Well, it has been quite a month. Art is good. Emergency hospital trips are not. The relentless rain here in Bristol ruled out any chance of aurora spotting and the world news continues to be largely terrible.

Thank goodness for books and films and photography and music. And awesome friends. And delicious food. And did I mention our friends are awesome?

Tim and I had an excellent long weekend in London, where we saw both the RSC production of My Neighbour Totoro – which is as sweet and beautiful and funny and sad as the film – and the Theatre Royal production of Othello, starring David Harewood and Toby Jones. Which is as heartbreaking and brutal and mesmerising as it should be with such amazing actors.

Continue reading “January 2026 reading round-up”

It’s that time again when I click on the stats tab in Storygraph and share some facts and figures about my reading over the last year. In 2025 I read 82 books, or 21,773 pages. Way back last January, when I was recovering from my shoulder operation, I was reading very short books that I could manage one-handed. So I’m relieved to see that by the end of the year, my average book length was a respectable 265 pages.

One stat that surprises me is that 30 of the books I read this year are in a series. Then again, if you sneak a look ahead to my top five, two of them are in series. 

From my own records, I see that I read 21 works in translation. The 82 books were set in 25 different countries (not counting space/fantasy locations), and were written by authors from 20 different countries. That’s a decent spread.

I don’t want to set myself any goals this year, aside from continuing to read widely. I want to give myself freedom to jump into any topics or challenges that arise without feeling that it leaves me too busy to read my own dang books. I’m just happy that in my mid-40s I am continuing to read a lot and continuing to enjoy it.

Continue reading “2025 reading stats and top reads”

Well, happy New Year’s Eve folks. I hope those of you who get a few days off at this time of year have enjoyed them. We had a very lovely small Christmas, and an even quieter few days of Twixtmas.

I was lucky enough to get my usual stack of books from friends and family. And more than a week of quiet time to largely devote to reading. My TBR may be roughly the same size as this time last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, but its composition does change. I’ve stopped feeling guilty about owning so many unread books. If nothing else I’m supporting writers financially by continuing to buy their work/ask for books to constitute the majority of my presents.

I’ve also watched an inordinate number of films this month. Top ranking among them are The Holdovers, Feast of Seven Fishes, Wake Up Dead Man and Night Moves. Oh, and yesterday we finally watched Double Indemnity, which is just as good as you might expect of a screenplay co-written by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder.

I’ve spent this afternoon curled up reading Arsène Lupin short stories but now it’s time to make dinner, drink wine, watch Jools Holland and see in 2026. Happiest of new years to all of you.

Continue reading “December 2025 reading round-up”

In some ways it has been an ideal November – mostly very cold and sunny with blue skies, with just the occasional intense storm. I’ve taken the dog for some lovely walks and read some great books.

I also saw Wet Leg live, who were awesome of course. And I went to the Bristol Drama School production of Kae Tempest’s Brand New Ancients, which I found powerful (though the friend I went with was less convinced). Tim also took me to the cinema to see the new Running Man film, which I really enjoyed.

Continue reading “November 2025 reading round-up”

October just whizzed along. I squeezed in a lot of things, which I guess contributed to time flying by. I went to two gigs – the Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwals and Panic Shack – as well as a handful of delicious meals out and amazing Lego creations at the Great Western Brick Show. And also two author talks! I saw historian Paula Akpan talk about her book When We Ruled: the Rise and Fall of Twelve African Queens and Warriors. And Tim took me to see Nick Offerman, who is touring for the launch of his new book Little Woodchucks. I’m not sure I’ll get that much out of an introduction to woodworking, but he is a very funny man. And the book does include instructions to build your own little free library, which could be a pretty cool addition to our front garden.

Continue reading “October 2025 reading round-up”

We spent the last 10 days of September on holiday in France. It was glorious. We had a great time, ate great food and are mostly sad to be home. We had a chill week on a small, quiet island bookended by weekends in cities. I have approximately a bajillion photos to sort through but for now please enjoy this picture of my reading spot last week.

I spent most of the holiday reading a book set near where we stayed, The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Enard (translated from French by Frank Wynne). I didn’t quite make it to the end before we got home (it’s a pretty long book) so I’ll save my final assessment, but I do know it won’t usurp The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver as my favourite read this month, as that was truly excellent.

Continue reading “September 2025 reading round-up”

I decided this year to put some real effort into Women In Translation month and I think it paid off. Of the five books I read, four fall under that umbrella. And they were all great. I’ve ended the month halfway through three different books, despite trying not to jump between books. Ah well.

It’s been one of those months that felt jam-packed and yet I struggle to think of specific things we’ve done. There was a local brewery trail and an evening watching hot-air balloons and a particularly lovely date night for our 23rd anniversary. We went to a cocktail bar and our table had a chess board on it so of course we had to play a game of chess while we drank. We are not the best players but it was really fun.

Continue reading “August 2025 reading round-up”

I’ll keep this shorter than usual this month. I didn’t finish many books and I’ve been a bit unwell so my brain isn’t the clearest. Those two things are possibly related.

Highlights from July include Bristol Pride – which was excellent though burning hot – and a couple of great day trips to Reading and Weston-super-Mare.

We have kept up our Friday-night habit of martinis and film night. Highlights this month were The China Syndrome and K-pop: Demon Hunters. Keeping it varied! We’ve been on a Jack Lemmon streak but after China Syndrome we might pivot to a Jane Fonda season. She is awesome.

Oh, one more exciting thing. Tim and I booked ourselves a holiday for September. There will be hire bikes, beaches, museums and at least one castle. It should be a good mix of culture and relaxation.

Continue reading “July 2025 reading round-up”

Summer is already in full swing and we’ve only just had the solstice. Every weekend is busy, as are a lot of these long warm evenings. We’ve seen some great live music, theatre and comedy. It’s frighteningly easy to forget sometimes that awful shit is still happening out there.

Though June is generally considered Pride month, Bristol Pride Day doesn’t happen until 12 July. I am definitely expecting more serious protest vibes than the happy party atmosphere of recent years.

On the music front this month, our friend T managed to get us all tickets to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Royal Albert Hall, which was amazing. They not only added a string section but also made use of the huge pipe organ behind the stage. They had rearranged a lot of their songs for the venue, to great effect. It was a little weird to experience songs that started life in tiny New York clubs played by a three-piece punk band, reimagined 25 years later as epic rock songs. But good weird.

Continue reading “June 2025 reading round-up”