I have decided on a theme for NaBloPoMo (you know, where I and 1,353 other people and counting blog every day for a whole month, stay tuned for daily witterings). Every day I will write about books by authors I particularly like. I may write about other things too. I will be unstoppable.
I will do it alphabetically. That is the kind of person I am. We will begin with A.
A is for Atkinson and also for Atwood and Austen
I am very fond of Kate Atkinson’s books and will always go out and buy a new one when they come out. I even enjoyed her book of short stories which was clearly gibberish (“Not the end of the World”). She suffers from the unfortunate problem that she wrote her best book first: “Behind the Scenes at the Museum”.
I am a bit more ambivalent about Margaret Atwood. I have enjoyed many of her books: “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “Oryx and Crake”, “The Robber Bride”. I disliked “The Edible Woman” and I had my doubts about “Alias Grace”. I found “Cat’s Eye” brilliant but disturbing. I was unhappy as a teenager and it brought back to me in a very vivid way the misery of those years (though I was not bullied like the protagonist, I found my own ways to be miserable and lonely).
Moving on to Jane Austen: I love “Pride and Prejudice”. I have read it innumerable times since I first read it as a school text when I was 14. I still have my battered penguin school edition and even opening it makes me sigh with happiness. I am distinctly less keen on the rest of Ms. Austen’s work. Fanny Price in “Mansfield Park” is dull. The plot requires you to really believe that acting in amateur drama is morally wrong (you may wish to insert your own little quip here) and even Jane Austen can’t make a modern reader suspend disbelief to this extent. Particularly not, if she’s relying on insipid Fanny Price to do it for you. “Emma”, “Sense and Sensibility” and “Persuasion” are pleasant. If you ask me, nothing lives up to “Pride and Prejudice” a book written when she was only 20. Phenomenal.
What are your favourite marvellous, unforgettable, fantastic As?
Stay tuned tomorrow when we move on to B. Be still my beating heart.
How ambitious of you!
I love Austen as well. I can’t think of another A author I like, how pathetic!!!
Hey, you commented. That is deeply gratifying. I fear that people may find this exercise tedious – except me, of course.
You’ve got all my As right there. I love all three. Have you read Atkinson’s latest two, which are murder mysteries. They are brilliant. And I like her so much that I also tolerated that bizarre set of stories, but I far prefer her novels.
I’ve always like Persuasion best of Jane Austen’s novels.
Racking my brains now for other ‘A’ authors …
i love Edible Woman, because it so much more overtly humorous than Atwood’s later work. I’m looking forward to your posting daily …
you can never go wrong with jane austen! i also love louisa may alcott… thinking of little women makes me nostalgic for my childhood 🙂
aesthetically wrong, certainly
Great idea — I loooove love love reading what other people have to say about books!
I vaguely considered doing something along those lines, but I write about books often enough that it wouldn’t be a deviation or a challenge. Two days into the month and I’m already wishing I’d picked some sort of ongoing theme topic for myself, though.
I’ll have to give Atkinson a try — I’ve not read her yet, though I’ve heard of her of course.
I’m not sure who I’d pick as my A authors. Anna Akhmatova is one of my favourite poets. I’ve been reading a lot of Martin Amis these days, but I’m not sure if I actually like him or not.
what will you do when it comes to Z? I have a good guess who your favourite H will be
I love Austen too.
Robber Bride is one of my favourite all-time novels but I couldn’t bear Oryx and Crake.
I seem to be one of the few who doesn’t think Behind the Scenes at a Museum was Atkinson’s best book – it’s true her next couple weren’t as good but Case Histories was fantastic and I’m halfway through its sequel now and it’s absolutely gripping….
Alcott I can’t bear – I just re-read Little Women and its sequels and found them unbearably dull.
Wasn’t Greyfriars Bobby written by an A? Eleanor Atkinson I seem to remember. I loved that as a kid….
Well, my claim to fame is that Kate Atkinson was my tutor in English at Dundee University… I have to say she was a bit of a fruitcake despite the fact I’ve got all her books!
11 comments, how exciting, I love you all. Oh, I see, one of you is me. That’s ok, I love me too. I think I may be gushing. Await further book suggestions with interest. Fascinated to see that Kate Atkinson is as mad in person as she sounds in her books.
Alcott has been mentioned: dull? oh dear. Even the thought of Beth’s death makes me choke up. But what about Adams (Douglas, Genius) and the very prolific Anonymous? As for those who said they couldn’t think of other authours beginning with A that’s probably cos they’re not as sad as Belgian Waffle, who I strongly suspect has alphabetised her book shelves. AithnÃonn ciaróg, ciaróg eile – which is the Irish for “it takes one to know one”