March 2025 Review

A bit of a delay in publishing this as we have been in Venice for a few days and it was v’nice. I did manage to read 14 books in March, a weird selection as ever and here they are:

 

Books Read

London Made Us: A Memoir Of A Shape-Shifting City – Robert Elms

Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty – Nikita Gill

The Garden Against Time: In Search Of A Common Paradise – Olivia Laing

Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories – DC Helmuth

Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It – Craig Taylor

Iceland: Small World – Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson

What An Owl Knows: The New Science Of The World’s Most Enigmatic Birds – Jennifer Ackerman

The Company of Owls – Polly Atkin

Raising Hare – Chloe Dalton

Venice Sketchbook – Tudy Sammartini

The Alternatives – Caoilinn Hughes

The Penguin Classics book – Henry Eliot

Three-Quarters Of A Footprint: Travels in South India – Joe Roberts

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Venice Sketchbook: Impressions, Seasons, Encounters & Pigeons – Huck Scarry

 

Top Genres

Travel – 7

Fiction – 6

Natural History – 5

Photography – 4

Social History – 3

 

Top Publishers

Picador – 3

Eland – 3

English Heritage – 2

Granta – 2

Canongate – 2

 

Review Copies Received

Wild Galloway: From the Hilltops to the Solway, a Portrait of a Glen – Ian Carter

 

Library Books Checked Out

Raising Hare – Chloe Dalton

The Aternatives – Caoilinn Hughes

Collected Poems – Wendy Cope

The North Pole: The History Of An Obsession – Erling Kagge

 

Books Bought

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for March:

March Books in: 34

March Books out: 36 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!)

Some of these were for selling on. I kept these below:

Homesick: Why I Live in a Shed – Catrina Davies

Iceland: Small World – Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson (Now pass on too)

Woodlands – Anne Horsfall

That Awkward Age: Poems – Roger McGough (Signed)

John Clare – John Clare Selected by Paul Farley

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art Of Accomplishment Without Burnout – Cal Newport

The Curious Life of the Cuckoo – John Lewis-Stempel (Signed)

Chasing Fog: Finding Enchantment in a Cloud – Laura Pashby

Church Poems – John Betjeman

Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar – Chantal Lyons (Signed)

Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City – Bradley Garrett

The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris―The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century – Kassia St Clair

A Bull On The Beach – Anna Nicholas

Greenbanks – Dorothy Whipple

On the Spine of Italy: A Year in the Abbruzzi – Harry Clifton

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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3 Comments

  1. Liz Dexter

    Hang on – you read the whole Henry Eliot Penguin Classics book? or have you been reading it for months? I’m making glacial progress on the Penguin MODERN Classics one … Also, yes, there are three on your list I am looking foward to reading!

    • Paul

      I read the complete book over ten days. Which three?

  2. Liz Dexter

    The three you sent me!!

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