Life must be filled up

The Book Depository recently had a poll on people’s ‘best authors ever’. Never backward in coming forward with my opinions, I voted for my top five. The results were out yesterday and can be seen here.

How can Evelyn Waugh be missing from such a list? And who on earth is George R R Martin? Don’t tell me; I just looked him up. Good grief.

As is well known, Dickens died before he could complete his novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Last week I watched the new TV adaptation , which had the story finished by Gwyneth Hughes. It’s so long since I read the book that I couldn’t remember where it ended; no doubt that’s why it all seemed pretty seamless to me. The second part was more interesting than the first and with all the opium fantasies floating around you could really believe that Jasper wasn’t sure himself exactly what he’d done. I thought the stalking could have been more frightening and it was something of a cop-out to find at the end that Jasper was a bad man because his daddy didn’t love him. Aaah. Or possibly, Aaargh!

At the weekend I watched all six hours of the 1998 series of Our Mutual Friend, thanks to LoveFilm. It’s difficult to adapt such a long and complex novel for television and this was a good shot. It certainly kept me entertained. Peter Vaughan was superb as Mr Boffin as was David Bradley as Rogue Riderhood. Full marks all round for acting.

On one of my favourite blogs, Mary’s Library, Mary was writing about her continued failure to finish The Pickwick Papers. I struggled with it several times, always failing to get past the unbearable facetiousness of the opening chapters. Eventually I persevered until Sam Weller appeared and he was enough to see me through to the end. There are Dickens novels I enjoy so much that I actually worry that I may not have time to read them again but once was enough for Pickwick. Yet this is the book which made Dickens’ name, which shows how new and fresh it must have appeared at the time. Here’s a little poll to find out if it is bottom of everyone’s list.

[Poll #1811488]

BBC Sport - Football - England miss out to Russia in 2018 World Cup vote

Thank goodness we'll avoid all the expense and hype of the Olympics. I kept hearing on the news that England's 'big guns' were fighting our corner (Oh my Palmerston and Dreadnoughts long ago!) So here is an utterly trivial, irrelevant and brain-rotting poll on the big three for people stuck at home with nothing better to do.
[Poll #1652156]

Just a heads up that dovegreyreader writes today about the Chalet School and Malory Towers, quoting Adèle Geras. Although I have all the Chalet School books, I remain a Malory Towers girl at heart. For my favourite school, see poll.

[Poll #1523677]

We've had a scheduled electricity outage here all day; shop, pub and council offices closed. Luckily, my incipient panic at the thought of a power-less day was relieved by the weather. After three days of non-stop rain, it was absolutely beautiful today so I could be out a lot. When I was in the house I was aware of an extra quietness; nothing to be heard but the ticking of the big old clock.

It brought home to me how much background noise I usually live with, even in what is a quiet place. I tend to have the radio chattering away all day long without really listening to it, but today I didn't bother. There's a sort of background hum in our lives all the time that we don't even notice; the fridge rumbling gently, machines switching on and off. I found it not as unpleasant as I'd feared but could I stand it all the time?

[Poll #1468191]

ramblingfancy's recent post reminded me that I can never make up my mind which Penguin mug I would most like. So here's a poll for you to pick your favourite.

[Poll #1309817]

I really prefer the Pigeon Post one I already have.