Claire’s Corner

Posted on | March 31, 2010 | 44 Comments

Today is my birthday (I am one year off being thirty – eek!) so I am scheduling this post and may be eating a celebratory cupcake as you are reading this. I also hope to be sharing a respectable pile of birthday books with you on a date to be confirmed.

Another year older but not necessarily a mature reader. This post at Cornflower Books was thought-provoking but reflecting upon it I realised quite quickly that I have not yet reached this level of maturity in my reading. There are still authors and books that I feel that I should read; I hasten to add, however, that they are books that I want to read. Life is too short to feel forced into reading something just because it is expected of me, hence my numerous failed attempts at reading Ulysses. However, before I reach thirty there are writers whose work I want to read including (but not limited to): Nancy Mitford; Émile Zola; P. G. Wodehouse; Barbara Pym; Iris Murdoch. I wonder whether in another decade or two I will have less authors on my list of authors-I-really-want-to-read? There is such a wealth of literature yet to discover and I’m too young to limit myself to only those wonderful writers that have already enriched my reading experience; maybe when I reach my fifty-ninth birthday, as opposed to my twenty-ninth, I will be content to read more deeply as opposed to widely. Are you a reader who prefers to read more authors as opposed to the canon of those you already know? I like to ration the work of my favourite writers so that I still have new books of theirs to enjoy over future years; I do have a hopeless retention for detail though so in a decade, if I’ve read the back catalogue of all my favourite writers, then I can always reread … or move on to those writers that I am still finding and sampling.

Birthdays make me reflective and the older I become the longer the lists become of things I want to do, books that I want to read, places I want to go. I’ve wanted to go to Brazil for a number of years now and now that desire has intensified: does this bookshop in São Paulo look like the most amazing bookshop on earth? I NEED to go. Look at the staircase of books!

Speaking of bookshops I do have some sad news to share. I read on the Persephone Books website this week that their Notting Hill Gate shop is closing in June and I find this news upsetting. Of course I don’t know the reasons behind the closure of their boutique shop in an affluent area of North-West London but I would have thought that it would have been an ideally-situated locale for an existing and potential client-base. The close of any independent bookshop saddens me but especially one as much-loved as Persephone Books. The shop stocked a wide array of great literature (as opposed to solely Persephones as in the Lamb’s Conduit Street office/shop) that I was very tempted by when I visited and also what looked like a wonderful and child-friendly children’s book section. Indie bookshops that are a joy to while away an hour or two in, that stocks a wealth of eye-catching books, are difficult to find especially in the current economic climate, and the loss of this shop is a loss indeed. I wish Persephone Books success and stability post-June in their remaining shop and mail-order success; I will, of course, be supporting them in my own little way where I can (perhaps for my birthday *cough*) and look forward to the next Persephone Reading Week at the beginning of May.

Comments

44 Responses to “Claire’s Corner”

Book Psmith
March 31st, 2010 @ 1:21 am

Happy, happy birthday! I wish you many books and lots of time to read them with:) Very sad to hear about the Persephone shop.
Claire (The Captive Reader)
March 31st, 2010 @ 1:40 am

Happy Birthday! Mitford and Wodehouse are delightful, whatever age you read them at, so I wouldn’t stress too much about timelines.

Looking forward to seeing your birthday loot in a few days!
Amanda
March 31st, 2010 @ 2:16 am

Happy birthday! 30 is a good age, so don’t sweat getting there so much!
Rebecca Reid
March 31st, 2010 @ 2:32 am

Happy birthday!!

“Are you a reader who prefers to read more authors as opposed to the canon of those you already know?” Both! There are some authors I definitely want to read their whole backlist but others I want to read at least one by them, to give them a try. I hope you get a good number of them read in the next year.
Michelle (su[shu])
March 31st, 2010 @ 2:52 am

Happy birthday Claire!

To answer your question about reading, I think I’m a little of both – I like reading books by the authors I’ve already established as favourites/near-favourites/people I like, but I also really like discovering new authors. The thing about reading books by authors I already love though, is that I quickly run out of books to read (they are either dead and won’t write anymore, or if they’re still living, one can only write that quickly..).

