It's the first of January, but also the first birthday of Cornflower Books per se, so to welcome in the new year and mark the occasion, I'm giving away a copy of one of my favourite books. To enter the draw, just leave a comment here telling us of any reading plans or resolutions you have for 2010, or if you rely more on literary serendipity, then let us know with which book you're starting off the reading year.
As ever, distance is no object and you are most welcome to enter wherever you are in the world. I'll draw a winner out of the hat in a few days' time and I hope they'll enjoy the prize as much as I have done.
Happy New Year and the best of luck!
7/1/10
NB: The draw is now closed and we have a winner.
I'm looking forward to starting 2010 by reading WOLF HALL which I received for Christmas.
Please enter me in your draw.
Happy New Year to you and yours!
Carol
Posted by: Carol | 01 January 2010 at 12:18 AM
Happy New Year, Cornflower & Mr. C.
I shall probably start the new reading year with one of my Christmas presents - Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes, or maybe The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee, or Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D E Stevenson, or -----! Not well planned, you see.
Posted by: Gill | 01 January 2010 at 12:19 AM
My 2010 reading will kick off the New Year with Testament for Cornflower, Jude the Obscure for one of my bookgroups and Wolf Hall for another...plus all the borrowed books that kindly reading friends have lent me, the backlog from the library etc. Plus I am just finishing Sylvia and Ted by Emma Tennant which has sent me to rereading Sylvia Plath and seeing Bright Star has me rereading the poetry of Keats and then there are the books that I bought through the year that I haven't caught up with. Oh so much to read...so little time.
Posted by: Jill | 01 January 2010 at 12:24 AM
I disqualify myself from the draw because of my close relationship with Cornflower Promotions, but I salute your efforts, I look forward to more illuminating posts in 2010, and I am greatly enjoying "England in Particular" by Sue Clifford and Angela King and am about to start Mary Beard's "Pompeii"
Posted by: Mr Cornflower | 01 January 2010 at 12:46 AM
Here is my very ambitious list for the beginning of 2010. I have started No. 1 already and am enjoying it very much. Some of these I have, some will be coming to me monthly in my BOMC2 book club, one is for Cornflower Book Club, some won't be able afford for quite a while, and one hasn't even been published in the US yet!
1. "The Elegance Of The Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery.
2. "Olive Kitteridge: Fiction" by Elizabeth Strout.
3. "We Need To Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver.
4. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson.
5. "The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie" by Alan Bradley.
6. "Testament" by Alis Hawkins.
7. "The Winter Ghosts" by Kate Mosse.
8. "South of Broad" by Pat Conroy
9. "Half-Broke Horses: A True Life Novel" by Jeannette Walls.
10. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Sparks.
11. "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier.
12. "The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian" by Sherman Alexie.
13. "Howards End Is On The Landing" by Susan Hill.
14. "The Blue Tattoo" by Margaret Mifflin.
15. "The Zookeeper's Wife" by Diane Ackerman.
16. "People Of The Book" by Geraldine Brooks.
17. "The Winter House" by Nicci Gerrard.
My list would be shorter if not for you!
Happy Birthday/Anniversary to Cornflower Books!
Posted by: Julie M. Fredericksen | 01 January 2010 at 01:04 AM
I'm very much looking for to reading more Dorothy Whipple this year, including They Knew Mr Knight and High Wages. And I'll continue with my favourite authors such as Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, PG Wodehouse, Barbara Pym.
Posted by: Laura | 01 January 2010 at 01:19 AM
My main reading goal for this year is to read A Suitable Boy - I have been meaning to read it for the last 2 years now but I am determined that 2010 will be the year!
Posted by: Karen | 01 January 2010 at 01:24 AM
Oh, I have so many books I want to read, for myself and to my children. I am working on Goodnight Mrs. Craven at the moment. It was a gift for my birthday and I am really enjoying it.
Posted by: Jennifer | 01 January 2010 at 02:38 AM
Hmmm, first comment here, though I've been reading the blog for a few months.
