Skip to main content

Bedside Reading


From left. The Drunkard’s Walk: How randomness rules our lives by Leonard Mlodinow. I’m not and never will be a mathematician, but even I can understand the first law of probability thanks to Mlodinow’s amazing and entertaining book. Thanks to Stepson Two and Tom for recommending it to me.

A470: What’s On in Literary Wales, the magazine of The Welsh Academy of which I’m a member. The cover photo’s of Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales. Her poem, Love at Livebait is one of my favourites.

Edgelands, by Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley. I’ve just received this as an anniversary gift from Tom and I can’t wait to read it. Since reading some social anthropology at university I’ve been fascinated by marginal states and in-between places so this journey by two poets into ‘England’s true wilderness’ promises to be a real treat.

The Scarlet Kimono, by Christina Courtenay. I’ve just finished reading this enjoyable historical novel by fellow Choc Lit author, Christina. Christina combines a lovely romantic story with adventure and fascinating detail about 17th century Japan.

Glamour magazine. Fun and frivolous with a bit of bite. This month’s came with a free mascara and all for £2 a pop (free if one of your daughters buys it for you on subscription. Thank you, Lily). What’s not to love?

My Kindle... ooooh, how I love thee! (Note homemade slip cover – frugal so I can spend more money on books.) Currently reading my work in progress. Seeing it in book form really helps me with editing each day’s work. There’s quite a TBR collection on there too. One I’m looking forwards to is Kate Atkinson’s Started Early, Took My Dog. But that’s a treat in store for when I’ve finished my work!

Comments

Kath said…
I love finding out what other people are reading, especially when it covers such a terrific range of interests and moods, like yours does. I read Christina's book last weekend and absolutely loved it, and I am besotted with my Kindle, too. Thanks for sharing, Chris!
5 March 2011 at 06:56
Fennie said…
Kindle - so kind, but really no thanks. How many of these books and magazines are on Kindle and how much free mascara can you collect and how about pictures? Can't imagine taking a Kindle to bed, or bookmarking it with some old theatre ticket.

I'm a member of the BARB audience research panel and they send me book tokens from time to time. So I get books for watching television.
5 March 2011 at 08:20
Pondside said…
I always enjoy a peek at someone's bedside reading. Right now my pile is towering!
Kindle - not for me yet, especially after watching a man reading one at a table. His wife approached with a glass of lemonade, tripped and....fried the kindle....and I can't imagine taking a kindle into the bathtub with me.
5 March 2011 at 08:24
Fennie said…
Just read my comment again and it seems terribly negative and curmudgeonly. Ah well, blame the East wind. At least you've got two comments for the price of one!
5 March 2011 at 08:28
LITTLE BROWN DOG said…
Ooh, several here I haven't come across – love the sound of The Drunards Walk (although perhaps a bit too close to home on a Saturday evening after the monthly village salsa night) and Edgelands - tho' not so keen on Glamour magazine which makes me feel old and boring. V V envious of your Kindle. Keep eyeing them on Amazon and trying to work out ways I could possibly justify one, but mundane thoughts such as lingering credit card bills and the rising price of oil boringly edge them over into the pending tray in my head. (Am also occasionally wishing Kate Atkinson would take my dog, too...)

J xx
5 March 2011 at 14:34
Fran Hill said…
Am going to read that Kate Atkinson book soon, too. Can't wait. She's so good. If a little confusing at times. And prone to MASSIVE coincidences ...
5 March 2011 at 15:12
Frances said…
Chris, I sometimes have a tower of books near the bed. And other piles in various areas round the apartment.

I am a Kate Atkinson fan. Bought her first Museum book on a London trip years ago, and met her on a subsequent book tour she made to the States. I like that she's expolored lots of styles in her writing.

I've still got a thick Fiona MacCarthy Wm Morris bio half-read near my bed. And various magazines, Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate, and a Katie Fforde novel, too. Eclectic?

No space for any Kindles or Nooks around here.

