Thread: Books you have read.

When I have read books there are some books I want to keep, not only the reference books. There are others that, once I have read them, I don’t mind losing. Some I pass on to friends, some I leave in places like cafes or hospital waiting rooms where they have a pile of magazines or newspapers, anywhere they might find a reader and won’t get wet or thrown away.
So the idea of this thread is to take a book that is finished with, write a review of it and print out a copy of this,

This book is free from ..................
When you have read it please
leave it where it will be found
by another reader.
To read a review of the book,
add your own comments,
or tell us where it has got to,
Visit “writing forums.com.
the “Books you have read” thread
“Books and Authors”.
Book No. ......

Post the review here, write your name where the dots are at the beginning and the next No. in succession at the end and stick it in the front of a book. Then go out and leave the book somewhere, and come back and edit the post to tell us where you left it.

Anybody who has found a book with one of the stickers in it, please post quoting the number and saying where you found the book and where you leave it. Any comments on the book are also welcome.

One day you may follow the path of your old book as it circumnavigates the world, or you may meet new friends in the next street with similar literary tastes, or you may never hear of it again but simply have the pleasure of knowing your thoughtfulness has given someone a read.

I have a couple that can go soon, but my printer has packed up, so if anyone wants to claim No. One ...

Hah! what a great idea. I won't be able to do this anytime soon because I don't have any way to get around right now (no car and it's too cold and windy to ride the motorcycle) but I think this is pretty cool. Actually I'm pretty sure Smudge (the nice man who's letting me hide out... er, VACATION at his house) has a box of odd books that he was gonna give to charity, and some of them don't look too stinky.

Here is Number One.

To Kill a Mockingbird.
By Harper Lee.
One of those books that people have been encouraging me to read and I have been putting off for years, I am glad I finally got there. It was always advertised as being about racial prejudice, but I found it much more about prejudice in general. It doesn’t make a bad child rearing manual either. Easy to read, a sure sign of a badly written or well written book, in this case a well written one.

I keep forgetting to come back and say where I left it, on a bench in Hastings bus station, outside the railway station and next door to the college

Number Two
Midwinter.
by John Buchan.

I have a fondness for a John Buchan novel, some are among my favourite books. Though that is a personal choice and not a judgement that they are great literature he is a writer of reasonable quality. He started out as a grammar school boy from Glasgow and ended his career as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor of Canada. As was pointed out after the recent Wikileaks revelations, diplomats are not slouches at writing. This is not one of his best, unfortunately, but it was still worth reading. It is a conceit involving Samuel Johnson in Bonnie prince Charlie’s rebellion; a tale of deception, betrayal and deceit rather than the high adventure at which he is best, though there are still elements of this. This is a cloth bound edition inscribed in the front W.E Wickenden, Friston, 1941, and a decent size for a spacious pocket.

I left this in Etchingham station, it is a small, one man, country station and the station master provides a bookshelf for commuters to leave books they have read.

Number three

The world according to Bertie.
by Alexander McCall Smith.
This is the fourth, and probably the latest, in the 44, Scotland Street series, though with the speed at which Mr McCall Smith produces books that statement may well be out of date by the time you read it. Like the other books of his that I have read I found it an easy, inconsequential read. The fact that I had not read the third in the series did not put me out at all. The speed at which he produces books is beginning to show, some of the passages of description or homespun philosophy begin to read like the “filler” they are, but still enjoyable in an un-taxing way.

This one went on the table at St Leonard's Warrior Square station

Number four
The Barrytown Trilogy
by Roddy Doyle

I am sure that Roddy Doyle is some people, but he really is not me. He is funny and writes "Irish" so it is believable, but I simply did not get involved with his characters and their situation, add to that that this is a trilogy, a big heavy volume, awkward to read, and that I read them as single books previously and it has to go to make room on my shelves.


Left on the bench outside "Waterstones" book shop, Hastings shopping centre.