Could This Be The Last Book Binge?

Now this is going to be the last pile of books that I have bought you will be seeing for a while as I have decided to now officially test myself and see how long I can go without buying a book. There are a few reasons for this. The main one (at the moment) is that I am seriously considering, and I have mentioned this a few times of late, seeing if I could manage not to buy a single book in 2010. Pick your jaws up off the floor, or the pages of your book, I am being quite serious. Could I spend a year not buying any books at all? At the moment I am in the ‘yes I could’ camp, mind you shortly you will see a picture that will make you all say ‘pah… as if’.

There are two more factors one of which has been watching Verity of The B Files curbing, well actually stopping, her spenditure on books which is making for really interesting reading and she is doing amazingly well. The other factor is my own binge spending knows no limits; as can be shown by the array of books I came back with from the north last weekend. Do note I didn’t spend more than 50p on a single book in fact most of them were 25p. That’s what I love about it up home in the north everything is cheaper even the second hand shops. It also illustrates why it’s best I don’t live there. As you will see though every book had a reason for being bought…

• The Story of Lucy Gault – William Trevor (Gran keeps telling me its his best)
• The Ghost Road – Pat Barker (I like paperbacks normally but this Man Booker winner I never find and like the Trevor above was 25p for a hardback)
• Surfacing – Margaret Atwood (I love this green Virago edition)
• The Tortoise and the Hare – Elizabeth Jenkins (everyone’s recommended it to me)
• The Body of Jonah Boyd – David Leavitt (really hard to get hold of new which I have been wanting to for ages)
• Instances of the Number 3 – Salley Vickers (am planning a Vickers binge)
• Dubliners – James Joyce (no luck with Ulysses lets try this)
• Incendiary – Chris Cleave (meant to get this from publishers but Royal Mail strikes mean it’s gotten lost and if does turn up I can do a giveaway, I also loved The Other Hand)
• Queens – Pickles (this is an out of print book that came out in the 80’s and describes the underground gay scene in London and the secrecy is also very, very funny apparently)
• After You’d Gone – Maggie O’Farrell (have been wanting to read more of her since The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which was superb)
• Mr Golightly’s Holiday – Salley Vickers (another one for the Vickers binge)
• Gigi & The Cat – Colette (an author always wanted to read)
• To Love & Be Wise – Josephine Tey (want to read one Tey book before start Nicola Upson’s books where Josephine is the main character)
• The Blessing – Nancy Mitford (just because it’s Nancy Mitford need I say more?)
• A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry (several people have said this is one of their favourites)

Now in total this book binge came to the whopping price of £4.75!!! An utter bargain, but then I have to think actually in reality how long will it take me to read all these fifteen books? It’s that which makes me think maybe, just maybe, I should try and not buy anything next year. After all I get review copies in the post so that’s latest books covered, there is always the library which I am using more often now but not making the most, plus I do own over 600 books I haven’t read. There are also gifts and swaps. As the picture below demonstrates…

Only at book group on Thursday did Kimbofo give me a copy of David Vann’s ‘Legend of A Suicide’ which I have been really hankering after. Novel Insights sent me a surprise gift copy of The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbit from Amazon after she saw I had loved Tuck Everlasting. Also through ReadItSwapIt I have rid myself of some books I thought were duds but other people wanted and gotten Salt and Saffron by Kamila Shamsie and, another book for the Salley Vickers binge, Where Three Roads Meet. So could this be the very last book binge? Well I cant say for definate as if I am not to buy a book throughout the whole of 2010 I may need one final mass binge to see me through. For now though let’s just see how the rest of November goes and if I can manage that small amount of time!

Have you been on a book binge of late? Are you under a book ban? How do you cope with the guilt after a binge, if you have any, or the restraint a ban takes? Have you read any of the above? Have you any advice for me? Should I try a year with no book buying?

Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell

There are many reasons why joining a book group can be so much fun and I am actually planning on posting more on that next week. For now though I will just mention the fact that one of the things that I started a new book group for was that it would make me read books I normally wouldn’t, books I have always wanted to try or books that I am a little bit intimidated by and challenge me. George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was one such book (intimidating but always wanted to read) and it was the choice for last months book group and brought out some major procrastination in me as it seemed immense, it probably didn’t help I did Animal Farm at school and hated it.

