Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home

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Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 1,015 ratings · 240 reviews

This is a year of reading from home, by one of Britain's most distinguished authors. Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new...more

Hardcover, 236 pages

Published October 8th 2009 by Profile Books

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Nov 07, 2012 Brian Robbins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: on-book-addiction, read-3ce-or-more, favourites

Loved the book on my 2nd re-read. This time limited myself to one chapter per night at end of day. Almost managed to keep to my resolution - well almost most of the time. Had the feel of an enjoyable conversation about books. Perhaps the favourite of anumber of favourite moments was her touching portrait of Charles Causley. Increased the 'to read list' further than many enthusiasts have.

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Jan 27, 2013 Ellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I loved the premise of this book. The author went to one of her shelves to find a book, but it wasn't there. While looking for it she found many, many other books that she had intended to read, or re-read. She decided to spend a year enjoying the books already on her shelves, instead of buying new ones. I can relate! But from there, the book rambles a bit; she goes through various genres of books, and talks about her likes and dislikes. You rarely hear what she's reading or re-reading; the book...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Choco marked it as unfinished

"There is no doubt that of the thousands of new books published every year many are excellent and some will stand the test of time. A few will become classics. But I wanted to stand back and let the dust settle on everything new, while I set off on a journey through my books (p. 3 )."

This book is about the author's journey to read only books from her collection for a year. It is intriguing, but it didn't feel like the right time for me to read it. (I only skimmed through, so it doesn't have a ra...more

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May 13, 2012 Julie Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was all the rage a little while ago (in book reading time) and the library finally filled my long-standing request. Having something like 9 books I'm partway into (including audio), I knew I'd better wait to begin this. I read the first chapter to make sure I'd be interested and Susan Hill's beautiful, expressive prose swept me away for an hour before I looked up.

This is more than the standard recounting of "book's I've read and loved" as Hill incorporates the brief memories that each elic...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-appreciation

Really clever memoir. Susan Hill, searching for one book uncovers oodles that she had forgotten she had, forgotten she had read, didn't rememeber ever having seen before. If this sounds familiar you'll really enjoy this traipse through literature. Wonderfully ' name-droppy ' ( I know there is no such word but it fits I assure you ). In a year when she decides to buy no new books, (Good grief) and opts to re-discover her own collection ( Hmmmm, interesting ) She reflects on the power of books, th...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Vibina Venugopal rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is just not another list of books she has loved ,liked and disliked but more of a memoir of years that she has been through with books...Memories and life attached to the same people , place are all part of it..All this begins when Susan goes searching for a particular book which she fails to find , in the process she discovers many books she hasn't read or re-read as she had planned to , this makes her to spend a year not buying any new books rather spend her time reading all that she want...more This is just not another list of books she has loved ,liked and disliked but more of a memoir of years that she has been through with books...Memories and life attached to the same people , place are all part of it..All this begins when Susan goes searching for a particular book which she fails to find , in the process she discovers many books she hasn't read or re-read as she had planned to , this makes her to spend a year not buying any new books rather spend her time reading all that she wanted to from her shelf..
Love for reading reflects through every expressions of her..Husband and wife sleeping in different rooms just to be wrapped around the books they wanted to read only supports that thought...Her interest are varied and she has tried to cover vast collection, though her dislike for Austen might put off many, she discusses till Rowling and Harry Potter with much ease like she recounts reading classic..Reading this made me think about the books that I loved reading and that was were things..From poets to short stories her interest in books somehow matches mine still there were points were I just couldn't connect with her and that is when I had to remind myself that the books is her personal ramblings and like me..But we all love books except for few all of us mortal might go through this phase, then how does this particular book set apart ..This is not the kind of book that explores her life and her reading life completely though it does in a larger way nor it takes us into her world of books but it does all of these in a different note...There are also glimpses of her childhood and teenage reading and the authors who inspired her....I didn't know why the author with so much of freedom of choice didn't explore varied cross continent literature, her list seemed quite partial to British..Though she had a section dedicated to woman authors that seemed written in a hurry rather being savored
Her rendezvous with great such as Benjamin Britten, T.S Eliot, E.M Foster, Iris Mudroch, and so on are spread across the book...Still somehow I felt that the emotional connection that she could have made with the reader wasn't that great...May be for the reason it went quite superficially..I loved her attitude towards books though her views may not go by mass...At the end of the book there is a list of 40 books she would happily die with..And why I loved book is that all through the line it made me probe into my fray of reading books and the way I see books and their contents..It also made be feel why books are one of the best friends a person can ever have and the habit of reading a real blessing in itself...Personally I have made many a lists that I have been able to fulfill and many a times failing pathetically...Still I have never fell out of love with my books its a kind of love affair for eternity that I would treasure upon for many years to be...

