Common ground

 

     While writing my previous post I realised it was perhaps time we did another mini survey (like this one from 2010) to identify our literary likes and dislikes, the points at which our tastes converge (or diverge), our common reading ground.

    If you wouldn't mind answering the following questions, or volunteering any other information you think might be relevant or helpful in forming a general reading profile, I'd be most grateful.

    1. What are you currently reading (for pleasure), is that fairly typical for you, and how highly would you rate it in terms of your own enjoyment?

    2. Which genres do you tend to read most, and which are you unlikely to try?

    3. Who/what are your all-time favourite books/authors?

To all those who take the time to answer, thankyou for your help - it is much appreciated.

Comments

[Audrey]

1. I'm reading two books - Consider the Fork, a culinary history of cooking implements, and A Fatal Winter, a contemporary cozy English village mystery. I've just begun the first one, so it's a little early to rate it, but it seems promising. A mixture of cultural history and food writing seems like bliss to me (see answer #2, below), and I haven't been reading enough of either lately. The mystery is the second in the series; the first one was OK, and this one also seems just OK. But it's still entertaining - I read tons of mysteries and I almost always get some enjoyment out of them.
2. Favorite genres: biographies (esp. literary biographies), letters (e.g., authors' letters), mysteries, food writing, history (increasingly). Genres that haven't grabbed me: science fiction, horrors, business/economics.
3. Authors/books: too many to list! Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Henry James (books by and books about), P.D. James and many other mystery writers, Angela Thirkell, Laurie Colwin.

[Mystica]

1) Right now reading Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson and finding it slow going. Also a Katie Fforde - Restoring Grace which should be the antidote to the above but proving to be not so.
2) I like history, anything to do with Renaissance art but then I also like mystery murders and general fiction.
3) P D James, Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Elizabeth Chadwick, Jean Plaidy, Jane Austen (always and forever!), Susanna Kearsley, Joanna Trollope, Cynthia Harrod Eagles, Christopher Kremmer So many, so very many.

[martina]

1 Just now reading Restoration by Rose Tremain as a prelude to Merivel which I was given for my birthday. I am just loving it so much. Also really enjoyed Lanchesters Capital earlier this year.

2 Realistic fiction is my go to genre. Memoir as well which fits well with that I realise!!

3 Colm Toibin The Heather Blazing; Tim Winton Cloudstreet; Mistry's Fine Balance; Franzen's The Corrections; all of Anne Lamott; Anne Tyler; A S Byatt's Possession; and I read all of Margaret Drabble's earlier work Could go on and on!!

[Di McDougall]

1. Just finished The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick ... a mystery that was really an exploration of conscience and the unexpected consequences of our actions.

2 Always enjoy mysteries, but not anything that is described as fast paced(!) Always read a few books from the Man Booker longlist....backed Tan Twan Eng this year ( and not just because he does a lot of his writing in my wonderful home town: Cape Town) and still feel hardly done by that he did not win. Loved Hilary Mantel's book but reading Gardens of Evening Mists was like looking at something through water. Now it seems crystal clear and seconds later you are aware of shapeless menace moving deep down.

3.Favourite author: dear Elizabeth Goudge who helped to shape my morality. Love O Douglas. P d James, and as above Colm Toibin, Ursula k le Guin, William Wharton, oh and who wrote Crossing to Safety?? Favourite comfort reads....Alexandra raife, Marcia Willet, D E Stevenson....God bless all the writers!!

[Dark Puss]

1. I am about half-way through Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I must say that although not a "deep" novel it is imaginative, pacey and a clever mixture of the magical and the mundane. So far I'd give it a B grade I think.
2. I'll try anything! However I don't tend to chose historical novels or what might be called "domestic" middlebrow. I'm attracted strongly to works of C20 and C21, and to European and Japanese novels in translation. I read, from time to time, a few classics but sometimes I feel this is for education more than pleasure.
3. • Colette
   • Murakami
   • Bulgakov
   • Orwell (essays)
   • Vonnegut

[LauraC]

1. I am currently reading "Ferney" by James Long which is a little more current (1998) than my usual reading, am about to start "The Warden" for a read-along, and I have the first book of "Middlemarch" done for the same read-along and need to get a book or two more of that done this month. "Ferney" is good, nothing fantastic. I also read quite a bit of history and theology non-fiction.

2. I tend to like English novels written in the first half of the twentieth century with a contemporary thrown in occasionally and a fantasy book once or twice a year. I do not read science fiction (altho I love "after the disaster" books, like "Alas, Babylon"), westerns, or horror. I also do not like techno-spy stories, which is about all my husband reads.

