Category: Book Musings (Page 7 of 29)

For those that follow this blog, and I know it isn’t many of you, you’ll know that I am a big fan of non-fiction. So this November I am kind of joining in with Non-Fiction November. This is run by A Book Olive who can be found here and here and in various other places over the interweb.

The aim of the challenge is for those taking part to read one, yes, one no-fiction book during the month of November. Should you want to so more she has generated four prompts that you can interpret in any way you chose to pick a suitable book. The prompts this year are:

Fraud

Web

Capital

Display

I have no idea what I would choose for those! Must explore my TBR to see what I could find

For the first week I am here to talk about my year in non-fiction. I have so far read 161 books in 2023 and 105 of those have been non-fiction.

These are the subjects so far:

Natural History – 21
Travel – 21
Memoir – 11
History – 7
Art – 4
Environmental – 4
Politics – 4
Photography – 3
Archaeology – 2
Dorset – 2
Miscellaneous – 2
Britain – 2
Maths – 2
Science – 2
Mental Health – 2
Gardening – 2
Weather – 2
Technology – 2
Social History – 2
Economics – 2
Food – 1
Biography – 1
Architecture – 1
Books – 1

Of those, there have been some cracking books:

Restoring The Wild: Sixty Years of Rewilding Our Skies, Woods and Waterways – Roy Dennis
Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide – Bill McGuire
England on Fire: A Visual Journey through Albion’s Psychic Landscape – Stephen Ellcock& Mat Osman
Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them – Dan Saladino
The Bookseller’s Tale – Martin Latham
The Lost Orchards: Redicovering The Forgotten Cider Apples Of Dorset – Liz Copas & Nick Poole
Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval – Gaia Vince
Two Lights: Walking through Landscapes of Loss and Life – James Roberts
One Place De L’Eglise: A Year Or Two In A French Village – Trevor Dolby
Notes from the Cévennes: Half a Lifetime in Provincial France – Adam Thorpe
The Serpent Coiled in Naples – Marius Kociejowski
The Lost Rainforests Of Britain – Guy Shrubsole
Taking Flight: A Celebration Of The Miraculous Phenomenon Of Flight – Lev Parikian
Real Dorset – Jon Woolcott
Between The Chalk And The Sea: A Journey On Foot Into The Past – Gail Simmons
Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender
The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten
Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew
The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham
La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel
Wild About Dorset: The Nature Diary of a West Country Parish – Brian Jackman
Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape – Henry Dimbleby
High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest In Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt
Rural: The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside – Rebecca Smith
Grounded: A Journey Into The Landscapes Of Our Ancestors – James Canton
The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey – Tim Hannigan
Life At Full Tilt: The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy – Dervla Murphy, Ed. Ethel Crowley

As you can probably tell, the two genres that I like, travel and natural history feature strongly in my favourites list too.

So let me know in the comments below if you are participating in Non-fiction November.

Are there any of the books in the list above that you really like the look of?

Does anybody know where October went? It just flew by and I nearly forgot to pull together my TBR for November. But with a bit of spreadsheet shuffling I now have one! Here it is:

September whizzed by as usual and I only managed to read 14 books for some reason. Not quite sure what happened as I started off really well too. So here they are along with the stats and the vast quantity of books that I bought…

Books Read

Wasteland – Oliver Franklin-Wallis – 4 Stars

The Lost Whale – Hannah Gold – 3 Stars

An Almost Impossible Thing – Fiona Davidson – 3.5 Stars

Some Of Us Just Fall – Polly Atkin – 3.5 Stars

Follow This Thread – Henry Eliot – 3.5 Stars

The Military Orchid – Jocelyn Brooke – 3.5 Stars

The Haw Lantern – Seamus Heaney – 3 Stars

Serious Concerns – Wendy Cope – 3.5 Stars

Follow The Money – Paul Johnson – 3.5 Stars

Reboot – Elaine Kasket – 3.5 Stars

Coast of Teeth – Tom Sykes – 4 Stars

Waypoints – Robert Martineau – 4 Stars

Wind – Louise M Pryke – 3.5 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