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Feb 16, 2013 Celtria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this charming read: a memoir of a literary life as seen through Susan Hill's bookshelves and the memories conjured from them of the writers she has met - and Benjemin Britten.

Hill gives the reader an interesting, quirky in places, steady read, offering her personal views and opinions on particular books and authors(she doesn't like Jane Austen so she gets my vote!), the place for books and reading in our lives, the future of the book, and more.

From the book: "Book collections grow...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Description: Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again.

A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the po...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Tennille [A.K.A Blair] Chase [A.K.A Mirth] rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who knows me, and for those who don’t but soon will learn, I love books about books. There is something so alluring, magical and delicious about opening a book and delving into the world of reading where I as an avid reader am able to hear and see, smell and touch books through my mind and through the minds of other book lovers. While reading is a tactile thing, reading about books feeds my imagination like fertilizer to a growing rose bush. [And who doesn’t love to stop and smell the ro...more Anyone who knows me, and for those who don’t but soon will learn, I love books about books. There is something so alluring, magical and delicious about opening a book and delving into the world of reading where I as an avid reader am able to hear and see, smell and touch books through my mind and through the minds of other book lovers. While reading is a tactile thing, reading about books feeds my imagination like fertilizer to a growing rose bush. [And who doesn’t love to stop and smell the roses?]

So it is truly no surprise that when I was browsing around a bookshop late year and came upon the exquisite and tempting book Howard’s End is on the Landing. I had to pick it up and take a squizzy. From the synopsis on the inside front flap Susan Hill spoke about embarking on a yearlong journey into the homes and depths of her book shelves; through re-reading, de-cluttering and exploring the books that had been gathering dust on her shelves but had never been read. To a collector and a life time book lover this had be jumping up and down doing a happy dance and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Ah, the perfect book.

Fast track to about a year later and I am standing at my bookshelf looking at all the non-fiction books that I own. There aren’t many, maybe 30-40 at the most outside my insane collection of fiction books, and it’s not that I don’t love non-fiction either. But I sat down after looking at my collection for the hundredth time since I’d moved into this house and I thought to myself. God I would love to pull that one down for my shelf. What was I waiting for? Did I need a sign or a divine message urging me to take it from the pile or permission to read something – to indulge a little? No more than half an hour later I was watching one of my favourite Youtuber’s Debra make a book haul video, and in it – lo and behold she had purchased Howard’s End is on the Landing. That was the sign- that was all I needed to see before I scooped it up, took the dust jacket off and settled down – eager to begin the journey with Susan Hill.

When I began reading this I had expectations of what I thought the book was going to be about. I think everyone does, regardless of what they say. But what I expected and what I actually got from the book could not be any more different. However the experience from reading this book and sheer surprise of what I found within its pages more than made up for the crushing realization that this wasn’t one of those books where you are going to say – ah yes I know that book, or that person or I totally agree with what you are saying. Nor is it a deep look inside her library, her life as an author and as a reader. It’s so much more than both of those things, and although it does dally a little into the concepts I was expecting I think it enriched my reading experience by not being predictable and totally taking me outside my comfort zone.

