It has been a little quiet around here, and I am very sorry that I haven’t been to many people’s blogs yet to wish them a happy new year. I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays and has had a wonderful start to 2018.
We spent a really lovely Christmas with my parents and also saw one of my brothers and his family. It was great! Then we returned home to Belgium and I was Struck Down with a lurgy, some sort of ’flu I suppose, and it wasn’t that bad but dragged on for two whole weeks. Now I am practically never ill, perhaps one cold a year, and I’d always thought that being ill might be quite a nice break – one could lie about fragrantly reading, drinking cups of tea and having Profound Thoughts – but it turns out most disappointingly that it isn’t like that at all and – horrors! – often I felt too bad to do anything except doze! What an appalling waste of an opportunity!
(Mister Puss doing an impression of me with ’flu)
Still, thanks to copious amounts of Paracetamol and Diana Wynne Jones novels – how lucky that Father Christmas had bought me a great stack! – I am now recovered. But I don’t have anything interesting to write about and I feel as if 2018 is only now beginning (since getting better I’ve been in a frenzy of exam preparation and sleep). Thus it’s only now that I’ve decided to think a bit about Reading Plans. I don’t usually make these for the very simple reason that they quickly start to feel like duties, which skims off the pleasure, and then I fail at them and feel grumpy and miserable. But I am very tempted by Dolce Bellezza’s readalong of Portrait of a Lady in February.
I am also considering another reading plan, and this is related to my Shelving Madness. I used to keep books I hadn’t read on a shelf apart from the rest of my books. But that shelf grew to two shelves. And then a small bookcase. And then a large bookcase. And then started creeping out across the floor of what I laughingly call my study. So in order to hide my shame, I shelved them among the rest of my books (I do reread a lot, so now I just go and look for whatever I feel like reading). And then a year or so ago I went through all my books and reorganised them; the non-fiction by theme (works well!), the fiction, poetry and plays chronologically (FOOL idea! I nearly had a nervous breakdown over it, it took aaaages and I ended up fudging it quite a bit) although I do like the end result), children’s fiction apart – well, basically scattered through the house on any available shelves or flat surfaces.
To the point: I’m going to read one previously unread novel from one decade every month, working backwards. I’ll start with the twenty-teens this month. And to make it a bit more exciting, I’ll ask you to vote on which one I should read (a revival of the short-lived ‘What Shall Helen Read?’). This will continue until we all get bored or forget.
Without further ado, this month’s list – and this is a bit embarrassing since I have very few unread books from this decade. Perhaps this reflects a more disciplined approach to book-buying in my dotage? I’m going to add a book I’ve borrowed from the library. Yes, I know I’m cheating before I’ve even started, but that’s the sort of person I am.
- Muriel Barbery, The Secret Life of Elves
- Lissa Evans, Small Change for Stuart
- Deborah Levy, Hot Milk
- Sarah Perry, After Me Comes the Flood
So, what shall Helen read? Please vote! I’ll make the decision on Sunday evening.
(Clara)