vivdunstan

For any fellow Discworld fans the Discworld Reading Blanket is back in stock at the Discworld Emporium in Wincanton (*), after it sold out rapidly previously. Buying me one!

* Wincanton is the town very near to Martin's home village in Somerset. So where his family would go to the supermarket, post office, school etc. He went into the Discworld Emporium once, on a visit back home twenty years ago. Was rather wowed.

We've started watching the new remastered Blu-ray version of the BBC 1988-1990 Narnia TV stories. Working slowly through the three televised serials (Lion, Caspian & Dawn Treader, and Silver Chair), before watching the new extended combined making of documentary on the final disc.

First "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Which I watched in 1988, and later on video with Martin who'd never seen it. He's never seen the other Narnia TV stories at all.

Some quick thoughts, more about the production side of things than the story itself (mostly):

• Relatively little happens in quite a few of the earlier episodes, at least compared to 1984’s “The Box of Delights”, which admittedly I adore.
• I wondered where I recognised the Professor from. Seymour in Last of the Summer Wine! Which my family was glued to on Sunday nights back then.
• Barbara Kellerman’s White Witch stretches things too much towards overacting.
• Aslan’s camp looks to older me now more like a 60s hippies commune.
• Ronald Pickup - yay!
• Aslan moves his body well but his mouth movements are very stiff.
• I do like the special effects of the creatures and phantasms that the Witch conjured. But many of the other special effects are less successful for me, and often clunky. Again not overall as good for me as in the earlier Box of Delights.
• The direction could be better in a lot of places, to smooth how the child actors are handled. It just often feels awkward.
• And it is so unsubtly Christian. In the whole Narnia book series that is most true of this book and, above all, the final one. But I’m finding it harder to watch as an adult.

Despite all those thoughts I'm enjoying this rewatch, though am less appreciative of it now as an adult than I was as a child back in 1988. And I definitely don't think it's anywhere near as successful, or as good to rewatch years later, as my admittedly beloved Box of Delights.

Martin stunned me tonight by saying that he doesn't think he'd ever read any of the original Narnia books, even as a child, growing up in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s.

He also wouldn't have noticed the Christian/religious elements in this Narnia story, without me hinting. Despite growing up in a more religious and consistently church going household than me. Though we're not sure how much of that side of things sunk in.

From StoryGraph.

My end of year full reading recap will be posted on my main blog - and a link to it posted here - by Hogmanay. In the meantime, here is my complete list of books finished this year, including 4 newly finished since my last post.

( earlier books )
1. Alice's Oxford: People and Places that Inspired Wonderland by Peter Hunt
2. Wintering: How I learned to flourish when life became frozen by Katherine May
3. Silence in the Library / The Forest of the Dead by Dale Smith
4. The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Of the newly finished ones, Alice's Oxford was a little bit too speculative for my taste, and plagued with an overly small font. But I did find a lot to enjoy, and am very glad I read it. Though I wanted clearer maps, to understand the geography. I've only been to Oxford a couple of times.

Wintering promised so much but was ultimately extremely disappointing. It stretched the concept of "wintering" to breaking point, and was repeatedly too self indulgent and written from a position of great privilege which the author seemed quite unaware of. Some good bits in there, and at times her writing was truly beautiful. But in the end, nope, not good. And a very poor ending.

The Doctor Who book about River Song's introductory episodes is one in the "Black Archive" series of episode analysis books from Obverse Books. I liked a lot about this, but was frustrated by how much the author ended up writing about things outside the two episodes, including River Song's wider arc, Steven Moffat's writing more generally, and paraphrasing rather too many science books. In the end I gave it 3/5 stars, but it's not one of the best "Black Archive" books for me.

The King of Elfland's Daughter was my book club read for December. I'm very glad I read it. It's a classic fantasy, which has influenced many other authors, including Tolkien. But it had flaws. It's more descriptive-driven than either plot-driven or character-driven. And with a positively glacial pace of story I found it hard to stay engaged and keep reading through to the end. Yet overall glad that I read it. And I loved one character especially. But I don't think I will ever reread it.

Onto another one, which I could remember!

( spoilers )

My current main reading, on my Kindle, so I can read with the utterly gargantuan font that helps me keep reading with my progressive neurological illness. The 6 books shown are the ones I'm currently mainly cycling through. A mix of fiction and non fiction reads.

Almost finished Wheel of Time book 10, definitely a low point in the series for me. But relieved to have got through, albeit with much skimming! Look forward to getting through the rest, though it may take a couple of years to get through the remaining books, interspersed with other reads.

There are just 4 main books left, and I'm expecting to read 2 each in 2026 and 2027. I have them waiting on my Kindle (bought in reduced price sales). And looking forward to finishing them all. But very much need to spread them out. I have been reading this series very slowly since October 2021.

Onto another story ...

( spoilers )

Resuming my read of Wheel of Time book 10. Still enjoying the book series, though I've developed a very specific way of reading it, and still expect far too many characters/infodump from Robert Jordan early on! Currently pleased to see two characters again, and trying to remember prior plot for them!

This book is very much in the doldrums stage of the series, so if I can get through here I'm confident I'll get to the end. Making good progress anyway.

Advance reading something, and passed the words "high heid yin". One of my all time favourite Scots expressions, especially when used in the plural, that I still say regularly, including just a week ago when talking to Martin about something in our kitchen. I've also deployed it when asking an audience question 20+ years ago at a history research seminar at Dundee University, though I then felt the need to translate it for the visiting Welsh prof! For non-Scots friends it means someone in authority, a leader.

Checking back here I have mentioned this expression in a friends-locked post before, but it's well worth repeating!