I am a child from a different Era, sure I was brought up with Beatrix Potter and Enid Blyton, but when you get to talking about Charles Dickens and Iris Murdoch, not to mention Ian Fleming and Virginia wolf I am completely lost. I have not really read too many classics that I can recall and until my early teenage years had not read anything that could be classed as great old literature. So when I began reading and getting involved in the story I was taken for a little ride, one that I had not packed for when Susan Hill now I think in her sixties, began talking about the authors she had met, ones that had influenced her in the past and the books she has read as a child, a teenager and as an adult that I had either no clue existed or never really given a shit about in the first place. You would think it would make for dull reading. Given any other book and I would have thrown it away despite the pretty cover, but that is the brilliant and blessed thing about this book. No matter how out of my element I was, how dry the content could be at times and how stupid I felt for not even hearing about [what sounded like some astounding pieces of literature] Susan Hill still managed to have be hooked on her story, page after page into all hours of the night and just loving every second of it. And one of the biggest deciding factors of why I could not throw this book away and will treasure it forever is doors it opened up inside my head and for my reading life ahead of me.

There were so many lists that I made. So many ideas were questions and challenges stirred. The question – could I do this? Could I spend a year not buying books and delving into my ever growing collection? Could I spend a year re-reading some of my favourite books and authors – immersing myself in the worlds that shaped me as a person and as a reader without feeling guilty that I was missing out on so many wonderful books that were yet to be published, were already on my wish list or merely already on my shelf? The answers to those questions are still percolating, but I imagine very soon the fruition of my thoughts will reveal itself and out of it will come a new journey into my own reading.

Not only though was I amazed, and excited to learn about these beautiful people and their passion for the word and for books, but Susan’s sharp insight into the world of reading from the effects of the internet and its stunting our reading, to the competitive nature of book buying and blogging and how we devour books [better to have read twenty a week than one or two] and don’t savour them slowly like we used to back when books where harder to get, or when it was acceptable to spend a great deal of time reading one. It was this deeper look into the style of reading that really had me thinking about the way that I read and it offered me some home truths that maybe I was denying myself a little. Like the joys of re-reading a book, or taking my time.

Howard’s end is on the landing is not going to be for everyone. I do think for my generation might find it to be a dull book and a hard one to read through unless you’re highly interested in taking a stroll down memory lane for the last century or so in books and authors. However if you are one who is open to that experience, then I think there is so much to be gained from taking the time to read the book and books like it from time to time in your life. It will offer you the chance to look inside a different aspect of the reading world you might live in and who knows, you might even find a new author or book to fall in love with.

Overall it was a mixed experience reading this book, but I can strongly say that this is one of the books that I can say had a strong impact on my life. For that I am recommending it to all those of you out there who love books about books and to those who would like to get a little insight into Susan Hill’s world. I will be searching out for some of her other works, but in the meantime please feel free to let me know your thoughts on the book if you have read it and if you intend to get it- fantastic.

I am giving this one:
★★★★★
Piles of musty old books.
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Jun 11, 2012 Karina Westermann rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, non-fiction

I adore books about books - and when I saw a Guardian Book Review of this book, I was interested. Unfortunately this book is not so much a book about books (nor a book about reading) as much as it is a book about People Susan Hill Has Met.

Did you know she had lunch with Benjamin Britten who liked her novel? That she once waited on a doorstep with TS Eliot? E.M. Forster once stepped on her toes? Kingsley Amis once said to her in 'a genuine tone' that he was very proud of his son? That she interv...more

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May 15, 2012 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Susan Hill is an English author and publisher who has spent a year browsing her home library and rekindling memories of a lifetime’s reading. Her account follows the logic of her bookshelves: not strictly organised but having an intuitive logic. One subject leads to another: pop-up books lead to Dickens; poetry to travel writing. Although the bookshelves are in the author’s home, we hear little about her family life. This is mostly a book about loving books, although some become intertwined with...more Susan Hill is an English author and publisher who has spent a year browsing her home library and rekindling memories of a lifetime’s reading. Her account follows the logic of her bookshelves: not strictly organised but having an intuitive logic. One subject leads to another: pop-up books lead to Dickens; poetry to travel writing. Although the bookshelves are in the author’s home, we hear little about her family life. This is mostly a book about loving books, although some become intertwined with people, places and memories.