Ravenous – Henry Dimbleby – 4.5 Stars

Top Genres

Fiction – 27

Natural History – 18

Travel – 18

Poetry – 13

Memoir – 10

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Fantasy – 6

Art – 4

Environmental – 4

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 11

Penguin – 6

Little Toller – 6

Bloomsbury – 5

Simon & Schuster – 5

Jonathan Cape – 4

Elliott & Thompson – 3

Allen Lane – 3

William Collins – 3

Headline – 3

Review Copies Received

The Lure of Atlantis: Strange Tales from the Sunken Continent – Ed. Michael Wheatley

The Lost Flock: Rare Wool, Wild Isles and One Woman’s Journey to Save Scotland’s Original Sheep – Jane Cooper

The Christian Watt Papers: Memoirs of a Fraserburgh Fishwife – Christian Watt, Ed. David Fraser

The Narrow Smile: A Journey back to the Northwest Frontier – Peter Mayne

Nature Tales for Winter Nights – Ed. Nancy Campbell

Politics, But Better: An A – Z Guide to Creating a More Hopeful Future – Tatton Spiller

Human Being: 12 Vital Skills We’re Losing to Technology and How to Reclaim Them – Graham Lee

Yew – Fred Hageneder

Life At Full Tilt: The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy – Dervla Murphy, Ed. Ethel Crowley

Library Books Checked Out

Rural: The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside – Rebecca Smith

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest In Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

The Bridleway: How Horses Shaped The British Landscape – Tiffany Francis-Baker

Prophet – Helen Macdonald

Walking The Bones Of Britain: A 3 Billion Year Journey From The Outer Hebrides To The Thames Estuary – Christopher Somerville

Be a Birder: The joy of birdwatching and how to get started – Hamza Yassin

Books Bought

A Legacy Of Spies – John Le Carré – Signed

Shitstorm – Fernando Sdrigotti

Red Smoking Mirror – Nick Hunt –

Still Life in Milford: Poems – Thomas Lynch – Signed

Penguin Modern Poets, Series II #12 – Helen Dunmore, Jo Shapcott & Matthew Sweeney – Signed

Poetry on the Buses – Ed. Valerie Belsey & Candy Neubert –  – Signed

The Hero and the Girl Next Door – Sophie Hannah – Signed

Selling Manhattan – Carol Ann Duffy – Female – Signed

Foothold – Pam Zinnemann-Hope – Signed

Raw – Patience Agbabi – Signed

Penguin Modern Poets, Series II #9 – John Burnside, Robert Crawford & Kathleen Jamie

Drysalter – Michael Symmons Roberts

Selected Poems – Matthew Sweeney

A Smell Of Fish – Matthew Sweeney

The Rings Of Saturn: An English Pilgrimage

Chasing the Dram: Finding the Spirit of Whisky – Rachel McCormack –

Secret Places of West Dorset – Louise Hodgson

The Island Farmers – R. M Lockley

The Fossil Woman: A Life of Mary Anning – Tom Sharpe – Signed

Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan – Jamie Zeppa

Discover Dorset: Fossils – Richard Edmonds

Travels in a Strange State – Josie Dew

As the Women Lay Dreaming – Donald S. Murray

The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders – Ben Aitken

Megaliths and Their Mysteries: A Guide to the Standing Stones of Europe – Alastair Service & Jean Bradbery

A Second Chance at Eden – Peter F. Hamilton

Empireland: How Imperialism has Shaped Modern Britain – Sathnam Sanghera – Male

Clea – Lawrence Durrell – Male

Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils – David Farrier

The Old Straight Track: Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones – Alfred Watkins

The Farmer’s Wife: My Life in Days – Helen Rebanks

The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables – Adam Alexander

Walking With Nomads – Alice Morrison

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

Dorset Folk Tales – Tim Laycock – Male

Somerset Folk Tales – Sharon Jacksties

On the Slow Train Again: Twelve Great British Railway Journeys – Michael Williams

