The Girdle of Melian

ew York Trilogy by Paul Auster. We all lug books (or at least our e-readers) on vacation. But sometimes the most exciting book discoveries come while we're on vacation and either find a new book or author, rediscover an old favourite, or have someone recommend a book. I first read The Stand at the age of 13 because my uncle happened to have it lying around. And I first came upon Paul Auster the same way - visiting cousins in France and, of course, looking through their bookshelves. The New York Trilogy was the first English book to catch my eye. I loved it right from the start - so mysterious, so twisty-turny, and yet with such compelling characters. The last book of his that I read was Timbuktu , told from the point of view of a dog, Mr Bones. So sad and sweet. As for regrets... Paul Auster was a featured author at Montreal's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival a few years back. And, because I couldn't find anyone that wanted to come with me, I didn't go. Wh...

etroland by Julian Barnes. Julian Barnes seems to be a Francophile the way I'm an Anglophile. Every time I read one of his books, with the characters extolling French music or culture or food, I relate to the sentiment and simply replace the object. Oh to be in England, now that April's there . Have any of you read Julian Barnes' books? I tore through the first ten or so, and even read the seamier, not-as-well-written ones he penned under the name of Dan Kavanagh, but... Everything was ruined for me after I read England, England . The story was so-so - the concept is that all of English culture is moved to the Isle of Wight, as a sort of theme park - but there's that one chapter... I think it even won an award the year the book was released, for the worst bedroom scene in a novel. Is it possible to move on and read new books by an author who has left such a sour taste in your mouth? For me, it's been like finding out that a good friend is actually a liar a...

ord of the Rings , by J. R. R. Tolkien. I could have done 30 days of Tolkien stories and poems. I could have put in the most random story of his that I love (such as Leaf by Niggle ), or some of my favourite quotes ("'and my companion, who, alas! is overcome with weariness' - here he gave the other a dig with his foot"). But I tried all that when naming my two cats, and they ended up called Frodo and Sam (of course, in daily life, they're actually called Chirpy and Shmuzz, but that's another story). So here we are. The Lord of the Rings . I think I first read The Hobbit when I was 10 or so, and read The Lord of the Rings the year after. It touched something deep inside, or sparked something that blossomed and grew. I'd read the Chronicles of Narnia at about that time. Suddenly I was sketching the towers of Minas Tirith on the backs of school notebooks during classes - and I can't draw for beans! Since then, I've reread The Lord of the ...

ate - or any other book by Jean Little. I'm racking my brains trying to remember which book of hers I read first, and how old I might have been. Possibly From Anna , which I loved, because I was a kid with glasses, too! Mama's Going to Buy You A Mockingbird is another wonderful book. As are her two autobiographies, Little by Little and Stars Come Out Within . Oh, she's got so many! Little is a very prolific author. It was partly through her that I discovered the Dear Canada series of books (from Scholastic!): "The Dear Canada series invites readers into the intimate worlds of girls throughout different times in Canadian history. The ongoing series showcases Canada's most distinguished children's authors who recreate some of the most dramatic events from our diverse history." They're also finally starting to come out with a series for boys. I hope Jean Little writes from that point of view as well!

ennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth . Or any other book by E. L. Konigsburg; a list of favourite books wouldn't be complete without her. Her most well-known book is From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler , which always made me long to run away and live in a museum, too. I think Konigsburg's books are as difficult to classify as Diana Gabaldon's. Konigsburg's are for middle grade or young adult readers, certainly, but the stories are about intelligent kids, kids facing the usual problems who tackle them with not-quite-the-usual methods. I wanted friends like those characters when I was younger, but at the same time, I think life would be difficult with kids like that. They demand a lot, and they challenge you. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just lazy...

n the Shadows, Figure by John Bellairs . Okay, that was a bit of a cheat on the title. But I just had to get John Bellairs in there. I don't remember when I first read his books, but I must have picked them up from the Scholastic book orders in grade school. I loved Scholastic, and always remember how exciting it was to flip through the catalogue and try to narrow down my choices based on what looked interesting and how many books my parents said I could order. I even took a photo of the building last time we were in New York City: But back to Bellairs (and the wonderful illustrations by Edward Gorey). How can you not love books with titles like The House With a Clock in its Walls ; The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring ; The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn ; The Curse of the Blue Figurine ; The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt ; The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull ; The Dark Secret of Weatherend ; The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb ; and so on. As I keep doing while writin...

arry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , the book that began it all. Except I didn't read it until the third book came out - I though the books were just a fad, and didn't trust the fact that everyone in the world seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon. Then, the year Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released, my sister borrowed all three from a friend and I thought I'd better read them if I was going to continue being critical. That was the end of my criticism! J. K. Rowling captured me from the first chapter, all about the mysterious cat and robed wizard, and even from the first paragraph, which is so delightfully British omniscient storytelling style: "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense." Of course, by the time...

reenwich, the third book of The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. "On the day of the dead, when the year too dies, Must the youngest open the oldest hills Through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks. There fire shall fly from the raven boy, And the silver eyes that see the wind, And the light shall have the harp of gold. By the pleasant lake the Sleepers lie, On Cadfan’s Way where the kestrels call; Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall, Yet singing the golden harp shall guide To break their sleep and bid them ride. When light from the lost land shall return, Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn, And where the midsummer tree grows tall By Pendragon’s sword the Dark shall fall. Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu [the mountains are singing, ac y mae’r arglwyddes yn dod [and the lady comes]." I've visited Cornwall because of Greenwich , and went all the way to Aberdyfi, Wales, just to visit the places mentioned in the last two books of the ...

