A bookish meme

I'm a bit late as it's Friday, but I liked the look of this week's Musing Monday, hosted by MizB at Should be Reading here. Please feel free to join in and answer any or all of the questions in the comments below...

What was the last book you.....

• borrowed from the library? I went to the library on Monday and came back with quite a haul: two books by Elizabeth von Arnim - obscure ones not republished by Virago, called Benefactress and Father; the new Lisa Jewell, The making of us; Lucky break by Esther Freud; and an anthology of children's ballet stories.

• finished reading? I just finished reading Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer. I came across this book on the blogosphere (and yes, I know I'm late to picking it up, but it takes ages for things to be available in the library without a waiting list) and it sounded like an interesting concept - a woman accidentally emails a man whilst trying to cancel a magazine subscription. They embark on a length correspondence, consider meeting up, and become very close indeed. I loved the premise, and I liked the way that the book played out, but somehow a book constructed entirely of emails lacked something, perhaps some distance/detail.

• bought? two of the new Stella Gibbons reissues: Starlight and Westwood.

• cried over? I very rarely cry over books, in fact I can only really remember crying over Gone with the wind, Brideshead revisited, and the Snow Goose, all read a very long time ago.+

• disliked and couldn’t finish? It's been a while since I've given up on something; I sometimes feel like giving up on the Virago Modern Classics that I'm reading for my Virago Venture but if I did, then I wouldn't complete the challenge!

• read & loved? It's been a while since I've read anything that I've really LOVED, probably Caddy's world which I read on my wedding trip. Need to have some better luck with finding books that I LOVE at the moment.

• got for review? (or: got in the mail?) Fiona Cairn's new book: The birthday cake book. I started reading it straight away and I can't wait to start baking some things from it.

• gave to someone else? Bake and Decorate by Fiona Cairns [check out my post about this book last year] My friend wanted to see the vegan fruit cake recipe for her brother, and it's such a beautiful book I brought it into work rather than just copy out the recipe for her.

• stayed up too late reading? It's rare that I do that actually, I'm always so tired and the prospect of the 6am get-up makes me put my book away in timely fashion. Is that sad?