Round Ireland with a Fridge – Tony Hawks – Signed

Hothouse – Brian W. Aldiss

The Private Life of the Hare – John Lewis-Stempel

Tout Sweet: Hanging Up my High Heels for a New Life in France – Karen Wheeler

Pedalling to Hawaii: A Human-Powered Odyssey – Stevie Smith

Rowing After the White Whale: A Crossing of the Indian Ocean by Hand – James Adair

Bringing Down Goliath: How Good Law Can Topple the Powerful – Jolyon Maugham  – Signed

The Megalithic European: The 21st Century Traveller in Prehistoric Europe – Julian Cope

Any that you have read from that list – or want to now? Let me know in the comments below

I can’t believe that it is already October. It dawned on me on the 29th of September that I hadn’t even thought about my TBR for this month, even though I had created an outline plan for the final third of the year, so rapidly pulled this together last night. So here they are:

Still Reading

This is something that I have been meaning to do for absolutely ages. A tour of almost all my bookshelves that are around the house.

I have a fairly extensive collection and as I buy other books, I have ended up with the occasional duplicate. Sometimes this is accidental, but not always.

I apologise in advance for their untidiness and mayhem.

Bookshelf 1

This is where almost all of my Terry Pratchett books are, there are others upstairs.  He is joined by Neil Gaiman and then some travel and a few random genres. It is mostly tidy, but I need to read and clear some of here to make room for some extra Pratchett hardbacks. The Tsunduko on top are slightly out of hand…

Bookshelf 2

This started as a bookshelf to keep all the review copies that I have been sent and the plan was to have them in publication order so I could lay my hands on them quickly. I ended up stuffing books on there as I bought them and now it is a bit of a mess… At the moment there are all sorts of genres on here and it is double stacked so you can’t see the books behind.

Bookshelf 3

This is a newish bookshelf (from the fantastic people at shelfstore) and it is a mix of review books and others that I have found whilst book hunting. In front of it is a Tsunduko that is the same height as the desk with a right old mix of books too.

Bookshelf 4

This is one of four bookshelves that I had made by a guy close to where I worked in Addlestone. It is solid pine with fixed shelves and is really strong. Which is a good job as it is home to the substantial collection of cookery books that I (we) have. There are some American books that I bought from Brian and Cooking The Books years ago as well as books that we have inherited after family members have passed on.

Bookshelf 5

This is the latest bookshelf that was bought for me after Sarah complained about the number of books around the house. Promptly filled it and still have piles of books around the house…There is a mix of genres on here too, but the plan is to make it a travel / Dorset bookshelf as I sort and clear books out.

Bookshelf 6

Another shelfstore bookshelf that is tucked into the corner of the dining room. There is just travel books on here including most (but not all) of my Eland books.

Bookshelf 7

This is another of the commissioned bookshelf and this one lives in the conservatory. Again, a total mix of genres with one shelf of gardening books. A large number of these are to be read and passed on, but on the middle shelf on the second row are my Iain M Banks books and my Arthur Ransome books from childhood. This shelf has sun on it a lot of the day so some have faded.

Bookshelf 8

These are three billy bookshelves that contain almost all of my natural history and landscape books. There is a sofa now in front of one of them, so I can’t photograph that one. There are a few shelves that aren’t nature books, including one for poetry that is very nearly full, and three of just random stuff that I need to read and clear… There are even ornaments on this one!

Bookshelf 9

This is one of two bookshelves in our bedroom, the other has a lot of Sarah’s books and files on it so I haven’t photographed that. There are some of the bigger nature books on here, Flora Britannica and the like, as well as a random selection of genres, such as travel, fiction, science fiction and so on.

So there you have it. There are a couple of shelves of books that I haven’t photographed plus some odd piles here and there, but those are all my books.

There are several reasons for doing this:

1. To aid me in cataloguing all the books that I have (duplicates will be passed on so keep an eye on my Instagram page).

