Welcome to this week’s roundup of your comments and photos from last week.

Let’s start with some old favourites. The wonderful Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby has charmed greenmill:

The kindness shown to him, a PoW on the run, by peasant families in the mountains of central Italy who were putting themselves at grave risk by sheltering him, is extraordinary and life-affirming. Newby’s early stuff, from The Last Grain Race to A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, is uniformly wonderful.

Meanwhile, just john has been out in space with Iain M Banks and Matter:

I’m back to rereading Iain M Banks, this time with Matter. It’s a heroic fantasy about a refugee prince and his trusty-but-unimpressed servant fleeing the murderers of his father the king, all layered – both narratively and physically – within the space opera of Banks’ Culture series.

I just had to tell somebody how much I’m enjoying this, and so now I have.

I’m very glad to have been told. I also enjoyed hearing FreethoughtRules extolling the virtues of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:

What a wonderful book! Totally different to what I expected. Such beautiful language!

It sounds like paulburns had a less enjoyable, but still worthwhile experience with Joseph Roth’s The Radetsky March:

I should preface my comments by saying I’ve been looking forward to reading this book ever since I first read about it on Tips, links and suggestions.

Its exquisitely written. Tracing three generations of the Trotta family, it follows the closing years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire up to the first world war, through the military and bureaucratic fortunes of fathers and sons, not whole families. I was most impressed by the chapters on Emperor Franz-Josef I, and life on the Austro-Hungarian Russian border. I had to struggle with this book for some reason, force myself through it to the end. It had a sense of nasty oppression about it, but maybe that’s just me.

Finally, two books about the silver screen. The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir by William Friedkin has been entertaining writeronthestorm:

It’s brilliant – it concentrates on his films, rather than his private life, but is very interesting on how he managed to pull those films together and he seems very forthright and honest.

And judgeDAmNationAgain recommends James Stewart: a Biography by Marc Eliot:

Makes for particularly pertinent reading at the moment, as it details the predatory behaviour of certain directors; not to mention the particularly odious-sounding Louis B Mayer, who kept a brothel on the studio lot (populated by various aspiring actresses, dwindling stars and “starlets”) which a young Jimmy was obliged to “patronise” in order to keep up a certain image. The book itself is very readable and comprehensive, and gives enough detail about his various films without slipping into Film Studies 101 – it is interesting how throughout much of Stewart’s career he just seems to be almost making it into the big time and quickly bombing again soon afterwards whenever a big success does come his way; and how such classics as It’s a Wonderful Life and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance aren’t considered “successful” films until many years later, with the former only becoming a major hit when it starts being shown on television at Christmas 20 years later.

I had no idea it took so long. Ironically enough, like many others, I first saw It’s a Wonderful Life at a special Christmas cinema screening. An experience I’d recommend to anyone.

Interesting links about books and reading

• A reminder of the greatness of William Blake.
• Is there hope for independent book shops?
• AN Wilson is fascinating about the great Anthony Powell.
• Jonathan Lethem once caught a Beat.

If you would like to share a photo of the book you are reading, or film your own book review, please do. Click the blue button on this page to share your video or image. I’ll include some of your posts in next week’s blog.

If you’re on Instagram and a book lover, chances are you’re already sharing beautiful pictures of books you are reading: “shelfies”, or all kinds of still lives with books as protagonists. Now you can share your reads with us on the mobile photography platform – simply tag your pictures there with #GuardianBooks, and we’ll include a selection here. Happy reading!