Books and lists

This is now the second time I have written this, something is badly wrong with the mousepad on my laptop, so having spent valuable time writing an incredible piece of writing (trust me on this) something clicked without me doing anything, and it was all gone. I HATE technology sometimes.

Anyway... liking both books and lists, I decided to combine the two, and celebrate the sheer number and variety of books that I have devoured since re-discovering the joys of free books from the library in mid December. It's also a slightly obsessive thing, I like to keep a record of things, and maybe someone out there might be interested in what I've read. Being nosy myself, I like to see what books other people possess or have read.
In no particular order then:

Terry Pratchett:
Men at Arms
Nightwatch
Thud!

It's always difficult to explain how something was funny, but this had one passage that made me cry with laughter. It all concerned a small talking dog, whose voice can only be heard by most people as suggestive thoughts, a pompous captain of the nightwatch, and the dog telling the captain that he has an itchy bottom... prickle, prickle, prickle

Alexander McCall Smith
The Right Attitude to Rain
The Careful Use of Compliments

Both of these are Isobel Dalhousie novels, the short series that began with 'the Sunday Philosophy Club'. My favourite books are the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and I'm eagerly waiting the next title, but these are an enjoyable read. One thing I did notice after these two was a kind of repetitive tic that is present in characters' dialogue, and sometimes narrative, a statement will be made twice, a distinctive trait of the ambling prose, but not always bad

M.C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor

I tried a couple of these titles, having been aware of them for some time, and wasn't quite sure what to make. I'd assumed from the name of the eponymous heroine that they were a humorous series. There is humour there, but there's also quite an undercurrent of nastiness. Like the author doesn't always like her character, and humiliates her, or can't quite decide either if the stories are to be serious or humorous. The second title I read is a fairly recent one from a growing list, and had a jaded feel to it, as if it had got to the perfunctory stage of writing the next book in the series. I don't think I'll read any more

Brian Jacques
High Rhulain

Although they've been around since I was a child, I hadn't read any of the Redwall series until I picked a few up whilst on holiday a couple of years ago. I liked them, but the more I read, the more the formula becomes obvious. It's a formula that works as the books sell tremendously, but it's true to say that once you've read a few, there's little difference between the titles. Each has some vermin (bad animals; rats, cats, foxes) the good guys from the abbey, a young animal who has been chosen by fate and Martin the Warrior following a dream, the obligatory incredibly annoying baby animals, another hidden part of the Abbey itself (Elsie J Oxenham fell into this with the Abbey Girls series) and a quest. the animal characters are all very distinctive, and this can sometimes get frustrating, but an entertaining read, and if you've never tried one, I would, but just a few.

Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant
The Merlin Conspiracy
Howl's Moving Castle
Mixed Magics
The Pinhoe Egg

An author I did read when I was little, and I think I was too young for at the time, so re-discovering. A brilliant magic and fantasy writer, always intriguing characters and worlds, and a sense of humour always underlying. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is a Studio Ghibli animated film also

Elinor Brent Dyer
The Chalet School and Barbara
Trials for the Chalet School

Re-reads, probably 3rd or 4th time, but always a good read, and a comforting experience also. I love the Chalet school and all the characters, I've read them all at least once, but savour them and don't read them too often.

Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat who went up the creek
The Cat who dropped a bombshell
The Cat Who lived high
The Cat who brought down the house

Another winning formula series, there are around thirty titles now about Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cat companions, who also solve murder and mysteries. They stand up to repeated readings, but sometimes Mr Q and his world gets a little too comfortable and parochial and the most recent title, 'The cat who dropped a bombshell' felt very dissatisfying, loose ends weren't tied up, and again felt churned out

The Big Book of Bagpuss - one of my favourite Christmas presents! Lots of stories and stills from the programme

A Book of Cottages - a fascinating history of the English cottage
i before e except after c - another Christmas present, a treasure of facts and mnemonics
As well as my own books, I ploughed through a lot of my parents' books whilst at home, histories of Liverpool and the slave trade, a history of Kitty Wilkinson, a book of Liver Birds, a history of Cheshire, a book of stately homes. And finally an odd little book by Henry Williamson, the author of 'Tarka the Otter' this was a collection of short stories, 'The Peregrine's Saga'.
Read on