A Work in Progress

The Shelf of Unfinished Books

I love my little night table--it is old--it was my grandmother's who also loved reading and kept her books on it as well.  On top sit all my current reads (sorry I cropped that off--too messy to share at the moment), and beneath (on the shelf) lie my abandoned books.  Actually not all of them are unfinished reads.  Some are books that either don't fit anywhere else comfortably, or they are books that I had planned to start right away, but obviously didn't.  The books that "I really plan on getting back to" are The Last Kashmiri Rose (a mystery I had started, but then I chose mysteries for my Summer Reading Challenge, so it ended up here while I make my way through my summer reading list), Vanilla Beans and Brodo (it got kicked down here when I picked up the Mary Wollstonecraft biography), Reading Lolita in Tehran (not sure how long this one has been down here--I'll probably have to start it all over again), Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (this was really good, but I bet I checked something out from the library and this ended up on the shelf--it's been so long I don't even remembr), Snow (a victim of having too many books on the go at once--it was really good, but I'll have to get back in the mood for it now), and yes, the newest Harry Potter book.  I had planned to read it over Christmas break, started it, didn't finish it, and now I will have to start it all over again.  That's not too bad, is it?  That's only six.  Of course I just added Beyond Black to it as well.  Okay, seven.  And then occasionally I weed the books on the shelf and some get reshuffled back onto my regular bookshelves (good as new--as if I had never opened them and started to read them).  I won't even begin to think about how many library books get started and then get returned unfinished--I would say the rate is much higher.

Under my night table and on the side are (some of) my TBR piles.  I have not been choosing many books off it lately to read.  I keep looking at the books knowing I want to get to them (reason #62 not to buy anymore new books...), but always seeming to have something else that needs to be read first.  So I chose one from the top. I have decided to read The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (I read The Girl in Hyacinth Blue and loved it).  I had several books in mind, and it is always so hard choosing.  But I have wanted to read this one for a long time, and it has been recommended, so I hope it will be more engaging than the Mantel book. 

To Bail or Not to Bail, That is the Question

What do you do when you are feeling ho hum about a book you are reading?  Finish it anyway?  Or do you bail?  I have told myself no new books until I finish at least two more.  And I am trying hard to stick with it.  But after finishing a few books that I really enjoyed I am feeling not overly thrilled with some others.  In particular Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel.  I am not even 100 pages into it.  It is not bad, and I think I will enjoy it once I really get into it.  But I never seem to want to pick it up to read.  So do I relegate it to the little shelf under my night table where all those other "I'll get back to this later when I am in the mood for it" books live at the moment?  I feel like I do that too much (and though I do get back to some of them, well...it may take a long time...).  I know it is silly, but I sometimes feel guilty about not finishing books that I start.  Of course this may all be a unconscious ploy to start a new book, when I said I wasn't going to start any new books.  Irregardless I have already made out a list of books I would choose from--they sit in a pile by my bed and it is hard to ignore them when I am not thrilled about something I am reading... (in no particular order):

• Frenchman's Creek, Daphne DuMaurier (you've already heard me talk about this one)
• The Marriage Bed, Regina McBride (early 20th century, set in Ireland about marriage and family relationships)
• Garner, Kirstin Allio (a Litblog Coop book choice, 1920s New Hampshire, mystery-ish)
• Forest Lover, Susan Vreeland (fictional account of Canadian painter Emily Carr)
• Consider the Lily, Elizabeth Buchan (dark family secrets and gardening set in 20s and 30s England)
• In My Mother's House, Margaret McMullan (1930s Vienna--one of my favorite places--and later after the war, about family and identity)
• Whistle Stop, Maritta Wolff (written in 1941to much acclaim, set in the post-depression midwest)
• Those Who Save Us, Jenna Blum (one reviewer called it a literary historical thriller--another book on the Holocaust)

I could easily add more books to the list, but I better stop there.  So, if I bail, then how do I choose what to read next? 

