50 Books: Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
This is the first book I've finished in the 50 book challenge I've set myself for this year. I am still plodding along with Emma. I'm not sure I properly appreciate Jane Austen. Though I'm told Pride and Prejudice might work better for me.
In any case, I picked up this book at a bookstore today because it's about a woman who decides to just read books that she already owns, for one year. It seemed similar enough to my current situation that I would find it relevant and inspiring.
It was not what I expected, and that is not all bad...
This is less about the experience of reading books you own than it is about the memories you gain by re-reading books you have loved. How it returns you to the circumstances of your life when you first read the book. How re-reading can enrich you and give you more with each read (for some books).
While most of the books beloved to the author are not those that are beloved to me, she did bring up Gerald Durrell's 'My Family and Other Animals', which I completely loved and haven't read in quite a while.
The most interesting part was autobiographical, and not expected at all. How she met authors. How they'd touched her life. How they'd changed her views or encouraged or demotivated her. All these small (or sometimes very large) encounters, memories driven by a book on her bookshelf...it was a really interesting way to categorize, develop, and transition from point to point.
I got a lot out of the book. Inspiration and interesting stories and fascinating viewpoints. And some of it felt like name dropping or the reminiscing of someone who sees their best days behind them.
But for the most part, I found it at least an interesting device and at most, a telling and timely commentary on our relationship with books, specifically classics, and how and why we should get close to them again.
A very worthwhile way to start off a year of reading.
Oh, and she doesn't like Jane Austen either, which gives me hope.
In any case, I picked up this book at a bookstore today because it's about a woman who decides to just read books that she already owns, for one year. It seemed similar enough to my current situation that I would find it relevant and inspiring.
It was not what I expected, and that is not all bad...
This is less about the experience of reading books you own than it is about the memories you gain by re-reading books you have loved. How it returns you to the circumstances of your life when you first read the book. How re-reading can enrich you and give you more with each read (for some books).
While most of the books beloved to the author are not those that are beloved to me, she did bring up Gerald Durrell's 'My Family and Other Animals', which I completely loved and haven't read in quite a while.
The most interesting part was autobiographical, and not expected at all. How she met authors. How they'd touched her life. How they'd changed her views or encouraged or demotivated her. All these small (or sometimes very large) encounters, memories driven by a book on her bookshelf...it was a really interesting way to categorize, develop, and transition from point to point.
I got a lot out of the book. Inspiration and interesting stories and fascinating viewpoints. And some of it felt like name dropping or the reminiscing of someone who sees their best days behind them.
But for the most part, I found it at least an interesting device and at most, a telling and timely commentary on our relationship with books, specifically classics, and how and why we should get close to them again.
A very worthwhile way to start off a year of reading.
Oh, and she doesn't like Jane Austen either, which gives me hope.