Cornflower Books

Experience the magic

    Thanks to the very kind people at Headline I have a copy of the recently published paperback edition of Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child to give away. I've spoken of this book often as it was one I particularly enjoyed last year (my full post on it is here), and I'm delighted to see it on the bestseller lists and enchanting all those who read it. While I read the book in proof, the paperback includes additional material such as Arthur Ransome's story Little Daughter of the Snow which inspired Eowyn, her essay A Writing Life, and discussion questions on the novel for reading groups.

    Headline have tied the book with a ribbon and added a gift tag so it's all set to pass on to let someone else "experience the magic", as they have aptly put it. To decide who gets it we'll have a draw as usual, and this is open to all, no matter where in the world you live. As the book is perfect reading for this time of year when the nights are drawing in, to enter the draw please leave a comment here telling us what you like best about the autumn and winter months, or which cold weather activity (hot chocolate by the fire, anyone?) you particularly look forward to. I'll pull the winning name out of the hat in a few days' time.

Shakespeare at Southwark

    Many thanks to Rose for alerting me to what looks like a superb event taking place at Southwark Cathedral, London on 3rd. December: Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, writer, speaker, polymath and intellectual superpower (you can tell I am a fan), will be giving an illustrated talk in what is believed to have been Shakespeare's parish church about the dynamic and dangerous world the playwright knew.

    Full details and tickets are to be found here.

    For anyone unable to attend, Neil MacGregor's book Shakespeare's Restless World is now out, the Radio 4 series it accompanies is available as podcasts or on CD, and the exhibition Shakespeare: Staging the World is on at the British Museum until 25th. November.

Book of the day - The Secret Life of William Shakespeare

 

    Jude Morgan is a writer whose books have been on my wish list for some time, put there because I've read laudatory reviews by people whose opinions I trust and whose tastes I share. I was thus particularly pleased when I found that the book parcel in this morning's post contained Jude's The Secret Life of William Shakespeare, billed as "for fans of David Mitchell and The Children's Book, or of the blockbusting biographies of great writers, or just anyone who loves books and wants an intelligent, utterly compelling, brilliant read," - I fall in all those categories.

    I've already read two novels featuring Shakespeare, the bold, brilliant and bawdy Will by Christopher Rush (post here), and the altogether quieter, more reflective The Sonnets by Warwick Collins (thoughts here), so I shall be interested to see what manner of man he becomes in this latest incarnation; I suspect he is in safe hands.

    The author has some very high profile followers, for example, Hilary Mantel writes, "As soon as I saw a Jude Morgan book I tossed aside the twenty other review copies I should have got to, and sat down to read it .... completely involving, absorbing. Full of insight and very accomplished ....", and Tracy Chevalier: "Wonderful - rich, authentic, beautifully written. He has written about Byron, Keats and Shelley in Passion and the Brontë sisters in The Taste of Sorrow, and now here he puts Shakespeare's relationship with his wife Anne at the heart of things, in what's been called a "wholly believable" fiction. I am so looking forward to reading it.

Have you read ... Bernard Cornwell?

    If you were to take a look at the books in my son Will's room - though I wouldn't venture in there if I were you as it's not exactly what you'd call spick and span - you'd find a very masculine mixture of military history, things like the Flashman series and John Le Carré, general history, and biography with a military leaning (this is a young man who plans to join the army). You wouldn't therefore be surprised to find that the collection includes a large number of novels by Bernard Cornwell - all of them read and greatly enjoyed.

    When I heard that that most successful and prolific writer of historical fiction had a new book coming out (it's published today), I asked Will whether he thought I'd enjoy it, "or is it all battles and of interest only to men?" He assured me that I'd admire the solid research which informs the books and saw no reason why I wouldn't be thoroughly gripped by the story, too; Bernard Cornwell has, I learn, a large female following!

    1356 features the Battle of Poitiers in which England won her second great victory of the Hundred Years War, but the novel centres on Thomas of Hookton, "leader of a mercenary company of bowmen and men-at-arms who ravage the countryside east of Gascony. Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) is assembling an army to fight the French once more, but before Thomas can join, he must fulfil an urgent task. La Malice, a sword of mythical power guaranteeing victory to its owner, is thought to be concealed somewhere near Poitiers. With signs that a battle is looming, others are seeking the treasure too, and some are pursuing their private agendas against Thomas, but all concerned - and the fate of La Malice - become swept up in the extraordinary confrontation that follows, as the large French army faces the heavily outnumbered English."

