Literature

My literature leanings

I have been reading for as long as I can remember and have an eclectic taste. Of the classic canon, I remain a fan of Dickens, Thomas Hardy and in particular Joseph Conrad. I discovered Science Fiction as a teenager and remain a fan, whether of vintage authors such as Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov or more recent sub-genres such as Cyberpunk. I also have a soft spot for John Whyndam (cozy catastrophe, as some-one described his work). My other vice is the long running series, such as Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books (I have also read all of George Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series). Ellis Peter's Cadfael novels are also a guilty pleasure and a favourite read when I want a story with a happy ending.My favourite books of recent years are Michael Frayn's Headlong and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. Fiction reads I managed during the lockdown include Philip Pullmans' Belle Sauvage and The secret Commonwealth as well as Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent.

A lot of my recent reading has been historical non-fiction and I am feeling the need to try some new fiction, possibly from elsewhere other than this country. That said, I have recently devoured Bettany Hughes' Istanbul, a worthy successor to John Julius Norwich's Byzantium, as well as Michael Wood's Story of China' which filled in many of the sadly huge gaps I had in my knowledge of the history of that country. 

If I look at my bookshelf I can see that biography and auto-biography works are well represented. I particularly enjoyed Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run autobiography. From a different age altogether, Michael Smith's Biography of Ernest Shackelton has acquired topicality with the discovery of the wreck of his ship Endurance, whilst in another, somewhat disturbing way, Vikram Seth's two Lives, a portait of members of his family in Germany during the 1930's seems to have acquired new relevance in its description of the gradual rise of Fascism. 

There are several book reviews on this blog as well as a post on why you should read a book more than once as well as a description of my favourite book.