What’s essential? Pandemic reading
July 20, 2020 at 12:27 pm | Posted in Blasket islands, Cli-fi novels, psychopaths | Leave a commentTags: Bradley J. Edwards, Cole Moreton The Lightkeeper, Colly Campbel, Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain, Hungry for Home, Jeffrey Epstein, Paedophilia court case, Relentless Pursuit, The Capricorn Sky, Tom Watson and Martin Hickman
Three outstanding books
In the early days of the pandemic a contents box on the front page of a newspaper stated:
‘WHAT’S ESSENTIAL
In France, wine
In the US, guns.’
For me, it’s books. (Hmmmm, maybe the wine comes a close second.)
Some people want to read books like Camus’ The Plague during this pandemic. If you’re the erudite Simon Schama you’ll of course be reading Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War with its evocative descriptions of plague and the detrimental effect on friendship.
Not me. I don’t want to re-visit those two fine works when it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the number of wonderful new books being published, specially when keeping up with them is done after small writing and editing jobs plus the big one of writing my next novel.
Three recent books, all very different from each other, stand out for me: Bradley J. Edwards’ Relentless Pursuit (co-written with Brittany Henderson), Colly Campbell’s The Capricorn Sky, and Cole Moreton’s The Lightkeeper. Continue Reading What’s essential? Pandemic reading…
Slowing down – A beautiful book on sustainable living: Mark Boyle’s The Way Home
July 10, 2019 at 4:26 am | Posted in Blasket islands, capitalism, digital technology, E.F. Schumacher, Mark Boyle, rural Ireland, Simplifying, Small Is Beautiful, sustainable living | Leave a commentTags: Irish memoirs, mental health, The Way Home
The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology. Mark Boyle. (Oneworld Publications, 2019)
It’s a surprise to learn that Mark Boyle has a degree in Economics and Marketing. He lives in rural County Galway in a dwelling he built himself. He chooses to live without electricity or running water. He has no car and of course no phone – landline or mobile – but the thing that really brought home to me his hard-line stance is this: he won’t use matches either.
Once you’d spent the hours and labour (not to mention generating blisters) on making a fire with your bare hands I can’t imagine ever letting it go out.
Mark Boyle writes that he also has neither clock nor watch. Would a sundial count as technology? Probably not, but its use might be a bit limited in western Ireland, which receives roughly twice as much rainfall as the rest of the country.
And lighting? ‘Making a candle is easy. The real craft lies in the first part of the process: the keeping of the bees,’ he writes. ‘Actually, the most difficult part of candle-making is deciding to reject electrical lighting.’ Continue Reading Slowing down – A beautiful book on sustainable living: Mark Boyle’s The Way Home…
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