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I TAKE IT BACK, GO BACK TO FUCKING THE HOUSE!

(https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/2511.html?thread=3560655#cmt3560655)

Welcome back! Chat fandom, weird internet stuff, creative work, games, books, anything! Meme listens, and sometimes even replies!

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From: (Anonymous)

Thought I might as well read this.

One chapter in. It's tedious. Good foreword, about a bumbling attempt to console a man on his deathbed, then it's all downhill from there. Just tons of information about the daily schedule of priests. If I wanted to know the daily schedule of a priest, I'd be a priest.

Friend surprised at part where Rev seems to believe in transubstantiation. "But he's Anglican! Isn't the *whole thing* with Anglicans that they don't do that...?"

I figure Anglicanism is a church invented so King Henry could bang hot chicks, so the Rev's prolly just making it up as he goes along, but who knows. Remains unexplained, so far. Describes how he met his boyfriend by giving a service where he said how the bible wanted people to be gay as long as they were gay in a Christian way, or something. Keeps referencing random people he knows; I realised too late that this was a sequel to a first memoir. Oops.

I was hoping for better from this. The Rev's funny on panel shows. There *has* been a funny description of a tense sartorial showdown between the black-suit-wearing protestant puritans and the elaborately dressed Anglo-Catholics, but that's about it. (Though will say, he astutely recognises that the fancier attire appealed in poorer areas because people wanted a break from the ordinary, rather than some kind of wealth attracting wealth situation.)

Misc: The title is in the same rhythm as "Puttin on the Ritz" and so it starts playing in my head every time I see the book. Took several days to work out why on earth Puttin on the Ritz kept playing in my head.

Idk if I'll keep reading this. It's split up according to a priest's yearly schedule of events/periods/whatever they're called, and then a bundle of anecdotes from that time of the year are told. All a bit piecemeal and the anecdotes so far aren't strong enough to compensate for the lack of an overall arc. May give it another chapter or two to see if it picks up, but currently I just don't care what colour socks he wore during Michaelmas or whatever.

From: (Anonymous)

Ok started chapter 2, long description of a holiday in Wales, absolutely bog standard holiday in Wales; I don't think I can do this. The font isn't even big.

Please, everyone, stop writing memoirs unless you've got something interesting to share, *please*.

From: (Anonymous)

Wonder if it's a target audience mismatch. I, not being British, would find an absolutely bog-standard trip to Wales interesting, but I, not being British, also have no idea who Richard Coles is and no interest in finding out.

From: (Anonymous)

> I, not being British, also have no idea who Richard Coles is and no interest in finding out.

But I'm gonna tell you anyway! He's an ex-popstar from a band famous for making synthy falsetto disco tracks v popular in gay bars (The Communards; you might've heard of Jimmy Somerville, the more famous half of the band). He decided to quit the celeb sex'n'drugs lifestyle to become a reverend instead, as you do, but he also works part-time as a TV presenter and goes on comedy panel shows a lot, as you do. I'm not particularly interested in him, but this weird-looking autobiography was lying around, and he's usually an entertaining speaker, so I thought I'd give it a read. But it's boooooring, and looks like Goodreads agrees, and they say that this doesn't change.