In a moment of madness I signed up for the 50 book challenge on LibraryThing, so that will be my reading goal for the year. I have started off with Wolf Hall (begun in December of '09 but never mind) which is enjoyable so far but heavy. I'm hoping to alternate more recently published books with those which have been on my "meaning to read" list.
And quite inspired by cornflower and others linked here I just might start myself a blog.....
Posted by: alana | 01 January 2010 at 06:32 AM
My reading year kicked off with Captivated - Daphne du Maurier and J.M. Barrie and the Dark Side of Neverland by Piers Dudgeon. It's a non-fiction book and the title is appropriate because I'm certainly 'captivated. by it right now. It's fascinating. I plan to reread books by Margaret Atwood and finally read the ones by her that I haven't read. Other than that, definitely more Persephones, Viragos and just wonderful books recommended mostly by book bloggers.
Posted by: Mrs.B. | 01 January 2010 at 07:32 AM
Not for the draw, thank you, but to say how interesting everyone's choices are, providing lots more inspiration. I have just finished The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter, ostensibly a history book, but which is so well written and such a good story that it gallops along like a novel. Otherwise, I'm on a country kick right now, just come to the end of Walden by Thoreau and Monty Don's Ivington Diaries, and starting Wildwood by Roger Deakin. I usually have a Jane on the go and currently it's Mansfield Park.
A happy new year and thank you for your great blog.
Posted by: [email protected] | 01 January 2010 at 09:18 AM
Happy New Year!
Yesterday I finished my Christmas re-read of Our Mutual Friend and started my Christmas present book, Bury her Deep by Catriona McPherson. The Dandy Gilver Mysteries were one of my best discoveries of 2009 and quite serendipitous.
Posted by: Barbara | 01 January 2010 at 09:25 AM
Well, my main reading goal for 2010: The Year of the PhD (TM) is to read the vast piles of books on my desk and those still on the library shelves and then turn this into a coherent thesis. And to that end, I need to spend less time reading other stuff. But free books are never to be sniffed at...
Posted by: Ros | 01 January 2010 at 09:41 AM
The book I am about to start is Marghanita Laski's To Bed With Grand Music, which I bought at Persephone Bookshop just before Christmas. I'm really looking forward to it. After that, who knows -- I can't really plan ahead as what I pick up next depends how I'm feeling at the time. Do enter me in the mysterious draw. And happy new year to you.
Posted by: Harriet | 01 January 2010 at 09:49 AM
Happy new year - I shall be starting out with another Virago Modern Classic for my challenge to read them all.
Posted by: Verity | 01 January 2010 at 09:52 AM
Happy New Year and my first read of 2010 is 'Wolf Hall', and so far it is a riviting read. Please enter me into this draw also my first of 2010.
Posted by: Jennifer Dee | 01 January 2010 at 10:05 AM
I am spending today on our boat, it's very cold outside so what better than to curl up with a new Persephone book- Someone at a Distance, which I bought last year with birthday money.
I have just finished Sara Maitland's A Book of Silence and have drawn up a reading trial to follow on from that: Thoreau- Walden, Anne Dilliard- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Isabel Colegate- A Pelican in the Wilderness, Roger Macfarlane-The Wild Places.
A note to Mr Cornflower- I gave Mary Beard's Pompeii to my husband for Christmas, and hav'nt seen much of him since as he is so engrossed by it.
Posted by: Fran | 01 January 2010 at 10:36 AM
Happy new one!
just finished Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada.I loved it but found it difficult to settle to anything else.Tried some of the books my daughter got as Christmas presents but nothng seemed right.And they are books I chose. This ever happen to you? You get so into a book that others dont work for you? As we say in Dublin inannyway, i went into town and bought Legend of a Suicide yesterday.snowed heavily last night here.I started the book and it is perfect!
Love your blog.