1984 (I am not going to write Nineteen Eighty-Four every time as will be a long post and my fingers may bleed/be worn to stumps) was originally written in 1948 and is Orwell’s idea of what the future could be in a world 40 years on. What is amazing with this book is just how much of what Orwell thought might happen actually has, in fact it is quite worrying in some ways.

The story of 1984 is told through the eyes of Winston Smith a member of the Party working for the Ministry of Truth in London the capital of Air Strip One (once Britain now really an additional part of America and the superpower Oceania). The story starts with Winston’s act of crime as he starts to write a diary something deeply criminal and forbidden in the totalitarian world in which he lives where the eyes of Big Brother are everywhere. Once taking part in this act of rebellion and ‘thought crime’ Winston knows he is ‘dead’ it is simply a matter of time as to when the Thought Police will get him because once you rebel they know, Big Brother knows everything nothing escapes his eyes.

Once Winston commits the crime he tries to throw himself into the path of The Brotherhood the rebellious underground criminals who want to see Big Brother’s demise. Along with Julia a girl at work who he commits another heinous crime with, the act of sex for enjoyment and falls in love with, they give themselves up to fighting Big Brother but how long can they go unnoticed and can anyone truly beat Big Brother and The Party? I could tell you but most of you have probably read this, and those of you who haven’t shouldn’t have the ending spoilt.

I loved this book, I thought it was marvellous. This was something I was very grateful for as I left it until the day of book group to start it (thank heavens I am not working at the moment) and once the first page was opened I genuinely couldn’t put it down. Oh, apart from the book within the book which I found decidedly dull but still went through anyway and it was a minor blip of twenty pages. This book falls into so many genres as it could be labelled a thriller, it’s a classic and of course falls into the science fiction category which I sometimes have problems with. Not in this case though.

This book was so beautifully and sparsely written despite being a dark book with quite a depressing and cloying subject matter it didn’t weigh me down or depress me. It did make me think and things like Orwell’s predictions of terrorism, Newspeak and even the Lottery shocked me by how accurate they are in the now. I could actually rattle on about all the subjects Orwell picked upon for hours and hours but that wouldn’t be very interesting for you. Suffice to say I thought this book was amazing and I am now going to have to rearrange my readers table so that this classic can be on it.

It has made me wonder if I should re-read the books I was given and detested during my schooling years such as ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘A Room With A View’ the latter in particular sends a shudder of dislike down my spine, I didn’t like my sixth form college very much is all I will say. Now along with ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ this Orwell novel has become school taught classic, though I missed both and now as an adult reader I have loved, I wonder if I would have at school?  Thinking about it probably not as if I had been made to read and re-read 1984 at school I would have probably ended up hating it. Reading it for book group was another matter and was possibly my favourite discussion so far… more on that next week though.

What are your thoughts on 1984? What other Orwell is great to read? Which books did you study at school so much you just ended up not liking them? Which ‘school taught’ classics have you missed and want to read or have read as an adult? Should I try Animal Farm again?

Biographies & Autobiographies

It’s a very timely question for me this week in three ways with Booking Through Thursdays as it is all about Biographies and Autobiographies. The question is “Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?” Now my instant and simple answer is that I like autobiographies that are written by the person whose memoirs they are. I am not a fan of ghost written books and even the idea of someone telling the story as another person types it all up for them seems wrong to me. Biographies I haven’t tried really, maybe I should after all certain people from the past can’t write their own autobiographies now can they.

The first reason that this is a timely question is that I have actually been mulling over my biography and autobiography shelf over the last few days as I think I want to read one but am just not sure who by. Is it time for another book about The Mitford’s or maybe one of Nancy Mitford’s biographies of French royalty? Do I want to read about someone political or a celeb? As you can see (there are more books than could get in this picture) there is a range to choose from, will I like a book that isn’t written by the person who it’s about?

