This was wonderful - so many of these resonate (and you were at Edinburgh as well?). Am exactly the same on forgetting plots, titles and authors - wish I had kept a notebook too!
Ditto - at Edinburgh when Brideshead was first on the telly, there were some teddies around the campus. Also, that shock when a book makes you cry - for me, Captain Corelli followed by Birdsong. What a great and inspiring list!
OMG, actual teddies! What ghastliness. (A few Edinburghers on here... intriguing.) Yes - that shock - quite something. I loved Captain Corelli too (film was awful, though, wasn't it?). Glad to have inspired! Thank you for commenting.
Thank you, India ❤️. But no regrets! Start one now! I was thinking too that one could arrange shelves in order of reading… another way to tell the story of one’s life in books.
Loved this trip down memory lane as told through books! It makes me want to start a book journal - unfortunately my handwriting isn’t as lovely as yours
"I once read a book and only when I got to about three chapters from the end, did I realise that I’d read it before." The beauty of this is that you don't need to buy as many books as other people! I'm going to start keeping my own list this year, I'm feeling inspired, thank you.
Ha ha! This is true... but also not true as I like to spend my money on wine and books, the rest I squander (not my original quote – think it's Orwell). Glad to inspire!
Loved it! And I'm exhausted at your reasonably exhaustive list of reads. Wow. It makes me wish I had kept such a literary diary. Instead, I mentally ticked off the books from your list that I had also read. I smiled when I read the name David Lodge as one of my most favorite events was spent at Topping & Company in Bath, listening to David read from his then latest novel, "Deaf Sentence." There was light jazz over the system and rainfall on the roof accompanying his reading. I have autographed copies of that book and also "The Art of Fiction." Thank you for reminding me of an exquisite evening.
Thank you for sharing of all of this in such a delightful, honest, and entertaining way, Jessica. Brava! I am beholden to you.
Oh, wow! I'm so envious of your time with David Lodge - Deaf Sentence was wonderful, and probably still the only book I've read that described my deafness (hmmm...gives me an idea...!). I'm so pleased to have prompted your memory – that's the joy of books, they are such living things. Thank you Terry for your ongoing support and friendship.
Loved this ! I gave away many of my books when I moved to a smaller house and regretted it so much. I am slowly re-ordering 2nd hand copies and you have reminded me of so many of my favourites thank you !
Glad to have reminded you! It's tough though with books - I have given away a lot. I met a man once who said every year he chose the book he'd most enjoyed in the previous 12 months and had it leather bound for his library. What an idea! I do prefer that books on shelves are read. We have my father in law's Dickens and Trollope collections - beautiful but on thin paper in tiny, tiny font... no one will ever read them again. So I feel they are more like pictures on a wall than books, which upsets me.
As a bookseller for 25+ years from 1988, I WISH I had kept a list! Insider info and proofs galore at the time. My memory is now so bad that former colleagues now have to remind me what I have already read, but on the plus side, I can re-read things with no idea of the ending!😂
'Books are the Totem poles of our times.' This phrase came to me out of nowhere really, and developed into a character's book title, spurring on my debut novel, The Hesitant Architect. Which is all about books and the examined life, as well as architects (obviously) and more, in a sort cabbages and kings way.
Reading is a part of one's identity, the memory of a book is a memory of one's life in more ways than one.
So many books here that I loved too. Two books off the top of my head, that really changed how I look at stories and how the way we tell those stories holds power: Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things and William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns.
This was wonderful - so many of these resonate (and you were at Edinburgh as well?). Am exactly the same on forgetting plots, titles and authors - wish I had kept a notebook too!
So pleased you enjoyed it! Bookshelves are the same record really…ooh, that might be a fun way to organise shelves, in chronological order of reading…
Ditto - at Edinburgh when Brideshead was first on the telly, there were some teddies around the campus. Also, that shock when a book makes you cry - for me, Captain Corelli followed by Birdsong. What a great and inspiring list!
OMG, actual teddies! What ghastliness. (A few Edinburghers on here... intriguing.) Yes - that shock - quite something. I loved Captain Corelli too (film was awful, though, wasn't it?). Glad to have inspired! Thank you for commenting.
