When you read a lot, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the reality and the literary, the worlds sometimes meld into one another, perspectives can be enhanced but you cannot separate the two. Susan Hill is one of those people, not only is she a writer, more importantly, she is a reader too, and this book, Jacob's Room Is Full of Books is a year full of her reading.

Set over a calendar year, Hill charts a month by month reading diary. She tells us what she is reading and when and most importantly why. Her reading is wide-ranging but tends to be focused more on fiction. Even though she gets a lot of proofs from publishers hoping for that front cover quote, she reads what she wants, from classics to favoured authors and new authors. She is not afraid to be critical of books that she finds below par and is more than happy to champion books that she has always loved and new discoveries that have come to light.

Hill is excited about reading a new book as she is about gleaning some elements from a favourite book that she has re-read a dozen times before. For her it is just the pleasure of reading, gaining that extra insight into what the author meant by a sentence. This enthusiasm comes across in the books that she talks about, she is opinionated and knows what she wants from a book. She is one of those authors who is very well known, however, I must admit that I have never (yet) read her works of fiction. The only book of hers that I have read is Howard's End is on the Landing, another book about books. This I think has the edge on that one, which was about her reading the books that inhabited her home over the course of a year. This is a more contemplative and thoughtful discourse of the books that made her literary landscape for the year.

One of the things that worked for me in this book, is that she is prepared to talk about the books she liked and loved as well as those that weren't quite what she had hoped for. It would never work if we all liked the same books. My favourites would not be yours and vice versa, but with all books, there should be overlap and more importantly points for discussion too. She donates generously to libraries, a resource under threat in this country at the moment, seeing the good that they do in the communities that she has lived. Almost as an afterthought are glimpses of the natural world around her, the rare sight of a bittern, the geese that race overhead onto places far away. If you like to read books about books, then you cannot beat a writer talking about the books that she reads and the list of books mentioned in the text at the back of the book was really useful. ( )

I absolutely loved Howards End is on the Landing, so when a friend told me about Jacob's Room is Full of Books I expected to feel equally enthralled ... sadly, I wasn't! Although there were sections I did enjoy, and some recommendations which I'm keen to follow up, I too often found myself getting irritated by her constant name-dropping, her frequent reminders about her English degree and her dismissal of people who regard her books as "beach-reads"- I'm sure she's very happy to see her bank balance increasing as a result of these readers buying her book! She's described as "opinionated" and I can live with that, but I found the frequently acerbic and judgmental tone of her observations totally unecessary and this spoiled my reading experience. I've enjoyed many of her novels in the past (including those which fit the crime genre she appears to despise!) but this book has certainly affected my opinion of her! I've found it difficult to decide on my rating but, because I did enjoy some of her reflections on the classics, I've opted for 3* rather than my initial inclination to rate it two and a half! ( )

Another lovely bookie book from Susan Hill. I like the random jumping from one book to another, anyone who reads a lot does exactly the same. As a book reviewer I'm sure we get an honest no holds barred opinion from Susanl, she's not afraid to say she doesn't like a book, and that's fine, just because she doesn't like it doesn't mean I won't love it. This is a book of musings from the author about the books she loves to reread, new books that make her think, a turn of phrase that catches her eye and the language of writing that appeals to her. It's a book I think I'll dip back into often. ( )

What could be better than a book about books! ( )

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as Howards End is on the Landing, but it's fun. The structure here division by month, with entries through each month ranging from a sentence or two to several pages long. The general sense is of an overview of Hill's “year in reading,” which is somewhat seasonally directed, and of her thoughts on various books, genres, and authors, but these bookish pieces are interspersed with accounts of birds sighted, thoughts on e-readers, the traffic in Oxford, Cistercian monastics, the challenges of responding to reader mail. An opinionated woman who has read widely and met some interesting people, Hill's musings, bookish and otherwise, make for a light but pleasant read. ( )