Belated Birthday Gift

On Friday evening I received a welcome and wonderful surprise in my e-mail inbox. An exceptionally generous friend had sent me an Amazon gift voucher as a belated birthday gift with apologies for forgetting. I jumped up and down in glee. Large Amazon purchases of books used to be a regular feature in my life but it's been over a year since I'd placed an order of more than one book at a time that was for myself. I've been trying not to buy as many books and, to be quite honest, my current economic situation doesn't allow me to, so you can imagine how ecstatic I was to be able to SPLURGE (guilt-free) on books. Even though Amazon sells more than just books it was only for a fleeting moment that I considered buying anything other than them. I also decided to buy items from my wish-list that I had been coveting for a while, books that I had never read before, and ones that would be a welcome addition to my library.

For most of Saturday I added and removed and added again and amended and evaluated my Amazon basket until finalising upon these (collectively photographed above):


Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Couples by John Updike
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Of Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.





So, one writing handbook, one Finnish Children's book, two English classics, one French classic, one Russian classic, one German classic, and one American classic. Those six classic novels are all ones that the Guardian recommend that I must read. Cumulatively I have 2882 pages to read. Have you read any of these? Are you wanting to read any of them?

I have overdone it with the photographs a little but in my enthusiasm I wanted to show you some of the lovely covers; my particular favourite is the Penguin edition of The Day of the Triffids to the right. The cover art is by Brian Cronin and I covet the entire set. I already have the similarly striking copy of The Midwich Cuckoos, which was a novel I enjoyed earlier this year.

Now I am off to admire my books for a while.

Diversity in Reading Meme

I borrowed this meme from Danielle and thought it would be interesting to complete. I don't have a "comfort zone" when it comes to reading; I read for the pleasure of reading and, consequently, the books I pick up can be wide and far-reaching.

Name the last book by a female author that you've read.

The last book I read (finished yesterday): Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie. Funnily enough, a shortlisted title from the only all-female literature prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Name the last book by an African or African-American author that you've read.
James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room in January and immediately preceding that, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

Name one from a Latino/a author.
Love in the Time of Cholera in February.

How about one from an Asian country or Asian-American?
Burnt Shadows can also be categorised here.

What about a GLBT writer?
Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith, this month.

Why not name an Israeli/Arab/Turk/Persian writer, if you're feeling lucky?
Egyptian: The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif in January. Prior to that that, last year I read The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak (Turkish); The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani (Persian); Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (also Persian) and The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. As I said, I can be a versatile reader although patterns in my reading at a particular time can often be traced.

Any other "marginalized" authors you've read lately?
Hmmm, I don't regard any of my recent reads (including the ones above) as "marginalized". I've read a lot of English writers recently, a lot of women writers, a number of classics and of translated work, Russian and French. If I was on my soapbox then I would suggest that Ali Smith is also marginalised because she is a Scottish novelist (who lives in England) but I'm not, so I won't.

Answering some of these questions makes me feel uncomfortable and even guilty. I don't read "marginalized" writers because they are marginalised or because I think I have to; I read these books because I want to, because there is something about the book that interests me and/or excites me and I often discover a great book, a great writer, and, yes, sometimes a rich, marginalised category of literature.