The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them

by Antonia Fraser (Editor), Kamila Shamsie (Contributor)

In this work 43 leading writers explain what first made them interested in reading. They describe the comics and childhood classics that first inspired them to read, and what today continues to do so. Contributors include Catherine Cookson, Jeanette Winterson, John Mortimer and Sue Townsend.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Essays, Reference, Biography, Literature, Short Stories

352 pages, Paperback

Published May 25, 2015

About the author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works, including the biographies Mary, Queen of Scots (a 40th anniversary edition was published in May 2009), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II and The Gunpowder Plot (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). She has written five highly praised books which focus on women in history, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century Britain (Wolfson Award for History, 1984), The Warrior Queens: Boadecia's Chariot, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Franco-British Literary Prize 2001), which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006 and most recently Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. She was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. Antonia Fraser was made DBE in 2011 for her services to literature. Her most recent book is Must You Go?, celebrating her life with Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 2 out of 5]

E firesc să nu fi auzit de toți cei 43 de scriitori de limbă engleză antologați în acest volum. M-am oprit numai la autorii pe care i-am citit: Doris Lessing, John Fowles, A. S. Byatt, Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson. Am auzit, dar n-am citit deocamdată nimic de Kamila Shamsie. Scriitorii cu pricina au dezvăluit ce cărți au identificat în casă - după ce au învățat să citească -, ce cărți i-au „format” și, în finalul răspunsului, au propus (sau nu) cîte un Top Ten. Unii au pus în listă cărțile preferate, alții au notat cărțile care trebuie citite de orice om care vrea să nu moară incult. Așa găsește de cuviință publicistul și politicianul laburist Michael Foot (Eseurile lui Montaigne intră, firește, la must read).

Așadar, cîteva recomandări prestigioase:

Doris Lessing
Menționează: Homer, „Iliada”, Henry Fielding, „Tom Jones: Povestea unui copil găsit”, Stendhal, „Roșu și negru”, Gogol, „Mantaua”; Turgheniev, „Părinți și copii”, Dostoievski, „Demonii” („o carte profetică”), Mark Twain, „Aventurile lui Huckleberry Finn”, Marcel Proust, „În căutarea timpului trecut”, Virginia Woolf, „Spre far”.

John Fowles
Precizează din capul locului că urăște listele „nu pentru ceea ce conțin, ci pentru ceea ce lasă pe dinafară”. Recenzează cîțiva autori pe care i-a îndrăgit: Homer, „Odiseea” (JF consideră că nu te poți apuca de scris fără să fi citit Homer), Daniel Defoe („părintele romanului englez”), Voltaire, „Candide: Sau Optimismul” (o carte scrisă „într-o franceză delicioasă”), Jane Austen, Thomas Love Peacock (pe nedrept uitat).

Margaret Atwood
I-au plăcut poveștile cu și despre animale. Cînd a citit Moby-Dick de Herman Melville s-a identificat cu balena. În schimb, detestă listele și clasamentele, fiindcă sînt prea „strîmte” și-ți îngrădesc spațiul opțiunii. Se oprește la 5 titluri: Lawrence Durrell, „Cvartetul din Alexandria” (probabil, se referă la toate cele 4 volume), Louise Erdrich, „The Beet Queen” (nu știu dacă s-a tradus în românește), Toni Morrison, „Preaiubita”, Chinua Achebe, „O lume se destramă”, Nawal El Saadawi, „The Fall of the Imam”. Adaugă o listă de autori canadieni insuficient cunoscuți. Nu lipsește Alice Munro.

Jeanette Winterson
A găsit numai 6 cărți în casă. Printre ele două Biblii și „Concordanța desăvîrșită dintre Vechiul și Noul Testament” de un anume Crudon. Mama ei i-a recomandat să citească minuțios preceptele din „Deuteronom”. Cînd a crescut, și-a cumpărat cărți. Le ascundea sub saltea. Mama ei a descoperit frauda și a dat foc cărților: „she burned everything”. Momentul amintește o scenă din Don Quijote. Jeanette Winterson a citit în baie, pe furiș, Freud și D. H. Lawrence. Printre cărțile preferate: Boethius, „Mîngîierile filosofiei”, Emily Brontë, „La răscruce de vînturi”, Virginia Woolf, „Camera lui Jacob”, Gertrude Stein, „Look at me now & Here I am”, Italo Calvino, „Orașele invizibile”, volume de poezii de William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Bishop, T. S. Eliot, Robert Graves, Adrienne Rich.

