Reading taste is such a peculiar thing. I picked up a book last week at the library, I really though I would enjoy. The first page grabbed my interest. Unfortunately despite the claims on the cover that the author ‘is the kind of novelist that you want to tell all your friends about,’ a quote from The Times and the myriad rave reviews inside from various newspapers and magazines, I gave up after about 50 pages. And had considered doing so earlier than that.

Now maybe it had to do with the frame of mind I was in, as sometimes happens with a book, or it could just be this writer and her sense of humour left me cold. The book was ‘Then she found me,’ by Elinor Lipman. http://www.amazon.com/Then-She-Found-Elinor-Lipman/dp/0671686151.

Strangely one of the other books I picked up that day was by another Elenor – different spelling. ‘In the Shadow of Trees, a shadows darken, mystery deepens,’ by Elenor Gill. http://www.harpercollins.com.au/book/index.aspx?isbn=9781869506278

I admit this cover intrigued me before I read any further. Again the one page test and reading the blurb on the back and I took it home despite the back cover which told me the author, Elenor Gill ‘has had a life time interest in folk music and the paranormal.’

I’m not usually into books about the paranormal, but this one sucked me in, so much so that last night I said to my husband, ‘I can’t go to bed now. I have to finish this book.’ I was at that stage about 50 pages from the end and had been reading during the ads in the St Kilda/Collingwood game, which we get earlier in the evening than Sydney viewers because when it come to TV football the South Coast comes under Canberra which I’m grateful for. Just another advantage of living in Paradise!

I also enjoyed the AFL match, despite abysmal umpiring and no I don’t support either of those teams. I am Sydney Swans http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/ red and white through and through. 

So sometime after midnight, I finished the book and we went to bed. Bad move. The trees crowded into my dreams. Several times I woke up, calling out and feeling smothered. Eventually I got up and started to read a children’s fantasy which arrived this week that I’ll be reviewing. ‘The Last Elf’ by Silvana De Mari

http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9780747577881

is quirky, funny and an absolute delight. But more about that at a later date.

It didn’t dispel the trees though. I finally dropped off to sleep some time well after 3am. Of course it may not be all the book’s fault. The previous morning I’d been given morphine and another injection by the emergency doctor for pain caused by a bout of gastro, so I’d pretty well slept away most of the day and night before and still not feeling well hadn’t exactly been expending a lot of energy on Friday.

Anyway, dream aside, the book was still a good read and a great first novel. Will I read more of hers? Yes. Maybe I’ll also go back and try the other Elinor again too when I’m in a different frame of mind.