Short and sweet

This week's recommended reads are a few days late (apologies, I got distracted!) and are all short story collections. Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers and as well as several novels, films, graphic novels and other writings, he has written several collections of short stories, I picked FragileThings as it happened to be the one I'm re-reading right now. I also suggested one of Roald Dahl's deliciously dark collections for adults, Switch Bitch, and Emma Donaghue's fairytale retellings Kissing The Witch.
Short stories can be fun, dipping in and only requiring a little time in a busy day to stretch your imagination and take a moment to recharge. Short stories are often dark, creepy, a little strange. Some of them grow into full novels, others just stay a brief glimpse at a narrative that never gets to be fully realised. Not everyone likes short stories, generally I prefer nice tasty novels I can get lost in, but if they're well written short stories can be almost as satisfying.
Even if the short story isn't normally your cup of tea, give one of these collections a read or find another author who tickles your fancy and stop for a while and go somewhere else in your head!
Happy Reading!!

Music to read books by...

Certain books are inextricably linked for me to certain songs or artists. Others require silence to really be able to come alive in my head. I play music all the time, whatever I'm doing, and since quite often, that's reading, the two have become intertwined. Tamora Pierce's Lioness Rampant quartet is linked to Alanis Morissette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie album, because that was what I was listening to (a lot) when I first discovered Pierce's heroine Alanna (and yes I have noticed the similarity in the names, no that is not why I was listening to that album).
But other books are better without a soundtrack, I tend to read crime novels (such as Agatha Christie's Poirot books-see previous posts-) late at night when I should be sleeping. I prefer these in the silence of the night, maybe because it enhances the mystery, I don't really know.
What books have a personal soundtrack for you and which books are better read without the addition of music?

Read This!!

Whatever books you read, whatever genre you prefer, read Terry Pratchett's Nation and prepare to do some serious thinking. It's a wonderful book, and there are some big ideas being discussed. It's meant to be a children's book, everyone should read it.

And the winner is....

T.S Eliot!! Of the Nation's Favourite Poet poll.

I have a couple of his books, and to be fair, his poetry is interesting, read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and he did write Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, that Andrew Lloyd Webber made into the long -running musical Cats.

Go here to see the complete top 10: http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/vote_results.shtml
Annoyingly no women in the top 10 and there are plenty of talented female poets out there, like current Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and one of my favourites, Wendy Cope.
Who's your favourite poet??

Couple things...

1) Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 30 years old!! Read an article about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/03/hitchhikers-guide-galaxy-douglas-adams

2) Hilary Mantel won the Booker prize for Wolf Hall, it's on my must read list along with fellow shortlister Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.

3) An official sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh is on it's way, not sure how I feel about this, the original was one of my favourites as a child. Hopefully it'll be almost as good as A.A Milne's original.

4) Tomorrow is National Poetry Day, and the BBC will be revealing who the Nation's Favourite Poet is, according to their poll. http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason

Any book news I seem to have missed? Post a comment and let me know!!

The Oldest Stories...

This week's recommended (see right) are all traditional tales from great classic cultures, The Mabinogian is Welsh mythology, I suggest the OUP edition, it's the one I have. The Prose Edda is Norse, translated, the Penguin is a good edition, there's also the poetic version available as well. Finally I chose Seamus Heaney's version of the epic poem Beowulf. It's a beautiful, lyrical retelling of one of the oldest stories we have. There are plenty of other collections of myths and legends from around the world, something I collect and am fascinated by, especially creation myths and stories of gods, from Hindu to Ancient Greek. Many of these tales and myths recur in literature down the ages, as do folk and fairy tales. Something in these oft-retold histories speaks to us and means that they continue to survive and are handed down through the ages.
Here's a bonus recommendation of a few books that reinvent and retell the old stories;
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
L'Morte de Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory
The World's Wife - Carol Ann Duffy

Happy reading!!

New Book!

Just read Terry Pratchett's new book Unseen Academicals, and it was brilliant!! Funny and clever and just a little silly. Wonderful stuff. I feel the need to re-read all the Discworld novels...