Howards End is on the Landing celebrates the appeal of reading. It will resonate with people who enjoy becoming immersed in literature, or indeed poetry, biography or anthology. It will also appeal to people who appreciate the look and feel of books, and the adventure of plunging into a good volume. As Hill takes the reader on a journey through different types of writing, she keeps the reader grounded with the occasional anecdote about literary colleagues. The book comes to life with descriptions of the look and feel of the physical books: their dust covers, inscriptions and illustrations.

Hill’s style and tone reveal depth and human understanding, showing both an openness to others and an avoidance of the narrow and provincial. Her attitude towards the books and people that she has met during her career is one of gratitude. Looking over her book in its entirely, she has read many books which are permeated with human qualities, but the reader may note names or titles that are associated with less appropriate content or philosophy. However, Hill does not write a book of recommendations, and many readers will not take all of the books addressed as such. For example, in Hill’s appraisal of children’s books, a responsible parent will be aware that Roald Dahl’s books are of varying suitability for children, rather than accepting Hill’s approval unconditionally. It seems that Susan Hill is a kind and thoughtful writer, who in the course of her work has occasionally encountered moral equivalence, which peeps through into her text on occasion. However, the most abiding impression is of a likeable author who has developed a deep appreciation of books and the people in them. (less)

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Aug 07, 2011 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read on kindle

This book is a fairly quick read, and I would think an absolute must for all book lovers and voracious readers. Those of us with a lot of books in pour houses (although I have far fewer than Susan Hill) have those which we have read several times, those we have never read and those which seem to have appeared without us realising. This is a book about how those books of Susan Hill's got there, what they mean, or why they have so far remained ignored. Susan Hill decided to spend a y...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have savoured this book slowly much as I do a bar of good quality chocolate, a chapter at the time. I've really enjoyed it.

I would love to have a look around the author's house. I bet there are quite a few rare books there and some really quirky ones from what she says in this memoir. I also wonder quite how large it is - how many landings and vast shelves which house hundreds of books can it have?! (743 books on ONE...!)

As for the name dropping element which has irritated other readers of thi...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Sydney rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I found this book annoying. I expected a thoughtful approach to reading — what we read, what we neglect, what we return to — but much of the text is self-aggrandizing (Ms. Hill has published many novels and knows many authors). Even comments on the great writer E.M. Forster are limited to the time she ran into him at the British Library. Ms. Hill is approximately my age, so she has lived through the second half of the 20th century and seen the wonderful explosion in literature in diverse voices....more

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May 30, 2011 Bev Hankins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir, books-about-books

Books help to form us. If you cut me open, will you find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted into me? Alice in Wonderland. The Magic Faraway Tree. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Book of Job. Bleak House. Wuthering Heights. The Complete Poems of W. H. Auden. The Tale of Mr. Tod. Howards End. What a strange person I must be. But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exa...more Books help to form us. If you cut me open, will you find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted into me? Alice in Wonderland. The Magic Faraway Tree. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Book of Job. Bleak House. Wuthering Heights. The Complete Poems of W. H. Auden. The Tale of Mr. Tod. Howards End. What a strange person I must be. But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.

Howards End Is on the Landing (p. 202)
~Susan Hill

It isn't often that a book comes along that I want to underline just about every sentence....or at least snag them for my quote collection. Susan Hill's book is such a one. Howards End Is on the Landing
is Hill's journey through her books. One autumn afternoon she is in search of a certain book, but her collection is strewn throughout her house in various rooms, on sundry bookshelves. There is no definite order. Certain books have congregated together--but the logic sometimes escapes her. And as she searches she discovers old friends fondly remembered and strangers that she has never read or even forgotten she ever bought. This discovery sparks a decision to spend a year reading only books from her shelves, sending her on a journey to get to know her own collection again.