3. My favorite book is "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. I am just waiting to forget more of it in order to read it again. I also love the Dorothy Whipple books that I've read, but my library does not have much of hers and they are not often found used here in the USA.

[Claire]

Virginia Woolfe's biography by Hermione Lee and Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym. Literary biographies are a favourite and I'm enjoying this and hoping it will make me brave enough to start her novels. B. Pym always a joy. I wouldn't choose romantic, historical (except, of course, Mantel), science fiction or horror. I like to leave novels for a couple of years after publication to see if they are still being read and enjoyed. There are so many great authors from the past such as Penelope Fitzgerald etc etc. The exceptions which I would buy on publication are McEwan, Mantel, Hollinghurst, Hensher and Attwood. Like Dark Puss I sometimes read a classic - at the moment, encouraged by DGR,it's Middlemarch. I guess ten lifetimes wouldn't give us the time we need to read them all! Although it must be tricky for you, I'm pleased so many authors and publishers send you their books. Good to know your blog and other highly regarded ones, are taken seriously. I think blogs must now be a force in the market.

[LizF]

Currently reading Diane Chamberlain's Secrets She Left Behind which is undemanding and enjoyable; Strands by Jean Sprackland which is about the author's walks on a beach on the Lancashire coast over a year and described as 'the ultimate beachcomber's book' which I am enjoying as if I lived close to the coast I would be on the beach every day for a walk and I am continuing through Middlemarch, theoretically as part of dovegreyreader's readalong but a bit behind as I mislaid my copy for a couple of months and am trying to catch up. I think that the first two are fairly typical of what I would read and the latter is a pleasant surprise - I hadn't realised that I would enjoy it as much as I have as I got out of the habit of reading classics for years. What is unusual is that there isn't a crime novel in there as I do normally read a lot of the genre.
Also re-reading The Weirdstone of Brisingamen as I have Boneland in my library pile and need to remind myself of what came before - just as good as I remember!

I read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, although the latter tends to be either history, nature writing or travel. I don't like books which feature cruelty to either animals or humans and will stop reading if things get either gratuitously gory or verge into the realms of soft porn - I'm not a prude but some things are best left to the imagination!
Not keen on self-consciously 'clever' books either but I do like books in translation, particularly from French or Italian.

Favourite authors would include Mary Stewart, Elizabeth Chadwick, Susan Hill, Alan Garner, John Connolly, Linda Gillard, Laurence Block, Donna Leon, Dorothy Whipple, Rumer Godden, Fred Vargas, Gianrico Carofiglio ... too many to mention!
All time favourite books - The Little White Horse, Susan Hill's The Magic Appletree, Jane Eyre, The Crystal Cave ...

[michi]

1. i'm reading "The End of Your Life Book Group" which was passionately recommended in this blog, and I've found it as a great food for thought book. Also reading "Mountains of the Mind" by Robert MacFarlane. Mountaineering is not really my interest but I cannot help admiring MacFarlane's writing.

2. I read general fictions (contemporary and classic) and mystery, and non fictions like the books mentioned above. I don't read Science Fiction and horror.

3. I love PD James too! and a Japanese writer, Natsuo Kirino ( very far from the Cornflowerbooks taste). Recently I enjoy Ann Cleeves's Shetland mystery.
My all-time favourite books are "A Month in the Country" by J L Carr, "Grapes of Wrath" by J Steinbeck, "Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis and " All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque.

[LizF]

If you are enjoying Rivers of London, look out for the next two in the series which I think are great fun and even better than the first.

[michi]

oh, it should be " The End of Your Life Book Club" , sorry!

[Dark Puss]

Thank you; my wife has already bought and read them!

[Dark Puss]

Dear Michi, I think I suggested Natsuo Kirino to Cornflower as a possible CBG choice once. Peter

[Audrey]

The Magic Apple Tree! One of my very favorite books; love seeing it on your list.

[michi]

Hello Dark Puss, Kirino is an amazing author but she is one of the last ones that I would suggest to CBG. It would definitely add variety though!

[Dark Puss]

Michi, that was why I suggested her (and if I didn't I do now!)

[Freda]

Currently reading Julia Child's My Life in France - pleasant read. Love biographies. A favourite this year was Edmund de Waal's Hare With Amber Eyes. Never read mystery/detective/sci-fi/horror. All time favourites inclued Lewis Grassic Gibbon's A Scot's Quair, Colette's Earthly Paradise, Karen Blixen's Out of Africa, Bernard Maclaverty's Grace Notes. I like books about how other creative people think - artists, writers, musicians, dancers...

