KnitWit

To read in 2009

I’m working up to posts about my new year resolutions and about handmade Christmas gifts but this morning on the way to work I have been thinking about all the books I want to read this year. Since leaving publishing and taking up the evil commute – I have fallen into a bit of a rut with reading, not making proper time to read and often reading trashier things. While obviously reading should be kept fun, reading novels that I haven’t got really excited by has made me feel a bit blah about reading – I’ve noticed I don’t talk much about books and for the first time ever couldn’t remember the title of ANY books I wanted for Christmas*.  (Not very descriptive but blah seems to sum up my feelings on this subject rather well).  

Late in 2008 I discovered books’ blogs which were a complete revelation, previously I had read quite a few craft/food blogs with a small amount of allotment blogs thrown in for good measure,  but for some reason had never considered that there would be a really lively blogosphere for book discussions. Since discovering a few books blogs and the wonders which are library thing, good reads and book mooch things are looking much brighter in my literary field. I have found incredibly interesting posts on novels which have been whetting my appetite for reading again. It’s a bit like I have fallen back in love with books...

So, what am I planning for 2009 in the books world. Well, the answer is lots:

Still to plough on with reading Ian Rankin.
I *heart* the Rebus novels and I read them according to some rules I have set myself, in order to stagger the enjoyment. I often quaff the whole series of something I enjoy (like the Tales of the City books) so in order to spin out this series, I have been reading them in order but only copies that I can get from second-hand bookshops (Amazon marketplace or any other internet retailer doesn’t count), this limits how many I read in one year. I’m up to 16, the net is closing in...

John Banville – The Untouchable
Continuing my spy fiction reading – I’m intrigued to read this novel about the Cambridge Spies and Anthony Blunt. Also If I feel inclined I’m determined to read John Le Carre’s The Spy that Came in From the Cold and The Constant Gardener (which Mootthings lent me ages ago).

Michael Faber- The Crimson Petal and the White 
 I have heard so many amazing things about this novel and managed to swipe a copy from my friend Kate who told me that I would “love it”. It is a bit of a door stop and I have a bit of block about really long novels but it does look fantastic.

A.S. Byatt – Angels and Insects
I loved Possession, it is one my favourite books of all time and I have been meaning to read this too for ages. I think it would be a fitting book to read this year, 2009 marks the 200 the anniversary of the birth of Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of the Species fact fans. (I’ve been really enjoying the Melvyn Bragg interviews on Radio 4 with Jim Moore this week)

Frances Hodgson Burnett – The Making of a Marchioness and Noel Streatfield-Saplings
These beautiful Persephone books have been kicking round my house for a while and I loved these authors when I was younger.

Susan Hill - The Mist in the Mirror
I read Strange Meeting years ago and loved it – this sounds like a great gothic supernatural tale although it looks like it might unnerve me.

Inspired by reviews on Other Stories, the following have jumped off my shelf and onto my to-read list:

Patrick McGrath – Asylum: which I have had for years and not read. Sometimes, I just need some added enthusiasm to get books off the shelf and to read it.

A.N. Wilson – The Victorians: I will be impressed if I actually finish this, it might be something that I read over quite a large period of time but it sounds so good that I’m desperate to get a copy. I might even get the illustrated version. Clare Wigfall – The Loudest Sound and Nothing: Bought as Christmas present and it looks excellent.

This year also I feel should be the return of Victorian novels – I completed my MA in 2002 and since then have been a completely Victorian free zone. Also I’m slightly ashamed to say but my interest in fin-de-siècle culture and representations of Victorian Science/Medicine/underworld, disease and madness meant that my Victorian knowledge is slightly patchy! Homosexual porn and cultural references to syphilis – check, mainstream Victorian classics – not so much.

So I declare that this is the year I will actually read Middlemarch. I have always felt shame that I have never managed to read it, despite reading so much about it and I like George Eliot a lot so it seems like a major omission. I might also re-read Mill on the Floss although it is one of the few books tend to makes me sob uncontrollably (the other being The Woodlanders by Hardy). Anyway, one area I have always wanted to read more in is sensation fiction so I’m planning to read Lady Audley’s Secret by M.E. Braddon and East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood as starters for ten. And after from reading about them on Victorian Geek: Victorian Murderesses by Mary J Hartman and Necropolis: London and its Dead are on my to read list as well.

What are you looking forward to reading in 2009?

*Luckily my sister remembered that I wanted the History of Radio 4 which is simply marvellous and lots to read.

Not everything is as easy as yarn shopping

Recently one of my friends got married and the saga that became my wedding outfit was a bit epic. Many things were tried on, bought and returned to various shops. I cursed and gnashed my teeth, wishing I hadn’t stained the dress I meant to wear and wondered whether I could somehow just make an outfit.  On one particularly cantankerous day I found myself thinking “yarn shopping is soo much easier”. Maybe I could just wear wool to the blooming wedding and then I found this....
<enter sounds of heavenly choir>

I *heart* everything about this dress. It has seed pods on it.  The wedding was excellent fun...
In other news, I appear to be obsessed by mushrooms – this is a shaggy inkcap.

 I think it is an excellent specimen of a ‘shroom, I love how it looks. Apparently it is edible but I wouldn’t fancy my chances – it looks quite evil. I did in fact even start looking longingly at a field guide to mushrooms in a bookshop the other day and am excited that Autumnwatch* has done a downloadable fungi guide. NB. It appears that the 'Have Fun with Fungi' guide has been removed but there is still a very exciting  sounds of the night guide still up.

 Also my mum decided that key to her recuperation was beating the credit crunch through log fires – so J, my sister and I spent an afternoon stacking neat piles of logs all round her house. 2 cubic metres of logs makes quite a few piles! The toads will love it although I managed to look like I’d been up a chimney by the end of it. (I have an amazing capacity for dirt!)

Last night I watched the Picture Book programme about children’s books which I loved. (I have to point out that I was eating a bake using one of the Jamie Oliver pasta sauces, Red Onion and Rosemary, which was very tasty indeed and did add bliss to the event) I didn’t know that A.A. Milne served in First World War and was really affected by it so retreated to Ashdown Forest to write Winnie the Pooh after he was discharged. Also I recently discovered that Raymond Briggs' depiction of "blooming" Father Christmas was the first time a working class Father Christmas had ever been depicted which I thought was really interesting.

*For Autumnwatch viewers - I'm so happy that Nemo survived!

The heat has addled my brain.

I'm not the most romantic of souls at the best of times* but I swear this maybe the most romantic thing I have ever read. (I have always felt that my idea of romance is slightly warped as Wuthering Heights is still the most heart-breaking romantic book I have ever read. Hmmm, and as John Mullan pointed out during the Gordon-Brown-cringe-making-Heathcliff-debacle, the central love interest is completely destroyed by love and indulges in not only sadism but also mild necrophilia.)

Anyway I am sure that the above link will melt the stoniest and cynical of hearts - it brought tears to my eyes (which not even the last episode of Springwatch can usual manage). I was also very impressed by the inspired use of a red second-hand sofa that was found by the road by the photographer on the way to the wedding. 

I think the combination of being back at work and the heat has made my brain turn to mush.

*I am really nosy though and I always like small factoids about how people get together….