INTRODUCTION: Books Read

Before continuing the diary for 1954, I thought I would  begin with my grandmother's list of "Books Read" in the course of the year.

Mount Everest by Colonel Hunt. Very interesting and beautifully illustrated. 

The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith. I was never bored from cover to cover.

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Hammer. Very well worth reading.

Old Men Forget by Lord Norwich. I did not read this closely as I had already read long extracts in the Sunday Times, but the second half is most interesting.

Nothing for Tears by Lali Horstmann. I had read this before but it stands re-reading very well.

The Magician by JB Priestley. Very readable but not much more.

Bless This House by Norah Lofts. The story of a house in Suffolk. I was interested, but it is not distinguished.

Ritual in Christianity by Allan Walls. Extremely interesting and absorbing.

Jungle Green by Arthur Campbell. Intensely interesting.

The Imprisoned Splendour by Dr Raynor Johnson. Enthusuastically recommended by Weathered but largely beyond me. I had to miss whole chapters.

Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. I was thrilled.

The Brontë Story  by ? I found it very interesting, more especially the latter part.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hess. (He won the Nobel Prize for his former novel, Magister Ludi.) It is very and increasingly interesting and well worth reading again. A pilgrim who meets Buddha but does not become a follower. The translation is not very good.