[Victoria Corby]

1. Just finished Mad World by Paula Byrne about Evelyn Waugh and the Lygon family who were the inspiration behind Brideshead Revisited which was wonderful and have just started Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin a crime story which was much reccomended by a couple of blogs. I'm also dipping into Perfume From Provenceby Lady Fortescue because it's next to my laptop.

2. I read quite widely, biographies and history, most general fiction and a lot of crime fiction. I never read horror and tend to steer away from self conscious literary fiction.

3. Favourite authors - how long should the list be? I search out anything new by Rose Tremaine, Barbara Kingsolver, Hilary Mantel, Jude Morgan, Anne Tyler, William Boyd...

3.

[Dark Puss]

Hello Freda, with you 100% on Earthly Paradise but the "Scot's Quair" was not my favourite book as a teenager at school in Edinurgh!

Do you not include scientists & engineers in your list of creative people?

[LizF]

That book kept me going through the intensive child-rearing days of the 80's and 90's when sleep, money and time to myself was in very short supply!

I read it over and over again knowing that no matter how fraught my day had been, the book's inner serenity would soothe me and I could always dream that one day there would be a Moon Cottage for me too!

Twenty odd years on, it still hasn't happened but I still read the book and I can still dream!

So glad that The Magic Appletree means as much to other people as it does to me!

[Freda]

in reply to Dark Puss

Good question. Of course! Richard Feynman autobiography, Susan Greenfield, Marie Curie biography, economists - Martin Wolf's Why Globalisation Works, Jeffrey Sachs' Commonwealth, Muhammad Yunus' Creating a World Without Poverty, Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist, Politician Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, John Brockman anthologies on the annual Edge Question - I read quite a lot of non fiction..

[Sandy]

1. Currently I have just started 'Bring up the Bodies' by Hilary Mantel. So far, it seems as good as 'Wolf Hall', which was just a wonderful book. Historical fiction is not a typical genre for me - unless you count such works as 'Legion of the Ninth', which is set in a past time but with fictional characters.

2. My bookshelves show my biggest group is fantasy fiction for adults and teenagers. Detective fiction includes all of Ian Rankin's Rebus, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Agatha Christie and others. There is a section with what I think of the 'female author group', including Mary Stewart, Ann Tyler, Maeve Binchey et al. I have a place for 'unique souls', such as Dapne Du Maurier and Michael Freyn. And a Scottish contigent with Alexander mcColl Smith and Peter May. I'm sure to have left some out...
I'll try almost anything.

3. Favourite authors - this is difficult. My favourite books ('Possession': AS Byatt, 'The Song of Achilles': Madeline MIller, 'His Dark Materials': Philip Pullman, 'The Earthsea Series': Ursula leGuin) tend to be standouts. I guess my favourite author in the sense of enjoying many books they have written, is Daphne DuMaurier - readable and original.

[Ruth M.]

Reading now, completely typical: Masquerade by Terry Pratchett, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt, and The Autobiography of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

Genres yes: Well-done but light fiction, history, biography, collected letters, poetry, science, sci fic/fantasy, detective/mystery but mostly by women (the male authors are often too graphic). I read a lot of spiritual/philosophical/religious history/contemplative books.

Genres no: Most serious contemporary fiction, whatever that is (I can be depressed enough on my own). Horror, gore, "realism." Harlequin romances.

Authors: Dorothy L. Sayer is probably my all-time favorite. In no particular order, Dick Francis, Ellis Peters, Elizabeth Goudge, Angela Thirkell, Terry Pratchet, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Mercedes Lackey, D. E. Stevenson, Elswyth Thane, J R R Tolkein, J K Rowling, Laurie R King... I'm forgetting dozens

What a great question. Thanks for asking -- it makes me think.

[Mary]

I'll second that, Puss. It's several years since I read Out but I remember that it was absolutely gripping and very different from all the kimono/geisha books that flooded the market. Grotesque was possibly a bit too grotesque for me!

[Ruth M.]

I meant "Sayers" and "Pratchett" of course.

[B R Wombat]

1. I'm currently reading The Inn at the End of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis but only because it was a 99p ebook. I think it might be a bit twee for me. I can't remember reading any Alice Thomas Ellis before.
2. My favourite genres are detective stories. Apart from them, I don't really think of my reading being in genres. I think horror is what least appeals to me. Also Harry Potter did nothing for me at all.
3. The list of favourite authors is huge. Dodie Smith, Ursula LeGuin, Anne Tyler, Rosemary Sutcliff and now Hilary Mantel. Favourite books include I Capture the Castle, Kidnapped and The Left Hand of Darkness.

