Friday, October 02, 2009

Friday Finds (2 October 2009)


Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading

 How about that? It's already October! And my TBR list is no shorter, thanks to the many book blogs I read.


The Book Shopper: A Life in Review - Murray Browne (via Citizen Reader)


I love reading books about books and reading, and this sounds like a fun one.

In the almost limitless sea of books, here’s one that will make you laugh as it helps you find your way to books that you’ll want to read.
With witty poignancy, The Book Shopper: A Life in Review describes the inner world of the writer’s imagination and the outer world of disheveled used book stores and dusty basements whose shelves sag under the burden of too many books.
In The Book Shopper Murray Browne discusses practical matters:
  • How to deal with cantankerous used book store owners.
  • Which contemporary writers he likes and thinks have staying power.
  • How to assess a used book store to determine if it measures up.
  • How to decide when to unburden oneself of a portion of one’s inventory.
    He also considers more personal matters:
  • What reading means to him.
  • The rewards of the life of the imagination.
  • How he set about writing about his life.


Ten Sorry Tales - Mick Jackson (via Fleur Fisher)
Fleur Fisher's blog always has such fun (and enviable) Library Loot.

Featuring undertakers, dark forests, resurrected butterflies and a singularly mean-spirited horse, the stories are nevertheless rooted in the realistic and all too recognisable world of retirement, loneliness and childhood boredom. By turns funny, scary and heartbreaking, they are always illuminating, and further evidence of one of the most original and brilliant imaginations in contemporary fiction.



Duncton Wood (The Duncton Chronicles, 1) - William Horwood (via Farm Lane Books)
Jackie at Farm Lane Books recently listed her favourite books, and if I had to make a top 10 list, I would definitely also have Blindness and His Dark Materials Trilogy on my list! (And I also loved A Fine Balance, Fingersmith and Ghostwritten). Thus I'm quite sure I'll enjoy the others on her list, like this one.
Enter the magical, colourful, poignant world of Bracken and Rebecca, Mandrake the tyrant, Boswell the scribe, Hulver, Comfrey... and all the other moles of Duncton Wood. Set deep in the English countryside, this enchanting story tells of an ancient community losing its soul - but saved by courage and love.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'd love to know what you think of Duncton Wood. It has been so long since I read it - I'm not sure it makes a satisfying adult read (I hope so!) but I treasure my memories of reading it as a teenager.