Saturday, October 8, 2016

one special book




The Heywood Hill bookshop is celebrating their 80th anniversary with a drawing, which includes a spectacular first prize.

From their website:

"First prize is a lifetime's subscription to our famous A Year in Books service. The lucky winner will never need to buy a book again. They will be sent a new hardback book, individually chosen to suit their particular reading taste, every month FOR LIFE wherever they live in the world.
Second prize will be a one-year subscription to A Year in Books, and third prize a hardback book every other month for a year."

Nice, right?


It's a free drawing, open to all. To enter, you must answer just one question:

"Simply tell us which single book has meant the most to you, published in English since Heywood Hill opened in 1936."

I have been pondering this question at odd moments for several days now, and still don't have the answer. (But I will, before entries close on 31 October.)

What keeps springing to mind are books I read over and over again in childhood. Or unheard-of books given to me by friends, which I then carried from place to place for years. Books that became old friends, or that broadened my vision in some way. Books that inspired, entertained, instructed, influenced or dazzled me deeply.

But "meant the most to me"? It's a difficult question, but one that I very much enjoy mulling over in odd moments. So, in a way, I have already been given a prize by the Heywood Hill bookshop, and I've not even entered yet!

Which single book would YOU name?

I hope my readers will enter this drawing, and also share your thoughts in the comments below. Maybe some of us will discover shared favorites, or - I'm hoping! - find titles to add to our "must read" lists :)
~~~~~

24 comments:

  1. I don't know if I can answer it really, but I agree it's fun to muse over.

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  2. I knew immediately, and I've entered, so thanks for the tip! My favorite, and a life changer for me as a kid, was The Once and Future King, by TH White.

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    1. I also read that book as a youngster and remember parts of it very well. But I'm embarrassed to admit that at some point in life I mentally combined E.B. White and T.H. White, and it took me ages to sort them out!

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  3. "The River That Flows Uphill: A Journey from the Big Bang to the Big Brain," by William Calvin. A long and not an easy read, but well worth the effort. I read it the first time almost 30 years ago. Its time to read it again.

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    1. I also reread a lot of books, and sometimes the interval is decades. They keep well, don't they?

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  4. What a fantastic giveaway! I think I'm going to enter How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. I think it ought to be mandatory reading, in fact, it became the backbone of my high school lit course when I homeschooled my kids. It teaches you how to objectively analyze what you read. Most people simply react emotionally to what they are reading (or hearing) without giving a fair hearing. It what I would call a life skills book.

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    1. I certainly agree about the importance of critical and analytical reading, and when I was teaching college students, it became VERY clear that developing this skill is often neglected.

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  5. I went to go look at my bookshelves....as i tend to keep any book that meant alot to me.... so many i could name... some in a series... how to name just one? But i will , such a fabulous prize... I chose.. The Swarm by Frank Schatzing......Thanks! Hugs! deb

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    1. Good luck! I'll have to look that one up :)

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  6. Oh my. Just one? Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights come immediately to mind, also Jamaica Inn and Return of the Native. Then there is Cross Creek, Far from the Madding Crowd, War and Peace...also We Be Warm Til Springtime Comes...a whole host of titles!

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    1. I KNOW!!! So hard to choose.
      And now I see there is another Thomas Hardy fan out there :)

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  7. So many wonderful books, it's difficult to choose. At different stages of life, different books have meant the world to me although the Bible has been consistent. For enjoyment, I read mysteries and, for the most part, all other books are reference and resource. Thanks, Quinn, for the ponder.

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  8. What a great giveaway! But, finding one book that meant the most to me is really really hard. I need to give it some serious thought. Perhaps I'll know by the time you come up with your answer!

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    1. I look forward to hearing your choice, KB!

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  9. May we display your header on our new site directory? As it is now, the site title (linked back to your home page) is listed, and we think displaying the header will attract more attention. In any event, we hope you will come by and see what is going on at SiteHoundSniffs.com.

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    1. Thanks for asking, and you are very welcome to use a link to my blog, but since I don't use a "banner" image, there isn't much point to using my header...I don't think the word "Comptonia" would be more interesting than the link :)

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    2. Since there are several with plain headers displayed and I am not sure if that was a no or not, I went ahead and displayed it. If this upsets you, I will take it back to the way it was before. Aside from the All category and the slideshow on the Home page, you can see your header under Daily Life, Pets/Livestock, Photography and the United States.

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    3. If you like using the header, that's fine - thanks again for asking.

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    4. You are most welcome, and thank you for relieving my concerns.

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  10. I have been pondering this for days now and finally distilled my very long list of favourite books down to one. It was definitely hard! I finally settled on 'The Shack' by William P. Young. It's a book that not only was (and is) highly readable, but also reinforced my faith in God.

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    1. That sounds like a very powerful book indeed! I'll look for it.

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