I won’t lie to you that I love a good celebrity autobiography. If anyone out there thinks that I am a book snob the next line is sure to make you think twice and possibly make you ponder on how good my choices of reading are. I have read and own every Spice Girl autobiography there is to get, even the books about weight loss and the one about Victoria’s wardrobe. I know its wrong but it’s a complete and utter guilty pleasure and I did actually by them when they came which is almost ten years ago. I also had the Appleton sister’s one, wow telling you all this makes me feel much better. I haven’t read them again though.

I do still have a few celebrity memoirs on the shelves, randomly though yesterday I bought another one. The book that I am not sure I would have admitted to buying if today’s BTT question hadn’t been so apt was ‘Send Yourself Roses’ by Kathleen Turner. Now I am quite picky about these books (I didn’t use to be) these days and it has to actually be someone that I admire and I think Kathleen is a wonderful actress and has been in some of my favourite films plus she has had a very interesting life and so this is going to be an utter guilty pleasure (without any guilt at all) to read. In fact I still have some from last Christmas as though Alan Carr and Dawn French were read speedily I still haven’t read Julie Walters and that’s another one I might dig out now.

Christmas is of course coming, I don’t know if you have noticed but the moment it becomes November 1st in the UK the adverts suddenly have Christmas all over them. It’s still weeks away! However in my other work Christmas is right now if not almost over as we close the issue next week, and being in charge of the book pages now (hoorah) I am hunting down the big Christmas sellers and what have started to creep up? You guessed it autobiographies; as yet though I haven’t seen many I want to read apart from one I must, must read and that is Notes to my Mother in Law by Phyllida Law (Emma Thompsons mum) it looks a hoot. I am sure I will get some rogue ones though, does anyone else’s relatives by them autobiographies at Christmas that are so not them, I got a Katie Price one once, what’s been your worst?

So what are you more a fan of biographies or autobiographies? Who do you like to read about? Which ones have you got? Which ones are on your wish list? What’s been the worst one you have read and what’s been the best?

November Novella’s

Now I know that I said a few days ago that I wouldn’t be joining in any more challenges but rules are made for breaking aren’t they? I saw on Lizzy’s blog that she was joining in with Bibliophiles “The November Novella Challenge” and the temptation to read a selection of books I wouldn’t normally reach out for, though I have now found I have read quite a few unwittingly, seemed too great and so before I knew it I had signed up. Before I went gaily whizzing off into the internet ether or ran full blaze to the local charity shops in the hunt, which is what I would normally do, I stopped and did some research instead.

I really wanted to know how long a novella actually is and unhelpfully Wikipedia only gives you the length in words. I don’t know about you but I tend not to count the number of words in a book as it sort of distracts you from the reading of it. I decided to go with the Novellas.org definition and count a novella being between 60 – 150 pages long. I also saw they had a list of top novellas which I wrote down only to be shocked by how many I have already read, not loads but more than I thought…

I then made some big decisions. I would definitely do the challenge but there had to be some rules as I have already set myself the goal of reading books that take my fancy, no planned reading and also buying less books (though as you will see from a post later in the week this has already gone down the swanny somewhat after being up north and having a binge) so I needed rules. Well actually there were only two. First rule had to be that I wouldn’t set a goal of how many I would read or an order, I would simply dip in and out of them. The second was that I could only read novella’s I already owned, which seeing as I had read most of those listed was a bit of a pain until I discovered I actually owned quite a few in my endless TBR.

• The Visitor – Maeve Brennan
• The Skeleton in the Cupboard – Alice Thomas Ellis
• The White Castle – Orhan Pamuk
• The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark
• Fire in the Blood – Irene Nemirovsky
• A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle
• Lady Susan – Jane Austen
• Death in Venice – Thomas Mann

I actually think I own more than this but these were the books that were to hand and I couldn’t go ferreting around forever as I would loose reading time (and as I haven’t yet started 1984 for book group tomorrow I need to be reading lots today) I may come across more as I wander through my TBR shelves and boxes who knows, but the main idea is no pressure. So let’s see how I do. I was going to try and sneakily say We Have Always Lived at the Castle by Shirley Jackson was the first November Novella but actually I read it in October.

Is anyone else joining in with this, can I tempt any of you? What have your experiences with the novella been? Have I chosen a good diverse mix? Which ones have you read in the past and loved or loathed? Do you like novellas or not? Would you much rather read a book you can get engrossed in than ones that’s concise?

