Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
- Are you on Instagram? Then you can be featured here by tagging your books-related posts with #GuardianBooks
- Scroll down for our favourite literary links
- Read more Tips, links and suggestions blogs
Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s a roundup of your comments and photos from last week– with marvellous letters, cats and a call for the creation of “bookaholics anonymous”.
kushti shared:
Finally got round to reading an obvious omission from my reading history – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, which was voted by an assembly of critics as the best book of the [21st century so far]. And yes, it is a great read, it has a fabulous dynamic energy about it which is irresistible.
For a complete change from the rather emotionally draining Diaz, I have gone to the outer reaches of experimentalism with You & Me by Padgett Powell, which concerns a pair of Vladimir and Estragon type characters talking rubbish to each other, and nothing else, to very amusing effect.
... and really enjoyed it. I’m a big fan of Tom Cox’s writing; his turn of phrase is brilliant and there’s a genuine warmth and affection that runs through it all. Some wonderful descriptions of the Devon countryside too. My one very minor gripe is that some of it is slightly rehashed from his (sadly now defunct) Guardian column, such as Roscoe’s pub adventures, but it’s so well-written that I can’t really complain about that.
A friend recommended it to me. I’m a 19 year old man/boy and some of the stares I get on the train are quite funny but the book is pretty good and scarily relatable. I’m quite an anxious person and I struggle to make the distinction between reality and what’s going on in my own head (which are usually extremes) far too often. That’s the sense that I get with Chris’ infatuation in the book.
Oh, this book is marvellous! I’d forgotten how much I love collections of literary letters (The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor was my previous gold bar, but this one may have toppled it.) I’m a life-long fan of Maxwell, but was only vaguely familiar with Warner. Over 40 years the correspondence between Maxwell and Warner grows from the formal, editor/writer relationship, to a true and lasting love between these two, though they only met in person a handful of times. At times Maxwell appears almost besotted with Warner (though he is equally adoring of his wife Emily and their daughters.) I learned of Warner’s politics, her relationship with her partner Valentine Aukland, her friends and foes in London literary circles of the 40’s and 50’s, and she emerges as a fascinating character. It doesn’t hurt that there are frequent references to cats, both Maxwell’s and Warner’s. It took me two library renewals before I could brace myself to read the last six pages – Maxwell’s eulogy at Warner’s funeral.
Unless there’s a Heaven that allows you to b.y.o.b (bring your own books) I’ll never have enough time to read what I own. And yet ... and yet I just ordered two more novels. Does anyone else here in our community share this tragic affliction?
Related: Sign up to our Bookmarks newsletter
Continue reading...