[Margaret Powling]

1. Currently reading Marcia Willett's latest novel, The Sea Garden and also, as is Martina, Restoration by Rose Tremain. Restoration is easily the better-written and researched book, but Marcia's are the literary equivalent of wicked hot chocolate and a cosy quilt under which to snuggle on a cold winter's day, i.e. just what we all need sometimes, but which wouldn't sustain you long as a literary diet.

2. My favourite genres are contemporary fiction, historical fiction, some (but not all) crime fiction, letters and diaries, style, design, antiques, art and archietecture, history and biography.
I have not read nor ever have felt inclined to read sci-fi or fantasy.

3. My favourite writers are an eclectic bunch: journalist (the late) Bernard Levin (especially his travel books), Helene Hanff (who could not love 84 Charing Cross Road?), Joanna Trollope, Mary Wesley, Rosamunde Pilcher (her longer novels, not the light romances although they are enjoyable in a short-story-ish way), Katharine McMahon, Jacqueline Winspear (who doesn't adore the novels featuring Maisie Dobbs), essayist Richard Church, the Minack Chronicles of Derek Tangye, the memoirs of the late Dirk Bogarde (but not his fiction which is dire), Sir Roy Strong, and the letters of Rupert Hart Davis and George Lyttelton.

[Mr Cornflower]

Snap! I'm reading "Bring up the Bodies" too, and am enjoying it as much as you appear to be.

[Esmeralda]

1) currently reading The Sirens Sang of Murder by Sarah Caudwell. Quite typical because (a) I like to laugh and (b) I follow slavishly the recommendations I find in blogs. Enjoying it a great deal; thank you!

2) Genres: novels set in the past, novels written in the past, children's literature - including some fantasy - the occasional whodunnit Rarely sci-fi. No chick lit. No violence or plucky little ghurkas. And never anything about the romantic tribulations of more than one generation of the same family.

3) Favourite writers: Jane Austen, Trollope (Barchester more than Palliser), Patrick O'Brian, Nancy Mitford-Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate, Dodie Smith-I Capture the Castle, Armistead Maupin-Tales of the City, Tolkien, Kevin Crossley Holland's Arthur Trilogy, Philip Pullman's his Dark Materials ... Best book last year: Half a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This year: Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner (thank you for that recommendation too).

[Agnieszka]

1. I'm currently reading:
a) Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges - loving it as I'm a great fan of Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Marian Rejewski, Enigma, Bletchley Park and cryptolody in general.
b) The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck - nearly finishing, I would rate it 3/5.
c) The Glass Room by Simon Mawer - so far really good.
2. I would try everything although I'm not too keen on since fiction and horrors.
3. My all-time favourite books are: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie (Marie's daughter). I also love Madame by Antoni Libera and God in a Cup by Michaele Weissman. And authors... J.M. Coetzee, Joseph Conrad, Haruki Murakami, Milan Kundera and Maria Nurowska.

[Agnieszka]

Oops! Lapsus calami, cryptology not cryptolody of course :)

[sakura]

1) I'm currently reading Helen Dunmore's The Greatcoat which is slowly creeping me out (in a good way). I recently finished Jeanette Winterson's Weight, a retelling of the story of Atlas and Heracles, which was just brilliant.

2) I read a lot of historical mysteries, gothicky stuff, sff (more fantasy that sf), literary novels. I also like short stories and postmodernish fiction too. Debut authors are also intriguing. I don't read much YA, chicklit, 100% romance novels (although I do like some romance in the novels I read) but if the premise sounds interesting, I'd give it a go.

3)My favourite book is The Secret History by Donna Tartt which I recently re-read after 20 years. It's still as haunting and so beautifully written. I also recently discovered Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles which blew me away. And my favourite fantasy books are Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

[catharina]

Wallace Stegner wrote Crossing to Safety. I agree it's a beautiful novel.

