Tuesday, January 15, 2019

A book for every mood

Guess what? My two readers - one in New Zealand and one in California - have read the latest draft of my novel and said they enjoyed it, it's good, it's done, bar a few minor edits. So I did the tweaks and the edits and that's why my desk looks like this:




I wish I'd taken a 'before' shot on Sunday. You'll just have to trust me that it only looks this bare and this tidy when I've just finished writing a book. Now I have to get one last person to read it, someone who doesn't know me, and who has not seen the book in any of its previous incarnations. 

In the meantime I'm seeking distraction from this week's desperate, nailbiting, wrist-slitting, footchewing politics by reading a gripping novel by Louise Doughty called Apple Tree Yard, which for several years has been sitting waiting for the right moment on the Kindle app on my iPad. Its time has come and I'm hooked.

I have books I read when I'm ill...




And books I read for comfort in the middle of a sleepless night...




And books to read when the 360 degree greyness of a British winter is getting me down...



And books I re-read when I'm ready for a new book, but can't find something that exactly suits my mood...(this pile below is merely a quick selection)...




And I'll admit to you that I do on occasion (every few years?) reread my own books, when I'm feeling very low...



Which books do you return to, over and over?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's no literary great but I love rereading circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. LRH

Sue Hepworth said...

Do you have it in paperback? Can I read it when I come?
The Mary Wesley above is no literary great, either.

ana said...

That’s a most eloquent clean desk. Sending all the congratulations and good wishes

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks, Ana!

Anonymous said...

A friend is adamant that she can’t reread a novel because she remembers every bit of the story. I disagree. I don’t do it often but when I do there’s usually something I’d forgotten or not noticed before. There are some novels I’ve started again almost instantly - When God Was A Rabbit, for example. Or anything by Kit de Waal. Sue, your selection are all well love. What are Dave’s favourites?

Sue Hepworth said...

Dave doesn’t read fiction.

Unknown said...

I used to. I think it got lost in the flood.

Phoebe said...

For me it was the chapter in the (third?) Cazalet book where Polly gets engaged to her lovely husband. I like the chapter before that one too because I enjoy reading about how she decorates his flat. I’ve read The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman when not feeling well, and years ago used to reread Philip Roth’s totally atypical Letting Go, his second novel.

Sue Hepworth said...

Hi Phoebe, I’ll have to track down that Cazalet chapter. I’ll ask a friend who likes those books. And I did once read the Lipman and enjoyed it. But I have never tried Roth.