I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have an excellent 2011 ahead of you. Happy New Year!
I will resume the Books for Christmas series shortly. Sadly, due to a nasty infection I was diverted in December and will carry on posting the collected Books for Christmas series but under a new tag of ‘2011 starts with recommendation heaven’.
You may know me by now. I try to be a little different. No year end top tens from me this year; just a look back on 2010’s year in books. I hope you enjoy it. It goes some way to explaining why there were fewer posts on this blog during the past year.
January saw the launch of the TV Book Club in the UK. Bookworms across the country were crying out for this: a book show on terrestrial TV. Hopes were high as it involved Amanda Ross who had set up the Richard & Judy Book Club. But readers don’t go that deeply into backroom organisation and don’t really care. ‘Richard & Judy’ was the brand and it was their word, their recommendations that mattered. Criticism started early, as soon as the panel was announced. Hopes were dashed, but bookworms retained patience and gave it time. Low notes: celebrity central for bragging up a biography; most of the panel and guests; the wrong location, location, location for Jo Brand’s brand of humour. High notes: Joan Bakewell as a guest; Ian McMillan on Ted Hughes, making poetry accessible; the books selected. The series returns to our screens in January 2011.
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