Not a good week. I don’t know what went wrong. I was so excited about #Sunathon but somewhere in the week it all went off the rails. I had Monday and Tuesday off – and The Boy was off too so we had two lovely days together – but I didn’t do much reading. Then I was away for work for a couple of days – and couldn’t take the Kate Williams with me because it’s a hard back and just takes up too much space. Wednesday went really well though – as I read all of What Would Mary Berry do but on Thursday I was out at the theatre after work and didn’t read anything much at all. Then on Friday afternoon I got rained on in my lunchbreak and on my way to the station after work and ended up reading bits of several different things on the way home from work and not really making any progress much on anything. Then on top of that a busy weekend where I didn’t really read anything and this is where we’re at…
Read:
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
What Would Mary Berry Do by Claire Sandy
Started:
The Storms of War by Kate Williams
Tickled Pink by Christina Jones
The Beach Hut Next Door by Veronica Henry
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
American Blonde by Jennifer Niven
And as far as book acquisition goes, a copy of a book that I’ve won appeared in the post – and I’ve ordered a few more, but they haven’t turned up yet, so I’m not sure whether to count them in the total or not… Oh and the Christina Jones that I started was a Kindle Freebie this week. I’m trying not to think about the state of the July stats after this week. Here’s hoping this week coming (four day shifts, home every night) is better.
Slightly derailed by an unexpected nightshift on Friday night but an unexpected Saturday evening at home meant I finished Bill Bryson which made everything look a lot better. This week coming up is #sunathon – as dreamt up by @EmmaIsWriting – so I’ve put together some summery reads I’m hoping to be reading this week – you can look at them here.
Read:
Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes 1) by Andrew Lane
Tiger Milk by Stephanie de Velasco
The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
How the Scoundrel Seduces by Sabrina Jeffries
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
Started:
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
American Blonde by Jennifer Niven
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
Now as regular readers will know, nightshifts usually mean book buying in the early hours. Well I resisted – this time the impulse buying was from ASOS’s sale… So the bank balance did suffer – but not with a book splurge – which is an achievement! Several arrived in the post – a twitter competition prize from Doubleday for #bookadayuk, a Goodreads review copy of The Mysterious Affair at Castaway House (which isn’t due out until the very end of August so I feel very special to have that one) and Clare Sandy’s What Would Mary Berry Do which is out at the end of the month (and which the author sent to me so I’m very excited about that too). I’ve been through my diary marking up when the various books I’ve been sent ahead of publication are due out – in the hope that I’ll schedule posts for the appropriate times – I think there’s nothing more annoying than finding out about a really good book that someone else has read and not being able to get hold of a copy yourself!
Emma Louise over on her eponymous blog has come up with the fabulous idea of the #Sunathon which is all about encouraging people all over the world to take time and make time to read. It starts tomorrow (Monday) so I’m hopping onto that this week – and I’ve come up with a list of summery books that I have sitting on the to-read pile (or in the unread folder on the Kindle) that I’m going to be reading this week and wanted to share them with you (as I’ve found the best way to make sure I actually read what I say I’m going to is to put it down in writing so I can’t sneak off and do something different!) I can’t promise to get through them all but I’ll try. So the books on the #sunathon list are:
Unfinished Symphony of You and Me by Lucy Robinson
What Would Mary Berry Do by Claire Sandy
The Beach Hut Next Door by Veronica Henry
Longbourn by Jo Baker
The Storms of War by Kate Williams
The Physical part of the #Sunathon to-read pile and my sunlounger
You’ll notice that several of these are recent releases or due for release in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully there may be some reviews of them coming up too. For now though, follow my progress over on Twitter – I’m @WildeV and join the conversation or even join in yourself using #sunathon.
Apologies for this brief spurt of posting – I meant to post the Children’s/Young Adult blog earlier in the week and time got away with me somewhat. I do try and space my posts out, but to do that I need to actually schedule them when I write them not just save them in drafts *headdesk*
Despite appearances, I’ve actually made good progress this week – I’m more than half way through Tiger Milk now (thank you trip to the hairdresser!) and probably would have finished it already if I wasn’t working over the weekend, which necessitated taking a fresh book with me rather than a nearly finished one. I did re-read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – but I can’t count that as it’s one I read over and over when I was at primary school, and I’ve finished my Phryne Fisher re-read too.
Read:
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell
Don’t Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Ivy Lane: Spring by Cathy Bramley
Started:
Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes 1) by Andrew Lane
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
Tiger Milk by Stephanie de Velasco
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
As far as the buying goes – 4 from the charity shop and two from the Kindle means no net progress on reducing the pile – especially as Ivy Lane was on the Kindle. Bad times all around!
I’m finding Tiger Milk (which was a Goodreads win) heavy going so far – and Bill Bryson is too big to take to work with me – so thee are some new lingerers on the pile, although of course Titus is still the King of Lingering. I really enjoyed Michael Tolliver Lives though – and I’m desperate to know what happens next in the Harriet Evans – as my pleadings earlier in the week will attest!