2. To give me the nudge that I need to sort and clear some of the books that I am never going to read

3. To give me a list of books that I want to read but that I don’t have any interest in keeping in my library.

4. And finally to be able to show you in around six to nine months, how much better they all look!

Even though I had a chunk of August off, it seemed to whizz by. Alas, I didn’t get as much read as I hoped either, but I did get my #20BooksOfSummer Reading challenge finished for the first time. It was an interesting reading month too, with a whole variety of fiction and some very interesting non-fiction too. So here is what I read and acquired in August:

Books Read

An Artist’s View of Jurassic Dorset – Richard Watkin – 3.5 Stars

The Invention Of Essex: The Making Of An English County – Tim Burrows – 4 Stars

Mayhem – Sarah Pinborough – 3.5 Stars

Hot Milk – Deborah Levy – 2.5 Stars

Year of the Golden Ape – Colin Forbes – 2.5 Stars

The Acid Test – Élmer Mendoza Tr. Mark Fried – 2.5 Stars

From a Low and Quiet Sea – Donal Ryan – 3 Stars

Nightingale – Marina Kemp – 3 Stars

Crow Court – Andy Charman – 3.5 Stars

A Perfect Explanation – Eleanor Anstruther – 3.5 Stars

A Flat Place: A Memoir – Noreen Masud – 4 Stars

One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts And The Story Of Life On Earth – Mark Cocker – 4 Stars

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats – T.S. Eliot – 3 Stars

All In: How We Build A Country That Works – Lisa Nandy – 3.5 Stars

Walking The Wharfe: An Ode to a Yorkshire River – Johno Ellison – 4 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

Wild About Dorset: The Nature Diary of a West Country Parish – Brian Jackman – 4.5 Stars

Top Genres

Fiction – 26

Natural History – 17

Travel – 16

Poetry – 11

Memoir – 9

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Fantasy – 6

Art – 4

Photography – 3

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 9

Penguin – 6

Bloomsbury – 5

Little Toller – 4

Simon & Schuster – 4

Jonathan Cape – 4

William Collins – 3

Granta – 3

Allen Lane – 3

Michael Joseph – 3

Review Copies Received

Freethinking: Protecting Freedom of Thought Amidst the New Battle for the Mind – Simon McCarthy-Jones

Interstellar Tours: A Guide to the Universe from Your Starship Window – Brian Clegg

Reboot: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World – Elaine Kasket

Library Books Checked Out

Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature And Not Getting Better – Polly Atkin

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape – Henry Dimbleby

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson

Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank – John Lister-Kaye

Follow The Money: How Much Does Britain Cost? – Paul Johnson

Rural: The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside – Rebecca Smith

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest In Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

Books Bought

Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World – Tim Harford

Lost Acre – Andrew Caldecott

Asusterlitz – W.G. Seabald Tr. Anthea Bell

How To Be A Domestic Goddess – Nigella Lawson (Signed)

The Unadulterated Cat – Terry Pratchett, Ill. Gray Jolliffe

Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted – Ian Ayres

Cold Fish Soup – Adam Farrer

The Horizontal Oak: A Life in Nature – Polly Pullar

Running a Hotel on the Roof of the World: Five Years in Tibet – Alec Le Sueur (Signed)

To the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace – Kapka Kassabova

Glowing Still: A Woman’s Life On The Road – Sara Wheeler

East to the Amazon: In Search of Great Paititi and the Trade Routes of the Ancients – John Blashford-Snell & Richard Snailham

42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams – Douglas Adams Ed. Kevin Jon Davies (Signed)

Three Stripes South: The 1000km thru-hike that inspired a women’s adventure movement – Bex Band

Caesar’s Vast Ghost – Lawrence Durrell

Are there any there that you’ve read? Or like the look of? Let me know in the comments below.

We’re into the final third of the year and the mornings already have that autumn twang. Not that we had that much of a summer after the promise of June…

Any way you’re here for the books, and I am here to tell you what I am aiming to read in this equinox month.

