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Jacob's Room is Full of Books: A Year of Reading
When we spend so much of our time immersed in books, who's to say where reading ends and living begins? The two are impossibly and gloriously wedded, as Hill shows in Jacob's Room Is Full of Books.
Considering everything from Edith Wharton's novels through to Alan Bennett's diaries, Virginia Woolf and the writings of twelfth century monk Aelred of Rievaulx, Susan Hill charts a year of her life through the books she has read, reread or returned to the shelf. From beneath a shady tree in a hot French summer, or the warmth of a kitchen during an English winter, Hill reflects on what her reading throws up, from writing and writers to politics and religion, as well as the joy of dandies or the pleasure of watching a line of geese cross a meadow.
Full of wry observations and warm humour, as well as strong opinions freely aired, this is a rare and wonderful insight into the rich world of reading from one of the nation's most accomplished authors.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 5, 2017
36 people are currently reading
957 people want to read
About the author
Susan Hill
180 books2,282 followersSusan 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 factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
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 factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
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November 8, 2017
Susan Hill has published dozens of books in multiple genres, but is probably best known for her perennially popular ghost story, The Woman in Black (1983). Apart from that and two suspense novellas, the only book I’d read by her before is Howards End Is on the Landing (2009), a sort of prequel to this work. Both are bookish memoirs animated by the specific challenge to spend more time reading from her shelves and revisiting the books that have meant the most to her in the past. Though not quite a journal, this is set up chronologically and also incorporates notes on the weather, family events and travels, and natural phenomena encountered near her home in Norfolk.
The Virginia Woolf reference in the title is fitting, as Hill realizes she has four shelves’ worth of books about Woolf and her Bloomsbury set. It’s just one of many mini-collections she discovers in her library on regular “de-stocking” drives when she tries to be realistic about what, at age 75, she’s likely to reread or reference in the future. “A book that cannot be returned to again and again, and still yield fresh entertainment and insights, is only half a book,” Hill contends. Some authors who merit frequent rereading for her are Edith Wharton, Muriel Spark, W. Somerset Maugham and Olivia Manning, while other passions had a time limit: she’s gone off E.F. Benson, and no longer reads about Antarctica or medieval theology.
Hill is unashamedly opinionated, though she at least has the humility to ask what individual taste matters. Her substantial list of no-nos includes fairy tales, science fiction, Ethan Frome, Patricia Highsmith and e-readers, and she seems strangely proud of never having read Jane Eyre. She’s ambivalent about literary festivals and especially about literary prizes: they were a boon to her as a young author, but she was also on the infamous 2011 Booker Prize judging panel, and disapproves of that prize being opened up to American entries.
As well as grumpy pronouncements, this book is full of what seems like name-dropping: encounters with Iris Murdoch, J.B. Priestley, Susan Sontag and the like. (To be fair, the stories about Murdoch and Sontag are rather lovely.) Although aspects of this book rubbed me the wrong way, I appreciated it as a meditation on how books are woven into our lives. I took note of quite a few books I want to look up, and Hill ponders intriguing questions that book clubs might like to think about: Can we ever enjoy books as purely as adults as we did as children, now that we have to “do something” with our reading (e.g. discussing or reviewing)? Is it a lesser achievement to turn one’s own life experiences into fiction than to imagine incidents out of thin air? Will an author unconsciously “catch the style” of any writer they are reading at the time of their own compositions? Is it better to come to a book blind, without having read the blurb or anything else about it?
You’ll applaud; you’ll be tempted to throw the book at the wall (this was me with the early page disparaging May Sarton). Perhaps on consecutive pages. But you certainly won’t be indifferent. And a book that provokes a reaction is a fine thing.
Some favorite lines:
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
The Virginia Woolf reference in the title is fitting, as Hill realizes she has four shelves’ worth of books about Woolf and her Bloomsbury set. It’s just one of many mini-collections she discovers in her library on regular “de-stocking” drives when she tries to be realistic about what, at age 75, she’s likely to reread or reference in the future. “A book that cannot be returned to again and again, and still yield fresh entertainment and insights, is only half a book,” Hill contends. Some authors who merit frequent rereading for her are Edith Wharton, Muriel Spark, W. Somerset Maugham and Olivia Manning, while other passions had a time limit: she’s gone off E.F. Benson, and no longer reads about Antarctica or medieval theology.
Hill is unashamedly opinionated, though she at least has the humility to ask what individual taste matters. Her substantial list of no-nos includes fairy tales, science fiction, Ethan Frome, Patricia Highsmith and e-readers, and she seems strangely proud of never having read Jane Eyre. She’s ambivalent about literary festivals and especially about literary prizes: they were a boon to her as a young author, but she was also on the infamous 2011 Booker Prize judging panel, and disapproves of that prize being opened up to American entries.
As well as grumpy pronouncements, this book is full of what seems like name-dropping: encounters with Iris Murdoch, J.B. Priestley, Susan Sontag and the like. (To be fair, the stories about Murdoch and Sontag are rather lovely.) Although aspects of this book rubbed me the wrong way, I appreciated it as a meditation on how books are woven into our lives. I took note of quite a few books I want to look up, and Hill ponders intriguing questions that book clubs might like to think about: Can we ever enjoy books as purely as adults as we did as children, now that we have to “do something” with our reading (e.g. discussing or reviewing)? Is it a lesser achievement to turn one’s own life experiences into fiction than to imagine incidents out of thin air? Will an author unconsciously “catch the style” of any writer they are reading at the time of their own compositions? Is it better to come to a book blind, without having read the blurb or anything else about it?
You’ll applaud; you’ll be tempted to throw the book at the wall (this was me with the early page disparaging May Sarton). Perhaps on consecutive pages. But you certainly won’t be indifferent. And a book that provokes a reaction is a fine thing.
Some favorite lines:
“Cold room, warm bed, good book.”
“I have had fifty-five years of experience but still every book is like walking a tightrope. I might fall off.”
“People say they can never part with a book. I can. As fast as I get one out of the back door, two new ones come in through the front anyway.”
“How many people are there living in the books here? Only take the complete novels of Dickens and add up all the characters in each one and then multiply by … and I already need to lie down. Overall, there must be thousands of imaginary people sharing this house with us.”
“One of the best presents anyone can give you is the name of a writer whose books they believe will be ‘you’ – and they are. Someone you would almost certainly never have found for yourself.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
December 11, 2017
Without hesitation, Five stars. This is just the book for an autumn day or a winter one. I loved every second of this one. I feel like Susan Hill is my long lost sister who says just what I was thinking only in a British way with a British accent.
If you don't want to add any books to your TBR pile you might want to skip this one. It is one lovely conversation about books and reading. I think I liked it more than Howard's End is on the Landing and equally as much as The Magic Apple Tree.
Interestingly enough, Susan is famous for her ghost stories which I have never read, but I do love all her essays and her Simon Serrailler mysteries.
I had to order this one straight from England using The Book Depository. So happy I did.
If you don't want to add any books to your TBR pile you might want to skip this one. It is one lovely conversation about books and reading. I think I liked it more than Howard's End is on the Landing and equally as much as The Magic Apple Tree.
Interestingly enough, Susan is famous for her ghost stories which I have never read, but I do love all her essays and her Simon Serrailler mysteries.
I had to order this one straight from England using The Book Depository. So happy I did.
June 15, 2018
A chatty book about books, authors, the writing life, reading, like an ongoing conversation with another book addict. Of course, you will add books to your tbr with every chapter, so be prepared.
