Guess what I was able to do yesterday. Something I've not done in months and months. I sat on my porch in the warm afternoon sunshine and read a book! Spring is finally making an appearance and I can't say how happy I am about that! (And to think This is what it looked like here on Christmas Day!). Spring where I live usually last for about five minutes (and then it turns hot and humid...ugh), so I plan on enjoying each and every ray of sunshine. Unfortunately there was no lemonade (I have this thing about sunny afternoons on porches drinking lemonade and reading a book)--it was not quite warm enough, but I feel it's coming.
I've had to do some juggling of books lately--library books with due dates in the near future and the odd review copy means they take precedence over other books. Some books have been languishing through no fault of their own (I need more sunny afternoons on the porch to make a serious dent in my reading pile...but then don't we all!). And then sometimes I'm just bad and pick up a book that is calling out to be read and let it cut in line. So as usual my reading is all over the place.
Sometimes you might be reading something that at some other time might be a wonderful read, but at the moment it's just not the right fit. In that case I will quietly set the book aside and wait for later inspiration. That's happened to me with two books just this past week. In one case it is a review copy, so I will keep going, but I am reading it with reservations (will write about it properly very soon), and the other I've set aside. This latter book I feel bad about as it is the current Slaves of Golconda read that I shared an excerpt from recently. Although the form is unusual for a novel, it isn't that it's hard going. I just found that I would spend my lunch time reading it and then notice I had only managed to read about three pages and couldn't quite remember what it was that I had read. I really think it is a timing thing. I just wasn't engaging with the narrator and it seemed unfair to try and read a book that way. I'll be very curious to hear what everyone else's thoughts are and hopefully having a bit more insight into what W.G. Sebald was doing will help when I pick up the novel again.
I've not had much luck at all this year with book group books. I've wanted to read several (and even bought some in anticipation), but not had the chance to get them read. Still, they are in my pile waiting for just the right moment for me to pick them up. I do have my postal book group book ready to start. I've actually been getting on well enough with my postal books, but as I don't write about them here (I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone in the group who may happen along), I don't get to share them with you!
I will be sharing a recent finish, however. Last week I read E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. I loved, loved, loved it. I love E.M. Forster in general and read this and several others of his novels years ago, but I think I appreciated it far more this time around and would find myself rereading passages with pure delight (this is how I want to feel about all my books). I want to write about it but have a book of analysis that I'd like to skim a bit first. I was ready to pick up another Forster book, but then thought I should be getting back to John Galsworthy. But in the end I've picked up The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley. It is a book on this list that I made last year. You probably already know I am an inveterate list maker and sometime challenge-joiner, who promptly ignores said books as soon as the virtual ink is dry on my posts. If I pay attention to just one list, I would like to read the books (or most of them anyway) on that list. I've finished one and have three others in progress. There may be hope for me yet.
As for this week's reading (I seem to be on a steady program of finishing two books a week, which means I will not read as many as last year, but who's counting right?) I plan on spending time with Blackout by Connie Willis--if you have any interest in WWII, you should check this out as there is lots of description of London during the war, and don't worry if you are not into fantasy reads as this is really very straightforward and fun actually; Savage Lands by Clare Clark--historical fiction on the Orange Longlist, you have to like that; and Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda--cozy mystery with an exotic setting. And I suspect I will dip into a few other books here and there as well.
Can you believe it is already a quarter of the way through the year? I really need to stop wishing for the weekend to come so quickly as I seem to be wishing the year away!