1+1+1 for 365, day 39: About friendships, wry smiles and tears

TODAY'S QUOTE:
"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."  - Albert Schweitzer

TODAY'S BOOK:
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

(This is a slightly longer version of a review I wrote for the Cape Times and which was published towards the end of last year.)

When Sir Andrew Motion, chair of the panel of judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, announced that the prize worth £50,000 (about R550 000) was won this year by London author and columnist Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question, he commented:

‘The Finkler Question is a marvellous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner of this great prize.'

So then time passed and...

So then time passed and between procrastinating, guilty conscience about procrastinating and generally trying to keep my head above water work-wise, my 365  project got dropped.  That's the short version.  The long version sounds similar but has many more details that are irrelevant to most people but me.

But meanwhile,  here in the middle of winter I am emerging from the long period of hibernation away from this blog. There are also lots of book reviews, stories & ideas on my computer and in the back of my mind, so I'm picking this up again and if it then turns out not to be 365 consecutive days, then let it be a kind of metaphorical 'year' of a period during which I write about books and share some pictures & quotes & things.

Let's see what happens.

Some pictures from the past (not mine, but fascinating)

Meanwhile, while I'm warming up to start with the books 'n things again, have a look at this bit of nostalgia - pictures scanned from a tourist brochure (1965-1966).