Read:
Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
A Place for Us Part One by Harriet Evans
A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris
Tom Brown’s Body by Gladys Mitchell
Started:
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
Tiger Milk by Stephanie de Velasco
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
As far as purchases go – only two this week – but I’ve acquired two more – so the physical to-read pile isn’t even any smaller, because the Harriet Evans was on the Kindle. When will I learn? Still at least I only paid for two of them!
I read a lot of books. I have read a lot of books. I like to think I read widely and across a lot of genres. But I have not read a lot of award-winning books. Why is this – and what am I going to do about it?
In researching this article, I printed myself out a list of the winners and nominees of the Booker and the Orange/Bailey’s prize and the winners of the Costa awards. I settled down with a pink highlighter to mark up what I have read. There is not a lot of pink on the lists. But there are a lot of books that I think I should have read – and others that I would like to read, but have never got around to.
What do I mean by not a lot? Well, I’ve read seven books from the list of Booker winners and nominees – yes, just seven. Of that seven, two are winners (Ghost Road and Wolf Hall), one I studied at A-Level (The Handmaid’s Tale), two have been read in the last month (Mrs Palrey at the Claremont and Loitering with Intent) entirely coincidentally and the remaining two have been read in the last year as well (Good Behaviour and Restoration). You may have noticed from that little list that I have only read two books from the last 20 years of Booker nominees. Now considering that I think of myself as a book person, I’m a bit ashamed of myself.
Handmaid was one of my A-Level books (the battered cover is from my schoolbag!), whilst Restoration is a more recent acquisition
There are some authors on the list where I have read some of their other works – just not the prize-winning ones, people like Muriel Spark, Nina Bawden, Penelope Lively, Jill Paton Walsh and David Lodge. But there are some authors where, despite their reputations and in some cases multiple entries on the list, I haven’t read any of their books – let alone the prize-winning ones. People like Salman Rushdie (although I listened to some of Midnight’s Children when Radio 4 serialised it when I was about 14), Iris Murdoch, Doris Lessing, Beryl Bainbridge and Ian McEwan to name a few. There are some who I have books by on the Kindle waiting to be read – two of this year’s list including the winner – that I haven’t got around to because there’s always something “better” there as well.
So what’s my problem?
Well, I think it’s partly in my head – I think they’re going to be boring and hard-going. My mum used to read the Booker winner every year – a habit she gave up when she got stuck while reading Ben Okri’s Famished Road. I can remember her saying that there was no point in reading something you didn’t enjoy, that she hadn’t enjoyed the last few winners and she wasn’t going to force herself to read them just because they were winners anymore. I think this has stuck with me – I avoid them because they’re award winners or nominees, even if the blurb on the back makes them look interesting – I think it’s a trick.
My collection of pretty Designer Virago books – and a couple of other VMCs by award nominees
Now I am starting to get over this – the two nominated books I’ve read in the last month, I’ve enjoyed – and I didn’t know they were nominees when I picked them out and read them. In fact I was surprised when I found out – because they were interesting and funny. I’d also like to thank Virago for their role in this – they keep turning out attractive looking reissues of intelligent (and often funny) women’s fiction. I have half a shelf of their Designer hardbacks – many of which I’ll admit I first picked up because they looked beautiful – and I have a lot of their paperback Modern Classics too. They are widening my horizons.
The other issue – that I can think of anyway – is the size of the to-read pile and the Goodreads challenge, both of which mean I often go for books I know I can read quickly so I can get them off the pile. I leave long books and “difficult” books on the shelf – favouring short ones and “light” fiction.
As you can see, there are a few books by nominated authors waiting to be read
Writing this has made me feel a bit embarrassed – and very ill-read. So. I’m going to try harder. I’m going to try to do better. I’m going to try to improve my hit rate with prize winners and prize-winning authors. I’ll start by working my way through the books on the to-read pile that are award nominated or written by prize winners. And to make sure that I do do better and read these books that I say I will – I’ll keep you posted too.
Help me on my way by recommending me your favourite prize-winning or award nominated books in the comments below.
Acutally a good week in the end – I’m not as tired as I was last week, but that’s because I’ve had a fair few days off and that means less commuting. And a wedding at the weekend meant I didn’t have the traditional weekend sofa reading time either, so not bad considering all that!
Read:
The Liar’s Daughter by Laurie Graham
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews
Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
Started:
A Place for Us by Harriet Evans
Tiger Milk by Stephanie de Velasco
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
A trip to Milton Keynes mid-week led to six book purchases for me (although a couple were books that I’ve already read on Kindle that I wanted hard copies of) and some picture books for some little cousins we went to visit. Add to that a book on the Kindle, an impulse purchase in Sainsburys and the next Meg Langslow and the to-read pile is multiplying again…
This week’s other excitement was getting pre-approved on Net Galley for Part One of the Harriet Evans book mentioned above. I’m still quite new to Net Galley (and it’s not as if I need further encouragement to add more books to the pile!) and it’s the first time I’ve been pre-approved for something. It’s the simple things isn’t it. I’ll let you all know what I think of the first installment as soon as I’m finished reading it.
