March 2015 To Be ReadWell, here’s the current state of the TBR and I have chipped away at it a bit since February’s excesses, even though some books have come in (more on those later) and I didn’t feel like I’d been reading much this last month. The front row ends with Dolly Parton. At least I was fairly frugal with my acquisitions last summer, so I’ll be on September’s books soon, which feels a bit better.

I’m currently reading Karen Armstrong’s “The Spiral Staircase”, which is about her post-nunhood life, and is OK although there were a few themes I wish they’d highlighted in the blurb. Not getting into the trigger warnings debate, but when there are two main themes and the blurb only mentions one, it’s a bit annoying. I’ve also finished but not yet reviewed Iain Sinclair’s “Edge of the Orison” which was Quite Hard but makes a nice mental-health related pair with the Armstrong, and Vita Sackville-West’s “The Edwardians”, recently also read by Ali, which has intersections with the world of the Forsytes, handily enough.

March 2015 upcoming readingComing up on the TBR, I have two books about the Vikings – the first one is a biography of Snorri Sturluson, who collected many of the sagas together in manuscript form but was also a bit warlike himself (I’ve been to his house, which was very exciting), and a more picture-book style one on the Vikings in general. This will be good preparation for our upcoming return trip to Iceland (I also have that lovely book of sagas to continue dipping into. Then I have Nick Hornby’s reading diary, what I’d call some “easy” books – one on rock stars’ children and two novels by the lovely Helen Cross, before diving into some Iris Murdoch stuff and some slightly elderly literary theory which should help with my Iris Murdoch research (so I’d better get on and get my new business books written before I get there, right?).

Of course I’ll also be reading my third book in the Forsyte Saga, “To Let”, which will conclude the first three-volume set, and I might start my next Anthony Trollope, too, although that might need to stretch over a couple of months.

Race Horse Holiday Josephine Pullein-Thompson and Mr TeaIn acquisitions / confessions, I fear I’ve missed a few as I have had a couple more in from lovely friends, but I’ve lost track so you’ll have to see those as I read them (in the “fullness of time”, as I somewhat euphemistically call it). I had a small bonanza on Saturday, first of all collecting Josephine Pullein-Thompson’s “Race Horse Holiday” and a very amusing tea infuser from the parcel office, courtesy of my friend Verity. I can’t believe she found one I didn’t already have, but so she did! And it fills in 1971 in my Century of Reading, too – hooray!

Philip Hensher The Missing InkAnd then in The Works, I found Philip Hensher’s book about handwriting, “The Missing Ink”, which was on my wishlist, so one down, 3,000,000 to go off that list and it looks like a lovely read. I read seven books in February, but I should have a couple of bus and train journeys this month which will encourage some nice long bouts of reading, so here’s to a good reading month for everybody. What are you tackling? Have you read any of my upcoming books?