It's a commonplace that in reading novels one can escape the ravages of time. In 1994, I borrowed my student housemate's innocent-looking har…

Looking over the list of books read over a decade, it becomes clear that each book came too early or too late, or not at all; unless, of course, not …

Given that my undergraduate degree was in Philosophy, it may seem odd that this the first book of philosophy in the series. Many will say it is not a…

I've written about Gert Hofmann's novels a few times, most recently Veilchenfeld ( Our Philosopher in the US edition), but not his short st…

Poetry is a notable absence in my book lists. I assumed at this time that because novels excited my attention, poetry should do too. Under this assum…

One the first books I found in a bookshop* upon moving to Brighton was Rosalind Belben's novel Is Beauty Good . I had seen it two years earlier c…

The first book I read in the 39 years of this series was a genre thriller, and I've read only two more since. The second one came along this yea…

Nowadays I would be put off reading a book labelled controversial and exciting gossipy attention on TV and in newspapers, but in 1989 I read Alexand…

This is one of my most surprising discoveries in second-hand bookshop trawls in the far off days when they existed, especially because it was found i…

From two books in the first year of reading and twenty-four in the second, I read eighty-six in the third, including a lot more non-fiction. This was…

In my second year of reading, I read four novels by DM Thomas, beginning with his most famous, The White Hotel , in the edition below with its very 1…

The first novel I read was Twice Shy by Dick Francis, reportedly the Queen Mother's favourite novelist (which tells you all you need to know abo…