Happy St. Patrick's Day!
17 March 2014
I am not Irish, so I have never felt completely comfortable going all out for St. Patrick's Day. I don't mind if you do, regardless of your ethnic heritage, but I've never, say, felt compelled to wear green on March 17.*
However, I would be remiss today if I did not suggest to you a fantastic backlist title: Tony Hawks's Round Ireland with a Fridge. The title says it all: author and comedian Tony Hawks decided to hitchhike around Ireland with a mini-fridge in tow, and his account of the types of people willing to pick up such a hitchhiker (and his baggage) is nothing short of fabulous. It's been years since I read it, but just thinking about it has put me in the mood to get it back from the library.
In other Irish author news, please note that Roddy Doyle has a new book out (The Guts), which is a sequel to his novel The Commitments (which was made into a fantastic movie of the same name). I haven't read it, but I'd like to. I like Roddy Doyle.**
*Which is a good thing, because I'm currently down to very few items of clothing that are acceptable for going out and about, and none of them are green.
**And once, when indexing a book, I suggested to the author that she might not want to refer to Roddy Doyle as a "British" author. I still think that was the right call, although the author was not best pleased with my opinion.