Bride of the Book God

Astonishingly, I have actually finished a book, albeit a relatively short one and assisted by being on a train for a few hours but it’s an achievement nevertheless and I am hopeful that my reading slump is over. I still have the other three books I mentioned last week on the go but haven’t yet identified a new book in the hard copy fiction category; still mulling that over.

The book I did finish was The Collini Case and my review is here.

As I mentioned last week I am re-reading The Shining for a book club and I had forgotten how good it is; really enjoying it, which is just as well as the meeting is on Thursday and I have to finish it by then.

I’m also still buying books, though not as many as in previous months which is probably just as well. In fact only three purchases since my last post; a book of short stories by Paul Cornell on Kindle, the Emma Trevayne novel I heard her read from at the end of last month and a novel by Louise O’Neill, again on Kindle and picked up only this morning after reading a reference to it on the Book Smugglers website.

Hoping to continue making reading progress this week 😀

I was going to do a whole what I read during July post here but to my shame realised that I haven’t been reading very much at all and in fact haven’t finished a book since 17th June. So I looked at those books I had started and decided to put them aside for the moment (they all looked great and I want to read them when my brain is working a little better) and pick others that I could come to fresh and hopefully kick-start my reading mojo again.

I’ve long recognised that my ability to read is at its best when I have a range of books on the go at once and can dip in and out as I please, so I have come up with the following:

• Non-fiction – Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet “delving into such Victorian passions as advertising, interior decoration, sex scandals and serial killers”
• Kindle – Osiris by EJ Swift – book one of the Osiris Project, dystopian sci-fi (and I have met the author who is just a lovely person)
• Hard copy fiction  – The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach – a legal thriller translated from the german; I’ve seen several good reviews of this and have the added frisson of having stayed at the hotel in Berlin where the murder takes place
• Re-read – for the Horror Book Club meeting in August I am re-reading The Shining by Stephen King. It’s been a while so looking forward to re-acquainting myself with young Danny Torrance.

And though I may not be reading I am still buying books; I had an especially productive spending spree after the Super Relaxed Fantasy Club meeting on Tuesday last, where there were readings by Sophia McDougall, Emma Trevayne, Gareth Powell and Alex Lamb. All very different but all very enjoyable.

I am now fully back at work after my illness and unfortunately that’s coincided with a dip in my reading, probably because medication means that my brain is slower than normal and I can only manage one thing at a time so have focussed on getting back into the real world rather than losing myself in fictional ones.

I have also stepped back from any challenges though I’m hoping to re-read The Shining for the Horror Book Club meeting in August, partly because I haven’t read it in years and partly because it will also contribute to my tally for the 2015 Horror Reading Challenge and I do like a two birds with one stone scenario.

I haven’t been buying lots of books recently, but have picked up the following in the last couple of days, mainly as a result of going book shopping with friends who were stocking up on reading material for their holiday.

It would have been really impolite not to join in 😀

So….

• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters – everyone knows about this one and I’ll probably be the last person in the universe to read it and in a pleasant twist it was actually a present from my friend Silvery Dude
• Empty Space by M John Harrison – I know nothing about this book at all but thought it sounded intriguing and only when I got it home did I realise that it was the third in a trilogy; luckily we already have the first part and I will hunt down the second shortly
• The Rival Queens by Nancy Goldstone – as some of you will know the 16th Century is my thing and the Book God drew this to my attention; it’s the story of Catherine de Medici and her daughter Queen Margot and it looks fascinating
• The Fault in our Stars by John Green – a download recommended to me by a friend who thought I would enjoy it; I know a tiny bit about the story because of the movie version but that’s all, and I like YA so I’m definitely going to give this a shot.

I’m hoping to get my reading mojo back this week, especially as I have a business trip on Wednesday and will be travelling for 7 hours or so and thus will have no excuse.

So I didn’t write a post last week because I hadn’t really been reading very much and I had also been a bit unwell and travelling (though luckily not too much overlap between those two things). This week has been quite a bit better, in that I actually got some stuff finished, largely due to a long train journey from Edinburgh to London where I (mostly) managed to avoid staring out of the window at the passing countryside and finished a chunky novel.

But there have also been medical appointments (which will run into next week too) which are a feature of having a chronic condition and you would think would lend themselves to further reading opportunities but unfortunately I get too anxious and unsettled and find myself occupied by Twitter instead. So all I had to show for it all was a selection of snarky tweets and a bruised hand from an unfortunately difficult blood test. I do not give blood up easily (insert the obligatory Scottish joke here) and I’ve been trying to convince everyone I was actually in a fight. A surprising number of my friends seem willing to believe that of me which is a bit alarming 🙂

So last Sunday I took a run at and finished A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (magnificent), and followed it up with the new Sarah Lotz horror novel, a book of Nick Hornby columns from The Believer magazine, and the last two of the eight Byrne and Balzano detective novels by Richard Montanari which I have devoured over the past 5 weeks. This is unusual for me as I like to pace myself when reading a series, but these were just too enjoyable to put down and exactly what I needed when finding reading difficult.

Or at least I thought I was finding reading difficult but I have still managed to read 11 books in May, though to be fair 6 of those were the Montanaris. The downside of all the stuff I’ve mentioned above is that I now have a tidy stack of reviews to write next week.

I have lost count of the number of books bought this month (that’s the joy of the Kindle app, they are invisible to anyone else but also a little bit harder to keep track of myself) though clearly my interest in murder continues.

I’m currently reading a second volume of Hornby and I have dipped into White Apples by Jonathan Carroll; there are only 3 weeks left in the Once Upon a Time Challenge and I haven’t read anything for it yet.

Not sure what the coming week will be like; more medical appointments definitely but I’m mostly working at home, so will try to see what I can squeeze in around the day job.