November 19, 2017
"Cold room, warm bed, good book." So goes Susan Hill's formula for happiness . . . and mine, too. If you like books about books, if you enjoy literary gossip, if you have been an avid reader all your life, if you think that one's reading choices are a kind of biography in themselves . . . well, this book is probably for you.
Following the calendar from January to December, Hill meanders through the reading year in a sometimes quite non-sequiturish way. Certain months bring certain associations, and most of them are inspired either by nature or the literary calendar (book prizes, publishing cycles, student exams). At times, Hill is definitely on grumpy form - and she does tend to harp on a bit too much about certain bugbears (writers wanting to get published, literary prizes) - but in a way, I like it that she deosn't edit her personality out of these pages.
In the course of reading, I wrote down dozens of Hill quotes and suggestions - and that kind of engagement is always one way, for me, of assessing pleasure and 'value'. Her passions for Dickens, Wharton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, P.G. Wodehouse, Olivia Manning and Raymond Chandler made me want to either (1) read, or (2) reread, all of those authors. I was particularly struck by her assertions that she reread the 'three wonderful Old New York works' (The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country) once every five years or so. On the other hand, Hill does have sometimes startling prejudices - and I was very shocked when she defiantly revealed that she had never read Jane Eyre, and nor did she have any intention of doing so. She said that she felt she already knew it; and I can imagine she knows much of the plot and some famous lines; but surely, Hill of all readers and writers, must realise that this kind of half knowledge about a book is not at all the same sort of thing as full immersion?
Still, Hill and I do not disagree much. On her discovery of the wonderful American poet Mary Oliver: "One of the best presents anyone can give you is the name of a writer whose books they believe will be 'you' - and they are." Yes!
Following the calendar from January to December, Hill meanders through the reading year in a sometimes quite non-sequiturish way. Certain months bring certain associations, and most of them are inspired either by nature or the literary calendar (book prizes, publishing cycles, student exams). At times, Hill is definitely on grumpy form - and she does tend to harp on a bit too much about certain bugbears (writers wanting to get published, literary prizes) - but in a way, I like it that she deosn't edit her personality out of these pages.
In the course of reading, I wrote down dozens of Hill quotes and suggestions - and that kind of engagement is always one way, for me, of assessing pleasure and 'value'. Her passions for Dickens, Wharton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, P.G. Wodehouse, Olivia Manning and Raymond Chandler made me want to either (1) read, or (2) reread, all of those authors. I was particularly struck by her assertions that she reread the 'three wonderful Old New York works' (The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country) once every five years or so. On the other hand, Hill does have sometimes startling prejudices - and I was very shocked when she defiantly revealed that she had never read Jane Eyre, and nor did she have any intention of doing so. She said that she felt she already knew it; and I can imagine she knows much of the plot and some famous lines; but surely, Hill of all readers and writers, must realise that this kind of half knowledge about a book is not at all the same sort of thing as full immersion?
Still, Hill and I do not disagree much. On her discovery of the wonderful American poet Mary Oliver: "One of the best presents anyone can give you is the name of a writer whose books they believe will be 'you' - and they are." Yes!
November 1, 2017
"People say they can never part with a book. I can. As fast as I get one out of the back door, two new ones come in through the front door".
Absolutely loved this book - a year in the life of Susan Hill reading, re-reading and dipping into the vast amount of books in her home. It's not really 'literary criticism' as such - more musings on a wide variety of writers, some almost forgotten.
I wondered how the calendar aspect of the book would work but Hill is also a keen observer of the changing year. She lives in the Norfolk countryside and clearly loves the wildlife around her, especially the birds she looks out for as the months go by.
Surprisingly, I probably laughed at this book more than any other I've read this year.
I love her sense of humour - often waspish, frequently acerbic and always wise. And despite being such a successful writer she doesn't puff herself up and take herself too seriously either. Take for example her comment on beach reads -
"I was slightly mortified when a friend on holiday in Turkey reported seeing three people reading one of my crime novels on a beach - I have never taken them too seriously but for a split second I thought 'I didn't realise they were as bad as that'".
Hill is never afraid to air her opinions. An excellent read for any reader.
Absolutely loved this book - a year in the life of Susan Hill reading, re-reading and dipping into the vast amount of books in her home. It's not really 'literary criticism' as such - more musings on a wide variety of writers, some almost forgotten.
I wondered how the calendar aspect of the book would work but Hill is also a keen observer of the changing year. She lives in the Norfolk countryside and clearly loves the wildlife around her, especially the birds she looks out for as the months go by.
Surprisingly, I probably laughed at this book more than any other I've read this year.
I love her sense of humour - often waspish, frequently acerbic and always wise. And despite being such a successful writer she doesn't puff herself up and take herself too seriously either. Take for example her comment on beach reads -
"I was slightly mortified when a friend on holiday in Turkey reported seeing three people reading one of my crime novels on a beach - I have never taken them too seriously but for a split second I thought 'I didn't realise they were as bad as that'".
Hill is never afraid to air her opinions. An excellent read for any reader.
July 17, 2018
When you read a lot, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the reality and the literary, the worlds sometimes meld into one another, perspectives can be enhanced but you cannot separate the two. Susan Hill is one of those people, not only is she a writer, more importantly, she is a reader too, and this book, Jacob's Room Is Full of Books is a year full of her reading.
Set over a calendar year, Hill charts a month by month reading diary. She tells us what she is reading and when and most importantly why. Her reading is wide-ranging but tends to be focused more on fiction. Even though she gets a lot of proofs from publishers hoping for that front cover quote, she reads what she wants, from classics to favoured authors and new authors. She is not afraid to be critical of books that she finds below par and is more than happy to champion books that she has always loved and new discoveries that have come to light.
Hill is excited about reading a new book as she is about gleaning some elements from a favourite book that she has re-read a dozen times before. For her it is just the pleasure of reading, gaining that extra insight into what the author meant by a sentence. This enthusiasm comes across in the books that she talks about, she is opinionated and knows what she wants from a book. She is one of those authors who is very well known, however, I must admit that I have never (yet) read her works of fiction. The only book of hers that I have read is Howard's End is on the Landing, another book about books. This I think has the edge on that one, which was about her reading the books that inhabited her home over the course of a year. This is a more contemplative and thoughtful discourse of the books that made her literary landscape for the year.
One of the things that worked for me in this book, is that she is prepared to talk about the books she liked and loved as well as those that weren't quite what she had hoped for. It would never work if we all liked the same books. My favourites would not be yours and vice versa, but with all books, there should be overlap and more importantly points for discussion too. She donates generously to libraries, a resource under threat in this country at the moment, seeing the good that they do in the communities that she has lived. Almost as an afterthought are glimpses of the natural world around her, the rare sight of a bittern, the geese that race overhead onto places far away. If you like to read books about books, then you cannot beat a writer talking about the books that she reads and the list of books mentioned in the text at the back of the book was really useful.
Set over a calendar year, Hill charts a month by month reading diary. She tells us what she is reading and when and most importantly why. Her reading is wide-ranging but tends to be focused more on fiction. Even though she gets a lot of proofs from publishers hoping for that front cover quote, she reads what she wants, from classics to favoured authors and new authors. She is not afraid to be critical of books that she finds below par and is more than happy to champion books that she has always loved and new discoveries that have come to light.
Hill is excited about reading a new book as she is about gleaning some elements from a favourite book that she has re-read a dozen times before. For her it is just the pleasure of reading, gaining that extra insight into what the author meant by a sentence. This enthusiasm comes across in the books that she talks about, she is opinionated and knows what she wants from a book. She is one of those authors who is very well known, however, I must admit that I have never (yet) read her works of fiction. The only book of hers that I have read is Howard's End is on the Landing, another book about books. This I think has the edge on that one, which was about her reading the books that inhabited her home over the course of a year. This is a more contemplative and thoughtful discourse of the books that made her literary landscape for the year.
