tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post4418406488026544271..comments2023-12-25T05:45:34.307+00:00Comments on Broken Biro: A Ladybird Book Changed My Lifebroken birohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233920262119205474noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post-46275028851840044272010-07-30T15:07:20.522+01:002010-07-30T15:07:20.522+01:00When I was in high school, I tried really hard to ...When I was in high school, I tried really hard to be an intellectual, and this included trying to listen to Shostakovich. I was so thrilled when I actually liked the first movement of his 7th Symphony, only to find out much later it's considered a "lesser work." I tried and tried to get beyond that first movement, but to no avail.<br /><br />Until, that is, I read William T. Vollman's Europe Central (I know, it's thick, but it has really, really short chapters). I will never know exactly why, but after reading that novel, in which Shostakovich is a central character, I went back to the music and sort of "got" it. While my appreciation of Shostakovich has branched out to other works, I have to confess that I still like listening to the 7th's first movement (well, the cognoscenti seem to be coming round on that, anyway).Susan Scheid (Raining Acorns)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02827286681242730183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post-83351871138056332072010-07-30T10:04:45.969+01:002010-07-30T10:04:45.969+01:00Not at all BB - there were enough new ones in ther...Not at all BB - there were enough new ones in there, too, to keep me going for years!Jinksyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01686101468214361004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post-89482251246729705902010-07-29T21:16:48.523+01:002010-07-29T21:16:48.523+01:00Deborah! Heidi was my favourite book - possibly a...Deborah! Heidi was my <i>favourite</i> book - possibly a little later. But it didn't much inspire me to go there because all she ate was bread and cheese. Now I <i>am</i> fond of bread and cheese but there are limits...hang on a minute though, which were the first foreign countries I visited whenI finall yescaped from these shores at 18? - Austria and Switzerland!<br /><br />Martin - Not familiar with it, That happy land - it's not Switzerland is it?<br /><br />Jinksy - I haven't read this one either... were you disappointed at already knowing the basic truths and not getting new ones?broken birohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06233920262119205474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post-15206142669633488032010-07-29T18:38:56.308+01:002010-07-29T18:38:56.308+01:00The Bhagavad Gita, at about age eighteen, surprise...The Bhagavad Gita, at about age eighteen, surprised me because so many basic truths were ones I'd already worked out for myself, unknowingly. It made me feel I had a ha'p'orth of sense tucked away somewhere inside...Jinksyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01686101468214361004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post-64664342956980571332010-07-29T17:29:33.480+01:002010-07-29T17:29:33.480+01:00'There is a Happy Land' - Keith Waterhouse...'There is a Happy Land' - Keith Waterhouse. It didn't exactly change my life but, it did reconnect me with the possibility of writing about life through the eyes of child, with the minimum of sentimentality.Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13494219959077922220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592591789385602191.post-35515990829946767352010-07-29T14:39:28.826+01:002010-07-29T14:39:28.826+01:00Heidi.
She got to sleep on a hay mattress under...Heidi. <br /><br />She got to sleep on a hay mattress under a eiderdown quilt in a barn loft in Switzerland. I knew then that I was destined to go to Europe, nay, to live in Europe because there was nothing quite so wonderful where I came from. Oh, and the cows!!!! And the bowl of milk at breakfast!!Deborahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10892637441668897411noreply@blogger.com