Early September saw the return of National Read a Book day. Now I don’t need an excuse to curl up on my sofa that I bought from Sofas Gloucester company https://www.gloucestersofasandbeds.co.uk/sofas/ with a nice warm cup of tea, or hot chocolate in the winter and start my journey into the world written between the pages of the book I am currently reading.

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Now, I have never been one for reading a book just because everyone else was. It was over a year after the first Harry Potter film was released before I started reading the series. I will however say that I always try to read the book before I see a film related to it. Not for any reason other than I find that once I have seen the film the image in my head when I read the story will always contain those actors and not the images that I create for myself. However, for once I wanted to find out what some of the top read books have been so far this year, I thought maybe it would give me some inspiration as to what to read next. What it actual gave me was a list of another twenty books that I want to peruse at some point.

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Here are two of the books I found on my search.

• The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock – Written by Imogen Hermes Gowar this novel is based in Georgian London and follows the life of a merchant and how he rises through the ranks of society after he is given a gift of a creature that is unusual and unlike any that has been seen before. He decides to display this creature to the public and his rise to the higher levels of society begins.
• The Lido – This is Libby Page’s debut novel and has already created quite a stir. The book is based around the community that develops around the people who regularly attend the Lido in Brixton, in particular the lives of Rosemary and Kate. Rosemary is an 86-year-old lady and is one of the key characters in the story. There are some beautiful reminiscence scenes where her past with her husband George is shown. In contrast to Rosemary is 26-year-old Kate who also spends much of her time at the Lido.

What books have you read so far this year and which ones would you recommend?