Monkeyshines

Category: Idle Thoughts

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Seven

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    James
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    Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 I’ve broken the 500-page barrier this week. I wouldn’t want all books to be this long, but there is something almost luxurious about the opportunity you have, as a reader, to become absorbed in these characters’ lives. The epic scale of the novel is very much…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Six

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    James
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    Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 After a hiatus of three weeks, during which I found that newborn babies and immense works of Russian literature do not really complement each other, I’ve been making good progress with the absorbing drama of the first part of volume two. I’m congenitally unable to not have…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Five

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    James
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    Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 I finished the first volume this week, just as Mrs. Monkeyshines was going into labour. Twenty-four hours later, our first child was born, a Little Monkey called Toby Charles. Things are going well so far, and I might have a chance to snatch a few chapters over the…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Four

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    James
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    Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3 Pretty much bang-on the 20% mark this week. I had hoped to get through it a bit quicker, but while it’s eminently readable, it’s not the sort of book you can churn through at a rate of knots. And, since I’m only going to read this book once, I…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Three

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    James
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    Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2 The battles in War and Peace have been good reading this week, although my progress has been somewhat stymied by the BBC. They’ve adapted Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels (two of which I have previously reviewed: Case Histories and One Good Turn), which Mrs. Monkeyshines and I have enjoyed settling…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Two

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    James
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    Previous weeks: 0, 1 Well into part two of volume one of War and Peace, and the men have gone off to war. Although as yet there’s been no actual fighting; I suspect that the marching, waiting around, and wonderfully frantic retreat are more typical of the realities of war. More pragmatically, I’m on page…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week One

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    James
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    Last week I explained that I would be tracking my progress while I read War and Peace. I think I’ve done quite well in this first week, although I do feel like a bit of a lemon pulling it out of my bag on the bus. I’m getting to grips with the characters and their…

  • Single Noun Book Reviews

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    James
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    I’ve been rather slack lately at writing about the books I’ve been reading; I don’t expect anyone else to care, but I’ve found that I quite like having a record of what I’ve read. So, to catch up for May’s reading, I’m writing one word book reviews; to increase the cryptic and obtuse nature of…

  • The War-and-Peace-O-Meter

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    James
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    Some years ago I asked for War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy for Christmas; a new translation had just been published, and that seemed as good a reason as any to tackle this metaphorically and literally immense book. I do a lot of my reading on the bus, which has tended to put me off…

  • Feline Book Review: Binky to the Resuce

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    Binky
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    Having recently reviewed the first instalment of Binky the Space Cat’s adventures, I instructed my hoomins to furnish me with the sequel, Binky to the Rescue, by Ashley Spires. Cat schools aren’t big on teaching hoomin language (frankly, the cat community is staggered that learning Cat language isn’t compulsory in hoomin schools), but I’ve picked…