Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home | 
so-soHmm. This just didn't click with me. To be fair to the book, I think in these odd times I've struggled to find the time or will to read so this likely suffered as a consequence. However, I also just didn't find it interesting. It's pleasantly written but it felt like there was little feeling behind the words.
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
Next up "Howard's End is on the Landing: a year of reading from home". I bought this book many many years ago in the hope it would help me get on top of my TBR. It's taken @TheAromaofBooks and #bookspin for me to actually pick it up ?. Here's hoping it has the desired effect.
I suppose it's also eerily timely considering we may soon be in lockdown ?.
I‘ve had an epiphany. I was trying to find a specific book this morning, and failed, but as I was looking, I realised my TBR is out of hand, and I need to tackle it. My house doesn‘t quite look like the picture, but it feel like it‘s not far off!! So I‘m abandoning any book challenges and I‘m going to try and clear some of my actual physical books.
pickThe author vows to read books from her own shelves. In doing so she spends a year exploring the volumes she's accumulated over the years. I loved her thoughts of the value of slow reading. She talks about how you can read fast and get the plot of a story, but you'll never appreciate writing & give the story time to make an impact on your life.
“Until it is read a book is a dead thing, it must be resurrected every time it finds a new reader.”
pickI love books about books, and this one has been my bedtime read. Short essays that just add to my TBR, like I need that, but the rest of you readers understand, I‘m guessing.
But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books and exactly the same books as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.
pickI enjoyed this. I agree with those who have issues with the books that she read being by white people (both women and men), the sole exception being V. S. Naipaul. I had the same problem when I was in college getting my English degree 16 years ago. I give her a bit of a pass since it's a memoir (and not a discourse on what to read to be well-educated) and was written before the current diversity in reading movement began. 👇
1. New Jersey, USA
2. Pam Anders - scroll down my feed to see a review of The Dagger and at www.janecairns.com
3. 45 physical books and 5,500+ ebooks
4. Main branch of the Ocean County Library and also at the desk in my bedroom
5. The Dagger by Pam Anders
#littenintro @tessavi
pickApparently I had forgotten to review this 😆😆
Well just in time for #memoirMonday
I enjoyed discovering numerous esteemed writers from her year of homely reading. Another reminder that what I read will always be a tip of the iceberg - just like how her choices reflect only a fraction of writers ;))
And anyone who chooses Two Wodehouse titles for her Final 40 (that list above is part of the final selection) gets my 👍🏽👍🏽
#ReadingResolutions
panI‘ve written a longer review at our website today about why this particular reading memoir rankled at me so much. Apart from feeling largely invisible as I was reading Hill‘s book, I also felt that the rest of the world just didn‘t exist for her. Regardless, I like this particular quote. Here is the link to my sorta-diatribe about reading memoirs that mostly consist of just White Readings. https://gatheringbooks.org/2018/05/03/a-reading-memoir/
panI had high hopes for this one, & it started out fairly promising. I am also on a self-imposed book buying ban, so I thought this might prove to be inspiring. Then she gets to the part about not being an armchair traveler, having trouble with Aussie novels, and with a reading list that is Starkly White (with the exception of VS Naipaul, who is technically a Trinidadian but still British), I was turned off totally. ⬇️
#HumpDayPost
🧚🏼♀️ My first dinner at Santa Catarina in Brazil, courtesy of my generous hosts.
🧚🏼♀️ Extremely White Reading Memoir
🧚🏼♀️ in my late 20s, I think
🧚🏼♀️ Gosh. Superfriends, maybe? 😂😱 Or Scooby-doo
🧚🏼♀️ Pisces!
Reading while listening to a live jazz band at the Singapore Jazz Festival. I doubt I will get much reading done once Incognito, Brand New Heavies, and House of Gypsies come out though. Read Everywhere.
Help! This book... about not buying books... it‘s making me want to buy *all* the books!
Dunno if I should laugh or take offense! 🤣😅😆🤣
The poet discussed is Charles Causley.
Discovering so much about the literary world from this gem of a book! #nowreading #overdrive #eBook
Indeed... It was #EnidBlyton who made me grow out of illiteracy.
"Enid Blyton taught me what books could do, where the imagination could take me..."
