Blog | Nose in a book

Bookish things in the post

December 19, 2012December 21, 2012 6 Comments

Life has been hectic for me lately, so I haven’t been paying the blog enough attention, but I’ve had a few bookish arrivals in the post that I thought I might share.

The Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is a very lovely idea run by Courtney and Judith. When I got post from France I was initially confused who it could be from, but when I saw this lovely card inside it twigged:

My exchange partner was Beth and I love my French card and the very friendly bookish message written inside it, so thank you Beth.

I also received this very exciting book from And Other Stories:

And Other Stories is a small publisher that works on a subscription model. They publish six new books per year, often translations into English. Subscribers get their names printed in a numbered first edition of each book they subscribe to. I was very excited to read my name in this book! And as a bonus they included a few copies of this poem, which I have stuck to our fridge:

Have you had any good post lately?

Goodbye Holly dog

December 1, 2012 5 Comments

Holly 1997–2012

I will always love you, Holly dog.

Sunday Salon: Do you re-read?

November 18, 2012 16 Comments

Re-reading is one of those subjects that comes up every now and again and every time I say wish I did, I just never get round to it. But that’s a rubbish excuse. I mean, if I don’t re-read, then what’s the point of my beautiful library (except as a repository for the ever-expanding TBR)? I have friends who re-read all the time, who return to certain books over and over again, and I can definitely see the appeal.

I was listening to an old episode of Books on the Nightstand in which Ann and Michael discussed how they don’t re-read and I recognised some of their excuses: too many new books – both in terms of the excitement of new books and the pressure to keep up – but also the fear that a book that was a perfect read the first time round won’t live up to the memory of it on re-reading. But I must also admit that blogging is another reason I don’t do it. Because it’s a lot harder to review a book on a re-read. Or at least, it can be.

For instance, I just read The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for, I think, the third time. Not only have I read it before, and all of its sequels, and watched the TV series and the film (though sadly never heard the radio show) but it’s also become a firm part of our culture, from the Babel Fish online translation tool to our local secondhand bookshop Beware of the Leopard to everyone’s favourite number being 42. There’s even a Towel Day every year to celebrate the work of the late Douglas Adams. This weekend, while going round our neighbourhood arts trail (here’s my post about the 2010 trail) I spotted that the sign next to the Norwegian waffle window included a joke about Slartibartfast, which made me grin like a loon.

How do you review a book like that? It’s not far off when I read a book for book group and on my way to the meeting I’m desperately trying to think of something more clever to say than “I liked it”. But then, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is exceptional, surely. Not every book I want to re-read is going to be quite so…well, brilliant.

Of course, when I was a child and even as a teenager I re-read all the time. My copy of Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh is in pieces I read it so often, and I’m frankly amazed my other most-read favourites The Wickedest Witch in the World by Beverley Nichols and The Ghosts of Motley Hall by Richard Carpenter (yes yes, I loved a book based on a TV series) didn’t end up in the same state. I think I did buy new copies of a couple of Roald Dahl books that were getting tatty. But then I hit 16 or so and stopped re-reading as often. And the books I have re-read as an adult – most of which were for book groups – I have still only read two or three times, as compared with the at least 50 times I must have read the three titles listed above.

Of course, I do have less free time now. And I do challenge myself more (sometimes, at least) with my reading choices. And I am aware of the limited time I have versus all of the beautiful books out there that I have yet to read. But still, it is both comforting and rewarding to re-read and once again I conclude that I should do it more.

What about you? Do you re-read?

Autumn days

November 13, 2012

I love this time of year – late autumn/early winter. Crisp cold air and clear blue skies. Or mist and rain and wind howling down the chimneys. I blame The Secret Garden – that line about the wind wuthering always was my favourite.

Sunday Salon: Speed reading

November 4, 2012November 5, 2012 6 Comments

I have had wildly varying reading speeds lately, and this has set me thinking. Are the better books the ones that slow you down, that make you re-read sentences or even paragraphs? Or are the books that you read in one or two settings in an engrossed daze actually better?

