"I may cack in my pewter" is such a wonderful phrase it is a shame t'is not more versatile."I may cack in my pewter" is such a wonderful phrase it is a shame t'is not more versatile....more
I'm not the kind of person who could tell you whether I would have enjoyed this book were I a child, but I can tell you that as a grown woman I becameI'm not the kind of person who could tell you whether I would have enjoyed this book were I a child, but I can tell you that as a grown woman I became very attached to Twigleg....more
I am eloping with my books not from Canada this time but from Leeds. From the selection at hand I do choose randomly, so I cannot give any poetic justI am eloping with my books not from Canada this time but from Leeds. From the selection at hand I do choose randomly, so I cannot give any poetic justification as to why I chose this book among the horrific user interface of the Leeds online collection. What I can say, though, is that I like this book a lot, and almost inexplicably so -- inexplicable here used not in dismay but in wonder. A complex web of tangled characters across time that paints an awfully human picture of a place and period. I really liked it. That's all....more
When the play starts with an indecipherable prologue and the first stage direction is (obstreperous) you should know you're in for a very strange jourWhen the play starts with an indecipherable prologue and the first stage direction is (obstreperous) you should know you're in for a very strange journey....more
I absolutely adore Louis Theroux with every fibre of my being.
I don't so much adore hardback books; it is customary for me to start my reviews with hI absolutely adore Louis Theroux with every fibre of my being.
I don't so much adore hardback books; it is customary for me to start my reviews with how I 'met' a book, and this one was an impulse purchase just before my birthday. I was going to wait for it to come out in paperback, but upon flipping open the cover of a random copy in Waterstones, I noticed it was an unmarked signed copy, thus my "well, it's my birthday soon!" self-justification set into motion. I find myself unable to slump as easily with a hardback, to recline into the "my spine will pay for this in 20 years" position instead of a slightly different "my spine will pay for this in 20 years" position.
To the point: I cling to my hipster credentials as jumping on the Louis Theroux hype train about half an hour before everyone else got on the Louis Theroux hype train in 2015; I got a seat, shall we say, while others had to make do with standing room only. Since then I have been one of those kinds of people described in chapter 32. In the intervening six months before I actually got around to reading it, I hadn't read much of anything at all. I was waiting until I was able to concentrate properly on it, because in the endless compartmentalisation of my anxiety-riddled brain, I wanted to give it the attention it deserved and not run over it with the mental 18-wheeler and leave tyre marks everywhere, to my own chagrin. This will easily be the best book I've read all year. I know, I know, the year is only half over, but as a matter of personal taste, I know this will be it.
In the way Theroux can capture the in-betweens, the imperfections, the anxiety-ridden, self-doubting moments, there is a certain anti-poetry provided by this book. Perhaps my own highbrow and slightly unnecessary literary reference point would be Baudelaire's idea (largely paraphrased by me) of turning the ugly, dirty 'spleen' of 18th century Paris into the infinitely redeemable literary form of poetry. By anti-poetry, I mean that sometimes things are horrible, sometimes people do horrible things, and sometimes there is no poetry to be found in this. That's not the basis of this book - the observations of life are part and parcel of the documentary maker repository - but they're part of why I enjoyed it so much. Life cannot be summarised laconically, and good and bad are as adjacent as humility and narcissism.
With my own cosmic waffle out of the way, on a pure entertainment level this book is really, really good. Naturally, it is very funny, and though I'm not the kind of person who sticky notes books, I did so with this one because some of those little details spoke to me ("I labelled the final draft 'first draft' and sent it off" - if that ain't me all over). I mean, if you wanted a comprehensive and humorous overview of Louis Theroux's life, there's no better place to go, is there?
It could have done with an eensy-weensy extra proofread just to iron out the last few strangely worded sentences, but that's not earth-shatteringly terrible as a critique. Same goes for the documentaries that didn't get as much time spent on the background info, notably the ones based on the Westboro Baptist Church; could have done with a little more information on those, but it's not going to change my review that it didn't.
No, it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I am not the Oracle of Books That Will Be People's Cups of Tea. I, personally, just bloody love this book.
5 stars. I can't wait, in x number of years, to experience it again....more
I'm sure the word "unique" has been used to describe this book a million times over, but truly it is. It is a delightful little seafaring world and I I'm sure the word "unique" has been used to describe this book a million times over, but truly it is. It is a delightful little seafaring world and I thoroughly enjoyed it....more
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