The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion

So, with only three and a bit days left of 2014 let's reflect on our respective year of reading.



What was the best book you read in 2014?

Which author did you enjoy most?

Which writer or writers did you discover in 2014?

Which writer do you intend to read more of in 2015?

What change, if any, do you plan to make to your reading habits?

Do you intend to read more, less or about the same in 2015?

What else do you want to say?


I'll post my own replies once I've mulled over the questions.

What was the best book you read in 2014?

My top 10 fiction reads of the year, in no particular order, although the first five are THE books of the year for me:

The Book of Strange New Things
Summer House with Swimming Pool
A Pleasure and a Calling
Lamentation
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers
Time and Time Again
Little Lies
The Thrill of It All
Bodies of Light
Everland

Just outside was: The Strangler Vine, Perfidia, What Milo Saw, Vanessa and Her Sister and Crooked Heart

Top Ten Non-Fiction

Again, the top five are my faves and the others not quite in the same league:

A Spy Among Friends
The Romanov Sisters
The Unexpected Professor
The World of Yesterday
Margot at War
Handsome Brute
The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris
Rock Stars Stole My Life
How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette and the Diamond Necklace Affair
A Different Class of Murder



Which author did you enjoy most?

That is a hard one. A new Shardlake is always exciting for me. I loved Ben Macintyre, as always.

Which writer or writers did you discover in 2014?

Lots! I had never read Stefan Zweig before and I loved him.

Which writer do you intend to read more of in 2015?

I intend to read Proust – an author I have never tried before.

What change, if any, do you plan to make to your reading habits?

To take less for review and read more for pleasure, now I have gone back to work part-time. To only participate in the reading groups which most interest me and to try to resist taking too many NetGalley books!

Do you intend to read more, less or about the same in 2015?

Probably less, but that will still be a lot if I am honest…

What else do you want to say?

I am very grateful to all my fellow book club readers, reviewers and Goodreads group members for all their enthusiasm and the fun of sharing books together.

^ What a wonderful set of answers. Thanks Susan. And I've read quite a few of your books too - and now have yet more ideas to follow up on. I will post my answers soon.

Thanks again Susan - you're inspirational!

We posted our favourite reads on our book club, so I must admit to having some answers to hand...

Here are my answers...



What was the best book you read in 2014?

A Dance To The Music Of Time - all twelve of them
All Quiet on the Western Front

Which author did you enjoy most?

Anthony Powell

Which writer or writers did you discover in 2014?

Hans Fallada, Anthony Powell and Patrick Leigh Fermor

Which writer do you intend to read more of in 2015?

Patrick Leigh Fermor and Julian Maclaren-Ross

What change, if any, do you plan to make to your reading habits?

Read more music-related books and read more books by authors I already like

Do you intend to read more, less or about the same in 2015?

About the same

What else do you want to say?

Thanks to all the people on GoodReads who have added to the richness of my reading experiences

Like you, I love music related books, Nigeyb. There is a new biography of Ray Davies coming out, which I am debating reading. Ray Davies: A Complicated Life

^ I love The Kinks and books about The Kinks so put me down for Ray Davies: A Complicated Life by Johnny Rogan (who wrote a fine biography of The Smiths).

I really enjoyed You Really Got Me: The Story of the Kinks - you'll find my review on the page for the book.

Maybe some other group members would be interested - we have a few music fans here. It's pretty long though...

What was the best book you read in 2014?

Make mine the two best, Two Is Lonely and The Backward Shadow, both by Lynne Reid Banks. Together, they complete the trilogy that began with The L-Shaped Room.


Which author did you enjoy most?

James Curtis, by miles. He was my best discovery of this past year, and I read the three novels of his that are currently in print... The Gilt Kid [1936], They Drive By Night [1938] and There Ain't No Justice [1937].

All have been heroically brought back into print courtesy http://www.london-books.co.uk/


Which writer or writers did you discover in 2014?

James Curtis was the year's big revelation.


Which writer do you intend to read more of in 2015?

London Books is planning on re-publishing You're In The Racket, Too by James Curtis, but that may not be until 2016.

I'm planning on reading Patrick Hamilton's debut novel, Monday Morning, in 2015. But then again, I'd planned on reading it in 2013 and 2014 as well. C'mon Faber, and quit dragging your rear axle in waltz-time.


What change, if any, do you plan to make to your reading habits?

The cruelty of adulthood is that time can no longer be found, it must be made. I plan on making more time for reading. And I plan on sticking with p-books, not e-books.


Do you intend to read more, less or about the same in 2015?

You know that old saying, man plans and god laughs?


What else do you want to say?

Here's wishing everyone here a happy and healthy new year!

^ Thanks Mark - always a pleasure to read your musings and to see you pop up here at TPHAS.

I must get back to Lynne Reid Banks as I really enjoyed The L-Shaped Room.

Likewise James Curtis. The Gilt Kid was a great read and I want to pick up more by him.

All hail London Books. All hail Mark.

I should be receiving some more Ted Lewis soon.