Wednesday, November 23, 2011

My holiday reading has begun.

I feel a bit strange when I don't get to read novels. Before I was at uni, this time, I was reading at least two books a month. During my first degree I was supposed to read three books a week. While I have been reading lots with my study, it just isn't the same. I know, now that uni is over, I should be Spring cleaning, but hey, it's raining (who feels like cleaning in the rain?), so I'm reading.

I think I’m a bit carried away though, because, in my enthusiasm, I’ve taken too many books out of library.

This is what I've taken out:

Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
anthology from seven countries put together by Plan - Because I am a Girl
Ayelet Waldman - Love & Other Impossible Pursuits
Elizabeth Bishop - poems
Geoffrey Blainey - A Short History of Christianity (only 600 pages short)
Jonathon Safran Foer - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Judith Lanigan - A True History of the Hula Hoop

This is what I've put on hold or on my wishlist:

Leslie Cannold - The Book of Rachel
Cordelia Fine - Delusions of Gender
Shirley Jackson - The Lottery
Natalie Haynes - Ancient Guide to Modern Life
Bettany Hughes - The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life (I'm a bit excited that Bettany Hughes is presenting the program on women in the Bible on tv this Sunday night!)

I've just read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and wonder how it comes to pass that I hadn't read it before now. I love it. It's short and gripping, and creates such a world. It fits in well with some of my other favourites - works by Carson McCullers, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, Salinger (I'm still waiting for those manuscripts to be posthumously published!), Steinbeck - and I want to read more of Shirley Jackson.

Have you read any of these books? What's on your reading list this holidays?

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