The longest days

20 Books of Summer 746books.com

We’re into June now, the threshold to summer – for those of us in the northern hemisphere at least – and thus an opportune time for bookbloggers to consider hot reads, all courtesy of Cathy at 746books.com.

And when I say ‘hot reads’ I mean the meme 20 Books of Summer and its lesser siblings, 15 Books of Summer and 10 Books of Summer, which I’ve participated in for a few years now as a scarcely incentive to immerse myself in fiction and nonfiction.

And when I say ‘twenty books’ I mean that as usual I shan’t be naming a hard and fast list of precisely that number of titles but merely a wishlist of works I’d like to read – mostly those titles that will fit in with book meme events I want to participate in.

‘Der Bücherwurm’ (1850) by Carl Spitzweg.

Here are six definite possibles (or should that be possible definites?) for me to read over these three months, all designed to fit in with a reading meme or event and all chosen from Mount TBR.

1. Of Cats and Elfins: Short Tales and Fantasies / The Cat’s Cradle Book, by Sylvia Townsend Warner, a copy I bought after enjoying Lolly Willowes (Reading the Meow, 10th –16th June); not to be confused with Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

2. The Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell (Reading Orwell 2024), my copy originally bought in Southwold where the author’s parents lived, just waiting for an excuse to be read.

3. Strait is the Gate by André Gide (Paris in July 2024): a slim volume (though not, apparently, classed as a novella) this nevertheless comes across as a tough read.

4. Tales of Moominvalley, Tove Jansson (Moomin Week, August). My first visit to Moominland this summer.

5. Moominland Midwinter, Tove Jansson (Moomin Week, August). And here’s my second; I thought I’d already read this – but no.

6. What’s Bred in the Bone (1985) in The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Reading Robertson Davies, August, formerly hosted by Lory) – I enjoyed the first part last summer and am looking forward to a return to ivory towers bleached like excarnated skeletons.

Then there are a couple of books sent for me to review not all that long ago (but long enough for me to feel guilty at not yet tackling them):

7. Pride’s Children: Purgatory (2015, first volume in the Pride’s Children trilogy) by fellow blogger Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt, sold to us as “a story of obsession, betrayal, and love”.

8. Katherine’s Wish (2008) by Linda Lappin: a fictional biography of NZ author Katherine Mansfield, celebrated writer of the short story form.

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think of them?

#ReadRandomly

But mostly I shall be reading randomly from Mount TBR, slotting titles I’ve chosen and finished as the mood takes me into a virtual wall.

A virtual wall? Well, imagine a partition or barrier constructed using a pattern called ‘random walling’. The technique involves components of differing shapes and sizes, chosen from whatever building blocks come to hand, fitted together to form a pleasing but effective structure.

That’ll be how I plan to approach my reading over the long days of summer. But best laid schemes, as we all know, can easily go – pace Burns – agley.

Hmmm. Cartoonist Tom Gauld has a comment apropos this delusion.