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... ;-)

I read constantly...

"... in cars, walking the dog, lying in bed with my legs resting up against the wall, yoga-style. At any given time, I am in the middle of several books at once, my place marked by whatever scrap of paper happens to be close by, whether it's my latest credit card bill or one of my daughter's crayon drawings. My bookshelves are three books deep, and piles of books spread and teeter on every open surface of my home. If reading has always been a journey of imagination, a means of escape, it has also been, perhaps at least as importantly, a way of absorbing the intricate complexities of life and experience."

Now, minus the dog, yoga and daughter, this speaks deeply to me. I find it hard to face cleaning my teeth without something to read as I do it. I'm only about 40 pages into Reading Women by Stephanie Staal, but so far I'm really enjoying getting to know the author. Thanks to Litlove for putting me onto 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?

How to save your spine

No, not a post about posture while reading. Yes, a post about how to look after the spine of a paperback book - my university boyfriend taught me, and I'm now passing on the word. It only takes about a minute, and I don't think I've broken any spines since I learnt about it.

Get hold of your paperback - you need to do this before you read the book. Find a table or similar hard surface, and stand the book on its spine.

Take the front and back covers, one in each hand, and open them out onto the table. Leave all the pages still standing up. Use your thumb nails to smooth down the right-angled crease between the cover (now flat on the table) and the pages (still standing up). I think this works best if you do both sides at once. 

Pick up 10-15 pages from the front and back of the book and open them onto the table, leaving the rest of the pages still standing up. Repeat the thumbnail manoever, running both thumbs down the crease between the pages that you've opened and the rest which are still standing up.

Keep on doing this - taking 10-15 pages from each end, opening them, and running your thumbnails down to make sure they'll stay open - until you get to the middle.

Close the book again, smile, and start to read from p1. 

Any other tips for looking after books? Or for saving your spine while reading in stupid positions?

Maybe it's because we're Londoners...

A little girl aged 4 or 5, reading her homework book on the morning bus to school. Ribbed tights, royal blue sweatshirt, matching bands on her braids.

She was reading 'Ben and Lad' from the Ginn readers series - I remember my little bro reading it maybe 20 years. And she was really enjoying the pictures and chatting to herself about the story, doing a bit of reading in between. Her mum was lovely, interested in what little girl was saying and telling her how well she was doing.

And then the girl started to stumble - she got confused between not and no, didn't get the point of the letter 't' making it different and then got in a fluster about not being able to tell that 'hello' was the same word when it appeared later on the same page. She got tearful about forgetting the word, but wasn't going to let her mum put the book back in the bookbag.