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Tag Archives: Rafael Sabatini

Pirates?

03 Thursday Oct 2019

Posted by la Clarina in Books, Stories

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John Steinbeckhine Tey, Josephine Tey, Pirates, R. L. Stevenson, Rafael Sabatini

A couple of weeks ago my mother discovered, with considerable amusement, the existence of Talk Like a Pirate Day, and asked why I didn’t post about it.

“Never have,” I said. “I don’t even like pirate stories.”

“Nonsense,” was the answer. “You’ve read lots of them.”

And I protested that no, really – in fact, I rather dislike pirate stories… And I was thinking of Jack Sparrow and company, but even more of Salgari’s insufferable Sandokan and multi-coloured corsairs, without which no Italian childhood is considered complete… Continue reading →

August Readings

17 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by la Clarina in Books

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Arthur Conan Doyle, Rafael Sabatini, Reading, Rosemary Sutcliff, summer

You know how I’m forever bemoaning the Reading Weeks I never get?

Well, this year, thanks to a longer rehearsals break, I’ve decided that things can take care of themselves for a few days while I read a little for fun and pleasure… Continue reading →

Perchance to read…

25 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by la Clarina in Books

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Edward Rutherford, Georgette Heyer, Josephine Tey, Muriel Bradbrook, p. f. chisholm, Patricia Finney, Rafael Sabatini, Reading vacation

readerbooksHere we go again. Summer is back, and I am thinking about a Reading Week. As usual, I still don’t know whether I’ll manage it: work is rather intense, the revision is only a week away, and I have a short play to write… There is no question of going anywhere – but that’s all right if only I can get myself a week of blissful, uninterrupted reading. Why, at a pinch, even half a week would do very well.

When? No idea. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’m hoarding books like there is no tomorrow. Let us see… Continue reading →

He Was Born with a Gift of Laughter…

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by la Clarina in Books

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Captain Blood, Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche

SabatiniI have to wonder: are Sabatini fans divided between, say, Captain Blood persons and Scaramouche persons? Just one of those entirely irrelevant questions – and after all, I am a Sabatini fan, without feeling the least compulsion to be either sort of person… Continue reading →

Song of the Summer Books

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by la Clarina in Books

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Baroness Orczy, john masefield, Rafael Sabatini, summer reads, summer vacations

6a011570c3de61970c0192aaa933ac970dI’ll confess I’m beginning to feel like taking a break, a vacation, a something…

Oh, I’m not going anywhere, not this summer. Too much work, too many projects, too many engagements, too many things to do. There is no conceivable way to do what I did last year: ten days in a little seaside hotel, writing and reading to my heart’s content, only interrupting myself for sleep, meals, and some nordic walking on the beach. I even had a lovely storm once, and sat up through half the night to watch the dark and angry sea… Very nice, on the whole, but when I realised there would be no chance for a repeat this summer, I just shrugged it off. Who needs vacations, I told myself.

But this was back in early June, and now is early August, and I’m not all that sure anymore.

It’s not that I miss the seaside – if anything, last year served as proof that I can live without the Adriatic, and that I like the literary notion of the sea much better than the thing itself – but… but.

There is a tiny pile of books, you see. One is John Masefield‘s Live and Kicking Ned. Then there are Rafael Sabatini‘s The Sea Hawk, Baroness Orczy‘s The Nest of the Sparrowhawk, and a couple of historical mysteries… All of them the sort of summer readings that are a vacation in and of themselves. Books that are the adult equivalent of an afternoon of glorious make-believe – you know the sort.

I came by them at different times through the last six or sevent months, and set them aside. For summer, I told myself. To pack in my bag when – if – I go anywhere. To give myself a treat if I go nowhere at all. A nice notion, don’t you think? Deck chairs in the garden, lemon popsicles, cricket-filled nights of reading in bed… Very nice.tyjtr

Except, there is no time. Days are too full to indulge – and frankly, there are far too many mosquitos to linger in the garden at all – and reading time is swallowed up by things I need to read for documentation… Which is all very interesting, but not at all restful, and… and yes, I’m really beginning to feel like that vacation now.

But I rather doubt I’ll have it… I’m beginning a summer course tomorrow, and a new translation job just rolled in, and I have a couple of deadlines looming, and then there is the Paper Stage project, and ten days of intense volunteer work await me at the end of August, and what remains of summer looks dreadfully short as it is. I very, very much doubt there’s going to be time for much. Perhaps one little book, if I try hard?

Ah well, Tiny Pile of Summer Books, what can I say? It would have been nice. Next year, perhaps.

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