Am I light? Am I buoyant?
What a joke.
Years ago a professor begged me to chat in a class of silent students because I was “effervescent.” Those bubbles were an act. Shortly thereafter I had a panic attack while drinking coffee with two pre-law students from that very class.
I was overwhelmed by their normalcy. I realized they probably did not have abortions, alcoholic husbands, or inhabit converted chicken coops like the people I knew. I truly did want to be their friend. I smiled glazedly, said I had a class, and went home and memorized irregular Greek verbs instead.
Greek grammar was my light reading. It put me back together. Crosby and Schaeffer, our Greek textbook (called by the authors’ names), was my equivalent of the Valium doctors handed out like candy. You would have laughed to see me happily scribbling Greek declensions of nouns in front of a wood-burning stove at a friend’s “country house,” i.e., old farmhouse. Who needed drugs?
Well, my bubbliness is long gone, but my light reading is a little more traditional. We all love mysteries and Maeve Binchy, of course, but here are some other favorites. And I’ll bet you’ve read some or all of them!
1. EVERYONE LOVES E. F. BENSON’S LUCIA SERIES:
- Queen Lucia (1920)
- Miss Mapp (1922)
- Lucia in London (1927)
- Mapp and Lucia (1931)
- Lucia’s Progress (1935) (published in the U.S. as The Worshipful Lucia)
- Trouble for Lucia (1939)
In this satiric series of six novels, the outrageous Lucia dominates a quaint English village (first Riseholme, later Tilling). She is determined to be the trendiest hostess, whether it means stealing Daisy Quantock’s yoga guru or feigning a knowledge of Italian. She has rivals, the most famous being Miss Mapp of Tilling. The books are peopled with quirky characters, including her charming sidekick, Georgie, with whom she plots social coups and plays the first movement of Chopin’s Moonlight Sonata,
2. DIARIES. Whether you prefer a fictional diary such as Gogol’s Diary of a Madman or the diary of a great writer (I am reading Virginia Woolf’s), you will be privy to secrets and prurient details. And did you know Everyman’s Library just published a new edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys?
3. DOROTHY SAYERS’S LORD PETER WIMSEY MYSTERIES. I adore this series of Golden Age detective novels, and Sayers’s charming, foppish amateur sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. In one of my favorites, Have His Carcase, Harriet Vane, a mystery writer, takes a walking tour to escape everyday life–especially Peter’s frequent proposals of marriage. But she finds a dead body on the beach–wouldn’t you know?–and by the time she gets to a phone, the body has washed out to sea. How do you investigate a murder without a body? She and Peter Wimsey join forces.
4. Any adventure story by H. RIDER HAGGARD. His sensational adventure novels are perfect for a rainy day. In one of my favorites, She, a Cambridge professor and his ward travel to Eastern Africa to investigate the mystery of an ancient pottery shard. They encounter a primitive tribe who pays obeissance to a mysterious white queen, known as She Who Must Be Obeyed. How it fits together I don’t remember!
5. Barbara Pym’s No Fond Return of Love. This is my favorite novel by Pym. I love this whimsical quote from the book: “There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.” We’ve all been there, haven’t we? At least to a writers’ conference… Dulcie Mainwaring, a whimsical indexer, and snobbish Viola Dace both have crushes on Aylwin Forbes, the editor of a literary journal. He speaks at the conference on “Some problems of an indexer.” Really, what could be funnier? And Dulcie is very good at doing “research” on Aylwin. Eventually the two women become roommates.
Glorious “light reading” list. I admit to sharing your tastes for all of them. Facing certain trials and tribulations of my own this summer, I settled down to a re-read of all six of the Lucia books, as I had done some time earlier with the entire body of D.L. Sayers’ books. Perfect escape lit for sure.
And while not sharing your passion for Greek, I have to tell you that botanical Latin is my pet “second language”, and during certain times in my life tomes such as the late Norman Deno’s Seed Germination Theory and Practice – essentially hundreds of pages of coded lists – accompanied me everywhere and I read it like normal people read the latest bestseller.
I am enjoying your new blog format, by the way. Such a pleasure to read your posts here as it was back at MD.
The Lucia books are perfect escape! I’d love to live in Tilling, but the tableaus might be too much for me. And what if I wasn’t invited?
I’m sure I would go for botanical Latin if I knew anything about botany. There is something about lists of words…
Thanks for posting such a fascinating list of books. Maybe they are “light” but they all look good. I have been meaning to try Haggard for years. I might give She a try soon.
I also like King Solomon’s Mines. And then you have to watch the movie with Debrorah Kerr…
I’m completely with you on 1, 2, 3, and 4. Love Benson’s Lucia books, love diaries (and once owned Pepys’ complete diaries but felt overwhelmed and in need of shelf space so gave them away), and love rip-roaring adventure stories, like Haggard’s.
I’m so happy rereading Lucia. I only wish I had taken to Benson’s other books, too, but they’ve disappointed me! There is a website where we can read Pepys’s diary online–an entry a day, I think. I do like spending a rainy day with outrageous adventure stories. So glad you agree!
I have the Pepys site bookmarked – and I still can’t manage to read an entry a day! I’m such a sloth (no offense to sloths).
Kat, love your light reading recommendations! EF Benson or Barbara Pym are sheer joy! And No Fond Return of Love is my favorite Pym too.
Isn’t Barbara Pym the greatest? Honestly, I feel a Pym urge coming on, but prob should read something besides No Fond Return of Love. On the other hand, why not? 🙂
Why not indeed…
!!!
I went through a stage when almost all of my non-work Reading was diaries and letters. That was when I read Virginia Woolf’s letters and journals for the first time. There was a wonderful imprint called Lives and Letters that published in the U.K. during the seventies and eighties and I bought everything they issued. These days there doesn’t seem to be so much available.
I’m enjoying writers’ diaries and letters more as I get older. I like to read about Woolf’s process of writing: she is absolutely exhausted by retyping and correcting proofs in a way I would never have imagined. Too bad Lives and Letters went under: different times I guess!
I forgot to add my own favourite light reads!
I must confess to cherishing a bedroom bookcase full of such writers: Monica Dickens, Margery Sharp, Rumer Godden, Elizabeth Goudge, D.E. Stevenson, Georgette Heyer, Helen MacInnes, Mary Stewart, O. Douglas… and of course the mystery writers: Ngaio Marsh, Patricia Wentworth, Margery Allingham, D.L. Sayers, Dame Agatha…
Absolutely “middlebrow” my escape lit seems to be.
Interesting that they are (mostly) all female writers. J.B. Priestley is also in there, but I think he’s the only (token?) male in that particular grouping of dependable favourites. Oh, and yes, the E.F. Benson Lucia books, which live separately from his others.
What a great list! I do love middlebrow novels. It has been years since I read Helen Macinees, though, and I suspect she would be good tor a weekend. I have a musty book club omnibus from a library sale!