Back in the Land of Pre-Pandemic, I posted several times using a lovely meme thought up by Paula at BookJotter. She called it “Three Things…” and in it we looked at what we’d been reading, looking at/listening to and thinking. It’s ages since I did one of these posts but I thought it might be nice to revisit it, just to catch up with where I am at the moment!
Reading
With the #1954Club coming up this month I have, of course, been exploring and reading books from that year! I am hoping to do some re-reading for this club, including a pair of very emotive books from my youth…
I am, of course, currently taking part in the #Narniathon, and this month’s book is “The Horse and his Boy”, which coincidentally was published in 1954! It’s been a real trip back to the past for me, re-reading these books, as I was quite obsessed with them when I was young. And as I’ve mentioned before, once I’d finished reading these, a family friend gave me a copy of “The Hobbit” which both my dad and I devoured, and we then went on to read “The Lord of the Rings” in lovely hardback editions from the library.
I’ve shared a picture of the set I eventually found to reflect that reading experience, and as “The Fellowship of the Ring” was published in 1954 I’m hoping this will kickstart the re-read of the trilogy – looking forward to what could be an emotional experience!!
Looking at/Listening to
‘Looking at’ could be interpreted a couple of ways: for example, what I’ve been watching either in the form of films, TV or online viewing material. TBH, I’m not much of a modern TV or film fancier, though I do love a classic or a good documentary!
I’ve written about all manner of these in the past, from one which covered the 1917 Russian Revolution (a disappointment), through a thought-provoking look at Britain’s nuclear past (interesting, but scary at the moment) to Professor Richard Clay‘s programmes on Utopias, memes, the French Revolution and Roland Barthes (Clay is always a fascinating and thought-provoking commentator.) I also went back to an old favourite series from 2006, Peter Ackroyd’s The Romantics which sent me off down a rabbit hole exploring my collection of Romantic books! Sadly, BBC4 (my usual source for documentary watching) seems to have ground to a halt with very little new being commissioned nowadays – such a shame.
However, I have managed the odd interesting prog; current favourite is Grayson Perry’s Art Club, which I love; he and wife Philippa are a joy! Apart from that, I’m reduced to the guilty pleasure of watching Susan Calman being silly at various points round the country… Will no TV channel rescue me from this dreadful dearth of documentaries?????
I also continue to look at and love all kinds of art, and I desperately miss visiting galleries in real life; there has not been much travel in the last couple of years… A current favourite visual artist is Tom Gauld, who cartoons are marvellous; he regularly appears in The Guardian and other publications, and often shares his work on Twitter and Instagram – do give him a look! I’m also very keen on Lachlan Goudie’s work – he has a wonderful website here.
As for listening, a recent repeat on the Beeb reminded me of how much I loved, and still do love, the music of REM – so they’ve been on repeat play lately! The combined vocals of Michael Stipe and Mike Mills are just marvellous – love them!
Thinking
Thinking has in many ways been difficult and painful over the last couple of years; we have had to deal with Brexit, the pandemic and now an awful conflict over in the east. I mostly stick to books on the Ramblings, trying to keep it cheery, because dwelling on the horrible side of life isn’t good for anyone’s mental health. But it’s really difficult to do this in the face of the relentless news broadcasts, the lies and appalling behaviour of those supposedly running the country, the ghastliness of the warmongers and the hysterical headlines in the mass media. I sometimes wonder if it appears that I have my head in the sand here on the Ramblings; I don’t, and my heart breaks for all of these awful situations we’re facing though I do feel powerless to have any effect on world events. So I will keep on sharing my love of books (and anything else which takes my fancy) as that at least I think is a positive thing. Books and reading have always been a consolation, and continue to be so – as long as I can read, I can cope!
So that’s my Three Things… marking where I am in April 2022. What about you? What have you been reading, watching/listening and thinking lately – and how are you coping with reality??