Summer’s End…

To be honest, I’m not exactly sure which months constitute summer nowadays in our damaged climate; but I always consider the end of that season to be the time when I go back to work after the long mid-year break, and despite having to do that, I am fond of autumn… I generally try to fit in more reading during August while I don’t have the daily distraction of the paying job, traditionally including at least one chunkster, and I’m pleased that this year was no different.

For once, I actually made (modest!) reading plans and actually stuck to them! Admittedly, I was pretty sure I wanted to read the books in question, and they fitted in with a couple of reading challenges. So in the spirit of Andy Miller (!) here is an image of what I read during August (and bear in mind that there still may be reviews to follow as I’m always a bit behind):

I was particularly pleased (as I made fairly obvious!) to read Victor Serge’s Notebooks – strongly tipped for my read of the year. But there wasn’t really a dud amongst them; even the one that made me pause a bit (“The Marquise of O-“) was strange and interesting, and very cleverly written. And I was really happy about getting back to reading so many women writers, especially Women in Translation; this is a wonderful initiative, set up and championed by Meytal Radzinski, and I hope to keep taking part.

So – onward into September and autumn. Do I have plans? Maybe – above are some possibles…  I’m continuing to make a dent in the review pile (all of which are books I actually *want* to read); and I have amassed quite a selection of non-fiction works I hope to get to soon-ish as well (including all the pretty Fitzcarraldo editions which may have made their way into the house after their recent sale – here they are…)

Plus there’s an awful lot of classic crime lurking and any number of charity shop finds, as well as some interesting Russians from Glagoslav. I’m not going to make any specific plans, however, because with work pressures I want to leave myself as free as possible to follow the reading muse. I’m currently in the middle of the wonderful book below by Ian Penman from Fitzcarraldo Editions, but after that who knows? Watch this space!! 😀

Ushering in Autumn

That might be a slightly premature heading for a post, but I must confess that when I get to the start of September every year and am contemplating the return to work after the long summer break, autumn does seem just on the horizon – which is not necessarily a bad thing, as it *is* one of my favourite seasons. And let’s face it, the summer weather in the UK hasn’t exactly been brilliant…

I’m not sure that I actually got as much reading done over the summer as I usually do; partly because I was embroiled in “War and Peace” for so long, which did give me a bit of a book hangover. I seem to have found it difficult to focus of late, and as there are limited challenges I’ve set myself this year I’m not always sure what I want to read next. Hence, I suppose, the regular lapses into classic crime!

I had planned a summer re-read of these lovelies, but that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, rethinking things I can see that autumn would perhaps be a nice time to hunker down under a blanket as the evenings become darker and chillier, and get lost in such a big saga. Apart from that, what else is lined up?

Well – poetry, I hope, as I really have let my poetry reading slip and I have so many lovely volumes that I MUST TRAIN MYSELF TO DIP INTO MORE rather than just trying to read them all the way through. Then there’s Pessoa, who again I need to dip into.

Some potential autumn reads..

I have a number of review books lurking for when the moment is right, and there will be the Virago monthly reads which I may join in with if the author appeals, as well as a group guided read of “Agnes Grey”. And on the subject of Virago authors, I really want to read more of the marvellous Margaret Atwood (and perhaps revisit some favourites).

Also coming up in October will be the next of the ‘Club’ reads, hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and myself. This time we’ll be looking at 1968 and I have a really surprising number of books lurking for that year, after worrying that there wouldn’t be much that took my fancy.

So lots of autumn treats to look forward to – there *will* be classic crime, there *will* be Russians, but what else – well, that remains to be seen! What plans have you got for autumn reading? And have you any thoughts about any of my possible reading pile or any recommendations??