Books

This is one of my piles of books I'm currently reading/about to read. I'm reading Catch-22 and Five Run Away Together concurrently, depending on my mood. Both are very good. I recently read this on the BBC's website: In response to allegations of sexism and racism, Chorion began heavily editing Blyton's works in the 1990s, removing phrases and words that could be deemed offensive.

I absolutely don't agree with this. No writer's work should be changed to suit the current politically correct climate. NOT that I approved of the sexism and xenophobia, but a writer's work has to be read in the context of the time it was written. I had noticed that the Famous Five books I get out of the library have fewer obvious prejudices than the copies of Famous Five books I have from my childhood, and now I know why.
I saw Joseph Heller at a book event at the University of East Anglia a few years ago. Actually, it was about two weeks before he died, and poor soul, he didn't look or sound very well. If I ever get a book signed by the author I ask them to write something at the end of the book. I first did this with Kazuo Ishiguro (one of my all-time favourite writers) and he wrote, "This is the end of this book. Stop now", and then signed his name, which made me laugh. Joseph Heller simply signed his name.
Meg has stopped bullying me now that Hagos has come home again. I picked him up from the train station at half one this morning. He'd been to Denmark, Latvia and London. He has this weekend off so I'm really looking forward to seeing him. Meg always changes her behaviour when he's at home. She knows she's been usurped as Top Cat. This was her relaxing yesterday afternoon. Sometimes when I'm working in my shed I hear a 'padump' of her landing on the roof, then a miaow at the door as she wants to come in. Then it's a race to lock the door and sit back in my chair because she rather likes my swivel chair herself, even though I've made the comfy chair even comfier by putting a blanket on it for her!