Like many of you, I have no doubt, I get a lot of books for Christmas. I have an extremely catholic taste, so I will read books on anything, providing the quality of the writing is good. Consequently, I find myself every Christmas with a huge pile of books, from thrillers to literary tomes to sci-fi.

One of the ones I got for Christmas was a book called Perfume by Patrick Suskind. He's a German writer who has been translated into english. This was one of those 3 for the price of 2 books from Waterstones, but I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It has the same slow-burning sense of being immersed into a different world as Jonathan Strange, although I found that book ultimately disappointing at the end.

Guy

Ah, but Jonathan Strange isn't over yet is it?

I've heard of Perfume and will check it out. Thanks for the tip.

JB

<Added>

Susanna Clarke is contemplating writing a second book set in the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. As she said in a recent interview: 'I have a bit of a problem now that the fairy roads are all open ... what do I do with them?'

Is it not? Well that does change things. I enjoyed that book a lot, but I thought it was left unresolved. The fact that it is going to continue is good news indeed, and explains the unsatisfying conclusion. On the other hand, it'll mean me re-reading the first book again to bring myself up to speed, and as I recall, it's no NHS pamphlet on safe sex.

I read it in two weeks flat out. I literally could not put it down... and ended up with forearms like beer barrels!

Now I have wisely purchased the three book box edition, so when I come to re-reading it (as I certainly will) I can do so without straining a muscle. Also, the pages won't fall out this time.

JB

<Added>

Grand to see it win the 2005 World Fantasy Award too. Well deserved, I say!

Oh, this from the Jonathan Strange website:

What’s next for you? What’s next for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell?

SC:The next book will be set in the same world and will probably start a few years after Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell finishes. I feel very much at home in the early nineteenth century and am not inclined to leave it. I doubt that the new book will be a sequel in the strictest sense. There are new characters to be introduced, though probably some old friends will appear too. I’d like to move down the social scale a bit. Strange and Norrell were both rich, with pots of money and big estates. Some of the characters in the second book have to struggle a bit harder to keep body and soul together. I expect there’ll be more about John Uskglass, the Raven King, and about how magic develops in England.

That is a memorable book. I read it back when it was first released in English in the early 90s, and I can still remember the way it made me feel.

Ani

I'll be looking out for the new book from Susanna Clarke. As for Perfume, it's a great feeling to pick up a book from the groaning 3 for 2 pile which always blocks the entrance to Waterstones and find when you get it home that you've chosen a winner. I'm at the stage of my reading career where although I'll read a book on any topic, I'm quite ready to chuck it out if it's badly written, and I seem to be reading a lot of those lately.

I got 5 books for Christmas, all of them from my Amazon wishlist.

If you use an Amazon wishlist, and get family/friends to use it as a basis for gift buying, you're guaranteed to get what you want.

Ah, you see. I have one of those as well, and have pointed it out to members of my family, however, my family has a strong streak of perversity running through it. My sister for instance, instead of buying me Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, got me tinned peas.

I'm finding Jonathan Strange a er.. Strange book. Picked it up in Tesco's where it was only £3.73 - for 800 odd pages it seemed like the best deal that year. Normally for me books fall into only two categories - read at the speed of light and absorb or dismiss almost immediately. With Strange I'm not reading it voraciously but neither am I disappointed by it. On times when I do read it, it'll go for a lengthy spell into the early hours but other times I look at it as though it's homework that needs to be done, but not until next week.

It's by far and away the most 'unconventional' book I've enjoyed, though I'm still not convinced about 'shew' and 'chuse'.

Jon

I know exactly what you mean. I was gripped for most of the book, awaiting some kind of cataclysmic showdown which never came. I felt the book promised something which it never delivered, so I'll be interested in reading the next installment, when it comes.

That is...strange. I felt the ending was very cataclysmatic, and the tension built up well. It all got rather dark in Venice as I recall. I guess I read a lot of fantasy, so had that as a comparison maybe? Either way, I loved it. 'Shew' and 'chuse' I'm sure are just to lampoon the over-posh accent of the period.

JB

'Shew' and 'chuse' are taken straight from Jane Austen, I think, but I'm sure she uses other spellings that Clarke doesn't borrow. I felt it was a rather irritating tokenism.

Emma

It seems to be a novel which provokes quite different reactions. Either way, there is little doubt that she is a fine writer and I have to admire anyone who has the talent and dedication to set themselves the task of creating a story with the scope that this one has.

irritating tokenism.

Thank you Emma, that's exactly the feeling I was getting (but couldn't express). They seemed dropped in there apropos of nothing and stuck in my craw every time.

Jon