Thursday, January 19, 2012

because until it is read, a book is a dead thing... (pg 114)


I am reading, I am I am! Just not blogging, and not reading nearly so much as I should, or would like to...

I finished Howards End is on the Landing By Susan Hill almost a month ago now. Shame on me. I did write notes, however I am not doing the book justice by leaving another large gap between completion and blogging.

This is a book about books and it did inspire me to get reading and even to revisit old books. Unfortunately, after moving in October last year, the majority of my books are still in boxes as they have no shelves on which to live. It will be an exciting day when I open those boxes.

In this book Susan Hill is basically making a list of her favourite books and reasons why. There is a lot of shameless name dropping, authors she knows, swanky parties, literary awards etc, however Hill does warn the reader about this from the outset.

Much of the book reminded me of my blog. The journey I am taking, the stories I have discovered, the issues particular books and reading itself has raised. We had similar views on some books, differing ideas on others. Hill abhors the idea of electronic readers and is certain that books are not an endangered species (as am I). I do however still have a book sitting on my ipad waiting to be read, that will be an experience.

Books are very important. I once visited an acquaintance and came out of their home with a feeling of discomfort and unease. I associated my discomfort to the plates with cats hanging on the walls and the box-house suburbia in which the house had been plonked. However, on my train ride home, loosing myself in some novel or other, I began to wander through the house again in my mind. In no room in the house did I recall seeing a book, not even a magazine.

There were many quotes, in this book, about books. I would like to include a few more;

24 - 25 - Blyton taught me what books could do, where the imagination could take me, how I could be transported to other places, know the sort of people I might never know in reality... I would very much like to include one Blyton book in this campaign

171 - A strange competitiveness has emerged among some readers in the last few years. I have known book-bloggers boast of getting through twenty plus books, a week, as if they were trying for a place in the Guinness book of records. Twenty plus books a week?! That doesn't seem fair to the author. I am an advocate of Hills' Slow Reading (mainly as I don't have a choice!)

193 - It is saddening to know that the majority of children never have stories read to them at home. This i cannot fathom. My father always read to us up until and even after we could read for ourselves. We have been reading to our child even before he was born and he is read at least one story at bedtime every night, if I counted children's books, I have already read more than 30 this year!

This book was interesting and comfortable, in that Well's ideas about books and reading weren't too far removed from my own. I couldn't help get the feeling though that I was wasting time reading about books, that I should've been reading instead!

347 Days Remaining, 26 Books to go

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