One of the things that worked for me in this book, is that she is prepared to talk about the books she liked and loved as well as those that weren't quite what she had hoped for. It would never work if we all liked the same books. My favourites would not be yours and vice versa, but with all books, there should be overlap and more importantly points for discussion too. She donates generously to libraries, a resource under threat in this country at the moment, seeing the good that they do in the communities that she has lived. Almost as an afterthought are glimpses of the natural world around her, the rare sight of a bittern, the geese that race overhead onto places far away. If you like to read books about books, then you cannot beat a writer talking about the books that she reads and the list of books mentioned in the text at the back of the book was really useful.
April 5, 2018
Some won't like the name dropping in this book, but I like to see it as sharing knowledge about people that the reader might find interesting. The book is a diary with thoughts and ideas about books as well as nature and personal life. Although this book is different from 'Howards End is on the landing' it's just as wonderful. I can relate to a lot of her feelings towards books and I will certainly try some of her recommendations.
July 22, 2018
Own.
I've enjoyed Hill's memoirs, although my favorite is, I think, The Magic Apple Tree. These bookish ones are both very readable and she mixes in so many ideas from the world at large.
This one, based on a year of reading, is interesting from its solitude. She remembers times and places from before, she is in places but never with anyone other than the books, pets, or strangers - the man on the beach who points out the finch. There is a odd detachment from people. Her observations of the natural world stand out here and her obvious enjoyment of nature lore and especially of the birds.
As an educator, I found her regular contemplations on why we read, why some love to read, why some write in certain ways, and how we engage with ideas very interesting. Her thoughts on things learned by heart were heartening - especially as she references a poem my children have learned (and therefore I have learned) and I recognized it before she revealed it. Her obvious interest in inspiration and where the stories come from is a repeated refrain. The influence of other writers on tone and style and writing is another. How do we learn these things and use them rightly or wrongly.
It's interesting to me as she doesn't care for Austen - who I love - or Pym - who's work I've enjoyed when I could find any - but I'm fascinated by her other opinions even when I've not heard of many of the authors or characters of her life.
I started reading this in January and was trying to keep up month by month. That was good, but I found myself losing threads that she weaves by taking so much time between. It is the kind of book that you can read in the small places of life - browning the beef or half-time at a soccer game (er, football match), but for all that it does take some consistent small places. And, so, I ended up reading it pretty straight through. I notice that the writing changes with the season. The excessively hot holiday in France in September sounds and feels different than December and the cozy days between Christmas and the New Year.
If you like books on books and the reading and writing life, this and Howard's End is on the Landing are books to read. I enjoyed them but find myself hesitant to recommend them while I loved The Magic Apple Tree and recommend it often.
I've enjoyed Hill's memoirs, although my favorite is, I think, The Magic Apple Tree. These bookish ones are both very readable and she mixes in so many ideas from the world at large.
This one, based on a year of reading, is interesting from its solitude. She remembers times and places from before, she is in places but never with anyone other than the books, pets, or strangers - the man on the beach who points out the finch. There is a odd detachment from people. Her observations of the natural world stand out here and her obvious enjoyment of nature lore and especially of the birds.
As an educator, I found her regular contemplations on why we read, why some love to read, why some write in certain ways, and how we engage with ideas very interesting. Her thoughts on things learned by heart were heartening - especially as she references a poem my children have learned (and therefore I have learned) and I recognized it before she revealed it. Her obvious interest in inspiration and where the stories come from is a repeated refrain. The influence of other writers on tone and style and writing is another. How do we learn these things and use them rightly or wrongly.
It's interesting to me as she doesn't care for Austen - who I love - or Pym - who's work I've enjoyed when I could find any - but I'm fascinated by her other opinions even when I've not heard of many of the authors or characters of her life.
I started reading this in January and was trying to keep up month by month. That was good, but I found myself losing threads that she weaves by taking so much time between. It is the kind of book that you can read in the small places of life - browning the beef or half-time at a soccer game (er, football match), but for all that it does take some consistent small places. And, so, I ended up reading it pretty straight through. I notice that the writing changes with the season. The excessively hot holiday in France in September sounds and feels different than December and the cozy days between Christmas and the New Year.
If you like books on books and the reading and writing life, this and Howard's End is on the Landing are books to read. I enjoyed them but find myself hesitant to recommend them while I loved The Magic Apple Tree and recommend it often.
February 25, 2018
I was disappointed to find Susan Hill, a writer of murder mysteries to be a somewhat stuffy, gossipy person whose fixation on everything English (largely to the exclusion of much of the rest of the literature of the world, including that written in English elsewhere) became annoying at times. I was hoping to gain new insights into writers (famous and otherwise) whose work I am not familiar with. The great majority of writers she praises turn out to be tiresome and/or stultifyingly "literate". Cases in point: Edith Wharton, Jean Rhys, Zadie Smith, Diarmaid McCulloch -- even Virginia Woolf who, exceptional as she was, I can face only occasionally and in small doses (and it's not possible to consume Woolf in small doses, her stuff only exists in great mouthfuls). Hill's frequent digressions into her devotion to the Church of England one can easily skip over but they do take up valuable space while contributing nothing to the book.
November 12, 2018
I was so excited to read Susan Hill's second reading diary, Jacob's Room is Full of Books, particularly as I so enjoyed her first, Howards End is On the Landing. Released in 2017, Hill has set out to chart 'a year of her life through the books she has read, re-read or returned to the shelf'. I was expecting a similarly warming tone to the first instalment, as well as the excuse to fill up my to-read list with dozens more titles.
'When we spend so much of our time immersed in books, who's to say where reading ends and living begins?' asks the book's blurb. In Jacob's Room is Full of Books, Hill shows how 'the two are impossibly and gloriously wedded.' Her reading diary promises to be 'full of wry observations and warm humour, as well as strong opinions freely aired... a rare and wonderful insight into the rich world of reading from one of Britain's most distinguished authors.' The structure of Jacob's Room is Full of Books is made up of small sections, all of which are arranged chronologically and slotted into monthly chapters, aiming to give one an insight into an entire year of reading.
Hill opens by discussing audiobooks and ebooks, and what she believes to be the strengths and pitfalls of both. She then touches briefly on what she thinks makes a bestseller, a theme which she comes back to again and again as the book goes on. More themes along these lines, which tend to become a little repetitive, are Hill's telling us about her own writing career, and giving advice to aspiring writers.
My main qualm with Jacob's Room is Full of Books is that there is a lot of non-reading-related content throughout. As opposed to Howards End is on the Landing, which is wonderfully bookish from beginning to end, there were quite a few points in the book when I wished Hill would stop mentioning her famous friends - often for little reason - and dig a little deeper into literature. She is concerned throughout with those whom she knows from the upper echelons of society, and various members of the royal family make cameos in sections which have nothing to do with reading. She does include quotes from other authors, or from books, but these rarely feel integrated well; rather, it takes one a little while to recalibrate and realise what Hill is doing. She is, as the blurb says, opinionated in this book, far more so than in the first.
