Firstly, happy new year to all! I hope you’ve had a wonderful festive season, and if you celebrate Hogmanay, that it was a good one!

Following on from yesterday’s post on books of 2022, I thought I would look ahead a little to 2023. However, before I do, here’s a look at what I read in December – a pleasing amount bearing in mind it was such a busy month, and again no duds! “Pereira Maintains” was obviously a highlight, as was the White biog (review forthcoming); and “The White Birch” sustained me just before Christmas though I still need to pull my thoughts together on this! 😀

Right – looking forward to 2023, I’ve learned that I don’t follow plans or lists very effectively when it comes to reading – I’m a little too scatterbrained for that! However, there are some things which I really do want to read or take part in this year – so here are my thoughts!

As I mentioned yesterday, our next Club Reading Week is 1940 and there are some excellent possibilities for the year! I have dug about in the TBR and online, and made a big list. What I was actually choose remains to be seen, although I expect that Mr. Kaggsy will make his usual guest appearance, and that I will read some classic crime!!

However, thoughts on 1940 lead me on to a possible reading project… I have had, lurking on the TBR for some years now, a complete set of C.P. Snow’s “Strangers and Brothers” sequence. The first book was published in 1940 and so this could be the perfect nudge I need to start reading the books, commencing in April. It would mean the project ran over into 2024 if I read a book a month, but of course if I really get into them I might read them quicker; and frankly it wouldn’t matter if they spread over two years! We shall see, but I’ve held onto the books through a number of culls and am keen to finally get to them!

However, that’s not the only sequence of books I’m considering… I’ve had Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series in my sights for some time now, and I have the first four books in the nice new Brian Nelson translations for OUP. I really should get started.

Then there’s Robertson Davies; I have two omnibuses (omnibi???) of his works and having enjoyed his short pieces so much I’d like to get started on these.

However, also calling to me loudly are these:

This is my six volume set of Konstantin Paustovsky‘s autobiography, carefully collected over the years (together with a collection of his stories). I’d really like to make this the year of reading them – we shall see!

In 2022 I enjoyed so much rereading that I’d like to keep up the impetus and go back to more old favourites. The obvious first choice will be Mervyn Peake’s “Titus Alone” – it’s a book I’ve always loved, but it’s so different from the first two in the sequence that I’ve learned to leave a gap between them and it. I think the gap has definitely been long enough, so hopefully it’s one I will get to soon! And I would also like to revisit some of my favourite French authors, like Colette, Camus, Beauvoir, Sartre and Cocteau – my rereads of their works have always been such a treat.

The first few of the months of 2023 have some really interesting releases coming out, and I have several review copies lurking which will turn up on the Ramblings at the due time – and here are just some of them:

All very different books, and all sound fascinating, so I’m very much looking forward to reading and covering them.

As for reading events, there are two this month which I’d like to take part it!

The first is the Japanese Literature Challenge, which I always try to take part in, as I love Japanese lit! I have a number of possibles on Mount TBR, and here are just a few – does anything take your fancy?

Then there is Annabel’s Nordic Finds event:

Again, that’s a challenge I enjoy, and if nothing else I still have two unread Tove Ditlevsen books!

The last couple of Februaries have seen me co-hosting #ReadIndies with Lizzy at Lizzy’s Literary Life; these events have been a highlight, with so many wonderful indie presses producing marvellous books. Will we be doing this again in 2023? Wait and see..

So those are just some very loose plans for 2023. As always, I shall continue letting my grasshopper mind follow my reading muse and pick up exactly what takes my fancy at any given time! What are you planning for this year of reading??