Orange Prize Season began with figuring for me. It looked like this: 304+304+321+320+336+288+464+336+336+193+304+289+272+352+602+256+316+256+400+461= Reading the Orange List. And where to go from this string of figures? How to quantify the reading? Now that it's swollen with characters. And settings. And plots. And tigers. Maybe I should tabulate the number of
The postal strike is making it look less and less likely that I'll be able to finish my Orange List reading after all (my own fault for not having ordered when the list was announced). So I'll have to muddle forth with some summaries without having read The Memory of
One of my favourite times of the reading year! Last year I posted about Orange Prize longlisted works on Mondays and Thursdays throughout Orange Prize Season, but this year I will be selecting specific weeks that will focus on All-Things-Orange. I can hardly wait, though I still need to finish
Reading in company. It’s always more fun, isn’t it? Not that a stack of Persephones and a stack of lemon cakes aren’t enjoyable in and of themselves. But there’s something about knowing that there are similar stacks of books and stacks of sweets at hand for other readers. That, just
“Oh, I just don’t have time for fiction.” “I want to read about the Real World.” “Novels are a waste when you could be learning something.” Sentiments like these have infuriated me countless times because my reader’s heart belongs to fiction. I collect quotes like these that I imagine tossing out