Like you, though, there are some authors I want to read before [insert age]. There’s always a list of to-reads somewhere. =)
softdrink
March 31st, 2010 @ 4:14 am

Happy Birthday! Hope you got lots of book loot.
Merenia
March 31st, 2010 @ 4:32 am

Happy Birthday. Thanks as always for your eloquent and thoughtful posts. Sad about Persephone in Notting Hill. It is a tough time in the book/publishing world… You have certainly done your bit for Persephone! I love the list of authors you want to acquaint yourself with this year. I think my list is identical except Emile Zola, who I must confessed has completely escaped me until this moment! My reading habits are dictated by lack of time as the result of caring for my two tiny children. At present I need a guaranteed comfort read, yet with some substance, so am mining the early 20thC English authors such as the Persephone titles, Barbara Pym, FM Mayor, EM Delafield, Ada Leverson, Laski and scavenge through every op shop as they call them in Australia, every fete, every antique shop for ‘undiscovered treasures’. I unearthed a Frank Baker for $1 Australian recently. The chunksters and epic novels will have to wait. I am by nature a huge re-reader. Sometimes I need to pick out a particular paragraph from Jane Austen’s novels that has some relevence to the moment.
Becky from Page Turners
March 31st, 2010 @ 6:01 am

Happy Birthday wishes to you – hope you have a great day! That’s a great post – I sometimes wonder the same thing, should I fous on reading all the books by the authors I love – or try to read more widely. I think I do whatever my mood tells me to do, at the moment I am more focussed on reading widely.
Mrs.B.
March 31st, 2010 @ 7:39 am

Happy Birthday Claire! I think I reached a turning point in my reading tastes when I turned 30 so you have a lot to look forward to. Have a wonderful reading year! So sad about the Persephone shop…
Nymeth
March 31st, 2010 @ 8:48 am

First of all, Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day and get plenty of bookish gifts

I’m still concerned with reading widely rather than deeply, I must confess. I guess I just feel that there are so many areas of literature that I haven’t explored. Even though there’s a lot I already know I like, I keep wondering what else I might be able to add to my favourites.

That’s sad news about that Persephone bookship closing :\ I wish I had visited it.
Cornflower
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:03 am

Happy birthday, Claire!
Verity
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:19 am

Happy birthday Claire – thanks for the news about the Persephone shop – I must make sure to visit it before it closes. I hope you do get a Persephone or two and some bookish gifts…
Kals
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:20 am

Happy Birthday Claire! And happy reading
Dot
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:36 am

Happy Birthday Claire! I hope that you have a lovely day and receive lots of books!
Annabel (gaskella)
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:46 am

Happy Birthday Claire! May it bring you a lovely pile of bookish things.

Now, I’ve got twenty years on you, and my reading is still all over the place – Like you I do like to ration favourite authors, I’m making new discoveries too. I still wouldn’t consider my reading mature, although blogging does help me consider what I’m reading a lot more – so my advice is just to keep reading whatever you fancy!
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
March 31st, 2010 @ 10:18 am

Happy Birthday! Like you I save some of my favourite authors books, as I find the anticipation is often better than the book itself. I’m not sure why I do as it often leads to heartbreak when the book doesn’t live up to expectations.

I do like to read one book from each of the famous authors. There are so many I haven’t read yet and that does lead to me being torn between old and new books. At least I plan to try my first Angela Carter this week – I’m hoping to discover another author to add to my list of favourites!
Sanchia
March 31st, 2010 @ 10:18 am

Happy birthday! Hope it’s a wonderful day and a wonderful year ahead too.

I tend to seek out everything by authors I like and read them within a few months. Funnily, this happens more often with genre fiction than with literary fiction…
Jennifer @ Mrs. Q: Book Addict
March 31st, 2010 @ 10:26 am

Happy Birthday!
skirmishofwit
March 31st, 2010 @ 10:45 am

Happy Birthday!! Have a lovely day I too was very sorry to hear that the Notting Hill branch of Persephone Books is closing – I have attended some of their book groups, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I shall miss it!
Karen
March 31st, 2010 @ 12:07 pm

Happy Birthday Claire – I hope you have a wonderful day. I dreaded turning 30 (I am now 35) but my 30′s have been the best years of my life so far – I hope you have the same experience but for now enjoy being 29!
Sakura
March 31st, 2010 @ 12:13 pm

Happy birthday. I hope you are enjoying your cupcake!

