Eyes are steadily improving (though the cold weather isn’t helping), so I’m tentatively ending my blogging hiatus. We’ll see how it goes! And I’m starting with a meme I used to use a fair bit more than ten years ago. Feel free to use it on your own blogs, of course – a handy way to give an overview of what’s what in current bookish life.
1.) The book I’m currently reading
Last night I started my first William Trevor book – for the year of reading William Trevor, run by Kim at Reading Matters and Cathy at 746 Books. It WAS the only one of my shelves, though keep reading… So far I’m enjoying it, though only about 20 pages in.
2.) The last book I finished
On Saturday, I finished The Seven Good Years by Israeli writer Etgar Keret – while his stories are translated from Hebrew, he wrote this memoir in English. It’s about the seven years between the birth of his son and the death of his father. While it, naturally, isn’t as surreal as his fiction, there is still a recognisable oddness to the way he frames anecdotes – and more heart than his short stories.
3.) The next book I want to read
Looking back at the times I did this meme before, there are some ‘next books I want to read’ that I still haven’t read, more than ten years later. So, to avoid setting myself up for a fall, I’m going to choose an audiobook I bought the other day – Scoops by Sam McAlister. McAlister was the booker for the BBC’s Newsnight, and the book is a behind-the-scenes on how she went about getting some of the programme’s exclusives. As well as a broader memoir, I think.
4.) The last book I bought
I bought FOUR books yesterday. I am enjoying Project 24 being over! These all came from a remainder and secondhand bookshop in Oxford.
I bought The Portrait by Willem Jan Otten mostly because of that beautiful cover, but it sounds interesting – a Dutch painter is commissioned to paint a dead child, but then the father never collects the painting. And look, there’s the next William Trevor! I’ve wanted The Boarding House ever since Jacqui included it in her round-up of boarding house novels. The Census-Taker caught my eye because I liked China Miéville’s The City and the City, and it’s no secret that I’m a fan of Penelope Mortimer – so was pleased to spot Saturday Lunch with the Brownings.
5.) The last book I was given
A belated Christmas present from my friends Paul and Kirsty – a signed copy of Tom Allen’s Too Much! I really enjoyed the audiobook, so it’s great to have a copy on my shelves.
That was fun, and it’s nice to be back. Hopefully more soon!