Goofing Off

This being a public holiday I'd intended to get quite a bit of work done, as is the way of things in this Far Place. But I ended up doing not very much at all. I kept finding ways of urgently entertaining myself, and I must say I consider the day well spent.

First I indulged in a bit of serious listening to Ludwig Van - Symphony 1, as essayed by Roger Norrington and a group of those original instrument chappies. From what I can gather the cognoscenti regard the First as more than a little conventional and, thus, a bit of a damp squib in the great Romantic revolutionary's array of fireworks. But I love the piece, especially when it features the kind of drums Norrington employs.

After that I decided I needed to make some headway with Anthony Price's The Alamut Ambush, having got bogged down around the third chapter. To my surprise I'd finished it by early afternoon. Definitely readable, but lacking the kind of historical background that becomes a hallmark of the later Audley novels.

Then for some reason I don't quite understand I put on Roger Waters's The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. I suppose because I've hardly listened to it since buying it on a whim and felt it deserved better. Now I'm not sure it does. Some excellent playing, especially by Eric Clapton, but hollow at the centre, and Mr Waters's vocals are off-puttingly overwrought.

And then I picked up Philip Roth's Indignation, and was lost. Another in the remarkable line of extremely readable, resonant novels Roth has produced seemingly effortlessly in his senior years. I couldn't put it down and went cover to cover in around three hours, most happily.

Yes, a day wasted is a day to savour.