Bookish Meanderings

It's too hot today to put together an entire coherent post on one subject, so how about a few meanderings about books (and movies).  Last night I watched the film version of Muriel Spark's novel, The Driver's Seat (with Elizabeth Taylor as Lise).  Honestly I don't know what to make of it.  It was an unnerving novel, and a really odd movie.  I don't think it will ever become part of the Criterion Collection anyway.  I read somewhere that it is considered Taylor's worst film.  I am no film critic, though, so maybe you shouldn't take my word for it.  She was very much like some sort of automaton, but then in the book Lise was like that, too.  Andy Warhol made a guest appearance for what that's worth.  The macrobiotic man on the plane (if you have read the novel, you'll know who I am talking about) was just scary in the movie.  It was made in maybe 1974, and boy does it feel very 1970s!  Of course maybe it is just the heat talking.  Bottom line--book trumps movie in this case.  I don't think I would ever have wanted to watch this had I not read the book.  And maybe no one else wants to either, since it is out of print!

Have you noticed (probably not--only I am this obsessive) that I have recently finished reading two books and have not started anything new? I am trying hard to whittle down my book stack to a more reasonable number of current reads.  At the moment I am concentrating on Kept: A Victorian Mystery by D.J. Taylor (the story is finally starting to fall together--it has been a bit like putting a puzzle together without knowing what the picture is), The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (must keep up with my Summer Reading Challenge books--I'll be halfway there when I finish this one), and War and Peace by Tolstoy.  I have, however, started working on my essay reading.  I am working on The Best American Essays anthology.  I think I might even be able to work in a few a month rather than only one (it's so nice reading a short literary work--instant gratification)...Last night I read an essay by Roger Angell called "La Vie en Rose" about he and his wife's travels to Europe after the War when they hobnobbed with the rich and famous (apparently it was sort of the norm--the war caused a shortage of ships for travelers throwing everyone together, and this was pre-airplane days before Europe was flooded with tourists). Dorothy is right about essays.  Yesterday she said:

"What I really care about when it comes to an essay is not the type of essay it is, but the voice it contains. The essay can be about absolutely anything, as long as it's written in an intriguing way with a strong sense of personality behind it. That's what's really so great about essays: that they give you a sense of the writer lurking behind them."

I think this is what I am going to like, too.  A good essayist makes any subject sound interesting.  Really, this is the perfect form of writing for me.  Generally essays are short and they are about anything and everything.  And I am always interested in so many different things.  This morning I started the next essay in the anthology, which is by Andrea Barrett.  She writes about how she loves old things--old books,feathers, fossils, anything that will inspire a story.  She came across an old book written at the turn of the century called something along the lines of "what you need to know about TUBERCULOSIS".  Reading such dated medical material immediately made her want to start writing.  I can't wait to finish the essay and see where she went with this!  I fear these are going to be addicting.

Earlier this week I referred to this article that has caused a bit of a hullabaloo.  Today Reading Matters posted about this in more detail, and she linked to an Australian blog called Sarsaparilla calling on readers to "take back Patrick White".  Not too long ago I bought a used copy of White's A Fringe of Leaves, which by chance had caught my eye.  Although I had heard of him, I am not at all familiar with his work.  Sarsaparilla has issued an invitation to join them in reading White's work.  Perhaps if they end up choosing A Fringe of Leaves, I'll join them, as they don't plan on reading until September.  Isn't it weird how things happen sometimes.  You find a book--completely unknown to you, and all of a sudden it quite literally takes on a life of its own.  I like these chance happenings.

Nothing is what it seems...

