A Book A Week
Peter Hoskin 4:58pmJust to flag up a little task I've set myself over at the Spectator Book Club. The plan is for me to read a book each week, and review and discuss it on the site's discussion board. The first book will be Tom Bower's biography of Gordon Brown, and the thread for it - along with more information about my future reads - is here. It 's certainly not obligatory, but 'twould be nice to see some CoffeeHousers over there - if only so you can make sure I don't skip a week...
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a source close to William Norton
November 18th, 2008 5:42pmGordon Brown? Yawn-yawn-yawn. What every household ought to read this year for Christmas is:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Elephant-North-East-Said/dp/1904863280/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227029879&sr=8-14
The Dandiprat
November 18th, 2008 9:43pmTom Bower, get a life.
How about "Norman Lamont: The Early Years".
Reg
November 18th, 2008 11:17pmA book a week?
Having to for work for a living is such a bitch.
Verity
November 19th, 2008 1:04amGosh, Pete! Thanks for letting us know it's not obligatory!
Reg - Pete is the anchor that keeps everyone sane around here and with endorphins not totally leeched out of commenters by the design of these blogs. Good grief, poor Pete responds to angry emails from his home on a Sunday evening. He looks for lost emails from people overseas before his working day in Britain begins. He offers peaceful explanations.
I for one am glad to read that he is going to get a chance to loll around reading a book ... although a biography of Gordon Brown, even by the readable Tom Bower, doesn't exactly push the boat out as a debut.
A Doctor writes
November 19th, 2008 9:13amVerity is quite right about the dangers of over-stressing yourself whilst working on a top-flight high-profile blog such as this. I would have no hesitation in prescribing that Pete immediately starts reading:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Elephant-North-East-Said/dp/1904863280/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227029879&sr=8-14
Bruce Fleming
November 19th, 2008 10:55am"White Elephant" by William Norton is a pulsating 480 page slab of hormone-injected political meat; the greatest book about a referendum ever published in the English language; a vast, rambling, mesmeric labyrinth of a book; a total artwork on the trade-off between love and power with a cast of mermaids, dwarves, giants and gods, who age visibly before your eyes as The Drama unfolds. This is the real deal. This is William Norton philosophising with a hammer. Referenda will never be the same again. Political literature will never be the same again. Fall in line, you little men, for the Iceman cometh. Join him this Christmas as he declaims in his cold, white, candent voice, more caustic than silver nitrate and more thrilling than a scream.
"William Norton … wandering over a sea of fog, walking in a winter wonderland." (Philip Hensher, Spectator)
"It will make you laugh. It will make you cry." (Val Hennessey, Daily Mail).