It's funny how your memory of a book shifts

Looking back at my year's reading (a bit late, I know), I've realised that the books that win an instant 5* rating as I finish them are not the same as the books that I'd now judge to be highlights.

My best reads of 2011 - the ones that I loved, that I've talked about and recommended, and that I think I'll read again were

• When God Spoke English - I blogged about this while at Hay; 
• The Hare with Amber Eyes;
• A Short History of Nearly Everything;
• Saplings; 
• The Report; 
• The American Wife;
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks;
• They Were Sisters;
• Annabel;
• A Single Man (the film's amazing, the book is shockingly better).

There were plenty of other books that I read and really enjoyed - but in the time since I closed the cover, the instant magic has faded and I've realised that they've not stayed with me as deeply as I'd expected.

Last year I read a huge number of books, way more than normal - in part it reflects my new and longer commute, but also that until September I was in a slightly less frenetic job and made a conscious effort to take a break to read while eating lunch. And I suspect a settled relationship sees a bit more reading in bed than the olden days... ;-)

Ten books I've bought but not yet read

Here goes

1. The Leopard - not my usual thing, but recommended by a book group friend who said it's stayed with her for weeks since she read it. 
2. The Odd Women - bought because of an intriguing review, and because Darlene is about to start reading it.
3. Perfect Lives - my book group choice for December.
4. To the North - I've been looking for it for ages because I loved The Last September so much, and have read most of her other stuff. This review prompted me to look again, and I'm really looking forward to it. 

Ten bookmarks (or bookmark substitutes)

How do you mark your place in a book? I'm a sucker for bookmarks and buy 'proper' ones all the time - but when it comes down to it, and I have to stop reading in order to sleep, eat or actually start work, they're never to hand.



So I use all sorts of flat(ish) things:

  

 

 

And because I then normally leave my within-reach bookmark to live within the book, it almost becomes part of the book, tied into my memory of when I read it and what else was going on at the time.



How do you mark your place? Do you dog-ear?

One Book, Two Book, Three Book, Four... and Five!

I've picked this up via Cristina, Verity and Darlene - who in turn took it from Simon (who's illustrated his post with lovely photos). I'd love to know what other people's five books are - pop a link in the comments if you've done this one...



The book I'm currently reading


- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. It's taken me more than a week, and I put most of that down to the fact it's a physically big and hardback book, so it's a bigger deal to cart in and out of work and it's harder to find a comfy position to read it in bed. I'm enjoying it a fair bit - the complicated characters, the echoes and themes that resonate. But with 70 pages to go, I've not yet clocked why it's the next/latest Great American Novel. 

The last book I finished


- Annabel, and I posted a brief review here.

The next book I want to read


- The Finkler Question - I've read the rest of the Booker shortlist, and think I'm good and ready for the winner now. I hope it's good, because I enjoyed Long Song and Room but found the others a bit meh, really. 


- I'm also going to be rereading American Wife in the next week or so - having pressed it on my book group girls, I want to make sure I'm really well prepped with some good questions and thoughts to prompt the chat. 

April's reading round-up

I've not reviewed any of my reading this month - and I'm not motivated to write properly considered posts for any of the books. But here's a quick round-up:

8) Round about a Pound a Week - I first added it to my TBR list during Persephone Reading Weekend, then moved it up the list to make sure I've read it before Hay so that I can discuss with the lovely Sally. I'm about 150 pages in, finding the writing a bit dry but the content and argument shocking and provocative. Makes me think of Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier, and also of Polly Toynbee's Hard Work which I read when I first moved to London. 

7) Annabel - I thought this was superb. Again, it wasn't the first Orange longlister to leap out of the list and entice me, but after picking up and putting down a copy on several different bookshop trips (in part captivated by the astounding cover photo and a serendipitous link to something I'd read on Jezebel about androgynous models), I decided to give it a go. The story is of a child born in 1970s Labrador, his childhood and adolescence as a boy and young man (Wayne) living on the edge of the wilderness, and his move to the big city and attempt to live as his true self - both Wayne and Annabel.

This is really a book about human relationships - Treadway and Jacinta (Wayne's parents) have an unusually good relationship that turns over time; Thomasina (Jacinta's friend/neighbour) projects her longing for her dead husband and daughter; Wayne's relationship with Wally - and the awful echo that both of their dreams are damaged/delayed by shards of glass wielded by judgemental bullies. I was struck at the end of the book by the depth of characters and the focus on understanding who, how and why they are as they are - and the range of characterisation which accepts multiple identities and/or ambiguity.

Ten books on my 'to read' list - which should go first?

A bunch of people have been posting about the Orange longlist - and the amazing CardigangirlVerity has been racing through them and posting a set of reviews that make my eyeballs/brain salivate - or whatever their equivalent is... and obviously I'm impressed/intimidated/inspired by her pace.

I thought I'd sort out ten books I want to read in the next 2-3 months. I've been making a real effort not to buy books until/unless I'm ready to read them - so I can't post a picture of the bookpile yet. But if I'm successful I'll see about something retrospective. 

So here we go:

(1) Round about a Pound a Week, and (2) Few Eggs and  No Oranges - on the list because of some great reviews during the Persephone Reading Weekend. I'd welcome suggestions for a third Persephone to pick up (preferably some fiction)

(3) Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives - because from the reviews I've read so far, this is the Orange that most appeals. Despite this, I have already read Room and Jamrach's Menagerie and enjoyed both - and I've bought Annabel too. I'm holding out for a nicer edition of Baba Segi, so it might be a month or two before I get onto it.

(4) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - I bought this to read on holiday in December last year. Somehow I never got round do it. And with it's pale covers I've been nervous about jamming it in the handbag to take to work.