It is a bit shorter than normal as previous TBRs have been recently. This is partly a hope that I can actually read all on the list and secondly that I have less than 60 book to go on my Good Reads challenge.

I am very late in posting this as I have been away to Jersey and came back last weekend. And then have been busy doing lots of other things this week.

Anyway, July was a good reading month, with two books making my book of the month

Books Read

Circles And Tangents: Art In The Shadow Of Cranborne Chase – Vivienne Mary Light – 4 Stars

The Bedlam Stacks – Natasha Pulley – 2 Stars

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – Natasha Pulley – 3 Stars

Don’t Look Now – Daphne du Maurier – 2 Stars

One August Night – Victoria Hislop – 2.5 Stars

The Last Dance And Other Stories – Victoria Hislop – 2.5 Stars

Blood Storm – Colin Forbes – 3 Stars

The Mermaid of Black Conch – Monique Roffey – 3.5 Stars

Himself – Jess Kidd – 3.5 Stars

Elowen: A Story of Grief and Love – William Henry Searle – 4 Stars

A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World – Fred Pearce – 3.5 Stars

Out For Air – Olly Todd – 3 Stars

We, Robots: Staying Human In The Age Of Big Data – Curtis White – 2.5 Stars

Venice: The Lion, The City And The Water – Cees Nooteboom – 4 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel – 4.5 Stars

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham – 5 Stars

Top Genres

Fiction – 18

Natural History – 15

Travel – 15

Poetry – 10

Memoir – 8

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Fantasy – 5

Art – 3

Photography – 3

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 8

Bloomsbury – 5

Penguin – 4

Little Toller – 4

Simon & Schuster – 4

Monoray – 3

Chatto & Windus – 3

William Collins – 3

Doubleday – 3

Michael Joseph – 3

Review Copies Received

Walking The Wharfe: An Ode to a Yorkshire River – Johno Ellison

A Fenland Garden: Creating a haven for people, plants and wildlife in the Lincolnshire Fens – Francis Pryor

The Uncanny Gastronomic: Strange Tales of the Edible Weird – Ed. Zara-Louise Stubbs

Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny – Ed. Fiona Snailham

Library Books Checked Out

A Flat Place: A Memoir – Noreen Masud

Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, And Why It Matters – Oliver Franklin-Wallis

One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts And The Story Of Life On Earth – Mark Cocker

The Invention Of Essex: The Making Of An English County – Tim Burrows

Borderland: A Journey Through The History Of Ukraine – Anna Reid

Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature And Not Getting Better – Polly Atkin

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape – Henry Dimbleby

The Only Gaijin In The Village – Iain Maloney

One Thousand Shades Of Green: A Year In Search Of Britain’S Wild Plants – Mike Dilger

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson

Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank – John Lister-Kaye

Books Bought

Wayfinding: The Art And Science Of How We Find And Lose Our Way – Michael Bond

One More Croissant for the Road – Felicity Cloake (Signed)

Tojours Provence – Peter Mayle (Signed)

Treacle Walker – Alan Garner

Gone Bones – Margaret Atwood (Signed)

Bridges – David McFetrich & Jo Parsons

Harry Mount’s Odyssey: Ancient Greece in the Footsteps of Odysseus – Harry Mount

The Heavens – Sandra Newman

Follow This Thread: A Maze Book to Get Lost In – Henry Eliot

From Yukon to Yucatan: A Journey of Discovery in the Footsteps of America’s First Travellers – Irwin Allan Sealy

Farming – J.H. Bettey

The Gallows Pole – Benjamin Myers

Bitter Lemons – Lawrence Durrell

Motoring With Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea – Eric Hansen

A Shepherd’s Life – W. H. Hudson

Against Straight Lines: Alone in Labrador – Robert Perkins

The Old Stones: A Field Guide to the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland – Andy Burnham

A Far Country: Travels in Ethiopia – Philip Marsden-Smedley

Raven Seek Thy Brother – Gavin Maxwell

The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology – Lonely Planet

An Introduction to William Barnes – Douglas Ashdown

Setting the Poem to Words – David Hart

The Skin Spinners: Poems – Joan Aiken

Are there any from that list that you may have read or having now seen, would like to read at some point? Let me know what you read above in July in the comments below.