Conchide: „Nu-mi plac listele. Mint”.

[Jane Louis-Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was the rich vein of ego-wanking pseuditude of so many contributors that put me off, really. Germaine Greer sounds like a Philomena Cunk sketch satirising Germaine Greer. Many authors seem desperately keen to tell you which authors they kept away from - Beatrix Potter and Enid Blyton, usually - so that you can admire the taste and discretion they showed even as infants. Some they want to tell you that they were reduced to reading under the covers with a torch (or candle, allegedly) or while they were doing the hoovering (because their Philistine, suburban parents having sadly failed to recognise their genius, had encumbered them with tiresome chores).

There are some more interesting sections in between the unresolved family issues and smuggery. Tom Stoppard admits he wished he could see the others before he wrote his, and is the only one that acknowledges the inherent one-upmanship in the exercise. Margaret Atwood, Ruth Rendell, Patrick Leigh Fermor and, surprisingly, Michael Foot are all entertaining and enlightening.

This was originally published a few years ago as a Fundraiser for the Give a Book charity and was reissued last year in an updated (more women, some black people) version. I prefer reading about the lives of long-dead authors, really, so I am not really its target audience.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always interested in the books other people read so this book was fascinating to me. There are some themes which emerge very clearly from it. A love of reading develops very early for a lot of people - especially authors. Many read because they like being lost in someone else's world and as an escape from their own lives.

I was surprised by how many people - both male and female - read Richmal Crompton's William stories. I too read and enjoyed them - much more in general than stories about girls. I was surprised that no one mentioned my own two favourites in the girls' school story genre - Elise J Oxenham and Elionor M Brent-Dyer. The essays are by authors both old and young and yet many of them read the same books as children. A A M.ilne was a feature in many childhoods as was Lewis Carroll

When listing favourite books, many said being restricted to ten makes the list almost impossible and that a list of favourite books will vary almost day to day. Many authors cited books by Dickens as well as Proust and Jane Austen. A few mentioned Trollope and the Brontes as well as Evelyn Waugh and Somerset Maugham.

I found this a reassuring book to read as it made me realise that there are other people who know they HAVE to read. It is an addiction and several mentioned being addicted to books and never going anywhere without a book to read. I am the same and always have been and many people in my life have regarded that as strange and as though it is an avoidance of real life. I don't agree and neither do the authors writing in this book. Books reassure you that you aren't alone in what you are feeling and experiencing and they can give you respite from trying times as well as extra pleasure during the good ones.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love books about books, especially about people's love for books. However, this collection lacked diversity. The same books and authors got mentioned again and again and again.

[Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

43 writers writing about the books that got them into reading and inspired their careers? I'm sold.

But it quickly becomes apparent that this is a very British-centric collection of recollections. Very British. And very, um, what's a nice word for dated? Sure, this is a 20-some year old anthology that's been updated with 5 new authors, but since the essays are arranged by chronological order of the author's birth year (starting 1909!), a vast majority of the books and authors remembered end up being the same with the essays sometimes being poignant but ultimately sounding a bit repetitious. The collective evocation of a bygone era is strong but the better essays differentiate themselves by their unique approach to the subject or their not being confined to just listing books but adding their personal experiences. I hope there's a similar collection of essays from writers (and others) from around the world. The variety would do it good (well?).

Aside from the always interesting memories of when these writers entered into the world of books and the possibilities of reading, it was funny to see how the same author or title could be praised in one essay and reviled in another (equal love and hate for Little Women it seems) or how everyone remembers with horror Struwwelpeter or the endless confusion over the gender of Richmal Crompton.

The authors with the most interesting essays (according to me) are: Doris Lessing, Judith Kerr, Jan Morris, Edna O'Brien, Margaret Atwood (the funniest one), Germaine Greer, Gita Mehta, Buchi Emecheta, Sally Beauman, Sue Townsend, Rana Kabbani, Jeanette Winterson, Kamila Shamsie, Rory Stewart, and Tom Wells.

