New Leaf Nominations for January 2020 • I'd Rather be Reading: Books about Books

[gmw]

Just thought I'd mention that Kobo (AU,CA & GB, but not US) mention the audiobook of The Binding as one of the best of 2019.

I'm not really an audiobook person, and haven't heard this audio anyway, so can't offer an opinion - except to say this is one of my more memorable books (to read) for the year. It left a mark.

[CRussel]

OK, I'm going to take this in a completely different direction. I'd like to nominate PD James' Original Sin.

From Goodreads:

Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies—a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of who apparently killed herself a short time earlier. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again.

Overdrive: Yes.
AmazonUS: $11.99
AmazonCA: $12.99 CAD
AmazonUK: £4.68
AmazonAU: $7.59 AUD

There's an Audible book in Australia and North America, with the Australian narrator being a bit better, IMHO, and a very tidy WhisperSync price to go with the best ebook price as well.

This is a re-read for me, but that's also in keeping with our theme. And it's classic PD James.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I’ve been traveling again and just caught up with the thread now that I am home. Interesting nominations! I have lots of ideas but can’t decide what to nominate.

I will second The Bookshop since I was thinking of nominating it too. It has also been made into a movie that I want to see.

[issybird]

I'll third The Bookshop.

[Victoria]

I’ll second Original Sin. I haven’t tried a P.D.James yet, but have wanted to and I enjoyed Martin Shaw’s tv portrayal of Dalgliesh.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by gmw

I nominate The Binding by Bridget Collins

I read this about 6 months ago and enjoyed it very much. It's perhaps a little soon for me to want to read it again, but for the club I would put myself out.

What an interesting concept. I'll give it a second. Plus the price is quite reasonable.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I love reading books about books! I could spend forever paralyzed by choices because the list of what I want to read is so long....

I nominate The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett. It has mystery and history so it seems like it might have universal appeal. Available in multiple countries as an ebook. Lovett is known for writing books about books.

From Goodreads:

"What about the most valuable relic in the history of English literature—would that be worth killing for?"

Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn't sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books. But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, Peter is shocked when a portrait of Amanda tumbles out of its pages. Of course, it isn't really her. The watercolor is clearly Victorian. Yet the resemblance is uncanny, and Peter becomes obsessed with learning the picture's origins.

As he follows the trail back first to the Victorian era and then to Shakespeare's time, Peter communes with Amanda's spirit, learns the truth about his own past, and discovers a book that might definitively prove Shakespeare was, indeed, the author of all his plays.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I wanted to find a non-fiction book that celebrated reading, such as what we read and why we read. The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis was recommended to me. I didn't realize it was just published as an ebook in October. I wondered why the line at my library was so long! However it seems like a very interesting book that others in the club would enjoy so I'm jwriting this post just to share and bring attention to it.

From Goodreads:

The revered teacher and bestselling author of such classic Christian works as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters reflects on the power, importance, and joy of a life dedicated to reading books in this delightful collection drawn from his wide body of writings.

More than fifty years after his death, revered intellectual and teacher C. S. Lewis continues to speak to readers, thanks not only to his intellectual insights on Christianity but also his wondrous creative works and deep reflections on the literature that influenced his life. Beloved for his instructive novels including The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and The Chronicles of Narnia as well as his philosophical books that explored theology and Christian life, Lewis was a life-long writer and book lover.

Cultivated from his many essays, articles, and letters, as well as his classic works, How to Read provides guidance and reflections on the love and enjoyment of books. Engaging and enlightening, this well-rounded collection includes Lewis’ reflections on science fiction, why children’s literature is for readers of all ages, and why we should read two old books for every new one.

A window into the thoughts of one of the greatest public intellectuals of our time, this collection reveals not only why Lewis loved the written word, but what it means to learn through literature from one of our wisest and most enduring teachers.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by CRussel

What an interesting concept. I'll give it a second. Plus the price is quite reasonable.

Yes, The Binding is certainly an interesting concept. Within it people muse about the possibility of fiction (as we know it) and how it could possibly compare to the real stories bound from people's actual lives.

But this is one of those books where the description is both perfectly accurate and mostly useless. To tell more is to give details away. It's not fast paced but I found it a fascinating and compulsive read. There are some oddities about the way it is told, but they work (or did for me).

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I wanted to find a non-fiction book that celebrated reading, such as what we read and why we read. The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis was recommended to me. I didn't realize it was just published as an ebook in October. I wondered why the line at my library was so long! However it seems like a very interesting book that others in the club would enjoy so I'm jwriting this post just to share and bring attention to it.

From Goodreads:

Thanks. I do find C.S. Lewis interesting - despite my lack of affinity for religion. I wonder how much of this I've read elsewhere. It seems likely to be a book that owes much (good or bad) to its editors. The description seems to suggest that the original or earlier title for the book might have been "How to Read".

[Bookpossum]

Unfortunately The Bookman's Tale is priced at $A25.51 here. Not as bad as the book about Little Women at $A35.19 (!), but still pretty steep.

So my third vote goes to The Binding.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I see it at $16.19 at Amazon AU.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Kobo offers a price match program. You fill out an online form, and they will respond in 3 days with a credit plus extra 10% of the difference. You can learn more here.
https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/artic...atch-Guarantee

[Bookpossum]

Thanks Bookworm-Girl. I had a bad experience with Amazon a while back, and don’t buy anything from them on principle.

I have a strict budget for book-buying, given that I’m retired and on limited income, so even $A16 for a book is not a reasonable price for me unless it was an absolute must have by a favourite author.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Australians have terrible pricing for books. I feel bad for you all. I can’t believe that Kobo prices their books so much higher than Amazon. Well, maybe you can save some money from price matching in the future. I read about it on the internet but haven’t tried it. I have a Kobo but rarely buy books from them. I just use it for library books and my transferred ebook accounts from other sources like Sony.

[gmw]

I don't buy from Amazon, mostly on the principle of wanting to support the competition. Kobo's prices generally aren't that far from Amazon, more often, when I hit an absurdly high price, I discover it's high everywhere here. But there are some exceptions (I don't imagine Patrick Tilley sells many books at Kobo). I've used Kobo's price matching a few times. It works well as long as you make sure the editions match.

But don't feel too bad for us, Bookworm_Girl. I just worked out my average purchase price for this year was $4.40. (I've spent far too much time book shopping and "discovering" deals, and it's all this club's fault! )