So which book did you love that you just randomly picked up?

[Coatdegroan]

I have just read "In the Springtime of the Year" by Susan Hill. I'm not a very accomplished or complicated reader... its not everyone's cup of tea but I was spelll bound by it. Picked it up in a second hand bookshop for 50p. Very understated and quite sad, but beautiful reading.

Anyone else had a surprise lovely read?

@CheshireChat

Medusa looks brilliant.
Can I ask, do you think it’s suitable for a 12 year old girl?
i know you saw it in the kids section but read conflicting things about it’s age-range/

thank you

Three Women at the Waters Edge by Ann Tyler, went on to have most of her books after that one. In the same style but more recent The Paper Palace, picked up on hotel bookshelf and read in two days.
Coasteeering about one man's travel by boat around the UK was a joy to read,

Watership Down, it was in a book exchange on holiday. I loved that book so much and read it several times. The film is a travesty.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman
Very touching and entertaining

When The Messenger Is Hot by Elizabeth Crane. Short stories by an American author. I’ve since read everything else she’s written - We Only Know So Much is brilliant. She’s not known in the U.K. and her books can be difficult to get hold of.

When God was a rabbit. I bought it years ago as a rebellious act from my strict Christian upbringing- I thought it had a blasphemous title. It’s a wonderful book.

That's a proper page turner! I listened to the audio book of it last year and realised how badly written it is but when I first read it 30-odd years ago I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread!

The three Sarah Lotz

Picked up at random from a local small bookshop abroad, which only had half a dozen titles in English. Loved it and Day Four.

On supply teaching, many years ago, they'd overbooked staff but didn't want to send me home, so they put me in the library with about 6 children who had to study totally unsupervised. I picked up My Left Foot, Christy Brown. Loved it, it's only short, so read it that afternoon.
Easiest £100 I ever made.

The Chemist, by Stephanie Meyer. Surprising, strong female lead, and riveting! The kind of book I look forward to coming home to.
Picked it up at the library, not my usual thing at all. It’s the only novel of that type she’s written, and now I’m hoping she’ll write more!

Mill house by Susan Lewis couldn’t put it down

Rebecca's Tale - a follow on to the original Rebecca. Had never read Rebecca but read it afterwards (backwards I know!)

I read it on holiday and can still feel the holiday when I think about the story 🥰

@Spaghetti0

I saw in the teen section to be precise, though they're not really separate in my library.

It alludes heavily to rape and while it's not graphic, it is quite striking for lack of better word.

I'd probably wait a bit I think depending on your DD.

Not quite the same but I was reminded of it yesterday: when I was a kid I grew up in a house that had bookshelves full of old books everywhere (like in the kitchen, in the bathrooms, on the landing). One day completely at random I found a children's book somewhere in my house and to this day I have no idea how it got there, since my parents didn't have children's books except obviously for me, and they wouldn't have shoved a book into a random bookcase - they'd have given it to me. Plus it was an old book, and my parents wouldn't have purchased second hand children's books, I don't think.

The book was "The Little White Horse" and it remains one of the most magical books I have ever read. Enchanting and extraordinary. To the point where I'm almost surprised that other people have read it, that it exists online; it feels like it popped out of fairyland into my house, leaving not a trace behind.

Locked in time by Lois Duncan - just a must read

Before the coffee gets cold

@CheshireChat
thank you very much for the advice. I’ve ordered it for myself for now!

I really wish I could get into this book as I love her other stuff, but I just can't 😕

The book I just picked up was one in a box of books my aunt was getting rid of. Isla Dewer - Women Talking Dirty. Absolutely loved it and most of the other books she has written.

Definitely this

Kill em all John nivens dark comedy

I came across Valley of the Dolls and loved it too.

Later I read that it is one of the best selling works of fiction of all time!

I think I must have bought that same magazine with A Slipping down Life! I rember enjoying it at the time but can't remember much now.

The book I particularly remember buying randomly is Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll. I bought it in a discount bookshop when I was 17. It's still one of my favourites, so strange and normal at the same time.

@TheWheeledAvenger I found The Little White Horse on a stall at a summer fete when I was a child. The book was in such a bad condition that the stall owner gave it to me for free because it wasn't meant to be there. Unfortunately when reading it I discovered there was a page or two missing at the end and I never found another copy of it. In my mind it has a sort of never ending magical quality, so much so that even now when I could probably easily find it online I kind of don't want to, because then it would be over.

No! I don't want to join a book club by Virginia Ironside. Funny, touching and I want to be Marie when I grow up (in about 8 years!)

Oh, I loved Valley of the Dolls too, takes me back to reading on a sun-lounger in the garden when I was supposed to be revising for A Levels.

Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene. Really loved it, great satire. The kindle store wouldn't work for me when I was abroad so I had to try to find something already on my kindle that my husband had read.