Stuck in a Book

Well, I’ve started the New Year with a filthy cold… feeling very sorry for myself, and eating and drinking a lot. Lucky I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions about calorie consumption… but I did, as you probably know, about books.

This is just a heads-up about a new thingummy in the right-hand column. It’s just to your right, and it says ‘Project 24’. At the moment, if you click on the link, it takes you to a page with precisely nothing on it – if you’re as naturally curious as me, you’ll have just found out that I’m telling the truth – but this will all change! When I buy a book, I’ll let you know what it is, why I chose it etc. – and will add it to that link. So as the year goes on, if you’re interested, you can find out what’s found its way into my house so far.

Well, I’m three days in and haven’t bought any books yet! Hope you’re proud of me…

I know some of you were going to join me in Project 24 – just remind me if you are…

Oh, and I’m hoping to make a more distinctive picture to act as a banner for Project 24 posts… any suggestions of good software/website for designing this sort of thing would be much appreciated.

At the end of each year, I leave you with a list of the books I’ve read during the year… this year I’ve read more titles than usual, but that’s because I read rather a lot of plays for one of my courses… and re-reads have a ‘x’ in front of them. Again, rather more than usual. Anyway, here goes! (warning: if you’re in the dovegreybooks postal book group, watch out! Some of these titles are in it, but I couldn’t remember exactly which…)

