For the first time in about 2 weeks I was able to read on the train!
Maugham is a strange old card - his writing style straddles Victorian and well... not modern in the Joycean sense but the 20th century, and change. He writes from the upper middle class about the upper middle class, and all their stupid notions, but he also writes an extraordinary array of short stories from a vivid imagination. I inherited various stuff from my Grannie Todd when she died many years ago now, including more than several books. a 'Folio society' type edition of Maugham's short stories, collected in 3 volumes, and arranged, not in date order, but Maugham's own theme order. The first short story in the set is one of a Missionary, who rapes a prostitute and kills himself!
Not quite what you expect at the beginning of the story - thr style is at once stuff, but expansive, and visual. He nails the characters in the first story superbly.
So I managed to read some more, after 2 or 3 weeks of solid work every hour of the day. What a bloody achievement.
And the new router arrived last night! That means new routing, plus new Mac capabilities - providing the external hard drive memory thing arrives today - 250 gigs, enough for all my CD's and Mackay's, and wireless shunting over to the stereo. Now all I have to do is perduade him to get a new amp. Whilst we're on an economy drive. Hmmm. That's a problem.
