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gnewt58

gnewt58@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 1 year, 6 months ago

He/him. Living and working in Melbourne Australia. Aging, with a lifelong interest in reading but not many books actually consumed these days. Would love to recapture the voraciousness of my youth.

Mastodon: @gerg@hachyderm.io

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gnewt58's books

Read (View all 12)

Eric Newby: Love And War in the Apennines (Paperback, 1999, Lonely Planet Publications)
Christopher Priest: The Inverted World (1974)
Emma Lathen: Murder Against the Grain (Paperback, 1982, Pocket)

Stopped Reading

Natasha Walter: A quiet life (2016)

2025 Reading Goal

8% complete! gnewt58 has read 2 of 24 books.

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reviewed Love And War in the Apennines by Eric Newby

Eric Newby: Love And War in the Apennines (Paperback, 1999, Lonely Planet Publications)

A memorable memoir

This is a beautiful homage to rural life and the mid 20th century residents of the Apennines, as much as it is a war story. Newby evokes the spirit of the farms, homes, woodlands and peaks until you can feel the smoke smarting in your eyes, and draws the inhabitants with equal skill. Highly recommended

avatar for gnewt58 gnewt58 boosted

quoted Dictionary of English down the Ages by Linda Flavell

Linda Flavell, Roger Flavell: Dictionary of English down the Ages (Paperback, 2005, Kyle Cathie Limited) No rating

[on the history of “ginger”] • In the early eighteenth century horse dealers discovered that inserting ginger into a horse's backside made him sprightly and hold his tail well. According to Francis Grose's CLASSICAL DICTIONARY OF THE VULGAR TONGUE (1785), the original term was to feague a horse. (Grose adds that, before ginger was thought of, an eel was reputedly used for the same purpose.) Not surprisingly, to feague was eventually replaced by a new coinage, to ginger, which appeared in print in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. This verb, often with the particularly appropriate addition of up, was soon figuratively extended to mean 'to liven up', and in this sense is now a common colloquialism.

— Dictionary of English down the Ages by , (Page 69 - 70)

I have so many questions.

reviewed Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley

Anthony Berkeley: Jumping Jenny (2024, British Library Publishing)

If at first you don't succeed...

Content warning Slight plot reveals

finished reading Murder Against the Grain by Emma Lathen

Emma Lathen: Murder Against the Grain (Paperback, 1982, Pocket) No rating

Murder Against the Grain won the Crime Writers Association's Gold Dagger Award in 1967.

…

First in a long and well respected series but a little dated, which given my recent reading history is an odd thing for me to say. I'm unlikely to follow the sleuthing banker any further...

reviewed Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards, Gil North: Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm (Paperback, 2016, Poisoned Pen Press)

>>He could feel it in the blackness, a difference in atmosphere, a sense of …

Muddy stolid drama

A tale of muddy moors, muddy towns, muddy people living lonely depressing lives (and deaths). A grim alternative picture to the Yorkshire of "All Creatures Great and Small"

reviewed Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm by Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards, Gil North: Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm (Paperback, 2016, Poisoned Pen Press)

>>He could feel it in the blackness, a difference in atmosphere, a sense of …

Muddy stolid drama

A tale of muddy moors, muddy towns, muddy people living lonely depressing lives (and deaths). A grim alternative picture to the Yorkshire of "All Creatures Great and Small"