Reading as a cheap hobby

PipneyJane

Quasar said:

PS. I hadn't posted for ages on MSE and I feel almost like a newbie, but why can't we quote posts anymore? Just curious.

That’s odd, @Quasar, but the Forums have been a bit buggy over the weekend, so it may be due to that.  I’ve received several “Gateway Time Out” notices when trying to navigate from one thread to another.

Please try clicking on “Quote” at the bottom left of this post and see if it happens again.

- Pip (Curious)

Quasar

@PipneyJane, yes I have that the Gateway Timeout a lot also. I thought that was because I'm logging in from abroad now, and the site might be careful with whom it readily admits.  Will keep trying, thanks.

Asparklierblonde

I adore reading, and have really come to love historical fiction in recent years. Sarah Waters, Stacey Halls, Phillippa Gregory et al. Particularly love gothic Victorian fiction.

Best recent read was The Lost Bookshop - outstanding.

Brie

MrsStepford said:

Perfume was great. I'll lob some recommendations into the mix.. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst, the Hidden Norfolk series by J M Dalgliesh, the Grimm Up North series by David J Gatward, the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin and Orlando by Virginia Woolf, as well as The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. 

As marvellous as some of Woolf's writing is I never really "got" Orlando.  All of which flooded back recently when there were radio ads for a local theatre that had a play of Orlando running and kept talking about is as a hilarious comedy.  Maybe that's part of what I didn't get?  That I thought is was somewhat serious when I should have been rolling on the floor crying with laughter?

Perfume was excellent but a bit out there on the super weird scale.  Loved the detail of making perfumes though.

For those that like a good cookbook to read Floyds were always great fun.  Again talking local....he used to do ads for a furniture store near us that happened to be named Cookes.  Often wondered if he was actually in the area for filming as I would have loved to have seen him in person.

General_Grant

I was intrigued by this thread's title.
I don't think I had ever thought of reading as a hobby but just as something one did, simply an enjoyable and rewarding part of living.

MrsStepford

I watched some of Keith Floyd's TV shows on YouTube and in one, there was a very young Gary Rhodes, cooking at a pub in Somerset.

I have Floyd on France and Floyd Around the Med and would recommend both of them. 

My mother tried to get me into historical fiction @Asparklierblonde but it didn't really take, other than Victoria Holt and Georgette Heyer.

I have vivid memories of sitting on an empty small private beach near Hyères, as a teenager, reading A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle to.my parents. My father was laughing so much that he had a coughing fit.

Carol Drinkwater wrote a book about an olive farm but I don't recall the title.

 I have a feeling that Gerald Durrell wrote books about his childhood in Greece ? Anyone know them, as I'd like to put them in my list.

I recommend The Food of Love by Anthony Capella, which is a romance... with recipes ! 

Brie

MrsStepford said:

I watched some of Keith Floyd's TV shows on YouTube and in one, there was a very young Gary Rhodes, cooking at a pub in Somerset.

I have Floyd on France and Floyd Around the Med and would recommend both of them. 

My mother tried to get me into historical fiction @Asparklierblonde but it didn't really take, other than Victoria Holt and Georgette Heyer.

I have vivid memories of sitting on an empty small private beach near Hyères, as a teenager, reading A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle to.my parents. My father was laughing so much that he had a coughing fit.

Carol Drinkwater wrote a book about an olive farm but I don't recall the title.

 I have a feeling that Gerald Durrell wrote books about his childhood in Greece ? Anyone know them, as I'd like to put them in my list.

I recommend The Food of Love by Anthony Capella, which is a romance... with recipes ! 

Drinkwater - The Olive Season (I think - haven't read it but I can see it on google.)

Durrell - wrote lots, mostly autobiographical and a lot to do with environmental issues and saving animals in general - My Family and other Animals is his most famous based on living in Corfu.  Can't recall ever reading it but the OH rates it.  

redofromstart

Great thread, although reading isn't a hobby, it is necessary. My kindle says I have read something 200 plus weeks in a row (poor eye sight makes hard copies challenging) but actually I read at least a chapter of something every day.

pratchett obviously, my user name and diary titles reflect this.  @PipneyJane made me smile with Dorothy L Sayers, which needs to go on my next rotation. All of the Georgette Heyers, Agatha Christie, etc.  I read all of the chalet school. And pullein thompson and the Jill books, although when I finally got to try horse riding I hated it )

Dorothy Sayers/ngaio Marsh/ Josephine Tey are all good if you like British crime if the Agatha Christie era. Angela Thirkell and Miss Read if you like that era without crime.  

someone mentioned L M Montgomery - Anne of GG is ok, but the Blue castle is one of my all time favourites.

love Diana Wynette Jones, Chrestomanci series, Dalemark and all of the Howls moving castle ones. 

The thing that makes me very happy is finding a new (to me) author and losing a few weeks.

annieb64

I found a Chalet School book in an Oxfam bookshop today. It was only 99p so I bought it along with a couple of non- fiction books.

Some of the Chalet School books are quite collectable so must look this one up. I worked as a volunteer in an Oxfam bookshop for 25 years and loved it.

PipneyJane

redofromstart said:

Great thread, although reading isn't a hobby, it is necessary. My kindle says I have read something 200 plus weeks in a row (poor eye sight makes hard copies challenging) but actually I read at least a chapter of something every day.

pratchett obviously, my user name and diary titles reflect this.  @PipneyJane made me smile with Dorothy L Sayers, which needs to go on my next rotation. All of the Georgette Heyers, Agatha Christie, etc.  I read all of the chalet school. And pullein thompson and the Jill books, although when I finally got to try horse riding I hated it )

 

“Out of Cheese Error” 

- Pip (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)