This month is all about the challenge and completing (for the first time ever) the #20BooksOfSummer Challenge. I have eight to go! So here is my list. It would be good to read more that 16 too this month…

How are we halfway through 2023 already? How? I don’t feel that I have read enough, but somehow I finished my 99th book on June 30th. I am ahead of schedule in terms of the good reads challenge, but less so on other challenges! Ho hum. I read 17 books in June. Always less than I hope for, but seeing what other people post on social media, I am doing much better than I think I am. So here they are:

Books Read

David Weston: An Artist at Home and Abroad – David Weston – 3.5 stars

Small Island: A History Of Britain In 12 Maps – Philip Parker – 3 stars

Acts of Desperation – Megan Nolan – 2.5 stars

Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan – 2.5 stars

Here Comes the Miracle – Anna Beecher – 3 stars

Open Water – Nelson Caleb Azumah – 3 stars

Shy – Max Porter – 3 stars

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender – 4.5 stars

Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon – 4 stars

The Ten Equations That Rule The World And How You Can Use Them Too – David Sumpter – 3 stars

In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries In The Great Outdoors : A Past, Present And Personal Story – Rachel Hewitt – 4 stars

How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves – Tristan Gooley – 4 stars

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten – 4.5 starsMy Darling from the Lions – Rachel Long – 3 stars

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood – 4 stars

Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World – Anthony Sattin – 4 stars

Book(s) Of The Month

Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew – 5 stars

Top Genres

Natural History – 14

Travel – 13

Fiction – 13

Poetry – 9

Memoir – 7

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Photography – 3

Fantasy – 3

Art – 2

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 8

Allen Lane – 3

Bloomsbury – 3

Jonathan Cape – 3

William Collins – 3

Little Toller – 3

Monoray – 3

Michael Joseph – 3

Chatto & Windus – 3

Simon & Schuster – 3

Review Copies Received

Wind: Nature And Culture – Louise M Pryke

Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast – Katie Carr & Toby Carr

Call of the Kingfisher: Bright Sights and Birdsong in a Year by the River – Nick Penny

An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners – Fiona Davidson

Library Books Checked Out

Shy – Max Porter

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham

La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel

The Turning Tide: A Biography Of The Irish Sea – Jon Gower

Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola – Daniel Metcalfe

Books Bought

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland – Gretel Ehrlich

Dorset Coast – James Crowden

A Local Habitation – Norman Nicholson

Forbidden Journey: From Peking To Kasmir – Ella Maillart, Tr. Thomas McGreevy

The Santiago Pilgrimage: Walking the Immortal Way – Jean-Christophe Rufin, Tr. Malcolm Imrie & Martina Dervis

Gargoyles and Grotesques – Alex Woodcock

Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal – Al Álvarez

Love and War in the Apennines – Eric Newby

A Fez of the Heart – Jeremy Seal

Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana – Isadora Tattlin

Impossible Journeys – Mathew Lyons

Island On The Edge: A Life on Soay – Anne Cholawo

An African in Greenland – Tété-Michel Kpomassie Tr. James Kirkup

With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer – Susannah Clapp

The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book – Neil Gaiman

Inside Dorset – Monica Hutchings

Richard Bell’s Britain – Richard Bell

Postcards From the Beach – Phil Tufnell

The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History – Rolans Ennos

The Penguin Modern Painters: Henry Moore – Geoffry Grigson

The Penguin Modern Painters: Paul Nash – Herbert Read

The Penguin Modern Painters: Edward Burra – John Rothenstein

Any that you read from that list above? Any that you now want to read? Let me know in the comments below