Favourite books

The last Cabbage Soup meeting was our 'Favourite Books' meeting. Not everyone could come up with a single favourite, so I've also listed here many others that people found it hard to choose from.

Favourites

All Passion Spent - Vita Sackville-West
The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

Honourable mentions

All of These People - Fergal Keane
Fire and Hemlock - Dianna Wynne-Jones
Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
A House in Sicily - Daphne Phelps
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D'urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Treasures of the Snow - Patricia M. St. John
The Roses of No Man's Land - Lyn McDonald
The Kindness of Strangers - Kate Adie
Give me Ten Seconds - John Sargeant
The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Dafoe
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens
Narnia series - C.S. Lewis
Sherlock Holmes - Conan Doyle
The Number of the Beast - Robert Heinlein
The Soldier's Return - Melvyn Bragg
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes
Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulkes

Not estate agents this time

Estate agents writing style must rub off on those involved with housing. I saw a house share ad today asking for a 'professional non-smoker'. I've given it up, but I wouldn't say I've gone so far as to make a career of it.

Rejection

Even the best books can be rejected by publishers. We've all heard the stories of books that got rejected many times before becoming best sellers. I suspect that most publishers have no clue what is going to appeal to the general public and are amazed when they actually manage to pick a winner. But you'd think they might recognise a prize winning book that had already been published! According to this article in the Times, they wouldn't.