Category: Blog

Happy New Year

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How were your Christmas and New Years, folks? I didn’t do very much reading, considering I had two whole weeks off work, but I did do plenty of relaxing, catching up with friends and family, and even some useful stuff. Not bad for someone who’s been gorging on cold and flu drugs for a week and a half. But then I love Christmas and birthdays (which I also had one of this week) so maybe I’ve been running on a bit of a high.

More relevant to this blog than my sinuses or holiday cheer is all the many lovely books I have gained in the past fortnight. Not that I need more, but they’re still the best present ever. I can’t wait to break into these piles of deliciousness (actually, I’ve already read two of them, but one’s a joke book so that doesn’t really count).

christmas-books-2014

Christmas presents:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M Harris
Paris Was Yesterday by Janet Flanner
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
I am the Beggar of the World edited by Eliza Grimwald and Seamus Murphy
F in Exams by Richard Benson (joke book that made me cry with laughter)
Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi (recipe book of great great beauty)

birthday-books-2015

Birthday presents:

Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

bought-books-2014

And as if that wasn’t enough, I treated myself (thoroughly encouraged by Tim, I might add) to not one but three forays into tiny but brilliant bookshops – the Melton Bookshop, the Forest Bookshop and Durdham Down Bookshop, all of which deserve blog posts dedicated to them that I will eventually get round to. I restricted myself to one or two books from each because I do have some guilt about the TBR being at its biggest point ever since I started keeping track, but I also want to support every great bookshop I pass. My purchases were:

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida (which I read within 48 hours of buying it; I’ll review it soon)
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (book club for February, so it’s a totally sensible purchase)
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (because Cemetery of Forgotten Books!)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (I think I read this years ago but didn’t own a copy so while I was picking up the next volume, I figured I should start a matching set)
Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou (look: it’s so pretty!)

2014 round-up

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Oh Christmas Tree

As I cough and splutter my way through New Year’s Eve, I would like to come up with some pithy, wise things to say about the year that’s ending, but mostly I’m counting down the time until I can take more Sudafed, so apologies if this a bit rambly.

This year I read 71 books. I set myself three challenges, of which I completed two. Honestly, I am fine with that. I read some great books this year. My favourites have been:

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones
Transmetropolitan, Vol. 5: Lonely City by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell by Deborah Levy

Looking at that list, I’m pleased with how varied it is. There’s lit fic, popular science, translated fiction, a graphic novel and poetry. Completely unplanned, I swear!

Just practising

On the non-reading front, I’ve also had some fun new experiences this year. I went to Amsterdam (and instantly fell in love with it), saw Cirque du Soleil live (which was a total surprise planned by Tim – best surprise ever!), successfully grew chillis (in fairness a friend did the difficult first part and gave me the seedling, but I’m still happy I didn’t just kill it) and I knitted stuff (Tim’s mum taught me to knit at the end of 2013 but I didn’t knit any actual things until this year and I’m super proud of myself still every time). Oh, and we finally finished watching Battlestar Galactica, which may not sound like much of an achievement but we bought the box set five and a half years ago, so I’m totally counting it. It’s a great show, I don’t know why we took so long!

Right now, I think it’s time for another cup of tea and one of my new Christmas books (which I’ll post pictures of another time). Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas

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Christmas reading plans

Merry Christmas folks!

As I have two whole glorious weeks off work, I have ambitiously set aside the above pile of books to work my way through, though I will no doubt get distracted by shiny new Christmas present books at some point. We do have lots of people to visit and sensible house stuff to do, so I’m not sure how much reading time I’ll actually get, but here’s hoping!

Happy holidays and happy reading everyone.

Sunday Salon: Christmassy book thoughts

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The Sunday SalonIt’s the last weekend before the Christmas holiday starts in the Nose in a book household, so I was expecting to be madly Christmas shopping or present wrapping, but I seem to have already bought everything I can until certain family members respond to my questions, so instead the weekend has been spent hanging out with friends, reading and binge-watching a TV box set that I’m not going to name because we’re about five episodes from the end and I really don’t want it spoiled for me!

