Read 'Em 'N' Weep! (Top 10 Books)

Member Name: Mad_Wicca

Product:	Top 10 Books
Date:	09/09/01 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I love them one and all!, Somewhere in this op you will learn about a 6 toed dog!

Disadvantages: Honestly, you really will weep, because this op is quite long, sorry...

I’ve been reading books since before I learnt to read. Sounds weird I know, but it’s what my parents always tell me, and in a way it’s true. As a tiny tot my favourite thing was to sit, ladybird book clutched between my podgy mitts, and make up stories to go with the pictures. When I finally cracked the alphabet code at school a whole new world opened up to me, a world I still love getting lost in to this day.

And because of this, dear Dooyoo-er, I have given a home to so many waifs and strays of the book world that I had a hard job picking my ten favourites. But not, as you may be thinking, because my list went beyond the requisite ten, far from it. I actually had a problem *finding* ten that I felt were worthy enough to be called my absolute favourites. For a good couple of hours I went from one room of the house to the next pouring over the books that fill my shelves.

But finally I managed it, so here is my top ten. I just could not put them in any sort of descending or ascending order, but I have tried to put them in the order that they came into my life, from childhood to the present day, and all those fiddly bits in between.

Title: James Herriot.
Author: James Herriot.
You may consider this book a bit of a cheat in a way. It’s the complete works of James Herriot comprising If Only They Could Talk, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet, Let Sleeping Vets Lie, Vet in Harness, Vets might Fly and Vet in a Spin. I don’t think it’s a cheat; it’s one book, all 829 pages bound together in one cover. Well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! There was no way I could just pick one James Herriot book, for me *all* of them were an essential part of my childhood, and I still get as much joy from them today as I did then.

These books made me realise that I too wanted to be a vet when I grew up, and this wasn’t any childhood whim. I stood strongly by this belief over ma
ny years, and nothing put me off. My hand? A cow’s bottom? Let me at it. Getting out of bed at 3am to rush to the aid of a farrowing pig? Pass me my trousers. However, whilst I was no slacker at school, my exam results were just not good enough for me to follow my dream.

Like a lot of children of the Seventies, it was the popular TV programme All Creatures Great and Small, starring Christopher Timothy, that first brought James Herriot to my attention. But it was the books on which the programme was based that really brought the young vet and the Yorkshire Dales alive for me.

I devoured these tales of a naïve, young vet of the 1930’s and the memorable characters he meets on his journey from a wet-behind-the-ears newly qualified vet to a partner in the practice, taking in marriage, a family and the Second World War along the way. His blustery boss, Siegfried Farnon, I grew to like, Siegfried’s younger brother, the work shy slacker Tristan, I had one of my first childhood crushes on.

Herriot’s engagingly humorous, sometimes desperately sad; look at a way of life that is now long gone shows a deep understanding and respect for the people and the county that he came to love. When I discovered that James Herriot was a real person, albeit named Alf Wight, and that the stories were based on his life, this only added to my enjoyment of his books, which I still pour over to this day. James Herriot taught me to love and respect both animals and the countryside; and for this I will always be truly thankful to him.

Title: All Quiet on the Western Front.
Author: Erich Maria Remarque.
At the age of 13 I had to read this book for an English assignment. We were told to read two chapters over the weekend, which we would then discuss the following week. When I returned to school on Monday I had finished the book, and had been moved more deeply than I had ever been in my entire life up to that point.

The boo
k follows 19 year-old Paul Bäumer and his school friends as they leave behind their childhood for the trenches of the First World War. One by one Paul watches his friends and fellow comrades die, some quickly, others agonisingly slowly. At the front Paul becomes ‘a man’ yet he has seen and done nothing, he has never had a job, a woman, a life. There is no patriotic rhetoric here, only a catalogue of death and destruction, not only of the flesh but also the soul.

This was the first time I ever read anything that showed what the Great War was like from the point of view of a German soldier. What I found was that it was no different from what our own forces suffered, bombardments, hunger, filth, rats, madness, loss, desolation. This book made me understand that Germany were not ‘the enemy’, but men, young and old, with families, friends, feelings and emotions, who, like the Allies, did what they had to do to stay alive; even if they didn’t understand why they were being made to do it.

‘I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how people are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another. I see the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring. And all men of my age, here and over there, throughout the world see these things; all my generation is experiencing these things with me… Through the years our business has been killing; - it was our first calling in life. Our knowledge of life is limited to death.’ All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Title: Mussolini – His Part in My Downfall.
Author: Spike Milligan.
From one world war to another!
Spike Milligan; love him or hate him you can’t get away from him. And I love him; I even named my third
cat after him! Until I read Spike’s war memoirs I knew little of the real man behind the laughs. When I had finished reading them my perception of Spike Milligan had drastically changed. He stopped being the man of a thousand funny voices that always made me laugh, and became so much more human to me.