I am not always the fastest of readers, but I found Sally Beauman's The Sisters Mortland quite literally very hard to put down.  As I have already mentioned this book, I won't go into too much detail.  The novel is set in 1967--Suffolk, England, in a crumbling abbey where three sisters are having their portrait painted.  This is the summer things go terribly wrong.  Twenty years later, Daniel, a childhood friend (of Roma extraction--his grandmother tells the sister's fortunes) tries to make sense of what happened.  Beauman is a master of  revealing just enough of the story to tug you along and keep you curious, and then all of a sudden everything changes. So many secrets were kept, and Beauman is adept at revealing them slowly! I wish I knew more about the tarot as each section is named after different cards in the tarot deck, and I am sure they must allude to the events that occurred.  This novel was a bit darker than I expected and not all endings are happy endings, but it was quite good nonetheless.  Once again it doesn't look as though there is much in print in the US by this author, but she has several novels listed in Amazon-UK.  By the way Sisters Mortland was originally published in the UK under the title, The Landscape of Love. It was a very enjoyable novel, and I almost hated to finish it. 

Today I left work a little early with the intention of giving myself some quiet reading time.  Although I walk everyday on a treadmill and read while I am exercising, it has been hot and stuffy in the room and not conducive to reading anything terribly serious or difficult.  My idea was to finally get started on War and Peace.  It has been sitting on my night table, and I have been trying to ignore how far behind the group I am.  This week they should be getting into Book II.  I am only now halfway into the first part of Book I! I have been a little afraid to really start this book.  Sometimes I have these reading blocks where I think that I will not understand what I am reading, because it is a Classic of Literature.  And not only that--it is Russian Literature.  And just looking at the shear size of W&P, I had been putting off reading more than the first few chapters.  However, there is a printable family tree available here, which I had sitting in front of me as I started.  Amazingingly, W&P is not really that hard (so far anyway).  I think the extended cast of characters will be a challenge to keep track of, but taking notes and having the family tree set out in front of me helped enormously.  I actually even enjoyed what I read (why should this be surprising??), and am looking forward to continuing on.  I know this will take me months to get through, but I am excited all over again to be reading this now that I know it is actually quite readable (maybe it is the new translation?).  Now I just need to figure out how to not break the binding on my lovely little paperback...

When is an Essay Not an Essay?

I have not forgotten what I said about reading essays.  I must have been feeling extremely ambitious, however, at the time.  Did I really say three essays a week?  Can I adjust that to a more reasonable number?  Since I plan on reading one short story a month, how about one essay a month as well.  Then, if by chance I end up reading three a week all the better, but I know I can manage one a month without too much trouble.  I had to take back most of the books of essays I had checked out from the library (besides---too many to choose from---sometimes that is just overkill), but I did save the Updikes (I love having the illustrations to go along with the essays--maybe I can squeeze in a few essays before they too must go back to the library!).  I am planning on investing in this anthology, though (the nice thing about library books--you can look them over before buying them).  And for now I will work on reading through the 2005 Best American Essays, which is a series that has been issued yearly since 1985 that I bought the last time I went to the bookstore.  A mere 25 essays--they are not too terribly long in length, and as one reviewer said, I will be getting a year's worth of reading (supposedly the best of the best) from a variety of excellent magazines. 

All this has me thinking once again, just what exactly is an essay?  Wiki says:

An essay is a short work that treats a topic from an author's personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. Essays are usually brief works in prose, but works in verse are sometimes dubbed essays.  Virtually anything may be the subject of an essay. Topics may include actual happenings, issues of human life, morality, ethics, religion and many others. An essay is, by definition, a work of non-fiction, and is often expository.

Quite often essays are found in magazines, which has confused me a bit.  Does that mean that an article in the Smithsonian about French painters is an essay or is it a journalistic article?  Just where do you draw the line?  I guess journalistic writing has it's own category.  If you research something and publish it, then is it simply journalism?  Does essay mean it is purely your own, no matter what the subject?  Aldous Huxley is quoted as saying (once again taken from Wiki):

"Essays belong to a literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference. There is the pole of the personal and the autobiographical; there is the pole of the objective, the factual, the concrete-particular; and there is the pole of the abstract-universal. Most essayists are at home and at their best in the neighborhood of only one of the essay's three poles, or at the most only in the neighborhood of two of them."

