Literary matters

Now about half way into my 12 week promotional offer for lapsed subscribers from the TLS. Some issues have had interest but the last couple have not.

So this week kicked off with a couple of books about women in the world of work. No interest. Onto a couple of books about the age of the flappers. No interest. A minor Tolkien. Of minor interest to learn about Tolkien floundering before finding his literary niche. A book about the treasure of Richard II, again of minor interest, at the major price of £95. A book about the carvings on Roman coffins, often erotic; more minor interest at major price, this time £150. Uninteresting articles about books about North Korea and elephants. Literature academe, cultural events, modern fiction (from which I sometimes pick a plum) and poetry (from which I never pick a plum) making up most of the balance. All in all, not a good use of time. More interest in one of the growing number of unread new-to-me books lurking in the pile in the study. Direct debit stopped again, pending working down said pile of the great unread.

And, while on holiday recently, had my first foray into the written world of Morse, with what appears to be the penultimate outing with Morse catching diabetes big time in 'Death is now my neighbour'. Readable, in that I did get to the end, but a fairly careless read and I had trouble keeping track of all the shenanigans, despite having seen the television adaptation several times (this last much enlivened by the late Richard Briars as a masterly if improbable baddie). Rather put off by the steady drip feed of mentions of legs, strippers and pornography and the steady refrain of Morse in the boozer. I much preferred Agatha Christie and I don't suppose I shall be having another crack at Colin Dexter any time soon. Similar looking pedigree to the otherwise rather posher John le Carré. I wonder which of the two ended up the richer? Did they share or declare a banal hobby like train sets or jigsaws?

PS: took me a while to work out that blogger was querying 'neighbour' in the foregoing because of the unamerican 'u'. Usually a bit quicker on the uptake.