Captain Corelli is one of the few books to ever make me cry! (Agree Jessica the film was dreadful - what were they thinking!)
This is so wonderful and has made me really sorry never to have kept a list.
Thank you, India ❤️. But no regrets! Start one now! I was thinking too that one could arrange shelves in order of reading… another way to tell the story of one’s life in books.
Yes, think I will. My shelves are chaos - rely entirely on memory of spine colour, which only works 70% of time.
Shelf organising is writing…a form of terrifically useful procrastination.
Loved this trip down memory lane as told through books! It makes me want to start a book journal - unfortunately my handwriting isn’t as lovely as yours
Thank you CC, so glad you liked it. As for handwriting, even mine isn't that lovely any more!
"I once read a book and only when I got to about three chapters from the end, did I realise that I’d read it before." The beauty of this is that you don't need to buy as many books as other people! I'm going to start keeping my own list this year, I'm feeling inspired, thank you.
Ha ha! This is true... but also not true as I like to spend my money on wine and books, the rest I squander (not my original quote – think it's Orwell). Glad to inspire!
Great!
I loved this, a life ( or part of it at least) measured in books, and so many great ones too.
Loved it! And I'm exhausted at your reasonably exhaustive list of reads. Wow. It makes me wish I had kept such a literary diary. Instead, I mentally ticked off the books from your list that I had also read. I smiled when I read the name David Lodge as one of my most favorite events was spent at Topping & Company in Bath, listening to David read from his then latest novel, "Deaf Sentence." There was light jazz over the system and rainfall on the roof accompanying his reading. I have autographed copies of that book and also "The Art of Fiction." Thank you for reminding me of an exquisite evening.
Thank you for sharing of all of this in such a delightful, honest, and entertaining way, Jessica. Brava! I am beholden to you.
Oh, wow! I'm so envious of your time with David Lodge - Deaf Sentence was wonderful, and probably still the only book I've read that described my deafness (hmmm...gives me an idea...!). I'm so pleased to have prompted your memory – that's the joy of books, they are such living things. Thank you Terry for your ongoing support and friendship.
Truly my privilege, pleasure, and joy, Jessica! And it goes both ways…
What beautiful handwriting!
Thank you. It's terrible now. What my parents' used to call 'doctor's handwriting' - the scrawl you used to see on prescriptions...
Loved this ! I gave away many of my books when I moved to a smaller house and regretted it so much. I am slowly re-ordering 2nd hand copies and you have reminded me of so many of my favourites thank you !
Glad to have reminded you! It's tough though with books - I have given away a lot. I met a man once who said every year he chose the book he'd most enjoyed in the previous 12 months and had it leather bound for his library. What an idea! I do prefer that books on shelves are read. We have my father in law's Dickens and Trollope collections - beautiful but on thin paper in tiny, tiny font... no one will ever read them again. So I feel they are more like pictures on a wall than books, which upsets me.
As a bookseller for 25+ years from 1988, I WISH I had kept a list! Insider info and proofs galore at the time. My memory is now so bad that former colleagues now have to remind me what I have already read, but on the plus side, I can re-read things with no idea of the ending!😂
Ha! Yes, I'm like this with movies, too. At least we are easily entertained...
Love this thanks so much for sharing. I so wish I had a notepad or all my reads over the years! I Capture the Castle was a formative read for me.
A wonderful book! I really liked the film version of it too.
'Books are the Totem poles of our times.' This phrase came to me out of nowhere really, and developed into a character's book title, spurring on my debut novel, The Hesitant Architect. Which is all about books and the examined life, as well as architects (obviously) and more, in a sort cabbages and kings way.
Reading is a part of one's identity, the memory of a book is a memory of one's life in more ways than one.
Lovely piece! So many of these in common.
So many books here that I loved too. Two books off the top of my head, that really changed how I look at stories and how the way we tell those stories holds power: Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things and William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns.
God of Small Things - yes, me too. I will look out the Dalrymple. Do you know Rohan Minstry’s A Fine Balance?
Haven’t! Adding to the kindle samples to download next :) thank you.
❤️📚