Brenda
Posted by: getboc | 01 January 2010 at 10:54 AM
I'm thinking I might kick off with Late and Soon which is an old EM Delafield picked up in a charity shop a few weeks ago, and Virginia Woolf's diaries are reproaching me from the side of the bed (enjoyable but the print is so small and to my horror recently I find that it matters). Not a single book for Christmas, though ... so nothing shiny and new shouting 'read me next.'
Posted by: m | 01 January 2010 at 11:02 AM
Happy New Year! My reading plans are simple-just pick up any book that takes my fancy.The most important fact to remember is to take more books than you can possibly read on holiday because running out of things to read is a great fear of mine.
Posted by: margaret46 | 01 January 2010 at 11:17 AM
Happy birthday/New Year Cornflower!
I have just this minute tried to decide on my first book of the new year. I think it is going to be Cakes and Ale, W. Somerset Maugham, which i recieved for Christmas. Already ready two others i recieved!
Posted by: abs | 01 January 2010 at 11:40 AM
Part of my reading plan each year, is reading a diary. This year I've chosen Notes from Walnut Tree Farm. So the first words I read this morning were: 'I am lying full lenght on my belly on frozen snow..' starting the 1th january entry. This is going to be a lovely companion throughout the year.
Happy New year!
Posted by: catharina | 01 January 2010 at 12:12 PM
I haven't yet thought about what I might read to mark the beginning of the year but having read the above comments, I am inspired to pick up my copy of A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland. I like the idea of the trail it might start which Fran talks about above. I do have Karen Armstrong's The Case for God sitting here and, then again, Mantel's Wolf Hall beckons too. Oh, I can't decide - let's see how the day progresses!
I am intrigued by the book prize however so please enter my name.
Happy New Year to you, Cornflower and thank you for the work you put into both of your blogs. I don't comment very much but I still read every day and enjoy them both!
Posted by: Deirdre | 01 January 2010 at 12:37 PM
My main aim is to read through my To Be Read piles - I know I shall only chip away at the top layers, but I vow to reduce the pile before adding any more!
Top of the Pile Plan:
John Cheever Collected Stories
Roger Deakin Notes from Walnut Tree Farm - like Catharina, I always try to have a diary in my reading plan
Susan Hill Howards End is on the Landing
Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Shirley Jackson We have always lived in the castle
Barbara Pym A glass of blessings
Zola The Ladies' Paradise
Happy New Year Cornflower - I may not post regularly, but I am a devoted reader of your blog - many thanks for all your postings.
Posted by: Donnafugata | 01 January 2010 at 01:16 PM
2010 for me...
I have always been a bit of a book geek and I have just brought "Testament" by Alis Hawkins
January's Cornflower book club book and hope I can complete it in time for posting at the end of the month.
I am due to start a degree in History and literature this year to exand/get my old wobweb ridden brain working again.
After a working history of nursing and business admin I was retired a couple of years ago with ill health due to a sudden diagnosis of MS. Having now come to terms a bit with this I now need to move my life to a new level.
Take care,
Alison
Posted by: Alison | 01 January 2010 at 01:24 PM
Happy New Year to you and yours! I am looking forward to re-reading four novels of Virginia Woolf in January and February as well as random reading the whole year long. No plans (or only small ones), no challenges, just meandering through the shelves and my own whims.
And congrats on a year here at your spinoff! You have given me twice as much to read - happily. Please enter me in the contest?
Posted by: Frances | 01 January 2010 at 01:37 PM
Happy New Year to the Cornflower family & all my fellow blog-readers. I've just made a list of books mentioned by the commenters above; thanks to all for the ideas for spending my Christmas book vouchers.
I have a simple resolution - to make more time for reading this year. I did think I'd set a target - maybe 100 books - but having checked my records, I see I only managed 47 last year, so 100 seems a bit ambitious. So I'm just saying "more than last year", but that figure of 100 will niggle at me ;-)
The other half has just told me on our New Year's Day walk that he resolves to read each book he buys, and not buy another until the just-bought-one is read. I wish he would take a bet on him keeping this resolution; I would put a large amount on him not managing it!
