h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As it's the 2nd November, it's 'b'for 'books'

Reading was my earliest enthusiasm-once I'd started, there was no stopping me. My mother said she could give me a book and go shopping and, when she got back I'd still be reading. I remember reading Rosemary Sutcliffe's trilogy about Roman Britain -The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch'and 'The Lantern Bearers'. What struck me about those was that they didn't have heroes and villains, but ordinary people who were trying to make sense of their lives. I'd discovered the power of good characterisation. From there, I went on to read Lamb's 'Tales from Shakespeare' and Dickens.
I still read novels but I have an e-book reader as well as paper books, and I've become very critical, prone to picking holes in plots and characterisations. But I was impressed by Hilary Mantel's two novels about Thomas Cromwell - 'Wolf Hall'and 'Bring up the Bodies.' Both books follow Cromwell throughout, they are written in the present tense, and they are quite spare - not drowning the narrative in detailed description. The result is to make the story seem immediate, as if it was happening now, rather than nearly 500 years ago. Cromwell still remains something of an enigma but you never feel 'This would never happened'.

I've got a very basic Kindle, but I don't get to use it very often, except when we're reading Great Expectations on a Monday Hubby's put a load of books he wants to read on it, so I tend to read dead tree books. I have a huge pile of them next to my bed that I've read and not put back in their place on a shelf.

Having said that, I should actually take all the Kathy Reichs* back to the charity shop I bought them from- I won't ever read them again and someone else might want to do a marathon. I have 'Flash and Bones' on the Kindle and will read that when I get the next 3 or maybe earlier (just waiting for them to come down in price a bit)

*my guilty pleasure, even though she does annoy me by repeating the same things over and over.

Deb

Hilary Mantel is in my top 10 of modern writers. If you have the time for it, I recommend "A Place of Greater Safety", which follows some of the central characters as France muddles its way into the revolution of 1789.

Books are fab. That is all. Your choices sound cool too. I find historical novels a bit tricky unless they are very well done, but if they are, of course, it's very good indeed.

That's interesting that you find yourself critiqueing books these days - I find that, too and I don't know whether it is because of the books I'm choosing not being as robust as the ones I read some years ago or whether I'm more picky these days...

Anyway, I still enjoy reading before bedtime

[Amy P]

Except for "Bring up the bodies," none of Hilary Mantel's books have come up in my searches for well-regarded books. I'll see if I can get hold of a copy of it, though.

I pay attention to the various genre awards -- Edgar Awards for mystery-crime books, Nebula for science fiction. There seems to be a paucity of award groups in historical fiction. The only one with much of a track record is the Scott O'Dell Awards, but they focus on children's books. There's also the Walter Scott prize, but it didn't get started until 2009.

The winners since the start of the awards were:

2010 Wolf Hall // Hilary Mantel
2011 Long Song // Andrea Levy
2012 On Canaan's side // Sebastian Barry
2013 The garden of Evening Mists // Tan Twan Eng

I love this! I'm learning so much. Not being a prolific reader myself, these days, (hides Beano annual) , this is giving me an insight into the relationship between people and books, and the place they hold in our lives. . Thanks so much!

Having said that, I can't imagine life without the favourite books I have in my shelf, and graphic novels and comics. And I'm very choosy about them.

Such a great idea, mvp, your alphabet theme.

Thanks for your comments.

Hundreds of books on my iPad but still prefer picking up a dead tree!

A well loaded e reader for commuting and travelling, but I prefer dead trees for curling up with, or when I need to consult several at once.