We have An Experiment today. I was planning on coming up to the desk and typing out the thoughts I’d already written down in my reading journal about these two books. It was also in my mind that I’d mentioned my reading journal in a comment on someone else’s blog post, and it might be nice to share it. So, here’s the experiment – instead of typing it all out again, I’ve photographed my reading journal pages for the two books I’m reviewing here.
Please, please let me know what you think and if you like or dislike it. For these two, you need to know that “ing” = “interesting” – if this is a success, I will endeavour to write with fewer contractions. And if you have any kind of accessibility issue such as visual impairment, please let me know right away if this is not good for you and I’ll type them out and revert back to standard. Here goes, though … “bear with, bear with” as they said on the local radio station the other day.
Ken Livingstone – “You Can’t Say That”
(Bought The Works, 08 January 2015)
This book would suit: Well, I’m a lefty politics memoir reading history fan and I found it tough going for much of the first half … um …
David Bellos – “Is that a Fish in Your Ear?”
(21 January 2015 – birthday present)
This book would suit: Translators and other wordy people (in fact, so suitable for translators that the ones I offered it to already had it on loan from someone else!).
I’m currently still reading and loving Harold Nicolson’s Diaries and Letters, and I’ve started “To the Lighthouse” for #Woolfalong, although the review of that one will be next month!
Do let me know what you think of the new (lazy) format!
Edited to add black and white, higher contrast image to see if that’s better for VI people and accessibility.
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
Feb 29, 2016 @ 22:18:14
I like the format Liz! And I was interested in the review of the Bellos book as I’ve read many of his translations of Perec – I’m not sure the mechanics of the process are really for me, though!
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 10:29:01
It’s really interesting and quite easy to follow until you get into the simultaneous translation bit, happy to send it down to you if you’d like! And I’m glad you like the new format, not sure whether it will stick at the moment …
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Feb 29, 2016 @ 22:53:37
What neat writing you have! My notes would incomprehensible to anyone else – in fact, they’re quite often incomprehensible to me! Hmm… Ken looks like it’s a bit of a treadmill marathon. Well done for getting through it – I’ve got a few review copies to read before I get to it…
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 10:28:13
I’m not sure you’ll love it, to be honest … thanks for the nice comments about my handwriting, though – if I carry on doing this, I will leave out some of the contractions!
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Feb 29, 2016 @ 23:30:18
I like your new format. Your handwriting is lovely – mine is horrible. I often find other people’s handwriting difficult to read and generally prefer printed/typed text. However your handwriting is much easier to read.
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 10:27:32
Thank you – I have always liked writing with an ink pen (my writing in biro is not nice) and carrying on writing in my journals has helped me keep it up!
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 09:58:41
Your handwritten entries look inviting and intriguing, rather like old letters found in a drawer! Because my form of VI prevents me from focussing I can only read a word here and there. I wonder if it would work better with a black on white contrast. Other people with different forms of VI may find it accessible. For reasons too absurd to go into here, I don’t use Voiceover but it could be worth experimenting to see if that works. Lovely idea and refreshing to see characterful handwriting for a change. As a side issue, I should say that I sometimes ask people to read handwritten notes or postcards to me and many fully sighted people nowadays find that difficult. I hope this isn’t another skill that we lose.
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 10:25:18
Thank you so much for your input, I didn’t want to make them unreadable for you. I’ve just added a black and white version with the contrast turned up, can you let me know if that’s better for you? Also, can you read it less well than the standard printed fonts we’re seeing here, etc?
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 21:34:27
That’s much better. I can read it with my magnifier. It is more effort than reading print but perfectly possible. I think most of us are becoming unused to reading script and it is refreshing to see it on your blog. As a point of interest contrast and light are most helpful for people with VI….subtlety doesn’t hack it!
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 21:44:56
Great – what I’ll do is provide a version in high contrast at the end of each post for VI people. Thank you for helping with that!
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Mar 01, 2016 @ 22:23:02
This may be a first! Terrific. Thanks.
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State of the TBR – March 2016 | Adventures in reading, writing and working from home
Mar 01, 2016 @ 20:15:09
Mar 01, 2016 @ 23:02:25
Interesting approach Liz. I found the black on white easier to read.
