Book Binge

Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have just come back from 2 glorious weeks in Crete. We did a little sightseeing and a lot of relaxing, eating and drinking.

In fact over the course of the holiday I finished 25 books - this might actually be a record for me and once more I am grateful for the existence of eReaders as due to luggage weight limits and a lack of English books in the book swaps I'd have been stuck without it!


The books I read:

1. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
2. When You are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
3. Wars of the Roses: Stormbird - Conn Iggulden (eProof)
4. Flowers of the Field - Sarah Harrison
5. A Flower That's Free - Sarah Harrison
6. Stone - John Williams (eProof)
7. Instructions for a Heatwave - Maggie O'Farrell
8. The Old Ways - Robert Macfarlane
9. Dear Lupin - Roger Mortimer
10. Longbourn - Jo Baker (eProof)
11. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
12. Canvey Island - James Runcie
13. Why be happy when you can be normal - Jeanette Winterson
14. Big Brother - Lionel Shriver
15. A Time of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor
16. Testament of Mary - Colm Toibin
17. The Suicide Shop - Jean Teule
18. Hector and the Search for Happiness - Francois Lelord
19. Harvest - Jim Crace
20. Ranger Confidential - Andrea Lankford
21. Lucy Maud Montgomery - Mary Henley Rubio
22. Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson
23. Anne of Green Gables - L M Montgomery
24. The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer
25. Transatlantic - Colum McCann

I did start a couple of others but they didn't capture me after 70 pages - I'm not sure if they just didn't fit my mood or if they aren't for me...I'll give them a go again sometime to make a decision.

Of the 25 my favourites were Longbourn, The Interestings, Stoner, Stormbird and A Time of Gifts. When we first got back I included Life After Life in this list but since then the feeling of enjoyment has remained but the plot has faded.

Just to finish this post off this is the view from where I did most of my reading...

Snow in midsummer

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

This book has been sitting on my Kindle for quite a while, a few people told me how good it was but for some reason I just hadn't got round to reading it.

After a conference in London where the publicists of the book gave a presentation on the publishing history of the book I was intrigued and following a few prompting tweets I finally got round to reading it.

I started reading the book in the middle of the longest heat wave we've had in Norfolk for years and being transported in to snow Alaska was heavenly - it cooled me down no end and when I emerged from the book I kept being surprised that it was sunny and summer!

The book is wonderfully lyrical - an older couple have moved to Alaska to try their hand at farming as they are finding it too hard to live back East where all of their relatives seem to have the families that the couple can't have but so desperately want.

Alaska is a hard, unforgiving place and it almost breaks the couple but the appearance of good neighbours and the mysterious snow child turn their lives around.

I can see why this book was such a success - I found it a magical read that totally transported me to the wilds of Alaska about 100 years ago.
I do wonder if reading it in the winter just past would have been a different experience but in the height of summer it was wonderfully escapist!

World Book Night Challenge 24/25

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

This was a book I'd left until towards the end because I was really looking forward to reading it, but as so has often happened with my WBN reading that wasn't quite how it happened!

I was so disappointed in this book, the characters failed to hold my attention, the plot was (IMNSHO) silly and I discovered the downside of my Kindle - skipping the dull bits is really hard.

I don't know what it was about this that made it so not my cup of tea, a historical novel really should have captured me but the whole thing left me cold. Now I am back at home and can look through my past reading diaries I see that I had a similar reaction to the last Sarah Waters book I read (Nightwatch) so perhaps it is just her style of writing I don't like. It is strange as she came with good recommendations, including my grandmother...

World Book Night Challenge 11/25

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

I feel that my challenge reading may now slow down as the books left are either ones that I've avoided for years or ones that I've started in the past and not enjoyed. I know for certain that without this one being a World Book Night title there is no chance that I would have persevered with it.

I'm not sure if I found the book clever or pretentious. It is comprised of six short stories that are all interlinked. Story one is a diary that stops mid sentence but is then 'found' in story two. One of the characters from story two reappears in three and so on. All of strand 6 is told in one go and then we count down again and end up finding out the end of story one at the very end.

I read this in eBook form on the Kindle (the first modern novel I'd read on the device) and I do wonder that if I'd had this in paper form I would have read it in a different way.

That is would I have read all of story one, then two etc rather than in the way it was written? I quite like short stories and so I would have just read the strands that appealed to me rather than slogging through some tales which really didn't appeal just to make sure I didn't miss a connecting strand.

Another book I'm pleased I've read but I'm not in a hurry to look out for any more novels by Mitchell.

Oops

I've been quite open and honest about my enthusiasm for the whole eReader phenomenon and the experience of reading on either an iPhone or a dedicated device.

However the BeBook and the iPhone haven't been without their problems. To upload books to the BeBook you have to plug everything together in a very specific order otherwise Adobe doesn't recognise it and several times it appears that books have downloaded correctly but simply won't open. The screen is also a little small and unresponsive when you try to change the orientation.

On my iPhone I have three different programmes for reading eBooks - Stanza, Kindle and iBooks. All are great in their way but the problem here is the small size of the device, the screen is so small and I read so fast that I am constantly turning the page. This, and holding such a small object was actually starting to cause me some pain in my wrists.

So last week, when tired after a hectic work schedule and lots of events, I succumbed and treated myself to a Kindle. I got the Wifi and 3g compatible model and already, less than a week into owning it, I love it more than the other 2 devices.

It is light, easy to use, I can create book shelves easily and downloading reasonably priced books from Amazon is so easy I am going to have to be very restrained so as not to build up a huge credit card bill.

It isn't perfect - Kindles are not compatible with the library eBook catalogue, and Amazon have no plans at all to make this happen. Also although it advertises web browsing this is clumsy and clunky when compared to a iPhone say.

However the eInk technology has improved a huge amount since we got the BeBook, the page turns are smooth and flicker free, images are much clearer and better still there are so many options for type style, font, line spacing and orientation.

I'm sure the love will wear off soon, but right now with another holiday planned and a limited luggage allowance I can't wait to fill it with books I've been meaning to read.
People keep asking me why I went for this and not an iPad and the simple answer is cost, if someone gave me an iPad I'd be really happy but they are still so expensive I wouldn't feel comfortable travelling with one for fear I'd damage it. Also it is still quite large whereas my Kindle, even in a case, is about the size of a normal paperback.

As for the BeBook I think my sister and Mr Bookworm are fighting over that and I know who my money's on!