If you had £30 to spend on books for yourself, what would you buy?

[Enid]

I do (book tokens) and need inspiration.

fiction or non?

I've just finished reading this and it was brilliant.

The River Cottage Family Cookbook, its brill and only £12.00! not just recipies, tells you about food how its made and the procecess it goes throught o get to you! Jamie Oliver in Italy and a really great chocolate cookbook!

looks good

I think fiction

But I have read almost everything and hate chick lit or gory modern crime thrillers.

I have all of those lacrimosa!

Oh bugger! Kama Sutra?you could use some of those choccy recepies!

it really is an awesome story - very moving.

what about Saturday by Ian McEwan - very good
or Empress Orchid by Anchee Min - fascinating story (fiction) about last empress of china (a young Chinese girl in the 1800's who is chosen as one of the Emperor's Concubines and becomes one of the most powerful women in Chinese history.)

am reading Saturday atm (enjoying it - very very well crafted)

Is that empress book good? I enjoyed the Geisha one years ago and then there seemed to be a whole load jumping on that particular bandwagon.

I'm reading sat at the moment too Enid - isn't he a fantastic writer.

I know what you mean about the geisha imitators but this is really good. memoirs of a geisha was one of my favourites so it had a lot to live up to

Matthew Parris's castle in spain, also Saturday,
something inspiring on postive pyschology to cure my insomnia (one way or another!)

Personally I'd buy the new Sarah Waters novel - if you liked Fingersmith as much as I did. It's still in hardback, only just out. Then you could tell us all about it

have you read The Shadow of the Wind
~Carlos Ruiz Zafon ?

Mm, yes please enid, get the Sarah Waters.
I recently enjoyed Kazuo Ishiguro's latest, Never Let Me Go, but it's not a cheery read

I love books threads

the Sarah Waters one has had fantastic reviews.

really?

wasn't the Fingersmith full of sex?

I don't like sex in books btw

not strictly true

I dont mind it but hate long lingering sex scenes

Vikram Seth - no sex in ANY of his books, poor love. A suitable girl must be the longest book in English with not a hint of lurve action.
He needs a good woman to sort him, does Vikram.

Have you read War and Peace enid - nice Everyman hardcover edition, no rutting in that either

presume you've read Perfume by Perfume by
Patrick Suskind?

Also The Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor

Yes to sex in Fingersmith, and it was mostly lesbian sex, as well.

sorry no to sex lesbian or otherwise

actually I didnt mind the gay bits in The Line of Beauty but found it all quite informative

War and Peace not a bad idea Marina I like a good epic. not sure whether pg hormones will permit me to remember all those russian names though. I don't have it and think it is my duty to at least try it

How heavy do you want to be?
Amreading a fair bit of Orhan Pamuk (Turkish writer) at present in an attempt to understand(partly) huge gulf between the 'West' and the Islamic world.

Very illuminating.

The everyman edition is Russian lite on the big patronymics etc - alot of them are upper-class Frenchified Russians and call themselves Pierre and Marie in the original anyway.
It is actually a lovely read Enid - very moving and stirring. I read it when pg with dd for the first time ever
It is never too late to fall in love with Andrei or Nicholas or Pierre

Funnily enough, I immediately thought I would get a couple of nice Everyman editions of classic novels:

Villette, Jane Eyre, any Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Austen

I didn't like Fingersmith much at all - although the first twist came out of the blue (which I enjoyed)!

Enid, what you need to do is join the Folio Society and starting stocking up on their beautiful Mrs Gaskell editions...but the austere elegance of the Everymans is gorgeous too. And they are such good value. I've got all the Brontes spacedonkey!