This is a little questionnaire with which Simon from Stuck in a Book came up last week, to provide a little snapshot of one’s reading. So let’s see what my books are…
1) The book I’m currently reading
Cornelius Medvei, Caroline (2011)
The story of a man who becomes smitten with a donkey. I’m not yet far enough in to be able to form a useful opinion, but it has started off well. I’ll be reviewing this for Fiction Uncovered in due course.
2) The last book I finished
Leo Benedictus, The Afterparty (2011)
A tale of tragic happenings at a film star’s birthday celebration, wrapped in the email correspondence between a fictional author and his prospective agent, discussing the very book in one’s hands. This is probably the most self-referential book I’ve ever read, and to be honest I wasn’t sure whether I’d get along with it. The Afterparty turned out to be a delight, though: nicely written, and a smart commentary on celebrity culture and the gap between public perception and private reality.
3) The next book I want to read
Katie Ward, Girl Reading (2011)
So I’m reading a lot of 2011 work at the moment. Girl Reading is structured as a series of novellas on the painting portraits of girls and women reading. It seems an unusual subject for a debut novel, and I am intrigued.
4) The last book I bought
Colin Greenland, Seasons of Plenty (1995)
Strictly speaking, the last book I bought was The Afterparty, but I want to list five different books here; so we’ll go for this — which was on the book-swap shelf at work, instead. I loved Take Back Plenty when I read it last year; now I’ll get a chance to see what the sequel is like.
5) The last book I was given
Ian McDonald, River of Gods (2004)
This was a birthday present, which I was very grateful to receive. My introduction to McDonald, The Dervish House, was one of the very best books I read last year. River of Gods comes with a very high reputation, and I look forward to seeing if it lives up to that; I am confident that it will.
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There we go. That was quite interesting to put together, and actually it’s not a bad encapsulation of the kinds of books I most like to read. Speaking of which, I have at least two books to be getting on with, and plenty more to follow after that…
13th May 2011 at 2:37 pm
I’ve heard so many good things about The Dervish House too and have River of Gods on my TBR. Can’t wait to read it. I’m also intrigued by Girl Reading too. You’ve got quite an eclectic taste:)
14th May 2011 at 10:20 am
I’m interested to read your brief response to The Afterparty, since someone (Kevin?) wrote a review that was so scathing that I gave my copy away immediately…
14th May 2011 at 12:15 pm
Sakura: Thank you! I do try to be eclectic…
Simon: I’ll be doing a longer write-up of The Afterparty at some point. But I’ve seen that review of Kevin’s, and I think it is a better book than he allows.