To every book there is a moment...
Dec. 7th, 2024 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI think I have mentioned that one of the quirks of the Elm Tree pub quiz is that we have a Book of the Moment: as a bonus for regular participants, the first question of the last round is always about whatever book we are working our way through at the time. If you read a chapter or so a week, and pay attention, you are pretty much guaranteed a correct answer.
As the end of the year approaches, so does the end of the current book, Swallows and Amazons. This was chosen by a vote from among titles suggested, and has not been an entirely popular choice. I'm not unhappy with it myself: the slow and careful reading doesn't do it any favours, but it's fun enough in its way. For whatever reason, though, the Quizmaster decided that he would take nominations, but would constitute himself an electoral college and his decision would be final.
He called for nominations for the next two Books of the Moment, the first to be more serious, the second lighter. To my surprise, I found it harder to think of a suitable suggestion for the serious option: I think of myself as, if anything, an excessively serious reader. Perhaps there were just too many candidates? At the last minute I proposed Susanna Clarke's Piranesi: I wasn't sure it would work, but it is such a good book.
And indeed, the Quizmaster told me later that he was very much enjoying reading it, but thought that the sort of questions he could have asked about it were just too detailed. I wasn't complaining, though, because he had already accepted my 'lighter' nomination, Frances Hardinge's Fly-by-Night. I am astonished, because I really didn't expect a children's fantasy to find favour; astonished, but delighted. The pleasure of a friend loving a book you have recommended to them, but dialled up to eleven.
I celebrated by reading Hardinge's The Forest of a Thousand Eyes, her second collaboration with illustrator Emily Gravett. The first one was good, but this one is just brilliant, and I would explain why at great length, but I have shopping to unpack and dinner to cook.
As the end of the year approaches, so does the end of the current book, Swallows and Amazons. This was chosen by a vote from among titles suggested, and has not been an entirely popular choice. I'm not unhappy with it myself: the slow and careful reading doesn't do it any favours, but it's fun enough in its way. For whatever reason, though, the Quizmaster decided that he would take nominations, but would constitute himself an electoral college and his decision would be final.
He called for nominations for the next two Books of the Moment, the first to be more serious, the second lighter. To my surprise, I found it harder to think of a suitable suggestion for the serious option: I think of myself as, if anything, an excessively serious reader. Perhaps there were just too many candidates? At the last minute I proposed Susanna Clarke's Piranesi: I wasn't sure it would work, but it is such a good book.
And indeed, the Quizmaster told me later that he was very much enjoying reading it, but thought that the sort of questions he could have asked about it were just too detailed. I wasn't complaining, though, because he had already accepted my 'lighter' nomination, Frances Hardinge's Fly-by-Night. I am astonished, because I really didn't expect a children's fantasy to find favour; astonished, but delighted. The pleasure of a friend loving a book you have recommended to them, but dialled up to eleven.
I celebrated by reading Hardinge's The Forest of a Thousand Eyes, her second collaboration with illustrator Emily Gravett. The first one was good, but this one is just brilliant, and I would explain why at great length, but I have shopping to unpack and dinner to cook.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-07 10:07 pm (UTC)Wonderful!
I would love to hear about The Forest of a Thousand Eyes when you have the time.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-10 07:44 pm (UTC)