x1. Winnie-the-Pooh – AA Milne
x2. The House at Pooh Corner – AA Milne
x3. The Feminine Middlebrow Novels 1920s to 1950s – Nicola Humble
x4. The Provincial Lady in America – EM Delafield
5. Breath – Tim Winton
x6. Orlando – Virginia Woolf
7. The Colleen Bawn – Dion Boucicault
8. Black Ey’d Susan – Douglas Jerrold
9. The Bells – Leopold Lewis
10. Melodrama – James L. Smith
11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (play) – George L. Aiken
x12. The Provincial Lady in Wartime – EM Delafield
13. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
14. The Octoroon – Dion Boucicault
15. Mrs. Warren’s Profession – George Bernard Shaw
16. The Second Mrs. Tanqueray – Arthur Wing Pinero
17. The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith – Arthur Wing Pinero
x18. Jacob’s Room – Virginia Woolf
19. Mrs. Dane’s Defence – Henry Arthur Jones
20. Stage-Land – Jerome K. Jerome
x21. Between The Acts – Virginia Woolf
x22. A Woman of No Importance – Oscar Wilde
23. The Philanderer – George Bernard Shaw
24. The Master-Builder – Henrik Ibsen
25. The Lady From The Sea – Henrik Ibsen
26. Lolly Willowes – Sylvia Townsend Warner
27. Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy – Rebecca West
x28. Lady Into Fox – David Garnett
29. The Heir – Vita Sackville-West
30. Hedda Gabler – Henrik Ibsen
x31. The Haunted Woman – David Lindsay
32. A Taste of Honey – Shelagh Delaney
33. The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Rattigan
34. The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
35. The Winslow Boy – Terence Rattigan
36. The Entertainer – John Osborne
x37. Miss Hargreaves – Frank Baker
x38. The Birthday Party – Harold Pinter
39. Travesties – Tom Stoppard
40. Indian Ink – Tom Stoppard
41. Rock and Roll – Tom Stoppard
42. The Lion in Love – Shelagh Delaney
43. Saved – Edward Bond
44. Loot – Joe Orton
45. What The Butler Saw – Joe Orton
46. Blasted – Sarah Kane
47. Early Morning – Edward Bond
48. Cloud Nine – Caryl Churchill
x49. The Love Child – Edith Olivier
50. Mr. Fortune’s Maggot – Sylvia Townsend Warner
51. Making History – Brian Friel
52. The History Boys – Alan Bennett
53. Our Country’s Good – Timberlake Werternbaker
54. Oh What A Lovely War – Theatre Workshop
x55. Arcadia – Tom Stoppard
56. It’s Hard To Be Hip Over Thirty and other poems – Judith Viorst
57. Forever England – Alison Light
58. Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
59. Love Letters – Leonard Woolf & Trekkie Parsons
60. His House in Order – Arthur Wing Pinero
61. Separate Tables – Terence Rattigan
62. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale
63. Straws Without Bricks: I Visit Soviet Russia – EM Delafield
64. Making Conversation – Christine Longford
x65. Two People – AA Milne
66. Put Out More Flags – Evelyn Waugh
x67. A Very Great Profession – Nicola Beauman
68. The Ascent of Man – AA Milne
69. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
70. The House of Dolls – Barbara Comyns
71. The Psychology of the Servant Problem – Violet M. Firth
x72. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
73. Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Dunker
74. A Shot in Dark – Saki
x75. Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there – Lewis Carroll
76. Seducers in Ecuador – Vita Sackville-West
77. Jane’s Fame – Claire Harman
78. The Fox – DH Lawrence
79. Paris Review Interviews vol.1 – Various
x80. The Heir – Vita Sackville-West
x81. The Hours – Michael Cunningham
82. Cheerful Weather For The Wedding – Julia Strachey
83. Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
84. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont – Elizabeth Taylor
85. Say Please – Virginia Graham
x86. Flush: A Biography – Virginia Woolf
87. Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay
88. Home To Roost and other peckings – Deborah Devonshire
89. The Tales of Beedle the Bard – JK Rowling
90. Indiscretions of Archie – PG Wodehouse
91. Henrietta’s War – Joyce Dennys
92. Maidens’ Trip – Emma Smith
93. Parents and Children – Ivy Compton-Burnett
94. Dreamers – Knut Hamsun
95. Sex Education – Janni Visman
96. They Came Like Swallows – William Maxwell
97. The Holiday – Richmal Crompton
98. Henrietta Sees It Through – Joyce Dennys
99. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
100. The Tattooed Map – Barbara Hodgson
x101. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – JK Rowling
102. Alas, Poor Lady – Rachel Ferguson
103. The Last September – Elizabeth Bowen
x104. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – JK Rowling
105. Observatory Mansions – Edward Carey
106. The Other Elizabeth Taylor – Nicola Beauman
107. Oxford – Jan Morris
108. The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson
109. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
110. Checkout: A Life on the Tills – Anna Sam
111. The Shutter of Snow – Emily Holmes Coleman
112. Life and Death of Harriett Frean – May Sinclair
113. Love’s Shadow – Ada Leverson
114. Tea and Tranquillisers – Dianne Hapwood
115. Princes in the Land – Joanna Cannan
116. Minnie’s Room – Mollie Panter-Downes
117. The Runaway – Elizabeth Anna Hart
118. Elizabeth and Ivy – Robert Liddell
119. Lettice Delmer – Susan Miles
120. Beg, Borrow, Steal – Michael Greenberg
121. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh
122. Kisses on a Postcard – Terence Frisby
123. It’s All Right If I Do It – Terence Frisby
x124. Miss Hargreaves – Frank Baker
125. The True Deceiver – Tove Jansson
126. The Dower House – Annabel Davis-Goff
127. Howards End is on the Landing – Susan Hill
128. Summer at the Haven – Katharine Moore
129. A Very Short Introduction to Biography – Hermione Lee
130. The Tortoise and The Hare – Elizabeth Jenkins
131. The Spare Room – Helen Garner
x132. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
133. Economy Must Be Our Watchword – Joyce Dennys
134. Modern Delight – Various
135. The Beacon – Susan Hill
136. The Paper House – Carlos Maria Dominguez
137. Fiction and the Reading Public – QD Leavis
138. Domestic Modernism, the Interwar Novel, and EH Young – Chiara Briganti & Kathy Mezei
139. Making the Cat Laugh – Lynne Truss
140. The Venetian Glass Nephew – Elinor Wylie
141. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
142. Repeated Doses – Joyce Dennys
143. Manservant and Maidservant – Ivy Compton-Burnett
144. So Many Books – Gabriel Zaid
145. Olivia – Olivia
146. Dwarf’s Blood – Edith Olivier
x147. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
148. A Kind of Intimacy – Jenn Ashworth
149. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture – TS Eliot
150. Impassioned Clay – Stevie Davies
x151. The Holiday Round – AA Milne
152. Women, Privacy and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century British Writing – Wendy Gan
153. High Brows – Bruce Marshall
154. The Innermost Room – Richmal Crompton
x155. Hunting the Highbrow – Leonard Woolf
x156. Mass Civilization and Minority Culture – FR Leavis
157. Civilization – Clive Bell
158. Crewe Train – Rose Macaulay
x159. Diary of a Provincial Lady – EM Delafield
160. Catchwords and Claptrap – Rose Macaulay
161. Try Anything Twice – Jan Struther
162. The Lagoon – Janet Frame
163. Keeping Up Appearances – Rose Macaulay
164. Dear Fatty – Dawn French
165. Pastors and Masters – Ivy Compton-Burnett

I’m writing my posts in reverse order, but hopefully by now I’ll already have unveiled my favourite books read in 2009, and before the end of the year I’ll have listed them all. Today is a little meme I’ve done since I’ve been blogging (here’s last year’s).