We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson

As it was Halloween during the weekend just past I wanted to read something that was sufficiently spooky or ghostly or chilling. I found what I thought would be the perfect read free with The Times last week as I mentioned. The book in question was Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle which is a book that after seeing wonderful reviews of by Claire, Simon T, and Kim I have been on the hunt for this book along with the fact that Shirley Jackson is supposed to be a mistress of the chilling.

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.”

Even the start of We Have Always Lived in the Castle is quite a chilling one told by the youngest daughter of the Blackwood family Merricat (from Mary Katherine) as she tells us that in a crumbling old building, we presume a castle, surrounded by woodland live her, her sister and her aging Uncle Julian (who seems to have Alzheimer’s and even believes Merricat is dead) as outcasts from the nearby village. In fact in the opening chapters we see how the village treat her like some kind of leper, they will chide and tease her but they won’t come near her for fear of her family name and past.

I won’t give too much away about the book suffice to say there is a great mystery around her families death and one that as you read along you gain more snippets into until you find out one shocking twist which did actually make me let out a small gasp. The sinister tone of the book is underlying for most of the book and in some ways becomes much darker on the arrival of their cousin Charles who Merricat takes and instant dislike to before things come to a rather dark and dramatic head.

Whilst a chilling tale about… well that would give everything away so lets just leave it at that. Whilst being a chilling tale this is also a book very much about how society can cast out those who are different through gossip and rumour. It also looks at how a child can block out horrific events and cope with huge loss. Merricat is a fascinating and insightful character who copes with bad things by using three magic words, burying household items, sending herself on a winged horse to the moon, talking long walks and talks with her cat and attaching family heirlooms to trees as rituals to ward of evil and possibly block out the past.

Though this is a relatively small book its not one you can read quickly as there is so much to take in both in terms of storyline, back plot and the relationships between the characters as well as the descriptions of all that surround them from the house itself to the wood and village beyond. It also looks at some big subjects as I mentioned and though I personally had a slow and unsure start with it by the end I was gripped and it packed a punch that will stay with me for quite some time. I am glad I gave this a go and am very eager to read much more Shirley Jackson. Where to go next though?

Double Booked

Another short post today as whilst I am discussing being double booked I am also currently looking after double trouble. Twins are very cute but its double the nappies, concentration on where one has crawled off to whilst the other crawls off elsewhere and the like. Phew… its madness but wonderful, though oddly I havent done that much extra reading, funny that! Anyway I digress. The other day Dovergreyreader was discussing the book group she is in, which I think is a very interesting way of running a group with monthly themes but more on that another time, and one book she mentioned another member had chosen for scandal was this…

Now the cover grabbed me instantly and then when I read the blurb (odd this after me saying I don’t trust blurbs all too well the other day) I was intrigued “Switch off those TVs, kill your mobiles and settle down with the most controversial book ever written. Once denounced as ‘wicked’, ’sordid’, ‘cheap’ ‘moral filth’, PEYTON PLACE was the top read of its time and sold millions of copies worldwide. Way before TWIN PEAKS, SURVIVOR or BIG BROTHER, the curtains were twitching in the mythical New England town of Peyton Place, and this soapy story exposed the dirty secrets of 1950s small-town America: incest, abortion, adultery, repression and lust.” As you can see I then got it and did a small whoop for joy in a secondhand store in central London when I got it brand new for £4!!!

However then on a trip to the 5 for £2 shop can you guess what I then came across for 50p each, of course you can, I call this bookish sod’s law…

Well I couldnt just get Return to Peyton Place could I when they were a series, and especially in very 1960’s simplistic style fabulous covers. So I had to get both! What’s more I am refusing to part with the first one. Now I am blogging about this as I know other people will make me feel much better by telling me this has happend to them won’t you all? Please do as otherwise The Converted One may be right when they said “sometimes you just know no bounds… no book bounds at all”.

So who else out there has more than on copy of a certain book? What is it and why the two (or more) copies?