Her journey takes her from Shakespeare to Dickens, from W. H. Auden to Roald Dahl, and from Virginia Woolf to Iris Murdoch. Along the way, she shares conversations with authors she has known, visits to libraries she has loved, and the books she has devoured through a lifetime of reading. She gives us comments on the writers, insights into reading, and a window into what informed her own writing. This is a marvelous book for those who love reading. It is part memoir and part review and is very conversational in tone. And I find myself in total agreement with her on the subject of books--no electronic reader can ever give the satisfaction of holding a book in your hand or walking into a room completely shelved in books, whether that be a personal or public library or a bookstore. There is something special about the presence of books that a glowing screen cannot match. Borrowed from the library, but destined to be owned as soon as possible.(less)

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May 13, 2011 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

I'm not sure why I stopped to read this, since I don't really go for books of this sort (i.e., memoirs that fetishize books and reading). But it was a quick read: a tour of Hill's library and her thoughts on a lifetime of reading. This exemplary little bit on what Anita Brookner's novels accomplish almost makes me want to try Brookner again some day:

How we repeat our mistakes and why, how we fail to notice vital signs in human behaviour in time to save ourselves from disaster, how we make the be

...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Louise Turner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book about books, authors, and the pleasures of reading. When the author was looking for her misplaced copy of Howard's End she noticed many unread books on her shelves and determined that for a year she would buy no new books, but simply read from those she already had. Each chapter is a consideration of the books she owns and authors she has met, along with thoughts about such things as the things that fall out of books, how important a title is to the success of a book, children'...more

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Oct 10, 2010 Felice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do not keep every book that makes it's way into my house. If I start it and don't like it, out it goes. Most times even if I loved it, it leaves. I keep a few much loved books, books that I want to pass onto a friend, books to give a niece or nephew when they reach the right age and any and all knitting books that I come in contact with. But. Those count as reference, right? We can take those out of the equation. And... I don't need to dust more and since love won't dust I have to have a might...more I do not keep every book that makes it's way into my house. If I start it and don't like it, out it goes. Most times even if I loved it, it leaves. I keep a few much loved books, books that I want to pass onto a friend, books to give a niece or nephew when they reach the right age and any and all knitting books that I come in contact with. But. Those count as reference, right? We can take those out of the equation. And... I don't need to dust more and since love won't dust I have to have a might strong need to keep a book for longer than it takes to read it So bottom line you will not find rooms and rooms of books in my house.

At the starting point for Howards End Is On The Landing, British author Susan Hill is searching for a specific book in her house full of books. During her search she finds hundreds of books that she has purchased over the years that she hasn't yet read, books she's read and forgotten and the books that have touched her the most. She decides that for the next year she will forgo any new book purchases and instead re-read the best loved books she has. She is going to make a list. This list will be the 40 books she could survive on if she had to. Jealous? Me too. Her seemingly bottomless pit of coziness farmhouse is something to envy as well.

As Hill reads and offers up critical judgments On The Landing (Love the cover by the way) also becomes an autobiographical ramble. Hill's successful career as a writer and playwright has brought people like Auden, T.S. Eliot, Penelope Fitzgerald, Bruce Chatwin and Ian Fleming into her life. She shares stories of her famous acquaintances with as much down to Earth joy as she shares anecdotes about her childhood readings and musings on her student lodgings with mystery reading nuns. Most genres and fads come under her view and it can be quite amusing. There is no science here. This is not a doctorate on what makes a good book. Hill chattily shares a lifetime of firm ideas and taste about what she loves to read and why. She offers none to gentle persuasion about what you could be reading, but this is her list and the arbitrariness of it is what appeals to a reader the most.

Hill's opinions are fierce and fascinating. She unashamedly cannot abide Australian and Canadian writers. She finds Jane Austen's "porcelain veneer" boring. This is not, however a Negative Nellie rant on awful books and what is wrong with publishing today. On The Landing is a nonstop reader's love letter to reading. It is a celebratory re-examining of the events and people who have influenced Hill's book choices. There are many titles and authors that she is a passionate advocate for that are now on my list: Elizabeth Jane Howard, John Wain's The Smaller Sky, etc. So while Hill is downsizing her library she is helping me create a shopping list. (less)

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Apr 12, 2010 Khairul H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books

In her quest to stop buying new books for a year and start reading books she already owns or re-read those she has enjoyed before, Susan Hill takes the reader on a journey of discovery; of finding joy in reading.