I’ve come to a bit of a standstill. This happens to me sometimes and it’s one of the reasons why I have such a large to-read pile. Despite the pile(s) of books awaiting my attention, I just don’t fancy reading any of them. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll have noticed that last week’s What I Read list was somewhat low on new books – and it’s all because I’m having one of these moments. I stare at the shelf of books waiting to be read and I can’t work up any enthusiasm for any of them. There are two usual outcomes to this – either I buy more books that I do fancy, or I go on a re-reading jag.
I don’t know what brings on these little moments, except that I’ve always been a re-reader and I have old friends that I can come back to again and again. But this is the third year that I’ve done the Goodreads Reading Challenge and I have a strict rule that I don’t count books I’ve already read towards the total – even if I haven’t already added them to my shelf. This means I spend a lot of time reading new stuff, and less time reading old favourites – as I’m always trying to beat last year’s total. In 2012 I read 202 books, last year I read 260 – and although I doubt I’ll better that this year, The Boy keeps asking me how I’m getting on and I get all competitive about it. When I beat my 2012 total last year, he got all superior about it because I’d read fewer pages than the year before (there was a higher concentration of short stories in there than normal) so I kept going until I beat the pages total as well.
Ten days ago I hit 100 books for the year (my first target) meaning I’m on target to do 200 books again and I think this might be what’s triggered my current bout of malaise. So, I’m re-reading the Phryne Fisher books – which were my big discovery of 2013 – so I can enjoy them afresh and block out the memory of the second series of TV adaptations (which are the inspiration for a post about TV versions of books that I’m currently working on). I also haven’t re-read Laurie Graham’s Gone With the Windsors for a while (I usually read it at least twice a year) so I bumped her latest paperback to the top of the to-read pile (The Liar’s Daughter) and I’m planning on getting GWTW out again after Phryne.
I think another factor maybe tiredness. I’ve done a lot of hours at work over the past month and although it wants to read, my brain doesn’t want to contemplate anything new or taxing. Well, I’m hoping that a lighter week at work because of a heavy weekend and an upcoming wedding will deal with the fatigue and get me back into the zone because I know that despite what I think at the moment, that pile of books is bound to be full of interesting books and new favourites.
The final factor (that I can think of anyway) is Titus Groan. I started reading this damn book in January and it is lingering on. The trouble is that it hasn’t really grabbed me and there is so much other stuff waiting to be read that I can ignore it. Now you’d think that I’d take this as a sign and give up, but I’m a stubborn old thing and I hate admitting defeat, so this weekend just gone I took it with me to London (where I was staying for the weekend for work) to try to force myself to finish it. I read another 75 pages, but then I got too tired to concentrate on it and I went back to Phryne. I keep telling myself that I just need a bit more sleep and then I’ll get down to it and it’ll be fine – despite all evidence from the lingerers on the to-read pile that this is not the case. Watch this space.
Do you have any tips for getting back your reading mojo? Post them in the comments below.
Ok, so this doesn’t look like a very productive week reading-wise. And you’d be right. Sort of. I’ve re-read two and a bit Phryne Fisher books this week – and I’m doing something very rare – I’m trying to pace myself and make a book last. I love Laurie Graham’s books and Liar’s Daughter is her latest to be released in paperback (I valiantly resist the urge to buy them in hardback) and I’m trying not to gobble it up in one sitting. I had about 80 pages to go when I left home for a weekend working on Friday night – which meant fell under my rule about not taking books with me when I have less than 100 pages to read (because it means I have finished it before I get to London and then have to carry it around with me for no benefit) – so I’m expecting to finish this on Monday. On the bright side I did take Titus Groan with me for the weekend to try and finish it – as I’ve been reading it on and off for months now.
Read:
Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews
Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
Started:
The Liar’s Daughter by Laurie Graham
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
Purchase wise – a good week – only one book bought – the next Meg Langslow which is coming from the States so may not arrive for another week yet. I also won another Goodreads First Read book – which has already arrived – so I have two of those that need reading asap now. Look for them on this list next week!
You can tell I worked four days this week and commuted each day can’t you?! A much better week for reducing the to-read pile – and a library book in there too! I also finally got around to reading The Fault In Our Stars ahead of the film release.
Read:
The Valley of the Shadow by Carola Dunn
The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
High Rising by Angela Thirkell
The Temptress by Paul Spicer
The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Started:
Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
On the purchasing front, I bought the next Meg Langslow book, my pre-order of Laurie Graham’s Liar’s Daughter arrived (I’d forgotten that was out this week – hurrah!) and that was it – apart from two children’s books from the New Foyles flagship store for The Boy’s nieces (Weasels and The Great Granny Gang if you’re interested). So progress on that front too!
