This year Sundays have been my day to read essays and write about them, but today I just couldn't muster the energy to do so. I wanted to relax and watch a movie (am still working on the Inspector Lynley Mysteries that I started watching at Christmas--and have finally made it to season five, so I'm almost done) and work on a needlework project that I am also nearly finished with. It's amazing how stitching during the day with bright light makes a huge difference than doing so at night with only lamplight for illumination. It's vastly easier (at least when working on small stitches), and despite the lack of sunshine (it seems to be taking an extended vacation here unfortunately), it was nice taking advantage of the natural light.
Weekends should be filled with rest and relaxation and doing things that you can't do during the work week, but mine tend to be bogged down with chores and catching up on errands. Lately I feel like I have to rush to read my essay and then try and digest and understand it and then write about it, which takes up most of my afternoon, and I've not been enjoying that rushed feeling. I love reading essays, but writing about them is always a challenge. And I find myself looking for an interesting essay to read but one that isn't too long as I am not a fast reader. I think I'm going about this all wrong, so Sundays are no longer going to be my essay day. I know if I don't set myself the task of writing something about what I'm reading I will most likely get lazy and stop reading them regularly. I'll leave things open ended and simply try and post sometime later in the week, but I will still hopefully read a new essay every weekend.
Instead I can share the new stack of library books that I brought home this weekend. I was very pleased that a couple of new mysteries finally turned up as I've been looking forward to reading them. Elly Griffiths's The Crossing Places has received lots of good reviews in the blogosphere and after starting to read it I can see why. It's set in the marshlands of "windswept" Norfolk and features archaeologist Ruth Galloway, who on first impression I think I'm going to really like. The other mystery I've been eyeing is Last Nocturne by Marjorie Eccles. I read an earlier book by her that I enjoyed and have happily anticipating her new book. Aside from the fact that I know I like her writing style, this novel is set in London and Vienna early in the twentieth century, a period and places I can't seem to get enough of.
I've also been very curious about Sophie Hannah. She writes thrillers, and of The Wrong Mother Tana French writes: "What makes this book quite so gripping is Sophie Hannah's utter fearlessness as a writer. In her expert hands, all the little annoyances and worries and complications of everyday life are transformed, gradually and inexorably, into the raw material of pure terror. It's like watching a nightmare come to life." If you like thrillers, that's seriously glowing praise. I wonder of Hannah can live up to it.
I've never read anything by Louise Erdrich, which somehow seems wrong to me. There is a good handful of contemporary American authors that I feel like I should have read (like Anne Tyler, Jane Smiley, and Louise Erdrich to name a few), but haven't managed to get around to yet. I'm not sure her newest, Shadow Tag, is the best place to start, but it sounds like an interesting read.
I'm not sure about Gail Carriger's Soulless. It sounds like it could fit in with the steampunk genre, but the characters happen to be vampires and werewolves, high society vampires and werewolves in London, but vampires and werewolves nonetheless. I know vampires are very much the in thing when it comes to new books, but a little bit goes a long way with me, so I'm not sure how I'll get on with this one. It sounds very quirky, which can be a good things, but this might be a little too outside my comfort zone.
The last book is a treasury of short stories about 1920s Melbourne sleuth, Phryne Fisher, A Question of Death. I wasn't really sure what this was about when I requested it, so it maybe something that I end up reading bits and pieces of.
Looking over my list of library books I see how totally predictable I am in my reading. Is everyone the same way, or do you take lots of risks and try new things? If I see a book set in a particular time and place it is almost a guarantee that I will pick it up. My reading tends to follow those lines rather than thinking I've not yet read Jane Smiley and this week I'm going to pick up one of her books, no matter when or where it's set. I wonder if I should really be doing more of that than sticking with what I know I will like? I suppose there are good things to be said about both types of reading. How do you choose your next book?
Now I guess I will go and select an essay to read at leisure and not worry just how long it is! Post to follow later this week.