Non Fiction November

 

Without really meaning to I appear to be bang on trend in 2021 as November has been renamed Non Fiction November by the Federation of Children's Book Groups.

With only a very few exceptions this month I have found myself unable to settle to any novels but I have finished several excellent non fiction titles, as well as having a few more on the go.

I think that the joy of non fiction is that often each chapter can be read as a standalone so on days when I am tired or unable to settle an interesting chapter is just the right length.

Usually when I get like this I turn to short stories as well but I've currently finished all of the anthologies of these I have around the house so I will also have to look out for more of these - any recommendations gratefully received and then perhaps next month I can rebrand December reads as "short fiction for short days" - not as catchy but I'll work on this!

Thoughts will be forthcoming on some of the non fiction I've read and enjoyed but for now I need to go back to the current book Minarets in the Mountains and continue travelling around part of the Balkans without leaving the sofa!

Beating the block

A book for every season...

I sound a little bit like a broken record as I keep complaining of reader's block - I do remind myself just how lucky I am that I can still read and that not finding something to sink into is a minor problem.

Deep down I know all of this but it is still frustrating to find yourself stuck at home due to bad weather and not knowing what to read.

I've decided to try proper bibliotherapy to get over this - I think of a topic that I think will take my fancy and then look it up in The Novel Cure! The most useful part so far has been the top 10s at the back of the book and if I am totally honest I've actually spent more time reading this than anything from it but hey - it all counts as reading right?

I am asked by friends if I can think of books about different topics for children of various ages. I've now been out of the frontline of children's books for a decade and while I try to stay current I am sometimes stumped but no longer...there is a Story Cure - an A-Z of books to keep kids happy. healthy and wise and thus my reading for this weekend (yet another windy one) is sorted!

Look out Kentishbookboy - lists of new books will be coming your way very soon!

A familiar refrain...

...well to be honest at the moment I seem to have more of a fiction reader's block rather than a full on block.

I don't seem to be alone in this as a member of the online book group I'm a part of has also said the same recently, which was nice and reassuring.

I'm taking this as a sign of just how good non fiction books are right now rather than thinking that fiction isn't in a good place. Some of this problem settling on novels is also self inflicted, Mr Norfolkbookworm and I are off on our holidays soon and I've been stockpiling books I do want to read ready for two weeks in the sun (well shade - I burn too easily!). My most eagerly anticipated books are out reach for another few weeks...

The exception to this was the third instalment from Gill Sims in her Why Mummy... series. I'm not sure why these appeal to me, I'm not a parent and my husband very definitely shares the housework with me and our families are nowhere near as dysfunctional as Ellen's.

There's just something about these books that I can lose myself in. On the surface they are light hearted books which take everyday events and humorously exaggerate them to great comic effect but you quickly realise that this is very much surface and that underneath there are some very serious issues that are handled incredibly sensitively.

This is especially true for the third book in the series Why Mummy Doesn't Give a **** which I've just finished. I'm not sure that reading this on a train was my brightest idea as I found myself snorting with laughter and crying, well at least I had a seat to myself...

I discovered the books before the hilarious Peter and Jane facebook page https://www.facebook.com/peterandjaneandmummytoo/ and while, obviously, the humour is very similar between the page and the books don't think that you've read the books if you follow the webpage - they are very different and on balance I prefer the books.

The book is published on 27th June, and it will make a lot more sense if you've read the other two - the story is a continuation.

Many thanks to Net Galley for the electronic proof.

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!

Reader's Block

I’m struggling with reading again at the moment.  I’ve just submitted my MA Dissertation* and I have free time to read without worrying I should be studying/writing.  I’ve also been poorly and have nothing to do with my time except relax – which for me usually means losing myself in a good book.

I’ve got heaps of books ready to go as well, lots of fiction of all sorts, advance copies of novels courtesy of Netgalley and also stacks of novels that friends have recommended over the last six months while I haven’t had time to enjoy them.

However I seem to have got out of the habit of reading fiction.  I can settle down with biographies, autobiographies, histories and the like but I can’t get into fiction however hard I try.

I’m hoping that this will pass soon; I often find this happens after I’ve had a real reading binge on holiday – I just didn’t expect it to happen in reverse so to speak.  Oh well, at least I’ve nearly caught up on all my non-fiction piles, I just can’t wait to lose myself in a novel again. I’m longing for the book hangover feeling!

*14,973 words and called “Sex, Slavery and drugs: Is A Midsummer Night’s Dream suitable for children aged under ten?

A bit quiet

I almost read myself to a standstill during February and March and so consequently don't have a lot of books to blog about at the moment.

In addition to this I was reading a lot of more academic books about All Quiet on the Western Front in preparation for the April meeting of the International Fiction group. It was a great meeting and I discovered that some of my reactions to All Quiet when I read it for World Book Night might have been because when I read the book before it was actually a different translation...
I'd purposely saved a few copies of my WBN version of the book to give to group members and they went down really well. The main consensus of the meeting was that you can't call the book 'good' per se but it really is one that everybody should read.

The main reason for not having a lot to write about is that I am reading in preparation for this year's Writer's Centre Norwich Summer Read campaign. The WCN kindly let me have the six books in advance and I am reading them ready to be able to talk/blog about them as soon as the promotion starts on May 3rd. Details for now can be found here but there is so much more to announce. 3 whole months dedicated to good books and authors - I can't wait.

And I'm even reading another poetry book!