Book reviews - The Ginger Man (JP Donleavy)

This was on the shelves in my holiday cottage, and I picked it up because my parents always used to say how great it was and that I should read it. Fuck knows why - I'm pretty liberal, but it seems kind of inappropriate for an 8 year old I would say. That's hippy parents for you, though. Anyhoo, if I think about the premise of a drunken, promiscuous woman-beater I would probably have gone out on a kneejerk limb and said it's not for me. But the main protagonist actually turned out to be nonetheless engaging, and the writing style was to my taste enough that I'm probably gonna grab some more JP Donleavy next time I'm at the library.

The other book from the shelf that I leafed through was a modern guide to gardening. I mostly just read the chapters on the explicit instructions one should give one's gardening man on how to properly dig borders, maintain tools and scythe lawns. There were some black and white photos of a prime example of one's man, complete with bowler hat.

Book review - Solitude (Anthony Storr)

Can't remember where I saw this book namechecked, but I remember it appealed to my surly bastard nature, so I put it on my library list. And it did vindicate my need to have periods of being a miserable sod, as it provide an argument against the current trend of promoting healthy relationships as a form of maintaining mental health, plus the guy's a psychiatrist so has more weight than the average self-help blathermouth.

Several chapters deal with eminent creative people who thrived on solitude, and also how their childhoods may have contributed to this. There's also a chapter drawing together different personality type theories and how they explain peoples' need for solitude, and some treatment of how your need for relationships may change as you get older, or how it develops as a child. Interestingly, it flagged the capacity to be alone as an important part of mature psychological development.

All in all, vindication aside, a very interesting read.