Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Bedtime reading

Looking back through my posts recently, I was amazed to see that it’s over six months since I last wrote about books. For this particular ex-librarian and lifelong bookworm this is so long a gap that you might be forgiven for thinking that I had completely stopped reading books in favour of blogs. I will admit that my book-reading time is somewhat eaten into by blogs nowadays, but thankfully I possess neither a laptop nor an iPad, so that in bed, at least, books are my sole source of reading matter.

This morning, while drinking the tea which always starts my day, I finished the last tense pages of a really excellent crime novel by a author I first discovered last year.  No Escape is the second novel by Natasha Cooper that I have read, but it won’t be the last. Well characterised and expertly plotted, it gripped me from the first page to the last. That book will go back to the library tomorrow, but I still have a substantial pile of others on my bedside table.

Being nothing if not eclectic in my reading tastes, the next book in the pile is a non-fiction book, published by the National Museum of Wales. Things Of Beauty: what two sisters did for Wales is a fascinatingly illustrated study of the Davies sisters, Margaret and Gwendoline, who used the enormous wealth inherited from their Victorian industrialist father, to build up a wonderful collection of Impressionist and other paintings, which they bequeathed to the National Museum of Wales.


My interest in them is not simply artistic, but comes from the fact that they were local people, born in the village of which I was once vicar, as was their remarkable father, who worked his way out of deep poverty to become one of Wales’ richest and most influential men. It would be difficult to live in Mid-Wales and not be intrigued by the Davies family and their achievements.

Below this in the pile is Louisa May, a biography by Martha Saxton of the 19th century American author, Louisa May Alcott. I was inspired to request this from the library by posts on Lifeonthecutoff's Blog about her life and work. As a girl I read and reread her most famous novel Little Women until my copy almost disintegrated, and having an enduring affection for children's literature, I still return to it and her other novels from time to time.


One of the things I only recently learned about Louisa May Alcott is that, like her heroine Jo in Little Women, in the 1860’s she published a series of sensational Gothic thrillers under a pseudonym in order to make the money for which the Alcott family always had dire need. These were rediscovered and republished in two collections in the 1970s and thanks to our library’s capacious store, one of these collections, entitled Plots & Counterplots, is also in my pile of bedtime reading.

Finally, as one of those books one can dip in and out of when too tired to read a continuous narrative, I have All Wound Up, the latest collection of very funny and perceptive essays on knitting and life, written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the inimitable Yarn Harlot.

So, with reading tastes as varied as my taste in music, and all your blogs to read too, I don’t think I’m likely to be bored. And of course I know I can always rely on you for interesting suggestions as to what to read when I've finished my pile. J


32 comments:

  1. I'm going to give this some thought and will get back to you. Away to bed now with Bill Bryson's 'Made in America' which I'm really enjoying!
    Axxx

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  2. Dear Perpetua,
    I've copied the authors and names of the books you're reading. It's so true that many of the books I read now are ones I've learned about from fellow bloggers.

    From Teresa I learn about poetry. From Lori I learn about books on animals. From many blogs I learn about the writers' own books, recently published and on Amazon. From DJan I learn about book on nutrition. So many bloggers, like yourself, who read and are gracious in sharing their books with their readers.

    I truly am a reader of mystery novels. I wonder if you've read the Canadian writer of the Flavia series. His name is Alan Bradley and his first book in the series of four (right now) is "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie." These mysteries take place in England.

    Peace.

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  3. More ideas!
    Thank you.
    I'm just working through a pile at the moment but will take a look at these for my next order.
    I've been enjoying Graham Swift's stuff and have just discarded a very unsatisfactory book on bullfighting.

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  4. Natasha Cooper eh? Lately I've become a complete mystery/thriller addict and always on the look-out for new authors. I shall give Ms. Cooper a try when my own pile of bedside reading matter is down to a manageable size. Between my pile of books and my Kindle, I'm pretty set for the next 12 months.
    Smiles - Astrid

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  5. I have it bad for books. I have this iPad but I love objects...I want to feel the pages. I like to buy them too...which is a lot easier than reading them so I've got a big back log myself.

    I added three today from a charity book shop. A very tidy...almost new really...copy of David Brown's biography of Palmerston. A decent copy of Typhoon and Other Stories by Joseph Conrad (everyman's library...I can't help myself making references to the condition...silly).

    I also got an interesting book about the War Between the States (american civil war as some insist) entitled War For What? It would be classified as Southern apologetics...so I'm curious about that.