Do have a go at this meme, if the will so takes you, and let me know any fun questions that you add in… The last question, about blogging, is a new one for this year.

– How many books read in 2009?
165 at the moment – possibly a lifetime record, but does include 36 plays

– Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
129/36 – which is actually the same number of non-fic as last year, though rather more fiction

– Male/Female authors?
69 books by male authors, 92 books by female authors, and four by mixed authors. Oddly, or perhaps not, the first half of the year (my masters course) was male-dominated, and the second half (my doctoral course) female-dominated…

– Favourite book read?
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill

– Least favourite?
A few I didn’t get on with this year, I must admit. Tea and Tranquillisers by Dianne Hapwood (though Verity had more luck), It’s Hard To Be Hip Over Thirty by Judith Viorst irritated me beyond belief, but I am not over thirty, so perhaps that’s why.

– Oldest book read?
Will be Black Ey’d Susan by Douglas Jerrold, from 1829.

– Newest book read?
Currently reading a promising novel, due for publication next summer…

– Longest book title?
I must confess, I haven’t done a thorough count of all the titles, but I’m pretty confident that Wendy Gan wins with the snappily-titled Women, Privacy and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century British Writing. Phew!

– Shortest book title?
Last year I managed a mere three letters, but this year I have to add one to that, with Loot by Joe Orton.

– How many re-reads?
31 this year, which is far more than I’ve ever done before. I’ve obviously got to that stage of life… (I’ll be posting some guest bloggers on re-reading soon…) Too many to list, but they’ll be indicated on my end of year list, in the unlikely event that anybody is desperate to know which they are.

– Most books read by one author this year?
For the second year running, AA Milne comes out on top – this year with five. EM Delafield, Virginia Woolf, Tom Stoppard, and Joyce Dennys are joint second with four books apiece.

– Any in translation?
Eight this year – The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, three plays by Ibsen, Dreamers by Knut Hamsun, The Paper House by Carlos Maria Dominguez, Checkout by Anna Sam, and So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid.

– How many books were borrowed from the library?
You’ll be proud, as 45 were from the university library this year.

– Name a book you’ve read this year which was recommended by a blogger?
The wonderfully eccentric Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley was not only recommended, but given to me by Danielle from A Work in Progress – so thanks Danielle!

I’m not good at self-discipline, obviously, because I haven’t managed to cut my top books of the year down to ten. This is always my intention, but I have failed – and so I have a Top 15. Obviously I could just have listed the top ten on this list, but I didn’t want to ignore the others…

As always, I don’t include re-reads in my list, or more than one book by each author. So some wonderful books (like Henrietta’s War) are missing, because I preferred other books by the author. And I was a little surprised to see that no male authors made the list – at least six were quite close.

Do put a link in the comments to your own Top Books of the year, or if you don’t have a blog, feel free to list your favourite books in the comments.

15. Life and Death of Harriett Frean (1922) – May Sinclair
A short Virago Modern Classic about the life of Harriett, touching most often on themes of spinsterhood and moral choices. More here…

14. Oxford (1965) – Jan Morris
Our Vicar gave me this book about the history of Oxford back in 2004, and I’ve finally read it – though still not got around to writing about it on here. In turns bizarre, affectionate, unlikely, and (being from the 60s) often a historical piece itself, the book is endlessly interesting and characterful.

