The Importance of Books: My List

I’ve just made a list of books I've read in the last year.  

Stephen King, in his seminal book On Writing declares how important it is for anyone who aspires to write that they should read. A lot.

We should read all kinds of stuff – deep, shallow, funny, serious,

tragic comedic. Stephen King lists the great number of books he had read in a year. Interestingly he includes in the list the many books he has read in audio form. For some people – not me- this might be seen as kind of cheating, an  easy way.

But I have this friend who consumes books on audio every single day while he is working at more manual tasks. He points out that with an audio book you listen to every word. You don’t skip. Every word counts. As it should.

I once gave a talk to a reading group for people of all ages who were sight-impaired. The discussion was vigorous and interesting . These readers had an unsurpassed grasp on the detail, the characterisation and the narrative of the novels we were discussing – all read on Audio Books.

And, like audio books, reading on Kindle, Tablets and Phones is sadly sniffed at in some quarters. And yet, my inside source tells me the 46% of books are read in this form. Thank God they do. Some of those are my books and perhaps yours.

It’s been my lifetime delight to curl up with a good book, seduced by the smell and feel of new paper and the sight of great prose. But now as well as this I also love listening to stories on my iPod, and racing through novels and research sources on Kindle and on the internet. So the modern way works brilliantly for this reader and writer.

So this is why this morning I made a list of the books I’ve read in the last year. I’ve read them all with appreciation and enjoyment. It’s not been intentional but probably my list signifies my preoccupations as a writer as well as a reader. Perhaps your book is there! On my list there is – as there should be – lots of fiction there as well as sources of information and research for my new and my  earlier book. The books  range from the serious to the light hearted, the trivial to the serious, from the poetic to the informative.

Do you have your own list? Let me have it with a 50 word bio. and I’ll post it here on Life Twice Tasted.

So anyway – here’s my list:

1. Sometimes a River Song  Avril Joy
2. Phantom Notes Brian  Turner
3. Partners  John Grisham
4. Bonjour Darling  Heather Francis
5. The Last American Martyr  Tom Winton
6. Wake  Anna Hope
7. The Ballroom  Anna Hope
8. The Dark is Rising  Susan Cooper
9. A Murder of No Account  Julia Underwood
10. Twin Piques  Tracie Bannister
11. The Story Sisters Alice Hoffman
12. Solem  Clive Johnson
13. Hadrians Wall Path Walking into History: Jane V Blanchard 
14. Decide Where to Go  Eileen Elgey
15. Lazy France in Marseillan Laurence Phillips.
16. Noonday  Pat Barker
17. One of Ours  Willa Cather
18. Parades End  Ford Maddox Ford
19. Five Children on the Western Front  Kate Saunders
20. Plainsong  Kent Haruf
21. The Last Ballad  Helen Cannam
22. Ill Met by Moonlight  W Stanley Moss
23. Night Soldiers  Alan Furst
24. The White Venus  Rupert Colley
25. The Last Englishman  H.L.Carr  Byron Rogers
26. The Lost Guide to Life and Love Sharon Griffiths
27. Mushrooms .Collins Gem
28. Dip  Andrew Fusek Peters
29. Zone of interest  Martin Amis
30. The Diary od Adam and Eve Mark Twain  
31. The Risk of Reading:  How literature helps us understand ourselves and the world.  Robert Waxler
32. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase  Joan Aiken
33. New Grub Street  George Gissing
34. Wild Swim  Kate Rew
35. Swimming Home  Debora Levy
36. A Month in the Country  H.L. Carr.
37. Waterlog   Roger Deakin
38. 12 Years a Slave  Soloman Northup
39. A King in Yellow  H.P.Lovecraft
40. The City and the City   China Miéville
41. The Judas Goat  Robert P Parkerf
42. The Last Iceberg Anne Ousby
43. Jamaica Inn  Daphne du Maurier
44. The Centauress  Kathleen Jones
45. Death at the Castello   Erica Yeoman
46. Ring of Clay  Margaret Kaine
47. The Book Thief  Markus Zusak
48. The Blackbird House Alice Hoffman
49. Robert Graves: Life on the Edge   Miranda Seymout
50. On Writing: a member of the craft   Stephen King
51. The Secret Life of Bees   Sue Monk Kidd
52. The Birds and Other Stories  Daphne du Maurier
53. Dear Life ( Short stories) Alice Munro
54. How Fiction Works   James Wood
55. It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again Julia Cameron 
56. The Avenue A Newcastle Backstreet Boyhood        Samuel W Herbert

  

  

It took  a hundred books to

research The Pathfinder

Mother’s Day Signings and the Precocious Child

Saturday was, as they say, well packed.

We had this Roomtowrite Conference at Whitworth where we were discussing how writers could use their reading to develop their novel writing techniques. Or how to steal skills from successful writers . Great group. We worked very hard in a sunny conservatory in a park with deer.

Then I had to skip lunch and go down to WHSmiths at Bishop Auckland where the lovely manager Tony Fox, in collaboration with Headline’s exceptional Gillian McKay, had set up a signing of The Woman Who Drew Buildings in time for Mother’s Day. Well it is about a mother and her son, so it seems appropriate.

Gillian, as always, took great care of me, making sure I signed lots of books. One little girl, blonde hair, straight fringe came up for a word. She was all of nine years old. I asked her if she liked reading.

‘Oh yes, I like books,’ she says

‘What do you read?’ I say, thinking JK Rowling of Jacqueline Wilson.

‘Jodi Pecoult.’ she says.

I blink just a little. ‘Very sophisticated. So, which book have you read?’

‘I’m reading My Sister’s Keeper',’ she said. ‘I got it for my Mum last year and we watched the film and now I’m reading the book.’

And her mother came up, smiling, and swept her away.

Afterwards I wondered why I had been surprised. When I was her age I was reading books which followed my mother’s tastes. I remember reading quite erotic books by a writer called Nora K Strange. I looked her up recently to discover that among other things she wrote about Kenya under the British and possibly had some experience of the scandalous Happy Valley set.

Children get their emotional and sexual educations where they can. Novels are not a bad starting point.

Then back to the afternoon session of RoomToWrite where we were discussing beginnings and endings with reference to The Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman, Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin, and The Lovely Bones, by Alice Hoffman. Maybe Jodi Pecoult should have been in there somewhere…

If you are interested in The Woman Who Drew Buildings she is available from all good books shops (WHSmith, for instance) and on Amazon. ISBN 978-0 -7553-3381-3

Afternote. The writers at the RoomtoWrite conference were great. There are some promising novelists there. My writing friend and colleague Avril Joy has posted more about says more about the conference on her blog Writing Junkie.

But for now here are some sunny pics;