Out of the 6, I chose the 4th in the series because this really gave me a deeper insight into what Milligan went through during the war. In 1940 civilian Spike became Gunner Milligan, 954024, when he was requested, by no less than the King of England, to join the 56th Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery, D Battery. After 2 years of Milligan guarding Bexhill-on-Sea, Churchill decide that if the Germans weren’t going to come to him then he was going to send Spike to them. And so the regiment set sail for North Africa, heading on to Salerno, Italy, which is where Mussolini – His Part in My Downfall picks up the story.

Whilst this is not as graphic in its depiction of war as ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, the feeling that these young men’s lives were at risk every minute of the day comes across strongly. Although he doesn’t go in for gory, dramatic accounts, Spike did see men die, some of them his friends, and this affected him deeply. This, and a mortar which almost landed on his head, eventually lead to the years of conflict catching up with Spike, and at the end of the book he is invalided to a hospital camp suffering the effects of Battle Fatigue.

‘We all sit on seats facing each other, not one face can I remember. Suddenly we are passing through our artillery lines as the guns fire. I jump at each explosion, then, a gesture I will never forget, a young soldier next to me with his right arm in a bloody sling put his arm around my shoulder and tried to comfort me. “There, there, you’ll be alright mate.”’ Mussolini – His Part in My Downfall – Spike Milligan.


The humour of the writing can only be Spike Milligan, but underlying all of this are the unique stories of friendship, kindness, and suffering that can only be experienced when coming face to face with man’s tireless pursuit of self-destruction, as Spike and so many of his generation did.

Title: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Author: Jeanette Winterson.
‘Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle; it didn’t matter what. She was in the white corner and that was that.’ Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson.

Thus begins the tale of Jeanette, adopted as a baby by working-class evangelists in the North of England, who bring her up to preach the gospel, one day hoping she will rival such spiritual luminaries as Testifying Elsie and Pastor Spratt. Her overpowering mother has Jeanette’s life mapped out for her, training her from an early age to become a missionary in far off ‘heathen’ lands. But Jeanette has other plans.

I saw about half an hour of this series when it was on TV and, much as I enjoyed it, I didn’t watch anymore. I had come into it half way through and I just hate missing the beginning of anything, so I decided to read the book instead. It’s full of ‘issues’ such as lesbianism, religion and teenage angst. But when I really think about why I like this book it’s quite simply for its humour, even through Jeanette’s bleakest moments there runs a tender, black humour, gently poking fun at the way this family and their church companions live their lives. This is not your typical teenage girl coming-of-age tale, but a witty, wonderfully written story of an upbringing that is far from normal.

Title: Witches Abroad.
Author: Terry Pratchett.
Terry Pratchett, again, is another author you either love or hate, but I love gettin
g lost in a Discworld novel and so in he goes. For me Witches Abroad is my most favourite of all the 26 Discworld tales, mainly for its three main characters, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, but also because he tells a great story whilst putting a brilliant twist on some classic old fairytales.

The three witches have to travel across the Discworld to reach the city of Genua in time to stop a servant girl marrying a prince. Sounds easy? Not when the furthest they’ve ever been is to the end of their village and back, and the only thing they have to help them is a fairy-godmothering wand that only does pumpkins.

I can read this book again and again, for the simple reason that it makes me laugh. Nanny Oggs ‘grasp’ of foreign languages, Granny Weatherwax’s refusal to remove any of her three vests as the weather gets hotter and hotter and Magrat’s terrible attempts at godmothering all make for a crackingly good read.

"Baths is unhygienic," Granny declared. "You know I've never agreed with baths. Sittin' around in your own dirt like that." Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett.

Title: Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
Author: Kate Atkinson.
I’ve written an op on this and I do seem to be waffling on, so if you want to see what I think in full about this book then you could pop and have a look at that; here I’ll just keep it short.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum portrays the life of Ruby Lennox, from her grudging conception in 1951, and early life in the city of York, to the solitude she finds on the Shetland Islands in her later years. Along the way we meet Ruby’s middle-class family, past and present, and share with them all their joys, heartaches and wrath at the way their lives have not turned out as they had expected.

Stunning book, superbly written and it made me think a lot about my own life.

