Tag: books

Classics Club Spin #22

~ whatmeread ~ 4 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin, in which we post 20 books from our Classics Club lists. On Monday, December 22, a number will determine which of the books we’ll read next.

So, with no further ado, here’s my list. I hope for a good one!

  1. I Go By Land, I Go By Sea by P. L. Travers
  2. August Folly by Angela Thirkell
  3. Challenge by Vita Sackville-West
  4. The Sea Hawk by Rafael Sabatini
  5. The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault
  6. Mary Lavelle by Kate O’Brien
  7. Joanna Godden by Sheila Kay-Smith
  8. Coromandel Sea Change by Rumer Godden
  9. Three Weeks by Elinor Glyn
  10. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
  11. The Winged Horse by Pamela Frankau
  12. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  13. Vanishing Cornwall by Daphne du Maurier
  14. Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott
  15. The Viscount de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas
  16. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  17. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
  18. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  19. Evelina by Frances Burney
  20. The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster

Review 1303: The Book: An Homage

~ whatmeread ~ Leave a comment

Cover for The BookI’m not sure what I was expecting from The Book, maybe a collection of interesting facts or stories about books or the history of books. What I got was something quite different.

Burkhard Spinnen is a German writer and bibliophile. This book consists of a series of very short essays about books, particularly about whether the hardcopy book, or text, as Spinnen refers to it, will give way to the ebook. But it also has little essays about types of books, Spinnen’s relationship to books, and so on. Some of the essays read as if they were written long ago (referencing an incident in the 1970’s as “recent,” for example), while others are about more current ideas and issues.

I guess I think of this book as a trifle—something you might give as a gift to someone who loves books. I am a book lover myself, but I have to admit I didn’t get that much out of it. I’m not familiar with Spinnen nor with most of the German authors he cites, and this book feels like one that would appeal mostly to people who are fans of Spinnen. Maybe I should be more familiar with him and the writers he mentions, but I’m not sure.

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