BooksPlease

I saw this tag on FictionFan’s book blog and fancied doing it too.

What is the 100th book on your TBR list? (In the unlikely event that you don’t have 100 books on your TBR, what book’s been on there longest?)

I am not very organised in keeping check of how many TBRs I have. I have books listed on both Goodreads and on LibraryThing and neither are complete. But as I began my LibraryThing catalogue first (in 2007, by which time some of my books were TBRs of quite long-standing) I’m using that for my answer – the 100th book I added to my LT catalogue is A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott, a novel about the Oregon trail in America in the mid 19th century.

Open your current book to page 100 (or randomly, if you don’t have page numbers on your e-reader) and quote a few sentences that you like.

I’m currently reading The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcy:

‘From now on for the following year life became a glamorous fairy-tale,’ wrote Betsy Anderson, who had been brought out to India, aged seventeen, in the Fishing Fleet of 1923 by her mother after years at an English boarding school, followed by presentation at court and a London Season. They stayed with friends in bombay, in a house that reminded Betsy of Rome, with its black and white marble floors, high ceilings and windows with long venetian blinds.

This book is about the eligible young women, known as the ‘Fishing Fleet’ who travelled to India in search of a husband. For some they experienced both glamour and excitement before being whisked off to remote outposts where life was a far cry from the social whirl of their first arrival. It’s interesting but a bit disjointed and repetitive.

When you are 100, what author(s) do you know you will still be re-reading regularly? (This should be an easy one for those of you who are already over 100’¦)

Well, if I get there I hope I’ll still be reading. But maybe I won’t be able to tell the difference between reading and re-reading as there are books I read years ago that seem like new books to me now.

Link to your 100th post (if you’re a new blogger then link to your tenth post, or any one you like). Do you still agree with what you said back then?

My 100th post was on the TV dramatisation of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell in which I wrote about the forthcoming dramatisation, based on three of Elizabeth Gaskell’s works, Cranford, My Lady Ludlow and Mr Harrison’s Confessions. Before the broadcast I re-read Cranford, which I’d first read at school, and then when I watched the series I wished I hadn’t bothered as it was so different from Cranford. It bothered me so much I wrote another post after watching two of the episodes about what I didn’t like about it. I’m still sceptical about TV/film adaptations of books and prefer to keep my own images of the characters and locations rather than someone else’s versions.

Name a book you love that has less than 100 pages. Why do you love it?

A Month in the Country by J L Carr – As an old man Tom Birkin is looking back to the summer of 1920 when he was asked to uncover a huge medieval wall-painting in the village church of Oxgodby in Yorkshire. It is a beautifully written little book of just 85 pages, set in the aftermath of World War I and it is the writing that I loved the most, the way Carr took me back in time to that glorious summer in Oxgodby.

If someone gave you £100, what would be the five books you would rush to buy? 

You would think this would be an easy question but it isn’t because there are so many books I want to read  At the moment here are five from my wishlist (blurbs from Amazon):

Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait by Carola Hicks – ‘Is the painting the celebration of marriage or pregnancy, a memorial to a wife who died in childbirth, a fashion statement or a status symbol? Using her acclaimed forensic skills as an art historian, Carola Hicks set out to decode the mystery.’

Painting as a Pastime by Winston S Churchill – ‘The perfect antidote to his ‘Black Dog’, a depression that blighted his working life, Churchill took to painting with gusto. Picking up a paintbrush for the first time at the age of forty, Winston Churchill found in painting a passion that was to remain his constant companion. This glorious essay exudes his compulsion for a hobby that allowed him peace during his dark days, and richly rewarded a nation with a treasure trove of work.’

The Last Englishman by J L Carr – because I enjoyed A Month in the Country so much I want to know more about the author. ‘Byron Roger’s acclaimed biography reveals an elusive, quixotic and civic-minded individual with an unswerving sympathy for the underdog, who led his schoolchildren through the streets to hymn the beauty of the cherry trees and paved his garden path with the printing plates for his hand-drawn maps, and whose fiction is quite remarkably autobiographical.’

Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton – I love her books and have heard (from FictionFan herself!) that this one is brilliant – ‘Sharon Bolton at her twisty, twisted best.‘ ‘Hamish Wolfe is charming, magnetic and very persuasive. Famed for his good looks, he receives adoring letters every day from his countless admirers. He’s also a convicted murderer, facing life in prison.  Maggie Rosie is a successful lawyer and true-crime author. Reclusive and enigmatic, she only takes on cases she can win.

Hamish is convinced that Maggie can change his fate. Maggie is determined not to get involved. She thinks she’s immune to the charms of such a man. But maybe not this time . . .’

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – ‘Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision; an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.’

What book do you expect to be reading 100 days from now?

I don’t know. Every time I plan what I’ll read next it never happens and I read whatever appeals at the time.

Looking at The Guardian’s list of ‘The 100 greatest novels of all time’, how many have you read? Of the ones you haven’t, which ones would you most like to read? And which will you never read? 

I’ve read 41 of these. Several are on my TBR list – The Count of Monte Cristo, The Scarlet Letter, The Marquez books and Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And I’m now adding The Big Sleep to my TBRs. I’ve had a go at reading Ulysses, but gave up- I’ll never read it.

