Literal Confession September 30, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces , 15 commentsI usually quite like being tagged for memes so I thought some jolly thoughts when JJ tagged me for a booky one. And then I looked at my bookshelves and flushed with shame. Oh, bugger - why aren’t I highbrow and clever and learned? My shelves overflow with books on cookery, meditation, Reiki, poetry, writing, grammar – where are my weighty tomes of classics? Oh dear… confession time…
Total number of books
Um… a few hundred, I guess. I really am a book junkie but I can’t bear to leave fab books on the shelf. When I’ve particularly loved a book, I tend to pass it on to someone I hope will enjoy it as much as I did. ‘In Search of Adam’ has just winged (wung?) its way to my sis in Holland. At least that always means there’s room on the bookshelves for more. I really should join the library but then there’s always the worry that I’ll dunk their books in the bath or, even worse, someone else has read the book in the bath, equally naked. The ‘old lady’ smell of library books is also off-putting too. Ugh.
Last book read
Oh God, I’m awful. Once I’ve finished a book, that’s it – gone from memory! Kate Harrison’s The Self-Preservation Society was a recent one that I enjoyed (and remember!). I’m currently alternating between Paulo Coelho’s Like the Flowing River and Lisa Jewell’s Vince and Joy. I’m looking forward to reading Toast by Nigel Slater next. I like biographies and, until I started writing myself, read very little in the way of fiction for years.
Last book bought
Gordon Ramsey’s ‘Sunday Lunch’, yesterday in WHSmith. I didn’t mean to visit WHSmiths or buy books. It was an accident.
5 meaningful books
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series was a biggie for me. I desperately wanted to be George. Best of all, Number 1 son enjoyed the Famous Five and I managed to find the entire series in the same 70s paperback covers that I’d read, complete with curling, brown, fusty pages (that smelt of old ladies).
‘Heidi’ by Johanna Spyrie. And ‘What Katy Did’ by Susan Coolridge. I liked stories about girls in strange places. I suppose that, as a very shy child living on the small rock of Jersey, everything seemed exciting. I was rarely naughty as a child which would explain my adoration of the ‘Just William’ books (Richmal Crompton) too.
One book that I’ve read and re-read many times since I was a teenager is ‘Roots‘ by Alex Haley. I guess it was one of the first adult books I tackled. It just struck me as really powerful and honest. Must read it again one day soon.
‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven‘ – Mitch Albom. Kind of conveyed lots of things that I believed but had never seen put into story form before. Everyone should read this book, I think.
Ok, you can have a good laugh now but, well, I am something of a closet hippy. And on that note, I’m going to round off this bizarre list with The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield). Yes. I really do believe in all that stuff. Yes. I am a total flake.
So now you know.
I’m going to tag… Betamum, La Que Sabe and Rebecca.
