I have just received a copy of this, courtesy of the President of the Chicago branch of Bookaholics Anonymous, my very good friend Lisa, and have made the mistake of opening it while eating my breakfast. My tea, omelette and toast are now stone cold and I am putting this book down as I have Things to Do today and they are not going to get done if I carry on. I am not sure how this book is going to pan out and how I am going to feel about it, but listen to this quote from the first chapter when the narrator is talking about the family bookshop:
"A is for Austen, B is for Bronte, C is for Charles and D is for Dickens. I learned my alphabet in this shop" and later "At school I kept all this shop reading to myself.......sometimes history lessons would touch upon one of the deep but random seams of knowledge I had accumulated by my haphazard reading in the shop. Charlemagne? I would think. What my Charlemagne"
I found myself crying out Yes, Yes when I read this. I did the same. I reckon I worked my way through every historical fiction book in my library as a child and early teens, and many years later amazed my history teacher with my knowledge of Catherine D'Medici and Lucrezia Borgia (thank you Jean Plaidy). Recently, I answered a question on Charlemagne on University Challenge on TV and wondered how on earth I knew that?
OK, so it is early days and I know I have read books before that started off so promisingly and then tail off, but this bodes well. I have decided to abandon the Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood for the moment. It is shaping up to be an absorbing read but I have only had the chance to paddle at the edges of it, so will take this with me on holiday to Malta where I know I will be able to plunge into it and read it in one big binge - which, Dear Reader, as you all well know is how I like to read.
More later. Domestic day today. Hairdresser, roots to hide yet again, visit to mother, visit to supermarket and then time to read. And a lovely sunny day to boot.
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