Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings

Generally, when it comes to March, I find myself in a state of stress; up until this year, I’ve always been dealing with financial year ends and budgets and everything has been frantic. Due to changes of status and new systems at work, that’s no longer the case – which in many ways is something of a relief. However, I *have* been learning how to use more than one completely new software system and a variety of new processes, which has been rather tiring. So this month I found myself reading compulsively as a form of distraction from all of this technical stuff, and I think this is possibly the most I’ve read in one month for many years – here’s an image of the books…

Yes, there are an awful lot of them and yes many of them still have to be reviewed! In case the image isn’t clear, here are the details:

Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg
Provincial Daughter by R.M. Dashwood
The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs
Pull My Daisy by Jack Kerouac
Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce
Stalin Ate My Homework by Alexei Sayle
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
Maigret and the Idle Burglar by Georges Simenon
The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
Retreat from Love by Colette
Claudine and Annie by Colette
Claudine Married by Colette
Between Two Worlds by Arthur Machen
The Expelled and Other Novella by Samuel Beckett
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin
The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
The Tower by W.B. Yeats
Shriver by Chris Belden
Letters and Notebooks by Gwen John
Ezra Pound by Peter Ackroyd

There’s quite a range of different types of books there, which I’m always pleased about, and I did manage to read for three different events this month: Reading Ireland, Reading Wales and March Magics. The one book I had trouble with was the Machen, and I didn’t read all of it; what I did was interesting and I enjoyed his style, but the subject matter began to get a bit wearing towards the end so I stopped reading. But most of the titles were real treats, whether re-reads or brand new books, and I’ll be catching up with reviews of them all over the next few months. A lovely month of reading and my bookish mojo is on fire at the moment!

So what of April? Well of course I shall be co-hosting with Simon the #1961Club, a week where we read, enjoy and share our thoughts on books from 1961!

This takes place from 13-19 April, and we would love it if you would join in with us! You can share on your blog, on social media of your choice, any other platform you use or simply leave us a comment. I will have a dedicated page on my blog for the club and I’ll look forward to hearing about your reading. 1961 is a really interesting year, with a range of very different options, so lots of scope – and you still have time to get reading for it!

Apart from 1961, I have a few review copies coming up during the month and I shall also be following my moods. I watched some TV interviews with Julian Barnes last week and felt the urge to pick up some of his books from the pile I have on the TBR; and there are always plenty of options lurking around the house.

What about you? Was your March a good reading month for you, and do you have plans for April? I always love to hear about what people are reading and do hope you’ll join us for 1961! ☺📚

Well, March seems to have whizzed by as quickly as February – at least from my point of view! That could well be because I continued to have some demanding work issues to deal with, but at least the Easter break is in sight. I did read some really interesting books during the month, though, and here they are:

In case the spines aren’t clear, the books are:

Ceilings by Zuzana Brabcova
Nothing Grows by Moonlight by Torborg Nedreaas
Stories for Summer and days by the pool by Various
October Nights by Gerard de Nerval (in the collection of his Selected Writings)
Friends and Relations by Elizabeth Bowen
Fear Stalks the Village by Ethel Lina White
Claudine in Paris by Colette
Byron and Shelley by John Buxton
Sodom and Gomorrah by Proust
Emile Zola by Rachel Bowlby

This was such an interesting month of reading! I certainly went down a rabbit hole with French authors, and the books of Nerval, Colette and Proust were a wonderful and unforgettable experience; the forthcoming title on Zola was also fascinating. There’s also some lovely women’s writing in the pile, from classic 20th century stories to some invigorating women in translation. Plus two wonderful titles for country based challenges. So March was a success for me – no duds, although I did have some reservations about the Byron/Shelley book which I’ll highlight in the forthcoming review.

I also managed to squeeze in a little visit to London on Saturday, to meet up with my old pal J. and take in the Tirzah Garwood exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. It was a lovely show – her artwork, particularly the later oil paintings, is quite stunning. We also managed to fit in visits to L. Cornelissen (the oldest art shop in London), Muji, LRB Bookshop and Foyles amongst others – here are the spoils, and I think I was very restrained! It was lovely to have a day out in the Big Smoke, though as always it was desperately crowded, and I found myself growling at the nasty architectural changes…

So what’s coming up in April? Well, of course, this is the month the next Club Reading Week takes place  – this time it’s for the year of 1952!

This takes place from 21st to 27th April; if you’re new to these, the Club Reading Weeks are low-pressure events, co-hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and myself. Basically we choose a year between 1920 and 1980 (because that’s a period we enjoy!) and encourage everyone to read, share, review and comment on any book from the year in question; you can get involved as much or as little as you like. You could read one book or several; as I said, it’s low pressure and you have a wide choice of reading matter! As always, I will have a dedicated page for the club where I’ll share links to other people’s posts and reviews.