She loves books. The ones made with paper, not the electronic kind. She hates those and I share her views on them. You can't sniff an e-book nor scribble on it. Some reviewers here accuse her of name dropping and while I too find that habit annoying, I do not feel the same way here. When...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Libby rated it 3 of 5 stars

The premise of this reading memoir is that the author is re-reading or reading for the first time books that are in her home. Since she is both an author and publisher and her husband is a Shakespeare scholar, there are quite a few books available for this. I mostly enjoyed the book; some of the most interesting parts are the anecdotes about other writers--she once met E.M. Forster when he dropped a large book on her foot in the library. The books she discusses are, not surprisingly, overwhelmin...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Dot rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What to say about this wonderful book! Firstly a complaint...I had recently resolved to read from my shelves of unread books before buying or borrowing any others...but having read this book, I now have a long list of other books that I MUST read after reading what Susan Hill says about them. In fact, I started to make a list of books I would like to read as a result of this book, and when I had filled 2 sheets of paper, I resolved to buy a copy of the book for myself so that I can refer to it i...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Amanda Caldwell rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-for-book-lovers, memoir, non-fiction, europe, united-kingdom, stunt, 2000s

This book was no where near as good as I expected it to be. Expectation: the author talks about the books she read off her own bookshelf from home over the course of a year and what each novel meant to her, etc. Reality: the author walks around her house and talks about books she's aleady read in the past, usually several times, and has also met the author or they live in her neighborhood or she's seen them on the train, etc and basically just brags about it. I found her to be really snobby and...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, belles-lettres

With Howard's End is on the Landing Susan Hill offers an amiable, chatty look at books she has loved, loathed and left unread. Her rambles take the reader back to her childhood in Scarborough, to her college years in London and through her years as a writer and radio personality. Through these years she managed to meet a great number of the book world elite, from dashing Ian Fleming to the formidable Sitwells. These remembrances, some of which were very slight, at the library, E. M. Forster drop...more
With Howard's End is on the Landing Susan Hill offers an amiable, chatty look at books she has loved, loathed and left unread. Her rambles take the reader back to her childhood in Scarborough, to her college years in London and through her years as a writer and radio personality. Through these years she managed to meet a great number of the book world elite, from dashing Ian Fleming to the formidable Sitwells. These remembrances, some of which were very slight, at the library, E. M. Forster dropped a book on her foot, may seem to some to be just so much name-dropping. However, they really work both to support her contention that so many of these gods of li-tra-tra were kind, helpful and immanently human, well Edith Sitwell wasn't, and to develop the chatty tone. Honestly, if I happen to be chatting with you about the rock scene of the late '70, I will just have to tell you about the time Elvis Costello's keyboard player touched my arm or the time I had a brief but lovely conversation with Brian Wilson. I would do so for these reasons. One to show my own giddy, star struck nature at 16, the other to show the gentle sweetness of the Wilson. And, well that is what people do when they chat.
Hill in her chattiness shares a wealth of opinions and reading foibles. Some of those opinions are bound to raise eyebrows; she can't find pleasure in Austen and has strong views on book plates. One which I was glad to hear voiced was her attitude towards new books which is similar to mine. We both prefer to avoid them in their newly minted state to wait until, as she puts it, "the dust has settled." As with her name-dropping her rather ruthless bandying of views enhances the friendly, volubility of the tone. Though I deeply pity her inability to enjoy Austen rather like I pity my son's color blindness.

As one would expect, Hill has added new names to my never shortening list of must reads. I suppose my final analysis would be that it was an amiable way to spent a very hot summer day thanks to its gregarious tone, but Hill provided me with no ah-ha or aw moments.(less)

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Mar 20, 2012 Darlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a great book! I picked this book up a few days ago and started reading it while waiting for my daughter and I was hooked from the first page! Author Susan Hill describes searching for a particular book in her home and not being able to find it. What she DID discover, however, were dozens of books that she had bought but had never read and books that she had read and loved and wanted to read again. She decided to spend a year 'reading from home'.. she bought no new books ... she simply read...more What a great book! I picked this book up a few days ago and started reading it while waiting for my daughter and I was hooked from the first page! Author Susan Hill describes searching for a particular book in her home and not being able to find it. What she DID discover, however, were dozens of books that she had bought but had never read and books that she had read and loved and wanted to read again. She decided to spend a year 'reading from home'.. she bought no new books ... she simply read books from her own shelves. This book is about her literary journey. Ms. Hill's idea really struck a chord in me. I have bought many books over the past year... my poor book shelves are groaning under the weight of my newly discovered treasures.