Title: The An
cient British Goddess.
Author: Kathy Jones.
I found this book quite by chance in a little bookshop in Glastonbury. I bought it, took it home, read it and it changed my life. After years of reading, pondering and claiming atheism this book helped me to clarify my personal belief system, and see that I had been walking a certain path in my life for some time, I just hadn’t noticed!

Kathy Jones explores the myths, legends and sacred sights of the Goddess in Britain, revealing that, as a country, we seem to know more about the Goddesses of Greece and Rome than we do about our own. If you’re interested in this type of spirituality then this little book is a marvelous guide and a fascinating read.

‘For the ancient British Goddess has not disappeared. She is still here, though we may have forgotten her.’ The Ancient British Goddess – Kathy Jones.

Title: I Bought a Mountain.
Author: Thomas Firbank.
It was the title of this book that first caught my eye. When I saw it sitting there on a car boot stall I thought, ‘Why? Why has he bought a mountain? What’s he going to do with a mountain? I wonder how much a mountain costs? I wonder how much that book costs?’ Well, all my questions were answered when I handed over my 10p and went home for an enlightening read. Yes, Thomas Firbank did buy a mountain, but not because it was just a mountain. This mountain happened to have a sheep farm nestled into its craggy Welsh folds, and this was actually what Thomas Firbank paid his £5,000 for.

That might not sound very much for a 2,400 acre sheep farm, sheep thrown in, but this was the 1930’s and Firbank had worked for two years in a Canadian factory to raise the capital, even then he still had to take out a mortgage. Thomas Firbank had an urge to farm, was drawn to it, yet he had never farmed a day in his life when he bought Dyffryn in Snowdon. I Bought a Mountain is not an in-depth lo
ok at Firbanks personal life as a farmer (he meets, courts and marries his wife in one paragraph!), it is a spellbinding tale of how, with the help of the local farmers around him, he struggled and fought to farm his land and build it to prosperity.

I love this book. I love this book for its invocation of a time long past, where people who lived on the land had to fight every day just to exist. It’s not romanticized, nor is there any humour, but you get the feel for Firbanks love of the land, his flock and the local people who share so much of their knowledge with him, urging him on to succeed in what at first seems a doomed venture.

‘…man was born of husbandry. In the bleak times ahead he may turn again to his only sure help, the soil. He will readjust his values, and may taste in the end the ultimate joy of tending Nature in her labour.’ I Bought a Mountain - Thomas Firbank.

Title: Alias Grace.
Author: Margaret Atwood.
This is a marvellous historical novel that, although based in fact, is still a work of fiction. It charts the life of Grace Marks, one of Canada’s most notorious female criminals, who in 1840 at the age of 16 was convicted, along with a male accomplice, of murdering her employer and his mistress. Her trial caused worldwide headlines and, although she was found guilty, opinions remained divided as to her actual level of guilt.

Atwood has researched this book unbelievably well, no aspect of Victorian life, or the case of Grace Marks being overlooked. The characters she has created come alive on the page, particularly Grace, who we follow from her childhood in Ireland to her emigration to Canada and subsequent thirty years in prison. As her life begins to unravel, the reader is kept tantalisingly in suspense as to whether Grace actually committed her bloody crime. This revelation, when finally reached at the end of the novel, will take your breath away.

‘Sometimes
I whisper it over to myself: Murderess. Murderess. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt along the floor.’ Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood.

One of *the* best books I have ever read.

Title: Dogs.
Author: David Alderton.
I have always adored dogs, but more than that, I have always loved reading about them. I am fascinated by how breeds were ‘mixed and matched’ to become the standard pedigrees we all recognise today. I thought I had quite an extensive knowledge on dogs and their ancestry until I came across this book. There are breeds in here I had never even heard of; the Cirneco dell’Etna, Mudi, Estrela Mountain Dog, Russo European Laika… I could go on, but I won’t. Suffice to say this book is a mine of information and one I never grow tired of dipping into.

If you got this far I’d like to thank you for your time. I know this been a hefty op but I felt there was no other way I could justify my choice of books to you without trying to get across the essence of these varied tomes and what they mean to me. Hey, think yourself lucky, this is the edited version! I would like to leave you with a rather marvellous description of a wonderful dog I found in my last book choice. Enjoy!

‘Ludenhund
Its specialised breeding has resulted in well-developed feet, additional toes, and extra joints to aid in its traditional job of scaling cliff faces in search of Puffins. This agile dog can bend its head horizontally backwards almost to touch its back. The Ludenhund went into decline, however, along with the popularity of Puffin hunting, and at one point there were only 50 individuals know to exist. The Ludenhund can close its ears to keep out water.’ Dogs – David Alderton.

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