As you can see from the small pile above, I have a number of titles lurking in the stacks as possibilities (this was just the first few which came to hand!), and it does look to be a really interesting year for books. The hard bit, as always, is going to be choosing from all the options. So please do join in – we so look forward to hearing about what you decide to read and share, and the events are always great fun!

Apart from Club reading, I also have some review books to catch up on; and I shall continue to follow the reading whims as they hit me. With the warmer weather and the lighter nights, I have no excuse not to sit up late reading! What about you? Was March a good reading month for you, and are you planning to join in with 1952?? 😀😀

As I’ve probably mentioned in the past, March is a particularly busy and difficult month for me at work, and so I do tend to try to tailor my reading to things which don’t stress me too much! However, this year I’ve felt relatively in control; and I have managed to get in some wonderful books, as you can see from this lovely pile!

I’m pleased to report that there were once again no duds! Some of these titles (the Cholmeley, Kadare and Montaigne) were read for Shiny New Books; the Montaigne is now live and the others are to come. Apart from those, there’s a nice mixture of fiction (Murray, Brennan, Crofts, Carnac, Calvino and Kobrin) and non-fiction (Woolf, two examples of the wonderful Jean Cocteau, Clive James). I have to point out that I only read one of the collections contained in the Anne Sexton volume, which was really marvellous, and I do hope to keep up with poetry reading.

This month, of course, sees the next reading event in the year clubs I co-host with Simon at Stuck in a Book, and this time we’re focusing on books from 1937. If you’ve not joined in with these before, basically we read whatever book(s) we fancy from the year in question, and share thoughts about them wherever we have a platform – on a blog, Goodreads, Instagram or even in the comments of either of our blogs. It’s a relaxed event, where you can read as many or as few books as you like, and share whatever you feel happy with. The main thing is to have fun reading and commenting, and it’s also marvellous to share titles people might not have come across before. I will have a dedicated page on my site to provide links to people’s reviews, and Simon will link on his blog too. So do join in – the clubs are such fun.

And part of the fun of these events is always making piles of possibilities! When doing a little research, not only did I find that I’d read a lot of titles from 1937 already, I also discovered a lot of books in the stacks that would be great reads/re-reads – and here are some of them!

1937 was, of course, a wonderful year for Golden Age crime and the picture above is just a few of the possible titles. They’re all very tempting; some would be re-reads, such as the Sayers and Christie, whereas the Mitchell and Lorac are new to me. Once again, it would be possible to do all my reading for 1937 in the genre of GA crime. Decisions, decisions…

However, there are also plenty of non-crime titles from the year, and this little pile is very interesting. Some would be re-reads – the Orwell, the Woolf and the Stein in particular. I’m not sure if I’ve read the Williams or not, and I’m pretty sure that Lewis, Jones and Byron would be new to me. Hmmph. How to choose??

And after I’d dug out these I did a bit more investigating and came up with some other titles:

As I so often find, there are so many books from the year we choose that I’d like to read that we could easily do a fortnight instead of a week! It’s going to be incredibly difficult to whittle these down to a maximum of six!!

Anyway, I suspect much of my reading this month will involve some of these titles for the #1937Club and I do hope you’ll join in. It’s such fun seeing what others are reading and discovering new books – very bad for the TBR! 😊📚

Well, I always seem to get to the end every month and wonder quite where it’s gone… And although March was a wee bit longer than February, it really did seem to whizz by! Part of that is because in Real Life I am in one of my busiest times of the year, and so the days are never long enough. However, despite that, I continued with my very focused reading and have loved and enjoyed some wonderful titles during March – here they are:

March’s reads – excuse the glare!! Not shown are three e-reads!!

I am most definitely on a roll with my reading as there wasn’t a dud amongst them, and there was a wonderful mixture of familiar authors and books, plus ones which were completely new to me. A particular treat was rediscovering the brilliance of Calvino’s “Marcovaldo“; reconnecting with Penelope Lively was a joy; and Kafka’s fragments were fascinating. The slim Tom Pickard volume housed a wonderful treat (review to follow) and really it was a marvellously varied and enjoyable month of books!

As you might have picked up from some of the titles in the images, I have been starting to get my head around the #1940Club and what to read for that… I *might* be reading a little in advance – ahem – but that does mean I’ll be sure to fit in the titles I want to share for the week as I am still very much playing catch up with reviews. Look forward to seeing what everyone reads!

Apart from covering books from 1940, my plans for April are quite loose. I have a number of review books pending, but also plenty of piles of tempting titles to browse through. With the advent of spring, I am feeling drawn to nature books; and am also keen to explore some of my Carcanet Press poetry collections – the photo above features a delicious pile of possibilities of both. Not sure what I will alight upon next, but watch this space. Will you be joining in with 1940? And do you have plans for April reading??