Ms. Smith, in her year long rediscovery of her books,wrote lovingly about some of the authors and books she had loved over the course of her life. She talked about her favorite books of poetry, short stories, novels, biographies, childrens books and even spiritual books which had given her comfort and soothed her soul. Many of the books she talked about I had not read but I could relate completely to her FEELINGS about her books! Her anecdotes about books from her childhood took me back to MY favorite books from childhood and all of the books I spent hours and hours reading... the Nancy Drew mysteries by Carolyn Keene and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

It was apparent to me from the first page that I had met a kindred literary spirit. Ms. Smith writes..."But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books and only the same books as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA." I think this passage beautifully sums up just how we, who love books so much, feel. This amazing book has inspired me to start my own 'reading from home' project. I admit that I'm not as disciplined as Ms. Smith... I most likely will not be able to resist acquiring a new book.. perhaps by one of my favorite authors! But I DO resolve to spend time working through my own mountain of unread books! (less)

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May 23, 2011 Donna Jo Atwood rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-on-books

I always thought I owned a lot of books. Susan Hill owns tons more--and has more house to tuck them away in. Oh, to go live in Susan Hill's house.

Hill has written about her search for her copy of Howards End which leads her to a year of reading or rereading only books from her own collection--the forgotten or forsaken or formerly loved. Her chapters are short excursions through the bookshelves which always turn up some gem that sparks a memory of an old friend (she had met many of England's auth...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Halli rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the most part I liked it, little gems of quotes here and there but all-in-all I found Susan Hill pretentious and severely name dropping. I enjoyed her experience in literally running into E. M. Forster but after the first couple of run-ins with prevalent authors, it just gets old. She's entirely British-thinking which I can appreciate but not when she's letting her reader know that obviously they haven't lived if they didn't have experience with a certain amateur printing press all because s...more

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May 30, 2012 Doreen rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Kate

Recommended to Doreen by: Jan Franco was reading it!

Shelves: specific-goals-tasks-time-constrain

The author decides to spend the year reading/rereading books that she already owns. She explores the books on her own shelves, offering her memories of reading each book, or her reasons for not reading a specific one. She rates her books, always accompanied by personal commentary. I like that she explores her collection of childhood books, as well as the mature reading material that she owns. I didn't sit and consume this book in one sitting, although it's a fairly short book. It's just not that...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Kell rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bibliophiles!

Recommended to Kell by: Bloggers

Shelves: read-in-2012

I'd heard so many wonderful things about this book that I think I fell victim to the hype and wanted to like it so much more than I did. That's not to say it's not good - it IS good, just not as good as I'd hoped.

Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home is less a love letter to the books Susan Hill loves, and more a recounting of the many anecdotes she has of meeting and working with other writers, and their books which have subsequently helped shape her life, both personally a...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books, nonfiction

Not reading the books I already own: this is a problem I have, a common problem, it seems, and Susan Hill had it too. So she decided, one day while hunting for a book on her shelves and not finding it (but finding lots of other interesting books), that she would spend a year reading only books from her own shelves.

Howards End is on the Landing, the book that came out of that decision, is the story of Hill's exploration of her bookshelves (of which there are many), but it's also the story of her...more Not reading the books I already own: this is a problem I have, a common problem, it seems, and Susan Hill had it too. So she decided, one day while hunting for a book on her shelves and not finding it (but finding lots of other interesting books), that she would spend a year reading only books from her own shelves.

Howards End is on the Landing, the book that came out of that decision, is the story of Hill's exploration of her bookshelves (of which there are many), but it's also the story of her reading life, and a bit the story of her writing life and her social life. It's made of short chapters that cover many things book-related: pop-up books, Dickens (she's a fan), things that fall out of books, Patrick Leigh Fermor (again, she's a fan), writing in books, and so on. The Sitwells make an appearance, as do E.M. Forster and V.S. Naipaul (the people, I mean, not just their writing: Hill has met a number of writers over the course of her own career as one).

