Here’s the link to our latest podcast, back after my internet-less hiatus; I hope you’ll enjoy it! This time it’s on rural vs urban novels and Sense and Sensibility vs Pride and Prejudice. You might be surprised by what we choose!
In other news, I now work dangerously close to Charing Cross Road, home of London’s best loved book shops, and I have taken to ‘popping in’ to Foyles quite frequently on my way home, as it is such a pleasure to browse the shelves. I am not really one to buy new books, as I tend to just pick my books up cheaply in charity or second hand book shops, but Foyles has started to make a convert out of me. I find books in there that I would never otherwise hear of or notice, and they have a very clever knack of producing displays of related books so that people with rather niche tastes such as myself can discover new authors in the same vein as their old favourites. I love unwinding after a busy day by wandering through all of the different departments, and I like the fact that when I buy something, I am contributing to the survival of an independent book seller, which obviously completely justifies my expenditure. This week I was delighted to find the British Library Crime Classics series on special offer, so I picked up The Lake District Murder by John Bude, and Thirteen Guests by J Jefferson Farjeon, largely because they had the prettiest covers, but the stories also sound brilliant, I promise! I also came across a William Maxwell novel that I haven’t yet read, The Chateau, which sounds wonderfully atmospheric, and just the sort of thing to curl up with now it’s getting colder and the nights are drawing in.
As any teacher will know, I already can’t wait for half term, and I’m very excited to be going on my first holiday since my trip to Scandinavia over Easter. I’ll be spending a few days in Lisbon, which is a city I’ve wanted to visit for years, so I’m so looking forward to exploring its streets and trying some authentic Portuguese cuisine. If anyone has any Lisbon tips, I’d love to hear them, and any recommendations for books set in Lisbon or in Portugal in general would be much appreciated!
I promise I’ll be back with a book review soon…Armadale is quite the doorstopper, so I am taking a while to wade my through it!