13. Love’s Shadow (1908) – Ada Leverson
The best thing to happen in publishing this year, in my opinion, was Bloomsbury’s set of reprints, The Bloomsbury Group. This hilarious, wry novel from one of Oscar Wilde’s pals was a wonderful find on their behalf. More here…

12. Straw Without Bricks (1937) – EM Delafield
Also published as The Provincial Lady in Russia, this book is in fact non-fiction about EMD’s time in Soviet Russia – very much split into two halves, and a bit confusing – some very funny, some very serious. More here…

11. Manservant & Maidservant (1947) – Ivy Compton-Burnett
Of the three ICB novels I’ve read this year, this was my favourite – I don’t know how she controls dialogue and characters so excellently, and though the density of her writing means I have to ration her books a bit, she’s becoming one of my favourite writers. More here…

10. The Enchanted April (1922) – Elizabeth von Arnim
One of those novels I’ve had on my shelves for years, and finally read. Manages to be delightful and optomistic without being saccharine – a really lovely book. More here…

9. Lolly Willowes (1926) – Sylvia Townsend Warner
An excellently written novel which begins with showing the plight of a spinster in her brother’s home, but turns around when she moves to the countryside and becomes a witch… More here…

8. The Return of the Soldier (1918) – Rebecca West
Brief but very striking, the best of the many books I read for various book groups this year (and the only one to make my top 15, in fact). An excellent look at shell-shock, as well as a biased narrator, and class wars. Bafflingly, I don’t seem to have blogged about it – I’ll try to do so at some point in 2010.

7. Say Please (1949) – Virginia Graham
A very amusing faux-etiquette guide, with excellent illustrations by Osbert Lancester. More here…

6. The Runaway (1872) – Elizabeth Anna Hart
I read ten Persephone Books titles this year, and this is the first of two to make my top 15 – a charming and unusual children’s story, with Gwen Raverat’s beautiful accompanying woodcuts from the 1936 edition. More here…

5. The True Deceiver (1982) – Tove Jansson
One of my favourite writers, I wait eagerly for Thomas Teal to translate more of her atmospheric, wintery, stark novels and stories. More here…

4. Cheerful Weather For The Wedding (1932) – Julia Strachey
The other Persephone title – short but hilarious and memorable – though this tale of the problems and characters surrounding a wedding day has rather divided the blogosphere. More here…

3. The Heir (1922) – Vita Sackville-West
Short books are doing well… A man becomes, unexpectedly, the heir of a rambling house Blackboys. This novella charts his growing love for the place, and was so good that I read it twice this year. Hesperus’ beautiful edition didn’t hurt either. More here…

2. Economy Must Be Our Watchword (1932) – Joyce Dennys
I hadn’t heard of Joyce Dennys before the Bloomsbury Group reprinted her fictional war diaries, Henrietta’s War – but it was this gem, of a foolish, selfish and utterly un-self-aware woman trying to do war work which was my favourite Dennys book this year. I haven’t blogged about it because it’s impossible to find… for the moment… A little bit more here….

1. Howards End is on the Landing (2009) – Susan Hill
Not often does a book win me over so completely – Susan Hill’s non-fiction book about her year of reading from home is a beautiful paean to books. Whether or not you agree with her opinions, it would be hard not to fall for a book as delightfully bookish as this one. More here… This also marks the fourth year in a row where a non-fiction book has been my favourite read – quite surprising, given how much novels outweigh non-fiction in my reading… perhaps 2010 will be the year of non-fiction for me?

That list again, for clearer reading – and don’t forget to link to your own lists.

15. Life and Death of Harriett Frean – May Sinclair
14. Oxford – Jan Morris
13. Love’s Shadow – Ada Leverson
12. Straw Without Bricks – EM Delafield
11. Manservant & Maidservant – Ivy Compton-Burnett
10. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
9. Lolly Willowes – Sylvia Townsend Warner
8. The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
7. Say Please – Virginia Graham
6. The Runaway – Elizabeth Anna Hart
5. The True Deceiver – Tove Jansson
4. Cheerful Weather For The Wedding – Julia Strachey
3. The Heir – Vita Sackville-West
2. Economy Must Be Our Watchword – Joyce Dennys
1. Howards End is on the Landing – Susan Hill

“Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing!”

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

love Simon

I’m going to be honest with you, today’s blog post is copied wholesale from an entry in December 2007. Back then I was sent a copy of A Proper Family Christmas by Jane Gordon-Cumming, and it was perfect Christmas reading. Dollops of Wodehouse and Just William, and even Jam and Jerusalem. I’ve just spotted that there’s even an audio book version available now. Anyway, I don’t often just repeat posts, but lots of people won’t have spotted the review two years ago, and Jane’s book is just so delightful that I want more of you to know about it. A bit late to order it for Christmas presents, perhaps, but might be good for the post-Christmas rush… Anyway – here goes:

I also have an AA Milne quotation for every occasion. Well, I can’t remember exactly how this goes, but something along the lines of: “Every critic instantly assumes that, should a writer be able to make his audience laugh, he secretly wishes he were making them cry”. Milne didn’t always love his critics, but the point is that we shouldn’t underestimate the comic writer – I think it’s much more difficult to make readers laugh than it is to make them cry, and a comic novel done well is a wonderful thing.

