...doesn't mean I'm not still reading avidly. I have heard that some novelists daren't read anything other than their work in progress. Their reasoning? Either they're far, far too busy (some people have deadlines - lucky them) or they fear they'll end up copying the style of whichever author's novel they pick up.
I couldn't be more different. I'm never
not reading a book - usually a novel but not necessarily. It could be history, biography or something for research and background reading, be it a recipe book, topography and nature. A few months ago I read all about keeping bees, now or in the past, cooking with honey etc. However, it's more likely to be fiction. As I've said before, I am book-mad, a bookaholic as it were.
As for inadvertently copying someone else's style, it has never happened to me. I can't do party tricks or impressions or speak in another accent from the one I'm stuck with now. I admire certain writers more than others, love certain paragraphs and read them twice while trying to pin-point why they work so well. But I can't copy them. however much I wish to. I write like me. It's either good or bad, boring or even interesting, depending on the reader. I can't do anything else. I am what I am although I'me always learning and improving - I hope.
Anyway, here are a few books from the many I've read lately and loved for different reasons. But don't ask me to judge which I enjoyed the most.
I won't give any reviews or recommend you read any of them. But I have read them all with differing amounts of admiration. All all had their good and bad points and will appeal to different readers. Some you may hate. And - surprise, surprise. They're all historical novels. .
Here is the exception. to my list. I have yet to read the following novel. But I will. It's on its way. Its companion (and first novel) is
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. As I loved that novel to bits and because the reviews of 'Queenie' have all been favourable, I'm bound to love it, too. I'll tell you later...
