Recommended Reading - a Meme

This meme has been making the round of bookblogs lately. I don't know where it originated, so unfortunately I can't give proper credit. However, I think it began as a "books I've read this year" meme. I've chosen to use it more as a general "reading I recommend," and not just novels, but I've also included three plays and one non-fiction title. Makes it easier! Also, instead of the usual list form, I've put it into paragraph form.

     I began the day by Lying Awake before breakfasting with Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and admiring [her] Room with a View. On my way to work, I saw Emma and walked by The Priory to avoid Crossing Delancey, but I made sure to stop at 84, Charing Cross Road.
     In the office, my boss said, "Faster! Faster!" and sent me to research An Academic Question. At lunch with The Rector's Daughter, I noticed The New House in Mansfield Park. Then on the journey home, I contemplated Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks because I have an Invitation to the Waltz and am drawn to Dancing at Lughnasa. (Then again, I also contemplated A Month in the Country, because I have Urgent Longings and am drawn To the North.)
     Settling down for the evening in The Echoing Grove, I studied a Letter from New York by The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street before saying goodnight to The Tortoise and the Hare.

Lying Awake  - Mark Salzman
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont  - Elizabeth Taylor
A Room with a View  - E. M. Forster
Emma  - Jane Austen
The Priory  - Dorothy Whipple
Crossing Delancey  - Susan Sandler
84, Charing Cross Road  - Helene Hanff
Faster! Faster!  - E. M. Delafield
An Academic Question  - Barbara Pym
The Rector's Daughter  - F. M. Mayor
The New House  - Lettice Cooper
Mansfield Park  - Jane Austen
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks  - Richard Alfieri
Invitation to the Waltz  - Rosamond Lehmann
Dancing at Lughnasa  - Brian Friel
A Month in the Country  - J. L. Carr
Urgent Longings  - Thomas J. Tyrrell
To the North  - Elizabeth Bowen
The Echoing Grove  - Rosamond Lehmann
Letter from New York  - Helene Hanff
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street  - Helene Hanff
The Tortoise and the Hare  - Elizabeth Jenkins

Lately I've Been ...

Okay, I still can't think of a topic for a bonafide post. So I swiped this meme from this blog, who swiped it from here and there, who in turn swiped it from its creator at this blog, and if anyone wants to swipe it from me, swipe away.
Anyway, it goes like this: "Lately I've been ... "

 

... writing

absolutely nothing. Which is why I'm doing this meme. And Lord knows I sure haven't been writing any poems.

 

... reading

A Nineteenth-Century Childhood  by Mary MacCarthy (the one that belonged to the Bloomsbury Group, not the Mary MacCarthy that writes books about embroidery, and not the Mary McCarthy --different spelling, note -- that wrote The Group—which isn't about the Bloomsbury Group, anyway. Are we confused yet?).

 

... listening

to Fifty Poems by Emily Dickinson  read by Meryl Streep, Glenda Jackson, Stephanie Beecham, and, unfortunately, Sharon Stone.
Music-wise, I received yesterday Stephen Hough's new one, his French Album, and have been wallowing in its aural luxury ever since. This is pianism at its most subtle and sensitive, with a tweak of cheekiness towards the end of the disc. Highly recommend.

 

... watching

you mean, besides Frasier ? Uh ....
Just kidding. I've also been watching the first season of The Courtship of Eddie's Father and wanting to squeeze little Brandon Cruz because he's such a wee cutie-patootie. I don't do current TV series for some reason. Lots of Food Network and HGTV.

 

... looking

at a lot of paintings. By a lot of painters. Sorry I can't be more specific.

 

... feeling

extremely middle-aged.

 

... anticipating

the next seasons of Dancing with the Stars, The Next Iron Chef,  and Downton Abbey.  I lead a very exciting life.

 

... wishing

I could see David Hyde Pierce in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.  For that matter, I've been wishing I could see David Hyde Pierce in anything, anywhere. Also, that I could see Stephen Hough in concert or recital.

 

... loving

watching Chopped! with my mother, Blue Bunny's Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate ice cream (wow, that's a lot of alliteration), and Christopher Morley essays. Pretty much in that order.

 

Wait a minute ... I'm channeling Niles Crane here ... remember when he said, "There's a wonderful new lecture series on the history of lecture series"? Well, maybe I should write a post about the occasional difficulty in writing posts! Oh, wait, I already did that.

 

So ... anybody got another meme or questionnaire I can swipe?