This newsletter goes out to thousands of readers every month, but sometimes it’s hard to remember that. Often I ask a question at the end of a segment, and some readers reply. You certainly don’t have to, and to be honest, if everyone did, I’d be doing nothing else for days but politely thanking you all. However, I did recently ask for more definite and individual responses, and was curious to see what sort of number I’d get.
Jewellery in Literature
A recent query was about scenes in fiction where jewellery played an important role. This brought many responses and some really excellent suggestions of scenes I’d forgotten or never thought of. Many thanks for all the help. My Jewels in Literature talk is now prepared and ready to present.
The Books You Couldn’t Finish
In my last newsletter, I asked what tomes you had started but been unable to finish. I even offered a free signed copy of my Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them to one lucky responder.
Interestingly, my ‘bribe’ didn’t bring in a vast number of nominated books, but I was fascinated by the list. Ulysses, Voss, Anna Karenina, Moby-Dick, The Lord of the Rings, The Scarlet Letter, The Grapes of Wrath, Les Misérables, A Suitable Boy, Madame Bovary, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Crime and Punishment were all nominated. I was rather devastated to see Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey on the list, but hope that I have persuaded the nominee to give it another try. Had anyone put Emma on the list, my newsletters might have mysteriously stopped reaching them.
I also felt sad when A.S. Byatt’s Possession was named – to me it is one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
The most-nominated book was War and Peace, which is sad because it is a superb novel, though I do think the ending is rather poor. A signed copy of my book is making its way to Clare Kelly. Once again, my thanks to those of you who did reply. At least I know some people are reading this newsletter!
Thank You
It is always cheering to hear, in person, in a comment, or by email, when someone has loved a book I’ve recommended. It’s a long time since I’ve had as much positive feedback as I’ve had about A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith, a delightful murder mystery set in London in 1900. Most of those readers rushed to read the second book in the series and, like me, are eagerly awaiting the third. Only one person was unenthusiastic about it. I loved chatting with others who had gained the same reading pleasure as I had, so thank you for that feedback too.
Hearing from readers is one of the great pleasures of writing this newsletter, and I’m always delighted to know what you are reading, enjoying, struggling with, or discovering for the first time. Leave a comment, or reply to the newsletter.
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Margaret Debenham
I’m afraid this is a very late contribution to your original question, Susannah – I did intend to respond earlier, but Things got in the way. However I am now suitably contrite, and hope I am not TOO late. So – a book I have no intention of ever attempting – Moby Dick. Books I have failed to complete – there have been a few, whose names I can’t now remember, but I rarely give up on a book because I have found perseverance usually pays off. Although it did take me two attempts to finish Don Quixote, but of course I ended up loving it. And I was tempted at times to throw a volume or two of Remembrance of Things Past across the room, but that was because Proust’s self-centredness drove me mad, not because I wasn’t enjoying the books. War and Peaace I thought was terrific, and even more so because the description of the Battle of Borodino was the only battle description I’ve ever read which made the battle tactics intelligible to me – that pleased me very much. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are special books for me because I read both, complete, to my son after a trip to Disneyland when he was young, and they were definitely worth it. (And I did all the voices! – no doubt very badly, but it was fun).
I agree with you about Possession – no other Byatt matches it.
On the subject of Don Quixote – did you see The Captive at the recent Spanish Film Festival, about Cervantes’ imprisonment in Algiers? Really enjoyable (and partly filmed in the beautiful Alcazar in Seville).
Susannah Fullerton
I have recently listened to the unabridged audio version of Don Quixote which I adored – my second reading of the book. Yes, I saw The Captive and loved it – they cleverly wove in aspects of the novel, and the settings were fabulous.
I have read Moby Dick but will never reread it.
Yes, Possession is a truly fabulous novel.
Vanessa Stockford
I followed your recommendation with regards to the Sebastian St Cyr novels by C.S. Harris and have managed to find libraries in my area that had enough titles that I have read my way through the series to date. I am about to start on the hunt for the latest title in the series, which I believe is When the Wolves are Silent. Many thanks for that most excellent recommendation.
I have had two very notable failure-to-complete books. One mighty tome was entitled ‘And the Ladies of the Club’ by Helen Hooven Santmyer, which did not immediately engage my interest and the size of it made it impractical to tote around with me. It languished at the bottom of the pile of The Great Unread and may still be in one of the many boxes of books I have no room for on my shelves.
The other was African Stories by Doris Lessing. I purchased this in Zimbabwe as i wanted to read a ‘local’ author, but found it a bit impenetrable. One day I might try again as i have read one or two of her novels.
I read War and Peace (skipping over some sections), dragged my weary way through the Scarlet Letter and have yet to reach the end of Madam Bovary and The Grapes of Wrath, but have not given up on them yet.
I await your future recommendations with great anticipation!
Thank you!
Susannah Fullerton
I am so glad you also enjoyed Sebastian St Cyr.
I tried and I think failed to finish Ladies of the Club too. It just failed to grab me, in spite of what seemed like a good plot.
I am currently enjoying the crime series by Rachel Lynch, set in the Lake District. Really good reads, so you might like to try those.
Keep reading!
Graham H.
This is not an original observation but feedback about books, from other readers of Notes from a Book addict, does leave me thinking only one thing:
‘Even if the title and author are defined, and we all go and read “that” book, none of us are, really, reading the same book.’
There’s always at least two stories – the story the author writes, and the story each reader reads. So sharing responses in the blog proliferates the number of different books that a particular book, is – not that that’s a bad thing. Everyone has been looking at everything from their own perspective, at least since the puppet-show man in Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones famously made the following candid observation about religious sectarianism:
“I don’t care what religion comes; provided the Presbyterians are not uppermost; for they are enemies to puppet-shows.”
Susannah Fullerton
Yes, we all read a different book, even if the cover and text are the same. And the same when we reread – it’s never the same book because of what we have experienced since the first reading.