xo
5 March 2011 at 18:58
Jude said…
I love my Kindle too...so handy here, with no bookshops selling up to date English language books...and Amazon being rather expensive and slow on the snail mail side.
6 March 2011 at 01:28
Pauline Barclay said…
Chris, lovely to see what you are reading, all sound very interesting and have me heading to Amazon. As for the Kindle, I love mine and have just been given a lovely cove for it too! Hope the edits are going well and book 2 will available soon! Hugs x
6 March 2011 at 01:35
Cait O'Connor said…
I love to see what's by people's bedsides (reading matter that is!). Edgelands sounds interesting. I love Kate Atkinson too. I have no desire for a Kindle but I have to say that being a librarian. It will never replace books.
7 March 2011 at 04:15
Posie said…
Oh enjoy all that reading Chris, eek I only found out what a kindle was the other day...soooo behind the times, I must pay more attention..
7 March 2011 at 10:46
Elizabeth Musgrave said…
I love to see this. Mine are more boring than yours as include far to many gardening books although the occasional bit of literature passes through. I am more and more intrigued by non fiction which never used to appeal to me. Just read Michael Frayn's book about his father - just fabulous.
I think I might succumb to a kindle, not as an instead but as an extra. Do love the idea of all those books just a breath away.
7 March 2011 at 15:06
Flowerpot said…
Thanks for that Chris - always good to see what others are reading. I;ve had the new Kate Atkinson recommended too so that's on my list.
8 March 2011 at 09:26
snailbeachshepherdess said…
hello Chris - HOW is work in progress?????
Havent had a minute to read anything leisurely since Christmas but am trying to ward off insomnia with old faves
12 March 2011 at 10:11
Reading Tea Leaves said…
Chris, its always interesting to see what other people are reading and your choices are eclectic which I like very much!

I will endeavour to find out more of Gillian Clarke and her work ...

The Kindle is not for me - as yet - only because I love the feel of a book in my hands. No doubt many of us will succumb in time!

Jeanne
x
13 March 2011 at 13:32
Cara Cooper said…
So many books and so little time! I think everyone who writes have piles of stuff on their To Be Read pile. It's a bit like having a box of chocolates all ready for you to dip in and books aren't fattening so we can go for it without guilt thank heavens. Enjoy!
14 March 2011 at 09:09
Chris Stovell said…
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I'm sorry not to reply individually but hope you will see from the next post that it's a bit frantic at the moment.
15 March 2011 at 02:43
Deborah Carr (Debs) said…
I must have missed this post somehow!

I loved The Scarlet Kimono and I'm pretty besotted with my Kindle. I can't believe that only months ago I wasn't interested in them at all.
15 March 2011 at 11:08
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Endings, New Beginnings

Blended families come with conflicting loyalties and at Christmas time nearly everyone has somewhere else they feel they ought to be. Throw partners into the equation and it gets even more complicated. Since Tom and I aren’t especially hung up about Christmas we’re happy to let our children go with the strongest flow, but I have to say it was a great delight to have the girls and their partners staying with us this year. When such moments are few and far between they become very precious. My stepsons weren’t far from our thoughts either, not least because we had the very happy news on Christmas Day that my elder stepson and his girlfriend had become engaged. Congratulations Dan and Gill, here’s wishing you every happiness together. Tom and I end a year that has seen the fruition of many years work, both of us crossing important thresholds within weeks of each other. I’m really looking forwards to seeing Turning the Tide published next year and it’s been so satisfying, after al
22 comments
Read more

Fly Free, Dottie Do

‘How many days to my birthday?’ Ma asks. I do a quick calculation. ‘Eighteen,’ I reply. ‘Eighteen days until your ninetieth birthday.’ Ma pulls a face and shakes her head. Every sentence is hard work for her now, when each breath is a struggle. ‘You’ll have to write a book about this, you know,’ she says, with one of her quick, mischievous smiles. ‘“Carry On Dying”. Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry.’ The smile fades. ‘Who knew,’ she adds wearily, ‘that dying would be such a palaver?’  It’s only eleven days since Ma was diagnosed with a high-grade, aggressive lymphoma, four days since she was overwhelmed with pain and breathing difficulties and was admitted as an emergency to hospital. Until a few weeks ago, she lived completely independently; shopping, cooking, cleaning and tending her much-loved garden. The deterioration in her health is shockingly rapid. The eight days preceding her death are a living hell, a constant battle with the ward staff to get Ma the pain relief she’s been presc
11 comments
Read more

Since You've Been Gone

Well, Ma Mère, There have been so many times when I’ve gathered up all the little shiny moments I’ve collected during the day, ready to present to you in our evening phone call and then I remember all over again that you’re not there. But, Mum, so much has happened since you’ve gone - maybe you know, maybe you don’t - that I’ve decided to write to you instead.  A few days after you died, we sold our house! After all those months! We even joked about you rattling cages somewhere. At first, nothing happened and then suddenly everything happened at a breathless pace and the next thing I knew I found myself driving (yes, me, driving!) along the M4 to Bridgend and the Time Capsule House, the one you said you and Dad would have bought. I remarked, when we first viewed it that if it was meant for us, it would come to us. Over a year later, when it had been under offer twice, we moved in. Oh, Mum, you and Dad would have loved this house; it’s peak Seventies and the decor - the pampas ensuite
5 comments
Read more