The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Good books are like good food – too rich for one gulp
This week Rab contemplates the joy of dipping in and out of books, and how each of his current reads holds his (admittedly short) attention span – prepare for a trip across the literary landscape
Though terrible at multi-tasking, I’m a dab hand at multi-reading. Actually, I wish this weren’t the case and that I could just read one book at a time. But I’m like a bairn let loose in a sweetie shop, dipping into this, that and everything. I realised how mad it had become when, allotting myself a pre-prandial hour of reading in the back garden, I couldn’t decide which book to take, so took three. The three were those that I’d spent most time with recently and, if nothing else, show that I have wide tastes.
Boris Johnson’s biography of Churchill might seem an unlikely choice. I share few of Boris’s views, but at least can say I met him once, if briefly. When I was a reporter, I was sent to Northern Ireland, where then US president Bill Clinton was stravaiging hither and yon.
After that, he was due to head to Dublin. I was getting a lift thither with our photographer and we also had the late, great Ian Bell in the back. Amidst the hack-pack, before we set off, Boris was looking lost, and it transpired he was wondering how to get to Dublin.
I offered him a place in our car but, sizing us up briefly, he demurred. Three hairy Scotsmen? No thanks! Perhaps he recognised Ian, and knew that, with their views so opposed, he might find himself chucked out the vehicle on a sharp bend.
After dipping into Boris for a bit, a section on tanks fogs me rather so I reach for … Sophocles. Now, I have to confess here that I never met Sophocles nor offered him a lift in our car.
I also kind of kick myself for ordering this book because I’ve a whole shelf of such stuff and never finish any of it. Still, I think we have a duty towards it – origins of civilisation, literature and so forth – and should make the effort. Besides, I read some quotes from this version of the Theban plays recently and loved the translation.
Unfortunately, as so often with such tomes, the introduction goes on for ever, and also gives away the plot, so I lay Sophocles aside and reach for Reacher.
It’s said that someone buys one of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels every 20 seconds. Surely, that person must have the lot by now. Child’s main character is an ex-military drifter of huge build who traverses the USA righting wrongs.
The best thing about him is that is he isn’t a wet, Hollywood-style hero of the sort who say: “You’ve killed my entire family and, indeed, wiped out half the planet. But I’m going to let you off this time.”
No, if you’re a bad guy and Reacher catches up with you, you get severely biffed. Very satisfying.
The even better thing about Reacher is that he’s in great shape despite never going near a gym, sitting for days at a time on public transport, and eating humongous plates of bad food.
But his adventures make great pageturners, and I guarantee that my latest Reacher will be finished fairly quickly. Boris will probably be next and, as for Sophocles, I fear that may take some time. Still, Athens wasn’t built in a day, you know.