First book of 2010? It's going to be A Year in the Life of The Man Who Fell Asleep by Greg Stekelman. I've been following him on Twitter for a while & he makes me laugh, so hoping his book will do the same.
Posted by: sandpiper | 01 January 2010 at 02:15 PM
Happy New Year to you. I am drooling over The Ivington Diaries by Monty Don, a Christmas present from my kind daughter, who picked up the hints well!
Posted by: carole | 01 January 2010 at 02:28 PM
Well, my resolution for the New Year is-has to be- to sit down at my desk at long last and write my second novel. My lovely characters hover behind me day and night constantly whispering in my ear: "Write our story!" So I shall.
Posted by: Wendy S. Winkler | 01 January 2010 at 04:07 PM
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all at Cornflower Mansions and thanks for all the lovely blogposts. I'm in the middle...well, nearing the end...of Shawcross's biog of the Queen Mother which I bought to give my ma-in-law for her birthday. As someone who used to cut out pictures of the little princesses and stick them in an album when I was a girl, I've always regarded the Royal Family as a kind of ongoing soap opera, so this book is good and most interesting on all sorts of things.
As to reading plans, well, I hope to get hold of Testament before the deadline but otherwise, it's whatever grabs me at the moment. Next up: The Girl in the Post Office by Stefan Zweig.
And please enter my name for the draw!
Posted by: adele geras | 01 January 2010 at 04:26 PM
Current books .. Guernsey Lit etc (what do people see in it?) and Gladwell´s Blink. Resolution, to read more poetry. No Whipple, ever!
Posted by: Lindsay | 01 January 2010 at 04:32 PM
Along with quite a few other people, I am planning to read Wolf Hall, but my current (wonderful) reading is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. My only resolution is to make more time for non-fiction. Happy new year!
Posted by: GeraniumCat | 01 January 2010 at 04:47 PM
While waiting for my name to come to the top of the library waiting list for Wolf Hall, I plan to read Stitches, a memoir by David Small, a graphic novel. Also on my TBR list: The Music Room, and rereading(again!) my favorite of all time book: Country of the Pointed Firs. Just now I'm starting The World of Yesterday, an autobiography by Stefan Zweig, published in early 1940's, (library copy).
Please add my name to the draw, and Happy New Year to all!
Posted by: Linda C. | 01 January 2010 at 05:40 PM
Serendipity is gift from a friend who lives in the north of Scotland. She has joined a writer's group (Ross-shire Writers). She sent me their latest publication "Further Along the Lines ... More Writings from Ross-shire" in which a couple of her pieces have been included.
Posted by: Barbara MacLeod | 01 January 2010 at 06:14 PM
I got (and read) Howards End is on the Landing over Christmas, but my first read of this year is Howards End itself, which I need to have finished by next Wednesday for my bookclub. Lots of others in the tbr pile (which is getting bigger on the excuse that we are moving to France later in the year and I won't have as many charity shops etc to buy English books from so I need to stock up now!), but there's always room for one more, so please enter me in the draw.
Happy New Year.
Posted by: Karin | 01 January 2010 at 06:15 PM
Oh such plans. I hope to continue my enjoyment of Deirdre Madden's wonderful novels and also Ward Just. I have several neuroscience-related books I'm looking forward to including Rhythms of the Brain and I of the Vortex and I would like to read Buddenbrooks this year. Hope 2010 is full of good things for you, including good reading.
Posted by: ted | 01 January 2010 at 07:46 PM
Happy New year, Mr Bleuet
This morning I closed the Selected Letters by Virginia Woolf. I have been deeply moved by that book. My next reading will be by Yachar Kemal (Memed le mince - translated from Turkish into French - my native language). Then The sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing. Then Lajja by Taslima Nasreen (also in a French translation). Further awaiting: The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard. Not mentioning the challenge of reading some of Virginia Woolf's novels. A true challenge would be to better write and speak English.
