- Hallucinating Foucault (1996) by Patricia Duncker
- The Ghost Sister (2001) by Liz Williams
- The Wild Girl (1984) by Michèle Roberts
- The Silver Darlings (1941) by Neil M Gunn
- Swing Hammer Swing (1992) by Jeff Torrington
- The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931) by Naomi Mitchison
- Possession (1990) by AS Byatt
- The Chymical Wedding (1989) by Lindsay Clarke
- The Bell (1958) by Iris Murdoch
- The Deptford Trilogy (1970, 1972, 1975) by Robertson Davies
- Northern Lights (1995) by Philip Pullman
- The Dyke and the Dybbuk (1993) by Ellen Galford
- Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) by Salman Rushdie
- The Horse and His Boy (1954) by CS Lewis
- Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons
- The Telling by Ursula K Le Guin
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
- Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
- The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams
- The Lord of the Rings (1954/55) by JRR Tolkien
- Steppenwolf (1928) by Hermann Hesse
- Le Grand Meaulnes (1913) by Alain-Fournier
- Group Portrait with Lady (1971) by Heinrich Böll
- The Woodlanders (1887) by Thomas Hardy
- The Golden Arrow (1916) by Mary Webb
- Precious Bane (1924) by Mary Webb
- The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame
- The Way of Wyrd (1983) by Brian Bates
- Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) by Rudyard Kipling
- The Blanket of the Dark (1931) by John Buchan
- Mani - Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (1958) by Patrick Leigh Fermor
- A Time of Gifts (1977) by Patrick Leigh Fermor
- The Alexandria Quartet (1957-60) by Lawrence Durrell
- Prospero's Cell (1945) by Lawrence Durrell
- Sexing the Cherry (1989) by Jeanette Winterson
- The Years of Rice and Salt (2002) by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
- Mythago Wood (1984) by Rob Holdstock
- A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley
- What the Bee Knows (1989) by PL Travers
- The Load of Unicorn (1959) by Cynthia Harnett
- Witch Child (2000) by Celia Rees
- The Art of Conversation with the Genius Loci (2005) by Barry Patterson
- Witches, Druids and King Arthur (2003) by Ronald Hutton
- Voices from the Circle, eds Prudence Jones and Caitlin Matthews
- Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition by Nigel Pennick
- Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome
- Stravaganza: City of Masks (2004) by Mary Hoffman
Stravaganza: City of Stars (2005) by Mary Hoffman
Stravaganza: City of Flowers (2006) by Mary Hoffman - Portrait in Sepia (2000) by Isabel Allende
- The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck
- Jitterbug Perfume (1984) by Tom Robbins
Pip has kindly directed me to LibraryThing, a social networking site for book-lovers.
3 comments:
I went to a writing-advice thingy at Waterstone's in 2000 which was designed to set people up for entering the Scotland on Sunday/Macallan short story competition. Laura Hird was due to speak and had to pull out. Her replacement was a chap whose name I've sadly forgotten, but one of the most telling things, at least for me, that he said was, you know, if I read a book a week I think I'm doing pretty well, so allowing for holidays that's 50 a year, and I think I'd be lucky to get to the end of that bookcase [he pointed at a bay] before the end of my life.
He wasn't being pessimistic, exactly, more resigned. But there's another quote somewhere, from a French author whose name I've also forgotten, which runs something along the lines of, any time I feel sad, I think of all the great books that are waiting to be read, and then I am happy again.
Yes!
Wishing you a very Happy New Year (in Scotland you can continue saying this to people until mid-February, or so it seems).
Yes, books make me happy. Strangely my list has now reached 52 (which is one a week for a year). I'm sure I read more than one book a week, though. Currently reading the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver (Wolf Brother, Spirit Walker, and The Soul Eaters). I've read the first two, just about to start the last one. It's very good, evoking life in the Mesolithic era very vividly.
Happy New Year to you too.
Wolf Brother was excellent - I met Michelle Paver at the Scottish Book Trust and she signed my book and used a stamp to put a paw print on it! When researching the books she lived with hunter-gatherers, including natives in Alaska where she came face to face with a bear - very cool lady and brilliant book.
I have no idea how many books I have read in my life - I know from compiling 'best of the year' lists for the work blog that I have to rake through my memory just to remember the books I read in the last twelve months to pick a few out. Just as well I put a lot of them (although rarely remember to put all) on the sidebar of my blog.
Weekly average jumps around - right now Hal Duncan's second book, Ink, is massive and hard work, so it's taking a while, then other times I might hit something like Perez-Reverte's Alatriste books and devour the first two in a couple of days.Right now I'm juggling one history book, one novel, two indy Filipino comics and two graphic novels and it still isn't enough! So many more to read, but as with you guys that makes me happy knowing I have a ton more waiting to read and that's before considering some of the books I know are coming up later this year. If science perfected longevity for us tomorrow I could spend a couple of millennia just reading and still not fit in all I want. Which is good - if you accomplish everything what's left?
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