123 - Another Beginning

I started trying to write a novel the other day and over the last four or five days I've written about a thousand words. I'm not sure if that's good progress or not. I've got a much better idea of what I'm doing than with anything I've written before though.

In between this and working I've hardly had time to read recently.

That said, I've made a huge leap in my reading of Wells. When I reached the second volume he launched into a very interesting discussion of the purpose of novel writing.

Mostly though, I've been reading a new book I found somewhere around the house. It's much more dog-eared than I usually like my books to be but it is bookmarked with a petrol receipt signed by my grandfather, Pa-B, which immediately attracted me to it. The book in question is Eric Newby's 'A Book of Travellers' Tales'. It's an anthology of short extracts from travel books ranging from antiquity to the present day and ordered by area. It's very interesting and easy to dip into due to the short length of the extracts.

My favourite quote from it so far: ' Between 1928 and 1937 Waugh had "no fixed home and no possessions which could not conveniently go on a porter's barrow".' Sounds like a fun way to live.