Friday reads (x 4)

   

    I have too many books on the go at the moment, but my justification is that they are all good ones and they all fulfil a different reading function.

    Elizabeth Gilbert's lush 500-pager The Signature of All Things is balanced by the quiet observation of Sue Gee's new novel Coming Home, while for non-fiction I've got the visual pleasures of Virginia Woolf's Garden by Caroline Zoob (just out this week), and some mental stimulation from Magical Tales: Myth, Legend and Enchantment in Children's Books edited by Carolyne Larrington and Diane Purkiss, which accompanies the Magical Books exhibition I saw in Oxford last month.

    How about you? What are you reading this weekend? Multiple books, or strictly one at a time?

Comments

[Dark Puss]

I have too many books on the go at the moment, but my justification is ...

I do hope that's a tongue-in-cheek opening sentence. You don't need to justify your reading to anyone (not even your self)!

I am half-way through reading the posthumously published Volume three of Fermor's wonderful walking through pre-war trilogy - The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos.

[Cornflower]

I start to feel I've strayed if, by starting another book, I end up giving much less time to the first one, and if that neglect stretches to the point where I have to begin it all over again because I've 'lost the plot', then I berate myself for time-wasting!
I haven't read Fermor but have long wanted to.

[Ruby]

I'm juggling a lot of books at the moment but, like you, they're all to fulfill a different reading function! I'm finishing off the Man Booker shortlist (two more to go!), I'm reading a collection of George Orwell essays, Morrissey's autobiography and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. They are consuming all of my spare time due to school...

Oh and this is my first visit to your blog & I'm sure I'll stop by again sometime soon!

[Pam]

I'm almost never reading only one book at a time. So right now it's The Long Afternoon by Giles Waterfield, The Warden by Anthony Trollope and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth.

[Cornflower]

That's a good handful, Pam (I've read two of them, but not the Trollope!).

[Cornflower]

That is an eclectic mix, Ruby, and welcome to Cornflower Books!

[Janet]

I'm reading Gavin Menzies 1421:The Year China Discovered the World- a fascinating tale of a fleet of Chinese ships which sailed through the Straits of Magellan before they were called that. I've also started reading Dorothy Whipple's novel They Were Sisters, and I'm dipping into A Book Addicts Treasury, edited by Julie Rugg and Lynda Murphy.I often have more than one book on the go, but then concentrate for a while on the one I want most to finish.

[Cornflower]

Ah, Dorothy Whipple!
Off to look up A Book Addict's Treasury ...

[Karoline]

I started She Rises by Kate Worsley this weekend, which has been on my to read list since your review earlier this year. I also am dipping into Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the landing when I have the energy to read in bed.

[LizF]

Currently reading Penelope Lively's Ammonites and Leaping Fish and working my way slowly (my fault not the book's) through A Suitable Boy at home, The Oxford Book of 20th Century Ghost Stories at the office (because I have a far too over-active imagination to read it at home) and The Singing of the Dead - one of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak novels on my iPad when I am out and about.

[Caroline]

I'll be interested in your thoughts on 'The Signature of All Things'. I've read Gilbert's non-fiction with mixed feelings, but she has a lovely turn of phrase and so I have high hopes for her fiction. I thought her TED talk was really good as well, have you watched it? http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

[Dark Puss]

I have just finished The Broken Road and while it isn't quite as magical as the previous two volumes it confirms Fermor as a great travel writer. How about A Time of Gifts as the next but one CBG read?