When I was younger, a new year took a few weeks to get my head around; just writing it and thinking about it as the present felt odd and I would have to actively focus on writing the date correctly and so on. That doesn’t happen any more and here we are and it already… Continue reading January reading round up
Category: books
Reading challenge 2026
Every year someone starts wanging on about how much they dislike reading challenges and why should we engage in competitive reading and when did reading get all performative and so on. And every year this annoys me. Don’t like it? Don’t do it. If you do it and don’t read as many as you thought… Continue reading Reading challenge 2026
December reading round up
Sometimes I miss this post off, with the end of the year reading, so getting on top of it this year. Advent – Gunnar Gunnarsson This is a gorgeous little hardback reissue of Icelandic writer Gunnarsson who is little known in this country. This is a short story of a man, his dog and his… Continue reading December reading round up
2025 books of the year round up
My reading resolutions this year were to be less impulsive, more balanced and slow in my reading. So I vowed to try and not fall for the overhyped books everyone was talking about, to read more from the library and to do some more careful reading before buying. I also wanted to try and do… Continue reading 2025 books of the year round up
November reading round up
Following the death of Tom Stoppard, everyone is telling Tom Stoppard stories and I don’t have one but I will tell you about the time I went to watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead starring Simon Russell Beale at the Barbican, many years ago. I don’t remember much about the performance except a vague memory… Continue reading November reading round up
Film review: Hamnet
October reading round up
Sometimes your reading all comes together in a theme and that’s what happened at the beginning of the month, with several books on the theme of place and belonging. Then it all got a bit random. Map Addict – Mike Parker I confess I bought this because a couple of years ago we went to… Continue reading October reading round up
September reading round up
I have a stack of non-fiction that really needs tackling. I buy non-fiction with good intentions and these books look interesting, about things I would like to learn of, and then I invariably choose something else to read. But this is silly so non-fiction autumn awaits. Or, at least, more non-fiction that I normally read.… Continue reading September reading round up
The rest of August reading round up
Following my glorious week’s holiday with seven books completed – you can read what I thought here – here’s what I read for the rest of the month. Mansfield Park – Jane Austen I haven’t read this for years. I read it in my first Austen phase, as an A level student, and remember it… Continue reading The rest of August reading round up
Susan E Barsby 