my reading corner.

One of my favourite spots in the house so far is one that happened quite accidentally - the best bits often do don't they - and that's my reading pile. The book pile started forming after a particularly good Christmas, and then the lamp just appeared on top of it. Eventually I have plans for a different reading corner, in a different bit of the house, so all this will change but hopefully there'll still be a pile of books waiting to be read.

This is one of the things I want to work through this year, I'm awful for buying books, or asking for books as presents, and they seem to be coming in at such a volume that I don't get through them, especially now I'm in Blook club too. Its not a big challenge, but one that will give me satisfaction to be able to tick of my mental list.

A lot of the books in the pile are reference - gardening, sewing, cooking - but I don't want to put them on the shelves without at least learning whats in them should I need to find the information on how best to prune a raspberry/cook shin of beef/sew a zip. so although I love this corner, I'm hoping that by the end of the year some different books might be in this pile! (yes, there is a book on composting in there, I'm not the proud owner of a compost heap - James found me that book for christmas - who says romance is dead?)

Bookcase: Paul torday

I'm just going to say to go read anything by this man. You'll probably know him best because he's the author of 'Salmon fishing in the Yemen'. That book is soon to come out as a film - something I'm excited and worried about in equal measure, since they seem to be billing it at as a romantic comedy, which I don't remember being the central theme of the book.

(image)

Anyway. Back to the books. I read 'Salmon Fishing...' a couple of years ago, it's one that I picked up from a charity shop on the basis of the name and cover (do you do that too?) and loved it. I need to reread it soon so I'm not going to refer to it too much as its hazy in my head now but I was left with an almost spiritual, uplifting feeling from the book, while it still had a healthy dose of dry humour.

Recently I noticed in my local waterstones that he had a new book out, so just after Christmas I treated myself to two more - 'the girl on the landing' and 'more than you can say'. The latter I think I read in 24 hours - these aren't complex taxing reads but they are very enjoyable and interesting.

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I took two more on holiday with me, one a short story which is the only one I wouldn't search out to read again, but was interesting nonetheless, and 'The hopeless life of Charlie summers'.

One of the points I love most about these books is that the characters are often in some small way linked, yet you aren't reading a series. Someone who may be a small incidental character only appearing in one chapter of one book may be the main character in a later book. I've only just realised - from watching press clips about the 'salmon fishing...' film - that one of the characters from that reappears in a later book too. Yet unlike a series like 'the no1 ladies detective agency' (purely as an example-I have nothing in particular against that series) you aren't reading about the same characters in different situations over and over again. And each book covers different topics, for example gambling or mental illness, but at their heart, for me anyway, they are studies of the foibles, faults and traits of the human character. most of all they are fun, and very enjoyable to read. Im just waiting now for his newest to come out in paperback, as the cover designs seem to be following a theme which the hardback one isnt following!

Bookcase: We need to talk about Kevin

image from amazon

I'm well aware I'm behind the times by talking about this now, even though the films just out the book is a good few years old, and could be described as a modern classic already, but I've only just read it and it's SO.DAMN.GOOD.

I found the first half hard to get into, I'd read a sentence or paragraph and have to go back over it because it was just so wordy, I hadn't taken anything in. But then as Kevin starts to come into himself as a character I was more and more gripped. I found the language became simpler too. It's not easy to read by any stretch of the imagination, the subject is obviously awful, but it was so cleverly written I found myself crowbarring time into my day to read it.

You know what the main crime in the book is from the beginning, so you are constantly leading towards 'Thursday' and yet there are still surprises in it. There were several incidents (maybe I'm just dense-it's eminently possible) that I just wasn't expecting, and floored me when I was reading it. And her ability by the end of the book to make you feel sympathy for Kevin is very clever. Just consider not reading it if you are that time in life where you're thinking about having children!

(Im never sure whether I should carry on writing these bookcase posts - I shied away from writing one from the blook club meeting I went to, since some ladies there were much more eloquent than me, but I like reading, and want to share what I like so I hope you dont mind if I carry on!)

Have any of you seen the film? what did you think? it never came to our cinema, so Im going to invest at the end of the month when the DVD is released!

Bookcase: the River Cottage handbook series

Personally, I could write a post on every one of these books, I own 6 of the 8 or 9 there are in the series so far. I love them. They are informative, modern, interesting and well written. The veg book is the only gardening book (other than the fruit one, which I think I took in a bath with me to read!) which I have devoured from cover to cover without skipping bits.

Each book is written, not by Hugh F-W, but by someone knowledgable on the subject, who you'll probably have seen if you watch any of his programmes. So the hedgerow book is written by John, hughs foraging friend. The bread book is written by dan, his baker. The veg and fruit books are written by Mark, the head gardener at river cottage. You get the idea. Don't even get me started on 'pam the jam', I think you can guess that she wrote the preserves book!

Each book is divided into roughly the same sections, an introduction, telling you why you really should bake your own bread/grow your own veg/bottle the veg you grew/foraged, and what you'll need to do it. The majority of the book is taken up with alphabetised sections of recipes/plants and explains about each one really rather well, without losing you in a mire of technical words. Then, in the case of some books (hedgerow/fruit/veg) Hugh has written some recipes to use the ingredients you've grown, and in the veg/fruit books again, there are really helpful chapters on how to set up a good veg plot.