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Mar 02, 2016 @ 08:25:57
Thank you, and that’s good to know. If I carry on doing that, I will always add a b/w copy in higher contrast at the end.
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Mar 03, 2016 @ 06:11:53
Your handwriting is very readable though the black on white is slightly easier. Handwrittten though it does make the single paragraph one block of text look more daunting because it looks longer.
Fiction Fan, are you talking about review copies before you read this doorstep bio from a few years ago, or his new book?
I’ve had the one reviewed here on my Kindle for over 4 years – it was one of the first Kindle Daily Deals in November 2011.
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Mar 03, 2016 @ 08:19:40
Thank you – and how interesting, as actually I tend to expand on my written reviews when I type them up, so the typed ones are usually longer!
Fiction Fan has the older Ken book, I think she’s talking about having other review copies of books to get through before she starts on it. She found a copy in a charity shop, and bought it inspired by the bit where I started to enjoy it.
Have you read it? I’d think of you as a fairly ideal reader, too – don’t know what you think of Our Ken but I know you will have an understanding of the London and national issues. So I’ll be fascinated to hear what you think of it.
And re the new book: I heard about it ON THE DAY I finished this one. “Oh no!” I cried. “Not another one!” …
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Mar 11, 2016 @ 20:17:45
Bizarrely, I arrived here by clicking on your Twitter link on your LibroEditing blog where you were talking about transcribing, only to find that you have decided not to transcribe your reading notes here. Funny when you think about it! I like the idea of taking a photo of your notes if they’re legible, which yours are, mostly. My notes are often not presentable. I have started to make notes on my phone note app, then send them to myself as an email that I can copy/paste into a review, blog post or Word. It would actually be faster to type on my laptop, but then I’d risk being sucked into the depths of the internet and forgetting my book. FWIW, I prefer the lower-contrast version of your notebook.
As for Ken Livingstone, I clearly remember listening to a speaker, a high-up in the world of Guiding, back in 1982 or thereabouts, who told an anecdote about visiting Ken Livingstone to ask for funding for some Guiding project. According to her, he was childishly keen to listen to any sob-story he was told. Still, I think he’s one of the good guys in politics, on the whole, and not above laughing at himself. Certainly one of the more memorable characters over the past few decades.
I look forward to following this blog,
An Integrated Expat, a translator and a BCer and Goodreader who’s AKA Bookguide
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Mar 12, 2016 @ 06:17:02
Thank you for your comment. Ironically, I do really like typing up other people’s text from notes (not that I get to do that very often) but it was the time spent out of my free time that was bothering me. I like the original version of the photo too, but as I have a friend with visual impairment, I’m very careful about accessibility, and that just wasn’t working. Thanks for the KL comment, too – be warned, though, that the bio is pretty dull! I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog – you won’t get millions of posts but hopefully enough to maintain interest!
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Mar 12, 2016 @ 16:17:58
Something tells me I will never get round to reading KL’s biography; I delegated that to you. Thank you for the review! And a blog with millions of posts doesn’t make it a good blog. Quality over quantity, I say.
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Handwriting | A New Look Through Old Eyes
Mar 21, 2016 @ 21:53:39
Jan 02, 2017 @ 11:24:41
Nice handwriting…are you aware of ‘bullet journaling’ ? Possibly everyone is except me – I only stumbled across it a few months ago. But if you haven’t I can imagine it might appeal to you. I don’t use the full original system nor have I gone down the ultra arty/crafty route. But I’ve always been a notebook lover, longhand list maker, planner & recorder – and I’ve picked up some very satisfying tips and ideas (such as the simple page numbering and indexing of notebooks – why did that never occur to me?! Makes it so much easier to find things I’m looking for, such as notes taken at a particular workshop) from the online bullet journaling community.
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Jan 02, 2017 @ 11:41:21
Ah yes, I am aware of that and also aware I would get obsessed with it. I do love notebooks but really only keep a reading one nowadays. What I DO need to do is finish the Excel spreadsheet index to the book journals from before I started blogging, so I can find the reviews if I need to!
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