[Stephanie Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I was a little disappointed. The various favorite books seemed a little too bland. It didn't surprise me that in this British book, I would find many references to Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton, but the sameness of the selections did start to disappoint. Then I found the essay by Gita Mehta where she describes the lively sale of books on the streets in India "Sabib. The latest from Plato, The Republic" as if it had been written just the week before. Then there are her accounts of the multiple libraries. One of her favorite libraries took up three rungs on a fire escape. She could trade books she had gotten as gifts for new titles. Says Mehta, "But then I am an addict, addicted to reading by those magicians sitting cross-legged on the pavement endlessly arranging and rearranging their stock, who lured us away from the little world of the self into whole galaxies of the imagination. How they would have scorned the French observation that 'after every other pleasure proves illusory there remains only the pleasures of the stomach' as they shouted to us like circus barkers, corrupting us with their seductive litany of titles.
Then there is Buchi Emecheta who was born in Nigeria. She ran away to a Methodist school and her parents consented to her remaining there for two years. I love her take on the Big Bad Wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood:" "In our families, grandmothers helped a great deal in making life harmonious; they settled cases between young people, they told us stories with songs in the moonlight. So I did not see why the wolf would choose to eat her up. After a while I knew the words of most of the stories by heart. And I used to start by telling the wolf :' Now you be a good wolf today and don't eat the grandmother up. She's done nothing to you.' And she notes the irony of reading her first book by a black person when she came to England. "I did not get the essence of what he was saying in "The Fire Next Time," but to see Jimmy Baldwin's picture on the cover gave me so much hope.
Sue Townsend opens her essay with " I was eight before I could read. My teacher was a nasty woman who looked like a dyspeptic badger." She accrues a fortune in library fines "because I could never bear to take the books back." She befriends the man she meets in a cafe who teaches her how to pronounce Dostoevsky.
I could continue quoting forever. One line in particular sticks with me. It's from Jeanette Winterson's essay: "For some, perhaps for many, books are spare time. For me, the rest of life is spare time."
Amen.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book in a social media giveaway. It is a collection of short essays by over 40 leading writers, where they talk about their earliest recollections of reading, the books that inspired them, and their favourite books of all time.

This is a fascinating glimpse into how certain people become avid readers, the importance of reading to their lives, and how their own development as writers was linked to the books they read. The writers represented in the book cover a wide range of ages and genres - there are poets, novelists, biographers etc - and were born in different parts of the world. Nevertheless, their experiences are often very similar, and the same classic books appear regularly across their Top Tens. A further connection is that, as you might expect, many of the writers featured were attracted more by style and the use of language than by plot.

Very enjoyable - the love of books and reading shines through, the impassioned praise of libraries is welcome in an age where libraries are under threat, and it is interesting to see how all book lovers share many common feelings and experiences, even if most of us don't go on to be writers. Recommended for the book lover.

[Drew Pyke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a strange concept for a book. The only learning from it I had was the variety of choices rather than a template as you'd expect in this industry. It wouldn't be in my top ten (see what I did there?)

[Alayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book :)
And it brought back so many memories of my early years of reading ... reading a book in bed under the covers at night by torch light
... ALWAYS having a book to hand and being told to "Put that book down!"
... getting annoyed if ever a Birthday or Christmas Day passed WITHOUT A NEW BOOK arriving!!!
... perusing through the bookshelves in my Granddad's house looking for something different

So many books to read and so little time in which to read them :)

[Milva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading another very British book about the books and reading I realised two things.
Firstly, now I know more than I have ever wanted to know about the British children books.
Secondly, when it comes to my reading history I have more in common with people born in the 20's than in the 80's which is mildly worrisome.
So now onto another one! (or maybe better not).

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

But 17 stars for Jeannette Winterson's contribution, along with Margaret Atwood's... A few others were excellent too, but some of the older entries came off a bit elitist, even for my taste.