Regardless, there are some nice, and relatable, paragraphs about book collecting, and various tomes which she has returned to over the years. A section which I particularly enjoyed takes place in February, when Hill feels the compulsion to reorganise her bookshelves. She writes: 'Not the weather for standing around more than two minutes admiring the spring flowers, the weather for clearing out bookshelves. If we ever leave this house, we will not want to start doing it as the removal men are at the door. I thought I had cleared out all the books I would ever need to lose five years ago, but books breed. They beget second copies because you have mislaid the first and buy another, the day before you find the first.' Another piece of writing which came across as warm and nostalgic involved Hill's reminiscences about the joy of Ladybird books, after finding a box of forgotten titles from their catalogue in her attic. Particularly given this, her lack of sentimentality in keeping books surprised me; I imagine it is quite rare with regard to other avid readers and people who call themselves collectors of books to have no connection with very few physical objects they've read, and have the ability to get rid of them with no problems.
The book, overall, has a disjointed feeling to it, particularly with regard to the first few months of the year. In February, for instance, Hill begins her musings by talking about her greengrocer and how cheap it is to buy vegetables, and then she goes on to ask herself why she didn't like fairytales as a child. The next sections detail, in order, Hill's spotting of some herons whilst out on a walk, a wish for snow, and a website featuring many lists of five books, all of which have been recommended by different people. There are no connecting bridges to link the content; rather, it feels more like random day-to-day scribblings which have been taken straight out of a journal without much thought to how they fit together. Stylistically, Jacob's Room is Full of Books is easy to dip in and out of in this manner, but when reading it all in one go, it does feel a little awkward.
I did enjoy Hill's forays into nature writing, and felt that these worked well. However, I cannot help but think the book may have been stronger had it been marketed in less of a misleading way as A Year of Reading, and more as a year in the life exercise. Perhaps half, or maybe 60%, of the book is actually related to reading. Some months do include more of Hill's thoughts about reading and writing, but there are far less recommendations here than in the first volume. The tone feels quite different too, and this is nowhere near as much of a cosy read as the first.
The balance in Jacob's Room is Full of Books does not feel quite right, and some of the sections are so brief that they feel awkward to read. I had hoped that it would be a continuation of Howards End is on the Landing, but it does not fill that criteria in its execution. I found this volume disappointing on the whole; not what I thought, or hoped, it would be. However, Jacob's Room is Full of Books is still a quiet, meditative read, particularly with regard to the nature she captures, and the slower sections about literature.
'When we spend so much of our time immersed in books, who's to say where reading ends and living begins?' asks the book's blurb. In Jacob's Room is Full of Books, Hill shows how 'the two are impossibly and gloriously wedded.' Her reading diary promises to be 'full of wry observations and warm humour, as well as strong opinions freely aired... a rare and wonderful insight into the rich world of reading from one of Britain's most distinguished authors.' The structure of Jacob's Room is Full of Books is made up of small sections, all of which are arranged chronologically and slotted into monthly chapters, aiming to give one an insight into an entire year of reading.
Hill opens by discussing audiobooks and ebooks, and what she believes to be the strengths and pitfalls of both. She then touches briefly on what she thinks makes a bestseller, a theme which she comes back to again and again as the book goes on. More themes along these lines, which tend to become a little repetitive, are Hill's telling us about her own writing career, and giving advice to aspiring writers.
My main qualm with Jacob's Room is Full of Books is that there is a lot of non-reading-related content throughout. As opposed to Howards End is on the Landing, which is wonderfully bookish from beginning to end, there were quite a few points in the book when I wished Hill would stop mentioning her famous friends - often for little reason - and dig a little deeper into literature. She is concerned throughout with those whom she knows from the upper echelons of society, and various members of the royal family make cameos in sections which have nothing to do with reading. She does include quotes from other authors, or from books, but these rarely feel integrated well; rather, it takes one a little while to recalibrate and realise what Hill is doing. She is, as the blurb says, opinionated in this book, far more so than in the first.
Regardless, there are some nice, and relatable, paragraphs about book collecting, and various tomes which she has returned to over the years. A section which I particularly enjoyed takes place in February, when Hill feels the compulsion to reorganise her bookshelves. She writes: 'Not the weather for standing around more than two minutes admiring the spring flowers, the weather for clearing out bookshelves. If we ever leave this house, we will not want to start doing it as the removal men are at the door. I thought I had cleared out all the books I would ever need to lose five years ago, but books breed. They beget second copies because you have mislaid the first and buy another, the day before you find the first.' Another piece of writing which came across as warm and nostalgic involved Hill's reminiscences about the joy of Ladybird books, after finding a box of forgotten titles from their catalogue in her attic. Particularly given this, her lack of sentimentality in keeping books surprised me; I imagine it is quite rare with regard to other avid readers and people who call themselves collectors of books to have no connection with very few physical objects they've read, and have the ability to get rid of them with no problems.
The book, overall, has a disjointed feeling to it, particularly with regard to the first few months of the year. In February, for instance, Hill begins her musings by talking about her greengrocer and how cheap it is to buy vegetables, and then she goes on to ask herself why she didn't like fairytales as a child. The next sections detail, in order, Hill's spotting of some herons whilst out on a walk, a wish for snow, and a website featuring many lists of five books, all of which have been recommended by different people. There are no connecting bridges to link the content; rather, it feels more like random day-to-day scribblings which have been taken straight out of a journal without much thought to how they fit together. Stylistically, Jacob's Room is Full of Books is easy to dip in and out of in this manner, but when reading it all in one go, it does feel a little awkward.
I did enjoy Hill's forays into nature writing, and felt that these worked well. However, I cannot help but think the book may have been stronger had it been marketed in less of a misleading way as A Year of Reading, and more as a year in the life exercise. Perhaps half, or maybe 60%, of the book is actually related to reading. Some months do include more of Hill's thoughts about reading and writing, but there are far less recommendations here than in the first volume. The tone feels quite different too, and this is nowhere near as much of a cosy read as the first.
The balance in Jacob's Room is Full of Books does not feel quite right, and some of the sections are so brief that they feel awkward to read. I had hoped that it would be a continuation of Howards End is on the Landing, but it does not fill that criteria in its execution. I found this volume disappointing on the whole; not what I thought, or hoped, it would be. However, Jacob's Room is Full of Books is still a quiet, meditative read, particularly with regard to the nature she captures, and the slower sections about literature.
March 5, 2024
Well I didn't enjoy Hill's other "book about books" so I wasn't holding out much hope for this one. Sadly I bought them both at the same time second hand so thought I might as well give it a go on my break at work.
This just reminded me of listening to an old person droning on about who they knew back in the day and how they've got a funny story for you about this that and the other (which inevitably turns out to be most definitely unfunny!) I don't want to be too harsh about Susan Hill as I think her fiction is top notch, especially The Woman in Black, but I think she should stick to fiction. Her forays into rambling on about books are distinctly unsuccessful. The only parts I really liked in the book were during her observations about the weather or wildlife. Otherwise banal, droning guff!
Sorry Susan!
This just reminded me of listening to an old person droning on about who they knew back in the day and how they've got a funny story for you about this that and the other (which inevitably turns out to be most definitely unfunny!) I don't want to be too harsh about Susan Hill as I think her fiction is top notch, especially The Woman in Black, but I think she should stick to fiction. Her forays into rambling on about books are distinctly unsuccessful. The only parts I really liked in the book were during her observations about the weather or wildlife. Otherwise banal, droning guff!
Sorry Susan!
April 1, 2018
A Bookish Observation: I’ll start this review/observation by saying that Susan Hill’s two books-about-books, Jacob’s Room is Full of Books and Howard’s End is on the Landing, are two of my very favourite books-about-books. They are so good, I’ve made sure I’ve got the printed versions, and they take pride of place on our bookshelves.
