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Wednesday Reading Meme
Mar. 12th, 2025 12:55 pmWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I finished Vanity Fair! Yes indeed I did! ( spoilers for the ending )
I also read Idwal Jones’s Whistlers’ Van, a 1937 Newbery Honor book, which I approached with trepidation as the Wikipedia description says “it tells the story of a young farmboy, Gwilym, who spends one summer traveling with the gypsies,” which seems like something that could go quite wrong.
Now of course I don’t know anything about the Rommany (as Jones spells it) in early twentieth century Wales, so who knows how authentic Jones’s portrayal is, but it feels well-observed and affectionate, although perhaps more accurate to Jones’s Welsh boyhood in the 1890s than the Wales of the 1930s. (But, again, you could fill a thimble with my knowledge of Wales in the 1930s and still have room to spare, so maybe motor cars were still comparatively rare interlopers in rural Wales in the 1930s.) The structure is quite loose - it just sort of meanders along till it stops - but overall an enjoyable read.
What I’m Reading Now
Bits and pieces of this and that, but nothing I feel compelled to post about at this time.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve decided it wouldn’t be fair to Laura Amy Schlitz’s Amber and Clay to read it too close to Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits (about which more anon), so I’ve put it off for a more convenient season.
I finished Vanity Fair! Yes indeed I did! ( spoilers for the ending )
I also read Idwal Jones’s Whistlers’ Van, a 1937 Newbery Honor book, which I approached with trepidation as the Wikipedia description says “it tells the story of a young farmboy, Gwilym, who spends one summer traveling with the gypsies,” which seems like something that could go quite wrong.
Now of course I don’t know anything about the Rommany (as Jones spells it) in early twentieth century Wales, so who knows how authentic Jones’s portrayal is, but it feels well-observed and affectionate, although perhaps more accurate to Jones’s Welsh boyhood in the 1890s than the Wales of the 1930s. (But, again, you could fill a thimble with my knowledge of Wales in the 1930s and still have room to spare, so maybe motor cars were still comparatively rare interlopers in rural Wales in the 1930s.) The structure is quite loose - it just sort of meanders along till it stops - but overall an enjoyable read.
What I’m Reading Now
Bits and pieces of this and that, but nothing I feel compelled to post about at this time.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve decided it wouldn’t be fair to Laura Amy Schlitz’s Amber and Clay to read it too close to Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits (about which more anon), so I’ve put it off for a more convenient season.
