Category: Reading

Reading in Raglan

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This is my favourite bench on which to sit and read. It overlooks Ngarunui beach and is surrounded by harekeke (flax), cabbage trees and pohutukawa. Sitting quietly with my book open on my knee, I am aware of the sounds of the sea and the birds – tui, piwakawaka, riroriro as well as the sweet trill of the song thrush and the swooping of seagulls as they pass overhead without landing, having assured themselves that I am reading and not eating.

A plaque dedicates the bench to a young man (30 years old) who was lost to the Southern Ocean. His epitaph reads “My soul is with the sea”. It is melancholy to sit there and think of what his loss must mean for those who loved him and I wonder how often they sit in this tranquil place and think of him. I often think too about Don McGlashan’s lyric:
Far out to sea
Where the winds blow strong
Past all that is known
Past the point of no return
If I should vanish
If I was gone
The waves would roll on
The waves would roll on
Nothing to guide me
No star in the sky
No seabirds behind
To wheel and to cry
If I should vanish
If I was gone
The waves would roll on
The waves would roll on

After reading, contemplating, listening and observing, I walk back down to the beach, accompanied by the subtle scent of harakeke on the breeze, the crash of waves on the rocks that separate Ngarunui beach from Manu Bay and the summer sound of kihikihi (cicadas) in the bush. By the time I reach our rendezvous, I’m restored if not rejuvenated.

Bath is pleasant enough …

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said Jane Austen, adding that after six weeks, she’d had enough. We were there fewer than six days but found it more than pleasant and can fully understand why it is regarded by some as the most beautiful city in England. The rows of Georgian terraced houses made from Bath stone, the wide pavements along the grander streets (called parades) and the narrow cobbled lanes, the Avon River and the shady parks make it a desirable destination.

Bath glories in its Jane Austen connections. Although she only lived there from 1801 to 1806, she set two of her novels in the city – Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. 2025 is the 250th anniversary of her birth and Bath is celebrating, no more so than at the Jane Austen House, where one is met by people in Regency clothing and can get an idea of what a house was like in the Regency period. One can even view a life-size wax model of the author. But it is in walking along streets and through parks she mentions in her novels and letters, that you really get a feel for what it was like when she visited and conjured characters like Catherine Morland and Anne Elliott.

Bath is also ancient. The Romans established the settlement of Aquae Sulis and had an extensive network of publics baths using the hot water springs that still bubble up. They also built a temple dedicated to the goddess Minerva and the owl associated with her proliferates in tourist shops in the form of soft toys or cast statuettes. The oldest house in Bath, dating back to Roman times, is where the Sally Lunn’s bakery and shop is now. We bought a Bath bun there and enjoyed it toasted for breakfast in our attic apartment, which we walked up four flights to access. Getting our bags up there when we first arrived was a mission!

Another treat for this bibliophile was a long browse in the small but excellent Persephone Books. Having for many years subscribed to their newsletters and been gifted some of their beautiful books, it was a thrill to be there in person. Yes, Bath is indeed pleasant enough!

This is London

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From the glory of the Victorian age and empire, to the teeming streets, train and tube stations, to the art, architecture, theatres and museums, to the river, the stately homes and the picturesque pubs, London is endlessly interesting. We’ve visited Ham House, crossed the Thames in a little ferry and caught a much larger ferry down the river to Greenwich, marvelled at the V & A collections, ridden the tube multiple times, taking the opportunity to observe Londoners in their natural habitat, and taken in a riveting theatre production (Giant at the Harold Pinter Theatre starring the wonderful John Lithgow).

London is also literary. There are blue plaques commemorating when and where a writer lived, bookshops everywhere and the newspapers and magazines available in news agents are numerous – from the frivolous (Hello! OK!) to the serious (London Review of Books, The Economist). It’s a good place to be a bibliophile and I have enjoyed reading hard copies of publications I usually read online. Though most commuters on the tubes seem mesmerised by their phones, there are plenty who read actual books. I sat beside one who carefully placed her bookmark, then wrapped the book in a fabric envelope, which she stowed in her briefcase before alighting.

A poignant sculpture in the forecourt of the Liverpool Street Station commemorates the Kindertransport. It immediately made me think of the marvellous Judith Kerr, who came to England via the Kinderstransport, and went on to write When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog series. How much the poorer we would have been if she had not survived the Holocaust.

We came from away

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Nova Scotia is green with an abundance of trees growing right down to the water, and there are myriad waterviews in the charming city of Halifax. We stayed in a friend’s house nestled among tall trees on the edge of the Northwest Arm of the harbour, where we enjoyed Canadian hospitality and ate a lot of seafood – halibut, salmon, mussels and lobster. Halifax is overwhelmingly Scottish (not surprising in New Scotland!) and its colonial origins are on display at the Citadel historic site, dating back to 1749 when it became part of the defence complex built to defend the Halifax harbour from enemies of the British Empire. We heard the stirring sounds of bagpipes on our visit there and we climbed the ramparts to view the city and harbour below. We learnt a little about the Indigenous Mi’kmaw people who inhabited the Halifax region for 10,000 years before any colonial arrivals. Wandering along the harbourfront in brilliant sunshine, eating Cow’s Creamery ice cream (Canada’s best) was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Nova Scotia and the other provinces along the Atlantic coast are known collectively as the Maritimes. Fishing and boating are long-established here and there are many picturesque lighthouses in the bays and coves that are a feature of the coastline. Perhaps the most famous is the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, which has a sweet, though possibly apocryphal, story associated with it.

