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.
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!
I read the complete book over ten days. Which three?
The three you sent me!!
Haha, of course!
What an interesting list of books! It seems like a mix of travel, natural history, and social themes. Venice Sketchbook sounds particularly captivating, especially after your trip. The variety of genres is impressive, from memoirs to poetry. How do you decide which books to keep and which to pass on?
I just found your comment in the spam folder, so my apologies for the delay in replying.
Thank you! Both Venice Sketchbooks were lovely, but the Scarry book was particually beautiful. I tend to select those to keep that have meant something to me after I have read them.