[/quote]I was thinking Peter Greenway
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What Are You Reading? July 2013
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JenniferLovesRoxi
- Scribbler
- Posts: 30
- Joined: May 2013
I am about halfway through reading Ingeld's Daughter by Carla Nayland. I saw a thread on here a week or so ago talking about her Paths of Exile that sounds wonderful (I am currently on a major Dark Ages Britain reading run) and went to Carla's website/blog and she has got her earlier book Ingeld's Daughter available to download for free.
So I am reading that while I work on saving up points on Bing to get my next free Amazon giftcard, which I will be using to purchase Paths of Exile.
So I am reading that while I work on saving up points on Bing to get my next free Amazon giftcard, which I will be using to purchase Paths of Exile.
Posted by emr
Ohhh - love Greenaway. Hard to beat for sumptuous over-the-top-ness. The Draughtsman's Contract is one of my all-time favourite movies.I was thinking Peter Greenway
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sweetpotatoboy
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1641
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: London, UK
Reading Jack Holmes and His Friend by Edmund White. I'm not reading as a historical novel but it is set in 1960s New York.
I was a bit thrown by the casual mention of a lead character's contact lens, this being the early 60s. The implication is that contacts were so common that it was not a remarkable thing. I wasn't aware that they were in mass use at that stage, even in the US. My first memory of someone with contact lenses here in the UK was probably in about 1979 and they were very rare.
I tried to read up about the history of contact lenses a bit. Were they in mass use in the early 60s in the US? From what I've read, they were very expensive at that stage and therefore not widespread. However, the author would have been around then so should know.
I was a bit thrown by the casual mention of a lead character's contact lens, this being the early 60s. The implication is that contacts were so common that it was not a remarkable thing. I wasn't aware that they were in mass use at that stage, even in the US. My first memory of someone with contact lenses here in the UK was probably in about 1979 and they were very rare.
I tried to read up about the history of contact lenses a bit. Were they in mass use in the early 60s in the US? From what I've read, they were very expensive at that stage and therefore not widespread. However, the author would have been around then so should know.
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MLE (Emily Cotton)
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3565
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
- Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
- Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
- Location: California Bay Area
Well, I got my pair in '69, and they weren't that unusual, and we were just middle-class. Hard little chips of plastic that floated around on you eyeball, you could only wear them for 10 hours or so and then they had to come out. Most of our high school athletes would get them because glasses and football don't go together.
And I do remember during my high school years ('66-'70) when somebody got knocked out in sports, the first thing you were supposed to do was check to make sure they weren't wearing contacts, because in those days of impermeable lenses, they would cut off tears/oxygen to the eye if the person was not blinking, causing permanent damage to the cornea.
Good heavens, I wonder now that anybody wore them at all! (But I confess to a teenager's vanity. Glasses were not cool.)
And I do remember during my high school years ('66-'70) when somebody got knocked out in sports, the first thing you were supposed to do was check to make sure they weren't wearing contacts, because in those days of impermeable lenses, they would cut off tears/oxygen to the eye if the person was not blinking, causing permanent damage to the cornea.
Good heavens, I wonder now that anybody wore them at all! (But I confess to a teenager's vanity. Glasses were not cool.)
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sweetpotatoboy
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1641
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: London, UK
[quote=""MLE""]Well, I got my pair in '69, and they weren't that unusual, and we were just middle-class. Hard little chips of plastic that floated around on you eyeball, you could only wear them for 10 hours or so and then they had to come out. Most of our high school athletes would get them because glasses and football don't go together.
And I do remember during my high school years ('66-'70) when somebody got knocked out in sports, the first thing you were supposed to do was check to make sure they weren't wearing contacts, because in those days of impermeable lenses, they would cut off tears/oxygen to the eye if the person was not blinking, causing permanent damage to the cornea.
Good heavens, I wonder now that anybody wore them at all! (But I confess to a teenager's vanity. Glasses were not cool.)[/quote]
OK, thanks for that! Interesting. I guess the UK took quite a long time to catch on. I had hard lenses from about 1987 till quite some time into the 90s when soft lenses became widely available.