If all that's not enough, they are cloth covered, and the photography is gorgeous.

all images from amazon

Bookcase: A spot of bother

(image from amazon)

I've got the reading bug badly at the moment. I was holding off reading this one until I had read his first offering (finally) on holiday. I liked this one even more than A Curious Incident... both are excellent but this one is properly laugh out loud funny, while also being very dark.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of 4 members of a family, parents, daughter and son, in the run up to the daughters second wedding. each of them concerned with their own problems, they dont notice each others - the fathers impending nervous breakdown, the sons relationship failing while the mother continues an affair. Its all very everyday, mundane, but very very funny.
I ploughed through half of this on a train journey, and the other half one night when James went out - as the chapters are short - some of them only a page - its very easy to keep reading!

Bookcase: holiday reading

14 days, 7 books. Even I can do the maths there, although there was one very rainy day where I read the fellwalker in 5 hours.








A year in the village of eternity.
I think this was newly released, the only one in the pile which is. I'm not sure where you'd find this in a bookshop as it's not fiction, more a cookery diary of a year in the hilltop village of Campodimele In Italy. Apparently the residents have a longer life expectancy there than anywhere else in Italy, and it's all put down to their food and way of life. Lawson lived there for several years, and this is her account, each chapter being finished by a few recipes relevant to it. A lovely book that will make you want to jump on a plane to Italy, even if you're already in France.

The fell walker
James requested this for the holidays, and it's not often he asks for a book. Set in the lakes, it was easy for us to picture, almost too close for comfort! I really enjoyed this thriller, as you can probably tell from the length of time it took to read it.

An Englishman in Paris.
Again lent by a friend, a book about a year spent eating, drinking and loving in paris. Funny.

The island
I've been recommended this so many times I've lost count, but it's taken me a long time to get round to reading, I'm not often one for 'chick lit', which I assume this would fall into. It was nice to read about a country I've been to, and I enjoyed the whole thing much more than I was expecting to.

The curious incident...
It's taken me a long time to get round to reading it, but it was great. Funny and sad at the same time, But viewed through the eyes of someone who finds it hard to understand emotion. I've got his follow up book waiting to read now.

Doors open.
The Ian Rankin books are where I ran out of my own store and had to start borrowing from the house. Not a Rebus, but still set in Edinburgh, an art heist that goes wrong. Good book.

The Hanging Garden
(I only managed one half of this double bill before we left) this one a Rebus although I found it hard to picture Ken Stott. I've never read a Rebus before, I enjoyed it as detective books go, but there were a lot of plots going on and a lot of history, which made it hard work. I also spent a lot of time comparing it to the tv series, as we watch them a lot, and he seems a much more rounded person in the books than on screen. No bad thing, but I wasn't expecting so many musical references.

I'm considering a kindle. (don't say I told you so, R and Gaynor!)

Bookcase: Reading list

This is my current pile of books to read, mostly gained through amazon marketplace and charity shops.

I love Louis de bernieres, as you may gave guessed since the only other bookcase post was on a book of his too! Red dog is a short story based around a fabled dog in australia.

I read Dave Pelzers first book in this series last year, and I've been waiting for the second to appear in a charity shop for a while since. They aren't easy reading, but they are oddly compelling at the same time.

Some of the pile was influenced by my Christmas television watching - did any of you see toast? I watched it and loved it, so thought i should maybe read the book too. I'm about halfway through now, I'm finding it has a slightly darker undertone than the adaptation, but it's still great.

We also watched 'Eric and ernie' which reminded me of a book I found a long time ago about the pair, but never bought and was never able to find again, until now! This one is a republication so I'm assuming that's why I've not been able to.

The two without visible names in the middle were bought with some vouchers we were given, they are two of the river cottage handbooks. We already have several, these ones are for 'bread' and 'hedgerow'. Each one is written by someone who works around river cottage, so the bread one is by Dan his baker there. I thoroughly recommend the 'veg patch' one, I think it will be my reference bible in the next few years!

I read a thousand splendid suns and the kite runner last year, and saw the file of the kite runner when it was on last week. I love these books, despite all the tragedy, they really do show that we should be grateful for what we have, and that out of adversity can come beauty.

And finally, I read birdsong for the first time last year, so I thought I would try a couple of others by Sebastian Faulks too.

Have you read any of these? I'd love to know what you thought of them.

Bookcase: Notwithstanding

I've been wanting to write a little about books I've read for a while now. Since I've moved to the other shop I've got more time to read and I love passing on a good book afterwards, so I hope you'll bear with me on this one! I read a wide variety of books, they wont necessarily be a newly released one that I write about, just one I've read, or re-read recently that I enjoyed enough to tell you about.

(yes that cover is by Rob Ryan! another good reason to own this book)

I love all Louis de Bernieres books that I've touched so far, so I asked for Notwithstanding for Christmas. I finally got round to reading it a month or so ago, and loved it. If you've read any of his before (Captain Corelli's mandolin anyone?) this is lighter than most of the others, but doesn't avoid subjects such as death. Its an easier book to read in snippets, as each chapter is about a different character from the fictional Surrey village of the book title. In the space of a chapter you are told a story about them which encapsulates their personality, their claim to fame, or defining moment. The characters then dip in and out of each others chapters, so that by the end you have a sort of understanding of the villages complicated web of relationships. Although its lighter, its still able to provoke all the emotions I've ever felt from his books. Just wait til the story about the crow. it got me, especially when the next day one fell down my chimney.

I'd love to know if you have read this, or if you read it because of this what your thoughts are?