Rivers of London

December 5, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

For years my friend has been telling me how much she loves Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. Every time she mentioned it I would nod and say I must try it (she did make it sound brilliant) but my TBR is huge and somehow it never made it to the top.

Then a couple of months ago my book club chose to read the first book. I was finally able to say I had taken the advice and read it – and also that I now understood all the fuss because I enjoyed it so much. Having taken at least five years to start the series, I have read the first three books over the past two months and I will shortly be starting the fourth.

This is actually the second book in the series

The series is a great mix of detective story and magic with a few ghosts and myths thrown in. I have been loving reading them.

It just shows that you should always listen to your friends – they do know you after all!

Struggling

November 14, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

This has been a bit of a slow week for me reading wise. I have plenty of books which I really want to read but the books I have actually been reading have not been holding my interest.

First I had After the Party by Cressida Connolly. This was my book club’s choice for November and for some reason I was not looking forward to it. I kept putting off starting it and eventually began it about two days before the meeting. Once I did get started I raced through it – I thought it was well written and the words flowed easily off the page. I did however seem to be constantly waiting for a momentous event that never materialised. I think it was just not the right time for me to read it – most of my book club loved it and we had a great discussion about it.

I have also been reading Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. This one is for an Instagram readalong hosted by Shelbi over at The Nobby Life. I was really looking forward to it as I normally love Gaskell’s books but again, I am finding it a bit slow going and I still feel as if I’m waiting for something to happen.

I don’t dislike it though – it just hasn’t fully captured my imagination yet. I’m only halfway through so there is plenty of time!

As I said, it’s not really the fault of the books. I have had a busy few weeks and what I really need now is a light, fast-paced, easy read. It’s important I think not to push oneself too much to read things one doesn’t enjoy just for the sake of a discussion. Reading is meant to be fun after all.

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In Praise and Celebration of Book Clubs

October 3, 2018October 3, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

For many years I wanted to join a book club. The idea of meeting a lot of like minded people to talk about books was wonderful but I was hampered by two things. Firstly, there weren’t any near me and secondly I was hesitant about committing myself to reading books I didn’t like. Not that I expected to hate them all – I just knew there would be some I didn’t.

However, when there was an opportunity to set one up at work I jumped at the chance. I am so glad I did! Yes, there have been books I really did not like but there have been others that I loved – even some that I would not have picked up if left to myself.

I have also genuinely enjoyed the discussions and it is great to be able to have them with a group of people who love books just as much as me. Besides, I’ve learnt that if I really hate a book I don’t have to finish it. That makes an interesting discussion too.

Side note: this is neither a book I hated, nor one I didn’t want to read. I suggested the group read it for our meeting next week and I am gripped by it. Hopefully they have been enjoying it too!