    Also on the to read list...Islam and Imperialism in French Senegal by Martin and a book on the Russo-Japanese War.

    That's a lot of war...don't know how helpful I've been.

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  6. I think I'll check out Louisa May and No Escape.
    Louisa May reminded me of when I was in grade school and we had a large selection of biographies which I quite simply devoured. I just loved biographies when I was around 9 and 10 years. Don't know why.

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  7. I am a bookworm too and cannot go to sleep unless I have read something, even if it is very late. I get excited about a subject and then I read a bunch of books on that. Right now, after reading the new edition of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast and seeing the movie Midnight in Paris I am reading all about the expat Americans in the 1920s in Paris. I have read 5 books so far and still have as many to read – non fictions. I am reading “Shakespeare and Company” by Sylvia Beach right now. But sometimes in between a series like this I’ll read a good British mystery. I usually have 5 books started at once. My next books are on the history of Hawaii – I am completely fascinated by the fact that the US too over Hawaii by ruse against the Hawaiians will.

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  8. Several months ago I began to write review of books that I loved with the intention of adding another post every month... Oh dear, the best intentions, etc. etc. I've got quite a pile of books still to read and a kindle-full as well -- yesterday I found two more I'd not heard of and am about to order from Amazon: Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel and Griffen and Sabine by Nick Bantock. Now I must order Natasha Cooper! The question is for Kindle or for real! Oh, the dilemma's of modern life!!

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  9. I hope you slept well, Annie. :-) Bill Bryson is a long-time favourite of mine, ever since I heard him reading his first book on Radio 4. I have most of his books and they live on my bookshelves in France as perfect summer reading, though Made in America isn't among them. Amazon here I come....

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  10. Good morning, Dee. Glad to have been of service. :-) What is it about blogger,s or at least the bloggers I read, and mystery novels? I'm a total addict too and could suggest a long list of authors to you. But Alan Bradley is new to me, and as soon as I've finished replying to these comments I'll check the library catalogue for his books.

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  11. Always ready to oblige, Fly. :-) It's ages since I read Graham Swift and I don't know what he has written recently, so here's another author to be checked in the library catalogue from the comfort of my desk chair.

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  12. So you're another member of the bloggers' mystery addict club, are you, Astrid? As I just said to Dee, I'm very happy to suggest other authors if you run out of ideas.

    I don't have a Kindle, but I'm toying with the idea of getting a Sony e-book reader as that would enable me to borrow free e-books from my local library, as well as buying books.

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  13. You're talking to a former librarian here, EF. Condition matters! Books are as essential as breathing to me and though an e-book reader might be convenient in some circumstances, I too am still totally hooked on the physicality of books.
    Don't mention the word backlog to me...Still, books do furnish a room. :-)

    Thanks for your suggestions. I love reading history, but mostly it's social history, though I have read some of the classic British works on the first and second world wars.

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  14. Gosh, you had grown-up tastes in reading back then, Rubye! I always loved fiction from when I learned to read at the age of 3, but had to learn to love non-fiction as I grew up. I think it was learning history which made me want to read non-fiction, as I so enjoyed discovering the past.

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  15. Exactly, Vagabonde. Even if it's only a page or two, reading last thing is a necessity. I know what you mean about getting excited about a subject and it happens to me from time to time, but the majority of my reading has always been fiction and always will be, I think. So when I discover a new author who really appeals to me, I will read a number of their works very quickly in the way you describe. Addiction is the right word, I think....

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  16. I remember that, Broad, as it was your book review posts which inspired me to do the same. The best-laid plans...eh?

    I love the thought of your dilemma between electronic and real books. Aren't we lucky to have the choice? I'm still a die-hard library user though, and only buy books by authors I know I will want to reread, unless it's in a charity shop, where I will go mad among the 50p books. :-)

    Thanks for your suggestions. I will investigate....

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  17. Last night, while perusing my purchases...that in the early days of the Virginia Colony, a rector sued the vestry because they tried to pay him with money instead of tobacco.

    :)

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  18. There was a special exhibition dedicated to the Davies sisters some years ago. So much better I think than those so called philanthopists who throw money into football clubs.

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  19. A wonderfully silly anecdote to echo your post below about the Queen's accession to the throne.
    Rose, granny's maid and general factotum, had gone on her bicycle to the village to buy some fish for lunch and came home in a great fluster.
    "Mrs.Norman ! Mrs.Norman! I have terrible news!
    The king's dead!"
    "Oh," saidGranny, "I thought you were going to say there was no fish...."
    after which Granny felt rather mortified...
    About reading, I'm enjoying Sarah Bakewell's biography of Montaigne.

