This week one of my manymanymany cousins posed the following ridiculous question over on FB: what are your two favourite novels?
Well, honestly – where do you even start answering a question like that? I thought about it for a bit and asked for clarification along the lines of ‘what, this week or always?’ The two novels you’d most read, apparently. This did not, for some reason, narrow it down at all, even when children’s books were eliminated from the equation.
At age 10 this would still have been a hard question but I could at least have narrowed it down to a Nancy Drew, one of the Little House books or something by L.M. Montgomery. At 50 and as an avid reader this question ranks right up there with the meaning of life or one hand clapping or something equally conundrous (that’s not a word, according to the spellcheck but it’s my blog and I can make up words if I want. It’s a good word. Conundrous. Try it.)
Novels most read? I read my way through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld at least once a year, with probably Night Watch and Hogfather being most read. But then I also pick up the Moomin books with the same frequency. There are novels – series – I go back to and read through before the new one comes out (Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, or Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway books.
What about novels that have stayed with you even though you’ve only read them once? The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, for example, or The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley, both fairly recent reads but which I’ve been recommending to all my friends who like cats and/or books.
Do short story collections count? If so, some of Stephen King’s collections or any of Charles de Lint’s Newford stories have been in heavy rotation for years – and there are novels in this series too.
Also, favourite novel for what – a good mystery? For when you need a good cry? When you just need to remember that magic is out there, when you’re feeling nostalgic or in need of a good belly laugh? For when you’ve just been dumped? When you want something that you know you’re going to enjoy but don’t want to spend too much brainpower on it?
I did manage to settle on one novel – The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.. It’s what people would call ‘YA’ these days, but is still one of my all-time favourites, and now Things 1 and 2 also love it. I’ll have to come back to you on the other one.
Other things making me happy this week:
- Progress on new cross stitch (despite being afflicted by an unputdownable series of books)
- Good long walk in the sunshine on Saturday morning
- Weather warm enough to consider painting my toenails – and that they’ve all grown back now to be painted!
- A visit to the Unravel exhibition at the Barbican with an ex-colleague – gorgeous creations and a good catch-up
What I’ve been reading
Shanghai Immortal – A.Y. Chao
House of Earth and Blood/House of Sky and Breath/House of Flame and Shadow/Throne of Glass – Sarah J. Maas
Sweets – Tim Richardson
Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson (Audible)
What Kirsty did next 