Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Blogging, rereading, catching up

My blogging has slowed down since the New Year as I find I'm in the mood for rereading & trying to catch up with some of the many magazines & journals I subscribe to but never seem to read. I reread Gaudy Night last weekend for at least the tenth time but I've already blogged about it here. I've also reread Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time which I posted about here. I'm also planning to reread Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth as I've been reading lots of reviews & articles about the new movie version & I'd like to read the book again before the movie is released. I especially enjoyed this article about Brittain & two other novelists who were profoundly affected by the War - Naomi Mitchison & Rebecca West. I'm much more enthusiastic about West's novel, The Return of the Soldier, than the author of the article although I haven't read much more of her work. I think it's a remarkable novel about a man suffering from shell shock & the women in his life. It was made into a movie in the 80s with Glenda Jackson, Julie Christie & Alan Bates.

I'm reading Fortunata and Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós for my 19th century bookgroup. I'm enjoying it very much but we're reading 100pp instalments every week & the print in this Penguin edition is very small... Galdos was the Spanish Dickens or Balzac. If I'd grown up in Spain I would no doubt have read one of his novels instead of Great Expectations but he's barely known in the English speaking world & only a few of his novels are in print. Dani at A Work in Progress recently reviewed another of his novels, Tristana.



I love magazines & my library subscribes to Zinio so I have access to lots of wonderful magazines. The only trouble is finding time to read them. Here's just some of my 2014 magazines yet unread.

And here are this year's already piling up. Well, they're piling up in a digital way. Is there a word for that?


At least they're invisible. Here are the physical magazines & journals weighing down the coffee table.

I'd like to do some reading around a couple of anniversaries this year. I've already mentioned my Year of Carol Shields but it's also the 200th anniversary of Anthony Trollope's birth & the 75th anniversary of John Buchan's death. I've started on Trollope by reading John Caldigate & I have lots of books by both authors on the tbr shelves.

I've started the year well in terms of not buying books. As I'm rereading, I don't need to buy books, do I? Well, that's the theory & so far it's working. I do still have a few preorders that will arrive over the next few months & there are some very tempting books published this year so I may find myself putting in an order around my birthday. How else would I celebrate? The Penguin Monarchs series is very tempting - short biographies of every British monarch from Athelstan to Elizabeth II. The first six titles have just been published. I'm especially looking forward to John Guy on Henry VIII (one of the first six), Rosemary Horrox on Richard III, Helen Castor on Elizabeth I, Clare Jackson on Charles II & Jane Ridley on Queen Victoria.

The next Crime Writers Association anthology, edited by Martin Edwards, looks fascinating as it's true crime written by the Golden Age authors & in May, Martin's book about the Golden Age authors will be published (I confess, I've already preordered this one). Also in April is John Ashdown-Hill's book on the reputation of Richard III. Alison Weir's next subject is Margaret Douglas, mother of Lord Darnley & at one time, heir to the throne when her uncle, Henry VIII, had disinherited his own daughters. The Brontë Cabinet by Deborah Lutz is a biography of the family through the objects they owned. Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë is due in October, just in time for the 200th anniversary celebrations next year. Lucasta Miller (author of The Brontë Myth) is writing a biography of Victorian poet, LEL, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, & I read somewhere that it may be published this year as well. That's probably enough to be going on with!

So, I may be blogging less than usual but I'll still be reading just as much.

16 comments:

  1. I'm so excited to see Testament of Youth! I read the first third of the book last year before something else pulled me away but with all the talk about the film..it's coming off the shelf again.

    Home Front should be back again today. Can't help picturing Kitty hanging baby things in front of a fireplace to dry. This next series had better be good...I'll check in with you later, Lyn.

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    1. TOY is one of my favourite books, I've read it 3 or 4 times since I saw the TV series in the early 80s. I'm a bit dubious about the movie but I know I'll have to see it. Home Front... I'm still a bit surprised that they would change locations like that. I hope we still like it. I listen to the omnibus at the weekend so I'll be waiting with bated breath.

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  2. Ooh, you have the Folio edition of Gaudy Night. I am coveting that. And I have so many magazines to get through! I'm afraid to even get into digital subscriptions.

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    1. Yes, the Folio edition is lovely. I have a boxset of GN, Nine Tailors, Strong Poison, Have His Carcase & Murder Must Advertise. It was one of their special $9.95 deals years ago. I'm still waiting for the other boxset to be offered up at a bargain price to complete the series.Even if I read one magazine a day, I'd still never keep up. I don't want to drop any subs though... it's a neverending problem but not a bad problem to have.

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  3. You've piqued my curiosity with several of those titles Lyn. If you do blog a bit less so you can read more who can argue? But do keep us up to date with you and the girls, please. :)

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    1. Always, Rose. I took a lovely photo of Phoebe asleep in a flower pot last weekend. I'll post it at the weekend. We're all enjoying the lovely cool weather we've had lately although it looks set to end on Friday with a week of 30ish temperatures forecast. It's been perfect reading weather.

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  4. You blow me away by the sheer diversity and exuberance of your reading! How can you keep up?

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    1. Ah, but I'm not keeping up, that's the problem! I don't really mind though as I'd hate to have nothing to read. I just wish I had more reading time.

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  5. Several years ago, my ex-dental hygienist, who is from Spain, told me about Galdos, describing him as a Spanish Charles Dickens. I haven't read any of his novel yet, but it looks like he's gaining in popularity in America. I hope more of his novels will be available in English because my one year of high school Spanish won't see me through a novel!

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    1. I think there are only a couple available in translation, Misericordia (I read this with the 19th century group a few years ago & enjoyed it), F&J and Tristana which has just been published by New York Review Books. Dani at A Work in Progress reviewed it here,
      http://tinyurl.com/lgrd5wk

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  6. Sayers, Tey and Return of the Soldier (both book and film) are all favourites... did you by chance see Glenda Jackson as Stevie Smith ? A memorable TV film that I'd be able to name if my memory extended to titles as well as images ..darn it!

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    1. I do remember Glenda Jackson in that film. Wasn't it just called Stevie? It was, I just looked it up. Mona Washbourne as Stevie's Aunt was also very memorable.

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  7. I'm hoping to get to TOY before the movie. It sounds like my cup of tea.
    Struggling with the blogging life is also something I'm experiencing right now too - trying to get the balance between home life, work, reading, social life, blogging and all the other stuff is harder than usual!
    Good luck with all your reading plans.

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    1. I often feel this way at the beginning of the year. Usually it's because it's summer & I don't enjoy hot weather but I don't have that excuse this year as summer so far has been quite subdued. Let's hope we both get our blogging mojo back soon.

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  8. Lyn, you inspire me to read from my shelves! I love to reread, and have been meaning to get around to Sayers and Tey again. Vera Brittain is one of my favorite writers. I like her novels, too. Book blogging is fun, but it's nice sometimes to blog less. We have to refresh ourselves in order to write.

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    1. Thanks Kat. I wrote a post about Royal Escape yesterday that will appear tomorrow & I enjoyed it. I think I just put pressure on myself to keep reading new books to write about & I realise that I'd missed my yearly rereads of my old favourites.

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