    I have been reading the opening of 1356, the Prologue in which the sword is snatched from a tomb during the sack of Carcassonne, and the first chapter which sees a young English monk on his way to the Cistercian house at Montpellier caught up in violent scenes, and it's much as I expected: taut, vivid, dramatic, very 'cinematographic', so to speak. Am I inclined to read on? Yes, I am.

    Best known for his Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell is the author of over 50 novels and he is a hugely popular writer. Have you read him?

Situation vacant

    I'm interrupting the book talk for a moment as I want to repeat here what I've said on the other blog today:

    As some may know, I have been company secretary of Mindroom since the charity was founded eleven years ago. Having been in from the beginning, I've seen the organisation grow from what was essentially a kitchen table company set up by a handful of volunteers with enormous passion for creating positive change in the way in which learning difficulties are viewed, diagnosed, managed and above all 'lived with' at school, in the workplace and at home, to its present position as a professional, highly respected body which is making a difference at all levels from the personal and individual to the national and political.

    Eleven years is a long time, and because I now have other commitments which pull me in different directions, and because I feel that Mindroom needs new blood, I've decided to stand down. It hasn't been an easy decision as I fully support Mindroom's vision and the work done towards achieving it, and I have the utmost admiration for my colleagues - you couldn't find a nicer, better informed, more committed bunch of people, and I shall be very sorry not to be part of the next stage of Mindroom's 'big plan' which is exciting and hugely worthwhile, but I do think it's time to move on and make room for fresh energy and experience.

    The board will be looking for somebody to take over from me and I thought I would mention it here just in case anyone reading this is in a position to apply. Although I have a background as a lawyer - and that is very useful - legal training is not a prerequisite. An interest in learning difficulties or related issues is a must, I think, as is being able to attend trustee meetings here in Edinburgh every four to six weeks (they take place within business hours, but as far as possible dates are arranged to suit everyone involved). Other than that, it's standard company secretarial stuff.

    If you think this would suit you, or you know anyone who might fit the bill, please email me in the first instance (click on the link in the right hand sidebar) and I'll put you in touch with our chairman.

Writers' dogs - Will Self and Maglorian

    I believe this very appealing little Jack Russell is called Maglorian, and his 'man' is novelist Will Self. You can see more of Maglorian here and here, 'talking' about the Man Booker shortlisted Umbrella in which, as you'll see if you look at the second clip, he may have had a paw.

    Other writers' dogs may be found here, and Will Self will be appearing (though most likely without Maglorian - boo!) here.

Writers on the map

Click on the image to enlarge

    Have you ever consulted the The Literature Map to get a pointer towards your next read? The idea is that you type in the name of an author you like and up will come a 'constellation' of other similar writers, their proximity to your chosen name indicating degree of common ground, or to be more exact, the frequency with which readers of one are also readers of another.

    I've been playing with the map function, for example, especially for my friend Lindsay I typed in 'Dorothy Whipple', that "Jane Austen of the twentieth century" (J.B. Priestley) whose books are loved by so many of us (but scorned by Lindsay!!). Jane Austen does indeed appear on Mrs. Whipple's map, but interestingly, closest to her is Alexander McCall Smith, equally loved by Cornflower Books's readers (including Lindsay himself) and countless others.

    You can also search by typing in the names of three favourite authors and get one recommendation based on them: to test that I put in AMcCS, Ann Patchett and Hilary Mantel, and up came Margaret Forster - indeed I do like her books too. Then click for her map and you'll find her in the vicinity of good people like Penelope Lively, Tracey Chevalier, Robertson Davies, Susan Hill, Rose Tremain, Penelope Fitzgerald, and so on. You'd be on the right track if you followed those trails.

    Having been swept away by John Saturnall's Feast recently (I enthuse here), I put Lawrence Norfolk's name into the search box, and up came the likes of A.S. Byatt and John Fowles, Dorothy Dunnett (quite the renaissance lady - there's a link to an interview with her in this post), Susanna Clarke, George Eliot and Donna Tartt. Meanwhile, Dorothy L. Sayers produced the constellation you see above, many names familiar from the Oxford crime post.