In September I started reading The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon. It took me more than a month to finish. I worried that I had lost my reading mojo. And admittedly I did find it hard, but I thought the language wonderful. And so clever. I feel enriched for having read it.

In the past few days I read Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (review here). I was absorbed and raced through it, eager to get to the end. And once I did I felt satisfaction with the story. But the language had at no point caught my eye and I’m already beginning to forget the book.

In some respects I enjoyed Before I Go to Sleep more. And as a thriller it did for me exactly what it set out to do. But I would absolutely state that The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is the better book, without question.

So I’m trying to work out if this is a general rule or just these two books. Is there always more value in the books that slow you down, encourage you to notice the language and savour it, or can quick reads be equally good? I certainly know I like to read some of both. How about you?

Sunday Salon: Do you read prize winners?

October 21, 2012October 20, 2012 9 Comments

On the back of this week’s announcement of the Booker Prize winner, I was wondering how much note people take of literary prizes. Are they just an excuse for bookshops to promote certain books? Or are they a valuable exercise in weeding out the best books from the thousands published each year?

I don’t follow any prizes closely enough to make a point of reading their long or shortlists every year, but there are certain prizes that have winners that tend to fit my taste. I find hype generally puts me off a book, but later I’ll come back to them and agree that the judges did a good job. And I do think it’s a great opportunity for small publishers to get their books out in the public eye and into all the bookshops, something they normally struggle with thanks to lack of the big bucks when it comes to marketing.

The [Man] Booker Prize
Launched in 1969, given to “the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland”. Of 47 winners, I have read 11 and have a further four in my TBR. (That may not sound like many but all the ones I’ve read were published within my lifetime.) And I have had several other books on the list recommended to me.

The [Orange] Women’s Prize for Fiction
Launched in 1996, given to “the best full-length novel written in English by a woman of any nationality”. Of 17 winners, I have read seven. I never used to pay that much attention but the last two winners have been two of the best books I have read this year – The Tiger’s Wife and Song of Achilles.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Launched in 1917, awarded for “distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life”. Of 85 winners, I have read nine and have one on my TBR, but again I have had several recommended to me. I keep meaning to pay more attention, but that clashes a little with my intention to look beyond the UK and US in my reading.

Hugo Award for Best Novel
Launched in 1953, awarded for “the best science fiction or fantasy novel published in English or translated into English during the previous calendar year”. Of 64 winners (including Retro Hugos), I have read nine but I think we (by which I mean mostly Tim) own at least half, probably the SF half. And that’s probably also how many I’ve had recommended to me (largely by Tim, who has probably read them all, or at least significantly more than me). I have to say I’m a little surprised that JK Rowling won it in 2001 (actually, I know for a fact that Tim hasn’t read that one). I was also surprised to see that the book I’m reading right now, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won it in 2008 (okay, Tim hasn’t read that one either). This is not mentioned anywhere on the book jacket. Had it been, I might have found myself less confused when it turned out to be an alternative history. I wonder why the publisher didn’t choose to publicize this, when they did do that awful three pages of quotes thing at the start.

Nebula Award for Best Novel
Launched in 1966, awarded for “the best science fiction or fantasy novel published in English or translated into English and released in the United States”. Of 48 winners, I have read seven. The winners overlap quite a lot with the Hugos. In fact, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union also won this award and again this is not advertised on the book jacket. Methinks the publisher (HarperCollins) doesn’t want people put off a “literary” author by the idea that he has written SF.

Clearly, my bias is for novels, mostly literary ones. I include those last two prizes not only because I am actively trying to read more science fiction, but also because I know it is often discussed that the big literary awards occasionally include historical or crime fiction but never science fiction, not even in the shortlists. There is a certain anti-SF snobbery.

So which prizes (if any) do you follow, and how closely? Do you read the whole longlist? Are you more likely to buy a book if it’s won a prize?

