It is now 4th September. It feels like Autumn already here in Old Blighty. In August I got caught up with painting (the house I mean rather than works of art), or perhaps I should say trying to organise someone else to do it which proved challenging because demand for people who can hold a paintbrush is overwhelming at the moment. I worried a lot about my garden without actually doing anything constructive about it. Meek, mild and rosily inviting in May – my garden by August looks as though Lucifer might choose to host a party here, full of stem choking bindweed and poisonous berries.
In all this summer’s euphoria (I hope you managed to find some euphoria this summer, dear Reader) and general time off-ness, I forgot to summarise the result of my 10 Books of Summer challenge hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books which finished at the end of August.
I completed and reviewed 9 books out of my intended 10 although I swopped some titles around. I also read Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell although I am not attempting to review this because I wouldn’t know how to do justice to it. It is a magical book of magic about magicians with so many tricks up its sleeve it makes you dizzy. It is Dickensian in aura with overtones of Orpheus and Eurydice and a beautiful ending.
I am counting this as a semi-official win. Not as good as last year, but not disastrous either. Storygraph tells me I’ve read 12,760 pages in 2021 so far.
Upcoming between now and Christmas are some more of my favourites readathons, including Paula Bardell-Hedley’s Dewithon – a splendid read around the literature of Wales – and Rennie at What’s Non Fiction’s Non-Fiction November.
What I’m reading next. I have just started Sunjeev Sahota’s China Room a copy of which was kindly bought for my birthday by Rune Sister. Enjoying what I’ve read so far but we’ll see. I’m also looking for something to download onto my kindle so I shall be visiting loads of blogs this week to get ideas.
