One Book, Two Book, Three Book, Four and Five

I saw this meme doing the rounds last week and liked it so much that I’ve finally got round to doing my own so here goes...

1) The book I’m currently reading – is Maria Edgeworth’s ‘The Absentee’, so far it’s living up to my expectations and proving entirely satisfactory. The young hero has discovered that the family fortunes aren’t as sound as they could be and is refusing to marry a plain heiress for her money. Prejudice against the Irish is being explored, and as an interesting counterpoint Edgeworth has thrown in a dodgy stereotypical Jew. What will happen next?

2) The last book I finished – was Kevin Crossley-Holland’s ‘The Penguin Book of Norse Myths’ which had been sitting neglected on the shelf for a shamefully long time. I had a thing for mythology as a child, and remember loving the Viking stories. Reading this I was surprised at how much of it had stuck with me and am now more inclined than ever to dig into the sagas. It’s also made me really excited about reading A.S. Byatt’s take on Ragnarok, though I still think I’ll wait for the paperback.

3) The next book I want to read – definitely the hardest (self posed) question to answer, officially it’s Anthony Trollope’s ‘The Last Chronicle of Barset’ because it’s high time I finished the series, but it’s a doorstep and there are a lot of other books that look tempting, have some sort of deadline attached (reading group), or are just shorter. I took this on holiday with me thus taking up case space that could have been occupied by more kippers on the return journey, and before anyone says it the idea of a kindle just doesn’t work for me. I suspect that it would just make it easier for me to ignore the books I mean to read but am slightly intimidated by.

4) The last book I bought – ‘A Midsummer Foy’ twice. (Technically I think it’s also the last book I was given, as well as being the last book I gave...) A lovely book this one, an opinion endorsed by the lucky child whose copy arrived this morning (which will reassure all the other children I mean to send copies to if only they were old enough to understand what I was talking about / interested in listening to me witter on). Happily Janice and Meilo have a gift for communicating with children even if children baffle me and I them.

5) The last book I was given – was waiting for me when I got home and is a copy of Geraldine Holt’s ‘Cakes’ hot off the prospect books press. I feel pretty chuffed with this one; I was vaguely aware that it was coming out but figured that I had enough cake books. As so often happens at times like this it turns out I was wrong. First impressions are that this is an amazing book set to replace ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ in my heart and on my shelf, so a big thank you to Tom Jaine for sending me this and taking the sting out of returning to work.