One thing I did spot while doing my Christmas shopping was this rather lovely charitable giving project from Blackwells bookshops: the Giving Tree, donating books to less fortunate children. If I can get to a Blackwells in person I’d love to help pick out a book myself but if I can’t I’ll entrust the choice to their booksellers who, let’s face it, know what they’re doing.

It’s a timely reminder that not everyone is in the fortunate position I’m in where I have more books than I can read in a year already piled up invitingly. And I keep buying more for myself! Though I try not to do too much of that around Christmas, this week I did receive my first book from my Peirene Press subscription, which I bought as a present to myself last month. Because I just couldn’t keep resisting these beauties.

peirene

And last week I also received this rather fun advance reading copy of a book being published early next year, along with a kit for knitting a square of a blanket that I can only assume will be gigantic if every reviewer does that part as well. As an enthusiastic amateur knitter how could I not join in this project? They judged me well when they sent that invite! Keep an eye out early next year for my knitting and my review.

a to z of me and you proof

Reading goals this year and next

My aims for this year’s reading were threefold: more science fiction, popular science and re-reads. The results have been…varied.

In 2013 I read six SF books, eight if you include graphic novels. This year so far I’ve read seven SF books, so not a huge leap forward, but if I include graphic novels it’s 17. So it’s a win but it does feel a little bit like I cheated to get there.

2014-pop-sci-reading-challengePopular science I worked harder on. I even made it an official reading challenge. I did revise my aim down from one per month to 10 over the year and I’m currently reading number 10, so that’s another win! Well, as long as I finish this book it is. It’s looking pretty good. This challenge definitely stretched me beyond my comfort zone and helped me to feel much more knowledgeable about non-fiction in general. Which is fab. I even wrote about popular science for For Books’ Sake.

Re-reads though? Oh dear. I re-read two books this year. Which is two more than last year! But it’s still only two, which really doesn’t constitute a big fat tick. And with my beautiful library housing thousands of books that I kept because I want to re-read them, I really have no excuse. Well, there’s the TBR – that’s my excuse.

So for next year do I want something completely different or more of the same? Well I’d like to pick back up on translated reads definitely. For 2015 I’ve subscribed to Peirene Press as well as And Other Stories, which should help. Or just make my TBR bigger. One of those.

classicsclub6But the biggie in new challenges is that I am joining the Classics Club. I have given myself the goal of reading 50 classics in five years. The list of classics I intend to read is over here. I’ve tried to make sure there are books I’m looking forward to reading and books I’m a bit scared of on there, so it should be an interesting one! There were already a lot of classics on my TBR, so the challenge should also help with reducing that.

I should probably set a third aim. Three is a good number. Should I try re-reads again? Maybe I should return to my cookery book challenge, which is looking a little sad as it is. Or I could try something completely new…but what? Any ideas?

November reading round-up

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(Beinecke Library, Yale)
(Beinecke Library, Yale)

Is it really December tomorrow already? Time really does seem faster every year. It looks like I have read way more than usual this month because I read seven graphic novels/trade paperback collections of comics and let’s face it, they tend to be quicker reads than your average non-graphic novel. I read them for Graphic Novel Week and wrote short reviews of them all here.

This week I took Tim (as a late birthday present) to see one of his favourite authors, William Gibson, speak in Bath at an event arranged by Toppings bookshop. It was a slightly odd evening, in that Gibson just did a reading from his new book then a short Q&A and implied that the main point of it all was the book signing. Every other author event I’ve gone to has had either an interviewer or the author giving a short talk, but I don’t go to that many so perhaps I’m just discovering late in the day that author events vary quite a lot!

I suppose I expected something more because this year it’s 30 years since the publication of Neuromancer, Gibson’s first novel, which has achieved legendary status and had major influence on the world that reaches far beyond those who’ve actually read it (which I had done in preparation for the event). I had seen on the Internet that Gibson was doing/had done some events specifically about Neuromancer this year and therefore expected it would at least get a brief discussion. As it was, it was only mentioned by audience members in Bath (who, incidentally, had some very intelligent questions that provoked some interesting debate between Tim and I as we waited in the cold and wet for our delayed train home).

Certainly it was different at the David Mitchell event earlier this month, at which an interviewer helped Mitchell discuss his new book and past work for a good half hour before the Q&A and signing. It’s a style I much prefer, even if it did mean I took an hour and a half lunch break that day! But then I’m pre-disposed to prefer an event with an author I’m a big fan of, whose work I have read all of (or at least all the novels, I believe there are short stories out there I haven’t read).

Books

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (review here)

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (review here)

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Transmetropolitan Vol 1: Back on the Street by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Transmetropolitan Vol 2: Lust for Life by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Transmetropolitan Vol 3: Year of the Bastard by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Transmetropolitan Vol 4: The New Scum by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Transmetropolitan Vol 5: Lonely City by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Serenity Vol. 4: Leaves on the Wind by Zack Whedon and Georges Jeanty

Ex Machina Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days by Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris

Short stories

“Can’t and won’t” by Lydia Davis (Selected Shorts podcast)

“If at the wedding (at the zoo)” by Lydia Davis (Selected Shorts podcast)

“The party” by Lydia Davis (Selected Shorts podcast)

“The two Davises and the rug” by Lydia Davis (Selected Shorts podcast)

“The egg race” by John Updike (Selected Shorts podcast)

“Camilo” by Alejandro Zambra (New Yorker, May 26, 2014)

“The right sort” by David Mitchell (Twitter, collected together here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/14/the-right-sort-david-mitchells-twitter-short-story)

“Sheherezade” by Haruki Murakami (New Yorker, available online: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/scheherazade-3)

“Here’s the story” by David Gilbert (New Yorker, June 9 & 16, 2014 )

“The adolescents” by Rachel Kushner (New Yorker, June 9 & 16, 2014 )

Happy December, folks!

Graphic Novel Week: reading list

Reading in Winter Graphic Novel Week

As I mentioned last week, Kristilyn of Reading in Winter has declared 21–24 November Graphic Novel Week, which came just as I had decided to read all of the Transmetropolitan comics, so that was good timing!

These are the books I have lined up to read before next weekend. The top row are borrowed from Tim, the bottom row were bought today from Excelsior! comic shop.

IMG_7371-web

Transmetropolitan vol. 4: The New Scum by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Transmetropolitan vol. 5: Lonely City by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Transmetropolitan vol. 6: Gouge Away by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Transmetropolitan vol. 0: Tales of Human Waste by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Ex Machina vol. 1: The First Hundred Days by Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris
The Sandman vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
Serenity vol. 4: Leaves on the Wind by Zack Whedon and Georges Jeanty

You’ll notice that the only one of those that’s completely new to me is Ex Machina, which I picked up because I am impatient for the next volume of Brian K Vaughan’s current series Saga. I’m not good at this whole waiting game you have to play when you like current comic series.

I was intending to pick up some more literary graphic novels such as The Gigantic Beard that was Evil by Stephen Collins or Habibi by Craig Thompson but I think I have enough to be going on with.

It’s going to be a good week’s reading!

On not reading much and Graphic Novel Week

I’ve been a bit rubbish at reading again lately. Working too many hours, busy too many evenings and weekends; it’s all led to the inevitable crash that is the lupus flare. I curl up in bed or on the sofa with a stack of books and wind up watching TV or browsing the Internet instead because it’s all my brain can cope with. And I don’t mean watching good TV or reading good articles online either, I mean the mindless stuff. (Mostly. I have read some good stuff online lately. As long as it’s short I can cope with occasional thinking material.)

I feel bad for the books I try to read when I’m flaring, because I either give up on them or struggle through without really enjoying the process. I know all reading is about timing, but maybe I need to get better at identifying when to switch to the right kind of book for mid-fatigue. But what kind of book is that?

So far, I’ve found the best answer is comics and graphic novels. I’m not saying they’re all easy reads (I won’t be attempting any Sandman or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in my current state) and I’m sure I miss stuff when I’m tired just as I do with novels of the non-graphic variety, but I do tend to find them both manageable and enjoyable when I’m ill, which is no mean feat and something I’m hugely grateful for.

