The Pleasure of Reading

I loved this. So many addicts confessing! I´m tempted to add my own reading history in the back.

Particularly read: Jeanette Winterson and Timberlake Wertenbaker (one thing I regret is that the paper is so lovely, I haven´t dog-eared or marked my favourite passages as is my custom. Oh, come on, don´t gasp! Books are alive! They grow with annotation). Anyway, definitely worth getting your hands on.

For the bicentenary of the publishing house W. H. Smith, forty writers of the English language talk about their early experiences reading, what reading they do now, and (if possible - not everyone did) their ten favorite books. Many authors -- such as Catherine Cookson, Doris Lessing, A.S. Byatt, and Margaret Atwood -- were names I recognized, though the only author I have read to date is Ruth Rendell. Even so, I loved reading the variety of experiences each had with reading and books. In particular, I loved seeing the same books mentioned, but with very different responses. Also, the various approaches to "top ten" (in order, alphabetically, with a few more titles thrown in) were fun. An absolute pleasure to read.

I loved this. So many addicts confessing! I´m tempted to add my own reading history in the back.

Particularly read: Jeanette Winterson and Timberlake Wertenbaker (one thing I regret is that the paper is so lovely, I haven´t dog-eared or marked my favourite passages as is my custom. Oh, come on, don´t gasp! Books are alive! They grow with annotation). Anyway, definitely worth getting your hands on.

It took me a long time to finish this, but it's a really nice book to dip into in between reading other things. It is a collection of short pieces by famous writers - maybe four or five pages each - reminiscing about their childhood reading, musing on the place books have in their lives, and discussing what they read nowadays. Some of the writers have added a 'top ten' list of their favourite books to the end of their pieces, and each author has been allocated an illustrator, giving a varied and colourful flavour to the pages.

With the exception of a couple of duds - including, to my surprise, Alan Hollinghurst - it's a lovely ensemble piece, bringing back memories of my own childhood reading: how I read, what I read and how different show more books floated into my life. I had to read it with a piece of paper and a pen next to me because there were so many books I wanted to chase up, old favourites and as yet unread masterpieces, having heard them praised so highly.

Although the book is quite old - the youngest author is Jeanette Winterson - I might get myself a copy (I read it from the library) because the themes and many of the books are so timeless and universal that they'll always ring true. show less

A compilation of pieces showcasing the passions for literature of forty authors. This is a book that is enjoyed in bits and pieces, and it contains both intriguing essays and recommendations for further reading.

An interesting book, where authors tell of how they came to reading, and what books were important to them. Most accounts leave the reader wondering how much of this is actually the truth and how much of this is the author saying what they think fits with the persona they have built about themselves. As Melvyn Bragg says in his section: "All of us want to be in a Great Tradition even if it is an alternative tradition. Indeed the latter is having a strong innings at present. But what if the merest, not the greatest, the most banal and not the most magnificent sets us off?" (His section is probably one of the best in the book).
While some people may track this volume down because it contains the thoughts of one of their favourite authors, show more it is more likely to be read by bibliophiles who understand the love of books and are interested to know how others came to have that love themselves. An interesting addition to any collection of 'books about books'. show less

this book has made me think about my first books. we had no money to buy books, my parents had no books, and i had never heard of a public library until i was 6 and lived in ottawa. the years that my mother(never my father) read to me, we lived in england after the war on an airbase and life was hard. i remember noddy and rupert, both left behind when we came to canada and a big red compilation which came to canada and had augustus was a chubby lad, fat ruddy cheeks augustus had. that's all i can remember.
when we lived in ottawa we had more money, so i was bought thorton w. wilder-chatty the red squirrel-, the bobbsey twins, and my grandmother sent me girl every week. i loved girl until she died in 1963. i never lived near a library but show more my father used to drive me twice a week in the holidays in 62,63,64.
where did these authors get all these books????? show less