Category: Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays – Award Winning Books

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

monday-musingToday’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about award winning books€¦

Do you feel compelled to read prize-winning (Giller/Booker/Pulitzer etc) books? Why, or why not? Is there, perhaps, one particular award that you favour? (question courtesy of MizB)

I don’t feel at all compelled to read prize-winning books – interested yes, but not compelled. For years the only prize I followed was the Booker, but I’ve only read a few of the winners and shortlisted authors, so it hasn’t really had much impact on my reading.

Recently I’ve become interested in the Orange Prize for Fiction.  When I saw a list of all the books long-listed between 1996 and 2009 on Kimbofo’s blog Reading Matters I realised that I’ve read 26 of them – not many but more than I would have thought.  

I didn’t read any of them because they were longlisted or prize winners, in fact I was completely unaware of that when I read them. I read them because they attracted me, either because I’d read other books by the authors or because I thought they looked good.

The ones I’ve read are shown in bold and the hyperlinks take you to my reviews. The other books are books I own that I haven’t read yet.

Alice Sebold The Lovely Bones
Anita Shreve The Weight of Water – shortlist
Ann Patchett Bel Canto – winner
Ann Patchett The Magician’s Assistant – shortlist
Anne Enright The Gathering
Anne Tyler Digging to America
Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler’s Wife
Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible – shortlist
Beryl Bainbridge Master Georgie
Carol Shields Unless – shortlist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun – winner
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Purple Hibiscus – shortlist
Hilary Mantel Beyond Black – shortlist
Jane Gardam Old Filth – shortlist
Jane Harris The Observations – shortlist
Joyce Carol Oates Middle Age
Joyce Carol Oates The Falls
Kate Atkinson Case Histories
Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss – shortlist
Lily Prior La Cucina
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Louise Welsh The Cutting Room
Margaret Atwood Alias Grace – shortlist
Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake – shortlist
Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin – shortlist
Margaret Forster Over
Marilynne Robinson Gilead
Marina Lewycka A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – shortlist
Pat Barker The Ghost Road
Rachel Cusk Arlington Park – shortlist
Sadie Jones The Outcast
Samantha Harvey The Wilderness
Siri Hustvedt What I Loved
Stef Penney The Tenderness of Wolves
Sue Gee The Mysteries of Glass
Tracy Chevalier Girl with a Pearl Earring
Valerie Martin Property – winner
Zadie Smith On Beauty – winner

Musing Mondays – Reading Time

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

Musing Mondays (BIG)Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading time€¦

Do you have a set reading time (before bed, perhaps)? Do you read more at night or during the day? Is there a day of the week, perhaps, that you set aside to catch up on reading?

My main time for reading is first thing in the morning, including reading blogs. I also read at night but not for long as I usually fall asleep very quickly once I’ve started to read.  I now have more time for reading in the mornings than I used to when I went to work full-time and could only snatch half an hour or so. I used to read at lunchtime at work but now I’m at home I don’t. Sometimes, I read for a while in the evening when there’s nothing on TV that I want to watch.

I take a book with me most places, especially when I’m waiting for a doctor’s or dentist’s appointment  so that I have something to occupy my mind. Last week I went with my husband for an eye appointment at the local hospital and we had to wait 2 hours – lovely reading time! (It was a good job I went with him as he was unable to drive home – his eyes were all out of focus due to the drops they put in. Thankfully the doctor said his eyes are OK!)

Musing Mondays – Sticking With It

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

Musing Mondays (BIG)How much time (or how many pages) do you give a book that you aren’t really enjoying before you’ll set it aside? If you’re reading it for a book group discussion, or for review, will you give it more of a chance then, say, a book you’re reading for your own interest? Why, or why not?

I don’t have a set rule about how many pages I read before giving up on a book. It all depends on the book. If it’s awful I may give up after a few pages, but if it’s so-so I’ll carry on reading for say 50 -100 pages before stopping. There aren’t many books I don’t finish and even if I’m not keen on I’ll skim through it to see if it gets any better. Sometimes my frame of mind and the book don’t meet and if I leave a book for a while then pick it up again I’ll get on better with it. The rest of the book may be much better than the beginning. On the other hand it’s disappointing when the first part of a book is really good and the rest isn’t.

If I’m reading a book that has been sent to me to review then I do finish it, because I don’t think it’s fair to write about a book when I haven’t read all of it.  For a book group discussion I may persevere a bit longer than usual, but I wouldn’t feel bad about abandoning the book if I really didn’t like it.

Musing Monday – Early Reading

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about early reading –

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? Was it from a particular person, or person(s)? Do you remember any books that you read, or were read to  you, as a young child? (question courtesy of Diane)

My love of reading comes from my parents. My father always read me a bedtime story and would make up stories of his own to tell me. My mother always had a book on the go and she took me to the local branch library, which was a small library with both children’s and adults’ books all in one room. This was before I started school, but according to my parents I could read by myself then.

I don’t remember learning to read and I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have books. My parents bought me books each birthday  and Christmas and so did my aunties and uncles. Some of the earliest books I remember being read to me are a book of nursery rhymes and a book about Teddy Robinson. When I was a bit older I read the Noddy books and then other Enid Blyton books and  fairy tales I loved those. I loved the Flower Fairy books too. I don’t have any of my orginal Flower Fairy books, but I’m delighted to see they’re still in print. There are many more now than when I was little and you can get the Flower Fairies Complete Collection of all eight original books – “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, “Winter”, “Wayside”, “Garden”, “Alphabet”, and “Trees” .

Musing Mondays – On Re-reading

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

Musing Mondays

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about re-reading€¦

Have you ever finished a book, then turned around and immediately re-read it? Why? What book(s)? (question courtesy of MizB)

I often re-read the first few pages of a book immediately after finishing it, but I don’t re-read all of it.  There are many books I’d like to re-read but only a few that I have re-read and then only some months or even years later. Recently I’ve re-read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, both of which I’d first read many years ago. A while back I re-read Susan Howatch’s Starbridge series and I’d like to read them again one day, but really there are so many books I haven’t read that my re-reading is limited.

I should keep a list of those I’d like to re-read. Ones that spring to my mind today are

  • Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. I keep saying this and never doing it. I have read it several times but the last time was probably after the TV version with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. I’d also like to re-read her other novels.
  • Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder. I was so impressed with this one when I read it – a basic guide to philosophy mixed in with the story of Sophie, a fourteen year old Norwegian girl. I must read it again sometime.
  • Melvyn Bragg’s The Soldier’s Return, A Son of War and Crossing the Lines. I’ve just this morning finished reading Remember Me and would love to re-read these earlier novels about Joe Richardson.

Musing Monday – The To-Be-Read Pile

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

monday-musingToday’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your tbr pile€¦

How many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile? (question courtesy of Wendy)

I don’t have a tbr pile. I have piles and piles and a bookcase full of them too. I’ve not counted them and don’t really want to know how many there are, because that would give me tbr anxiety/stress. If I could bear to look I could see from LibraryThing how many I’ve tagged TBR, but not all my books are in LT yet. Anyway, I would rather just know that I’ve got plenty to read to keep me going for a while.

The trouble is that although I read from the piles and the bookcase I keep adding to them, so the piles never really go down.