Book learning #91 Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Believe it or not, I am still working my way through the works of George Orwell.
26 years since first reading Animal Farm.

It's not even that he wrote a vast amount.

I certainly enjoyed this but I have found that I much prefer his novels.
This engaged me and certainly kept me going with real and sustained interest but somehow, something was just a little bit lacking.

I am of course behaving like the child at Christmas who moans on Boxing day because they didn't get the complete set of all the other stuff they would have wanted, this book was great, just not the greatest.

Book learning #90 The Golden door, Letters to America by AA.Gill

How nice to meet a kindred spirit, How queer to imagine that it should be AA.Gill.

I read this book a few months ago, before reading the LBJ book.
I thoroughly enjoyed it but for some reason, well I know but I'm not telling, I neglected to write about it.
It all seems like such a long time ago, I will say this.
I book , a series of essays written by a man who clearly and admittedly loves America.
Love in the greatest sense, the awareness of imperfection and the tolerance of failings, but also love as the celebration of ambition and delight.

I know those feelings, I share them.