Susan Hill has “grown” on me since I first discovered her book “Howard’s End is on the Landing”, and my first impressions of her have certainly been shown to be nonsense. I read “Howard’s End is on the Landing” a few years ago. I didn’t know who Susan Hill was, and I did not warm to her writing because I felt she was a bit of a show-off, nor could I believe she was as well-read as her book indicated. I’m an Australian, and part of our culture is “the tall poppy syndrome”, which is put into action if anyone seems to be too smart, or too clever, or too cultured (in particular too cultured). If a person displays attributes whereby they are suspected of being a know-all, a show-off, then our culture has a terrible habit of “cutting a person down to size”; hence the naming of this phenomenon as the “tall poppy syndrome”, i.e. cutting down the “tall poppy”; the one who stands out in the crowd. This discourages people from being “know-alls”, a personality trait we Aussies tend to frown on (often mistakenly). In my country, know-all’s are thought to be rude, that is, they are thought to be deliberately belittling others. They are also considered bores. So what’s this Have to do with Susan Hill?
When I read her book “Howard’s End is on the Landing”, my cultural “cringe” muscle flexed and I thought: “know-it-all!”. I read the book, and put it aside. Then, recently, Susan Hill wrote a follow-up book-about-books, “Jacob’s Room is Full of Books”. And because one of my favourite genres is Books-About-Books (also known as Literary Criticism) for some reason, with fresh eyes, I completely put aside my first impression of a Susan Hill, and saw her in a new light: now I see her as a very gifted communicator, a generous bookophile, a person whose life is immersed within the publishing world, a person who really knows her stuff. (I must have matured, LOL.) I have to ask myself: how did I not recognise Ms Hill’s wealth of knowledge and genuine generosity; she takes the time to share her experience with those of us who haven’t had her amazing literary life.
After finishing “Jacob’s Room is Full of Books”, and with my change of perception regarding the author, I decided to re-read “Howard’s End is on the Landing”. I ate it up! It’s curious to think I was so wrong about Ms Hill’s knowledge. (It’s like a reverse snobbery.) If you like books-about-books, I heartily recommend that you read these two books. You will find that Ms Hill’s conversational descriptions of books and authors will extend into at least another twenty books added to your To-Be-Read (TBR) List. And if you’re a bookophile like me, you’ll be so envious (in the nicest sense of the word) at the literary life Ms Hill has lived and continues to live. I’m so glad she wrote about it.
Susan Hill’s enthusiasm and opinions led me to add some beauties to my TBR List. Listed below are some of the books I’ve gleaned from Susan Hill’s two books-about-books. There were so many more books that she discussed, along with sharing her likes and dislikes, her meetings with authors and creative people, plus her experience as a judge on some important book prize panels, and, and, and …
The following list is NOT an attempt to list the books mentioned in Susan Hill’s books. The list below is MY list, gleaned from HER literary conversation. I haven’t read all the books on the list below; the books on the list are the ones that attracted me, and the ones that I want to read, the ones I believe I will read.
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Third Man by Graham Greene
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Moving Toyshop (A Gervase Fen Mystery) by Edmund Crispin
The Rector’s Daughter by F.M. Mayor
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Various Haunts of Men (Simon Serrailler Book #1) by Susan Hill
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
A Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James
The Painted Veil by Somerset W. Maugham
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Stoner by John Williams
Susan Hill has “grown” on me since I first discovered her book “Howard’s End is on the Landing”, and my first impressions of her have certainly been shown to be nonsense. I read “Howard’s End is on the Landing” a few years ago. I didn’t know who Susan Hill was, and I did not warm to her writing because I felt she was a bit of a show-off, nor could I believe she was as well-read as her book indicated. I’m an Australian, and part of our culture is “the tall poppy syndrome”, which is put into action if anyone seems to be too smart, or too clever, or too cultured (in particular too cultured). If a person displays attributes whereby they are suspected of being a know-all, a show-off, then our culture has a terrible habit of “cutting a person down to size”; hence the naming of this phenomenon as the “tall poppy syndrome”, i.e. cutting down the “tall poppy”; the one who stands out in the crowd. This discourages people from being “know-alls”, a personality trait we Aussies tend to frown on (often mistakenly). In my country, know-all’s are thought to be rude, that is, they are thought to be deliberately belittling others. They are also considered bores. So what’s this Have to do with Susan Hill?
When I read her book “Howard’s End is on the Landing”, my cultural “cringe” muscle flexed and I thought: “know-it-all!”. I read the book, and put it aside. Then, recently, Susan Hill wrote a follow-up book-about-books, “Jacob’s Room is Full of Books”. And because one of my favourite genres is Books-About-Books (also known as Literary Criticism) for some reason, with fresh eyes, I completely put aside my first impression of a Susan Hill, and saw her in a new light: now I see her as a very gifted communicator, a generous bookophile, a person whose life is immersed within the publishing world, a person who really knows her stuff. (I must have matured, LOL.) I have to ask myself: how did I not recognise Ms Hill’s wealth of knowledge and genuine generosity; she takes the time to share her experience with those of us who haven’t had her amazing literary life.
After finishing “Jacob’s Room is Full of Books”, and with my change of perception regarding the author, I decided to re-read “Howard’s End is on the Landing”. I ate it up! It’s curious to think I was so wrong about Ms Hill’s knowledge. (It’s like a reverse snobbery.) If you like books-about-books, I heartily recommend that you read these two books. You will find that Ms Hill’s conversational descriptions of books and authors will extend into at least another twenty books added to your To-Be-Read (TBR) List. And if you’re a bookophile like me, you’ll be so envious (in the nicest sense of the word) at the literary life Ms Hill has lived and continues to live. I’m so glad she wrote about it.
Susan Hill’s enthusiasm and opinions led me to add some beauties to my TBR List. Listed below are some of the books I’ve gleaned from Susan Hill’s two books-about-books. There were so many more books that she discussed, along with sharing her likes and dislikes, her meetings with authors and creative people, plus her experience as a judge on some important book prize panels, and, and, and …
The following list is NOT an attempt to list the books mentioned in Susan Hill’s books. The list below is MY list, gleaned from HER literary conversation. I haven’t read all the books on the list below; the books on the list are the ones that attracted me, and the ones that I want to read, the ones I believe I will read.
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Third Man by Graham Greene
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Moving Toyshop (A Gervase Fen Mystery) by Edmund Crispin
The Rector’s Daughter by F.M. Mayor
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Various Haunts of Men (Simon Serrailler Book #1) by Susan Hill
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
A Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James
The Painted Veil by Somerset W. Maugham
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Stoner by John Williams
March 8, 2018
I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as "Howards End is on the Landing," but it's fun. The structure here division by month, with entries through each month ranging from a sentence or two to several pages long. The general sense is of an overview of Hill's “year in reading,” which is somewhat seasonally directed, and of her thoughts on various books, genres, and authors, but these bookish pieces are interspersed with accounts of birds sighted, thoughts on e-readers, the traffic in Oxford, Cistercian monastics, the challenges of responding to reader mail. An opinionated woman who has read widely and met some interesting people, Hill's musings, bookish and otherwise, make for a light but pleasant read.
November 9, 2024
I absolutely loved Howard’s End Is On the Landing by Susan Hill and knew I wanted to read this sequel of sorts. Each chapter is a month of the year and so I decided to read each chapter during its corresponding month. I think it wasn’t necessary to do this as the book is only tangentially seasonal.
