the King by William Dalrymple. I’ll donate that so someone can read it out loud to me…
Hot toddy for me for the killing of the ills.
And I’ll donate the unfinishable Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, as I’ve given up on it.
Pimms for me too. Preferably to be consumed whilst lounging in a punt with a punnet of strawberries while someone else does the hard work and I pretend I’m on the Isis instead of in Tabland.
And for something suitably Oxonian to read, Alice In Wonderland, because everyone should read it at least once. Its dreamy surrealism is just right for summer on the river.
Oh, I could do with a good Library escape about now.
I apologise in advance for my book choices because even as I type this sentence I have no idea what I’ll suggest.
I’m a bit rushed today. Just a small glass of champagne please and then I really must get back to the fray.
Books. Love them. There’s a big box of them over there I’ve been meaning to donate.
Right.
Oh. Oh I just recently finished Claire Massud’s The Woman Upstairs. Excellent.
I’m currently reading Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies, which is very good but hard slogging as a summer read.
For anyone the least bit interested in the Canadian psyche, I donate Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy and then Mordecai Richler’s the Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Barney’s Version.
That reminds me, I must dig out and re-read some Timothy Findley, The Headhunter seems apt for the menacing tone of the world these days.
Sorry for staying so long, must dash!
Ah, English summer. I’m hankering for strawberry sandwiches and lashings and lashings of ginger beer.
I’d give you my copy of In Xanadu by William Dalrymple, just retrieved from the furthest corner of the loft, but I think Miss Gammidgy has already pinched it. So it’ll have to be another recent rediscovery: John Windham’s Chocky. Those of a certain age might remember the TV version.
I’ll donate the first 8 books of the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser. I’m not quite sure where to put them and certainly don’t want any future children reading them until they’re of drinking age.
Speaking of drinking, I’ll have a Sazerac.
I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t finish Kavalier and Clay, Gordon…I confess it was a stamina stretch as there are a ton of arcs and progressions, but there is a great payoff. Krissa pressed that into my hands during our first week and we’ve ended up owning three copies.