After what has been the longest Xmas/New Year break I have ever enjoyed, I am back at my desk and raring to go with a new year of reading and promotion of books/writers.
One thing I have just found time to do has been to review the stats of how many people are reading this blog and have been pleasantly surprised. Although not many people are leaving comments, the blog is being read in some surprising places. Can I just say hello to whoever is following this from S.Korea and Armenia!
For reasons which must remain under wraps I have spent Xmas reading romance. This has been a real indulgence. My understanding of the world of regency dress, manners and morals has till now been confined to what I've learned through Jane Austen. I now know far more than I did about the importance of the horse-racing world as a means to meeting new beaux. And Scottish lairds still exude the irresistible charisma which caused me to fall for my own scotsman more than 30 years ago. Pity he wasn't a laird with his own loch.
When my heap of romantic novels has all been read, I hope to spend much of 2011 seeking out and reading feelgood books with a humorous edge. Libraries here in NW England want to promote the reading of "humour" as a means to countering the economic gloom we all seem to be facing, especially here in public libraries. We intend to launch our hunt for the funniest book we have read. Details of this will follow in due course, but in the meantime if anyone wants to recommend a really funny read to take us cheerfully into 2011 please do so here or on our Facebook page NOW that's what I call READING.
Have you read 'Romance and Readership in Twentieth-Century France' by Diana Holmes? It has some very interesting observations on Romance as a genre and talks about things like Roance after Feminism.
ReplyDeleteWell worth a read.
Might I point you in the direction of Mrs Fry's Diary 828.91402 MRS.
ReplyDeleteThe fictional wife of Stephen Fry puts pen to paper and uncovers a few of her husband's sordid secrets. There are some real laugh-out-loud moments like the April 1st entry: "We told the kids a homicidal clown lives in their wardrobe today. It wasn't an April Fool, we just thought they should know."