Welcome again to the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, a year-long challenge set by the good folk at Long and Short Reviews that anyone can participate in. It’s not too late for you to play along either. Interested? You can learn more about the blogging challenge here.
This week’s topic is another beauty.
Books I re-read or want to re-read
It used to be normal for me to re-read books. My copy of Jilly Cooper’s Riders is so wrecked from being read so many times it’s creased and grubby and has a cover held together with packing tape, and my copy of Well Groomed by Fiona Walker isn’t much better. My collection of Wilbur Smiths was the same (I could not get enough o
f those Courtneys!).
Re-reading was normal because one, I couldn’t afford to buy new books all the time and two, other than the library, my only source of books were local bookshops. Now, bookshops are marvellous places but they can’t stock every book, and nor should they. Which meant that whenever I ran out of money or books that turned me on, it was back to the ones already on my shelf.
In the early 90s I had a brilliant local bookshop that I would visit every few weeks, sometimes more. I travelled a lot back then and spent many weeknights in boring hotel rooms and needed books to keep me sane. It was a small bookshop with limited shelf space, but a highly curated fiction selection. Thanks to their recommendations I read some extraordinary stories during that period. Many remained on my keeper shelves for years and were enjoyed again and again.
In the early 2000s we moved to Aix-en-Provence in France and my book collection went into storage in Australia. Aix had several fabulous bookshops but only one that stocked English titles. I became a frequent visitor to Book-in-Bar (yep, it was a bookshop with a bar – heaven – and I still have booksmarks from there). The selection was great and compared to Australia the books were incredibly cheap, which meant lots of stocking up on new goodies. Then along came Amazon UK and an even greater book selection, and a period where I really got into romance novels and couldn’t buy enough of them. When I was banned from buying more books (it was getting a bit silly and we couldn’t ship them all home), it was back to re-reading.
Fast forward to my first e-reader, a Sony PRS that I bought in 2010 and that pretty much ended my re-reading days. Unless it’s a cookbook (I re-read those babies all the time) or a writing craft book (ditto), it’s now quite rare for me to re-read. I’m simply too spoiled for choice.
Rare, but not unheard of. Which brings me to my list.
Here are some of the books that I plan to re-read.
I read this book years ago, in the early 90s, and loved it. It stars a dog and I’m a dog person. Not just any dog, mind, but the dog we’d all adore to have.
I gave my print copy to charity during a clean-out in one of our many house moves and recently purchased it again in ebook, which means I can read it with lovely big print. An important consideration when you have crappy eyesight like me.
Scariest book I ever read (or re-read). It’s about time I had the pants scared off me again.
Again, another book I’ll read in ebook because my print copy went the high-jump donkeys ago.
I’ll probably have nightmares and Jim will get cranky but it’ll be worth it.
A Place in the Hills by Michelle Paver
One of the few print copies that I’ve managed to hold on to. This is the book that cemented my love for the romance genre. It’s amazing. You should read it.
Even though she no longer writes romance, Paver remains an auto-buy author for me. Wakenhyrst and Dark Matter were brilliant and I adored her Daughters of Eden trilogy. So romantic. Sigh.
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Fantastic book. Read the opening scene and prepare to be gobsmacked.
I read this when it first released and was mesmerised by both the story and the way it was structured. I’ve had a story premise in my mind for about eight years that I’d like to structure the same… when I get around to writing it. No idea when that’ll be, but when I do I’ll re-read The Gargoyle for inspiration.
The Glittering Hour and Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
I think Iona Grey’s books are beautiful and emotional and deserve multiple re-reads. Total fangirl.
If you’re interested in my rave comments about them, you’ll find my comments on My Favourite Reads here (for The Glittering Hour) and here (for Letters to the Lost).
This is only a small selection of the books I’d like to re-read. There are a bazillion others, but you know what it’s like. Too many books and not enough reading time!
What book(s) would you dearly love to re-read?
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