A book shared means so many things, a meaningful gesture of affection. On BBC Radio 4 today (I am an inveterate Radio 4 listener – when I’m home), the Woman’s Hour Programme discussed ‘a book that has changed your life’, and warmed up with the questions: what are the best books you both received and gave for Christmas?
Starting at the end, the book that changed my own life is impossible to identify as a single tome. Both ‘none’ and ‘many’ is the unsatisfactory answer. The closest I can get is the long, unhurried day (I must have gone into a second day) one weekend in my early twenties, spent utterly absorbed in Doris Lessing’s classic, powerful account of female liberation The Golden Notebook (1962). It was almost too painful to read in parts, but it commanded attention, provoked thought, the description intense and sensual.
This Christmas, I enjoyed Kate Atkinson’s Transcription, and, a fan of biography and autobiography (probably because I’m nosey), enjoyed most of all Rose Tremain’s memoir Scenes from a Vanished Life, which I’ve been meaning to read for some time. A second-world ‘war baby’, Tremain lived through that extraordinary time of post-war life that saw people in western countries, and in many ways women in particular, transition through a remarkable slice of social history. The book sees her only into adulthood, but that allows for detail. I wondered what had made this elegant, thoughtful novelist. There is limited insight into that here, but it is a fascinating – and occasionally shocking – read nonetheless.
My son, having read 1984 at school, wanted the works of George Orwell, including the writer’s collected journalism and essays. Is my boy mature enough for them, or is he keener on the idea of having them on his shelf? We’ll see. If he does not read them yet, then the time will come. Just as I bought my children what I considered to be ‘important’ books when they were small (my son still mentions ideas and images from Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, for example), so I want to continue gifting these, and was only too happy to meet my son’s request. My daughter… Well, I cannot make her love reading, but finding books that will engage her (it has proven possible – sometimes!) is its own challenge.
Is there a richer gift than a book?
International Book Giving Day will be with us before too long (on 14 February). Its aim is to ‘To get books into the hands of as many children as possible’; however, I don’t see why this book giving celebration should not extend to adults as well. Rather than foil-wrapped chocolates, I’m going to be thinking about the books I want to buy for those close to me.
What’s the best book you’ve ever given to – or shared – with someone?
Hard to answer, so many books given and recieved, but when we managed to start publishing my books as paperbacks with Amazon Kindle at last my mother ( who doesn’t have a Kindle ) could hold my books in her hands – and yes, she did read and enjoy them!
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That is lovely; it must have been a special moment.
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I have once read somewhere – when you are unsure what to gift, gift a book. Loved your post
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Too kind. And I agree, a book is the best gift.
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My pleasure always. Glad you agree
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I just gifted my youngest goddaughter with the anniversary edition of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (after we watched the film) because I wanted her to know it was a book first. I’ve already planned to do the same with The Polar Express next year.
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Wonderful classics. I remember reading Dr Seuss to mine; even if they couldn’t follow all the loops of the stories, they loved the cadence.
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Every Christmas when my father was a fit man, I’d gift the books he’d suggested to the family……….…….. I guess that’s a little lazy but 😀 a book has to be better than socks.
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Agreed – one hundred times better! And you’re relatively lucky – I have to mangle gift ideas out of some of my family members…
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