I listen to BBC4 radio out of laziness. David, the man who lived in the apartment before me, had tuned the clock-radio to it and I haven’t bothered to change it. Why would I? I get the shipping bulletin every night, world news, God Save the Queen, Sailing Away, radio dramas, and the Book of the Week selections.
Each week there is a new Book of the Week–that is why it is not called Book of the Day or Book of the Fortnight. It could be called Book of the Five Moons, but it is much easier to just say Book of the Week. It is read by an actor and sometimes by the author. I have enjoyed listening to the harrowing journey of the small pox vaccine across Alaska on dog sleds, tales of a young englishman traveling across Turkey, and this week the story of a woman trying to have a lot of sex with a man she likes before she turns 67.
A Round Heeled Woman by Jane Juska is this week’s Book of the Week. It is a memoir of a woman who placed a personal ad in the New York Review of Books: “Before I turn 67 – next March – I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.” It is a funny, touching, and honest memoir and I will certainly get the book.
You can listen to the BBC4 Book of the Week online. It is enough to whet your appetite for more books–not exactly what I need, but I am always up for a suggestion.