Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
Welcome to this weeks blog. Heres a roundup of your comments and photos from last week.
PatLux was surprised by other readers reactions to a painfully candid memoir:
I have just finished Jeanette Wintersons Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and was so moved by her honesty. It has left me with much to on which to reflect about relationships in my own family, how our upbringing affects us and about people I know who are adopted. I often find it interesting to read Amazon reader reviews AFTER I read a book and many people on the UK site speak of the humour in this book. I did not find any of it funny. In fact to me it is achingly sad. What do other readers think?
Im halfway through A Confederacy of Dunces, which Ive had recommended to me on a few occasions as the funniest book ever. Its certainly one of the funniest novels I can remember reading, though Woody Allens Complete Prose is probably still the funniest book Ive read.
I didnt decide to start reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I decided to read Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Only, when I went to pick it from the top of my to-read pile, it all fell over and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was the book I managed to grab while everything else hit the floor, knocked over a lamp and smashed the bulb. I didnt think of it necessarily as fate bringing me to the next book I need to read but rather that I really, really do need to make this pile manageable. I know Ive said it many times before but this is the Come To Jesus Meeting Ive probably needed and Im going to not buy any new books at all until this pile is eradicated. Honest.
As she organizes her photographs for an exhibition, in London, Caroline tries to make sense of her past. The novel also includes some wonderful sepia photographs, taken in rural Australia, by the author.
Sent via GuardianWitness
The news has been so relentlessly depressing the last few days. I stared at my bookshelves and picked out Max Hastingss Warriors. I first read it probably eight or so years ago, and opened the first page. At once I was gone. I know Hastings is a bit of an upper-class twit, but his military history books are unparalleled (imo). Warriors describes individuals in campaigns over the last 200 years in little short [factual] stories. His writing is so concise, and so accessible, it captures my imagination. At once Im filling in the blanks of what it must have been like to be in Napoleons Grand Army or at Wellingtons side in Belgium in 1812. Just what I need to appreciate how lucky Ive been to live through 50 years of peace in Europe. What books do you return to when 2014 just gets, well, a bit tedious?
For me its more important to have comfort reading on my shelves than books I will only read once. I have a large stock (Barbara Pym, Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Wodehouse, Angela Thirkell and various childrens books) but I have reread them all so often that they now only work occasionally. I got really depressed by the international news over the last couple of months and have tried a few different things with varying levels of success.
Continue reading...