{"id":31544,"date":"2016-02-26T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T17:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=31544"},"modified":"2016-02-25T22:49:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T09:49:49","slug":"grab-bag-from-a-writers-bookshelf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/02\/26\/grab-bag-from-a-writers-bookshelf\/","title":{"rendered":"Grab-Bag From A Writer’s Bookshelf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iliad\"<\/a>When writers have a book come out we tend to get asked about the books we like reading, or what books we consider have particularly influenced us, usually over time.<\/p>\n

I tend to focus on Fantasy novels in my reply, because that’s what I write and with a new book out that’s very much the ‘focus’ of interviews and guest spots.\"pride-and-prejudice2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, today I thought I’d take a “grab bag” from my writers bookshelf of books that I’ve particularly loved on first encounter and where the love affair has proved enduring.<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/a>Homer\u2019s Iliad<\/em>, for example, has held pride of place since I read my first children’s version, although it’s the adult edition, also very well-read, which now occupies the writer’s bookshelf.<\/p>\n

J\"Eyeless<\/a>ane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice<\/em> is another enduring favourite, as is Leo Tolstoy\u2019s Anna Karenina<\/em>\u2014and I will always feel a deep appreciation for JRR Tolkien\u2019s The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, which has effectively benchmarked a genre.<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/a>The bookshelf also features books that speak to our humanity in a profound way, such as Harper Lee\u2019s To Kill A Mockingbird<\/em>, or Aldous Huxley\u2019s Eyeless in Gaza — <\/em>as well as rare and delicate portrayals like Tove Jansson\u2019s The Summer Book<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Yet these are still just a very few examples of books and writing I admire greatly.<\/p>\n

But how about you, dear Friday readers—what would a grab-bag from your personal reading shelf contain?<\/p>\n

\"Lord<\/a>\"To<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When writers have a book come out we tend to get asked about the books we like reading, or what books we consider have particularly influenced us, usually over time. I tend to focus on Fantasy novels in my reply, because that’s what I write and with a new book out that’s very much the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funstuff","category-other-writers","category-what-im-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31544"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31551,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31544\/revisions\/31551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}