Reading as a cheap hobby

Wednesday2000

Almost all my library books came in at once!

My dog had to get in the pic, of course.🤩

MrsStepford

Have achieved Bookish, Bookworm, Bibliophile, Bronze Reader, Silver Reader and Gold Reader on The Kindle Reading Challenge. It has been quite tough, trying to fit that in, with working on our website, housework etc. So I'm relieved to finish, more than anything ! 

Waiting impatiently for The Cuillen Dead, by J M Dalgliesh, to be released !

That's a lot of books to get through @Wednesday2000 ! 👏

 

PipneyJane

With the exception of the short stories, I’ve finally finished my Lord Peter Wimsey/Dorothy L Sayers marathon.  

The last book I read is “Thrones, Dominations”, which was partially written by DLS but finished by Jill Paton Walsh from DLS’ notes.  Don’t bother.  Below is an excerpt from the review I wrote about it for the Fashion On the Ration Challenge thread:

I’ve finished Thrones, Dominations.  Oh, my!  In some respects, it was easy to spot the bits written by Dorothy L Sayers.  I got the distinct impression that Jill Paton Walsh read, and re-read, a couple of paragraphs where Harriet was musing about her marriage, then decided to replicate that style for 3 pages, in multiple places.  Parts of it were too laboured for words.   It was almost possible to pick the bits written by DLS, simply because they were the easy read.

….

JPW doesn’t have good knowledge of the 1930’s nor of the type of people about whom she was writing.  Mr Bunter would never call the Wimseys “the Quality”, neither would his soon-to-be wife.  Bunter would call them “the Family”.  Miss Fanshaw would either do that or not use the phrase at all, being a member of the middle classes.  (Also, why would Meredith leave her standing in the hall, and not immediately take her to the servants quarters?  And why would he not know that his brother was away from home?).  The things that do ring true to me are Miss Fanshaw’s conversations with Harriet regarding portrait painting vs photography, and Harriet’s solution to Bunter’s resignation, although I do wonder if DLS would have had the latter suggestion come from Bunter.

No, I won’t be bothering to read the other novels written by JPW.

- Pip

Brie

PipneyJane said:

With the exception of the short stories, I’ve finally finished my Lord Peter Wimsey/Dorothy L Sayers marathon.  

The last book I read is “Thrones, Dominations”, which was partially written by DLS but finished by Jill Paton Walsh from DLS’ notes.  Don’t bother.  

Thanks for the warning about the JPW book.  I first came across Wimsey in the TV series from 1987 with Edward Petherbridge.  He shall always be who I see when I read any of those books.  Enjoyed them so much that our first cat was named after him.  

Do read the short stories they are generally quite delightful.  Montague Egg is a fun character.  

Nelliegrace

I have found some enjoyable old books free on Faded Pages and Open Library online. Open Library have been in trouble for books which are in Copyright, so a lot of titles are no longer available. 

I like the Georgette Heyer books, they are so funny. Good for when you have a cold and want to snuggle down in the warm. I reach for one on my IPad when I have work related nightmares. 

PipneyJane

Nelliegrace said:

I have found some enjoyable old books free on Faded Pages and Open Library online. Open Library have been in trouble for books which are in Copyright, so a lot of titles are no longer available. 

I like the Georgette Heyer books, they are so funny. Good for when you have a cold and want to snuggle down in the warm. I reach for one on my IPad when I have work related nightmares. 

I have a lot of Georgette Heyer books, @Nelliegrace, all purchased secondhand, while I was a student nurse in Australia.  As well as her historical novels, she wrote murder mysteries.  I have one; no recollection if I ever read it.

- Pip

bouicca21

@PipneyJane Heyer’s mystery novels are nowhere near as good as the Regency ones.   What I love about the Regency series is that (a) all the plots are different, it’s never just fitting new characters into a standard scenario and (b) she really knew a heck of a lot about history and gets almost all of the detail right.

annieb64

I had a complete set of Georgette Heyer novels- history and crime- until we downsized and I had to get rid of a lot of books. 

When I was a student many years ago I was invited to my tutor's house for supper. She also had a complete set. We had a lovely evening discussing novels. She introduced me to Dorothy L Sayers novels too.

PipneyJane

bouicca21 said:

@PipneyJane Heyer’s mystery novels are nowhere near as good as the Regency ones.   What I love about the Regency series is that (a) all the plots are different, it’s never just fitting new characters into a standard scenario and (b) she really knew a heck of a lot about history and gets almost all of the detail right.

Ditto, @bouicca21.  My favourites were the Leonie novels.  (I haven’t read them in over 25 years, but I remember her.)

annieb64 said:

I had a complete set of Georgette Heyer novels- history and crime- until we downsized and I had to get rid of a lot of books. 

When I was a student many years ago I was invited to my tutor's house for supper. She also had a complete set. We had a lovely evening discussing novels. She introduced me to Dorothy L Sayers novels too.

Sounds like a brilliant evening, @annieb64

- Pip

Floss

bouicca21 said:

@PipneyJane Heyer’s mystery novels are nowhere near as good as the Regency ones.   What I love about the Regency series is that (a) all the plots are different, it’s never just fitting new characters into a standard scenario and (b) she really knew a heck of a lot about history and gets almost all of the detail right.

My librarian parents suggested GH books to teenage me for exactly this!