And I do remember during my high school years ('66-'70) when somebody got knocked out in sports, the first thing you were supposed to do was check to make sure they weren't wearing contacts, because in those days of impermeable lenses, they would cut off tears/oxygen to the eye if the person was not blinking, causing permanent damage to the cornea.
Good heavens, I wonder now that anybody wore them at all! (But I confess to a teenager's vanity. Glasses were not cool.)[/quote]
OK, thanks for that! Interesting. I guess the UK took quite a long time to catch on. I had hard lenses from about 1987 till quite some time into the 90s when soft lenses became widely available.
[quote=""MLE""]Well, I got my pair in '69, and they weren't that unusual, and we were just middle-class. Hard little chips of plastic that floated around on you eyeball, you could only wear them for 10 hours or so and then they had to come out. Most of our high school athletes would get them because glasses and football don't go together.
And I do remember during my high school years ('66-'70) when somebody got knocked out in sports, the first thing you were supposed to do was check to make sure they weren't wearing contacts, because in those days of impermeable lenses, they would cut off tears/oxygen to the eye if the person was not blinking, causing permanent damage to the cornea.
Good heavens, I wonder now that anybody wore them at all! (But I confess to a teenager's vanity. Glasses were not cool.)[/quote]
I think I started wearing them in the late 70s and they were quite common and easy to obtain.
And I do remember during my high school years ('66-'70) when somebody got knocked out in sports, the first thing you were supposed to do was check to make sure they weren't wearing contacts, because in those days of impermeable lenses, they would cut off tears/oxygen to the eye if the person was not blinking, causing permanent damage to the cornea.
Good heavens, I wonder now that anybody wore them at all! (But I confess to a teenager's vanity. Glasses were not cool.)[/quote]
I think I started wearing them in the late 70s and they were quite common and easy to obtain.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
...is the only place I want to be
I first got contacts about 1970 here in New Zealand and they were already common then. Reasonably expensive, but I hated my glasses (which I'd wore since I was about 10) with a dire hatred, and the contacts were my first major splurge when I started work. I seem to remember that the optician had a scheme whereby you could pay them off.
Unfortunately for those of us with astigmatism those little hard ones which cover the iris are still the only viable option, though at least the lenses are permeable these days. As I hit menopause and everything dried out (as it does including the lubrication in your eyes), I had to give them away and return to the glasses - now multi-focal. Luckily all vanity has dropped by the wayside in favour of comfort
Unfortunately for those of us with astigmatism those little hard ones which cover the iris are still the only viable option, though at least the lenses are permeable these days. As I hit menopause and everything dried out (as it does including the lubrication in your eyes), I had to give them away and return to the glasses - now multi-focal. Luckily all vanity has dropped by the wayside in favour of comfort
Last edited by annis on Fri July 12th, 2013, 3:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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sweetpotatoboy
- Bibliophile
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[quote=""annis""]I first got contacts about 1970 here in New Zealand and they were already common then. Reasonably expensive, but I hated my glasses (which I'd wore since I was about 10) with a dire hatred, and the contacts were my first major splurge when I started work. I seem to remember that the optician had a scheme whereby you could pay them off.
Unfortunately for those of us with astigmatism those little hard ones which cover the iris are still the only viable option, though at least the lenses are permeable these days. As I hit menopause and everything dried out (as it does including the lubrication in your eyes), I had to give them away and return to the glasses - now multi-focal. Luckily all vanity has dropped by the wayside in favour of comfort [/quote]
Gosh, it seems contacts appeared earlier everywhere than the UK! Does anyone in the UK remember them being current any earlier than my memory of about 1979?
I have astigmatisms and I've had soft lenses for years....
Unfortunately for those of us with astigmatism those little hard ones which cover the iris are still the only viable option, though at least the lenses are permeable these days. As I hit menopause and everything dried out (as it does including the lubrication in your eyes), I had to give them away and return to the glasses - now multi-focal. Luckily all vanity has dropped by the wayside in favour of comfort
[/quote]Gosh, it seems contacts appeared earlier everywhere than the UK! Does anyone in the UK remember them being current any earlier than my memory of about 1979?
I have astigmatisms and I've had soft lenses for years....