Step forward Jane Gordon-Cumming, and A Proper Family Christmas. I was worried people didn’t write books like this any more. Don’t get me wrong, I love pensive, slightly depressing, high-literary fiction more than anyone – Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite authors, after all (though she is incredibly funny, I must add) – but where did novels go which gently laugh at human nature and the tangles they get themselves in? Thankfully Jane G-C has written one such novel, and I know you’ll love it.

William lives by himself in a rambling old house, such as are only found in fiction – well, I say alone, he actually lives with a rather wonderful cat called Scratch. You can’t go wrong with cats in fiction – they’re such amusing and characterful creatures. Anyway, William is an obstreperous old man, but one you can’t help loving. Despite his best efforts, every member of his family descend on his house for Christmas – his forthright siser Margery; widow Hilary and her attractive teenage son; neurotic Lesley and Stephen with their spoilt child Tobias and put-upon nanny Frances; scatty Julia and innuendo-flinging Tony with worldy-wise daughter Posy and flirty nanny Shelley; arty Leo who seems to be perpetually ignored by all; charmer and antiquities expert Oliver. Phew, think that’s everyone. What a cast! Despite a lot of characters and a lot of names, like one’s own family one never gets confused. They all have their place and, like them or loathe them, you can’t help being quietly fond of each and every one.

This novel is definitely a character piece – throw together a lot of disparate and amusing people, and a few Wodehousian plots, and see what happens. And what happens is a witty and touching romp through the intricacies and politics of a family Christmas. If you don’t recognise it all, you’re lucky, but you’ll love it nonetheless. A perfect Christmas present for someone who loves something to read on Boxing Day, just so long as they can’t recognise themselves in its pages… and best not give it to anyone called William, Leo, Margery, Lesley, Stephen, Tony, Shelley, Tobias, Posy, Julia… at a pinch Frances, Oliver, Hilary and Daniel will take it as a compliment…

Sometimes (and very little of late, for which I apologise) I put little sketches up on Stuck-in-a-Book – which are very much amateur, and just to make things a little different around here. I’m a little embarrassed that they will, from now on, appear on the same site as this fantastic caricature/cartoon by Sarah Bailey, a lovely lady local to us in Somerset (go and visit her website). Admittedly most of my blog readers don’t know what I look like, but the sketch does have a little photo of me in the bottom left corner, to give you a clue…

Well, you’ve done me proud, readers – especially on Round Two, I was mightily impressed. I shan’t single out anybody in particular because there are no prizes… but compare what you got to these answers, and give yourself a Christmassy pat on the back.

Round One: Book Covers
(quiz here)
1. To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
2. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
3. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
4. Chocolat – Joanne Harris
5. Notes on a Scandal – Zoe Heller
6. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
7. Spies – Michael Frayn
8. The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
9. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
10. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
11. Filth – Irvine Welsh
12. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
13. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
14. Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
15. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D. H. Lawrence

Round Two (Characters’ Names)
(quiz here)
1. Oliver Mellors = Lady Chatterley’s Lover (DH Lawrence)
2. Quasimodo = The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo)
3. Bilbo Baggins = The Hobbit (JRR Tolkein)
4. Clare Abshire = The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
5. Rachel Ashley = My Cousin Rachel (Daphne du Maurier)
6. Sir Robert Chiltern = An Ideal Husband (Oscar Wilde)
7. Michael Henchard = The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy)
8. Anne Catherick = The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
9. Liesel Meminger = The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
10. Cedric Errol = Little Lord Fauntleroy (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

Round Three: Views and Reviews
(quiz here)
1. AS Byatt
2. The Old Curiosity Shop – Charles Dickens
3. Ulysses – James Joyce
4. Martine McCutcheon
5. Dan Brown
6. Saturday – Ian McEwan
7. Jane Austen
8. John Keats
9. Enid Blyton
10. Jordan/Katie Price