I suspect that I read essays all the time without realizing that that is what they are.  In any case, once I have gotten into the habit of reading them, and see the varieties of essays that are out there, it will probably be easier to identify them. 

On a side note I found this article via Only Books All the Time, which I thought was interesting.  Now I must pull out the book I recently bought by Patrick White, and slide it up the TBR pile!  One publisher is quoted as saying:

"There is no point in publishing a work that is never going to sell more than 1000 copies. For a new literary author to sell more than 3000 books was a thrill."

I suppose the bottom line is the bottom line, but I do think it is sad that unless a publisher thinks it is going to sell more than 1000 copies it isn't worth publishing.  Maybe it isn't worth publishing, but I wonder how many wonderful books are going to be lost to readers, because they won't be Dan Brown blockbusters. 

Another Dangerous List

I have been feeling a bit guilty lately about my use of ILL at my library.  While I don't have a problem requesting books, for some reason I have started thinking maybe requesting DVDs is a little over the top.  Since I am staff, they very generously don't charge us for this service, and I don't want to take advantage of a good situtation.  Often books are made into movies, but I always prefer to read the book first before I see the movie.  It seems that books are almost always better than the movie, so I'd rather have that visual in my head before seeing a film adaptation.  And lately the movies I want to see aren't at the public library, and not available from my local Blockbuster to rent.  So I have broke down and am giving Netflix a try.  My queue of movies is already something like 30 titles long! 

The first movie came in the mail on Friday.  I had read about Second Generation in one of those catalogs I get in the mail selling British films and it had piqued my interest.  Without knowing anything about it, I wasn't sure I wanted to buy it, so this was the perfect solution.  It is a modern day retelling of King Lear (which is the lone play by Shakespeare that I read in high school).  I seem to be more familiar with the retelling of this story (since it has been done so many times) than the actual play (it has been more than a few years since I read it!).  Some of the reviews on Amazon have been pretty harsh, but I thought it was well done personally.  I have signed up for the two DVDs at once deal, and I am waiting on The Driver's Seat, which is the film adaptation of the novel by Muriel Spark that I read recently for the Slaves of Golconda.  I am very curious to see how it translates into film as it was one of the more unnerving books I have read in quite a while.  And I have added (and moved up to the top of my list) Cold Comfort Farm--thanks to many recommendations.  I will also be getting series three of The House of Eliott soon, too.  Unfortunately they only send out one disc at a time when it comes to sets, which so far seems to the the only downfall I see to Netflix.  Between my new movie list, and my stack of current reads (am past the halfway mark in The Sisters Mortland--and don't want to put it down), I don't think I will bored anytime soon. 

One of Each Please

I have discovered Virago Press.  I would like to have one of each book they publish, please.  I actually already have some books published by Virago, but I have never really paid attention to exactly what type of press they happen to be:

"One of the most vigorous, stylish and successful British publishing imprints, Virago is the outstanding international publisher of women's literature. It is the largest women's imprint in the world and has made commercial success of publishing books of quality and originality."

So now I am thinking that I wouldn't mind starting a collection of books with the Virago imprint.  I wouldn't buy books that I can already get over here, as they seem to have American authors as well, but I am interested in the authors I am not yet familiar with.  My copy of Precious Bane is a Virago book as well as the Fiona Shaw book I recently ordered.  The only bad thing I have discovered is that the Virago website seems to have a lot of dead links.  So when I want to read about a book, the link goes nowhere.  It looks as though some titles are available through Amazon, and of course most through Amazon in the UK.  I have already started my wish list. 

Ask for Suggestions...and What Happens?