    It may not be foolproof but it's fun!

We have winners

        Many thanks to everyone who entered the draw to win a copy of James Long's novel Ferney. The five names pulled out of the hat (i.e. chosen by random number generator) are:

 

1. Crafty Green Poet

2. Susan Campbell

    3. Caroline

    4. Ann P.

    5. Caroline Parr

    Ladies, once I have your addresses I shall pass them on to the kind people at Quercus who'll be sending you your books.

    For all those of us who have already read and loved Ferney, a reminder that the sequel, The Lives She Left Behind, is due out later this week.

Cornflower Book Group - Bel Canto

   

    Ann Patchett's Bel Canto won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner award, and having read it now I'm not surprised at its success.

    What did I most love and admire about it? There's the tone, for starters, the lightness and the humour used to tell a story about a dark and dangerous situation. The author doesn't take herself or her tale too seriously, but instead has a quiet smile over so many details. Then there's the intensity or compression of the narrative: one location, one almost unchanging group of people, a long series of days of boredom, of routine, of sameness, and yet what could have been tedious to read, had it been written in a blunt, unsophisticated or heavy-handed way, is light and airy and 'lifted'. And in a clever play on the old 'pen is mightier than the sword' adage, the masterly pitting of music and musicians and the power of the voice against terrrorists - albeit a rather unprofessional bunch of them - with guns ("... no one was going to shoot a soprano."). All this done by means of a shrewd sense and keen eye for detail, and clever, beautifully crafted lines.

    The juxtaposition of the mundane and the grandiose - the small but pressing personal concerns seen against the dramatic scenario and the principles-motives-actions chain of events ("... he longed for a hot compress almost as much as he longed for revolution."); the stripping away of façades and habitual behaviour, thoughts and beliefs, by a state of affairs which causes transformation and true colours to be revealed ("He was not himself. He was no-one he had ever imagined."); the shifting of loyalties and the gradual emergence of Stockholm Syndrome; the surprising ending, all these things showed Ann Patchett's gift for ideas and for working so creatively with her raw material that the end product is superb.

    A book about a group of hostages and their captors in a vice-presidential residence in a South American country would not, on the face of it, be something I'd be drawn to, but in Ann Patchett's hands this is marvellous stuff - beautiful, fanciful, funny, knowing. I loved it, and I could go on, but I've said enough, except - if you haven't read it already - to recommend Ann Patchett's most recent novel State of Wonder (there's a post on it here).

    Now over to you.

(Later: the Bel Canto cake is now here.)

Fiction Uncovered 2012

   

     I wrote last year about the Fiction Uncovered initiative which seeks to promote some of the best of British fiction. This year's titles were announced a few months ago, but tomorrow sees a special event in London when Fiction Uncovered will have its own pop-up bookshop in conjunction with the floating independent retailer The Book Barge. Located at Broadway Market on Regent’s Canal in London, The Book Barge will host a special day of readings and Q&As from authors Tibor Fischer at 12.30pm and Peter Benson at 2pm, and visitors to the barge will be able to buy this year's promoted titles, each of which will come with a free book from last year's selection - first come, first served!

    Of the current novels, I have David Park's The Light of Amsterdam, about which I have heard very good things, waiting in my tbr pile -  "a deep and richly pleasurable reading experience", and I also like the sound of cressida Connolly's family saga My Former Heart, and When Nights Were Cold by Susanna Jones, described as "a delightful adventure full of feisty women, mountaineering, all kinds of escape and Edwardian derring-do, [which] is narrated by a classic unreliable narrator who looks back on friendships gone catastrophically wrong among the peaks of the Alps."

Cornflower Book Group - October 2012

    When I read Danielle's post about Mary Stewart a week or two ago, I had the urge to revisit that writer whose work I haven't read since I was in my teens. I hope you won't feel I am being too self-indulgent when, after a bit of thought and 'research', I decided to choose a book of hers for our group read for next month.