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  20. Hello Perpetua - Firstly, I'm with you & several other of your numerous commenters regarding the physicality of actually having a book in one's hand rather than an electronic device.

    My current bedtime reading is the work of an author I've actually had the privilege of both meeting & hearing speak on two separate occasions. The first occasion was the subject of one of my very early blogposts http://rickyyates.com/29/
    He is Tomáš Sedláček and his book Ekonomie dobra a zla has now been translated into English & published as 'Economics of Good and Evil' by Oxford University Press.

    I don't think I would normally ever want to read a book about economics but this one is very different. As the cover blurb says, Sedláček has 'made economics attractive to an unheard-of variety of audiences' by 'arguing a simple, almost heretical proposition: economics is ultimately about good and evil'. It makes for fascinating and challenging reading &, judging by the excellence of your local library provision, should be obtainable for you to add to your bedside book pile!

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  21. LOL! I'm guessing the rector in question wasn't married, EF, or his wife might have had something to say about his pay! :-)

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  22. Undoubtedly, Mark. I didn't see the exhibition, but I've seen so much of what they did both for art and for the area and the country. Gregynog Hall, their last home, was left to the University of Wales as a conference centre and is a marvellous place to stay.

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  23. Hello, Elizabeth and welcome. I love your story about your Granny and the day the King died!

    Thanks so much for your suggestion about the Montaigne biography. Definitely one to look out for. I love the Amazon review which calls him the first blogger!

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  24. Yes, I know you and I certainly have that in common, Ricky. I may get an e-reader someday, but it could never replace real books for me.

    The book you mention sounds absolutely fascinating and I'll see if the library has it. Perhaps one to read with the morning tea rather than the bedtime chocolate though. :-)

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  25. I was glad to hear you say that reading blogs has cut into your available reading time! Oh my yes! I find this a real dilemma! And I, too, am extremely eclectic in my reading, which is a delightful problem to have, but that pile just gets bigger and bigger. And yet I will still write these titles down! I hope to have a long, long life. LOL! I am particularly interested in the Louisa May Alcott selection. She is such a favorite! I still have my multiple copies of Little Women and have never read her biography. A must! I love a good book review from someone who knows her books! Debra

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  26. Debra, I think any blogger who won't admit to having less book-reading time since starting to blog is being a little economical with the truth. :-)

    Like you I collect book suggestions, even though I have an increasing backlog of already purchased items to get through. The eternal triumph of hope over experience.... I'm enjoying the Alcott biography and look forward to her melodramas afterwards.

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  27. ha ha.

    Evidently at that time in Virginia history...tobacco was worth more than money..if that isn't too philosophical an answer.

    :)

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  28. Now that's an interesting historical nugget, EF.

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  29. Perpetua, I'm juggling 4 different titles now. From one librarian to another, you know how fun it is to read more than one book. My strategy is when I get tired of one title, I bounce to another, and eventually I finish all the books. Now I'm juggling Hemingway, DuPrau, Wyeth, and Durrell.

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  30. I know just what you mean, Nerima. I'm part way through the Alcott biography and enjoying it, but this morning woke very early and started another crime novel as contrast, this one a translation from a French original by Fred Vargas. Sometimes you just have to read as the mood takes you, hence the varied pile on the bedside table. :-)

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  31. Now you have me rushing to my list of books to read, adding Things of Beauty . . . and author Natasha Cooper. They sound each to be fascinating reads in different ways, Perpetua, and I will be looking for them. Thank you for the mention of my posts. I'll been interested in hearing about LMA's "other" books.

    I have been trying, consciously, to set aside some time each afternoon to just sit and read; sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes an hour, some days it works, somedays it doesn't. My main reading time is also abed where I either fall promptly asleep or spend hours buried in a good read.

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  32. I think you could easily find Natasha Cooper’s books, Penny, but looking at the second-hand prices on Amazon.com, Things of Beauty might be best searched for in a library. At the minute I’m still working my way through the biography of Louisa May Alcott, which is very detailed and well-researched, but DH is reading her gothic thrillers and finding them interesting. I'll let you know what I think in due course.

    I like the idea of setting aside reading time during the day, but given the way my days often go, I’d have to be a bit more self-disciplined to achieve it......

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I welcome your comments and will always try to respond to them. Thank you for reading.