I find I go through phases of wanting to read more of one author and trying to find new-to-me authors. But I’m always on the lookout for debut authors! There are certain books I read when I started university which I feel was actually too difficult (I thought I knew everything then) and although I’m glad I read them, I feel I may need to re-read them. But now I have too many books and not enough time!
Simon (Savidge Reads)
March 31st, 2010 @ 12:39 pm

Happy Birthday Claire, hope you have a wonderful day.

I hadnt thought about authors that I should read… maybe I should as I too get nearer that 30 mark!

Hope you have a lovely day!
Nadia
March 31st, 2010 @ 1:04 pm

Happy Birthday!! Hope you have a fanastic birthday filled with lots of bookish presents

I tend to choose books that are not part of the canon because when I was in uni that was all required reading and I wanted to read contemporary authors and see what was being published now as opposed to what had already been published and analyzed to death. Of course now that I’m 31, I tend to read a mix of both- canon and current. I used to have loads of books that I thought I needed to read, but I’ve gotten over that and now just seek books that catch my fancy – new or old.

Cheers!
Mee
March 31st, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

Claire, happy birthday. I’ll be 29 too in September. The last year to be in the 20s. Gosh.
Sharon (Bookpusher)
March 31st, 2010 @ 1:08 pm

Great big Happy Birthday!
With reading, I read both widely and deeply, I do have favourite authors I’ll read just about everything they write, but I am also a happy wanderer around the shelves, reading anything that takes my fancy at the time; literary or genre depending on the mood at the time. Sad about the Persephone store closing, the loss of every independent seems to be a small tragedy. Where I live we no longer have any independent book shops and I miss them greatly, especially the knowledge and passion and the potential for a surprising find on their shelves.
Darlene
March 31st, 2010 @ 1:15 pm

A very Happy Birthday to you, Claire!

Having a book or author to look forward to is one of the many wonderful things about books. It’s never ending! Finally discovering Wilkie Collins last Autumn was exciting but I couldn’t have pushed everything aside to read his collection of work. I’m one of those readers who ‘saves’ special things to read. I’m aching to get back to something else by him though!

Wasn’t that surprising news about Persephone!? I’m so glad that I dropped by the shop last May, to at least have a visual of what it was like.
Mae
March 31st, 2010 @ 3:03 pm

Happy Birthday (again)!! I hope you have a fantastic day with a cat that’s as positively cute as the one in the picture.

I don’t one should feel rushed into reading certain authors by a certain age. I think that there’s always a perfect time in everybody’s life when it is the right moment to read a certain book or author and we will know it when the time comes. I may sound like a doped up hippie but I think that the book will call to you when you’re ready. I know that if I had certain books when I was younger, I wouldn’t have fully appreciated it even if I didn’t understand it.
Buried In Print
March 31st, 2010 @ 3:31 pm

May your birthday be filled with much bookishness. And cupcakeness.

As a reader, I still want to read widely, to at least sample a writer’s work, even if it’s only one book, so that I feel I have some sort of context when they come up in discussion. But I also really, really enjoy reading deeply, so there’s a constant tension because there are not enough reading hours in a day to satisfy both urges.

I’d like to think that, as my reading years pass, I’ll be more focussed on reading deeply, but I bet I’m more easily seduced by the sampling phenomenon for many books to come!
Jenny
March 31st, 2010 @ 5:13 pm

Happy, happy birthday (same as my sister’s!)! I hope you are having a lovely day!
Geraldine
March 31st, 2010 @ 6:43 pm

Happy Birthday wishes from me as well. Hope you’ve had a wonderful day.
Rosalind
March 31st, 2010 @ 7:37 pm

Happy birthday Claire! I’m new to your blog, but really enjoyed the post.

Devastating about the Persephone shop. That bookshop in Sao Paulo looks AMAZING, though. I want to live there.

Have a great, great day!
vivienne
March 31st, 2010 @ 7:55 pm

Happy birthday. Enjoy your cupcake.

Such sad news that the Persephone shop is shutting down. I do hope to join in with the Persephone week as I have three books to read.

I am still definitely reading widely rather than deeply, but there are just so many areas that I want to cover.
desperate reader
March 31st, 2010 @ 8:42 pm

Happy Birthday Claire, hope it was wonderful.

I’ve found as I get older I read more specifically – ie more of things that interest me and less of things that don’t, however I have a significant collection of books put aside against future unemployment/recuparation/retirement/holidays in Shetland which I think I should read but not just yet. Maybe I’m never going to be a grown up but I like having things to aspire to. happy reading, will be looking forward to see what of the list gets done in the next year.
kimbofo
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

Many happy returns, Claire!