[Steve Hornsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderately interesting. I skim read most of it. Noted a few books I wanted to read.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out of 5]

It may be rude, but whenever I visit someone for the first time, I look for, and then at, the bookcase. Is my host a kindred spirit? As Antonia Fraser writes in her introduction, there is a “deep division . . . between those for whom books are an obsession, and those who are prepared, good-humorously enough, to tolerate their existence.” In this book, we get the chance to peek at the books Tom Stoppard, John Fowles, and others couldn’t imagine being without.
The project began as a way for the ubiquitous British bookseller W. H. Smith to celebrate its bicentenary in 1992. A quarter century later, it reappeared, with a share of the profits earmarked for the British charity Give a Book.
The book collects essays by 43 authors (five added for the second edition). The entries are arranged chronologically, starting with Stephen Spender (b. 1909) and ending with Tom Wells (b. 1985). That’s a span of three-quarters of a century, so the surprise lay more in the books mentioned throughout this collection than in the sudden appearance in the last essay of Harry Potter.
The authors were asked to describe their early reading and identify what did (or did not) influence them. They were also to say what they now enjoy reading and were asked to list ten favorite books.
Many favorites were named by nearly all. While some (Alice, Treasure Island, Jane Austen) were mentioned invariably favorably, I was heartened that other celebrated books were praised by some and panned by others (not even Winnie the Pooh escapes). I guess I need to be reassured that having your own likes and dislikes is okay.
The Brontë sisters pose a special case. Listed by many as favorites, they nonetheless seem to have a lot to answer for. More than one female writer cited an adolescent fascination with Rochester and Heathcliff as the starting point of a series of relationships with Mr. Wrong.
Since the book was sponsored by a British bookseller, it would be carping to complain about how “British” the result is. Lewis Carroll and Robert Louis Stevenson I knew, but Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton don’t seem to have made it to my neighborhood growing up. And there were several essays by authors whose early reading took place in Nigeria, Syria, the Indian subcontinent, and other locations. These were among the most interesting.
It’s inevitable in such an extensive collection that the entries were uneven. I wasn’t surprised how good the essays by such as Margaret Atwood and Jeannette Winterson were but also became curious about writers I’ve never heard of such as Jane Gardam and Rory Stewart. On the basis of their essays, I’m curious to check out their books. Some of the others previously unknown to me can remain that way if their contribution here is a fair sample of their writing. Nevertheless, if I’m wrong about Paul Sayer, for instance, whose writing struck me as stiff and pretentious, I hope someone will enlighten me.
Most authors identify themselves as having been avid, even addicted readers in childhood. While I’m sure obsession can accomplish a great deal, I began to grow suspicious of those who claimed that at age 12, after having absorbed Jane Austen, they soon conquered the complete Dickens. At times I suspected that memory may have augmented the achievement. Then there were those who boasted of their non-book childhood homes and their late start at reading. I believed some of them but also wondered whether some others were posers.
All in all, the book delivers what its title promises: the pleasure of reading. It’s the kind of book you can enjoy while commuting. After reading what these writers write about reading, it struck me that perhaps these two activities can no more be separated than can inhaling and exhaling.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

fairly interesting anthology of authors writing about the books they have loved most in their lives, from childhood onwards. some of the accounts of their childhood reading is fascinating, Judith Kerr's experience of childhood reading in Germany, Switzerland, France and England for instance (she arrived in England with a vocabulary drawn from the school stories of Angela Brazil). most choose classic authors as their favourites: Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, all pop up very frequently. A few people choose a P.G. WOdehouse, one author daringly includes a Catherine Cookson in her favourites, someone else a Flashman novel, and one person goes for the Los Angeles Yellow Pages. Wendy Cope to my delight chooses the Compleet Molesworth . TImbelake Wertenbaker writes "The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. Even now I have to say it is my favourite book, the one I don't need to take to a desert island because I know it by heart." HOwever, I was most pleased by Tom Wells, the youngest author in this anthology, and the only one to choose a Barbara Pym as one of his favourites - and Excellent Women, which is my own favourite! Good for Tom.

[Stella Budrikis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made two mistakes with this book. First, I borrowed it from the library, so had a time limit on reading it. It's really a book for keeping by your bedside, to be dipped into over weeks or months. Second, I didn't realise that the authors were arranged in chronological order of birth until I reached the biographical details provided at the back of the book. As a result, I almost gave up on reading it because everyone in the first few chapters seemed to be English and have read the same books as children. Only as I kept going did I discover a diversity of backgrounds and reading experiences emerging.
Overall, an interesting read but not as engrossing as I'd hoped. It did remind me of a few books that I'd read and long ago forgotten about.

[Kylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some of the authors in this book (and I'm meaning the ones who like to take the mickey out of themselves) are great to learn of. However, there are a lot of authors here that love (and I mean LOVE) the sound of their own voice. I read it as being pretentious and I couldn't wait to finish their chapter.

But for those that I laughed with, I was genuinely interested to find out how they discovered reading and what books were in their list of fav's.

[Susan Liston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read so many of books like this now, and I always like them. As always sometimes the authors are insufferable and they ALL whine about giving a top ten list, because they all HATE lists blah blah, but at least only a couple mentioned Ulysses. That's always a relief.

[Philippa Werry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading about other people's experiences of reading, especially their favourite childhood books.

[Barbara Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

Austen, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Dickens. Must read and re-read.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spell-binding account of how our favourite authors discovered this pleasure and what their favourite reading was..

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains 43 writers and their writing on reading books and the books they enjoyed reading. Truly a pleasure of reading

[Antonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love books (and podcasts) about readers and reading. I can usually listen to people talk endlessly about their reading lives. But this book didn’t engage me as most such books do. Perhaps a combination of its being a bit dated and very Brit-centric. I’ve never heard of some of the books these people read as children. The same books are mentioned over and over. Perhaps that’s a testament to their greatness. But I did wonder at times whether people were simply listing the books they thought they should list, rather than ones they really loved.

I’m amazed that so many writers mention the Bible as one of their favorite books. Have they actually read it? Or does it seem the right thing to say?

There were a few pieces I enjoyed. And I appreciated the fact that so many of the writers had in common the childhood experience of reading being “a pleasure so intense it was practically a vice,” as Gita Mehta put it.

One thing that this collection brought home, though not for the first time, is how many of the Great Books I’ve never read — from both children’s and adult literature. I sometimes wonder how it’s possible that I’ve been a life-long reader, from childhood on, majored in English, got a masters degree in English, and yet have never read Little Women or The Hobbit or the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Flies or Animal Farm. Not even Winnie the Pooh. . . . I have missed most of Dickens, Hardy, Trollope, C.S. Lewis, Cather, Eliot, Proust, Wolfe, Waugh, and Wodehouse. . . . The list seems to be infinite and sad.

But I think Hermione Lee is probably right on in her opinion of the 10 best books in the language (of English, that is): Jane Austen, Persuasion; Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit; George Eliot, Middlemarch; Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady; Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart; Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome; F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Willa Cather, The Professor’s House; James Joyce, Ulysses. (With the possible exception of Ulysses. I was confronted with it twice in college and faked having read it — and got away with it — both times.)

And I agree with Paul Sayer that “Children make the best readers. As adults, most of them will lose their willingness to be entertained or informed by books of any kind.” True of Americans, at any rate, though he was probably talking about Brits.

One of my favorite bits in the entire book comes from Wendy Cope (who, as a child, liked stories about horses):

“But I was discriminating. At the age of nine or ten I abandoned a book after a few chapters because the heroine got keen on a boy and let him kiss her. Boring. Horse stories with romantic interest were unacceptable. Horse stories – or any other kind of stories – with a Christian message were even worse. Since my mother is of the evangelical persuasion, I was sometimes given these. They infuriated me. Religious instruction disguised as a pony book was a cheat and I wasn’t having any of it.”

