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

Hill, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846682665 ISBN 13: 9781846682667

Publisher: IPS - Profile Books, 2010

Synopsis

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 potential to burst into new life. Wandering through her house that day, Hill's eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in her home, neglected for years. Howard's End is on the Landing charts the journey of one of the nation's most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Hill is the winner of numerous prestigious literary awards. She is the author of a highly successful crime series (Overlook Press) as well as the famous The Woman in Black, the stage production of which has been running internatoinally for years.

Reviews

*Starred Review* One day British novelist Susan Hill went to the bookshelves in her home looking for a copy of Howards End. She didn’t find it (at least not at first), but she did come upon several other books she had never read. That started her thinking: Why not devote a year’s reading time just to the books on her own shelves? The project launched, she began a systematic browse through all the books in her house (it’s an old house with lots of floors and shelves on every floor, not to mention the landings between floors). This delightful bibliophile’s memoir records her experience, both the browsing and the reading. Along the way, she developed a kind of second project: If she could only keep 40 books, which ones would they be? The list of 40 appears at the end, and it’s a charmingly eccentric batch of books, but the real fascination in reading Hill’s ruminations isn’t about the list but, rather, about how she reads and how living with books enriches her life. Those who collect books in any fashion will be lost in their own memories as Hill muses on “things that fall out of books,” or defends writing in books, or, best of all, argues against overorganizing the books on her shelves (no more wonderful surprises). Just try to read this book without nosing around your own shelves. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: IPS - Profile Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846682665
• ISBN 13: 9781846682667
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240