I end up with a stack of books I can't wait to read, that's what.  Right before the 4th of July holiday I was very much in the mood for a certain type of book. Well, I took up your advice and ordered a few of the titles.  So now I can choose from: Ross Poldark by Winston Graham (it looks as though there is a whole series to read my way through), Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner, The Loving Spirit and Frenchman's Creek, both by Daphne DuMaurier.  I love adventure stories (even better if there are pirates and smuggling and even a bit of romance thrown into the mix).  What better summer reading?  I am greatly looking forward to starting one soon!

The two DuMaurier books happen to also be Virago Modern Classics (do you see a theme forming here?).  I am big on book design, you might have noticed, and the DuMaurier books (actually I like all the VMC book designs that I own), are lovely (love the apple with a bite taken out of it on the spine--and they would look so nice on my shelves!). It appears that they have published all her work as well as some biographies and autobiographies--the back and front inside flaps show all her books.  Here is my collection of DuMaurier's work.  I have read Rebecca and Jamaica Inn (both mass market books, and though I know it is the contents that matter--the designs leave much to be desired compared to the Viragos), My Cousin Rachel (a very nice, now out of print, Common Reader edition.  I also own The House on the Strand and The Scapegoat--both as yet unread (but very nice University of Penn editions).  Since my collection seems to be growing, I was thinking I could do my own sort of author study along the lines of what Susan at Pages Turned is doing.  However mine would be quite informal, and most likely very spread out--as in I would like to read about DuMaurier as an author and her works--but just not all at once.  I'm not sure how DuMaurier is looked upon in the literary world (to romance-y perhaps?), but I love her books nonetheless (and thanks to Jenclair for the heads up about Frenchman's Creek!). Unfortunately only a few of DuMaurier's works are even still in print over here, but I can fill in gaps (happily) by tracking them down elsewere!

Beauty of the Soul and of Nature

"Precious Bane" by Mary Webb is an unusual book.  I found it purely by chance when I was looking for some other titles at a used bookstore.  I think it must have been the cover that caught my eye and made me pick it up and read the description.  I finished it today--it reads quite fast.  I really enjoyed it, but I do have some reservations about the story.

I never know quite how much to say about a book that I have read.  I hate to give away details, but to give you a sense of what the book is about, I will have to share a few. I will try not to give any spoilers away however. The story is about Prudence Sarn, who lives with her family in Shropshire.  She is a very inviting character, but she is cursed with a harelip.  Nowadays I think most people wouldn't look twice at such a thing, and I would guess it is fairly easily fixed with cosmetic surgery.  However in the 1920s when this was written, this would not have been the case.   Pru and her brother Gideon live in a rural area where supersition is deeply ingrained.  I had no idea that people thought a harelip was caused by a hare crossing a pregnant woman's path.  And of course a harelip might easily be looked upon as a devil's mark as well. 

To me the story is about love and greed.  Pru has all of one, and Gideon all of the other.  Pru is a good person despite how she is treated by people, which is in a most insensitive manner--looked upon as something devilish, or someone that no one could love--certainly no man.  She has a deep love for nature, and one of the things I like most about this book is the descriptions of Sarn (I found this a bit confusing--Sarn is not only the family homestead, but also the family name) and the mere (which is a type of lake).  Webb was born in Shropshire and you can tell she loved it there from her descriptions.  And she loves her Mother and her brother Gideon, the latter to a fault in my mind.  Gideon, though, is worried seemingly about one thing and one thing only.  To make enough money to buy their way (a redeeming quality perhaps--he plans on taking Pru with him) into a higher station in life.  Day and night he slaves away growing crops, and tending animals all to become rich.  And Pru agrees to help him--though he may work her like a dog--and work she does. 

