#begorrathon

[calmgrove]

Marching off

The end of March, and a quarter of the way through the year after the year. Many readers have reported a slump in their reading (like many authors have noted lethargy where their writing is concerned) and I do understand that: the current global situation makes us all anxious and that hits us in different ways. I find though that I can only really keep up my positivity through books; if I didn’t…

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[calmgrove]

Digging with a squat pen

Digging with a squat pen

© C A Lovegrove Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney. Faber 1999 (1966) It’s fascinating to read this collection of nearly three dozen short poems, individually each a gem, collectively a story of childhood and young adulthood leading to marriage. It very much reminds me of an album of photographs, or even those selections of instrumental miniatures called Albumblätter or Feuilles d’Album. What…

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[calmgrove]

A man of a certain age

A man of a certain age

Dublin: WordPress Free Photo Library Charlie Savage by Roddy Doyle. Jonathan Cape 2019 As a man of a certain age myself, the titular character of Roddy Doyle’s Charlie Savage is a kind of blood brother even though we don’t have the obvious things in common — football, the pub, dogs; for in this collection of reminiscences Charlie (via the author) reveals his bewilderment at changes in the world…

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[calmgrove]

March Magics 2021

https://webereading.com/2021/02/announcing-marchmagics-2021-all.html Today, on the eve of the halfway mark for the twenty-eight days of February, I’m already getting excited about March. As well as planning on reading books for the Wales Readathon and Reading Ireland Month I’m hoping to revisit titles by the late Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett, both of whom left us in this month. I’m glad…

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[calmgrove]

Book lover's leap

Book lover’s leap

You may remember that at the start of 2020 I’d decided, in a bid to reduce the number of unread books I’d accumulated, to see how long I would go before forking out hard cash for new.

Now, at the end of February, on this intercalated leap year day, it might be interesting to see how I’m managing. And the answer is…

I haven’t bought any new books in the first two months of this year! That, as far…

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[calmgrove]

Like a lion

In like a lion, out like a lamb.

It’s coming up to that time of year when the door to one season starts shutting while another slowly swings ajar.

Following my New Year commitment not to commit to specifics concerning my 2020 reading I’m not therefore going to detail what exactly I intend to read for March — mainly because I have no idea at the moment!

Nevertheless, vague possibilities are…

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[calmgrove]

In like a lion

In like a lion

Tomorrow sees the meteorological first day of spring with the arrival of March, a month which itself begins with St David’s Day.

For the next 31 days I shall be joining in the Wales Readathon (aka Dewithon19) by reading and reviewing books with a Welsh slant, right through to the end of the month; and you can do so too by going to Paula Bardell-Hedley’s Dewithon HQ page at Book Jotter, where you…

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[stitching-reading-baking]

A Struggle for Fame by Charlotte Riddell

Really enjoyed A Struggle for Fame published by @TrampPress #readireland16

After the death of her mother and the loss of her family’s fortune, it falls to young Glen Westley to do what she can for herself and her ailing father. Determined to make her own way in the world, she moves from the West of Ireland to London and works tirelessly to succeed as a novelist, despite the limitations her sex and nationality represent. Having struggled so long for fame, it is at last…

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