    Such memories as I have of those books from so long ago are good ones, and I hope that will bode well for this choice, but what really decided me was watching this interview with Lady Stewart* - I took to her, and felt it's time to rediscover her books. According to Wikipedia, she reached her 96th. birthday three days ago, and she lives here in Edinburgh; although she has not published a book for some years, I hope she is in good health and still taking pleasure from the things she loves. She certainly has a fair old following as her books have all been bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic and are currently available in smart new paperback editions.

    A writer of romantic suspense and historical fiction, Mary Stewart is known for her "skillful storytelling and enchanting prose", and Danielle describes picking up a book of hers as "like sitting in a cozy overstuffed chair in front of a roaring fire with a cup of hot chocolate in hand" - that's good enough for me!

    I've chosen Touch Not the Cat for us to read (there's an ebook version, and free worldwide delivery on this edition, should you have trouble getting a copy locally), and here's the blurb:

"After the tragic death of her father, Bryony Ashley returns from abroad to find that his estate is to become the responsibility of her cousin Emory. Ashley Court with its load of debt is no longer her worry. But there is something odd about her father's sudden death . . .

Bryony has inherited the Ashley 'Sight' and so has one of the Ashleys. Since childhood the two have communicated through thought patterns, though Bryony has no idea of his identity. Now she is determined to find him. But danger as well as romance wait for her in the old moated house, with its tragic memories . . ."

    This Saturday (the 22nd.) we'll be talking about Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, but let's get together to discuss Mary Stewart's book from Saturday, 27th. October, and remember the group is very informal and open to all who'd like to join in - whether you stick with us month after month or just drop in now and again, you'll be very welcome.

 

*In the same series, I've watched the programmes featuring Dorothy Dunnett and Rumer Godden.

The urge to tell

   

    Following on from yesterday's post, my last bookshop 'find' was the eagerly awaited Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss, and I spotted it, just unpacked and not yet shelved, in this excellent shop.

    I'm reading it now and I keep on interrupting Mr. C. (who is engrossed in Antony Beevor) to tell him more fascinating and surprising facts and observations about Icelandic culture. He's far too polite to tell me to be quiet, but I suspect he wishes I would refrain from saying "I didn't know that ...." every few minutes.
   
    But then, maybe that impulse to share is one mark of a good book. What you're reading is so interesting, so electrifying, so satisfying, that you feel the need to tell someone about it, much as you might do with food: "try some of this, it's delicious!"

    The reverse is true too, of course, as a particularly bad book might engender harrumphs of displeasure or even violent acts - to the book, that is, not nearby readers - while something mediocre may well go unremarked.

    Is this why so many of us blog about books or comment assiduously? Is 'the urge to tell' the driving force?

Serendipities in bookstores

 

    "There are all kinds of serendipities in bookstores, starting with -

Alphabetical: while looking for one novel, you might remember that you'd always meant to read something by another author whose last name shared the same first two letters.

Visual: the shiny jacket on this book might catch your eye.

Accidental: superstitiously, I almost always feel the need to buy any book that I knock over.

Prompted: both Mom and I gave very serious consideration to any book placed in the "staff recommends" section, particularly if it sported a yellow stickie (a.k.a. Post-it note) or a handwritten shelf talker - a bookstore neologism I love, because it conjures such a vivid image of a shelf talking to you, or of a person who talks to shelves."

   

    That's another lovely passage from Will Schwalbe's The End of Your Life Book Club, and I applaud Will's 'creative justification' for buying books! The joy of browsing is in those happy discoveries and chance finds, and Will goes on to say that on the bookshop visit he's talking about there he bought Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar - a 'staff favourite' - and a volume of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories which he had knocked off a shelf.

    There's clearly mileage (albeit with extra expense) in cultivating a degree of clumsiness in bookshops: "Oh dear, I seem to have caused the complete works of X to fall to the floor, taking with them numerous surrounding volumes by other great writers I've always wanted to read. I shall certainly have to buy them all now ..."

    Do you have any bookshop rules, rituals or superstitions? Any serendipitous discoveries?

Words and music

    To a concert of a different kind last night, and Master and Commander with Robert Hardy, part of the Lammermuir Festival, held at St. Michael's Church, Inveresk.

    This combined readings from several of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels with chamber music of the early nineteenth century (when the books are set) performed by the Raeburn Quartet on period instruments - a perfect demonstration of the significance of music in the books, and a powerful rendering of O'Brien's elegantly muscular prose.