What I liked about the story (aside from the wonderful descriptions)?  There is a love story involved.  While I like all sorts of books, I am always happy when there is a love story--most especially when the heroine is not perfect--physically at least.  So maybe there is someone who cares naught for a harelip.  And it isn't a drippy, honeyed sort of love story.  Just nice, not over the top.  And the story captured my interest right away and I kept wanting to read.  As for my reservations about the novel--I do have a few.  It is a bit dark.  Some of the things that happen are on the gloomy side.  Webb uses a lot of the local dialect, which once I got into the story I didn't notice as much.  There were a few occasions, though, when it would trip me up and I wasn't sure what exactly she meant.  Even though Gideon was in many ways a nasty character, Pru always loved and supported him, and would always say what a handsome, fine cut of a man he was--as if that excused his behavior.  I thought she said it a few too many times, but I suppose it was in her good nature to always see the positive side to everyone. 

I am curious to know what others who have read this novel think of it, and I wouldn't mind checking out her other works as well.  There is even a Mary Webb Society, so she has followers to this day.  Stella Gibbons wrote a parody of Precious Bane (well, this novel as well as more broadly rural novels that had a gloomy slant to them such as those by Thomas Hardy) called Cold Comfort Farm (which I have never read).  All in all a nice interlude from my nighttable stack.  But now I better get back to business (well, The Sisters Mortland is also a bit of an interlude, too, isn't it...).  I am feeling a tad bit guilty for having such a large stack going, so I won't be starting anything new for a while--at least until I finish a few others first!

Reading Groups Abound

I have finally gathered my books for the next round of reading for the online book groups I belong to.   There are a variety of them out there these days--no doubt catering to all types of interests.  For me, reading along with others has really helped me to understand/appreciate some of the more difficult books that have been chosen, and I find that it keeps me on track to finish more books as well.  It is also a nice excuse (not really that I need one--but you know how you, well I do anyway, tend to put books in the TBR stack thinking I will get to it after I read this one and that one and then this one first...) to read a book that I have long wanted to read, but never got around to.  The reading group that hooked me was The Slaves of Golconda (you can read about the initial impetus for the forming of the Salves here), which also has a forum over at The Metaxu Cafe.  Our next book is The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells.  Last time we decided that "extra credit" books would be optional as Muriel Spark's works tend to be slender volumes.  This worked quite nicely as everyone chose different books and we were able to get a taste of her work.  Once again we have the option of reading a second work by Wells (many of his books are slim volumes as well).  I am not sure I will be able to fit in a second book this time around, but I do have a few on my bookshelves to choose from if I do: Ann Veronica (I am leaning towards this one, if I can get a second book read), or Tono-Bungay, or maybe When the Sleeper Wakes. 

Reading Matters is tackling Scoop by Evelyn Waugh next.  I have never read Waugh before, and he has been long on my list of authors "I want to read".  See what I mean by letting them jump ahead of the queue?  I won't mention how far behind I am in War and Peace by Tolstoy.  The second and third parts of the first book are already being discussed. I guess I feel like it is better to read this in chunks rather than a few pages here and there. And, well, I haven't had "chunks" of reading time available to me lately. I am hoping to take a few afternoons off work in the near future and devote them to W&P!  And now a new discussion group has sprung up (well is in the planning phase anyway) thanks to Kate S.  She is planning on devoting reading time to short stories.  Although she wants to embark on a systematic study of them, she thought it would be a good idea to discuss individual stories in a group.  The plan is to just read one a month (surely I can fit in at least one a month)--and hopefully the texts will be available online or easily obtainable from the library.  Too bad someone won't start one for essays and then I would be set (my plan on reading one a week has faltered already!).  What books are you reading along in groups?

