What have you recently finished reading?
I’ve mostly only found time for reading poetry at the moment, now I’m back at work and catching up on stuff. So yesterday I fit in reading Chris McCabe’s Hedonism, a collection which I chose to read believing I wouldn’t really like it (based on the blurb). True enough, there were a bunch of poems I didn’t get or didn’t really like, but there were also a number I really liked, and lines in ones I didn’t like that I still thought were superb. I couldn’t entirely tell you what “the self-hauntedness of Tony Blair” means, but it rings true all the same…
What are you currently reading?
I’m working my way through Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems at a pace of a couple of chapters a day, during breaks. I’m really enjoying it, both the chapters on poems I know well (like ‘The Battle of Maldon’, large chunks of which I translated during my undergrad English Lit degree) and ones I know less well, like one written during the war between Stephen and Matilda.
I’ve also started reading Syou Ishida’s We’ll Prescribe You A Cat, which I’m enjoying well enough — so far it feels very of a piece with books like Before the Coffee Gets Cold in style, audience and intent, and thus not quite 100% my thing, but something I can appreciate for what it is all the same.
What will you be reading next?
No idea. I’ve been struggling to devote much time to reading at the moment, during my time off and especially now with more limited time during work. Scheduling breaks for reading time during work seems to help, but it’s a sadly fragmentary way of reading. Not sure where my reading mojo went, but I’m also not going to try to twist my own arm about it.
Most likely I’ll read another collection of poetry by Mimi Khalvati, or something else randomly chosen from the National Poetry Library’s available online loans.
It sure can be tough to fit reading into our schedule when said schedule is already packed with draining obligations! Hope your next book turns out to be a great book nonetheless! 🙂
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Here’s hoping! Not sure why reading’s been so difficult lately, but presumably I’ll come out of the other side sooner or later, ahaha. Thanks for dropping by!
this bok about England poems sounds great!
I was super disappointed by the Japanese cat book.
Last #book I finished: Moi Fadi le frère volé, by #RiadSattouf
Amreading: Guilt, by #KeigoHigashino
Amlistening to: That Hideous Strength, by #CSLewis
TBR Reading next: The Chinese Maze Murders, by #RobertVanGulik
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I’m finding it okay so far, though I’m only ~40 pages in! Nothing too surprising, very typical of this genre of translated fiction, but alright.
I do like the idea of reading poetry when you’ve not really got time to read much else, and I’m somewhat doing the same at the moment with Poyums. I’ve got quite a few poetry books on my shelves, some read and some not, so maybe I should do a poetry recommendations post as some point this year! I would be interested to see what your poetry recommendations are – definitely let me know if you’ve already made a post on that before or I’d love to see one in the future!
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It’s been way too long since I read poetry consistently enough to have reliable recommendations! I’ve always enjoyed Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry — I reread a few of them last year and reviewed them, like my favourite collection Rapture… but nothing more organised so far.
Since I live in the UK, I get free access to the National Poetry Library, so I’ve been diving in by just picking random books in their collection. It’s been surprisingly fun, even when I picked one I thought I’d really dislike!
I’ve been distracted lately too with other things and not having as much time to read, so I know how you feel. I hope you get your mojo back soon!
Fingers crossed for both of us!
I love that you read poetry. This is a genre I would like to read more of, and now I know where to find recommendations 🙂
The last book I read was Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain anymore, apparently, my previous and next books are both witch-oriented, I guess I am rolling with the witches this month LOL
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