Sensation Season Sunday Update

Now just a quick post from me but I thought that the day after Halloween would be the perfect one (as its also a Sunday) to update you all with just what the devil is happening with the Sensation Season and fingers crossed you should be able to go and find the new schedule just here.

Now as you will be able to see I have moved things around abit what I have made sure I don’t do with opnes which people seem keen to read-a-long with the most is move them forward and in fact I have in the main moved The Woman in White, The Moonstone and East Lynne back so that it gives people more of a chance to read them. I will admit that sadly I have gotten rid of a couple of the books and joining Poor Miss Finch are Hide and Seek and Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins but this is in part because I actually don’t want to have read all of his work before 2010, I wouldnt have anything to look forward to. I have only just noticed I will have read everything by Mary Elizabeth Braddon that you can currently get but thats just how the cookie crumbles. The other part of getting rid of a few was that a few weekends are manic and though I love reading might offend people such as my Gran if I have my face in a book the whole time!

Now then I also wanted to take this opportunity to finally announce the winner of The Man in the Picture giveaway that I promised you all weeks and weeks ago. I put all the names in an empty pumpkin last night and got oneof the twins I am looking after to pull a name out. The lucky winner as chosen by one year old Iris (I hope Maisie doesn’t sulk at not picking a winner when she grows up, note that she wasnt interested and was much more enthralled by the toys her big cousin brought from London) is Lizzy Siddal so please email me your address and it will be popped in the post pronto.

Now back to original as opposed to modern Sensation novels, the next one will be next Sunday and its the one with my favourite title… The Dead Secret! Hopefully some of you will be joining in? How are you all getting on with Sensation novels if you are joining in or just reading them at your own pace? Which one I havent read yet are you most looking forward to? Let me know.

Conjugal Rites – Paul Magrs

I decided in the lead up to Halloween that rather than read a ‘chilling tale’, I would wait for that on the actual night and instead in the lead up to All Hallows Eve I would read something with a supernatural rather than spooky theme to it instead. Now if you mix a good helping of the supernatural, a few scares, two old ladies, the town of Whitby, lots of mystery and some camp adventure what do you get? Why, the Brenda & Effie mysteries of course.

Conjugal Rites is the third in the Brenda and Effie series though author Paul Magrs manages to make all the books intertwine and yet they can be stand alone books so you could read them in any order. Brenda and Effie live in the seaside town of Whitby, which of course is famous for its supernatural tales such as Dracula. Magrs captures the town wonderfully with all its cobbled streets and touristy hot spots. Amongst all this though lie tales of the supernatural which B&B owning Brenda and Antiquities Shop owner Effie are the unlikely heroines who have been given the task of protecting Whitby from the perils that lurk in the night, and indeed the day.

In this instalment both our elderly heroines have to face their pasts which come back to haunt them (excuse the pun) as it were. One of Brenda’s ex’s Frank turns up making her face her past and literally drags her through hell, whiles Effie faces up to her family past in order to save Brenda along with their delightful sidekick Robert. Though there is a main plot what I also love about this series is every book does actually have several small sub-plots running through them that all accumulates in the end. With wonderful, though evil, characters such as Mrs Claus who owns the Christmas Hotel where every night is Christmas eve and every day is Christmas) I don’t know who could failed to be won over by this series its just marvellous.

Being the third in the series though I am trying not to give too much away even though they are stand alone if you do want to start from the very first one and then go onto the second one before this there are a few secrets I could giveaway that might lessen the fun as you start from the beginning. Was that me slightly over complicating things then? If you love a good plot, or even a few of them, quirky characters including two brilliant leading ladies, lots of laughter and something a bit dark then I think these books would be right up your alley.

I have noticed Paul has started a blog so if you want to find out even more you can go there. There is also one of his other non-supernatural books I have looming on my TBR that this has reminded me I simply must read. It’s called Exchange and it’s about a young man called Simon who along with his Gran has a voracious appetite for books and reading which leads them onto adventures and mysteries. Does that remind you of anyone? Ha!    

For actual Halloween I will be reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson which I will share my thoughts with when am back from Manchester. What are you going to be reading by candlelight/torchlight/on the sofa with all the lights on this Halloween?

