Books I Love: Howards End is on the Landing

Howards End is on the Landing ... is on the seat of my
wing chair  (CNB 2012)

Howards End is on the Landing (2009) by Susan Hill is the latest book that I have actually finished reading cover to cover in about three days. Usually a book takes me so much longer and some even get abandoned after a while. But this book subtitled A Year of Reading from Home is so interesting that I could not put it down.

Susan Hill is a writer with a large library at her farmhouse home in the North Cotswolds. While hunting for an elusive book in her collection she discovered that there were many others that she had not yet read, or forgotten she owned, or would like to read again (sounds familiar, all you bibliophiles out there?). So she "set off on a journey through (her) books" and "embarked on a year of travelling through the books of a lifetime". More than about books, Howards End is on the Landing is a memoir of one of the UK's accomplished authors.

Having read this memoir and especially after buying a duplicate of a book that I forgot I already have (and obviously not yet read!), I think I will emulate Susan Hill and not buy any books for a whole year and start reading from my home library. My mission starts ... now! Err, but if anybody gives me book vouchers I will not say no.

"A Book which is left on a shelf is a dead thing but it is also a chrysalis, an inanimate object packed with the potential to burst into new life" - Susan Hill.

Ex Libris CNB 1968