Another of Orwell's lesser lights, which isn't one of his more highly-regarded novels, yet it offers great insight into Orwell himself.
Like most of Orwell's main characters - apart from George Bowling and in Animal Farm - Gordon Comstock is a partially autobiographical creation. Along with Gordon, Dorothy Hare of A Clergyman's Daughter and Flory in Burmese Days and Winston Smith himself, Orwell made a habit out of making his heroes out of cloth cut from his own clothes.
I think I understand more about Orwell from gleaning details from these characters than I have from all of his actual auto-biographical books and all of the biographies added together. In Down & Out, Wigan Pier and Homage, I don't feel the sense of being inside Orwell's own mind that I get from Gordon Comstock. In those books, Orwell is the fly on the wall rather than dissecting motives and it's only when he places the thoughts into a fictional character that he can give them full rein.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying is an otherwise quite unremarkable book, with few redeeming features - slow, of little action and even less object, I really do think that Orwell wanted to get his mind down on paper more than exposing the seedy world of second-hand bookshops.
It's not an easy read, the relentless poverty and squalor of Gordon's life makes for heavy going, but if you persvere, the gems of Orwell's own mind shine through, giving a fresh insight into the life of a dedicated writer. Lack of tobacco, lack of food, lack of love - all things which Orwell experienced first hand, yet hardly mentioned, although the physical aspects are discussed in Down & Out.
I won't suggest that you read and enjoy, it's too bleak for that, but read and get another insight into Orwell's mind.