riends and Lovers, by Helen MacInnes. This was one of those books I picked up at random at a secondhand bookstore, not knowing anything about the author (a prolific writer of espionage stories) or that this was a book outside her usual genre. All I knew was that it was set in England and Scotland, and seemed delightfully old-fashioned. "David Bosworth is a penniless undergraduate at Oxford with a head full of dreams. Penelope Lorrimer is the pretty daughter of a wealthy Edinburgh family; they have plans for her, but their ambitions do not match hers. When they fall in love the odds are against them, but the opposition they encounter draws them closer than any love more easily won - and the bond between them is stronger,more durable than the one between mere friends and lovers..." It's harder to serendipitously find stick-with-you books when you're shopping online, at least for me. Anyone have any tips?

nchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim. "Eager to escape the dreary February rains of 1920s London, four women agree to rent the small medieval castle of San Salvatore for a much-needed vacation on the Italian Riviera, and each in turn is seduced and changed by the special place." Sounds like such a simple premise... I've just discovered that The Enchanted April is available on Gutenberg ! No need for me to tell you any more about it, you can read the lovely sweet story for yourself. I was in my teens when I first read this book, and I've stayed in love with it all these years all for this paragraph: "Rose clasped her hands tight round her knees. How passionately she longed to be important to somebody again--not important on platforms, not important as an asset in an organization, but privately important, just to one other person, quite privately, nobody else to know or notice. It didn't seem much to ask in a world so crowded with people, just to have o...

aring Game by Kit Pearson. The first Kit Pearson book I ever read was A Handful of Time , a time-travel story about a Canadian girl who slips back and forth between her family's present and past. "When Patricia's parents decide to separate, she is sent to spend the summer with her cousins on an Alberta lake. Already shy and awkward, her misery is increased by her cousins' bullying. Finally, when they refuse to play with her, Patricia hides in the small cabin behind the cottage. There she discovers an old pocket watch under the floorboards. When she winds it up it takes her back thirty-five years in time, where she observes her mother at the same age she is. But then the watch is broken and Patricia has to face the present." I read and reread this story, each time identifying with a different aspect of Patricia's summer. When I finally read The Daring Game , there was even more that I connected to, especially the high school, which reminded me of my own (t...

hildren of Green Knowe, and all the other stories in the series by L. M. Boston. I came to these stories late, long after I'd already reread Tolkien and Lewis, and so at first their magic felt a little esoteric, a little foggy. But they're English, and their charm is all English, and so I couldn't resist. Also, I've just discovered that the house in the books is real! Not only that, Boston wrote two memoirs about her childhood, and the house, which is a Norman manor house, built in about 1130 and one of the oldest continually inhabited houses in the British Isles. More books for the two wishlists ... Hemingford Grey Manor House , near Huntingdon: All that, and a secret garden, too!

ag of Bones, by Stephen King. I read this novel for the first time back in February, and was bowled over once again by how well Stephen King draws you into the world of his creation. I'd just reread It , and was as frightened and awed as I was when I read it at the age of 13. Bag of Bones has fewer characters, but the mysteries are all there, and the mood, and the deep links between the characters, are very much present. I also learned exactly what Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener , a story that has always confused me, is about - and picked up five new words/phrases: evoe , scantling moon , bathysphere portholes , to tump someone over , and to be monotonous, with brain-croggling regularity. Since this is King, the main character is a writer, and there are some wonderful quotes about writing in Bag of Bones : "I slipped in front of the word processor and wrote for an hour or so. It went pretty well, as I remember. And you know, even when it doesn't, it passes t...

merican Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Yes, the secret's out! My theme for the A to Z Challenge is Favourite Books . I might slip in some ROW80 updates or some writing-related talk, but for the most part, it'll be a book a day. And of course, I had to start with my current obsession, Neil Gaiman. I read American Gods back in January, and since then I've read Anansi Boys , Fragile Things , Stardust , and Smoke and Mirrors . Not been disappointed yet! Though I did start a long discussion about Gaiman vs Lewis and the Problem of Susan from The Chronicles of Narnia , over at the Compuserve Books and Writers Community. Gaiman's got a fun tumblr page , and through there I discovered his Writer's Prayer : A Writer's Prayer Oh Lord, let me not be one of those who writes too much; who spreads himself too thinly with his words, diluting all the things he has to say, like butter spread too thinly over toast, or watered milk in some worn-out hotel; but let me wri...

[Cross posted from my knitting blog. A-Z Challenge and the next round of ROW80 start this week. Look for me on Nutschell 's blog on 4 April!] ilt hose. Long stockings worn as part of full Highland regalia. Kilts, at least, have been around for hundreds of years. Apparently, this is one of the earliest depictions of kilts, a German print showing Highlanders, from c. 1630 . Back in 2008, I was saying things like ' If I ever knit a sock... ' Round about then, Helen and I started knitting at lunchtimes. I made a knitter's crossword ! Yet when I referred to socks (and there's also one typo), I only mentioned double pointed needles. I started my first pair of socks in September 2009, and it was on double pointed needles. It only took one sock for me to become discouraged. As I said in a follow-up post, "there's another major reason some of us - cough cough - don't like knitting socks: you have to make another one exactly the same directly after y...