    In my post on Hilary Mantel in Edinburgh I referred to the fact that it's comparatively rare to find a writer who can read well, and this observation is shared by Will Schwalbe in The End of Your Life Book Club who says, "Because of my decades in publishing, I've been to a lot of readings. I loathe most of them. I loathe the phony, singsong reading voice that most writers adopt, a kind of spooky incantatory tone that implies they are reading a holy text in a language you don't understand ... And what's worst about most literary events - almost no author knows when to stop reading and sit down."

    Last night, of course, it wasn't an author reading but an actor, and one who knows what he's doing. Robert Hardy was utterly magnetic. It is he who reads the Aubrey-Maturin audiobooks, so he knows the material through and through and understands its shape and heft. His passages were carefully chosen for their intrinsic style and value and their importance to the overall plot, and they were complemented by the musical programme, but the readings had their own musicality, and their narrative power and Robert Hardy's deft characterisation held the audience in rapt attention. It was a great pleasure to witness the symbiosis but above all to see a master at work - I'm sure the author himself could not have envisaged better.

    Any O'Brian fans here? Mr. C. is a great enthusiast - hence the collection you see above - but so far I've read only volume I (much enjoyed, though).

Good lines: the physicality of books

From The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe (full post on it here).

A book, a festival, and two queens of crime

   

     Salley Vickers's novel Miss Garnet's Angel came up in Wednesday's post, and that's a book I have read and have the urge to re-read, but it reminded me that Salley has a new book out soon. The Cleaner of Chartres "is a compelling story of darkness and light; of traumatic loss and second chances. Told with a sparkling wit and beguiling charm, but infused throughout with deeper truths, it speaks of the power of love and mercy to transform the tragedies of the past." It features Agnès Morel, a mysterious woman who is to be found cleaning the cathedral of Chartres. "Everyone she encounters would surely agree that she has touched their lives in subtly transformative ways, even though they couldn't quite say how. But with a chance meeting in the cathedral one day, the spectre of Agnès's past returns, provoking malicious speculation from the prejudiced Madame Beck and her gossipy companion Madame Picot. As the rumours grow more ugly, Agnès is forced to confront her history, and the mystery of her origins finally unfolds."

    I heard Salley Vickers talk at last year's Edinburgh International Book Festival - she is as stimulating as she is eloquent.

 

    I don't know whether there are any Cornflower Books readers in the Isle of Man (where I was born and grew up) - and if we do have any, please shout - but as a 'long-exiled' Manxie I'm very glad to know that the island is about to have its first literary festival. From 27th. to 30th. September there will be all manner of events for readers and writers, adults and children, at venues across what is a very beautiful, special place. Well done to John Quirk and his team for getting it all up and running, and I hope it will be a great success.

 

   

    Here's another event that should be very much worth attending: Ruth Rendell and P.D. James in conversation at London's Central School of Speech and Drama on Friday, 5th. October. In aid of the charity Little Hearts Matter, those two redoubtable ladies will be giving "a personal insight into their writing, how they research their stories and the portrayal of their characters on film and TV". There will be a book signing and a chance to meet the authors and put questions to them, and it promises to be a delightful evening in support of a very good cause.

The End of Your Life Book Club

   

    Earlier this week I had the great pleasure of talking to Will Schwalbe about his moving and uplifting memoir The End of Your Life Book Club. Will in person is as warm, friendly and interesting as his book suggests, and our conversation ranged from favourite reads and funny anecdotes to personal reflections and universal observations - it was a chat full of laughter and much food for thought.

    As I wrote the other day, Will's book is about the importance of books as manuals for life, of reading as comfort and joy, as a means of understanding others and sharing experiences. As he recounts the last two years of his mother's life, the books they read and discussed through so many hours spent in hospital waiting rooms and during chemotherapy sessions provide a counterpoint to the very living - and dying - mother and son were doing.

 

    Will's mother Mary Anne Schwalbe was an impressive lady. In a working life which took her from being director of admissions at Harvard and Radcliffe to founding director of the Women's Refugee Commission and other important positions besides, she focused on doing and on making a difference, both by means of her career but also through many selfless (often anonymous), private acts of kindness and generosity which touched and changed lives in big ways and small. She comes across as a wise person and a thoughtful one, practical and punctilious, courageous and conscientious, a good listener and an empathic friend to all; in her approach to an illness she knew would eventually end her life she was remarkably sanguine - stoic, uncomplaining, positive and prepared.