Always giving into temptation

Yes, that is me--always giving into temptations (at least when it comes to books).  The very last thing I needed to do was start another book, and if it had to be a library book, surely the most logical approach is to pick a book from the top of the pile (read--one that needs to be returned sooner than later) rather than choosing the book at the very bottom.  But The Sisters Mortland appeals to me so much, that I had to start it.  Set in the summer of 1967 (at least so far), it is the story of three sisters (the story thus far told by the youngest Mortland-- thirteen-year-old Maisie) when they had their portrait painted.  Eventually we will jump ahead in time when the painter (unknown in 1967) has become famous as well as his painting, and Daniel (a friend of the sisters) reflects back on "that summer"--well, I haven't gotten that far yet.  Throw in a crumbling medieval abbey (their home) and ghosts of the nuns who lived there (and talk to Maisie)--and to me this is simply too enticing of a story to pass up.  Ignoring my ILL book (will get back to it soon, I promise), at lunchtime today I read this passage and thought you might be able to relate (Maisie has just asked her mother to tell her the story of when she met her father):

"And so Stella does.  She tells me how she was born in Edinburgh, how her father took his family to Canada when she was six months old, and how she grew up on a farm in Ontario, dreaming of a Scotland and an England she'd never seen.  She tells me what a bookworm she was as a child; how she devoured books, how books were her sustenance, just as they were Finn's.  'Mine too', I say, but Stella doesn't like the books I like, and as usual she isn't listening.  She presses on.

'No reading at the table, Stella,' her father used to say when she smuggled a book into meals.  So she'd put it away--Kidnapped, or Jane Eyre, or Great Expectations--and then continue in the yard and (with a torch) under the sheets half the night.  Except she wasn't in the yard or in bed, of course, she was in that other world.  She was trapped in a treacherous tower; she was watching mad Mrs. Rochester rend Jane's wedding veil; she was staring at Miss Havisham's spider-infested bride cake.

'Those books still color my life,' she says now, sighing.  'Maisie, when will I learn?  Books, books--an addiction to stories.  No one should live like that.  I do know that--but I can't cure myself.'

I don't want Stella to be cured--besides, if it hadn't been for the books, she might never have come to England, never have met my father.  Think of the consequences: I wouldn't have been born.  I wouldn't exist.  Luckily, Stella was not cured of the book addiction.  When she was eighteen and left school, her parents gave her a special present, the one gift for which she yearned.  They gave her a year in England.  She would travel to England, and--staying with a network of aunts, cousins, and parental friends--she would finally visit the places she'd dreamed of so long.  She crossed the sea on a huge liner, traveling steerage.  She arrived in Liverpool and at once took a train to her native Edinburgh.  It was the autumn of 1938: That weakling Chamberlain was promising peace for our time.

Stella spent a week with two maiden aunts in Morningside, and then the great journey began.  I love the details of this pilgrimage of trains, buses, and charabancs, Stella worked her way southward: she went to Walter Scott (the Borders), then Wordsworth and Coleridge (the Lakes)...During the winter of that year, she walked the moors at Haworth with the three Bronte sisters, strange companions and unsettling ones; but Stella, who knew their work by heart, was well prepared for this.  She visited Lawrence in Nottingham and Tennyson in Lincolnshire.  Arm in arm with Dickens, she explored the streets of London, then she sped northwest to Shakespeare, the forest of Arden, and Warwickshire.  There she stayed with yet another spinster aunt--for some considerable time.  After that it was Thomas Hardy and Dorset; then--it was late summer--Jane Austen in Bath.  Stella persued her beloved Austen to Lyme Regis and finally to Hampshire.  That September, she was in Winchester Cathedral paying homage to Austen's grave when she became aware of a stir among the other visitors.  She closed her copy of Mansfield Park (then being read for the fifth time).  She was puzzled by the whispers in the nave and by discernible outbreak of excitement--or was it fear?  She left the cathedral and approached the knots of people gathered outside.  She asked what had happened.  They told her war had been declared."

Sorry that was so long, but I love that passage.  I think any lover of books can appreciate it.  Have you noticed that authors quite often write about characters who have a great love of literature.  I am not sure I have come across any characters that hated reading.  Certainly they must exist, but I can't think of any.  Can you?  Now can you see why I don't want to put this book down?  Why worry about too many books on the nightstand when I am enjoying this book so much?!