Susan Hill has strong opinions on books, reading, writing, and the world at large, not all of which I agree with. But she did get me excited to pick up quite a few of the books she discussed. Plus, I’m a sucker for any book with an appendix list of books. I marked all the titles I want to read. And she had some lovely things to say about Edith Wharton whose oeuvre I am currently working my way through and loving.
I finished this book enjoying it more than I thought I was going to at about the halfway point. And even though I don’t agree with Hill’s viewpoints on everything she discusses, I think this is a worthwhile read for bibliophiles.
Susan Hill has strong opinions on books, reading, writing, and the world at large, not all of which I agree with. But she did get me excited to pick up quite a few of the books she discussed. Plus, I’m a sucker for any book with an appendix list of books. I marked all the titles I want to read. And she had some lovely things to say about Edith Wharton whose oeuvre I am currently working my way through and loving.
I finished this book enjoying it more than I thought I was going to at about the halfway point. And even though I don’t agree with Hill’s viewpoints on everything she discusses, I think this is a worthwhile read for bibliophiles.
April 11, 2019
Susan Hill has a first class degree in English, vast quantities of famous friends and over 50 books to her name (although she doesn't take her crime novels 'too seriously'). She also might not have a great editor since some of her anecdotes are repeated. Honestly, once she started calling Martin Amis 'Mart' I almost lost the will...
January 16, 2018
Just beautiful! Loved this.
February 24, 2018
I did not warm to the voice of the author; I felt sad that she had to keep reminding us that she had an English degree, and of how many books she had written. Her thoughts on classic books were interesting, but I thought the name dropping was unnecessary. I also found her attitude towards readers and reading extremely “snobbish” and particularly towards people that read on beaches! She was appalled that people may treat her books as “beach reads”, which made me feel as though she needed to get over herself. For many of us, holidays are an important time to relax, and she should feel happy that people are using their precious time to read her books, and not be so judgemental!
I liked the concept of this book, but didn’t feel it was well executed. I found the writing lazy and repetitive, and rushed in places. Sorry.
August 26, 2021
I delighted in reading Susan Hill's, "Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home". It was a near perfect read.
I couldn't wait to read this one, which seemed like it would be a sort of continuation. And it was that, to a degree. And yet, what a let down. The writing, and descriptions of nature, was still quite moving, if chaotic.
Despite this, the more I read the less I liked the author. Hill does not come across as a likeable person. In fact, she seemed downright mean and snobby. Many of her comments were actually unsettling.
I couldn't wait to read this one, which seemed like it would be a sort of continuation. And it was that, to a degree. And yet, what a let down. The writing, and descriptions of nature, was still quite moving, if chaotic.
Despite this, the more I read the less I liked the author. Hill does not come across as a likeable person. In fact, she seemed downright mean and snobby. Many of her comments were actually unsettling.
November 26, 2023
Another of this author's exploration of books and her reading habits. This one details a walk through months and seasons of the year. Another reread. 4 stars.
Still as interesting as it ever was. Reread in November 23.
Still as interesting as it ever was. Reread in November 23.
March 14, 2018
"Nor have I read any Terry Pratchett.... "
Oh Susan! How much you miss! I am looking forward to reading your next installment 'Discworld Days: A Year of Reading Terry Pratchett' ....Go on
June 6, 2018
Almost as good as Susan Hill's previous mix of autobiography and thoughts on books and the world of the writer/publisher Howard's End Is On The Landing which I have bought for numerous friends who like books about reading. Still enjoyable, filled with amusing comments, a nice thread about the birdlife she observes around her through her year, and plenty of book references, but there was something a little more acerbic in what she had to say this time. More often than not she would give a halfhearted 'Well that's life' or 'Maybe I'm wrong' kind of comment, but I wasn't convinced she really meant it. The blurb hints at controversial opinions, and she tells us that blurb-writing is a difficult art, so she may be attempting to tone things down a bit for the sake of the publisher. Not that she seems like the sort of writer to do that. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong!
December 8, 2019
I had very high hopes of this book and it shattered almost all of them.
First the good: SH is adept at writing about nature, and her descriptions of country life in Norfolk are wonderful. Some of her musings on books and reading are also interesting and thoughtful.
However.
She talks about books she dislikes and their authors in such a disdainful way, and makes so many snide disparaging comments about other people's writing that it was really quite unpleasant at times. She is a master at the backhanded compliment. And snobby too.
Some examples:
On Ted Heath: "What a bloodless, stuff man he was - though perfectly pleasant and polite"
On Beryl Bainbridge and Antarctica: "I planned to write a book about Antactica. Beryl Bainbridge beat me to it. The moment her novel....was annouced, I knew two things - that my own book would never be written , and that something of the magic of the place I had held on to had died. Not Beryl's fault, of course."
On book groups: "not against book groups - how could any writer be, though I could never belong to one."
On beach reads: "I was slightly moritfied when a friend on holiday in Turkey reported seeing three people reading one of my crime novels on a beach - I have never taken them too seriously, but for a split second I thought, 'I hadn't realised they were as bad as that.'"
Name dropping (authors, politicians, painters etc), never once letting you forget that she's been a Booker judge (more than once!) while at the same time slating book prizes at every opportunity; so many slight, snide little remarks. I was left very disappointed but also wondering why on earth she'd written it.
First the good: SH is adept at writing about nature, and her descriptions of country life in Norfolk are wonderful. Some of her musings on books and reading are also interesting and thoughtful.
However.
She talks about books she dislikes and their authors in such a disdainful way, and makes so many snide disparaging comments about other people's writing that it was really quite unpleasant at times. She is a master at the backhanded compliment. And snobby too.
Some examples:
On Ted Heath: "What a bloodless, stuff man he was - though perfectly pleasant and polite"
On Beryl Bainbridge and Antarctica: "I planned to write a book about Antactica. Beryl Bainbridge beat me to it. The moment her novel....was annouced, I knew two things - that my own book would never be written , and that something of the magic of the place I had held on to had died. Not Beryl's fault, of course."
On book groups: "not against book groups - how could any writer be, though I could never belong to one."
On beach reads: "I was slightly moritfied when a friend on holiday in Turkey reported seeing three people reading one of my crime novels on a beach - I have never taken them too seriously, but for a split second I thought, 'I hadn't realised they were as bad as that.'"
Name dropping (authors, politicians, painters etc), never once letting you forget that she's been a Booker judge (more than once!) while at the same time slating book prizes at every opportunity; so many slight, snide little remarks. I was left very disappointed but also wondering why on earth she'd written it.
January 6, 2022
My goodness me, what an awful, nasty, boastful, snobbish, disappointing sequel to Howard's End is on the Landing. That volume was utterly charming and I had high hopes for more of the same.
There is far, far less discussion of the actual books than I would expect in a reading memoir, a great deal of repetition, a number of, frankly, pointless anecdotes or observations and a general ambience of arrogance, holier-than-thou attitudes.and closed mindedness. She takes no trouble to examine her biases, unconscious or otherwise and seems, on the whole, to be a fairly unadventurous reader, in thrall to the Western canon of her youth and stuck in her ways.
Whenever, in the past, I have extolled the virtues of Hill's writing (I loved her ghost stories, Strange Meeting etc), friends have recounted bad memories of studying "I'm the King of the Castle" in school. It is a work I do not know, but I am told it glorifies bullying and is brutish and amoral. On the evidence of the present volume, I am inclined to think they have a point and wonder if that shows the true Hill shining through.
Further, it might profit her to read some of the Pratchett she so clearly thinks beneath her, because then she might happen upon Sam Vimes explanation of how poverty is expensive and start to consider the problems encountered by those outside her upper middle class set. Maybe, too, she could start to apply some of the principles of social justice from the Bible she claims to live by.