Bristol Festival of Literature

October 19, 2012 5 Comments

If I had had any spare time at all this week I would have blogged about this sooner but I didn’t so I didn’t. Hey ho. It’s Bristol Festival of Literature time!

I’ve been to two events this year, both of which were great. On Sunday I ventured into Redcliffe Caves to hear Bristol Writers Group read aloud a series of chilling tales. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric location and organisers had done a great job of lining the route from Redcliffe Wharf entrance to the big cavern with candles so that we didn’t even need the torches we’d been advised to bring. (We did need the sensible shoes and camping chairs, though. Glad I was reminded of that advice!) The stories were generally excellent and well chosen for the location – occasionally spooky but mostly choosing more real-life chills than supernatural. (I’m afraid I didn’t take notes of any of the writers’ names. Poor journalism, I know.) And I now want to do a proper tour of the caves even more than I did before.

The second event was at the Thunderbolt pub and entitled “Satire and the city”. Local authors Mike Manson and Jari Moate talked about Bristol, comedy and the subjects that interest them. The title was a little misleading in that satire was not specifically discussed, though it was there to some extent in some of the excerpts they read from their books. Perhaps I need to read one of their books to find out if it was just an accurate description of them as writers. I’d be happy to do that; both were interesting, funny speakers. And another great venue that I’ve been meaning to go to for years and never made it to before.

Bristol Festival of Literature continues until this Sunday, including a big day of many events on Saturday, so there’s still a chance to join the fun. And for more bookish fun, tomorrow it’s also Bristol-Con, which was great fun last year.

October is Lupus Awareness Month

October 11, 2012October 11, 2012 2 Comments

Yes, it’s lupus awareness time again. But rather than regale you with yet more tales of how tired I am feeling, I shall refer you to better bloggers than I who have covered lupus experiences of their own.

Lupus in Flight is written by poet Shaista Tayabali and combines her lovely poems with tales of daily life and doctors. She has unfortunately faced the harsher side of lupus, including many a hospital stay, but her voice remains one of joy.

It’s So Not Sexy is written by singer/songwriter/actress Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon, who may just be my personal hero. Like Shaista she has had some pretty low lows from the evil that is lupus, but she remains a super cool person and, thanks to some friends in celebrity places, is getting the word out there about lupus.

As always, if you want to learn more about lupus, I refer you to Lupus UK and the Lupus Foundation of America. If you have lupus yourself, or indeed any chronic illness, I can highly recommend the website But You Don’t Look Sick for both fun and serious help.

NaNoWriMo…again

October 8, 2012 5 Comments

Oh yes I did. I signed up to NaNoWriMo again, despite last year’s mini meltdown and subsequent failure to “win”. I have had a title rolling around in my head for several months and am slowly coming towards an idea of what I want to do with it.

For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write a novel in a month. More specifically, the aim is to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel within the month of November. It is a fantastic impetus for people like me who think of themselves as writers but let those pesky day jobs prevent us from doing any (or much) actual creative writing. As I seem to be a bit rubbish at doing much reading lately, maybe now’s a good time to get my writer head on. We’ll soon see…

Cambridge bookshops

October 3, 2012October 3, 2012 5 Comments

I know our holiday was a month ago, I have been meaning to post about this and kept forgetting/waiting for my photos to be developed.

One of the many nice things about Cambridge is its abundance of bookshops. In these times of bookshops, both independent and chain varieties, closing left, right and centre, it’s good to know they’re flourishing somewhere.

I particularly liked Heffers bookshop, which is owned by Blackwells and reminded me a lot of their very excellent Oxford branch. Sadly my photo of that storefront came out particularly badly.

Of course, we couldn’t resist buying something in each of several of these lovely lovely shops. I really must stop buying books for a long while now! Here are just some of our purchases. See if you can guess which are for me and which for Tim, though I should warn you that to be crafty some were for both of us. It’s good to share.

(Why yes, that is a first-edition Daphne there. In the classic yellow Gollancz jacket. That will have pride of place on my bookshelves, when I can get to them again.)