Books for a Break Away

Now I am off up north on my own this weekend which involves (as the trains have gotten so ridiculously expensive already in the lead up to Christmas) two almost six hour journeys each way. However the fact I will be seeing my 1 year old twin cousin’s makes the trip very much worth it, though the prospect of looking after them on my own for a day or two is slightly daunting. So being in the fortunate position that I can read on a coach (some people can’t and I feel for them) I am planning on using this as perfect binge reading time and so have had to ponder over what to read for 12 hours.

Now taking books on your travels is always a tough call. You don’t want to be weighed down for a start, though that hasn’t quite worked as you will see below shortly. There is also the worry of what sort of book you will be in the mood for and with twelve hours free who knows? It also doesn’t help that I will be starting a new book tomorrow and so as a rule I always take a few books and this time I decided to take five with me. After much mulling and wandering through my bookshelves (so not planned reading its all been random) I decided on the following…

• 1984 – George Orwell (ok one bit of planned reading as this is for book group on Thursday)
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson (a short book for Halloween evening and have heard some rave reviews)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery (been tempting me for ages)
• Small Island – Andrea Levy (one of my tomes have been meaning to read)
• The Year of the Flood – Margaret Atwood (something new which I have been meaning to read)

Now if you would like to get your hands on a ‘chilling’ tale for Halloween you can (I have just finished a Halloween related book to discuss tomorrow) get the Shirley Jackson for free (well 90p), as I did, with The Times as its available until the end of today. Just to give you a tip off as its alost a tenner new in the shops.

Speaking of newspapers etc, I am taking some bookish magazines with me such as Books Quarterly which Waterstones publish and I love, plus the wonderful Persephone Biannually which I have half read already (lovely to see lots of you in it). I am also taking a catalogue or two as Persephone and Oxford Classics aren’t just book catalogues but glossy wonderful and delightful magazines that give you much more than a blurb.

So all in all the twelve hours should fly by before I know it! How do you choose the books you take away with you on holiday? Do you have a selection or just one and hope for the best? What bookish magazines do you simply have to get every issue of?

All About The Blurb

As usual Booking Through Thursday has made me think about things differently, which is always a good thing. Today the question is “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

Now I sat and thought about five words that would make me read a book instantly from the blurb and its actually really hard in the end I came up with; scandal – charming – surreal – mysterious – suspicious. I don’t know what that says about me to be honest. I can also guarantee that a book that involves a small village and its inhabitants will intrigue me as village based books has become a new love. The five that would put me off are; cricket – trolls – unbelievable love story (count that as one day) – aliens – awesome. But how often do I buy a book because of a blurb?

It’s actually quite a rare thing in all honesty as I tend to go on other peoples recommendations, articles in the press, bookish radio shows, book blogs and authors I know. Now that makes me sound like I am not adventurous and don’t try new books but I do. I just tend to go into new book shops on a mission to find a specific, browsing is simply dangerous. Second hand stores actually will make me meander and browse more, I also will happily pick up a book that has an amazing retro cover from the 70’s just because I like the books look. Very materialistic and shallow but we all have our faults.

I then thought about my favourite book Rebecca. I bought this because about three people had recommended it and then I saw the TV show with Diana Rigg (who is one of my favourite actors) but would I have actually bought it from the blurb?

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again …Working as a lady’s companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers …Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

I am not 100% sure I would. It sort of sounds like a throwaway romance rather than a dark and brooding masterpiece (that’s my opinion, it’s not official though maybe it should be) though I do like the terms “haunting story” and “very bleak”. I don’t think I would have bought it from the blurb alone.

The other thing that bothers me about blurbs is often they can lie. I remember being desperate to read Underground by Tobias Hill as living in London I like books based here. This one really leapt out at me as I like a good crime and one based on the underground where a man is serially pushing women in front of the tube seemed like an ideal thriller for a commute, as you can see from my review that isn’t really what the book was about at all. Not the authors fault but since then I have been asked to read more Hill and said ‘hmmm maybe one day’.

So what about you? What words or phrases in blurbs make you rush to buy a book or promptly put it back down? Have you ever had a book blurb lie like I have on more than one occasion? Would you have bought your favourite book based on its blurb? Do let me know.