[catharina]

Reading: Joseph Jaworski Source: The Inner Path to Knowledge Creation, (rereading) Simon Mawer The Glass Room, Carl H. Klaus My Vegetable Love,(A Journal of a Growing Season and Jane Hirshfield Given Sugar, Given Salt.
Favourite genre: Dairy (nature), Biography, Poetry, Non-Fiction. I don't read horror.
Favourite author: Roger Deakin, Robert Macfarlane,
Virginia Woolf, Sue Gee, Susan Hill, Mary Stewart, Adam Nicolson, Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon.
Favourite book: Notes from Walnut Tree Farm (Roger Deakin) Fly Away Peter (David Malouf) Collected Poems (Jane Kenyon)

[Juxtabook]

Currently reading Nation by Terry Pratchett as I am reading lots of children's lit for a young people's bookgroup. Last grown-up novels I read were I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (why had I not read it before???!) and Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh.

Genres: I like modern literary fiction, classics and neglected books of the past, Golden Age detective fiction, and some modern crime. I am reluctant to pick up chic lit and airport novels and books with covers that are too pink or too shiny but I am not too proud to say that I quite enjoy Dan Brown.

Favourite writers: Jane Austen, George Eliot, Georgette Heyer, David Lodge, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Sarah Waters, Graham Greene, Ian McEwan, Elizabeth Gaskell, Margaret Atwood, Winifred Holtby.

[Rose]

1. What are you currently reading (for pleasure), is that fairly typical for you, and how highly would you rate it in terms of your own enjoyment?
I am reading Stalky & Co by Rudyard Kipling. This is not typical. I was recommended the title by a dear friend and I am really enjoying it - beautifully written, an absolute delight.

2. Which genres do you tend to read most, and which are you unlikely to try? I veer right away from science fiction, most detective style books (but not all the time) and any books where this mention of 'second sight' or musings through thought which is why I haven't joined in with Touch not the Cat - it isn't really my scene - I don't have a set genre for my 'likes'. I have a strong dislike for the style of writing where there is a clunky research project going on and then a book leaps out of the research and it is all rather 'obvious' e.g. the book about salt, the book about value of tulip bulbs, the book about latitude! I think A Girl with the Pearl Earring was the first in that genre and I'm not keen. Oh and there was one about a leper colony as well. That was a bit clunky too e.g. "I'm married to a TV presenter/MP/former Cabinet Minister or current Cabinet Minister, I think I'll try my hand at writing a book."

3. Who/what are your all-time favourite books/authors?
Requiem for a Wren, Nevil Shute
Slow Train to Milan, Lisa St Aubin de Teran (anything by Lisa St Aubin de Teran)
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon (pretty much anything by Toni Morrison)
Louise Erdich (her first novel, can't remember the name, haven't enjoyed her subsequent ones - but perhaps that is just a blip)
Edna O'Brien - all the ones I read in my 20s
Margaret Drabble - all the ones I read in my 20s
Gone with the Wine (Margaret......, can't think of the surname just now)
War and Peace, Tolstoy (an all time great for me)
Bonfire of The Vanities (blank on the surname! Oh, no, I've got brain block! but you all know it anyway) (an all time great as well)

I'm quite guided by the review sections online and the long-lists for literary prizes however since joining Cornflower I have read wonderful titles, wonderful authors (that I wouldn't have necessarily come across) and I consider it a very great blessing that I am on Cornflower. The books and authors I have been introduced to our, in the main, unknowns and new to me and they 'stretch me' and this is what I enjoy. Thank you for asking for our opinions, I look forward to the coming year with relish - but I've got to now dash for a meeting so my apologies if this appears to be a bit on the slap-dash side.

[Anji]

I have just finished The Key by Simon Toyne, it's the second book in his Santus trilogy. Currently in the car is the Winter Vault by Anne Michaels and it's not holding my total attention when I am stuck at a red light. I am about to start The Glass Room by Simon Mawer.

Just lately I seem to be reading a lot of murder mystery novels, there is nothing quite like a good murder is there? Not that murder is a good thing!! I guess you could say that I like my characters to be doing something and I am not really sure what attracts me to certain titles or authors. It may be something as simple as the first sentence, the font or the front cover, even the blurb on the back. It has been fun to read books in translation and its great to listen to the audio version too. The only genre that I am not drawn to is horror, sci-fi - they are all so dark and depressing or fantasy.

I don't really have a favourite. I still have my battered copy of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. My father read that story to us over Christmas Day and Boxing Day when I was a child and it has been packed and unpacked many times and it is the only book from my childhood that I still have.

[Nicola]

Currently reading Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. I'm enjoying it but it is a bit out of my comfort zone.

Favourite genres? Contemporary fiction, particularly first novels, 20th C middle-brow women's fiction and Jane Austen.

All-time favourite: Jane Austen, Jane Austen, Jane Austen!!