Tag Archives: Victor Hugo

Books, Books and More Books

January 3, 2012 By in Looking Backwards and Forwards Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 15 Comments

This year, I am changing the way I read.

Over the years I’ve changed from being a one book at a time reader, into a two book at a time reader, and then a many books at a time reader.

I used to think that was a bad thing, but I’ve realised now that it can work for me.

I’m more inclined to read big books, because with many books on the go I don’t feel that the big book is taking me away from so many other books I want to read.

And so many books benefit from a step away to think about things.

But there are limits, and I think I’ve just hit one.

Time to consider my books in progress:

I’ve been meaning to read The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey for ages. It felt wrong that I had read Nicola Upson’s An Expert in Mirder without having read the book that inspired it. So when The Man in the Queue was chosen as a January group read by the GoodReads Bright Young Things I pulled my copy out.

I have a tendency to whizz through crime fiction, but this time I’m reading a chapter a day and I am appreciating the writing so much more.

It is a long time since I read The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, and I decided a while back that I should read it again, before watching Baz Luhrman’s film version. I know that isn’t out until the end of the year, but I spotted a readalong this month and so its time seemed to be now.

I’m not enjoying the book as much as I did first time around, but I feel I am giving the book a fair chance by spreading it over a whole month.

At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor is another book I read years ago, but I’ve picked it up again to read with the LibraryThing Virago Modern Classics Group as we celebrate the author’s centenary. This one is definitely better second time around, and it is repaying careful reading and quiet contemplation.

I picked up The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911 by Juliet Nicholson a while back on ReadItSwapIt, and I picked it up a few weeks ago thinking that it would be a good book to set the scene before this years WW1 War Through The Generations Reading Challenge.

Each chapter focuses on a different character, and so it suits reading over time. I’ve met the new Queen Mary and the young Winston Churchill, and it has been lovely to see both at a point in their life that I hadn’t really considered before.

And there are many more fascinating people to meet …

I started the Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens last year, but I drifted away from it. I’m picking up the threads and I’m going to finish this one before I pick up any of the other Dickens novels that are calling me.

This isn’t going to be my one of my favourites I’m afraid, but there are one or two characters I love and I am going to see their stories through to the end.

I took my copy of A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes from the shelf for another group read – with the GoodReads Persephone Books Group. It is a wonderful memoir of a happy childhood and I am picking it up and reading a chapter whenever my spirits need lifting. I am so pleased that my library has the two sequels.

I ordered Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons from the library when I discovered that there was only one story about Cold Comfort Farm and that it was a prequel – so no preliminary  rereading was required – and that only a couple of stories were about Christmas.

I’m afraid I’ve ground to a halt on this one. It isn’t that I don’t like it, but I don’t like it as much as I’d hoped. It might be that Stella Gibbons needs the greater expanse of a novel to weave her particular literary magic, or it might just be that I read it at the wrong moment – Charlotte loved it.

So, now that I’ve realised just how many book I have in progress, and now that I’ve noticed someone else has a reservation and is waiting for it, I think I must take it back.

I have owned a copy of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo for years, and it has been one of those books I really wanted to read but never quite got to. But now that there is a year long readalong I have finally made a start.

A proof copy of Diving Belles by Lucy Wood came through my letterbox a little while ago. I read the first few stories and fell in love, but then I decided I had to spin the rest out, as I really didn’t want to come to the last one. But the book is out in a couple of weeks and  I must read on to the end so that I can sing its praises.

I started reading The Coward’s Tale by Vanessa Gebbie before Christmas. It was wonderful but it needed more attention than I could give it then, so I pushed it to one side. But now slow reading is paying dividends.

I started The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley weeks ago and I was loving it, but the book disappeared. It turned up a couple of days ago, under a pile of newspapers and magazines on the coffee table, and now I am happily reading on.

I probably shouldn’t have picked up another book, but I have to have a visit to the dentist first thing tomorrow morning, and I prescribed myself a day curled up with a big book afterwards. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman has been waiting for a while, and once I read the opening I was lost. So tomorrow I shall be in Masada …

That makes ten books. And, even though I’ve decided multiple reads is the way to go, that’s more than enough for now …

While Briar sleeps at her end of the sofa ….

December 14, 2011 By in Thoughts & Ramblings Tags: , , 5 Comments

…. I have been busy at my end.

Kate has mailed out the schedule for her year-long readalong of Les Miserables. And she mentioned that she has marked the weekly installments on her copy.

I loved that idea and have done the same thing with my copy.

I may fall behind, I may get ahead, but I am sure that seeing the installments so clearly will help me through.

And I’ve been knitting a hat. And, for the very first time, knitting sideways instead of bottom up,

I love the pattern and I have learned, and now love, Japanese short rows No more wrapping stitches and getting confused about what to do with the wrap for me!

And I should mention that the pattern is Anlalya by Mary Kay Gumayagay.

And, of course, I’m reading. Miracle on Regent Street is a wonderful book to get lost in. London in December with just a touch of fairy dust.

I was particularly pleased when the story took me to a tavern in Lamb’s Conduit Street. Oh to have been there and to have had the chance to nip out to the Persephone bookshop. I should love to introduce Evie, the heroine, to Miss Pettigrew …

Meanwhile Briar sleeps. She did head to the front door, but when I opened it and she saw the rain she turned around, glared at me and climbed back on to her cushion.

I have been up into the attic ….

December 1, 2011 By in Thoughts & Ramblings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments

…. and I came down with a large carrier bag.

You may recall that a few weeks ago I was reorganising shelves and boxes of books, and bringing my LibraryThing records up to date. I should have known that as soon as I had everything straight books that I had put away in the attic would call. Loudly.

And so I went up with a bag, and I came down with this:

All of the Penguin Classics I could carry!

Next year I plan to read more classics and less crime. And maybe to knit a little less and read a little more.

Of course I won’t read all of the books I brought down next year, but I want to have them around again.

(I hate having to keep books in the attic, but there is no alternative while I am living with and caring for my mother in her home.)

It all started when I read the Review section of the Saturday Telegraph a week or two ago. There was an article about One Day by David Nicholls, pointing up all of the references to Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Suddenly I was interested in a book that hadn’t called me at all.

But then another thought struck. Wouldn’t it be better to re-read Tess?!

And then other classics began to call. It was time to go up into the attic.

Tess came down, and so did all of the other works by Thomas Hardy I own.

Middlemarch, and all of George Eliot’s other novels came down, because I really should like to read again, over an extended period, with Team Middlemarch.

Jane Austen’s novels came down, to celebrate Advent With Austen.

Les Miserables came down, because I have wanted to read this book for so long and Kate’s Library is hosting a readalong that will help me to work my way through slowly over the course of next year.

With all of those books coming down I really couldn’t leave Wilkie Collins or the three Bronte sisters behind.

It was fortunate that those works I own by Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, plus my copy of Vanity Fair, were downstairs already, as my bag wouldn’t have held any more books.

I’ve also moved my Elizabeth Taylor collection to the front of the Virago bookcase, ready to read with the LibraryThing Virago Modern Classics Group.

My Virago copy of The Odd Women by George Gissing, that Darlene recommended so warmly is also to hand.

So I’m not going to run out of classics to read, and re-read, any time soon …..