Hmmm.. I had some rather grand plans last year about my reading. Some achieved, some nowhere near… but perhaps that is the way with reading, sometimes you see something and you want to read it there and then, and you pick it up and off you go. Other books you see or you hear about, and you decide to read them, but you don’t start them for a while. I have so many books on my shelves that aren’t yet read, but most of them will be one day – and in 2011 I made inroads into the pile. I do worry that having a kindle may reduce the speed at which I get through the To Be Read pile though – they make it just too easy to buy something there and then.
Anyway, what am I going to read this year?
I’ve already finished my first book: the last in Stieg Larsson‘s Millenium series. Not the best. And I think they all could have done with some serious editing, this one particularly. And I wonder if anyone came to this book first,would they ever understand it and be bothered to wade through the bits that make little sense? Who knows?
I’ve also got a book half way through: Jeanette Winterson‘s utterly brilliant Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal. I’ll try to finish it in the next few days, and then start my Book Group book for January: Jamrach’s Menagerie. I’ve got it loaded onto my kindle already, so that’s a good start.
What else, what else this year?
- I still want to attempt Ulysses. And read a Margaret Atwood.
- And I still want to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- I’ll finish Jeanette Winterson’s autobiography
- The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life by William Nicholson. I read a good piece about it the other day which inspired me to put it on my wishlist.
- Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. Is it Stephen? I think so. I heard about this when it was first published and meant to buy/read it then. I forgot.
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I have a beautiful hardback illustrated edition of this, bought at the Edinburgh International Book Festival a few years ago. I started it this year, but I just hate carrying big books around with me. Perhaps I have to download it onto my kindle too.. would that be too extravagant?
- I’ll read Book Group books, even if I don’t always make it to book group.
- I’ll aim for 30 books this year. I think I can do that, although I’m also hoping to increase the number of things I make this year, and not just foodie stuff – I’ve been doing a lot of knitting recently, and have started sewing again, so who knows what homemade goodies will appear from the Valley in 2012?
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