I have not felt much blogging inspiration this week, but whatever I lack in that area of my life, I am making up threefold in reading inspiration. For once I can actually say I am making tangible progress on my current reads pile and while half of my brain is focused on the same few stories I am revisiting every day, the other half is thinking about which book will come next. And I swear a tiny little angel sits on one shoulder and a devil on the other (you can guess which is saying--no distractions . . . just persevere/and which is saying--just one more book on the pile really won't matter).
I don't think I have come home a single day this week without a new (as in library) book in hand, and to end the week on a happy high note it is time to hit the bricks and mortar bookstore later today (I have a gift card that I am very slowly whittling away--I try and just find one or two books at each occasional visit--the better to prolong the pleasure of bookstore browsing--and then I take copious notes on all the other books that get left behind).
Friday surely calls for a nice, easy bookish post . . . a little mishmash of books and links that have crossed my path this week and piqued my curiosity.
I used to carry around a mini journal that I would write down titles and reading ideas, but I have mostly gotten into the habit of just carrying about pieces of paper with a mess of titles on them (must get back to that journal habit). Let's see . . . random book ideas, books that sound good and that I wouldn't mind reading now:
Something by Eileen Chang or maybe Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. I really need to read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express in anticipation for seeing the movie later. Speaking of movies, there is going to be a film festival hosted by my favorite indie theater and the university where I work, and not to give anything away, I think I need to read Virginia Woolf's Orlando and Patricia Highsmith's Carol (or, The Price of Salt as it was originally published) in anticipation. If I am going to read Carol there are a few companion reads that would fit nicely, too, most prominently Jill Dawson's The Crime Writer (already on my TBR pile).
Don't ask me where it came from but I have this desire to read something set in a girl's school/or boarding school and Jane Gardam's Bilgewater would work as would Gail Godwin's Unfinished Desires.
One of my library finds is a recent biography of Angela Carter, which makes me want to pick one of her novels to read alongside it. I have been dipping into the biography and she was a most fascinating and formidable woman and writer I think. I think I have only ever read her short stories. I also have J. Courtney Sullivan's Saints for All Occasions which I keep hearing very good things about. I have never read her, but I think I would like her. If I do plan on reading the novel, I need to get moving on it very soon as the line of readers waiting for it at the library is a long one and there will be no renewals.
I've finished Beatriz Williams's The Secret Life of Violet Grant (I want to read all her books in the order she wrote them as she overlaps characters and families, though I am not sure if you need to read the books in any particular order). She is a wonderful storyteller and that book really hit the spot. So do I pick up the next one right away (and keep the momentum going)? Or do I finish something else (also equally enjoyable!) first?
As if I don't already have plenty of my own ideas of what I want to read next Sarah Weinman's most recent newsletter just came out and I see a number of titles she recommends have overlapped with books I own and want to read and had already been thinking about.
How novel is this--a list that for once I have read more of than not, and then I own most of those "nots". I have read at least twenty-one of the books and own most of the rest. A few I have jotted down and I think I might just pull my copy of Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey from my bookshelf, if only to peruse since it would be a perfect read for my bookcation. And did this "Book Riot-er" know about my summer reading project when she made this list?!
Reading this made me happy.
I noted down just a few titles from this list, maybe you will, too. London is one of my favorite fiction cities to visit by the way!
An interesting destined to become "modern classics" book list. I have read all of six of the books on the list, but own more than the same number, so maybe there is hope for me yet?
Yes, I already have plans to see a number of these (and maybe read the books first . . . ).
And now I will leave you with a little something (well, something else if you're reading piles is tall line mine) to read this weekend. And hopefully I'll have a new bookstore purchase or two to share with you next week. Happy reading everyone!