Free Question ‘“ Create a 100 themed question of your own choice and answer it.

My question is: Which 21st-century novel do you think will still be read in 100 years’ time?

Of course I have no idea of the answer. But I ‘d like to think it could be Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It’s the story of Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, and his political rise, set against the background of Henry VIII’s England

When I read it six years ago I thought it was one of the best books I’ve read that year, if not the best one. And it still stands out as one of my all time favourite books. It is satisfying in depth and breadth, with a host of characters and detail. I loved the way transported me back to that time, with Mantel’s descriptions of the pageantry, the people, the places and the beliefs and attitudes of the protagonists. It was as though I  was there in the thick of it all. Since then Mantel has written Bring Up the Bodies, also a great book and is writing a third book to complete the story of Thomas Cromwell’s life.

The Bookish Time Travel Tag has been doing the rounds and I’ve been tagged by Sandra at A Corner of Cornwall to take part. It’s not been that easy coming up with my answers to some of the questions and it’s taken some time to write this post. But I have enjoyed it and would like to thank both Sandra and The Library Lizard, whose original idea this was.

What is your favourite historical setting for a book?

Not an easy question to start off with as I love reading historical fiction set in several periods and different countries. It’s hard to choose just one, but I love the Tudor period and historical crime fiction and so I’m highlighting C J Sansom’s Shardlake books set in the reign of Henry VIII for this question. Matthew Shardlake is a hunchbacked lawyer, but the books are more than crime novels – Sansom’s research is excellent, his characters are well drawn and the atmosphere and sense of place are convincing. I love his books.

 

What writer/s would you like to travel back in time to meet?

I’m not sure I want to do this, being a bit shy and I think I would feel very awkward. Maybe Jane Austen – she lived in such a different period from today and I would love to know more about her inspiration for writing and who was the inspiration for ‘Mr Darcy’.

What book/s would you travel back in time and give to your younger self?

I would give myself The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J R R Tolkien. I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was in my early twenties and loved it, so much so that over the years I’ve re-read it several times. But somehow I ignored The Hobbit, maybe thinking that because it’s a children’s book it was too late for me to appreciate it. I only read The Hobbit three years ago after seeing the film, and then I realised how wrong I was not to have read it before ‘“ The Hobbit is a book that all ages can enjoy. But I do wish I’d read it first as a child.

What book/s would you travel forward in time and give to your older self?

By this The Library Lizard means ‘what book do you want to remind your older self of because it was really important to you?‘ One Christmas when I was a child my Great Aunty Sally gave me a beautiful little hardback copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, one of my favourite books of all time – and I no longer have that copy. I read it many times and loved it for its story and because she was my favourite aunty. I’ve looked everywhere for it. I now have this edition with the same illustrations. Appropriately for this tag one of its themes is time as Scrooge experiences scenes from the past, the present and the future.

What is your favourite futuristic setting from a book?

Most of the books I read now are set either in the present or in the past. But I did enjoy Frank Herbert’s Dune books with sandworms and the ‘spice’ drug when I read them years ago. The books are set in a far future, where warring noble houses (House Atreides and House Harkonnen) are kept in line by a ruthless galactic emperor. I can’t remember the details now, but remember that I was hooked on reading them.

What is your favourite book that is set in a different time period (can be historical or futuristic)?

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman is set before and during the Wars of the Roses and in particular it focuses on Richard III from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. I think this is one of the best historical novels that I’ve read. It is full of detail, well researched and very readable.

Spoiler Time: Do you ever skip ahead to the end of a book just to see what happens?

These days I resist skipping ahead as in the past I’ve immediately regretted knowing the end if I did. But if I know I’m not going to read to the end I sometimes look and if it looks interesting I have gone back and finished the book.

If you had a Time Turner, where would you go and what would you do?

I wouldn’t want to travel to the future and I would only like to travel to the past as an observer, following the prime objective in Star Trek, so that my actions wouldn’t interfere with history.  For example, I would like to go to Ancient Rome and see what it was like in its heyday, be there at a performance one of Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe, go to the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in May 1851, visit Australia (not in a convict ship) with the early settlers, see China with Gladys Aylward and watch Vesuvius erupt – from a safe vantage point.

Favourite book (if you have one) that includes time travel or takes place in multiple time periods?

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks is a book covering so many different periods of history in different parts of the world. It’s about the hidden history of a book known as the priceless Sarajevo Haggadah ‘“ a medieval Jewish prayer – told in reverse chronological order beginning in 1996 and working back to 1480.  It’s a story too of love and war, of family relationships, of Anti-Semitism and of historical religious conflicts as the haggadah survived disaster after disaster; a novel about preserving the past, its culture and history for future generations. It has depth and breadth and is beautifully written.

What book/series do you wish you could go back and read again for the first time?

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet series – apart from the last book I read them in the 1990s before I began to write my blog. The first four of these follow the lives of the Cazalet family from 1937 to 1947 and the last book All Change written twenty years after the fourth book, Casting Off picks up their story beginning in 1956.