What a month. Our Denmark holiday dominated August, in a good way. You know how often within a week or two of coming home from holiday, that holiday feels like a distant dream? I’m glad to say I haven’t yet reached that stage.

The other big moment this August was our anniversary. Tim and I have been together 24 years now. Hard to believe, though I will admit that it feels like a very long time since I was 21.

I read some great books last month. My favourite was probably Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst. I was also impressed with Vida by Marge Piercy, though it took some time to get into. It’s very tense – not recommended on a stressful day.

Continue reading “August 2026 reading round-up”

We have spent most of the last two weeks in Denmark, which is pretty cool. And has kind of eclipsed whatever else it was I got up to in the first half of this month. I think there was a heatwave? I will post properly about the holiday when I have sorted through my hundreds (thousands?) of photos.

One thing of note: right at the start of the month, Tim spotted one of those niche local lectures in a room above a pub that was right up my street. “Sylvia Plath, witchcraft and radical poetry” presented by Dr Dorka Tamas, based on her own research. She introduced the different types of witch in literature, history and society, and explained how all those show up in Plath’s work. She showed us the cultural and social influences that we know Plath was responding to. This includes the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, Shakespeare, historical witch trials in Salem and Scotland, Senator McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt, moral panics about gender roles at work and at home after the world wars, the Kinsey report Sexual Behavior in the Human Female…to name just a few. Tamas had some really interesting insights to share, including that Plath had more explicit references to witches in many early drafts of her poems, which were softened or made ambiguous in the final versions. I will absolutely be reading more Plath again soon – and making sure I buy a copy of Ariel that restores Plath’s own choice of the order of the poems.

Before holiday, Tim and I looked up some Danish writers to immerse ourselves in. Aside from Hans Christian Andersen, surprisingly few have been translated into English. And I couldn’t quite bring myself to read Kierkegaard to prepare for a summer holiday. Does anyone have any recommendations? While we’re in the Danish mindset?

Continue reading “July 2026 reading round-up”

June was an…odd month. We thought the dog needed surgery, so we cancelled plans, got all ready to hunker down for her long, slow recovery. And then after scans and specialists, it turns out she doesn’t need surgery. Which is of course a massive relief and I am hugely grateful. But also it took my brain a bit of time to adapt to “oh, we do get to have a fun summer after all”.

The crazy heatwave coincided with the above, so we were more than happy to stay indoors with closed blinds, a fan and plenty of chilled water. It is a little scary to experience 39 degree heat as early as June though.

Continue reading “June 2026 reading round-up”

Well, life just keeps on getting more complicated and frustrating, but also the sun is shining and we survived the first heatwave of the year.

Highlights of the month include seeing Robin Ince live as part of Bristol’s Skeptics in the Pub/Theatre lecture series run by Bristol Skeptics Society. Ince is a comedian, science communicator and all-around lovely human being and his live show is brilliant. Go see him if you can. And either way, read his books. There are quite a lot of them.

Continue reading “May 2026 reading round-up”

My reading last month was boosted by the Easter long weekend, sunny evenings in the garden and a short holiday in Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons).

We had fantastic luck with the weather considering it was a holiday in the UK in April. It was gorgeously sunny and warm while still early enough in the year that the UV was only high for brief periods each day. Which meant I could be outside for hours at a time without triggering a lupus flare. Cue 3-4 hour walks in peaceful countryside with picnics or pub lunches. Then getting back to our holiday cottage mid-afternoon to sit in the garden with books, wine and snacks.

On holiday we stumbled across Hy Brasail, a strange house that looks like a hybrid of ordinary Victorian house and an Italian villa. Which is basically exactly what it is. There is some mystery surrounding it, but what seems agreed on is that it was owned by a local lawyer, Mr James, in 1912. He made some quirky additions to the building after he went on holiday to Italy. He may have fallen in love with a contessa and promised to build her a house reminiscent of her Tuscan childhood. She may even have lived there with him. Though more likely she broke his heart and never came to Wales.

Continue reading “April 2026 reading round-up”

A fairly uneventful month – which is maybe better than the alternative. We went to see Project Hail Mary at the cinema, which was very entertaining and does kinda make me want to read the Andy Weir book. And we watched the film of The Thin Man – accompanied by martinis, of course – which is great fun and if anything makes more of the role of Asta the dog than the book did.

The garden is full of flowers and the park is full of wild garlic. Even my house plants are in flower, one of them after two years of no buds at all. That’s exciting.

This coming weekend is Easter, which I will as is now traditional spend mostly reading books and eating chocolate. Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

Continue reading “March 2026 reading round-up”

Rain, rain, so much rain. I can’t remember a previous February that was so wet. So we have largely hibernated this month. I read a lot. We watched a lot of films. We even squeezed in some art, courtesy of Bristol Light Festival.

I ended the month celebrating Chinese New Year at Bristol City Museum; going out for a delicious meal with Tim at Box-E; and hearing the news that the US, Israel and Iran are at war.

Books-wise, a couple of these I picked because February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK. And three were for book clubs. Most were good reads, but a couple were truly excellent: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld.

Continue reading “February 2026 reading round-up”

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”