World Book Day meme

[shewhomust]

Not the post I had planned for this evening, but lil_shepherd tempted me with a meme, and when fjm re-tempted me, what could I do but succumb? Besides, it's about books...

The book I am reading:

The Gallows Curse by Karen Maitland. (Its real title is The Mandrake's Tale, but Marketing decided at the last minute that no-one would know what a mandrake is, or would think it was some kind of duck, or something.)

The book I am writing:

I'm not. This...?

The book I love most:

If you'd asked about my favourite book, it would be harder to choose. But the book I love most, the one I sidle up to and stroke in bookshops? That'd be the one that's dedicated to me (I have to share it with durham_rambler, but that's OK): Hand of the King's Evil, last of the books of Outremer, by Chaz Brenchley.

The last book I received as a gift:

Excluding books by or published by clients, The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson.

The last book I gave as a gift:

Christmas presents, probably - a little book about the Victoria Tunnel produced by the local library, for D., and a very battered and scribbled on copy of One Man Wallopem for my brother (it's about a one-man band).

The nearest book on my desk

Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox - it's supposed to be reminding me to put an extract on the author's website.