(5) Finkler Question - I always try to leave the Booker winner till last on the short list.

(6) Freedom - because it's there (?)

(7) Chris Mullin's Decline and Fall because I love politics, and I enjoyed a lot of View from the Foothills (some of the tone was a bit annoying, but a lot of the suspicion of/frustration at civil servants rang true, and it's great to see his perspective on things that I remembered and have also read about in the various memoirs from a No.10 perspective)

(8) Some/all of the Little House in the Prairie series - I've been inspired by this review at BookSnob

(9) A Tale of Two Cities - I'm not much of a Dickens fan (love the plots, bored by the writing), but in the last month two different people have (completely unprompted) recommended it soooo enthusiastically I'm going to give him another chance.

(10) Parting Shots - a Christmas book that I've dipped into, and think it's time to put it by the bath or near the toaster. Two places I'm always after something I can read in little-ish chunks...


So - which should I read first?

Brilliant Posts

Ten great posts that I've read in the last few days

• Darlene (Roses over a Cottage Door) on favourite words - so good it made me want to do a top ten list of my favourite words, but I'm struggling to sort my ten
• Elisabeth Mahony on In Our Time (I loooove R4) h/t marbury
• Sally (Sow and Sew) with a brilliant stopmotion bookshelf reorganisation (I know, I know, sounds stupid, is actually brilliant) - also Sally's posting on 'discomfort' as a weekword was brilliant.
• #UkTownSongs - kicked off a couple of days ago, just brilliant.
• Joanna (Confident Writing) on 'what if' - a nice prompt to reflect on why and how I blog. 
• Claire (Paperback Reader) on her trip to see TV Book Club getting recorded
• A couple of goodies from Book Club Classics - passing on a list of 'best science writing of 2010' (following my recent reading of Henrietta Lacks) and a review of the Invisible Line (I've read a few things recently about race in the US...)
• Litlove (Tales from the reading room) with a thought provoking post on women and how we make things harder for ourselves and each other. 
• HBR on 30 things we need, and 30 things we don't - worky but also work-life-balancy
• OldSpice - there's a load of new ads up on youtube. Brilliant as ever.

Ten years ago - what have I learned?

Ten years ago - February 2001 - and I was in my second year at university. I'd come out of 4 months with the women's lightweight rowing squad and was back in my college crew, as a 53kg powerhouse (!). I was the college welfare officer - in charge of coffee, condoms and chat. I was very into my boyfriend. And I was studying hard - a fortnightly translation from French to English and weekly translations the other way; and 3 essays a fortnight on 'general history' and 'nineteenth century French' with loads of library time. 

Ten years on - February 2011 - and I'm in my eighth year at work. I'm nothing like as fit as I was, and do much less condom distribution - but I still am often a source of coffee and chat. I'm very into my man. And I work pretty hard, although now it's about slide packs, submissions and evidence... 

What've I learned?

1. I've learned about who I am and got comfy being myself in my own skin. I'm still not fully there - faced with some people and places I find myself distinctly out of my saucer - but I'm much better at knowing and being myself, including my dorky bits. I know what I think is important - in my life and in my morals. And I'm a lot happier and healthier for it.
2. I've learned to to read for pleasure again - it took me a while to get back into books after 4 years of serious immersion and 'doing' an author each week (3-6 novels plus biography and plenty of lit crit) - but I can't imagine a life without books, or a week without fiction. And though I know some of its rusty, I know that everything I did at uni has helped me to appreciate better, deeper and more richly the books that I read now.
3. I've learned what it's like to think in another language - I couldn't do it until my year abroad, but the moment I caught myself dreaming in French, or walking down the street thinking about a conversation and realising it was in French was amazing. It comes less easily now, but listening to a French podcast or reading an easy novel and it can take me a few seconds to emerge and switch back into English.

Ten different jobs I might like/do/have done

What would I do?

- I'd be a doctor - not quite sure what kind of doctor because I don't think I'd like too much gore, but not sure I'd fancy the breadth of being a GP either. I'd be good at it too (I think). It really is a shame I didn't do any science after the age of 16 - I wish I had listened to my dad on this one.

- I'd be a ballet dancer - or actually I would have been a ballet dancer. I loved it and miss it terribly except for shaking muscles and skinless toes. But it's such a beautiful discipline, so good for body and soul.

- I'd do corporate law - and if I'd not passed the civil service exams I probably would be a lawyer now. Arg. Quite glad I'm doing what I am doing.

Ten things I'd like to do more (of)...

Inspired (as ever) by Sally, am making a renewed effort with ten things I'd like to do more, or to do more of. In no particular order

- going out for drinks with friends, and for drinks in new places
- looking really good - making an extra effort with hair, make-up, clothes etc
- National Trust and similar countryside outside London
- exercise - but not till February
- learning to cook new meals - really chuffed to have done Jamie Oliver indian-style steaks already this year, want to mix it up some more now
- see friends outside London - esp. Wales and Manchester
- crochet - get the big blanket ends sorted; something new, turn up to a stitch and bitch sesh
- house things, esp painting
- shopping at local butchers and maybe greengrocers too though not convinced by the quality
- talk to and seeing my family

Ten places I'd like to go on holiday

In no particular order:

Eco lodge safari holiday in Kenya
Arctic circle to see the Northern Lights
Trans-Siberian Railway - and time in St Petersburg
New York and leaf peeping in New England
Gorgeous train across Scotland and sea-kayaking with seals
France - anywhere and everywhere
Cesky Krumlov again
Egypt pyramids
Morocco souks
Plush hotel on Windermere


**And no bloody eclipse in the morning tho' it were terrible dark. Way too much cloud boo hiss**


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