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

Let’s start with an appreciation of Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat from BMacLean:

It was as pleasant and engaging as I remembered – and as funny. Even the odd serious passage worked well – eg Jerome’s daydream about King John signing the Magna Charta (as he calls it); and the story of the drowned woman was very moving and, yes, tragic, never mind that it has apparently been dismissed by some critics as sentimental and overwrought.

Hot tip for anyone reading this who is about to go on holiday and who hasn’t yet had the delight of reading Jerome K Jerome’s masterpiece: make room in your suitcase and take a copy with you. It will make you feel good.

Some books have the opposite effect. As Mark Kavanagh explains, Atlantis, Edda and Bible by Herman Wieland is a work of horror and shame:

Published in 1924, this is one of the worst books I have ever read, but fascinating too. It is a Nazi bible. It is the mishmash of demented conspiracy theory, mythology, antisemitism, paranoia, occult religion and Aryan master-race theory that gave the Nazis the justification for what they would become.

It was released just after the collapse of the German economy when they knew they were surrounded by enemies and powerless; the author calls for a messianic “Führer” to rise and save the “Reich” from the sub-humans.

The book was banned by the Allies after the war and has just recently been translated, I came across it in a secondhand bookshop. It is a frightening and fascinating glimpse into the heart of darkness.

The book sounds so awful I hesitated before including it here, but Mark Kavanagh’s eloquence won me round. It’s best that we know our enemy, after all.

Elsewhere, a different kind of non-recommendation comes from Vieuxtemps who has been trudging through Henry James:

I forced myself, and hated, to finish his novel The Awkward Age, which was one loooooooooong drippy boring book of drippy, boring conversation tossed around by drippy, boring people that I cared nothing, I repeat, nothing about. And I love Henry James.

Don’t read it, Book People. I took one for the team here.

Happily, Vieuxtemps has a good book for us, too:

Last week, I was pleased to try another new-for-me writer, Sarah Orne Jewett. I read a batch of her short stories, Dunnet Landing Stories, and liked them very much. The prose is clear and sharp, the characters interesting, and the sly humour hums along below like a river current. Recommended.

The North Water by Ian McGuire also gets the thumbs up from juliewhitney:

Set in the 17th century, it describes a whaling trip to the Arctic with a captain in cahoots with the ship’s owner and something other than whaling on his mind. Much of the story focuses on the ship’s surgeon who has fallen from grace while serving in India and his story is gradually revealed, but it is the character Drax who will stay with me for a long time: McGuire paints a fascinating portrait of evil embodied. The combination of confined space, life-threatening conditions and an ungodly crew of brilliantly drawn characters, each with their own shortcomings, makes for a brilliant read. McGuire doesn’t shy away from gruesome detail, though, and there are passages which I read with one eye shut!

Finally, something else to cheer, from Eamonn Barrett:

A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume is a beautifully written and sympathetic portrayal of a twentysomething woman returning to her grandmother’s house in rural Ireland as she tries to recover from what seems like depression. Full of memories, family, philosophy, nature and, most of all, art, this is really special. A new talent to celebrate.

Interesting links about books and reading

• A highlight reel of Michiko Kakutani’s outstanding work over 38 years as chief book critic at the New York Times.
• And here’s an appreciation of Kakutani’s art in the New Yorker.
• Also in the New York Times, a touching remembrance of Denis Johnson.
• Ed Smith’s Test Match Special interview with the novelist, playwright and screenwriter Sir Ronald Harwood is marvellous. It even contains a reference to JL Carr.

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 lifes 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!