Literary tastes

Lady P loves a good story, and has little caches of books all over the Sugar Cube.

So do I. I hope she and I will share the love of books that I share with my mother. We get a lot of pleasure from lending or giving each other favourite reads. But then, my mum and I have a fair amount of common ground in our literary tastes.

Lady P's interests, by contrast, leave me cold. Her fascination with the Tana Hoban 'concept' books, for example, which we have taken out of the library many times.

 I guess Hoban was all about celebrating street life. And so we get pictures like these:

Ooh, look at that drain, with all the dirt and rubbish!

Bin bags! Fascinating to Lady P. Not doing much for me though.

Here's a man looking for somewhere quiet to smoke some crack.

 And this book, which I bought for its kitsch value, has proved popular way beyond my expectations.

Perhaps because her father works from home, she finds this one endlessly fascinating

Good luck 'storytelling' anything at all about this bonkers picture. I always say 'there's a little girl having a think and...' then I just dry up. Why is there a racoon there too? And with what or whom is the cat boxing/ dancing? My imagination cannot stretch that far. So we just sit in silence and look at it till Lady P shouts 'all done'.

Another inexplicable favourite. Took me a while to spot that beetle, too.

I hope her tastes change. Until then, Lady P's book club is one I do not want to join.