You may well know Rick’s BookTube Spin – pick 20 books, he gives us a number and we have a couple of months to read. Think the Classics Spin but not necessarily classics, and with the addition of lovely Rick:
I did quite well in previous ones, and then last time I made a list of Persephone titles… and read three of them, but not the one the spin selected. Oops! Let’s see if I do better this time.
A mini-project I’ve been considering this year is digging out some of the books I bought/received in 2012 and haven’t read yet. A decade on the shelves seems long enough. Luckily my LibraryThing catalogue tells me when I added things there, so I was able to look through the embarrassingly high number of books I got 10 years ago that are still languishing, and came up with this list of 20 candidates. Believe me, there were a lot more than 20 to choose from…
1. Underfoot in Showbusiness by Helene Hanff
2. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
3. The Ha-ha by Jennifer Dawson
4. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
5. Adele and Co by Dornford Yates
6. The Limit by Ada Leverson
7. The Initials in the Heart by Laurence Whistler
8. The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill
9. Winnowed Wisdom by Stephen Leacock
10. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
11. Down and Out in London and Paris by George Orwell
12. The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble
13. The Twisted Tree by Frank Baker
14. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
15. New Moon With The Old by Dodie Smith
16. It Ends With Revelations by Dodie Smith
17. Woman in a Lampshade by Elizabeth Jolley
18. Bachelors Anonymous by P.G. Wodehouse
19. Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison
20. Merlin Bay by Richmal Crompton
Any you’re hoping the spin will land on? Any I should dread?
The number will be revealed on Friday, so it’s not too late to make your own list if you want to join in…
3., 4., 8. and 11. are must-reads!!!
Women in a Lampshade sounds quite fun!
Good luck! I want to read 11, and also go back to Wodehouse.
I have also the plan of reading books added I 10 years ago on my TBR. You can also sort them this way on Goodreads
Oh, nice! I’d like to hear your thoughts on the Orwell and the Carter!!
I think you’d enjoy 14.
The only one I’ve read is #8 and it’s wonderful, so read regardless of whether it’s number comes up.
Margaret Drabble (12) and Penelope Lively (14) would be my picks. Moon Tiger won the Booker in 1987.
I’ve read 2, 11, 14, 15 and 16, all worth reading. I think the Helene Hanff book might be interesting though.
Moon Tiger is superb and The New Moon with the Old is fun if a bit uneven.
A Single Man is emotionally-charged and very well written. Would love to see a review of High Wind in Jamaica! It’s been on my radar for some time, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.
Would love to read your thoughts on Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively :) I really enjoyed it when I read it years and years ago, and I keep meaning to read more by Lively.
Well… I don’t know any of these! But that Lucia sounds great!
The Helene Hanff book is great fun. You will enjoy the story about how Oklahoma! the musical got its exclamation mark.
I read Moon Tiger and the Dodie Smith books last century (!) and enjoyed them. Sadly I no longer have those Dodie Smith books.
Angela Carter and Orwell for sure!
Underfoot in Show Business was a fun read–I read it back in the 70s and enjoyed it. I was in high school and big into drama club, so it was a great fit. I passed it around and some of the guys even liked it.
I would be going for Nights at the Circus, first, no question. And another vote for Orwell, old curmudgeon that he was. But I see the spin has spoken, and you must bow to its will.
I will check out TubeSpin – and can I just ask, what is your cataloguing method that you know what books were bought in 2012?