    As Will talks of the ups and downs of his mother's last two years - and let me stress that this is a beautifully balanced and emotionally sensitive account, never maudlin or sentimental - so he shows us the books they used as "ballast", or as a life raft in unpredictable and often heavy seas. Whether they are laughing at the humour of Alan Bennett and P.G. Wodehouse, admiring the humanity and elegance of Alexander McCall Smith, discussing the issue of violence against women through Stieg Larsson's novels or literacy in Afghanistan (a cause very close to Mary Anne's heart) with reference to Khaled Hosseini, Will and his mother connect through books and, crucially, confront on the page subjects they might have tended to avoid off it.

    Whether you read this for the lovely bookish chat (there is a list of all the books and writers mentioned in the memoir at the end), for Will's thoughts and observations on so many aspects of reading, or whether you pick it up because you're interested in how to live well - Mary Anne had that gift even in extremis - I can't recommend this book too highly.

    Mary Anne Schwalbe died three years ago today. Will feels that his mother lives on through the books she loved and admired, the ones which will forever be a point of affinity or link back to her; he's too modest to say that she is a vibrant, inspiring presence on the pages of his own book, but she is.

    I'll leave the last word to him: "We're all in the end-of-our-life book club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one ... Books can be how we get closer to one another, and stay close, even in the case of a mother and son who were very close to each other to begin with, and even after one of them has died."

Get your Ferney here!

    I have written before about James Long's super novel Ferney. With its sequel The Lives She Left Behind about to be published, Quercus have just brought out a new paperback edition of Ferney and have kindly put aside five signed copies for Cornflower Books readers.

    There's a post on the novel here, but the gist of the story is as follows:

"The book begins with Mike and Gally Martin buying Bagstone Farm, a ramshackle old cottage in Somerset. Gally, plagued by nightmares and seemingly irrational fears, feels that this is the place for her to settle down in - it seems like 'home'. Mike, anxious to please his troubled young wife, agrees despite his many misgivings which are made all the more acute when the couple meet a neighbour, the apparently ageless and mysterious Ferney.

    What then transpires is an enthralling story, and one which James Long pulls off beautifully. The strange attraction of the house, for Gally at least, the even more curious familiarity and ubiquity of Ferney are explained as an extraordinary love affair is described."

    Our draw for a copy of the book is open to UK readers only I'm afraid, but to enter please just leave a comment on this post naming a novel you'd class - as I did Ferney - 'a most enjoyable read', and I'll pull the winners from the hat in a few days' time.

Venetian reading?

   
    If you've seen this post (and I'm still astonished) you'll know I'm off to Venice next month. I may not manage to fit in any Venetian books before I go, but should time permit, what would you recommend? We have lots of Donna Leon's novels, for instance, and I've read Michelle Lovric's The Undrowned Child, (here's Michelle on living and writing Venice for children), but other books with Venice as a setting? What comes to mind?

Book of the day no. 2 - The End of Your Life Book Club

    When one day in 2007 Will Schwalbe happened to ask his mother what she was reading, her reply - "an extraordinary book, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner" - was the start of something.

    Mary Anne was in the waiting room of the outpatient department at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, there to begin treatment for the pancreatic cancer which would end her life, and Will's question sparked an ongoing conversation about books which would amount to their own private book club and which would sustain them over the coming two years. As they swapped titles and shared recommendations, discussing a wide range from classic to popular, poetry to mysteries, the fantastic to the spiritual, Will and Mary Anne are reminded of "the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world."

    Will Schwalbe tells his and his mother's story in The End of Your Life Book Club. I began it this morning and very early on I started to feel exactly as Will did about Crossing to Safety: " ... at about page twenty or so the magical thing occurred that happens with the very best books - I became absorbed and obsessed and entered the 'Can't you see I'm reading?' mode."

    I wouldn't dream of putting it down*.

(Book of the day no.1 is here.)

*Edited to add: there is now a full post on The End of Your Life Book Club here.