Well it's supposedly marvellous so I forced myself to read to the end due to peer pressure. So there's several hours of my life I'll never get back...

Picked up at the London BC Meetup. Onto the TBR shelf...

This time travel lark can be a bit confusing - I accidentally caught this book before it was released. No mind, it is now safe in my posession in the year 2342.

This book is part of the following of my reading list projects:

* Man Booker Prize Winners [1990]
* Time 100 Best English-language Novels since 1923 [#15]
* 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die [#819]

Byatt has written a complex, multilayered and impressive book.

The subtitle of Posession is "A Romance" and Byatt makes clear her intention for the book in her quote from Nathanial Hawthorne in the front, "When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would have felt himself enitled to assume had he professed to be writing a Novel".

So, the story spans eras, points of view, styles, and formats. It is about poets and Byatt has even written their poems and stories for them. It's a very clever and literary book and I believe that this, combined with its length, coulld be well offputting to readers - I certainly felt that I was missing a lot because I am not familiar with Victorian literature and poetry.

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it greatly and am glad I persevered through some of the drier patches.

I'll take this to the London BC meetup tomorrow.

RELEASE NOTES:

At the London BC Meetup.

Caught at the OBCZ at the Old Shades, Whitehall in London, at lunchtime today. I've had this book through my hands a few times before and never been able to get into it, but it's one of those books I really wish that I *had* read, so I'm going to try again. I've filled by summer by reading too much froth, so perhaps the autumn is time to get down to some serious fiction.

RELEASE NOTES:

On the little set of shelves near the till.

Had breakfast in Natural Cafe this morning and noticed that this book was still there, after some time. As I had a couple more to leave on the little shelf, I took this book back to re-release elsewhere.

RELEASE NOTES:

On one of the tables.

I found the book on the table outside Cafe Rouge in Wimbledon village, haven't started reading it yet though. Looks quite heavy going!