New but not improved

 

What to Look for in... Elizabeth Jenner, illus. Natasha Durley. Ladybird Books

Library books

After my utter delight in the 1960s editions of the What to Look for books I was looking forward to comparing them with the 2020 editions and I was delighted when my library reservations came in so quickly.

Sadly that's pretty much my only delight where these books are concerned. Where as I've already used the 60 year old books to identify wildlife I've seen in the past month or so I really can't see myself saying the same for these books.

They are bright and colourful but none of the pictures are in context, they are just illustrations on a page - not part of a scene and this means you' can't actually tell where you'd see the bird/insect/flower and on top of that the scale of the images is often out of kilter. A wren is not the same size as a robin for instance.

Some of the text is really good - I especially liked the part that explains how tides work for instance (and I could have done with this as a child for it was only recently I've been convinced that the tide being out in Kent doesn't mean that it is high tide in France) - the tone really annoyed me, especially the use of quotation marks when describing things:

Once the vegetables in these beds have been picked, the allotment gardeners will break up the soils and remove any weeds, using a metal tool called a "hoe".

 What to look for in Autumn p.12

It is good to see that there are nature books for younger children still be produced but however fond I am of Ladybird books I'd really recommend either I-Spy or Usborne books over these. New definitely isn't improved. 

Double page spread from What to look for in Autumn showing both of my main problems with the books.

 

Micro Review 28

 

The Consolation of Nature by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren (Hodder Studios)

Library book

Nature writing books have become one of my favourite genres. I think that this goes back to 2018 when I noticed time in nature helped me to recover from my brain haemorrhage, and was reinforced last year as Mr Norfolkbookworm and I tried to get out for a walk every day as a way of coping with the pandemic and lockdowns.

This book is one of the first I've read that concentrates very specifically on events in 2020 and it is a detailed look at late March to the end of May - spring. In 2020 this time frame also coincided pretty much with the first lockdown.

The three authors live in different parts of the country (London, Suffolk & Wiltshire) and they keep diaries which are a mix of nature observations, research into natural phenomena, and diary of the pandemic.

Incredibly for a book set in three such disparate locations I am a little familiar with each of them and so did feel that I was walking with the authors on their daily walks. Living in a city which is well served with green spaces we were lucky enough to be able to follow the season changes on our daily walks and so I could connect with each author's writing. In a personal capacity it has been interesting to see just how much I was recording weather and nature 'firsts' last year via my Facebook memories.

I am very much a dabbler in bird watching and nature recording but this book has made me want to be better at it and to keep an awareness of natural events so I can be one of these people who say with some authority "the swallows are late this year."

This book is wonderful and I really didn't want to return it to the library - to the extent that I've had to buy myself a copy!

Interestingly just as I finished this book I was approved on Net Galley as an advance reader for The Eternal Season by Stephen Rutt which looks at summer as a season with a focus on last year's in particular. I'm not sure I'm ready to read pandemic inspired fiction yet but I'm certainly keen on these views of 2020.

Micro Review 5

One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake

Despite having over flowing bookshelves and a Kindle full of unread books I still found myself with nothing to read a few weeks ago and so started to browse the Library ebook shelves again. I think that the impossibility of travel and the boredom that is meal planning drew me to this book.

Cloake sets off by bike to spend a few weeks cycling around France trying the various local specialties of the regions and also trying to find the best croissant in France.

I don't hugely enjoy cycling, and there are certain foods even I'd never try (andouille sausage I'm looking at you here) but Cloake's enthusiasm is infectious and I now have a list of places as long as my arm that I'd like to visit.

I also liked that often Cloake gets fed up with the weather, camping and cycling and so checks into hotels and uses trains to get from place to place. This made 90% of her trip sound fun rather than a punishment. For me this was ideal lockdown escapism and encouraged me to open some of my recipe books and try some new dishes.

Gifting books you'd like to read

I've always been a great believer in the idea that if you are surprising someone with a gift then it should be something you'd like to receive yourself.

After a friend was talking about her reading block at the end of last year, and knowing her quirky tastes, I decided to surprise her with a copy of The Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler. When it arrived I had a look through it and instantly wanted to keep it and not pass it on.

Reading slumps are a real pain, that longing to read something but not being able to find a suitable book can drive you mad. Even with my limited reading stamina at present I still find this a problem - if you've got limited ability to read it has to be a good book after all!

This book includes details of 99  authors who were once popular but have slipped from collective memory overtime plus some extra essays about things like translation and pulp fiction.  I consider myself a prolific and knowledgeable reader but I only recognised 16 of the writers included...

The sections that the book is split into are clever and humorous - being a perverse person my favourite was "The Justly Forgotten Authors" - why do they deserve this epithet? My reservation for this book just came in at the library and I am looking forward to the essays and the new authors to discover. I'm sure that my list of books to read is going to grow hugely!