It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon...

[callmemadam]

There's a thread running on a mailing list I'm on: 'Where did you first read that book'? I was reminded of one book in particular by Private Eye's Literary Review of Garrison Keillor's new book, Liberty. They hate it, of course; they only review in order to be nasty. The anonymous reviewer should at least acknowledge that the first book in the series has something going for it.

I was in Orlando, Florida, in bed in a swish hotel. I knew nothing about the book, the same edition shown here; American with '#1 National Bestseller' on the cover. A few pages in I got to, 'it would make a good picture, if you had the right lens, which no one in this town has got.' I laughed out loud and was converted. The same thing happened with the first Adrian Mole book, which I also started in complete ignorance. I shrieked when the dog came back from the vet's after having a pirate extracted from its paw (you have to have read the book) and there began another love affair. That would have been Christmas 1982, on the sofa. I still re-read Lake Wobegon Days and my current bed book is The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole .

Any books linked forever with the place you first read them?

Comments

[lethe1]

One holiday book for me, but under dire circumstances:

I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill, in an overcrowded train from Amsterdam to Lisbon. We had no seats, so we had to lie on the floor near a filthy, smelly toilet. But the book was very bleak too, so it was fitting. (It may actually have been my second reading of it, I'm not sure.)

Two books during an illness:

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I had what the doctor called a 'red throat'. It sounded innocent enough, but it hurt so bad that I literally could not sleep for two weeks. When I caught sight of myself in a mirror I didn't even recognise myself, my eyes had all but disappeared and the area around them was black. I should have let my mum take a pic.
Again, fitting books for the circumstances (except that CCF was funny, of course).

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Red Throat sounds vile! Cold Comfort Farm is definitely a comfort read; I've always loved it.