December's reading

St Gaspard


Not content with finishing one bathroom, Jon has now started work on the downstairs 'smallest room', also known as the reading room as we have bookshelves in there. Storage was one of our major concerns when we moved in with the boxes of books, already reduced in number from the vast collection we had in the UK.

We seem to have shelves of books in most rooms whilst still trying to keep the number down to a reasonable level and, finally, beginning to get over the compulsion to keep every book we have read over the years. Now we are more willing to part with books after we have both read them, although so far they have only got as far as the garage. Our original intention was to take some back to the UK to charity shops there and the better ones were going to be sold on Amazon, unfortunately we filled the car so much with other things that there was no room for them.

There are a couple of charities here that will take English books, and there is also a recently discovered small library run by a French/British association locally so we may be able to offer some of them there. Just as long as we remember to put them in the car one day when we go out.

We have just read the latest reading group read. Alan Alda's autobiography 'Never Have Your Dog Stuffed'. We both really enjoyed this insight into the actor's childhood and his strained relationship with his mother who suffered from schitzophrenia and an alcohol problem. His book isn't the usual 'I'm a celebrity, look at me I'm wonderful' type of book littered with references to other actors and actresses. Instead it is the story of his unusual childhood, his struggle to get work as an actor leading to his success in the series M.A.S.H, and the story of his love for his wife and family.

Now we move on to Lionel Schriver's 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' which, from first glance through looks rather more challenging!