Trainspotting

Title: Trainspotting
Author: Irvine Welsh
Published: 1993, this Vintage edition is from 2004.
Genre: Scotland takes drugs in psychic defence
Pages: 344


I know, I know, I know... sooo many other books to read, for the first time! But sometimes the urge to read Trainspotting gets too strong, and you gotta give in. I need to, anyway. It really got me through one of the most stressful weeks at work I've had in ages.

As many times as I've read this, one of my absolute favourites, this might well be the first time I've read it in the original lingo. At least it was the first time I've read this particular copy of mine. The Scottish dialect bits, I had to read those 'out loud' in my mind sometimes, before I understood what was being said, what was happening. Although I did already remember most bits by now...

Trainspotting! Update from last time, I did manage to convince my brother to watch the movie. He liked it.It's -both the book and movie- about heroin addicts in Leith, Scotland, and their messed-up lives. And it's just so fucking good. It's also ugly and parts make you cringe and gag, but Welsh has a way with his words, humour sharp as a needle, and you just keep coming back for one more hit. Luckily, once you've bought the book, and/or the movie, you don't have to pay: it's only the first hit that costs you. I'm sorry, I'm trying to be witty, but ah'm just a wee bit pished.


   Ah hate cunts like that. Cunts like Begbie. Cunts that are intae baseball-batting every fucker that's different; pakis, poofs, n what huv ye. Fuckin failures in a country ay failures. It's nae good blamin it oan the English fir colonising us. Ah don't hate the English. They're just wankers. We are colonised by wankers. We can't even pick a decent, vibrant, healthy culture to be colonised by. No. We're ruled by effete arseholes. What does that make us? The lowest of the fuckin low, the scum of the earth. The most wretched, servile, miserable, pathetic trash that was ever shat intae creation. Ah don't hate the English. They just git oan wi the shite thuv goat. Ah hate the Scots. 

Valentine Grey

Title: Valentine Grey
Author: Sandi Toksvig
Published: 2012
Genre: War and Victorian London.
Pages: 334 plus bibliography and such




I always love it when Sandi Toksvig is a guest on QI, she's just great and funny, so when I found this lovely thing at the bookshop -on the same trip when I found Maxie Mainwaring: that was a good, good day- I was just tickled pink! The book's about the Boer war, and life of gay people in the Victorian times, so I wasn't expecting a giggle a minute, but I have to say, I also didn't expect to have my heart torn to pieces! Wahh!!!


Valentine Grey, our heroine, spent her first ~15 years in India, as the apple of her father's eye. Things change drastically when she gets sent to her uncle's house in London, where she has to wear skirts and shoes and act the proper lady. Lucky for her, she gets along famously with her cousin Reggie, who takes her out into the city, and to meet his lover, the lovely Frank.


Then on comes the second Boer war against the Dutch, in South Africa. But instead of the dandy Reggie, it's Valentine who puts on the uniform and heads out for adventure! Cross-dressing fun and jolly war adventures, right? Nooo! Toksvig thankfully doesn't romanticize war and has tossed cliches aside. So, even though yes, my heart is still bleeding, I loved this book and its characters. Plus, there was the history lesson, which I always like. Even if it's on such an ugly thing as a war.




   Now Reggie was cross. 'Why must you be so adventurous, Valentine? Honestly, you scared me half to death. It's so unnecessary. Why can't we all just sit? Read a book or something? Do what English people are supposed to do and spend an hour on the weather?'