"Jacob's Room is Full of Books" is by turns tedious and infuriating. It made me despise the author. I strongly recommend you give it a miss. Atrocious.
There is far, far less discussion of the actual books than I would expect in a reading memoir, a great deal of repetition, a number of, frankly, pointless anecdotes or observations and a general ambience of arrogance, holier-than-thou attitudes.and closed mindedness. She takes no trouble to examine her biases, unconscious or otherwise and seems, on the whole, to be a fairly unadventurous reader, in thrall to the Western canon of her youth and stuck in her ways.
Whenever, in the past, I have extolled the virtues of Hill's writing (I loved her ghost stories, Strange Meeting etc), friends have recounted bad memories of studying "I'm the King of the Castle" in school. It is a work I do not know, but I am told it glorifies bullying and is brutish and amoral. On the evidence of the present volume, I am inclined to think they have a point and wonder if that shows the true Hill shining through.
Further, it might profit her to read some of the Pratchett she so clearly thinks beneath her, because then she might happen upon Sam Vimes explanation of how poverty is expensive and start to consider the problems encountered by those outside her upper middle class set. Maybe, too, she could start to apply some of the principles of social justice from the Bible she claims to live by.
"Jacob's Room is Full of Books" is by turns tedious and infuriating. It made me despise the author. I strongly recommend you give it a miss. Atrocious.
October 27, 2020
Author Susan Hill takes her reader through a year of her life in this interesting and entertaining book.
It’s written like a diary, with observations about the weather, wildlife and life in general, as well as reminiscences about her literary life, the books she’s loved, authors and other bookish people she’s met, and the books she’s written.
There’s much here for a bookworm to like......including, of course, lots of interesting ideas to boost your to be read list, and, at the end, very helpfully, a comprehensive list of all the books and authors she’s mentioned.....
It’s written like a diary, with observations about the weather, wildlife and life in general, as well as reminiscences about her literary life, the books she’s loved, authors and other bookish people she’s met, and the books she’s written.
There’s much here for a bookworm to like......including, of course, lots of interesting ideas to boost your to be read list, and, at the end, very helpfully, a comprehensive list of all the books and authors she’s mentioned.....
August 16, 2021
This book wasn’t for me, I’m afraid. It is a ramble through Susan Hill’s year but too superficial for me to really get into.
January 18, 2018
I liked this book for many reasons - the diary form, the lists of books and writers, the author’s musing on her faith - but it didn’t get into my affections as did Howard’s End Is on the Landing. Still, I’m glad I read it and that I bought a copy so I can revisit it.
December 27, 2025
A fun read. Susan Hill’s year with forays into the Norfolk countryside and beaches. She also has listed the books she read during a year and now I have a list of books I want to reread and follow up on.
November 17, 2017
I wanted to read this book so much, and just when I decided that I wouldn't read any more books that didn't completely hook me, I got this. One thing, Susan Hill writes so well - that's what got me. By the middle of it, I was frowning but I didn't want to give it up but the last 20pp seemed so long.
Howard's End was structured much better, short chapters that were mini-essays that did not repeat or regurgitate ideas. The chapters here were longer, divided by months, and she just repeated herself unnecessarily (she says she hates Jane Austen five times, that she loves Dickens, ten, that people ask her questions about the Woman in Black (background info) and that she doesn't know in three separate occasions and so on). In Howard's End, I felt I could take a cup of tea with her and just listen to her talk about books, but with this one, I felt like she was overfeeding me cookies and I ended up getting bloated.
I know this is her book and she can express whatever opinions she wants, but I wish she talked about books more and less about birds and the weather (so depressing - it seems like they didn't have a nice day in a year). Also she came across as very judgmental, while she didn't in Howard's End even though she expressed opinions that I didn't share. She seemed to bring up arguments that she had had with other people to have the last word and say that she was right. And I just didn't care about her personal feuds.
The mood of this book was a downer - in Howard's End, she talked about people dying but there was a hopeful note. In this one, I was just feeling sad throughout all of it.
Howard's End was structured much better, short chapters that were mini-essays that did not repeat or regurgitate ideas. The chapters here were longer, divided by months, and she just repeated herself unnecessarily (she says she hates Jane Austen five times, that she loves Dickens, ten, that people ask her questions about the Woman in Black (background info) and that she doesn't know in three separate occasions and so on). In Howard's End, I felt I could take a cup of tea with her and just listen to her talk about books, but with this one, I felt like she was overfeeding me cookies and I ended up getting bloated.
I know this is her book and she can express whatever opinions she wants, but I wish she talked about books more and less about birds and the weather (so depressing - it seems like they didn't have a nice day in a year). Also she came across as very judgmental, while she didn't in Howard's End even though she expressed opinions that I didn't share. She seemed to bring up arguments that she had had with other people to have the last word and say that she was right. And I just didn't care about her personal feuds.
The mood of this book was a downer - in Howard's End, she talked about people dying but there was a hopeful note. In this one, I was just feeling sad throughout all of it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2018
As a follow up to the excellent Howard’s End is on the Landing, Susan Hill takes us through a year of browsing through her book collection and, between nature notes and weather reports, imparts some fascinating information about the famous and the neglected authors that she loves. I look forward to getting hold of some Olivia Manning and Alan Judd stories. This will make the frisson of excitement I experience in second hand book shops even more acute (and potentially dangerous - I often have to leave and locate the nearest Gents such is the effect on my bladder. Always go before shopping). Reassuringly, she seems to like Michael Connelly as much as I do which shows her perspicacity. I may even give Zadie Smith a try as well as Ford Maddox Ford’s “The Good Soldier”.
Hill’s slightly exasperated advice to prospective authors at Creative Writing classes that, “There are no rules” helps explain why she gave up lecturing and her problems with literary prizes seen from the judges’ point of view is interesting as I always thought this to be a doddle of a non-job akin to being on the Premier League’s Dubious Goals Panel, spending a jolly evening out with a few beers.
If you love reading, this is a delight.
Hill’s slightly exasperated advice to prospective authors at Creative Writing classes that, “There are no rules” helps explain why she gave up lecturing and her problems with literary prizes seen from the judges’ point of view is interesting as I always thought this to be a doddle of a non-job akin to being on the Premier League’s Dubious Goals Panel, spending a jolly evening out with a few beers.
If you love reading, this is a delight.
September 3, 2023
I love her observations about books and writers, even though I dont agree with all of them. I love how she connects book recommendations with the mood of the month etc.
"Reading the archive of interviews on the website is absorbing and educative and gives you more ideas for your Must Read list than you could get through in a lifetime."
"I thought I had cleared out all the books I would ever need to lose five years ago, but books breed. They beget second copies because you have mislaid the first and buy another, the day before you find the first."
"'Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it.'"
"INSOMNIA. VERY UNTYPICAL. In the end I start listing all the novels I have read - and when I get desperate, those I mean to read, and more desperate still, have ever heard of, going through the alphabet. I have no laptop or other e-device in the bedroom, so I cannot cheat via Google and it is far too cold to get out of bed and consult bookshelves. Rule is, as many titles as you like for each letter, but you have to move on after twenty seconds... It is interesting how few new novels leap to my mind whenever I play this game. Everything on my list is either an old favourite or a school or university set text. I suppose that's because they have been in my memory for so long they have become embedded, like fossils, and new books are still proving themselves."
"A book that cannot be returned to again and again, and still yield fresh entertainment and insights, is only half a book."
