Is it ever acceptable to give up on a book on page one? Should the classics be dropped from GCSE English? And which bookish trend deserves to go on the bonfire?
This Friday is an AUTUMN SPECIAL: the Autumn Book Tag, bookish opinions edition. Ten questions, no preparation, and answers coming straight out of my mouth, so we should all be very worried. Then it is part three of our book club read, The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway, with no spoilers as always.
The Autumn Book Tag
- Falling leaves: Is it ever acceptable to give up on a book, and how many pages does it get before you do?
- Clocks go back: With an extra hour to read, would you reread an old favourite or start something new?
- Back to school: Should we be made to read the classics at school, or does it put people off reading for life?
- Dark evenings: Does a book have to match the season, or is the "autumn read" just marketing?
- Halloween: What scares you more in a book, the supernatural or what ordinary people do to each other?
- Bonfire night: Which bookish habit or trend would you happily throw on the bonfire?
- Harvest: Is a huge to-be-read pile a comfort or a source of guilt? Is buying books a separate hobby from reading them?
- Conkers: Reading challenges and yearly targets, motivating or joyless?
- Cosy jumper: Is "cosy" a compliment or an insult when applied to a book?
- Prize season: Do prize winners actually make better reading, or do judges and readers want different things?
In this episode
- Why I think you can DNF a book at any point, and why it is always a me problem and never the book
- The honest reason I almost never reread
- Why I would take the classics out of GCSE English and bring in graphic novels and scripts instead (I am expecting flack for this one)
- My confession that I read out of season: Christmas books in summer, summer books at Christmas
- What goes on my bonfire, and it will not surprise regular listeners
- Why buying books has to be a separate hobby, or we are at situation critical in this house
- Cosy fantasy versus cosy crime, and why I like my crime a bit meaner
- The year a prize shortlist left me so incensed I have not done it since, and why I think the longlist is often better than the winner
Book club, part three
The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway, with no spoilers as always.
is still very dark and troubling, even more so in this section, and I worry about some of these characters so much. And yet I am fully locked in and cannot wait to read the final quarter. Thank you to Tony for the brilliant suggestion of splitting book club sections by chapter instead of page number, so it works whether you are reading the hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook. If we do this again, that is how we will do it.
Coming up
Episodes on bookish judging and on celebrity novels, because I have views. And I will be back on Monday with another author interview.
I would love to know your answers to the tag, and what you are thinking about the book club read.
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