Anne of the Island

We spent a couple of days on Prince Edward Island, which I have wanted to see since I first realised that Anne Shirley, or rather her creator, L M Montgomery, came from there. There is a Green Gables heritage centre featuring a house and barn that approximates the fictional home that Anne shared with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. But it was the surrounding countryside and lanes through the woods that really evoked the spirit of the books for me – Lover’s Lane and the Haunted Wood! The whole island is dreamy, basking in the hot summer sun, its famous red cliffs glowing. It would be wonderful to see it in all the seasons that Montgomery describes in the Anne books. As I wandered, episodes from the stories kept occuring to me – a clear case of association by place!

Apple of my eye

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What is there to say about New York City that hasn’t already been said? Probably nothing. So I’ll just say that I’ve always wanted to visit. Now I have and I was not disappointed.

The landmarks

The green spaces – Central Park, Bryant Park, the High Line, the trees and planters that line the streets

The Met – in all its wondrous abundance and beauty

The arts – Broadway, Birdland, NY Public Library, Strand Books

There is also the atmosphere of the city as one walks the streets and avenues, which make Manhattan so easy to navigate. The teeming crowds on the sidewalks who follow no discernable rules, try as you might to keep to the right. The snippets of conversation one hears while walking – New York accents and people speaking in languages from all around the world. The myriad street vendors and panhandlers, who will sell you a hotdog, an NYC cap or a bus tour. The outfits, which run the whole gamut from tourists in ‘I heart NYC’ T-shirts to the sartorially exquisite in designer dresses and high heels or suits, ties and hats. It is endlessly fascinating, though one is relieved to get back into one’s air-conditioned hotel room at the end of the afternoon, before going out again in the balmy evening to go to a show, walk along the East River or watch an Amazon zero-hours contractor make a night-time delivery from an e-cycle vehicle. Another striking feature of this magical city is its clear air and clean streets. I loved it!

Long live libraries

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Towns and cities all over the world are closing libraries – too expensive to maintain and anyway, with the internet, do we need libraries any more? Here in the little Northland town of Puhoi the library is alive and kicking. It is open for between two and four hours five days a week and has a collection of over 4000 books (http://www.puhoilibrary.org.nz/). At its peak this town had a population of only 500 and yet it keeps its library doors open. Good on them!

A pile of books

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“I hate the thought of no printed books, magazines or newspapers and the way of life they evoke. Books on the bedside table …” wrote Janet Weir in The Listener (13 August 2016). How I agree with her! The pile of books on my bedside table has been one of the very few constants in my life – in every country I’ve lived in, in every house, in every bedroom. I came away from our last trip to KL with the pile you can see in the photo above from the excellent Kinokuniya bookshop in the Suria Mall at KLCC. I have already read the Kiran Desai and have just finished Max Perkins – Editor of Genius. This morning before my walk I began the Gabrielle Zevin and really enjoyed the first 18 pages. I know I could have got copies of all these books for my e-reader but somehow it’s not nearly as exciting as having the pile of actual books, which creates a delicious sense of anticipation.

International coffee day

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Apparently that’s today. Who decides these things? But I have to say that sipping a coffee while reading a couple of chapters of my book is one of the greatest treats I can think of. My favourite coffee mug is the one in the pic above. It is exactly the right size, the thickness of the rim is perfect and it celebrates one of my favourite authors. What more could you want? The book in the pic is My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I have mixed feelings about this novel and have not yet read the others in the series. I wrote a “review” of it which you can find in the ‘Reading’ section of this website. I’d be interested to know what others think about the work of this generally well-reviewed and mysterious writer. Happy international coffee day everyone!

In praise of bookshops

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kinokuniya

As a life-long user of libraries, I used to view bookshops as an optional extra. Why buy a book that you are probably only going to read once when you can borrow it from the library? The only books I bought were those I’d already read and knew I would read again. But there are no libraries that cater for the likes of me in Ipoh. I have an e-reader and I can and do buy e-books. However, I still prefer an actual book. So it is with great delight that I anticipate my visit to the Kinokuniya bookshop in KLCC. We are in KL for a few days and a morning in this wonderful store is the first thing on my to-do list. I sometimes feel a pang of guilt when I spend hundreds of ringgit on books that probably will not fulfill the “read more than once” criterion. But books are the staff of life and, as my daughter wisely reminded me, writers need to be supported.

The Listener

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Listener

First a disclaimer – I am not employed by Listener or the Bauer Media Group (though I wish I was!). When we decided to move to Malaysia, I bought a subscription to the Listener and decided to get it delivered to us in Ipoh, rather than opting to read the online version. How glad I am! It is wonderful to get the latest copy every week (some weeks two magazines, the next none, due to the vagaries of PosMalaysia!) and settle down to read it from cover to cover. We enjoy the Quips&Quotes, the crossword and the quizword, Jane Clifton’s column and the indepth articles. It ensures that we feel connected to life in New Zealand. More than all that though I love the Books & Culture section. To get 10+ pages of book, music and movie reviews is such a gift in this digital age.