"People say they can never part with a book. I can. As fast as I get one out of the back door, two new ones come in through the front anyway."
"Reading is magic. Books are magic. It starts when we are shown picture books and realise there is another world beyond the everyday one we know. Once we can read ourselves, we live inside the magic. The only problem is that we have to emerge at the end of a book, and we don't want to leave and return to that dull domestic world we know. The only solution to that problem, of course, is that there is always the next book, and the next and there is bonus magic if it is another in a series we already love, so we are plunging back into a magic world but one we already know. We feel a lift of the heart, a lurch of the stomach, when we find ourselves in it again."
"'It occurred to me that the greatest compensation of old age is its freedom of spirit. I suppose that is accompanied by a certain indifference to many of the things that men in their prime think important. Another compensation is that it liberates you from envy, hatred and malice. I do not believe that I envy anyone. I have made the most I could of such gifts as nature provided me with; I do not envy the greater gifts of others. I have had a great deal of success. I do not envy the success of others... I no longer mind what people think of me. They can take me or leave me.'" (I swear I wanna have that attitude already now).
"How many people are there living in the books here? Only take the complete novels of Dickens and add up all the characters in each one and then multiply by ... and I already need to lie down. Overall, there must be thousands of imaginary people sharing this house with us. Silent. Invisible. Dead? No, not dead, or at least not permanently. They spring to life when someone opens the book in which they are held prisoner ... But of course they don't. They do not spring to anything, at least of all life. And yet they come alive to the mind, in the imagination of the reader. In one sense, anyway."
"The deadly months. July and August. The weather often disappoints, the birds have stopped singing, the roads round here are crammed with mobile homes and caravans being towed, the beaches are also crammed full and, yes, it is thoroughly selfish of me to complain about it. But winter is best here. Empty everywhere. In high summer it is best to get back from any shopping trip by ten o'clock and then stay in the garden, to read, or write, cold drink to hand, intermittently watching the swallows high overhead."
"What is a good reader?" (discussion p. 145)
A thought for Isis: "I debate with myself again. Is it better for someone not to ready any books at all than to read only schlock/rubbish/badly written junk ... whatever you like to call it?"
"I read an online comment about a book I have just finished. The author of the comment did not enjoy the novel. I did. But something about the book niggled and I could not work out what. The commentator said that in the end it 'didn't amount to anything'.... So now I have another criterion by which to assess fiction, after building up a collection of them over many years. Or perhaps they simply categorise it. Books which may be beautifully written, brilliantly written and reveal a powerful, fantastic imagination at work, not to mention an author who knows how to transmute research into something else. But which, even so, do not ultimately add up to anything."
"'The attempt to touch truth through a work of imagination requires an inner center of privacy and solitude. We all need silence - both external and interior - in order to find out what we truly think.'"
"Some writers could make a book about bathroom fittings delightful and satisfying to read."
"Notebooks. I start to use them, lose them, never fill one because I have started another and so they pile up, all shapes and sizes, with two or twenty-two pages covered in scribble and oddments."
"I was born into that war, I still remember - just - some things about life then. It was my parents' war. They talked about it all the time, during it and forever after. 'Beforethewar' - spoken as one word - was like some kind of Garden of Eden, in which treasures were freely available, whereas sweets were rationed until my tenth birthday, in 1952."
"All the best children's books are enjoyed just as well by adults."
"Reading the archive of interviews on the website is absorbing and educative and gives you more ideas for your Must Read list than you could get through in a lifetime."
"I thought I had cleared out all the books I would ever need to lose five years ago, but books breed. They beget second copies because you have mislaid the first and buy another, the day before you find the first."
"'Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it.'"
"INSOMNIA. VERY UNTYPICAL. In the end I start listing all the novels I have read - and when I get desperate, those I mean to read, and more desperate still, have ever heard of, going through the alphabet. I have no laptop or other e-device in the bedroom, so I cannot cheat via Google and it is far too cold to get out of bed and consult bookshelves. Rule is, as many titles as you like for each letter, but you have to move on after twenty seconds... It is interesting how few new novels leap to my mind whenever I play this game. Everything on my list is either an old favourite or a school or university set text. I suppose that's because they have been in my memory for so long they have become embedded, like fossils, and new books are still proving themselves."
"A book that cannot be returned to again and again, and still yield fresh entertainment and insights, is only half a book."
"People say they can never part with a book. I can. As fast as I get one out of the back door, two new ones come in through the front anyway."
"Reading is magic. Books are magic. It starts when we are shown picture books and realise there is another world beyond the everyday one we know. Once we can read ourselves, we live inside the magic. The only problem is that we have to emerge at the end of a book, and we don't want to leave and return to that dull domestic world we know. The only solution to that problem, of course, is that there is always the next book, and the next and there is bonus magic if it is another in a series we already love, so we are plunging back into a magic world but one we already know. We feel a lift of the heart, a lurch of the stomach, when we find ourselves in it again."
"'It occurred to me that the greatest compensation of old age is its freedom of spirit. I suppose that is accompanied by a certain indifference to many of the things that men in their prime think important. Another compensation is that it liberates you from envy, hatred and malice. I do not believe that I envy anyone. I have made the most I could of such gifts as nature provided me with; I do not envy the greater gifts of others. I have had a great deal of success. I do not envy the success of others... I no longer mind what people think of me. They can take me or leave me.'" (I swear I wanna have that attitude already now).
"How many people are there living in the books here? Only take the complete novels of Dickens and add up all the characters in each one and then multiply by ... and I already need to lie down. Overall, there must be thousands of imaginary people sharing this house with us. Silent. Invisible. Dead? No, not dead, or at least not permanently. They spring to life when someone opens the book in which they are held prisoner ... But of course they don't. They do not spring to anything, at least of all life. And yet they come alive to the mind, in the imagination of the reader. In one sense, anyway."
"The deadly months. July and August. The weather often disappoints, the birds have stopped singing, the roads round here are crammed with mobile homes and caravans being towed, the beaches are also crammed full and, yes, it is thoroughly selfish of me to complain about it. But winter is best here. Empty everywhere. In high summer it is best to get back from any shopping trip by ten o'clock and then stay in the garden, to read, or write, cold drink to hand, intermittently watching the swallows high overhead."
"What is a good reader?" (discussion p. 145)
A thought for Isis: "I debate with myself again. Is it better for someone not to ready any books at all than to read only schlock/rubbish/badly written junk ... whatever you like to call it?"
"I read an online comment about a book I have just finished. The author of the comment did not enjoy the novel. I did. But something about the book niggled and I could not work out what. The commentator said that in the end it 'didn't amount to anything'.... So now I have another criterion by which to assess fiction, after building up a collection of them over many years. Or perhaps they simply categorise it. Books which may be beautifully written, brilliantly written and reveal a powerful, fantastic imagination at work, not to mention an author who knows how to transmute research into something else. But which, even so, do not ultimately add up to anything."
"'The attempt to touch truth through a work of imagination requires an inner center of privacy and solitude. We all need silence - both external and interior - in order to find out what we truly think.'"
"Some writers could make a book about bathroom fittings delightful and satisfying to read."
"Notebooks. I start to use them, lose them, never fill one because I have started another and so they pile up, all shapes and sizes, with two or twenty-two pages covered in scribble and oddments."
"I was born into that war, I still remember - just - some things about life then. It was my parents' war. They talked about it all the time, during it and forever after. 'Beforethewar' - spoken as one word - was like some kind of Garden of Eden, in which treasures were freely available, whereas sweets were rationed until my tenth birthday, in 1952."
"All the best children's books are enjoyed just as well by adults."
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