[G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I didn't know better, I would think this book was written especially for me, someone who loves to read, loves to read about writers and their reading experiences in childhood, and loves lists of top ten favorite books. (I just love lists. I have a list of the top ten lists that I love, even.)
This book, as edited by British mystery writer Antonia Fraser, is a collection of essays submitted by forty plus published authors about their childhood reading and how it started their book-loving journeys. At the end of each essay is a list of their top ten favorite books, and many have a hard time narrowing that list down to just ten. The feeling that books and reading are the indisputable life blood for these folks is particularly compelling and satisfying. I myself am always curious as to what other people are reading, my friends, acquaintances, and even strangers sitting in the library, minding their own businesses. I will strain to catch a glimpse of a book cover even if it puts my life or dignity in jeopardy. I'm pretty nosey but also willing to share my current reading experiences with anyone who will listen.
My earliest memories of reading were joyfully dredged up by this collection, although I visit those memories often. I, like many, caught the habit from my mom and dad, who were always reading when I was a youngster. My sister Marcia also had a lot to do with it, giving me wonderful books for Christmas and my birthday, loaning me her favorites when she was finished with them, and setting a shining example by constantly burying her nose in volumes she could not put down. She was also a list maker, and one day I saw her reading journal, with its monthly lists of what she had read. I immediately started my very own! I always considered myself extremely lucky to have had these reading role models, for I owe so much of who I am (well, at least the good parts) to my addiction to reading.
This excellent book benefits the 'Give a Book' charity (started in 2011) that aims to provide books for those who can benefit from them. "Our core belief is that to pass on a good read - to give someone a book - is a transaction of worth."

[Jack Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book for those of us that are addicted to print. A compendium of mostly British authors
which lead you through their lives of reading.Sue Townsend mentions that she didn't learn to read
before the age of eight and that her teacher was a nasty drunk with a face like a dyspeptic badger!
So the comments at the end of Hermione Lee's piece is so relavent.She writes:
"For many young readers,the possibilities of liesured,rich,rewarding reading depend on prolific and uncensored supplies of books in schools and universities,free and well stocked libraries,teachers who have time to foster individual or eccentric interests,equal opportunities,
examination syllabuses which are flexible,imaginative and not centrally dictated,publishing houses and bookshops willing and able to cater to minority interests,and value
ascribed to uneconomical and non-vocational pursuits such as reading and thinking:all things which
the Conservative government of the last decade has been busily eradicating.
The sad thing is that in most Western governments Conservatism reigns supreme. As Irving Layton
once said ,"the sensitive write,the insensitive rule."

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens and Just William seem to be the most lauded books by these 45 writers of "Britain and her Empire." I must see if I can find these William books - apparently they did not survive any attempts to cross the North Atlantic.

I should have had pen and paper near so I could jot down all the impressive titles (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Proust) on the required list, but luckily, I'm just a reader so I can continue to gobble whatever comes to hand.

One note of thanks - the folks at Virago Press who for the past 40+ years brought us many writers mentioned here, especially in the latter part of the book (essays are ordered by the birth year of the author) whose names I would not have known but for those dedicated women.

[Patricia Boksa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed this book. Forty-two writers (mostly British) write a few pages about how they started reading as children and what they love to read now and why. Then most end with a list of their 10 favorite books. I read one or two a night. It was so so delightful to be in the company of people who love and are even obsessed about books. They described so many little things about books and reading that I could so relate to. Most were written in a straightforward yet interesting way, while a few were wild or intensely inspiring of different (Germaine Greer, Jeanette Winterston, Gita Mehta). I was actually a bit surprised at how very much I enjoyed this book.

[Ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to read about how other writers got into reading. A hundred percent were led to writing because of reading - no surprise there. Many grew up in households that encouraged the activity - the lucky few, I'd say. If I had grown up in such a household, perhaps I'd find some common ground with my folks. Classics always came up as favorite books. Some essays were truly amusing and others a little slow, but there was something to learn about all these people - even though knew less than a quarter of the names. A good read if you want to connect with like minded individuals without actually holding a conversation.

[Quiddity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very UK focused, and on authors who grew up reading the canonical classics (hence a fair amount of repetition). I greatly enjoyed about half of the essays within, particularly those by Philip Ziegler, Jan Morriss, Rana Kabbani, and Gita Mehta.

[Evalangui · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. So many addicts confessing! I´m tempted to add my own reading history in the back.

Particularly read: Jeanette Winterson and Timberlake Wertenbaker (one thing I regret is that the paper is so lovely, I haven´t dog-eared or marked my favourite passages as is my custom. Oh, come on, don´t gasp! Books are alive! They grow with annotation). Anyway, definitely worth getting your hands on.

[Ke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the essays were about the writers' reading life, though some also revealed how the reading bled into their writing. I especially liked the essays from authors I liked (e.g., JG Ballard), but not the essays from the authors I didn't like (e.g., Tom Wells). I highly recommend it, as a way to adventure into new reading challenges.