#nowreading #amreading #eBook #overdrive
A book about reading! If you want to discover authors, book titles, insights into novels and reading, Susan Hill has an exciting read for you. Reading Fiction Blog paulacappaDOTwordpressDOTcom
These books about reading are so dangerous. While Susan Hill spends a year trying only to read books she already owns, I'm making a list of books I need to buy! So far, I'm blazing through this book, which is very fun, though Hill can be quite sharp in her criticism.
pickSusan Hill has spent her life with books. This one is an exercise in reading from her own stacks for a year and writing essays on memories of the books and authors/editors/personalities she has encountered along the way. Fascinating- especially for someone who is interested in the modern classics. This pic shows the “final 40” she would limit her library to if she had to pick just 40- would any of these be on your list?
pickhttps://tracyrowanwrites.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/the-heart-of-a-book/
Not exactly a review but as close as I'm likely to come.
This is a quote within a quote, originally from the diaries of Roy Strong, the director of the National Portrait Gallery. Susan Hill quotes him on a London Society Hostess named Pamela Hartwell.
The pertinent bit is between the two gold lines, the comment about Hartwell's intellect never having been trained. This struck home not only about myself, but about a great many people I know. We are not stupid, but we misapply our intellect too often.
The final package from my Thrift Books order arrived today, holding only this book. I wasn't going to open it but I'm weak, and I did, and I'm hooked. All else has been abandoned. I shall read until my eyes won't stay open anymore.
so-soNot exactly what I thought it was going to be, but a decent read anyway. I definitely need a few years of reading from home.
Picked up a library hold. Not sure why they had Demelza on hold for me, I own it and I've read it. I was too nice to say anything. #libraryhaul
pickCharming series of essays on books, reading and the reading life. The style and tone are informal and almost chatty. If you like books about books, add this one to your TBR.
#TBRtemptation post 6! From 1 of Britain's most acclaimed authors comes a literary journey of re-acquaintance...with her home library. While looking for a particular book 1 day, she came across a bunch of others she hadn't read, forgot she even had, & wanted to re-read. So, for a year (seems to be a handy timeframe), she didn't buy any new books (*gasp* 😱!), developing a strong friendship with the ones she already had. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎
Sunday morning reading 📚☕️
This made me giggle. 😁
For @MicheleinPhilly - I just read this bit last night and was reminded of it after reading your post about the grossness of some library books! I didn't know they used to fumigate library books!? 😮 #BooksAboutBooks
I love how this "book about books" starts (see my post below). ❤ #MountTBR #BooksAboutBooks
Susan Hill, publisher and author of The Woman in Black, wrote this lovely memoir/book about books after deciding that she needed to spend a year rediscovering her own shelves. Each short chapter focuses on a few different books and how they've influenced her life. It's a bit like our #MountTBR challenge and I'm loving it. #BooksAboutBooks
pickVery good. Enjoyed reading about how to chose just 40 books from a lifetime of collecting books. It allowed me to discover new books and gain a new perspective on books I already own.
pickA cozy read that satisfies my love for "Books about books". Nothing life changing, but lovely to read now and then as the author invites you into her home full of books. She browses each bookshelf, stack and pile and each one brings back memories, thoughts or stories that she shares. I didn't recognize all the names she mentioned, but that's ok. It's nice to spend time with someone who really appreciates books.
#bookcount interesting word even though every book I acquire I hope to read some day.
Before my glorious 40 Half Price book sale haul could be tucked into there new home. I decided to count and scan all the books I owned into my goodread app. My personal book count not including nook books came to 440 📚. I'm curious fellow Littens how many books fill your personal libraries 😊 #bookcount
pickIt's like if you had a 2 person book club with your English professor, who happens to have a home packed to the rafters with books and knew everyone in the scene for the last 50 years. she might have convinced me to give Hardy another go.
The story of my life, and my never-ending TBR stack. 😍📚😍 #bookstacks #augustofpages #bookphotochallenge
I took the day off from work as we have the electrician coming over today to check the fuses. So, while he is doing his job, I will catch up on all the reading I didn't - for various reasons - get done during the Readathon.
This might be the most British book I've ever started reading in my entire life. It's like doing homework - I'm stopping to look up people, places and events regularly so I can understand the conclusions she draws and the context behind her musings. Her writing does make me feel cozy though!
