Wonderful Waterstones

My favourite emporium in Brighton is the bookseller Waterstones. If I am in town I am compelled to visit, I cannot walk past the place. It is a magnet that draws me in and it is futile to believe I won't buy at least one book, which will be added to the list of at least forty or more I have at home waiting to be read. To date this year I have read forty-five books so I have almost a year's worth of reading material stacked away upstairs. Will I ever catch up I wonder?

It is that time of year when Waterstones unveil their eight contenders for Waterstones' Book of the Year, with titles nominated by the chain's UK stores. The winner will be announced next month from the following:

• Everyday Sexism Laura Bates Simon & Schuster
• The Miniaturist Jessie Burton Picador
• The Narrow Road To The Deep North Richard Flanagan Chatto & Windus
• Persiana: Recipes From The Middle East & Beyond Sabrina Ghayour Mitchell Beazley
• Once Upon An Alphabet Oliver Jeffers HarperCollins Children's Books
• The Opposite Of Loneliness: Essays And Stories Marina Keegan Simon & Schuster
• H Is For Hawk Helen Macdonald Jonathan Cape (This gets my vote)
• Capital In The Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty Harvard University Press

I would like to have seen This Boy by Alan Johnson amongst the nominations but I will Take H Is For Hawk as my favourite.