I’ve got 11-and-a-bit years on you, and I no longer care if I have/haven’t read particular authors. Life is too short. Just read what you want and don’t worry what other people think!

I’m sorry to hear about the Persephone shop closing, but I’m not in the least surprised: 1) it was difficult to find and 2) Ken High Street has suffered a serious downturn (at one stage almost every third shop had closed down), a combination of the recession and the opening of Westfield a couple of miles down the road.
Simon T
March 31st, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

I was so sad about Persephone shop closing, I loved that one…

You definitely highlight the reading quandary – read everything by one writer, or read lots of different writers. There are some authors I know that I will eventually read all of (like EM Delafield) and I ration them out, but in general I like to sample lots of different writers, rather than read all of one, then move onto the next. Do you mind if I nab this idea for a blog post soon? (and link back here, of course!)

Iris Murdoch is on my list of authors I will *definitely* read before the end of the year. But she was on that list last year too…

Oh, and happy birthday
Frances
April 1st, 2010 @ 2:17 am

Happy, happy birthday! We are so close together as you reminded me last week. A few of so close together. Print junkies all.

Sorry to hear about the Persephone shop. But on a happier note, I plan to join you for your Persephone week this year if you will have a newbie like myself. Thanks for organizing!
Vasilly
April 1st, 2010 @ 3:07 am

Happy Birthday! It is sad to read about Persephone Books.
Susan in Texas
April 1st, 2010 @ 4:21 am

Many happy returns on the day! I hope it was a good one and that you get lots of good loot. Alas, I don’t think the author list-making ever gets shorter. It just gets deeper and wider at my house (and I’m in my 40′s).
Sasha
April 1st, 2010 @ 8:06 am

Happy birthday!
Jodie
April 1st, 2010 @ 11:00 am

Happy birthday! I hope you did get a cupcake, a really big one as well as other lovely things.

I’m what, 4 years behind you in age and I agree there are still so many authors I feel I need to read, to experience them even if they don’t turn out to be for me. And so many things to do – do you find yourself more determined to do the things you’ve always talked about as you get older? I am now like ‘I want to do this, so I will do it now’ and I get annoyed if I can’t for some reason:)
claire (kiss a cloud)
April 2nd, 2010 @ 12:55 am

Belated happy birthday, dearest Claire! Sure hope it was a good one. I panic when I think about my age and all the books I haven’t yet read that I want to. I do tend to read more of the authors I like, although since blogging it’s been happening less and less because of reading commitments and other things and so many new-er temptations! But you’re still young and have so many to look forward to! Cheers!
Anothercookiecrumbles
April 2nd, 2010 @ 7:53 pm

Belated birthday wishes to you, Claire. Hope you had a fantastic day, packed with many more cupcakes, balloons and books. I’m still on the right side of 25 (for another month or so) and I find that my list of books/authors to read are always on the rise. Don’t think that’s going to change in the next year, half decade or decade!

It’s a pity about the Persephone bookstore @ Notting Hill. I’ve read just the one book, and I will be joining in with a couple of books in May. I’ve been much tempted by the thoughts/reviews of you and Verity, and now I feel slightly guilty that I’ve never ventured into the store, but picked up books from Waterstones and Foyles instead.

My self-imposed book buying ban ends second week May, when I’ll definitely make a trip down to the Conduit Street store.
Kals
April 4th, 2010 @ 6:59 am

I have an award for you! http://atpemberley.blogspot.com/2010/04/awards-galore.html
Rachel
April 5th, 2010 @ 9:05 am

Very belated Happy Birthday, but I do have a good excuse! I hope you had an absolutely lovely day.

In answer to your question, I do a bit of both. Sometimes I get hooked on a particular author and like to read all their stuff immediately, others I like to spread out. I do feel pressured to read widely though as there are so many authors I haven’t even started on yet and it seems a bit of a waste to spend time reading 20 books by one author when I could have sampled 20 different authors in the same time.

I was sad to read about the Notting Hill Gate shop closing too – it was so exciting when they first opened as it showed just how much of a splash a small publisher like Persephone could make. I will be interested to read the reasons why in the Biannually, but I suspect it is something to do with them simply not getting enough people in. I work in that area, and most of the women who live there are too busy organising charity balls and ordering their maids about to read from my experience!