When it's engaging, this book is really engaging: I loved, for example, Hill's description of reading mysteries from the Golden Age of the Detective Story for fun during her student days and how:

Many of them were set in a London which then (1960) had barely changed since the time in which they were written. The docks were still the docks, and the Port of London one of the busiest commercial ports in the world; the river that ran past my college was packed with working boats and barges. Fleet Street was down the road and the printing presses still produced papers from there — turn up a side alley and a door opening off the street looked down into a Dante's Inferno of noise and roaring machinery. There were bowler hats in the City and in all the lawyers' offices and barristers' chambers of Gray's Inn and Temple; boys with stubs of pencils behind their ears running about with early evening papers, shouting the headlines; costermongers in Covent Garden, and flowers in the flower market. (14)

Or there's the part about Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten (whose settings of poems led Hill to some of her favorite poets) lived, of which Hill says:

I walked the shingle beach and the steep, narrow streets, I bought a mug in the shop run by Mrs Beech, where Britten had bought a string of them with which to improvise a musical instrument. I watched the lifeboat go out to rescue a fishing boat and saw others sail out every day from the beach just below the window of the house I was renting. (206)

In addition to these atmospheric parts, I like it when Hill goes into some depth about particular books and authors she likes, and why she likes them or what she finds in them. I think the section on W.G. Sebald (whose work I've been meaning to read but haven't yet) and the section about Elizabeth Bowen (ditto) are good examples of this. Of Bowen's style, Hill says this, which totally makes me want to go read something by Bowen sooner rather than later: "The broad canvas is not for her. She expresses, describes, highlights by a perfect use of detail — a lace doily with a few crumbs left on a plate, a pair of chamois-leather gloves being buttoned at the wrist, a man striking a match in the street to light the cigarette of a stranger, food, drink, items of clothing" (140).

But a lot of the book felt very light, and not necessarily in a good way. (Possibly I just don't like books with this short-snippets-of-things format that much: another book I had similar issues with was Nigel Slater's Eating for England.) Funny, sometimes, and charming, sometimes, but not exactly what I was in the mood for. Sometimes, the attempts at humor just fall flat: e.g., on not liking Alice Munro, Hill says: ""I have a problem with Canadian as I do with Australian writers. (I know, I know.)" (101). Really? Because Canadian authors and Australian authors are all the same? Not funny. A fair chunk of the book is also devoted to pondering which forty books Hill would want to keep, if she could read only those 40 for the rest of her life. This is sometimes interesting, particularly when Hill goes into depth about which books she'd want and why, but sometimes it just feels like a way to fill space.
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Jul 10, 2011 Martin Belcher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed Susan hill's book, Howards End is on the landing, a year reading from home. Although it is meant to be primarily a journey of re-discovery through forgotten bookcases full of books hidden on the landing and under the stairs and in the spare room; it was for me more of a personal memoir of Susan Hill's interesting life as an author and a publisher and of the wonderful eclectic mix of characters, authors and publishers she has had the fortune or misfortune to meet during her life...more

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About Susan Hill

Susan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".

She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factor...more

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Books by Susan Hill

The Various Haunts of Men (Simon Serrailler, #1)

The Pure in Heart (Simon Serrailler, #2)

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“Books help to form us. If you cut me open, you will find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted and transformed into me. Alice in Wonderland. the Magic Faraway Tree. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Book of Job. Bleak House. Wuthering Heights. The Complete Poems of W H Auden. The Tale of Mr Tod. Howard''s End. What a strange person I must be. But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books and only the same books as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.” — 56 people liked it

“I love the book. I love the feel of a book in my hands, the compactness of it, the shape, the size. I love the feel of paper. The sound it makes when I turn a page. I love the beauty of print on paper, the patterns, the shapes, the fonts. I am astonished by the versatility and practicality of The Book. It is so simple. It is so fit for its purpose. It may give me mere content, but no e-reader will ever give me that sort of added pleasure.” — 23 people liked it

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