“You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff”

The Grapes of Wrath is a book I've been inspired to put on my shortlist since I realised that I had a few songs in my record collection which were inspired by the book and the John Ford film adaptation.

Having looked the book up, it seems it would be a timely read at the moment too....

"No, you’re wrong there—quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it.”

Are there many other books that have inspired lots of songs down through the decades like this?

Fifth Business | Holy Moly

Not all of us were convinced. Well, I wasn't....

Italo Calvino | If On A Winter's Night A Traveller

Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell gives a terrific introduction to our next book in this eight year old Guardian piece.

It is, as he says, a very eccentric book. A book about books and about reading books, and writing books. Appropriate therefore for a book group. Possibly.

You Tube also has some stuff related to the book. Such as this...

I had forgotten how difficult it is to post here! well, only three people had finished Fifth Business - and we all liked the downplayed view of the world. Looking forward to next month when Thomas and Martin might have finished it as I'd like to hear their thoughts on the main theme of the book as well as the denouement/

JG Ballard would love The Shard

This building is nearly complete. I hope they've read High Rise....

Fancy living on the 58th floor?

Britannia Panopticon

Britannia Panopticon

Does anyone remember some of us at the book club expressing an interest in visiting the Panopticon on Argyle Street?  I seem to remember someone saying that it was quite difficult to find out what events were taking place there, well, they now have a website with a list of upcoming events! 

 http://www.britanniapanopticon.org/events.html

I think this could be an interesting (I've put 'interesting' there instead of any kind of positive committal to the quality of the proceedings!) night out, would quite like to go see something there, the Laurel & Hardy movie night or Gladstone's Bag perhaps.....

I'm not sure if this is correct usage of the blog as it is meant to be about all things book related? So to meet the quota, here is a picture of a book:



Would be good to arrange a night out here if anyone fancies it?

RIP Ray Bradbury 1920-2012