Just a very few meanderings to start the weekend with. I seem to do meanderings really well these days.
Do you find that you get off track when it comes to reading, as often as I do? I am off track not just from the outset of this year but for several years running now. I set out to follow a few reading paths but often instantly end up diverting on to some crossroad that I didn't even know existed.
Some of the tracks are small ones and might easily be accomplishable if only I could focus a little more intently on those tasks at hand.
First and foremost. It has been a few weeks (maybe a fair few weeks actually) since I picked up When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams. Such a small book and so easy to dip into daily, and now I will try and get back on those daily reads. I think it is a sign that the few pages I read today have to do with poetry. Seeing as April is poetry month and I have intentions to read a book of poetry (two in hand at the moment, but let me get started before telling you about them).
Todays chapter has to do with the author's lisp she had as a child. In order to correct it when she was in school she had to spend time practicing her 'S's'. What better way but through poetry. And she shared this, and I liked it so now I am going to share it, too. It is by Emily Dickinson by the way.
Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying home,
With a bobbolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.
So nice. If this is the kind of poetry I can find to read, I am all for it!
But I have been thinking lately, too, of other projects started but not finished or even still in progress. Like:
Reading every NYRB Classic that I get in a year. Seriously hit or miss, and already this year, only one actually read and finished. One in progress and now one I think I might have to (at least for now) abandon! Maybe I can go back to some other 'partially read' year and finish that one instead and then cherry pick through the books I get this year. (Problem book this year? Max Havelaar--I feel bad but it's just not striking a chord at the moment).
Then there is reading all of Molly Keane's books--in order that she published them.
Will I EVER (no, don't tell me--that's cheating) find out who the Suitable Boy is??! I got snagged on a boring chapter. Push through it maybe. Or maybe (gasp) just skip it and move on to the next?
I've been toying with the idea of getting back to those London Underground books. I was enjoying them and they are short and easily digestible.
Hah! A century of books. It may well take me a whole century to finish that one! Then again, if I just keep on with that list I stared eons ago, I bet I could fill in a few more slots and just keep going.
But on the upside I am making headway in the alphabet murders, and surely it is not too late for those ongoing 'reading challenges' (my public library has one, too) like the Read Harder Challenge.
We're not even halfway through the year yet. There is still lots of time. For old projects. And maybe a few new ones, too. Will it surprise you to hear I have a few new projects in mind?