In this new blog series, I ask my friends and family to talk a little about their current reads. I figured it would make a change to look at the reading habits of people who read a lot but don’t blog about it usually.

This week we’re hearing from Spiky Zebra, who I met through work and hang out with regularly. She’s a stalwart of our pub quiz team (especially excellent at music rounds), a far better photographer than me and will forever be cooler than me because, though we have in common that we both wrote for our respective student papers, while I reviewed books and theatre, she reviewed gigs and interviewed bands. Super cool. Here’s what Spiky Zebra has been reading…

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At the moment I’m reading Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre. He’s a go-to author for me when I’m not really in a book mood. I find him easy to read and his stories enjoyable, without being too challenging or difficult. I’m only a couple of chapters in but so far it’s just right – well set up, pacy and mysterious.

My relationship with reading has changed massively since I had children. I always have a book on the go and usually read at bedtime but having a baby in bed with you means you don’t have the light on so I didn’t really read for a long while. I was reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon when I went into hospital to have Child 1 and it then took me more than a year to finish it, despite really enjoying it. I’ve found that anything remotely challenging is a no-go – I just can’t get into it in the three minutes before I fall asleep – so in a lot of ways I’m really missing reading. I used to mix fiction and non-fiction, but non-fiction is off the table at the moment. I was trying to read Stuart Maconie’s The People’s Songs, which should be exactly the kind of thing to hold my interest, but have given up for now.

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch is a notable exception since having Child 2. I whipped through it in about a week (very fast for me) and thought I’d cracked it and was back to book love, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe holiday with little or no internet connection will help me get back in to books.

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Thank you Spiky Zebra for telling us about your recent reads.