I love books. When my boyfriend lived in Oxford he had to literally drag me past the Oxfam book shop (but now they have one here! #vindicated), and have been known to come back from car boot sales with more books than I left the house with. And don’t get me started on Kindles – they may save packing space, but is that really worth losing the physical presence, the cover art, the weight and feel of it in your hands? I’ll never be able to fill the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf wall in my One Day House with ebooks now will I?
I loved finishing my degree, so that I can read things for the simple reason of wanting to read them, not having to. And I don’t have to desecrate their pages with notes and underlining and highlighter pen any more – though my much loved first copy of Atonement will never be the same!
And finally, I love Amazon’s wishlist function. Because so often I will hear about a book, or have a book recommended to me, while I’m already reading one. I’m not the kind of person (post-degree anyway) that can have 3 or 4 on the go at once. And I don’t really like giving up on a book half way, except if it’s just really not working. And even then I don’t want to believe it’ll never work between us – Jane Eyre took me years to finally finish, but I got there! I’ve been adding to my wishlist over the past few weeks while my latest Oxfam book haul’s kept me busy, so that when it’s time to choose what’s next I’ve got some crackers waiting in the wings!… If you’ve read any of these, let me know what you think!
1. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The fact that this is sold out on Amazon says a lot. A wife goes missing and her husband is the obvious suspect. But what, and who, can you really believe? Dark, twisty and complex, I can’t wait to get gripped.
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
Standard me, wanting to read the book before I see the film… and I do love a good coming of age tale.
3. The Song of Achilles – Madeleine Miller
One book I have read and reread is Margaret George’s Helen of Troy, so I think it’s time for a new perspective on the epic.
4. Nineteen Minutes – Jodi Picoult#
I know some real literos might snub Picoult as light-lit… but I’ve been told I’m going to love this. A less dark We Need To Talk About Kevin, and I love stories that flit between points of view.
5. Mockingjay and Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
I’ve read the first of the Hunger Games trilogy, and I think the concepts in it are fascinating. I did feel it was maybe aimed at children (I’d love to see the same themes written as for a more adult audience, it would be powerful stuff), I want to know how it ends!
I could go on and on and on… there are so many! I think it’ll be Achilles and Nineteen Minutes next – I like to read things that are quite different from each other, after each other, if you see what I mean. Though I recently finished Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth, and that was brilliant, so I might go for Sepulchre… Oh, decisions, decisions!
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