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book meme, day 2
Jun. 15th, 2018 10:50 pmGosh, I am not good at doing these consecutively.
2. Best Bargain
Right now I am reading Les Misérables on my train commute, which is £2.99 per volume in Wordsworth Classics. As a value-per-word ratio I think this works out pretty well! And I love Les Misérables so very much and would really recommend it for a commuting book, in part because there is just so much of it. You can gorge yourself on it, drown in it, in full and comforting knowledge that you won't be any significant amount closer to running out of it. Hugo's writing style makes a lovely counterpoint to rush hour commutes, as well.
But since this feels kind of like cheating, bargain-wise, I'll also suggest a 1989 paperback I got for 50p from the work secondhand book stall called Women With X Appeal. BEAR WITH ME.
It's about women in British politics, and the title refers to a Daily Mail headline of the decade before about women standing for election. It's by Lesley Abdela, who has spent a long and varied career doing a lot for women's advocacy in politics, and it is a series of fascinating interviews with female politicians from that 70s-80s era (back when we were all talking about Scottish nationalism and Britain's relationship with Europe, my how things change! ahem).
Couple of my favourite moments from this:
- Claire Short, formerly a civil servant: "She frequently went and sat [in the Chamber] to watch the debates. 'I realised I could do the job better - that's the crunch thing that happened to me. I thought that these people weren't particularly impressive. I knew now I really did fancy being an MP, and because I had seen the feet of clay, I knew I was competent to do it.'"
- Edwina Currie, tipped for a ministerial post during a reshuffle and getting the call from No. 10 to come and 'have a chat with' the Prime Minister (then Margaret Thatcher), getting stuck in a traffic jam until long past the point when the reshuffle was meant to be announced and forcing herself to not run down Whitehall with all the journalists watching. ("And she was standing in the doorway saying 'Come in, my dear, come in, you're the last one. I want you to be Minister at the Department of Health, is that all right?'")
( The other days )
2. Best Bargain
Right now I am reading Les Misérables on my train commute, which is £2.99 per volume in Wordsworth Classics. As a value-per-word ratio I think this works out pretty well! And I love Les Misérables so very much and would really recommend it for a commuting book, in part because there is just so much of it. You can gorge yourself on it, drown in it, in full and comforting knowledge that you won't be any significant amount closer to running out of it. Hugo's writing style makes a lovely counterpoint to rush hour commutes, as well.
But since this feels kind of like cheating, bargain-wise, I'll also suggest a 1989 paperback I got for 50p from the work secondhand book stall called Women With X Appeal. BEAR WITH ME.
It's about women in British politics, and the title refers to a Daily Mail headline of the decade before about women standing for election. It's by Lesley Abdela, who has spent a long and varied career doing a lot for women's advocacy in politics, and it is a series of fascinating interviews with female politicians from that 70s-80s era (back when we were all talking about Scottish nationalism and Britain's relationship with Europe, my how things change! ahem).
Couple of my favourite moments from this:
- Claire Short, formerly a civil servant: "She frequently went and sat [in the Chamber] to watch the debates. 'I realised I could do the job better - that's the crunch thing that happened to me. I thought that these people weren't particularly impressive. I knew now I really did fancy being an MP, and because I had seen the feet of clay, I knew I was competent to do it.'"
- Edwina Currie, tipped for a ministerial post during a reshuffle and getting the call from No. 10 to come and 'have a chat with' the Prime Minister (then Margaret Thatcher), getting stuck in a traffic jam until long past the point when the reshuffle was meant to be announced and forcing herself to not run down Whitehall with all the journalists watching. ("And she was standing in the doorway saying 'Come in, my dear, come in, you're the last one. I want you to be Minister at the Department of Health, is that all right?'")
( The other days )