Posted by: michel | 01 January 2010 at 07:57 PM
I'm reading "Wolf Hall" with great delight. It's transfixing.
My plans are to finish the delightful Donna Leon series and to re-read Barbara Pym and to fill in some of my Victorian novel gaps. I also would like to make a firm distinction between the styles of Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Mrs. Henry Wood.
Posted by: Natalie T. | 01 January 2010 at 08:36 PM
I told a French friend how much I had enjoyed 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' and learned it is one of her favourite books. She now tells me that 'L'elegance du Hérisson' is in the post!
So my ambition is to read it with the aid of http://www.wordreference.com/ , compare it with the English version and hope the result will improve my French grammer (with which the hedgehog would have approved!).
Posted by: Sandy | 01 January 2010 at 09:16 PM
My reading plans for the near future include Love's Shadow by Ada Leverson, The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins, One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes and several Persephone titles. I think that should keep me busy for awhile.
Posted by: Darlene | 01 January 2010 at 09:40 PM
Happy New Year!
I am reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson for a book club meeting on Monday night. It is so much better than I thought it would be. So many things to think about, research and then think about again. I got my copy from the library but will be getting my own sometime.
I'm also reading Mark Helprin's Soldier of the Great War and I would like to read more of his novels.
Posted by: jodi | 01 January 2010 at 10:46 PM
A senior moment! I meant THE POST OFFICE GIRL, not The Girl in the post office. DOH!
Posted by: adele geras | 01 January 2010 at 11:11 PM
happy New year,i just started The Happiness project by Gretchen Rubin ,a plAN to really cherish life.Next High wages by Dorothy Whipple.
Posted by: rhonda | 02 January 2010 at 01:20 AM
Happy New Year!
I'm planning to spend less time reading bits and pieces on the internet and more on books. I'm starting 2010 with Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, and then the new Alice Munro.
Posted by: Sarah | 02 January 2010 at 07:17 AM
Happy New Year to you Cornflower, and to all your readers!
I've started the year with China Miéville's Un Lun Dun, a YA fantasy about a secret parallel London in danger, which is proving to be rather wonderful.
My other new read, Junichiro Tanizaki's The Makioka sisters looks like it's going to be just as interesting. A great start to the year, it seems.
Posted by: marina | 02 January 2010 at 08:48 AM
I have made the resolution not to buy any books in 2010 and to go through my oldies. Also another resolution was to just see where books take me, but none of this is quite defined yet, am still getting used to 2009 having past!
I started the year with Herta Muller's The Passport and have already finished it. Surreal and strange but in some ways wonderful.
Posted by: Simon (Savidge Reads) | 02 January 2010 at 09:25 AM
I've started the new year reading the book I ended the old year reading - Drood - and I will be glad when I can get on to some new reading. I have several lined up and want to start them ALL at once. Impossible, so I'm waiting until the end of Drood to see which one will be next.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year.
Posted by: BooksPlease | 02 January 2010 at 09:39 AM
I intend to try a return to more careful, close reading and less gobbling of plot. Slowing the pace ought to let me enjoy poetry again and Rain (Don Paterson) is on order in anticipation.
Posted by: Oxslip | 02 January 2010 at 10:11 AM
I'm a newcomer to the world of reading book blogs and it has really expanded my reading scope. My first book to finish in the new year will be The Help and I'm also reading Ex Libris. Both of which I discovered by reading book blogs. Thanks for all your posts and Happy New Year!
Posted by: Pam | 02 January 2010 at 10:35 AM
Happy New Year! I should finish my first book of the year, The Master and Margarita, later today. Then I'll continue on with Can You Forgive Her? and start The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I'm embarrassed not to have read by now. I hope to read lots of books I already own in 2010 and to keep my book purchases and library loans to a minimum, but then, I say that every year.
Posted by: SFP | 02 January 2010 at 01:57 PM