Book Detective

When we spend so much of our time immersed in books, who's to say where reading ends and living begins? The two are impossibly and gloriously wedded, as Hill shows in Jacob's Room Is Full of Books.

Considering everything from Edith Wharton's novels through to Alan Bennett's diaries, Virginia Woolf and the writings of twelfth century monk Aelred of Rievaulx, Susan Hill charts a year of her life through the books she has read, reread or returned to the shelf. From beneath a shady tree in a hot French summer, or the warmth of a kitchen during an English winter, Hill reflects on what her reading throws up, from writing and writers to politics and religion, as well as the joy of dandies or the pleasure of watching a line of geese cross a meadow.

Full of wry observations and warm humour, as well as strong opinions freely aired, this is a rare and wonderful insight into the rich world of reading from one of the nation's most accomplished authors.

Ruined by Reading by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen

One for the Books by Joe Queenan

Why I Read by Wendy Lesser

Nothing Remains the Same by Wendy Lesser

The Pleasure of Reading by Antonia Fraser

A Reader's Delight by Noel Perrin

The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma

The Most Wonderful Books by Michael Dorris

Book by Book by Michael Dirda

More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl

A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Educated by Tara Westover

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls