PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 11

SCENES FROM MY BOOKS

Figures in a Landscape by Barry England was nominated for the inaugural Booker Prize and made into a film written by and starring Robert Shaw. Will read it for the 52 Book Club Challenge this month.

POEM

Elizabeth Jennings is today sadly neglected somewhat. Technically excellent and often profound this is an appropriate poem for the age with so many people we don't know dying and indirectly impacting our lives.

In Memory of Anyone Unknown to Me

At this particular time I have no one
Particular person to grieve for, though there must
Be many, many unknown ones going to dust
Slowly, not remembered for what they have done
Or left undone. For these, then, I will grieve
Being impartial, unable to deceive.

How they lived, or died, is quite unknown,
And, by that fact gives my grief purity--
An important person quite apart from me
Or one obscure who drifted down alone.
Both or all I remember, have a place.
For these I never encountered face to face.

Sentiment will creep in. I cast it out
Wishing to give these classical repose,
No epitaph, no poppy and no rose
From me, and certainly no wish to learn about
The way they lived or died. In earth or fire
They are gone. Simply because they were human, I admire.

Reading Record First Quarter

JANUARY

1. Plague 99 by Jean Ure (1989) 218 pp
2. Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes (1857) 309 pp
3. A Lear of the Steppes by Ivan Turgenev (1870) 117 pp
4. A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier (1966) 78 pp
5. The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri (2015) 262 pp
6. Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt (1996) 198 pp
7. A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson (2019) 81 pp
8. The Other End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri (2016) 293 pp
9. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019) 208 pp
10. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930) 501 pp
11. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden (1973) 211 pp
12. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2020) 430 pp
13. Judge Savage by Tim Parks (2003) 442 pp
14. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie (1962) 280 pp
15. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969) 227 pp
16. Jazz by Toni Morrison (1992) 229 pp
17. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell (1951) 230 pp

4,313 pages.

FEBRUARY

18. Junk by Melvyn Burgess (1996) 278 pp
19. The Great Fire by Monica Dickens (1970) 64 pp
20. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie (1965) 265 pp
21. A Room of Own's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929) 153 pp
22. Bury the Dead by Peter Carter (1987) 374 pp
23. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 390 pp
24. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1873) 242 pp
25. Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald (2005) 56 pp
26. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (2015) 293 pp
27. A Burning by Megha Majumdar (2020) 289 pp
28. Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 373 pp
29. What is History? by Edward Hallett Carr (1961) 156 pp
30. A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell (1951) 278 pp

3,211 pages

MARCH

31. The Return : Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar (2016) 239 pp
32. The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy (1978) 417 pp
33. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon (2015) 101 pp
34. Some Experiences of an Irish RM by Somerville & Ross (1899) 223 pp
35. The Age of Improvement 1783-1867 by Asa Briggs (1959) 523 pp
36. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853) 203 pp

1,706 pages

Reading Record Second Quarter

APRIL

37. Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham (2013) 439 pp
38. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid (2000) 270 pp
39. Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha (2013) 200 pp
40. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) 428 pp
41. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver (2014) 79 pp
42. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1864) 160 pp
43. The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers by Fouad Laroui (2012) 134 pp
44. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham (2014) 457 pp
45. Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana (2019) 244 pp
46. Figures in a Landscape by Barry England (1968) 208 pp
47. Echoland by Per Petterson (1989) 132 pp
48. Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith (2019) 205 pp

2,956 pages

CURRENTLY READING

READING PLAN

1 British Author Challenge - set this year by Amanda in the 75er Group

2 1001 Book First Edition - Ongoing

3 Booker Challenge - Read all the Booker winners; I may get close to completing that in 2021

4 Nobel Winners - Read all the Nobel Winners

5 Pulitzer Winners - Read all the Pulitzer fiction winners

6 Around the World Challenge - Read a book from an author born in or with parents from all countries - I reset this challenge in October 2020.

7 Queen Victoria Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) with no repeat authors. Started December 2020

8 Queen Betty Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Elizabeth II reign (1952-2021) - British authors only and no repeats.

9 Dance to the Music of Time - One a month all year.

10. The 52 Book Club Challenge - A book a week from these selected categories https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

11. A Dent in the TBR - I have approaching 5,000 books in my TBR so I must read some of the 250 books I have bought in 2020 that end the current year unread.

12. Poetry - My first love in many ways and I am still something of a scribbler of lines to this day.

13. American Author Challenge - Linda came up trumps.

14. Series Pairs - I will choose one favourite series and read the next two books in that particular series I have slightly fallen behind with.

15 Great British History Writers - One classic work per month from a great British historian.

16 New Fantasy Series - I may take a couple of months over each so six may be the most I manage this year.

BAC



January: Children's Classics https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317610 9 READ

February: LGBT+ History Month https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317871 1 READ

March: Vaseem Khan & Eleanor Hibbert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7318561 1 READ

April: Love is in the Air https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7319432

May: V. S. Naipaul & Na'ima B. Robert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320231

June: The Victorian Era (1837-1901) https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320541 1 READ

July: Don't judge a book by its movie https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321220 6 READ

August: Bernard Cornwell & Helen Oyeyemi https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321374

September: She Blinded Me with Science https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321899

October: Narrative Poetry https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7322840

November: Tade Thompson & Elizabeth Taylor https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7323772

December: Awards & Honors https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325017 1 READ

Wildcard: Books off your shelves https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325595 9 READ

28 BOOKS READ TO DATE

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



Please see:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/327669#7354831

January : Keep it in the Family :
February : Ethan Canin
March : Roxane Gay
April : Makers of Music : Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

BOOKERS
Personal Reading Challenge: Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For - READ
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) - READ
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur - READ
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday - READ
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust - READ
1976: David Storey, Saville - READ
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On - READ
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore - READ
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage - READ
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children - READ
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark - READ
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac - READ
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils - READ
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger - READ
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance - READ
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger - READ
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders - READ
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things READ
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam - READ
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace - READ
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang - READ
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi READ
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
2005: John Banville, The Sea - READ
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering - READ
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger - READ
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall - READ
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending - READ
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies - READ
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North - READ
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings - READ
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout - READ
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain READ JAN 21

READ 33 of 56 WINNERS

Pulitzer Winners

As with the Bookers, I want to eventually read all the Pulitzer winners (for fiction at least) and have most of the recent ones on the shelves at least. Current status.

Fiction

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined)
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge ON SHELVES
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell ON SHELVES
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey ON SHELVES
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren ON SHELVES
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee ON SHELVES
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday ON SHELVES
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner ON SHELVES
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty ON SHELVES
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara ON SHELVES
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever ON SHELVES
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer ON SHELVES
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole ON SHELVES
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker ON SHELVES
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy ON SHELVES
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie ON SHELVES
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry ON SHELVES
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison - ON SHELVES
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields ON SHELVES
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford ON SHELVES
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser ON SHELVES
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth ON SHELVES
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham ON SHELVES
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon ON SHELVES
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo ON SHELVES
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides ON SHELVES
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones ON SHELVES
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson ON SHELVES
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz ON SHELVES
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout ON SHELVES
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan ON SHELVES
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson ON SHELVES
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt ON SHELVES
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr ON SHELVES
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen ON SHELVES
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead ON SHELVES
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer ON SHELVES
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers ON SHELVES
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead


17 READ
37 ON SHELVES
39 NOT OWNED OR READ

93 TOTAL

NOBELS

Update on my Nobel Prize Winning Reading:
1901 Sully Prudhomme
1902 Theodor Mommsen
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1904 Frédéric Mistral and José Echegaray y Eizaquirre
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
1906 Giosuè Carducci
1907 Rudyard Kipling - READ
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1909 Selma Lagerlöf
1910 Paul Heyse --
1911 Count Maurice Maeterlinck
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
1913 Rabindranath Tagore - READ
1915 Romain Rolland
1916 Verner von Heidenstam
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan
1919 Carl Spitteler
1920 Knut Hamsun - READ
1921 Anatole France - READ
1922 Jacinto Benavente
1923 William Butler Yeats - READ
1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
1925 George Bernard Shaw - READ
1926 Grazia Deledda - READ
1927 Henri Bergson
1928 Sigrid Undset
1929 Thomas Mann - READ
1930 Sinclair Lewis - READ
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1932 John Galsworthy - READ
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin - READ
1934 Luigi Pirandello - READ
1936 Eugene O'Neill - READ
1937 Roger Martin du Gard
1938 Pearl S. Buck - READ
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1945 Gabriela Mistral
1946 Hermann Hesse - READ
1947 André Gide - READ
1948 T.S. Elliot - READ
1949 William Faulkner - READ
1950 Bertrand Russell - READ
1951 Pär Lagerkvist - READ
1952 François Mauriac - READ
1953 Sir Winston Churchill - READ
1954 Ernest Hemingway - READ
1955 Halldór Laxness - READ
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
1957 Albert Camus - READ
1958 Boris Pasternak (declined the prize) - READ
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
1960 Saint-John Perse
1961 Ivo Andric - READ
1962 John Steinbeck - READ
1963 Giorgos Seferis
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize) - READ
1965 Michail Sholokhov
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs - READ
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias
1968 Yasunari Kawabata - READ
1969 Samuel Beckett - READ
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - READ
1971 Pablo Neruda - READ
1972 Heinrich Böll - READ
1973 Patrick White
1974 Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson
1975 Eugenio Montale
1976 Saul Bellow - READ
1977 Vincente Aleixandre
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer - READ
1979 Odysseas Elytis - READ
1980 Czeslaw Milosz - READ
1981 Elias Canetti
1982 Gabriel Garciá Márquez - READ
1983 William Golding - READ
1984 Jaroslav Seifert - READ
1985 Claude Simon - READ
1986 Akinwande Ouwoe Soyinka
1987 Joseph Brodsky - READ
1988 Naguib Mahfouz - READ
1989 Camilo José Cela - READ
1990 Octavio Paz
1991 Nadine Gordimer - READ
1992 Derek Walcott - READ
1993 Toni Morrison - READ
1994 Kenzaburo Oe - READ
1995 Seamus Heaney - READ
1996 Wislawa Szymborska - READ
1997 Dario Fo - READ
1998 José Saramago - READ
1999 Günter Grass
2000 Gao Xingjian
2001 Vidiadhar Surjprasad Naipaul - READ
2002 Imre Kertész - READ
2003 John Maxwell Coetzee - READ
2004 Elfriede Jelinek - READ
2005 Harold Pinter - READ
2006 Orhan Pamuk - READ
2007 Doris Lessing - READ
2008 J.M.G. Le Clézio
2009 Herta Müller - READ
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa - READ
2011 Tomas Tranströmer - READ
2012 Mo Yan
2013 Alice Munro - READ
2014 Patrick Modiano - READ
2015 Svetlana Alexievich - READ
2016 Bob Dylan - READ
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro - READ
2018 Olga Tokarczuk - READ
2019 Peter Handke - READ
2020 Louise Gluck - READ

READ 72 OF
117 LAUREATES

AROUND THE WORLD CHALLENGE

Around the world in books challenge. I want to see how many countries I can cover without limiting myself to a specific deadline.

From 1 October 2020

1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE
4. Netherlands - The Ditch by Herman Koch EUROPE
5. Armenia - The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian ASIA PACIFIC
6. Zimbabwe - This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga AFRICA
7. United States - Averno by Louise Gluck AMERICA
8. Australia - Taller When Prone by Les Murray ASIA PACIFIC
9. France - Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrere EUROPE
10. Russia - The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov EUROPE
11. Denmark - Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard EUROPE
12. Democratic Republic of Congo - Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanze Mujila AFRICA
13. Canada - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven AMERICA
14. Italy - The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri EUROPE
15. New Zealand - Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt ASIA PACIFIC
16. India - A Burning by Megha Majumdar ASIA PACIFIC
17. Libya - The Return by Hisham Matar AFRICA
18. Pakistan - Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid ASIA PACIFIC
19. South Korea - Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha ASIA PACIFIC
20. Morocco - The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers by Fouad Laroui AFRICA
21. Thailand - Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana ASIA PACIFIC
22. Norway - Echoland by Per Petterson EUROPE


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

QUEEN VIC CHALLENGE
Regarding my Victorian Era Challenge which I started this month with the aim of completing it by the end of 2021. 64 years. 64 books. 64 authors.

From Dec 2020

1843 FEAR AND TREMBLING by Kierkegaard
1850 PENDENNIS by Thackeray
1853 CRANFORD by GASKELL
1857 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS by Hughes
1864 NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND by Dostoevsky
1870 A LEAR OF THE STEPPES by Turgenev
1873 AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Verne
1881 PRINCE AND THE PAUPER by Twain
1899 SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN IRISH RM by Somerville & Ross
1900 THREE SISTERS by Chekhov

10/64

QUEEN BETTY CHALLENGE

From December 2020 70 Years 70 Books 70 Different British Authors

1952 A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
1959 The Age of Improvement by Asa Briggs
1961 What is History? by EH Carr
1962 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
1966 A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier
1968 Figures in a Landscape by Barry England
1969 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Framer
1970 The Great Fire by Monica Dickens
1973 Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
1978 The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy
1987 Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
1989 Plague 99 by Jean Ure
1996 Junk by Melvyn Burgess
2003 Judge Savage by Tim Parks
2005 Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
2011 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2013 A Delicate Truth by John Le Carre
2014 The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham
2019 A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson
2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

20/70

52 BOOK CLUB CHALLENGE

Based on this challenge suggested by Katie & Chelle

https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

January
Week 1 : Set in a school : Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes Read 2 Jan 2021
Week 2 : Legal profession : Judge Savage by Tim Parks Read 28 Jan 2021
Week 3 : Dual timeline : Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer Read 29 Jan 2021
Week 4 : Deceased author : Jazz by Toni Morrison READ 30 Jan 2021
Week 5 : Published by Penguin : Junk by Melvyn Burgess READ 3 Feb 2021
Week 6 : Male Family Member : Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch READ 12 Feb 2021
Week 7 : 1 Published Work : A Burning by Megha Majumdar READ 19 Feb 2021
Week 8 : Dewey 900 Class : What is History? by EH Carr READ 28 February
Week 9 : Set in a Mediterranean Country : The Return by Hisham Matar READ 5 MAR 2021
Week 10 : Book with discussion questions : Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham READ 2 APR
Week 11 : Relating to fire : Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid READ 4 APR
Week 12 : Title Starting with D : Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha READ 6 APR
Week 13 : Includes an Exotic Animal : Life of Pi by Yann Martel READ 11 April
Week 14 : Written by an author over 65 : Blue Horses by Mary Oliver READ 14 April
Week 15 : Book Mentioned in a book : Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky READ 15 April
Week 16 : Set before 17th Century :
Week 17 : Character on the run : Figures in a Landscape by Barry England READ 26 April
Week 18 : Author with 9 letter surname :

SERIES PAIR CHALLENGE

January : Andrea Camilleri - MONTALBANO DONE
February : Agatha Christie - MISS MARPLE DONE
March : Ben Aaronovitch - PETER GRANT DONE
April : Harry Bingham - FIONA GRIFFITHS DONE

BRITISH HISTORIANS

As if I don't have enough challenges! I want to polish up on my reading and re-reading of the British historians who either inspired me as a student or who I have since come to greatly admire

The French Revolution by Thomas CARLYLE 1837
The Age of Improvement by Asa BRIGGS 1959 READ MAR 21
The History of England by Thomas Babington MACAULAY 1848
The Making of the English Working Class by EP THOMPSON 1963
Fifteen Decisive Battles by EDWARD CREASEY 1851
What is History? by EH CARR 1961 READ FEB 21
The Course of German History by AJP TAYLOR 1945
The American Future by Simon SCHAMA 2009
The Face of Battle by John KEEGAN 1976
The King's Peace by CV WEDGWOOD 1955
The Age of Revolution by ERIC HOBSBAWM 1962

FANTASY SERIES CHALLENGE
Six New (for me) Fantasy Series to go at:

I will concentrate on one series every two months

N.K. JEMISIN - The Inheritance Trilogy

TAD WILLIAMS - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn

C.J. CHERRYH - Chanur Saga

GENE WOLFE - The Book of the New Sun

DAVID EDDINGS - The Belgariad

DIANA GABALDON - Outlander

READ MORE THAN ACQUIRED

Last year I added 300 books but read 50 of them. In addition I have another 4,500 plus on the TBR.
The challenge is not to make the situation of my TBR worse.
So I must read or remove from my wider TBR more than I acquire this year and I will gauge this against last years "new" TBR and any future incomings. Therefore the older TBRs don't count against this challenge.

The figure at the start of the year is 250 books and this number must be smaller by December 31. These are the 250 books:

1 Stay with Me Adebayo
2 American War Akkad
3 The Catholic School Albinati
4 The Unwomanly Face of War Alexievich
5 Saltwater Andrews
6 Big Sky Atkinson
7 At the Jerusalem Bailey
8 The Body Lies Baker
9 The Lost Memory of Skin Banks
10 Remembered Battle-Felton
11 Springtime in a Broken Mirror Benedetti
12 A Crime in the Neighborhood Berne
13 Stand By Me Berry
14 Love Story, With Murders Bingham READ APR 21
15 This Thing of Darkness Bingham
16 The Sandcastle Girls Bohjalian
17 The Ascent of Rum Doodle Bowman
18 Clade Bradley
19 The Snow Ball Brophy
20 Paladin of Souls Bujold
21 Parable of the Sower Butler
22 The Adventures of China Iron Camara
23 The Overnight Kidnapper Camilleri READ JAN 21
24 The Other End of the Line Camilleri READ JAN 21
25 Lord of all the Dead Cercas
26 Uncle Vanya Checkov
27 The Cherry Orchard Checkov
28 Blue Moon Child
29 Trust Exercise Choi
30 The Night Tiger Choo
31 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side Christie READ JAN 21
32 At Bertram's Hotel Christie READ FEB 21
33 The Water Dancer Coates
34 The New Wilderness Cook
35 Hopscotch Cortazar
36 The Illumination of Ursula Flight Crowhurst
37 Deviation D'Eramo
38 Boy Swallows Universe Dalton
39 The Girl with the Louding Voice Dare
40 The Rose of Tibet Davidson
41 Dhalgren Delany
42 The Butterfly Girl Denfeld
43 Vernon Subutex 1 Despentes
44 Postcolonial Love Poem Diaz
45 Childhood Ditlevsen
46 Youth Ditlevsen
47 Dependency Ditlevsen
48 Burnt Sugar Doshi
49 Frenchman's Creek Du Maurier D
50 Trilby Du Maurier G
51 Sincerity Duffy
52 Sumarine Dunthorne
53 The Narrow Land Dwyer-Hickey
54 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race Eddo-Lodge
55 Axiom's End Ellis
56 Figures in a Landscape England READ APR 21
57 kaddish.com Englander
58 Shadow Tag Erdrich
59 The Carpet Makers Eschbach
60 The Emperor's Babe Evaristo
61 Small Country Faye
62 To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Ferris
63 At Freddie's Fitzgerald
64 The Guest List Foley
65 Man's Search for Meaning Frankel
66 Love in No Man's Land Ga
67 Norse Mythology Gaiman
68 The Spare Room Garner
69 The Kites Gary
70 Gun Island Ghosh
71 Vita Nova Gluck
72 Trafalgar Gorodischer
73 Potiki Grace
74 Killers of the Flower Moon Grann
75 The Last Banquet Grimwood
76 Guapa Haddad
77 The Porpoise Haddon
78 Late in the Day Hadley
79 The Final Bet Hamdouchi
80 The Parisian Hammad
81 Nightingale Hannah
82 Coastliners Harris J
83 The Truths We Hold Harris K
84 Conclave Harris R
85 The Second Sleep Harris R
86 Tales of the Tikongs Hau'ofa
87 A Thousand Ships Haynes
88 The River Heller
89 Dead Lions Herron
90 Real Tigers Herron
91 War and Turpentine Hertmans
92 A Political History of the World Holslag
93 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Honeyman
94 The Light Years Howard
95 Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself Huber
96 A High Wind in Jamaica Hughes
97 Ape and Essence Huxley
98 Me John
99 Nightblind Jonasson
100 Black Out Jonasson
101 How to be an Anti-Rascist Kendi
102 Death is Hard Work Khalifa
103 Darius the Great is Not Okay Khorram
104 Himself Kidd
105 Diary of a Murderer Kim READ APR 21
106 Dance of the Jacakranda Kimani
107 The Bridge Konigsberg
108 Who They Was Krauze
109 The Mars Room Kushner
110 The Princesse de Cleves La Fayette
111 The Other Americans Lalami
112 The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers Laroui READ APR 21
113 Fish Can Sing Laxness
114 Agent Running in the Field Le Carre
115 Pachinko Lee
116 The Turncoat Lenz
117 The Topeka School Lerner
118 Caging Skies Leunens
119 The Fifth Risk Lewis
120 The Three-Body Problem Liu
121 Lost Children Archive Luiselli
122 Black Moses Mabanckou
123 Blue Ticket Mackintosh
124 A Burning Majumdar READ FEB 21
125 The Mirror and the Light Mantel
126 Original Spin Marks
127 Deep River Marlantes
128 The Return Matar READ MAR 21
129 The Island Matute
130 Hame McAfee
131 Apeirogon McCann
132 Underland McFarlane
133 Hurricane Season Melchor
134 The Shadow King Mengiste
135 The Human Swarm Moffett
136 She Would Be King Moore
137 The Starless Sea Morgenstern
138 Poetry by Heart Motion
139 A Fairly Honourable Defeat Murdoch
140 The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov Nabokov
141 The Warlow Experiment Nathan
142 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London Nix
143 Born a Crime Noah
144 The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney Nzelu
145 Girl O'Brien
146 After You'd Gone O'Farrell
147 Henry, Himself O'Nan
148 Inland Obreht
149 Weather Offill
150 Dept. of Speculation Offill
151 Stag's Leap Olds
152 Blue Horses Oliver READ APR 21
153 Felicity Oliver
154 Will Olyslaegers
155 Woods, etc Oswald READ FEB 21
156 Night Theatre Paralkar
157 The Damascus Road Parini
158 Empress of the East Peirce
159 The Street Petry
160 Disappearing Earth Phillips
161 Arid Dreams Pimwana READ APR 21
162 Peterloo : Witness to a Massacre Polyp
163 Lanny Porter
164 The Women at Hitler's Table Postorino
165 A Question of Upbringing Powell A READ JAN 21
166 A Buyer's Market Powell A READ FEB 21
167 The Acceptance World Powell A
168 The Interrogative Mood Powell P
169 Rough Magic Prior-Palmer
170 The Alice Network Quinn
171 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls
172 Such a Fun Age Reid
173 Selected Poems 1950-2012 Rich
174 The Discomfort of Evening Rijneveld
175 Jack Robinson
176 The Years of Rice and Salt Robinson K
177 A Portable Paradise Robinson R READ JAN 21
178 The Fall of the Ottomans Rogan
179 Normal People Rooney
180 Conversations with Friends Rooney
181 Alone Time Rosenbloom
182 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rowling
183 The Watch Roy-Bhattacharya
184 The Five Rubenhold
185 Contact Sagan
186 The Hunters Salter
187 The Seventh Cross Seghers
188 Will Self
189 Moses Ascending Selvon
190 The Dove on the Water Shadbolt READ JAN 21
191 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World Shafak
192 In Arabian Nights Shah
193 The Caliph's House Shah
194 Mrs Warren's Profession Shaw
195 Arms and the Man Shaw
196 Candida Shaw
197 Man and Superman Shaw
198 Dimension of Miracles Sheckley
199 The Last Man Shelley
200 Temple of a Thousand Faces Shors
201 Year of the Monkey Smith P READ APR 21
202 Eternity Smith T
203 Crossing Statovci
204 Lucy Church, Amiably Stein
205 Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead Stoppard
206 Blood Cruise Strandberg
207 Shuggie Bain Stuart READ JAN 21
208 Three Poems Sullivan
209 Rules for Perfect Murders Swanson
210 Cane River Tademy
211 Real Life Taylor
212 The Queen's Gambit Tevis
213 Far North Therous
214 Walden Thoreau
215 Civil Disobedience Thoreau
216 Survivor Song Tremblay
217 The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee Treuer
218 The Small House at Allingham Trollope
219 A Nest of Gentlefolk Turgenev
220 A Quiet Backwater Turgenev
221 A Lear of the Steppes Turgenev READ JAN 21
222 The Queen of Attolia Turner
223 The King of Attolia Turner
224 Redhead by the Side of the Road Tyler
225 Outlaw Ocean Urbina
226 Plague 99 Ure READ JAN 2021
227 The Age of Miracles Walker
228 The Uninhabitable Earth Wallace-Wells
229 Judith Paris Walpole
230 Love and Other Thought Experiments Ward
231 The Death of Mrs. Westaway Ware
232 Lolly Willows Warner
233 Second Life Watson
234 Final Cut Watson
235 Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen Weldon
236 Before the War Weldon
237 Lazarus West
238 Educated Westover
239 The Nickel Boys Whitehead READ JAN 21
240 The Death of Murat Idrissi Wieringa
241 Salome Wilde
242 An Ideal Husband Wilde
243 Lady Windemere's Fan Wilde
244 A Woman of No Importance Wilde
245 The Salt Path Winn
246 The Natural Way of Things Wood C
247 East Lynne Wood E
248 A Room of One's Own Woolf READ FEB 21
249 Interior Chinatown Yu
250 How Much of These Hills is Gold Zhang

BEGIN : 250
READ : 23
ADDED : 147 (Nett after deducting those already read)
CULLED : 0 (AGED TBR)

PRESENT TOTAL : 374

THIS YEAR'S ACQUISITIONS

1. Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville & Ross READ MAR 21
2. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome READ JAN 21
3. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
4. The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
5. The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari
6. The Prime Ministers : Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to Johnson by Steve Richards
7. The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim
8. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
9. Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
10. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
11. The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
12. Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
13. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
14. Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
15. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
16. Desert by JMG Le Clezio
17. For the Record by David Cameron
18. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
19. The Guardians of the West by David Eddings
20. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
21. The Council of Egypt by Leonardo Sciascia
22. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
23. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin
24. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
25. Rupture by Ragnar Jonasson
26. White Out by Ragnar Jonasson
27. The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm
28. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
29. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
30. Modern Times by Paul Johnson
31. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
32. The Warehouse by Rob Hart
33. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
34. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
35. Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
36. Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
37. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
38. In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
39. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
40. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
41. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
42. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
43. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
44. The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
45. The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
46. Still Waters by Viveca Sten
47. Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
48. The Europeans by Henry James
49. Vice Versa by F. Anstey
50. A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
51. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler Olsen
52. Closed for Winter Jorn Lier Horst
53. News of the World by Juliette Jiles
54. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon READ MAR 21
55. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
56. Death in the Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi
57. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
58. Good Morning Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
59. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
60. The Enchanted by Rene Denefeld
61. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
62. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis
63. The Innocents by Michael Crummey
64. Night Waking by Sarah Moss
65. Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
66. Throw me to the Wolves by Patrick McGuinness
67. Consent by Annabel Lyon
68. Selling Manhattan by Carole Ann Duffy
69. Rendang by Will Harris
70. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
71. No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
72. Amnesty by Aravind Adiga
73. The Awkward Squad by Sophie Henaff
74. The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan
75. Afternoon Raag by Amit Chaudhuri
76. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
77. The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson
78. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer
80. The Eastern Shore by Ward Just
81. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
82. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
83. Vertigo& Ghost by Fiona Benson
84. Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
85. Soot by Dan Vyleta
86. Deacon King Kong by James McBride
87. Abigail by Magda Szabo
88. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic
89. Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger
90. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
91. Selection Day by Aravind Adiga
92. The Voyage by Murray Bail
93. Peace : A Novel by Richard Bausch
94. The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano
95. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
96. The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier
97. My Life as a Russian Novel by Emmanuel Carrere
98. Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
99. Man V. Nature by Diane Cook
100. The Melody by Jim Crace
101. SS-GB by Len Deighton
102. Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
103. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
104. The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall
105. Munich by Robert Harris
106. Bodies Electric by Colin Harrison
107. The Punch by Noah Hawley
108. Spook Street by Mick Herron
109. London Rules by Mick Herron
110. The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
111. The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby
112. The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes
113. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
114. Exiles in the Garden by Ward Just
115. Duffy by Dan Kavanagh
116. The Good People by Hannah Kent
117. The Life to Come by Michelle de Krester
118. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
119. 10:04 by Ben Lerner
120. Home is the Hunter by Helen MacInnes
121. Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
122. The Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerney
123. The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller
124. Arab Jazz by Karim Miske
125. Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
126. Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates
127. The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe
128. The Horseman by Tim Pears
129. Echoland by Per Petterson READ APR 21
130. Last Stand by Michael Punke
131. The Waiting Time by Gerald Seymour
132. Home Run by Gerald Seymour
133. Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
134. To the Back of Beyond by Peter Stamm
135. They Know Not What They Do by Jussi Valtonen
136. The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette Van Heugten
137. Smoke by Dan Vyleta
138. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
139. That Eye, The Sky by Tim Winton
140. Fear : Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
141. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
142. Gerta by Katerina Tuckova
143. My Country: A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid
144. Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
145. The Hotel Tito by Ivana Bodrozic
146. Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride
147. Blame by Paul Read
148. House of Lords and Commons by Ishion Hutchinson
149. To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek
150. Your Story, My Story by Connie Palmen
151. Wake Up : Why the World Has Gone Nuts by Piers Morgan
152. Death of a Coast Watcher by Anthony English
153. Limitless by Ala Glynn
154. Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono
155. Daughter of the Tigris by Muhsin al-Ramli
156. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

156 added
4 read
152 nett additions

RESOLUTIONS

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

January : The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
February : Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
March : The Return by Hashim Matar

READING INFLUENCE WINNERS

A book for the book bullet that made the biggest mark on me that month. Only one win per person each year.

January 2021 MARK (msf59) for THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones
February 2021 ADRIENNE (fairywings) for THE BELGARIAD by David Eddings
March 2021 BONNIE (brenzi) for DRIFTLESS by David Rhodes

BOOK STATS :

Books Read : 48
Books Added : 151
Nett TBR Addition : 103

Number of Pages in completed books : 12,187
Avergae per day : 101.56
Projected Page Total : 37,069

Number of days per book : 2.50
Projected Number : 146
LT Best : 157

Longest Book read : 523 pages
Shortest Book read : 64 pages
Mean Average Book Length : 253.90 pages

Male Authors : 31
Female Authors : 17

UK Authors : 28
Italy : 2
USA : 6
NZ : 1
Russia : 2
France : 1
India : 1
Libya : 1
Pakistan : 1
South Korea : 1
Canada : 1
Morocco : 1
Thailand : 1
Norway : 1

1001 Books First Edition : 7 (311)
New Nobel Winners :
Pulitzer Fiction Winners : 1 (17)
Booker Winners : 2 (33)
Around the World Challenge : New countries : 9 (22)
BAC Books : 28
AAC Books : 1
Queen Vic Books : 7 (10/64)
Queen Betty Books : 19 (20/70)
52 Book Challenge : 16 (16/52)
British Historians : 2 (2/12)

Next one is yours

Happy New Thread! I caught you with only 3 posts, so I kept refreshing til you were done. :)

>26 mahsdad: Well done, Jeff. It will take me a while to get set up properly but I like to get my markers down to allow my pals to come-a-calling!

Oh me too. I don't need 25 to load in all my stuff, but I'm definitely in the double digits, and my inner OCD would be annoyed if I got things out of order. :)

>28 mahsdad: I have quite a retentive brain, Jeff and don't often go astray with the order of things. In Ramadan however my mind is much sharper at certain times of the day than others.

Happy new thread!

>1 PaulCranswick: I never heard of the book or the movie, and with those two in it I'd watch it just for the sights.

>30 quondame: Thanks Susan.

The book was on the first ever Booker shortlist in 1969 (it was published in 1968) and the film was directed by Joseph Losey.

Happy new one!

>32 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita

Happy new thread, Paul!

I usually set up during our daytime, at which time the western hemisphere is usually asleep.

>34 humouress: My normal time is to set up during my morning tea break at work. Since we are fasting I don't really get a tea break!

Happy new thread, Paul.
>2 PaulCranswick: I'm not a poetry person, but this really touched me.
Thank you for sharing.

Happy New Thread, Paul!

Happy new thread Paul

>36 SirThomas: Thank you, Thomas. This poem stood out to me as being quite topical. I always admired Elizabeth Jennings

>37 connie53: Thanks Connie. xx

>38 fairywings: Thank you, Adrienne. A busy day at work and my fasting and I haven't yet got set up here properly. Just broken my fast so I am replete, satisfied and eager to finish sorting out the thread.

Happy new thread, Paul!

>41 thornton37814: Thanks Lori. I am hoping to get a little traction and mojo back into my posting as I have been lacking a bit of energy recently.

Hi Paul, and happy new thread!

For the heck of it, I went back to your 2011 thread. You just had one message at the beginning. I like the 10-year in version here.

Sweet Thursday, Paul. Happy New Thread! I hope all is well.

>43 karenmarie: Thanks Karen.

I was dipping my toes in the water back in those days! I do think that 24 posts before opening up the thread is a little bit of overkill but some of them are reminders to me too.

>44 msf59: Thank you, Mark. All is ok in my world right now, buddy.

Happy new one!

>46 drneutron: Thanks Jim

Happy new thread Paul!

>48 swynn: Thank you, Steve. Always great to have you drop by.

Happy new thread, Paul!

Always a pleasure to read your opening posts with reading lists, reading plans, and acquisitions.

>50 FAMeulstee: As it is a pleasure to have one of my favourites unfailingly visit, Anita xx

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread--I've been barely here, too much work, but happened to see your 11th chapter. It's feeling unlikely that I will get to Ann Petry's The Street in April as planned, but I'm still up for reading it in May or thereafter, if you're still game.

>23 PaulCranswick: Paul - when you turn to the back of DRIFTLESS, there is a list of
the other Milkweed National Fiction Prize Winners.

Creating a new Challenge, I decided to read all of them and ordered the first one,GANADO RED,
the 1988 Winner,
then contacted Milkweed to get a complete listing up to the present.

Two discoveries: first, 7 of the books are out of print (found them on Abe.com.)
and 2, Milkweed stopped awarding Prizes in 2013.

Both Ganado Red and Montana 1948, by Larry Watson, have been worth the search.

Happy new one, Paul

Hi Paul, Happy new thread mate.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/331635

Happy New Thread!

>52 amanda4242: Dear Amanda! That must be the most posts I have made in a thread without "seeing" you for the longest time!

>53 AnneDC: Hi Anne. I'm still game as the deer told the butcher. I will wait for you of course. x

>54 m.belljackson: Fascinating, Marianne. I will go and look up the award too. I read the book by Larry Watson and though it was a slight little thing it was well worth reading.

>55 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley!

>56 johnsimpson: Thanks John. Not overly impressed by Yorkshire yesterday although Adam Lyth kept up his reasonable form and looked a class above our other batsmen.

>57 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver. I will be up for the challenge again this week.

>58 SilverWolf28: Thank you Silver. x

Abandoned my often poorly held vow to concentrate on one book at a time, I am at various stages of progress with the following books:

Figures in a Landscape by Barry England - 52 Book Club Challenge / Queen Betty Challenge
Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana - Around the World Challenge (Thailand)
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith - AAC
Fifteen Decisive Battles by E.S. Creasey - Queen Vic Challenge / British Historians
The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley - BAC / Queen Betty Challenge
New Grub Street by George Gissing - Queen Vic Challenge / 1001 Books
Leo the African by Amin Maalouf - 52 Book Club Challenge /Around the World Challenge (Lebanon)
The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim - Around the World Challenge (Ghana)
The Brothers by Milton Hatoum - Around the World Challenge (Brazil)
Echoland by Per Petterson - Around the World Challenge (Norway)
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings - Fantasy Challenge
Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald - Queen Betty Challenge

Not sure how many I will complete this weekend but these plus Queen of Sorcery and the clearing of the decks to start Hamnet by 1 May is my target for the remainder of April.

>59 PaulCranswick: I don't know how I missed you when I was checking LT yesterday!

Enjoy your weekend!

>64 amanda4242: Better slightly late than never, Amanda! I would be inconsolable if you didn't visit my threads. xx

Some of my friends have drifted away from my threads the last couple of years and, although I still visit their threads and say hello, I am a little bit hurt by the lack of return visits, especially when I used to be on their "rounds". It isn't a question of only giving posts to receive them back but of not understanding why your thread is no longer a fit place to be.

Those comments of course don't apply to you dear lady.

*cough* You know, it's been 18 days since I last saw you on my thread. Just saying' ;0) *cough*

>63 PaulCranswick: Abandoned with a vengeance!

>66 humouress: I don't think you've missed a one of my threads, Nina, just as I would never miss yours. Our tiny bit of the world needs every support right now.

>63 PaulCranswick: And I started another book coming back from the bookstore!

>63 PaulCranswick: Ah, so so familiar. I'm in an unusual position (for me) of really only focusing on two books at the moment. Though obviously there are about 10 on the go. And I did start Regeneration last night... hmmm.

Anyway, happy new thread :)

Happy Friday,Paul!

Hi Paul!

>63 PaulCranswick: Twelve books. I'm distraught that I've got seven at various stages of completion.

>63 PaulCranswick: I read multiple books at a time, too, but not nearly as many. My current reading list is: "The Ten Thousand Doors of January" by Alix E. Harrow, "The Vanishing" By Bentley Little, and "Dhalgren" by Samuel Delany. The last title may take some time as it's over 800 pages...

>69 figsfromthistle: Same to you, Anita.

>70 karenmarie: I know, Karen, I sort of lost myself along the way there a little.

>71 ocgreg34: Three seems a nice number to be honest, Greg.

On the subject of reading multiple things at once. Personally, I like to only have one book per format at a time (Dead Tree, Ebook, Audio). But I was just thinking about this topic on one of my Discord servers. Someone had made a similar post about reading multiple books.

I made the comment that we have no problem watching multiple (if not multiple multiple) TV shows and keeping up with the narrative, but balk at reading multiple books or having trouble keeping up with narratives when you do.

I think it says something about the density of information that is in a book, or the lack of information that is in your average TV show that allows you to easily keep track of things. :)

>63 PaulCranswick: I think the most I've ever had going at once is probably about 7 or 8, but those include things like Bible, a devotional book, another Christian book I'm reading a chapter a day, a short story book at a chapter a day, a short story book at a chapter or two per week, and then whatever else I'm reading--usually a fiction and non-fiction title.

Happy new thread, Paul! I usually have several books going, and usually at least one fiction and one non-fiction. But lately I have been focusing more on one book at a time. I blame the pandemic for my lack of ability to follow multiple books at once; but perhaps it is just a byproduct of aging?

Hi, Paul!

As you know, I regularly juggle a significant number of books at one time and honestly I think I'd feel a little lost reading them one by one. I picked up the habit in grad school by necessity and never looked back.

>63 PaulCranswick: That's the way to go, Paul, in my humble opinion: keep juggling books, and read what you want at any given moment. Like a smorgasbord of reading delights!

I am proud to say that I have caught up with you (two and half threads).

Continued good reading to you!

Karen O.

>74 mahsdad: It is unusual for me to dip into quite so many books unless they are short story collections which lend themselves to such things.

The books are all traditional paper ones, Jeff.

>75 thornton37814: I am usually at two or three books, Lori, but I seem to be dipping into things a little at present.

While I hardly juggle books at all. Once in I usually stay until thrown out. Right now I've started multiple books, but that has more to do with challenges, due dates and what's in front of me when I finish something on a Kindle. Just now I have started, though I may not complete:

Reconstruction
Native Son
Big Girl, Small Town
Journey to the West
Fair's Point
Swallows and Amazons

The first three I started and had to put down because I wasn't making progress and JttW will have to be read in short doses. I started Fair's Point re-read just because I wasn't ready to sleep when I finished Artemis and felt like something familiar, and then downloaded S&A this morning.

>76 banjo123: If I can focus just on one book then I am usually happier, Rhonda, but sometimes even when I am enjoying a book I don't quite want it to finish!

>77 scaifea: I am the same Amber in that definitely my habit was formed at university.

>78 klobrien2: Lovely to see you Karen. I love the image of a reading smorgasbord!

>80 quondame: That is a manageable list, Susan, and I can equate to the starting and coming back to books idea and the accommodation of challenges being a factor too.

Yesterday's additions

147. Blame by Paul Read
148. House of Lords and Commons by Ishion Hutchinson
149. To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek
150. Your Story, My Story by Connie Palmen
151. Wake Up : Why the World Has Gone Nuts by Piers Morgan

First book I got on a special offer, the second is a very promising poetry collection by the Jamaican poet, James Meek's books are always well received and the Palmen book rests on the relationship between Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Hughes as some will know was my literary hero growing up though certainly not my life hero. Finally Piers Morgan? I know he is controversial but I do often find myself agreeing with him on certain issues even though his way of explaining his position is unduly confrontational. Written before the Meghan furore and visitors will know that I agreed in substance if not in form with his position on that and his right to ventilate it, the core of the book seems to be why the core of liberalism seems to be becoming illiberal.

>63 PaulCranswick: I'm impressed by how many you have on the go at present. I like to start reading multiple books though usually one or two take off and others just simmer in the background.

I'm in the last 30 pages of The Dig and have enjoyed it quite a lot. I'll now be able to watch the film. I purchased the book back in 2008 when a book blogger I followed had it in her top books of the year list.

I'm certainly not one to have as many books going at one time as you do Paul. I always have one book, either Kindle or print, and one audiobook. That works for me pretty well. I've had a spate of really excellent books this year and am overall very happy with my reading.

I don't know who you're referring to when you say people are not visiting your thread like in the past because I find your thread impossible to keep up with because you have...well, so many visitors. You're such a good friend to us all I can't imagine anyone abandoning your thread.

>84 avatiakh: Yes, Kerry, that is exactly the right description of the process of reading multiple books. One or two taking off and a number simmering.

I want to watch the film too very soon, Kerry, as I have heard good things about it and Ralph Fiennes apparently spent an age perfecting the Norfolk accent.

Happy newish thread, Paul!

I usually have 2-3 books going, but lately I've been reading a poetry book and have an audiobook in the car in addition to before bed, so I'm reading four. I do have to make sure they're all different genres (no reading two fantasies or two mysteries at a time!) so I usually end up with two fiction and a nonfiction going, one or two paper books and an e-book/audio combo.

>85 brenzi: I very rarely have this many books on the go, Bonnie, it is usually more like 3 or 4. I have of course noticed that you are on a bit of a roll this year when it comes to reading.

I fully understand that some of the faster moving threads like Amber's, Mark's and my own can be off-putting to any of our friends who feel the need to keep up and I am so grateful that I do get on average 50 or so participants per thread. People are of course entitled to post wherever they like or not without receiving any criticism for it (assuming that their interjections are within the conventions we expect here) and sometimes something we may post or say may touch a nerve or deserve a correction. I think for someone with my character who likes to be friends with everyone and visit most everyone's threads, it is the not knowing why someone has been turned off from our threads,

>87 bell7: That is a really good point, Mary, in not reading two mysteries at the same time - that could be quite disconcerting!

I usually have a kindle book, a paper book, and an audio book going at the same time. Audio is non-fiction and the other two would often be a 1001 list book and whatever else.

Or at least that’s what I did pre-2020. Last year I was lucky to have one book going that I read at a pace of about 10 pages a day. It was not a year for reading.

At the moment, I am back to old habits, hopefully successfully.

>65 PaulCranswick: I must confess your thread is the only "personal" thread I visit. I always reply to people who post on my thread, but I'm just not really one for general chat so most of my interactions are in challenge threads; indeed, my visits to your threads were prompted by my desire to keep up with BAC planning and you just sort of became a habit. ;)

I generally read in tandem - by location. I have books invidious places and read them as I move around. This last fall I felt that my books got a bit out of control as I had 12 of them going at once. That was too many. I generally have about 4 - 5 that I am reading or listening to at one time. Of course, when I get really engrossed in a book, then I will pick it up and carry it around with me until I finish it. I generally have one fiction, one nonfiction, one recorded, and one book that I keep with me at work. In addition there are times that I have one in the bathroom as in recent years I have started to read in the bathtub and sometimes I keep one in the car, just in case I need something to take with me into some building or other that won't have one of my books.

>92 benitastrnad: I was about to say the same thing! When I end up reading multiple books, they almost always have specific locations where I read them, like I'll have my "out and about"/"waiting for something" book, the book for the bath, the "downstairs" book, the "reading in bed book," along with a general purpose "main" book. And even when I'm not doing location-based reading I've almost always got at least two books going: one fiction and one nonfiction to suit the fleeting taste of the moment.

>63 PaulCranswick: Paul, I often dither between veeeeery slowly finishing a number of books read more-or-less concurrently, and keeping my book relationships more "monogamous" let's say -- I think both are quite satisfying. Why fight it? My grandfather read in a very similar way to what you describe; as a kid I thought that made him some kind of genius!

>90 ursula: That seems so well organised, Ursula. I feel less organised the more books I am trying to juggle.

It is great to have you back in the group this year.

>91 amanda4242: I am honoured that I am happily contagious enough that you come and visit me because I would greatly feel your absence.
Your wonderfully succinct and pithy reviews first switched me onto your thread and the sense of humour and insight of its owner. x

>92 benitastrnad: That is interesting, Benita, that you read by location. I do have a number of locations that I read at - the bathtub, on or in my bed, in my book/reading nook, at my desk at work and to and from there. Five natural reading opportunities and therefore I could compartmentalise to five books at a time if I follow your manner.

>93 ebeeb: First of all lovely to see you here Elizabeth and again welcome to the group. The problem I do have when I have a number of books on the go is that I do waste a bit of time figuring what I should be reading at a given time and then - pop! - one of them will bite and I will chew over 50 pages or so at a stretch. That is how I am making progress at the moment, I suppose.

Poem for today

Alphabetical Alliteration

Alphabetical alliteration
brought by
carousing critics
devilishly draughting
easy examples
for future
generations. Gently,
hopelessly hoping
if innocence
just jeopardised -
knock kneed,
less loved,
more maligned,
not new,
or old -
perhaps publicly
quickly quoting
rendered rhymes,
slobbering suggestively
to time-worn
underlings, useless,
vicious, vain;
written with
xpletives xcised
yet youth's
zen zeroed.

Speaking of poetry, I am saddened to note the passing of Anthony Thwaite, literary executor of Philip Larkin and no mean poet himself. A generation younger perhaps he was still associated with The Movement poets. He was 90.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/23/anthony-thwaite-obituary

This is Thwaite's poem "In the Bright Air". Can be a sort of eulogy for him too.

Why was he here
Filling the room
With light, and fear
Filling her womb?
What was he saying
Under his wings
As she was praying?
Impossible things:
Promise of birth,
God as the father,
Heaven on earth
In human feature . . .
What could she say
But bow her head
As he went away
With so much not said.

'My soul doth magnify . . .'
She whispered there,
'The Lord have mercy'
In the bright air.

>96 PaulCranswick: Hee!

I used to very much be a one book at a time reader. In my later years, I now have a plurality of books in progress. It's partly by location and partly by group commitments and partly by interest of the moment. I might jam through multiple fiction reads while slowly digesting a heavy nonfiction. Or my weekend delight versus my weekday progressions.

>99 justchris: Or my weekend delight versus my weekday progressions.

I like that, Chris!

I usually read only one book at a time, but it happens that I need some break.
Reasons for breaks are emotional overload, intellectual overload, boredom, too much suspense, reading desire and the current book is not there, I'm reading an ebook and want to read in the bathtub,.... okok, it often happens that I read several books at once.

I'm not a poetry person, but you always manage to make me think maybe this is a mistake.
Thank you very much Paul, have a wonderful Sunday!

>101 SirThomas: Always a pleasure to see you Thomas. I would prefer to read a book one at a time too but sometimes it seems to just happen!

I have the same problem: I happen to come upon a book and start reading it, despite the fact that there are other already begun reading books in my rucksack, on my table, in the shelf ...

I think Larkin was only in his early 60s when he died in 1985. It was my first term of 6th form and The Whitsun Weddings was one of our texts. So Anthony Thwaite was only slightly younger than Larkin, not really a full generation of difference.

I read Letters to Monica a few years ago.

I have always several books going. This year I have two that probably will take most of the year before I finish them.
Most of the time I am reading at least one paper book and one e-book. The e-book is partly location, as I can read on the e-reader in bed without disturbing Frank.

Hi Paul!

>86 PaulCranswick: want to watch the film too very soon, Kerry, as I have heard good things about it and Ralph Fiennes apparently spent an age perfecting the Norfolk accent. I watched the movie, not realizing it was based on a book until the opening credits. It was Bill’s idea to watch it, and I was pleased to do so, although as a rule I like to read books first and then watch the visual adaptation. I’m smiling at your bit about the accent, because as an American I rarely ‘hear’ the subtlety of various regional UK accents. It all sounded good to me without my being able to appreciate Fiennes acquiring a Norfolk accent.

>96 PaulCranswick: I like it!

>103 paulstalder: That is a good spot too Paul. I can't help myself by picking up another book when I haven't yet finished another one.

>104 elkiedee: There was eight years between Larkin and Thwaite, Luci and twelve years between his publication of The North Ship and Thwaite's first collection but crucially Larkin was an adult during the war whereas Thwaite was not and their lived experiences were definitely generationally apart.

>105 FAMeulstee: This topic has brought home to me how interested I am in my friends' reading habits, Anita.

>106 karenmarie: I will let you know when I watch it, Karen, how marked is Fiennes' accent.

I like to occasionally give myself little writing exercises and that poem was one such. I am quite pleased with the first part of it but the ending was a little more contrived.

Happy Newish Thread!

Wow! I saw your comment on Kim's thread and hope you do get to Oregon in 2022. I'll load up the covered wagons, head across the mountains and definitely get in on that meetup!

>63 PaulCranswick: That's a lot of books going on! My goal is to have one nonfiction and one fiction book in progress. But .... as said upthread, new books come in, especially those from the library that have a waiting list, and can't be renewed, or I need to read something for an upcoming book club or author's event. And so then I have 3 or 4 or half a dozen going. Right now I have a nonfiction, a book of nonfiction essays, a sci fi and Obama's behemoth (which I'm only listening to as I do my knee exercises.

>109 streamsong: Lovely to see you Janet. I would be disappointed if I managed to make it all the way Stateside and we weren't able to meet. x

I do have way too many books on the go and hope that I can quickly reduce the number before something new catches my eye.

Hooray for an epic 2022 Portland Meet-Up!

>111 banjo123: Already pencilled in. Which month would y'all recommend as the best to visit the Pacific North West?

Since I read in multiple formats I always have multiple books going at once--an audiobook, a Kindle book, and a print book (or five). Besides a different book for each format, I also usually have multiple genres going at once--for example I might be reading a fiction and a non-fiction book along with a short story collection. I tend to read chunksters slowly while finishing shorter books along the way. I never have trouble keeping track, and surprisingly frequently I have a serendipitous connection between two books that makes me notice things I might not have noticed otherwise.

>113 AnneDC: I like to keep the books read ticker moving along so I can agree with your comment, Anne, about reading shorter works with chunksters.

>113 AnneDC: I tend to note the serendipitous connections serially, but it's still fun when there are conversations between books - both Cage of Zeus and Artemis dealt with space colonies and both Citadel of Weeping Pearls and A Kingdom for a Stage a southeast Asian milieu. The strangest though was when 3 books in a row mentioned the town of Yeovil.

The third Milkweed National Fiction winner is the best: Aquaboogie, stories written by Susan Straight,
the author of I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out all the Pots, another fine one!

>115 quondame: The mentioning of Yeovil in three successive books unintentionally obtained is remarkable for a town of only 45,000 people. It isn't famous for too much other than Paddy Ashdown, Wolf Solent and Jack the Treacle Eater.

>116 m.belljackson: Susan Straight that must be a pen name?!

>97 PaulCranswick: That's sad. I came across him when I was studying Larkin - but I think only his editing/biographical work. I'll have to look him up.

Hi Paul, I the same with reading multiple books. It happens to me all the time. Right now 'only' three on the go.

I always have a number of books on the go. On similarities I try to avoid reading more than one at a time with a WWII setting/theme (including the before and after stuff) but occasionally I make a mistake..... but I have had the experience of noticing something weird that two books have in common - that wasn't expected.

>118 BekkaJo: He and James Fenton are two poets from my youth who are sadly overlooked and out of fashion these days, Bekka.

>119 connie53: I am hoping to reduce my number by the close of play today Connie by two books.....hopefully!

>120 elkiedee: It is pretty freaky when that happens, Luci! I'm not sure that there is any theme other than being a scatterbrain that links the 12 books I have on the go at the moment!

>117 PaulCranswick: Nope = an online check for Susan will reveal all...

>123 m.belljackson: Fascinating background, Marianne -

One woman came from Africa during slavery, one came from Switzerland during the 1950s; ancestors came from the Colorado Rockies, the Swiss Alps, the flat lands of Mississippi, the bustle of black Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. It couldn't be more American - they all ended up in southern California, raising the next generations. They listened to Patsy Cline and Dynamite Jackson, they danced to Duke Ellington and to Loretta Lynn. They survived and they loved us, and when the traveling pony portrait man came, they lifted us up onto those horses, fitted chaps on our tiny legs, and told us to smile.
from her website under the link "An American Family"

I have to admit that she is a name completely unfamiliar to me.

Hi Paul, the start of this season's County Championship has got off to a cracking start, batsmen in form and bowlers getting wickets. For the first time in three seasons the April pitches are suitable to proper bowlers and although i like Darren Stevens, it is nice to see that the likes of him are not the star bowlers.

Matt Parkinson has got plenty of overs in and has taken a good amount of wickets and it was nice for Dom Bess to get his first Yorkshire five-for. The batsmen are scoring and scoring big, Warwickshire have chased down two targets set for them and i liked that Glamorgan's Captain, Chris Cooke set Northants a good target of 355 in 79 overs, it gave both of them a chance for a result and Vasconcelos and Keogh kept up a good run rate to get home by seven wickets with six overs to spare. I admire this spirit, Cooke could have batted on until lunch and put the game beyond Northants and been left with a tame draw.

I just hope the weather keeps up and this type of Cricket is maintained throughout the season. The performances so far should have Silverwood with a smile on his face as players are putting themselves in the shop window.

Along with reading multiple books I find that I also finish multiple books at about the same time. I can't quite figure out why but my completion dates tend to come in batches rather than in a steady stream. One would think that since books have varying numbers of pages that the completion dates would spread out over time, but the opposite seems to happen.

Is there a list of the 12 somewhere, Paul?

>125 johnsimpson: Couldn't agree more John. I think the County Championship has been a great advert for the game so far. Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire are three traditionally underwhelming performers over the last decade or so but all have shown great spirit so far and Warwickshire's two well timed run chases have been excellent value for fans.

Pleased to see most of the spinners doing something including Carson at Sussex and Briggs at Warwickshire.

>126 benitastrnad: I don't know why that would happen, Benita, and I have noticed that once I get one of them over the line the rest do follow more quickly somehow.

>126 benitastrnad: I don't know why that would happen, Benita, and I have noticed that once I get one of them over the line the rest do follow more quickly somehow.

>127 elkiedee: Yes Luci. These are the 12 books I have on the go.

Figures in a Landscape by Barry England - 52 Book Club Challenge / Queen Betty Challenge
Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana - Around the World Challenge (Thailand)
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith - AAC
Fifteen Decisive Battles by E.S. Creasey - Queen Vic Challenge / British Historians
The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley - BAC / Queen Betty Challenge
New Grub Street by George Gissing - Queen Vic Challenge / 1001 Books
Leo the African by Amin Maalouf - 52 Book Club Challenge /Around the World Challenge (Lebanon)
The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim - Around the World Challenge (Ghana)
The Brothers by Milton Hatoum - Around the World Challenge (Brazil)
Echoland by Per Petterson - Around the World Challenge (Norway)
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings - Fantasy Challenge
Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald - Queen Betty Challenge

Or I should say "had" because I have a completion to report!

Newly released Thunder in the Soul: to be Known by God could be welcome reading for Ramadan.

>131 m.belljackson: Generally, Marianne, I don't read much spiritualism/theology type stuff but I will go and look it up.

BOOK #45



Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana

Date of Publication : 2019
Origin of Author : Thailand
Pages : 244 pp

Challenges
Around the World Challenge : 8 in 2021 (21 in total)

The Thai mind is unique and this is amply demonstrated by this frankly unusual collection of oddities. The stories are unorthodox and quirky and filled with a sexual philosophy that is at best a little skewed.

The bustling metropolis of Bangkok doesn't feature here nor does the tourist centres of Phuket or Pattaya - this is rural Thailand. It is a Thailand of agrarian poverty and small town sensibilities. A Thailand where rent with petty corruptions and domestic depravities. A Thailand where the sexes are in competition much more than they are in harmonious coexistence.

This book will not be for all but some of the stories work very well whilst others could be a little dumbfounding.

I passed 3,000 posts on my threads overnight and I have to say a big thank you to all who have posted here during 2021 and made me feel that, despite the COVID-19 global lockdown, my friends are still nearby. xx

>133 PaulCranswick: Ah, yes, I remember that book! It's the one full of stories about men being assholes.

>135 amanda4242: Indeed. So a universal appeal then!? It wasn't only that though, the reactions of some of the female characters was quite askew, I thought.

>134 PaulCranswick: Wow, 3000 posts. You may crack 10,000 by the end of the year!

>137 drneutron: No chance, Jim. I have managed that feat just the once back in 2017 (the only time it has ever been done) and I am almost 1,500 posts down on where I was then.

This year also Amber is leaving all of us in her wake.

As of midnight LT time the top 20 threads were:

1 Amber 3,292
2 Paul C 3,006
3 Katie 2,511
4 Mark 1,927
5 Richard 1,895
6 Joe 1,537
7 Karen 1,349
8 Mamie 1,086
9 Micky 1,006
10 Roni 893
11 Anita 881
12 Lauren 810
13 Kim 784
14 Beth 683
15 Kathe 669
16 Meg 636
17 Linda 635
18 Ellen 612
19 Liz 605
20 Jim 573

Huh, I made the top 20? The way this year’s going for me, that won’t last long... 😀

>139 drneutron: Don't know Jim, yours has been a very steady accumulation. The closest to you are Rhian with 522 posts and Mary with 508 so you have a little buffer at the moment.

>138 PaulCranswick: This year also Amber is leaving all of us in her wake.

I was trying to find a funny gif of a boat to post in response, but this seems even more apt:

>138 PaulCranswick: I love the list of top posters, Paul. It's amazing you can keep up with your OWN thread, much less visit those of others...as you so often graciously do.

>141 scaifea: Hahah but jump ship from where, Amber? Your digs are normally such a safe haven and that helps rack up posts. x

>142 SqueakyChu: I have been less good recently Madeline at visiting the threads of my pals but I am getting my energies back, I think.

Lovely to see you here by the way. x

Hi Paul!

>138 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the stats. Congrats to Amber and you for leading the way.

7, 1349. 7+1 = 8. (3-4)+9=8. Easy peasy. I do love my 8s.

BOOK #46



Figures in a Landscape by Barry England
Date of Publication : 1968
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 208 pp

Challenges
52 Book Club Challenge 16 (16/52)
Queen Betty Challenge 20/70
BAC : 28th book (July challenge)

Gritty realism as two soldiers (possibly mercenaries, although we are never told) break from captivity and try to escape capture across a harsh and unremitting terrain.

Most interesting is the developing relationship between the two escapees one a cynical veteran and the other a callow youth.

This book was shortlisted for the first ever Booker Award and I can see why, because it is stylistically extremely striking as well as wonderful in its slowly drawn characterisation. Not an easy read but a worthwhile and I can recommend this one.

>145 karenmarie: Even I could see the 8's in that one, Karen. Your posting is as consistent as ever. xx

>138 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the top 20 threads, Paul. Very happy with 11 881 :-)

>148 FAMeulstee: You started slightly slowly this year, Anita, but you are currently the top European by a comfortable margin over the resurgent Kathe.

>149 PaulCranswick: My reading started a bit slow, Paul, and the thread went accordingly. Finally this month I am back on track after my reading collaps last year.

>150 FAMeulstee: It is funny, Anita, but true for me too really. When I am reading more I seem to also post more. I would have thought that posting time detracts from reading time but, for me at least, seems to signify increased concentration levels.

>152 EllaTim: Hi Paul! I haven't been posting much, feelin too tired to read much. Energy and concentration. Reading means reading books, and reading threads.
I often like to read several books at once, but i've noticed that it helps when they are paper books. Somehow it's harder for me to read several E-books at one time. There's something in the physical act of putting a paper book down, that's helpful in remembering one's place in a story. Also lots of older books were written as a feuilleton, so not in one go at all.
Even my comments are scattered, never mind. Good luck with your dozen.

>152 EllaTim: Nice to see you, Ella. I agree that it has to be paper books in multiple reads - I mean I rarely read e-books even one at a time!

My dozen is down to ten at least and possibly down to eight by the end of today.

Huh, just slightly lower than I was for posting numbers this time last year. I'm impressed that I'm that close to the top 20, honestly. And look at Katie in the top 3!

My reading numbers are definitely down from last year, but that's to be expected as I'm back to work and my regular busy life, which essentially shut down in April and May last year (I was working from home, but no commute and volunteer activities gave me lots of free time I wouldn't have had otherwise).

>154 bell7: Posting numbers overall are close to their lowest level since I starting keeping count in 2012. Very comparable (just a tad behind actually) to 2019 at the moment which is the lowest total so far. I am confident we will pass that number overall though as the figures tailed off badly that year.

Katie has been just above her normal numbers but Mark and Joe are down on normal - Joe partly due to his health issues, which I know we all hope and pray he will soon be recovered from.

I am reading ok this year and hope to put up my best LT numbers overall - I am just behind schedule for that but always optimistic!

Just checking in. Picked up a copy of Shuggie Bain yesterday and it made me think of you :)

>156 BekkaJo: Shuggie wasn't exactly the luckiest apple in the cart but I'll take it as a compliment nonetheless!

>151 PaulCranswick: AND more reading means more (short) reviews on my thread, Paul. A significant difference between 13 books (my worst in the last 5 years) and 32 books, as I hope to read this month ;-)

>158 FAMeulstee: I am generally half satisfied with 13 books in a month, Anita and have never managed 32. My best ever reading month on LT was 27 books and that was a few years ago.

Hey Paul--let me know when you plan to get to Our Mutual Friend. Since I'll be listening to the audiobook, it will take me a couple months to finish.

I plan to start it in June, Kathy, if that works but I am open to starting it next month too.

>161 PaulCranswick: June is fine. Feel free to go at your own pace, and we can discuss as we go along. I will probably start before you so that we can end up somewhat together. I think it's somewhere around 30 hours of listening and I listen about 5 hours a week, so that should work.

>162 kac522: If I run it alongside a few other books then it may be a months project. Let's see.

For those who may have missed it the Women's Prize shortlist is out and the three favourites, Clarke, Bennett and Gyasi are still in the running. Here is the list:

The 2021 Women’s prize shortlist
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Dialogue)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (Fig Tree)

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (Viking)

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones (Headline)

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury)

Reading two fine books this week:

YA (though great for adults) Saenz' the Inexplicable Logic of my Life

and Larabi's Ox, with this quote toward Ramadan -

"The body becomes servant to the soul.
The mind is then content,
and the soul is better able to submit to the will of Allah."

>165 m.belljackson: My own books reading number has fallen a little, Marianne, but I shall still be carrying quite a lot of them into May.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/331805

>167 SilverWolf28: Hoping to be very active with this at the weekend, Silver.

BOOK #47



Echoland by Per Petterson
Date of Publication : 1989
Origin of Author : Norway
Pages : 132 pp

Challenges
Around the World Challenge : 9th of 2021 (22 in challenge)

This is the debut novel of Per Petterson which is set on the island of Jutland in Denmark.

It tells a story or more likely assembles a series of images episodically of a young boy coming into adolescence and coming to terms with questions in his upbringing. Loss, belonging and family secrets people these few short pages in Petterson's soon to be trademark maudlin and wistful style.

A thoughtful read which outdistances its few short pages and which conjure up the sights, smells and colours, the opaque northern sunshine, the sea and the squalls of coastal life across the Kattegat.

>63 PaulCranswick: It looks like I will have finished 4 of the 12 books I had started.

Leo Africanus, Human Voices and The Brothers I have hardly scratched the surface so I shall set them aside for later.

That leaves:

Fifteen Decisive Battles by Creasey (Historians & Queen Vic challenges)
New Grub Street by Gissing (Queen Vic & 1001 Books)
Pawn of Prophecy by Eddings (Fantasy Challenge)
Camomile Lawn by Wesley & (BAC April)
The God Child by Ayim (Around the World Challenge)

to finish

Also targets for next month

Hamnet I have waited long to get and read this (52 Book Club Challenge, BAC Awards)
Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings (Fantasy Challenge)
The Mystic Masseur by VS Naipaul (BAC May & Around the World Challenge)
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (BAC Victorian Age, 1001 Books & Queen Vic Challenge)
The King's Peace by CV Wedgwood (Historians & Queen Betty)
Dead Lions by Mick Herron (Series Pair)
Real Tigers by Mick Herron (Series Pair)
Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti (Around the World, 52 Book Club)
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (52 Book Club)
John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk (BAC, 52 Book Club)
The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell (BAC, DTTMOT, 52 Book Club)
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (Around the World, Booker, 1001 Books)
Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti (Around the World, Nobels, 1001 Books)
Still Waters by Viveca Sten (Around the World)
A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman (Around the World)
My Country : A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid (Around the World)
Sincerity by Carol Ann Duffy (Poems, Queen Betty)
A Charmed Life by Mary McCarthy (AAC)
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Pulitzer)

24 books is the target.
May as well fail as spectacularly as usual!

>2 PaulCranswick: What a marvelous poem! Thanks for posting this.

i really liked A Horse Walks into a Bar but it was difficult to read.

>171 Whisper1: Hello dear Linda. It is isn't it? Technically very good but also touching on our present travails superbly.

>172 torontoc: I have wanted to read him for a while and thought this a safe place to start?! Cyrel, which of his novels would you say are the most accessible?

Friday additions:

152. Death of a Coast Watcher by Anthony English
153. Limitless by Ala Glynn
154. Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono
155. Daughter of the Tigris by Muhsin al-Ramli
156. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Geez - those books look about as cheerful as the top photo!

Time for a little Harry Potter, non?

>176 m.belljackson: Hahaha I wondered when you were going to ask me that, Marianne!?

SWMBO put up on her facebook page the stack of books I have lined up for May.

https://www.facebook.com/hanni.hanni.12935756/videos/964494944325601

Regulars here will know that I like my music almost as much as my books.

I am very pro-British when it comes to popular music and my absolute favourites are quite possibly Paul Weller and the Kinks. Possibly my favourite song of all-time is Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks but I also love a song of theirs from 1969 which is called Shangri-la and is possibly - lyrically at least - the most quintessentially British of songs.

Love this video which includes a live rendition of the song by its writer, Ray Davies. Ray is, I think, along with Dylan and Paul Simon the greatest lyricist of the rock and pop era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrmakJHnyfw

>177 PaulCranswick: Hey, Promises...promises..."Two (Billion) people, maybe more..."

(Paul Simon singing about how many people were influenced to read more after H.P.)

>180 m.belljackson: Nah, Paul told me he prefers reading Nabokov but Al on the other hand.............!

>178 PaulCranswick: Whoa, that was a trip! I followed the link to Hanni's FB photo of your proposed reading for May. I was smacked to read "Hanni Cranswick", 'cause, well, I never pictured that in my mind, but yeah, well, that's her name. We're all pretty much on a first-name basis, so first and last startles me. Yeah, okay, a few loose bolts, I admit.

I did like the lady admiring your, eh, stack. But then the thing morphed into a Christopher Walken dance number to a Fatboy Slim recording. I knew he was an accomplished dancer, but I never watched him do an extended number.

So anyway, sir, you DO have a challenge stack to gawp at. Fun.

>182 weird_O: Funnily enough, Bill, your surmising was pretty on point in that it is not traditional for Malay ladies to take the family name of their husbands but rather they retain the name of their father. According to her passport & ID she is called Indang Suharni Sudin (Sudin being the name of her late father). That gets condensed to Hani Cranswick (although for some reasin she has started adding an "N" to become Hanni Cranswick) for her western friends.

Her FB vids do tend to go off in tangents don't they? Lovely to see you here dear fellow.

>181 PaulCranswick: "Al" ? Capone?

Please alert your Creative Music loving Malaysian friend that R.M. is contributing to

a HARVARD concert tonight at 8:00 ET.

>178 PaulCranswick: Some really thick ones there. Somehow it always looks like more than a plain list would.

>184 m.belljackson: I'm guessing you can call him 'Al' and he'll call you 'Betty' (from 'Graceland').

Hi Paul, hope all is well with you, Hani and the family mate. Another round of County Championship matches has started and there has been some mixed scores, some really slow batting, not sure if it was due to good bowling or an iffy pitch or both. Kent seem to be having a few problems and have been beaten inside two days by a resurgent Glamorgan.

We are still waiting for Amy to give birth, her due date was yesterday but that came and went, oh well it will come when it is good and ready, lol.

I managed to get a book finished today to take me to 31 for the year, one behind where i had planned to be and still to find months where i can add four books to get me to 100.

Hoping that you and the family have a really good weekend mate and we both send love and hugs to you dear friend.

>170 PaulCranswick: I have The Mystic Masseur on deck for next month, too.

Happy weekend!

>184 m.belljackson: I should go to sleep at a normal time, Marianne. I meant Art of course!

I am not in touch with my jazz loving friend too much recently so I may use this as a reason to call him.

>185 quondame: It does but there are actually 26 books on the list there and not 23 (+1 e-book as declared). This is because the Anthony Powell is book three of a three book omnibus as well as the two Belgariad books being together with book three in one volume for that series.

>186 humouress: And that explains the misstep - probably cleverer than Art but honestly unintended.

>187 johnsimpson: I am on the look out on a daily basis for news of impending birth news with Amy. Fingers crossed that all will go smoothly (well as smoothly as they ever do anyways).
Lyth has missed out twice in this game although he looked comfortable for his 20 odd in the second innings. Won't be easy to win this one.

>188 amanda4242: I do have quite a few of his on the shelves, Amanda, so it is a bit of a shock that we picked the same one, or are you planning to read several?

>186 humouress: >190 PaulCranswick:

'Graceland' = a song? or reference to Elvis' home?

Best wishes for the weekend, Paul, and hope you make a good dent in the books you have planned for May!

>191 PaulCranswick: I may read In a Free State because I have it on the shelves, but it is an odd coincidence that we picked the same one!

>179 PaulCranswick: And here's a video of Ray Davies performing "Waterloo Sunset" with David Bowie, my very favorite singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WFHiO0lwI0&ab_channel=MT-TVC15

>192 m.belljackson: Graceland was a song and a Long Player by Paul Simon with a lead single "You Can Call Me Al"

>193 bell7: I hope so, Mary, because I will only achieve something by setting the bar high enough that, even if I don't clear it, I will have jumped high in the trying.

>194 amanda4242: I have read a few books by him, Amanda, but nothing came remotely close to A House for Mr Biswas which I thought, magnificent.

Speaking of magnificent, David Jones, aka David Bowie was just that.

Book #48



Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith
Date of Publication : 2019
Origin of Author : USA
Number of Pages : 205 pp

Challenges
American Author Challenge : April (1/12)

I always thought that Patti Smith was strange but strangely compelling and this book does nothing other than confirm my view.

The lady whose rendition of "Because the Night", I probably played as much as any song of the 1970s by a female artist (single song, Joan Armatrading in terms of body of work), plays with the night and its dreams here.

2016 is the lunar new year of the monkey and Smith share her itinerant experiences and thoughts and dreams with us and it is a heady brew. Encounters in motels and coffee shops (usually discussing books) are intertwined with a year of loss and losing.

It is my first book by her and, I am told, not the place to start. If her other stuff is more original and thought provoking then bring it on.

>173 PaulCranswick: Oh, Dear- this novel is unlike his other work- I do like his non-fiction work-hmm give it a try!

Hi, Paul! I've gone sailing through this thread at least and am, as ever, awed by your time management. My own reading and posting are on a par - very low and slow. My preference was always to read several books at the time. I was never quite like Nero Wolfe, who read a book for 30 minutes, closed it, and picked up the next. My current practice seems to be to start 5 or 6 and then to drop all but 1 or 2 and read them sporadically. Oh well.
I'm always happy to see you prospering in one way or another. Keep it up!

>198 torontoc: I will read it and see if it propels me to the other things by him I have on my shelves, Cyrel.

>199 LizzieD: I was thinking, Peggy, on how to tackle the 24 books I want to read in May and I like the fact of 24 being such a flexible number. 1,2,3,4,6,8,12 and 24 so I have 8 different ways to try to read 'em! I divided the books into 8 groups of three last night and let's see what progress I make with the opening three this weekend.

My time management papers over plenty of organisational panic!

I'm always happy to see you here. x

Currently reading

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
A Charmed Life by Mary McCarthy
Dead Lions by Mick Herron



These are the first group of three I'm trying to read in May. 7 more to go after that.
One for BAC (and 52 Book Club), One for AAC and one for my series pair challenge.

>172 torontoc: >173 PaulCranswick: I liked Someone to run with better than A horse walks into a bar.

>202 FAMeulstee: I don't have that one on the shelves, Anita.

These are his other books I have on the shelves :

The Book of Intimate Grammar
Lovers and Strangers
To the End of the Land
Falling Out of Time

>203 PaulCranswick: I did look first, Paul, according to LT it is in your library.
But of course it could be hard to find a book in your extensive library ;-)

>204 FAMeulstee: Well spotted Anita. I added it to my library in May 2011 and it was unfortunately one of the books my daughter mistakenly gave away to the school library or one of the orphanages I donated books to back in the day. She gave them the wrong box!

When I reconciled my books again I realised it was one of a couple of hundred she gave away in such a way.

>197 PaulCranswick: Love Patti's writing. Maybe Just Kids or M Train next Paul. All of her books will be rereaders for me.

And again I have missed a lot - I wish you a wonderful weekend, Paul!

>206 Caroline_McElwee: On the strength of that one, Caroline, which is probably has the most mixed reception of any of her books, I will definitely look for and read her other work.

>207 SirThomas: Always great to see you here, Thomas.

Thread Posting League update:

Top 100 threads
1 scaifea 3,371
2 PaulCranswick 3,075
3 KatieKrug 2,569
4 richardderus 1,969
5 msf59 1,935
6 jnwelch 1,579
7 karenmarie 1,402
8 crazymamie 1,103
9 MickyFine 1,065
10 FAMeulstee 923
11 ronincats 907
12 laurelkeet 820
13 Berly 714
14 BBLBera 695
15 PersephonesLibrary 674
16 FamilyHistorian 667
17 Whisper1 663
18 EBT1002 637
19 lyzard 625
20 drneutron 586
21 SandDune 570
22 bell7 532
23 thornton37814 513
24 figsfromthistle 502
25 quondame 487
26 mstrust 459
27 johnsimpson 434
28 rebarelishesreading 421
29 curioussquared 419
30 ChelleBearss 415
31 Streamsong 412
32 jessibud2 403
33 brenzi 384
34 Humouress 353
35 Sir Thomas 352
36 fuzzi 350
37 connie53 342
38 loving-lit 342
39 foggidawn 337
40 Swynn 331
41 mahsdad 324
42 sandymc 316
43 LizzieD 315
44 EllaTim 313
45 Caroline_McElwee 310
46 AMQS 309
47 Ameise1 298
48 laytonwoman3rd 279
49 cbl_tn 275
50 harrybutler 271
51 Carmenere 263
52 coppers 263
53 avatiakh 233
54 Weird_O 226
55 sibyline 218
56 sirfurboy 216
57 ffortsa 192
58 jayde1599 185
59 justchris 181
60 London 180
61 Bekkajo 178
62 paulstalder 175
63 false-knight 160
64 DianaNL 152
65 Chatterbox 139
66 Rbeffa 139
67 PawsForThought 135
68 banjo 130
69 amanda4242 124
70 SqueakyChu 124
71 magicians_nephew 123
72 oberon 121
73 trifolia 121
74 Ursula 121
75 AnneDC 119
76 lindapanzo 117
77 klobrien2 115
78 mdoris 112
79 tiffin 111
80 CassieBash 109
81 CDVicarage 109
82 witchyrichy 109
83 hredwards 109
84 lycomayflower 104
85 aktakukac 102
86 vivians 100
87 souloftherose 99
88 fairywings 96
89 BBGirl55 94
90 majkia 94
91 alcottacre 91
92 The_Hibernator 91
93 norabelle414 84
94 ikernagh 75
95 tymfos 72
96 LoisB 71
97 Oregonreader 70
98 torontoc 70
99 ArlieS 69
100 silverwolf28 69

>210 PaulCranswick: Thanks for posting the stats, Paul. I can't believe I entered the top 10!

Books Read

The same 100 threads in terms of books read. Hi ho Silver!! Usual disclaimers and apologies for mistakes.

1 silverwolf28 158
2 Chatterbox 118
3 amanda4242 105
quondame 105
5 FAMeulstee 86
6 hredwards 80
7 CDVicarage 79
klobrien2 79
9 richardderus 72
scaifea 72
11 jnwelch 71
12 thornton37814 68
vivians 68
14 Whisper1 67
15 sirfurboy 62
16 FamilyHistorian 59
17 MickyFine 58
18 foggidawn 56
19 fuzzi 55
Sir Thomas 55
21 figsfromthistle 49
PersephonesLibrary 49
23 avatiakh 48
BBLBera 48
false-knight 48
PaulCranswick 48
sibyline 48
28 AnneDC 47
lyzard 47
msf59 47
31 bell7 46
32 ChelleBearss 45
curioussquared 45
paulstalder 45
35 mstrust 43
Swynn 43
37 brenzi 41
harrybutler 41
jayde1599 41
LoisB 41
41 Bekkajo 39
karenmarie 39
London 39
majkia 39
witchyrichy 39
46 KatieKrug 38
47 crazymamie 37
Streamsong 37
49 cbl_tn 35
connie53 35
sandymc 35
52 tiffin 33
53 ArlieS 32
drneutron 32
Weird_O 32
56 aktakukac 31
Oregonreader 31
58 johnsimpson 30
oberon 30
60 Caroline_McElwee 29
EBT1002 29
mahsdad 29
torontoc 29
64 ffortsa 28
65 coppers 27
justchris 27
Rbeffa 27
magicians_nephew 27
69 AMQS 26
fairywings 26
Humouress 26
72 banjo 25
CassieBash 25
rebarelishesreading 25
75 laytonwoman3rd 24
76 jessibud2 23
77 Ameise1 22
Berly 22
mdoris 22
80 lindapanzo 21
loving-lit 21
82 laurelkeet 20
Ursula 20
84 trifolia 19
85 SandDune 18
86 BBGirl55 17
Carmenere 17
88 alcottacre 16
EllaTim 16
lycomayflower 16
ronincats 16
92 DianaNL 15
93 LizzieD 13
souloftherose 13
95 SqueakyChu 11
tymfos 11
97 The_Hibernator 8
98 ikernagh 6
99 norabelle414 5
100 PawsForThought 1

eta Jim's (magicians_nephew) figure updated based on advised amendment.

>211 FAMeulstee: And also climbing the reading stats closer to your accustomed position.

Hi Paul!

>205 PaulCranswick: Wrong box. A couple of hundred. *shudder*

>210 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the stats. You and Amber are neck and neck. For me, 7 and 1402. 7+1 = 8 and (4 + 0)* 2 = 8. Eights happy dance.

Yay for the stats - Thank you, Paul!

Always fun to see your stats, Paul! My April numbers turned out better than expected (a couple of short poetry books and novellas certainly helped), and I'm shocked to see that Mark and I are neck and neck. There's a pretty good bunch of us at 40-something. Once again, you and I are pretty close for numbers of books read.

Mine weren't a lot to add up, but it reminds me one reason I used to actually tally things up - to make it quicker for you! I was literally just thinking about that this morning ... "didn't I used to have totals in my post of books read?" I couldn't remember though so this was timely. :)

>214 karenmarie: I know, Karen. I was the victim of Yasmyne's unintended generosity! I knew you'd get eights there somehow.

>215 SirThomas: Thought you'd be pleased, Thomas.

>216 bell7: Isn't it surprising, Mary, how often we seem to have such similar reading numbers?

>217 ursula: I always find it interesting the different ways that our pals keep track of their reading. I must confess that one or two threads very nearly defeat me and there are a few that I count manually, but it is great fun. Thank you so much Ursula that you would be mindful of me coming and keeping tally!

>212 PaulCranswick: So my book tracking is useful for something.

>220 quondame: Most definitely, Susan.

Thanks for the stats, Paul! And happy weekend!

Always enjoy seeing the stats here.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

>222 banjo123: My pleasure, Rhonda. Same to you. xx

>223 figsfromthistle: I really like to prepare the stats, Anita and I get an especial kick out of seeing some of my pals thriving whether it is in posting or reading.

Nice job on the stats Paul. No idea how you manage it but kudos my friend.

>225 brenzi: The thread posting one is relatively easy once it is set up, Bonnie. Books read, well I have to read every thread to get to that one, but it is enjoyable.

Just a bit of fun of course.

Just had a whinge on one of the threads about the slow turn out of the vaccine in Malaysia and then SWMBO came home from shopping with news that appointments are open now to book the vaccine!

The two of us are booked for our first Astra-Zeneca jab on 26 May.

>227 PaulCranswick: That's great news!

I feel like I've been following behind you on the threads dropping comments in your trail.

>228 quondame: Hahaha I noticed that too. Difference is it is early afternoon for one and the other one should probably be wearing jammies and getting ready to sleep!

I love to see my friends around the threads and like-mindedness is one of the things that brought us all together. x

>227 PaulCranswick: Excellent news! My husband & I had ours in March. My son & daughter-in-law (in their 40s) got theirs last week in Sheffield. But her parents in Italy--in their 70s & running a bakery--have yet to be vaccinated. What a world we live in.

>230 kac522: I know Kathy, the EC has really dropped the ball and is resorting to trying to sue the pharma companies because they themselves failed to order in good time. One of the reasons on the pro side of leaving the community has been that the UK was able to respond and the take up of vaccine in the UK has been very impressive.

>227 PaulCranswick: I'm gonna try some of your magical whinging, Paul. ;)

What an effed up mess this whole thing is here. News stories about citizens being fined for going for a swim in the sea, thinking it was okay in spite of the lockdown because there were other people out there swimming. But of course - those people were tourists, who are not subject to the lockdown!

>197 PaulCranswick: Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith is certainly one I will be trying to get my hot little hands on. I loved her first two, and a book of poetry I have of hers as well. Her April show here has been postponed twice now, so I may got to see her in 2022...which will be a dream come true :)

Edited to add- great news on the vaccine coming your way soon. We aren't in a huge hurry here, for obvious reasons, but that doesn't stop the complaints from the opposition party that the current leadership is failing us dreadfully *sigh*. Anything to score political points!

Hi Paul, I've been neglecting threads in a big way lately. So this Sunday I will try to pick up on them. And yours was the one with the most unread posts so I started there. I love your group-stats way up and I see I'm on number 37. I'm thrilled I made it up to there.

Happy Sunday!

>232 ursula: I will do some for you, Ursula! It does seem very random to get fined for swimming in the sea. That is the epitome of a wide open space. I can understand governments don't want the virus to spread but the world has truly gone mad.

>233 LovingLit: I think much of the rest of the world would commit at least a misdemeanour to obtain your government, Megan!

Impressed by Patti Smith. Like some of her music too and I am sure that a concert of hers would be an experience.

>234 connie53: You are much loved here Connie and will have certainly got a boost to your posting numbers just for the sheer delight your return to the group occasioned!

>235 PaulCranswick: Well, to be fair, citizens and residents are currently confined to their homes except for walking to the nearest grocery store to shop.

Tourists though are enjoying the sights of the country free of Turkish people.

>233 LovingLit: Anything to score political points *sigh* Wouldn't it be nice if politicians used actual politics to score points? Instead of this nonsensical 'he said, she said' - or, in this case. 'didn't do'.

>237 ursula: Makes sense?
;0)

>133 PaulCranswick: The bookclub I'm in read this, and the discussion with the translator and English publisher is online. I found it helped make more sense of the author's perspective (but that might just be me).
https://soundcloud.com/user-41111498-859108077/sets/translated-fiction-online-bo...

Glad to read you and Hani have your vaccinations booked.

Re the beach / sea ban. Cape Town banned the beach but not the sea, so meant surfers headed for a particularly dangerous bit of the coast which is just rocks to get to the waves (!)

Glad to hear you and Hani were able to book vaccines! It is funny how consistently we've had similar reading numbers over the years, though at this point I'd probably be more surprised if we suddenly had very different tallies haha.

Monthly Round-up - April

Books read 12 (YTD : 48)

Books written by men : 9
Books written by women : 3

1001 Books : 2 (YTD : 7 - TOTAL : 311)
BAC books : 3 (YTD : 28)
AAC books : 1 (YTD : 1)
Booker Winners : 1 (YTD : 2)
Around the World Challenge : 5 (YTD : 9)
Queen Vic Challenge : 1 (YTD : 7)
Queen Betty Challenge : 2 (YTD : 19)
52 Book Challenge : 4 (YTD : 16)

Pages : 2,956 (YTD : 12,187)
Per day average : 95.35 (YTD 101.56)

Longest Book : 457 pp (YTD : 523 pp)
Shortest Book : 79 pp (YTD : 64 PP)
Average Book Length : 246.33 ( YTD : 253.90 pp)

UK writers : 3 (YTD : 28)
US writers : 2 (YTD : 6)
Pakistan : 1
South Korea : 1
Canada : 1
Russia : 1 (YTD : 2)
Morocco : 1
Thailand : 1
Norway : 1

Book of the Month :

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

>237 ursula: That is a bizarre situation, Ursula. We had a couple of full lockdowns here but it was everybody without fear or favour and the borders were/are closed.

>238 humouress: It is strange, Nina, especially as most of the world is jealous of New Zealand and in love with the Prime Minister there.

>239 charl08: Lovely to see you, Charlotte! The sea is ok but not the beach?! Incredulity indeed! Maybe take a boat at the harbour and get dropped off - fight off the Great Whites and then then hop on the boat back.
I honestly don't know if we have any rules about the beach and the sea here.

>240 bell7: We are able to get them booked because people are scared of the Astra Zeneca jabs. Oh well!

One year we will hit 200 books each together. xx

>241 PaulCranswick: With 48 books read so far this year for you - congrats - it seems you have some good mojo going. Yes for best book of the month. Great minds, and all that…

>244 karenmarie: I read four books that really hit the spot in April but the winner was, for me, an easy choice. I also liked very much the books by Moth Smoke Mohsin Hamid, Patti Smith and Barry England but The Life of Pi is a profound book.

Delurking to say hi.
Thanks for dropping by my thread. This is a slow year of reading for me but that's an okay thing. I see you're steaming along at a good clip.

>246 SandyAMcPherson: I am trying to avoid my normal mid-year slump, Sandy.

Always enjoy visiting your thread. x

>179 PaulCranswick: I really like the choral treatment there! I was never more than a modest Kinks fan (as opposed to being a huge Small Faces fan) but I liked their stuff.

I see that I will have to give Life of Pi a try after all.

>248 RBeffa: I am the other way round, Ron - liked the Small Faces (especially Itchycoo Park) but loved the Kinks - especially their late sixties and early seventies music. I would accept though that, like Blur, it is very English.

>249 PaulCranswick: The whole British pop era that included Oasis and Blur etc never grabbed me. It would take Coldplay coming along with Clocks and everything after to hook me completely.

>250 RBeffa: I must admit having a soft spot for some of the Britpop stuff. Pulp did Yorkshire proud and I loved Super Furry Animals and Supergrass especially. I thought that the What's the Story Morning Glory album was excellent but I didn't care for all of Oasis' rather derivative stuff otherwise. Blur were very creative but only half the tracks on any album of theirs would be easy on the ear.

Possibly Ocean Colour Scene in terms of sheer musicianship were my favourites. This is their song:

"It's Beautiful Thing". Indeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa3cbcmNAwI

>251 PaulCranswick: Paul, this is one of those weird six degrees of something coincidences. I do like that song, and more to the point I have been seeking out P P Arnold performances lately. And the one i have had on replay is, believe it or not, a fabulous Small Faces performance. P. P. was apparently the girlfriend of Steve Marriott for a while and this performance is a time travel trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWTtx_PxPo

>252 RBeffa: Fascinating, Ron and a great performance of Tin Soldier. Ocean Colour Scene were probably the band who revered the Small Faces the most and it shines through in their music.

I'll leave here with an interesting performance from the Ronnie Lane memorial show (of which I now know Ocean Colour Scene gave a good performance). So here is ooh la la with your Paul Weller and others https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsTZMUDNuQg

>254 RBeffa: The brilliant guitarist Steve Craddock of OCS has backed Paul Weller for more than twenty years. IMHO one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

This is evidence of that. The Small Faces influence is also pretty obvious.

>236 PaulCranswick: Ahh, Paul. You've made my day with those sweet words. Love you right back.

>241 PaulCranswick: Het leven van Pi as book of the month, Yes! That's so understandable.

>256 connie53: I'd be lost without this group, Connie, and all the wonderful people I have gotten to know through it.

Hi Paul, thanks for the stats mate, i am well pleased with my positions in both lists and i am in front of Karen although with her limited reading time she is still doing very well.

We are doing well with the vaccinations with over 40's now able to book an appointment, the problem with the EU is that they took their eye off the ball and then having to deal with 27 nations it slowed things down. If there is one good thing for us being out of the EU (We both voted to remain) is that Boris did the one good thing and ordered lots of vaccines. Apart from this, he is a complete waste of time and the mess he has got himself in because of money (or in his case, the lack of it as he has an expensive divorce to pay for and Princess Pushy to maintain) may cause his downfall especially with the local, mayoral and Council elections this week.

Ursula Von der Leyen wants to blame everyone else for the lack of Vaccine supplies, this means threatening court action against the drug companies, having a go at the UK to try and ease the heat on her. We have contracts with drug companies which were placed well before anyone else and they have to be honoured despite what she thinks, even her predecessor thinks she is a prat for the way she is going about things, for once i am with Juncker.

On the sporting front what a result for Yorkshire, getting another victory by one run, only the second time in its history this has happened and both in our lifetime mate. Gloucestershire chased down 348 against Leicestershire and Notts, Surrey and Durham had big wins yesterday. I really am enjoying the County Championship this year.

I was sad that the Man Utd V Liverpool game was postponed and abhor the fact that fans managed to get onto the pitch but as a lot of commentators said, it is the only way for the Glazers to get the message that they are not wanted and all they have done is burdened the club with debt and bled it dry. This is not the end of the protests but i don't think an invasion of the ground will happen again.

Hope you, Hani and the family have had a good weekend mate, we have had a decent one although Karen was working yesterday and she is in tomorrow for the Bank Holiday Monday. The forecast is for heavy rain so families will think where can we go on this Bank Holiday, i know, that well known tourist spot, Asda. Karen is not looking forward to her shift.

Sending love and hugs to you all from both of us mate.

>258 johnsimpson: That is a post to your teeth into, John!

GB has done well with its vaccination programme and credit where due. I will never be a Tory or a fan of our shock-haired PM and it seems to me that the actual pandemic itself could have been handled much better but at least the government did some things (hardly political) right. The EC on the other hand have made a mess of things and the useless and unaccountable commission does not make much of a case for us to seek re-entry.

I'm pretty sure that BJ has broken the ministerial code whatever that is but the over-spending on the Prime Minister's apartment renovations and who paid for it isn't a matter of much concern for me coming from a country where the outgoing PM was caught with more than £25 million in cash in his house after the election.

Yorkshire cannot keep scraping home like that but it was marvellous that they have been able to do so twice in a row now. A one run margin for the first time since 1976 and only the second time ever. The cricket has been fantastic to date this "summer".

Understand the Man Utd fans but it is really a little late as the Glazer's are not, unless the rules are changes, obliged to sell up and go.

Have a great bank holiday weekend mate.

So happy to see that you loved Life of Pi - it's definitely a stand-out favorite for me, too.

Congrats on getting vaccine appointments! Happy they opened up for you!

>260 scaifea: Really, really good, Amber. We often concur but that one was a no-brainer.

>261 thornton37814: Happy but nervous at the same time, Lori!

>259 PaulCranswick:
A friend of mine and I were talking about the EU's problems with getting the COVID vaccinations just yesterday. She and her husband were hoping to go to Europe this summer to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They opted to go to Hawaii because they felt they couldn't trust that the numbers of vaccinated people would be high enough. When I came home I did a bit of computer searching regarding vaccination in the EU and in GB.

I find your take on the EC and the British vaccination policies interesting. I think that all of the governments all around the world did a very bad job with this pandemic. Vaccination does not give immunity. It merely keeps the majority of people from having a morbid case of COVID. The actual pandemic was mishandled by every government all over the planet. In my view the only reason why GB got its vaccine was because it owned the company that made the vaccine from which they decided to make their purchase. It isn't a stretch to understand why GB got all of its vaccine when AstraZeneca's headquarters is in Cambridge, England.

I also wonder why the country with the largest pharmaceutical production capacity is facing the worst crisis with COVID. I am talking about India here. According to a Reuters article written in December 2020 India produces 60% of all vaccines sold around the globe. In that same article it stated that India's largest pharmaceutical company will be producing the AstraZeneca vaccine. The article did not say what percentage of the AstraZeneca vaccine Serum Institute of India (SII) would be producing, but India had ordered 400 million vaccine doses from several vaccine producing companies in India and AstraZeneca was one of the companies.

It is also interesting that the EU is the world's largest exporter of all pharmecutals world wide.

I found this interesting article about SII that was broadcast on the U.S.'s NPR which is a trustworthy news source here in the U.S.https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/18/978065736/indias-role-in-covid-19-vaccine-production-is-getting-even-bigger

Somebody is making a pile of money off of COVID and I would place money on the fact that AstraZeneca is one of the monetary winners. I am also not sure that Boris Johnson and company had anything to do with the success of the vaccination program in GB or the failure of the EU program.

>263 benitastrnad: I'm sorry, Benita, but that slightly misconceives what I was saying.

Britain is doing better than the EU with vaccinations. period. Had we stayed within it we would have been forced to make our deal for the vaccine as a collective as the EU did and undoubtedly we would have vaccinated less of our citizens.

I am not a cheer leader for vaccines and I do think we have been pushed towards them like it or not and yes big Pharma is gaining from this big big time. I am very conflicted about taking my own vaccine and wish that another way had been found to confound this epidemic but alas. If I want to travel back to UK and elsewhere I am going to be forced as is everyone else to have the vaccine.

The EU countries do export the most vaccines despite the fact that it owns very few of the rights to any of it because a large amount of it is made within its confines. Its problems are rooted in the fact that collectively via its unelected commission it prevaricated rather than acting in the best interests of its citizens and didn't place timely orders for vaccines. This too is a fact.

India is an enormous problem and I have Indian colleagues at work who are stranded and cannot travel home to be with their loved ones right now. The biggest problem they are facing - and it is far more immediately dangerous than vaccine distribution is that fact that medicinal oxygen has run out in some areas and some countries - notably Singapore and the UK have assisted them quickly in trying to address this.

Distribution of vaccine will be tough in India as anybody who has been there (I have several times) knows full well but the Indians are a resourceful and brilliant people and I am sure that they will find a way. Its government is trying hard to secure the necessary stocks and - as you point out - it probably has ample presently within its borders. If it impounds it and this could happen, believe me, then the rest of the world's response will be interesting.

From the beginning people like Bill Gates were banging on about the need to innoculate the world and he was buying specialist pharma companies in expectation of this years ahead of time. I don't know Mr. Gates and I am not going to ascribe motives to him - good or bad - to which I have no way of knowing - but he and the other parties involved stand to make a lot of money from this.

I am also the last person in the world who will sing the praises of Boris Johnson and you are right in that I don't see a single government coming out of this pandemic with much credit (NZ maybe?) but facts are facts and, as I said from the very beginning this should not be made an issue of politics.

>264 PaulCranswick: Do not worry about the vaccine Paul. I have had both pfizer doses. Minimal effects. Virtually all my friends have had J&J, Pfizer or Moderna and not a one has had ill effects. California despite some troubles at times has done a good job to get people vaccinated and the plunging rates of hospitalization are clear evidence that it works. The rare side effects of the vaccines are just that - rare. Extremely rare as far as I can tell. Frankly I am all in favor of requiring vaccination for travel - the reason it spread so fiercely at least where I live was all the international (and regular) travel that goes on here.

>264 PaulCranswick: The only thing I had was a mild pain in my arm where the first shot went in. That lasted for about a day and then it was gone. I did not even have a bruise there.

>265 RBeffa: I am a little scared, Ron, for two reasons. Firstly it is the Astra-Zeneca jab that has had some issues with clotting and secondly I today lost a very close and dear friend - a Mongolian lady who took a cosmetic injection on 23 April. Her english is poor so I called her an ambulance 26 April as she was starting to feel unwell with shortness of breath and, of course, everybody suspected COVID.

She was negative for COVID but developed an embolism as a result of the injection and died today due to multiple organ failure. Hani took me to the hospital this morning because she had gone into cardiac arrest at 3.50 am but they revived her but unfortunately she passed away at 4 pm. I spent the evening at the hospital sorting out her arrangements and settling the hospital bill. Poor kid had no family here and only a very, very distraught mum in Ulan Bataar. She was a beautiful little thing with flashing eyes and full of life and I had to say goodbye to her in the mortuary this evening all because of an injection gone wrong.

It took Hani and I a long time to reconcile some of the slightly unorthodox relationships we both have (platonically) with other people. I am devastated today - I pulled Manda from a very hard life and set her to school with a view to doing her own business - but I could never persuade her that she didn't need any help to look herself.

I'm rambling Ron, but I will be getting the vaccine as I don't see the alternative of not doing so as a palatable one in terms of overseas travel etc.

>266 connie53: I'm glad that you didn't have any noticeable side-effects, Connie.

I didn't read a page today. Didn't seem important somehow.

I am so grateful to my rock of a wife today who always understands eventually. Please cherish each other.

Deepest sympathies, Paul.

>267 PaulCranswick: Sorry to read about your friend. What a devastating loss.

Good luck with the vaccine, Paul. And I am very sorry to hear about your friend passing. These are not easy times. Big hugs my friend.

My impression is that the way vaccines are manufactured often uses ingredients from different countries and that is making us all very interdependent.

Oh Paul, I'm so sorry for your loss. No wonder you did not feel like reading, you were to busy organizing your friends things. I can imagine your feelings towards shots are not getting any better by her death. Just take some time for your self and for Hani. My thoughts are with you both.

>267 PaulCranswick: That young woman is really a sad loss.

What is a "cosmetic injection?"

>267 PaulCranswick: I am so sorry Paul. A possibly poor injection. That was my one worry here and why we went to a medical center. I understand close platonic relationships also. Understand why you would be hesitant now. The A-Z vaccine has been widely used in Europe tho (I thought). Take care.

>270 humouress: Thank you, Nina

>271 elkiedee: Thanks, Luci. It is indeed devastating.

>272 Berly: Thank you, Kimmers

>273 elkiedee: We are very much a global village nowadays, Luci.

I just found out that although I booked my jab on the online app, I had not properly registered with the government app that was a pre-cursor to it. Upshot is that Hani has her jab confirmed on 26th May and mine isn't.

>274 connie53: I have to sort through her meagre possessions in the coming day(s) and, amongst other things, select a dress for her funeral service. The service will be including a teams function to allow the family in Mongolia to participate without travelling.

>275 m.belljackson: I am sad, Marianne. The injection involved "filler" to her buttock.

>276 RBeffa: It is mainly a feeling for today, Ron. I'm sure that the vaccine will be fine.

Hi Paul, so sorry to hear about your friend, how awful. I agree it was not a reading day for you mate.

>281 johnsimpson: You knew the backstory better than anyone else in the group, John, as I remember us discussing the young lady and the challenges I was then facing sitting in the Red Kite car park.

Things evolved over time since then but I am shattered today, mate.

So sad to read about the loss of your friend, Paul.
(((hugs)))

>283 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita. x

>267 PaulCranswick: Sorry to hear of the death of your friend Paul. It sounds like she was far too young to go.

I think the jabs do come with potentially some long term risk, due to the much shortened research period - so we don't know what those might be, but I had mine in that knowledge, as this awful virus is so contagious. I had AZ with mild side effects for the first, and just a little tiredness after the second.

>267 PaulCranswick: What a tragic loss. I am so very sorry for you, Hani and your friend.

>285 Caroline_McElwee: She was far too young, Caroline. One of the things that upset me the most was that she did not comprehend what her illness was and her last messages to me were asking me to help find out what the problem was and explain it to her. She was in an induced coma already before I was able to do that.

I think that the risks are clear with te vaccines but are such that on the balance of probability we can make an informed decision.

>286 quondame: Thank you, Susan.

So sorry for your loss, Paul. You are a good friend and how fortunate she was to have you there for her, especially having no one else close.

Sorry for your loss, Paul :(

I'm very sorry to hear this bad news, Paul, that is a terrible loss. My condolences.

>288 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley. I felt particularly useless at the weekend being unable to do anything at all to help her.

>289 bell7: Thanks Mary. x

>290 ebeeb: Thank you, Elizabeth. Life is so fleeting.

I'm so sorry about the loss of your friend Paul. Such a tough time for so many.

>293 brenzi: Thank you, dear Bonnie.