By fortuitous timing, Kristilyn of Reading in Winter has declared next week Graphic Novel Week. What a great idea!

Reading in Winter Graphic Novel Week

I will be taking part by reading my way through Tim’s collection of Transmetropolitan, which I started today. And I’m sure I can talk Tim into a trip to Excelsior! comic-book shop to pick up some more reading materials. If my lupus has calmed back down I might even try to write something intelligent about graphic novels. No promises!

Anyone have any graphic-novel recommendations? Will you be taking part in Graphic Novel Week?

The Bone Clocks

David Mitchell
(CC BY Kubik)

David Mitchell
Watershed, 12 November

I’m a David Mitchell fan. This fact crept up on me somewhat. Selecting which book to take for him to sign at a talk on Wednesday, I realised that not only do I own – and have read – all his books, but the last three I’ve bought in hardback pretty soon after their release. That I’ve loved them all goes without saying – why else would I keep on spending extra on them – but I do feel bad that I forgot to say that to Mitchell himself, it seems like something I should have said.

I should clarify for fellow Brits that I am talking here about the novelist David Mitchell, not the comedian David Mitchell. They’ve both written books, they’re both great and they’re both touring the West Country this week, so I’d understand any confusion.

Mitchell started by talking about his new book The Bone Clocks (which I finished reading last weekend – my review will follow soon). He says the idea for it grew from his own sense of his mortality as he reached his mid-40s, and death certainly is a recurring theme. This time, the structure is the seven ages of man, each set in a different decade and each having a different style of writing (though that makes it sound more experimental and disjointed than it is – this a coherent novel with distinct sections).

There was quite a lot of discussion of The Bone Clocks that on reflection was a bit spoilery, so I won’t share too much of that. But Mitchell did talk about several overarching themes in all his books, such as alienation and difficulty communicating, which comes from a combination of his having a stammer as a child and his years living in Japan. He discussed how he writes all his books as a series of novellas, or long short stories, with the links between them being closer and more blurred in some cases (such as Black Swan Green) than others (say, Ghostwritten). He also acknowledged the growing “uber book” that is the world in which all his novels are set. This world-building, in which not only characters but also things from previous books reappear, started out of a sense of mischief but he soon saw that it has a certain utility – it enables improbable events to become believable and adds a sense of reality, because what is familiar feels real.

When asked about specific reactions to his book, Mitchell replied “in the same way that you can’t successfully tickle yourself, you are immune to your tricks” as a writer, i.e. he’s never read his books as a reader. (He similarly fobbed off questions about genre, saying – quite rightly – that it’s not up to him to label his books.) But when reading other people’s books, he appreciates being pulled along or swept up by them. He made the important point that pace isn’t just plot – you have to have a connection with the characters to be swept up in a book and plot is the enabler of this connection. I’d say this awareness certainly shows in his work.

Mitchell also talked about creating a sense of place. His books have been set all over the world, often in multiple locations, but they are always strongly placed. He said that writers are effectively location scouts, but also that “it’s my job to convince you that I’ve been there” – a job that can involve intensive research or a quick visit with his trusty notebook.

After a mini love-in for Ursula le Guin, Mitchell listed his other favourite authors as Halldór Laxness, Anton Chekhov, Marilynne Robinson and Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, which is a suitably international top five for such a well-travelled man!

Finally, Mitchell revealed that he is working on a book largely set in 1960s London and New York, due for publication in 2016. And even more excitingly, he has written a short novel (his first short book!) as a spin-off from The Bone Clocks and that will be published in 2015. It’s clearly a great time to be a David Mitchell fan.

This event was part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas.

An Elephant in the Garden by Poonamallee Productions and Exeter Northcott Theatre

My review of the play An Elephant in the Garden has been published over at Theatre Writers Bristol. The play was adapted from the book by Michael Morpurgo and performed in the Brewery Theatre in Southville, Bristol. It was my first visit to this relatively new small theatre, run by Tobacco Factory Theatres. It’s a lovely intimate space, though every noise the audience made seemed to be amplified.

Anyway, do check out my review and the rest of the Theatre Writers Bristol website.