It’s been a busy week, and eyes have been a little ropey again, so haven’t really done any reading. It’s going to be up and down, I’m sure, but hopefully it will continue to tend towards improvement. But I will pop down my first miscellany of 2023 – hope you have a lovely weekend ahead of you.
1.) The link – a brilliant article by Lucy Scholes on being an ‘archive mole’, hunting out titles for reprint publishers. While I didn’t contribute, there are many things I’d say the same from my perspective as Series Consultant for the British Library Women Writers. (My only disagreement is about keeping possible authors’ names secret – though have definitely seen some reprint publishers act like they’d rather be spies!) There’s also a great list of recent reprint highlights, and I was delighted to see A Pin To See The Peepshow made the list.
2.) The book – I saw Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince mentioned on Liz’s blog and it could scarcely be more up my street. Someone touring the bookshops of the UK and writing about it? Yes please.
3.) The blog post – James – known to many of us as Caustic Cover Critic – has written his overview of 2022 reading as one of the guest posts at Dorian’s blog. It’s a list that could hardly have less in common with my reading tastes, and a fun and interesting blog post.
I enjoyed James’s book round up too – very entertaining! Hope the eyes keep getting better Simon – fingers still crossed here.
Thank you Karen! x
Thank you for the shout-out! Let me know when you get Bibliomaniac and we could do a relaxed readalong (i.e. both read it and share each other’s reviews) if you’d like. I have seen at least one shop I know well on the endpapers …
Oo yes, that’s a lovely idea
Very sorry to hear your eyes have been worse again. Thank you even more for this inspiring weekend post as blogging must be difficult as well as the frustration of not being able to read very much.
I immediately ordered Bibliomaniac from the library; it sounds just my sort of book. The Scholes article was very interesting too and I can identify with the thrill of the hunt for new (but old) authors.
Will continue to pray for your eye treatment to be effective and hoping you have a better week of reading next week.
Thank so much, Sarah – I scheduled this post on Friday, and my eyes have been much better the past couple of days, so have been able to read rather more. Very grateful!
Thanks for flagging the Bibliomaniac book – I hadn’t seen it in the shops, and it’s hidden in an obscure section of the library (‘Industry’!!) – but I managed to find it and have really enjoyed reading it. Coincidentally, I had been in one of the charity shops he mentions just the day before I started reading the book. He must have spent a fortune on train fares though! Would be interesting to hear on the podcast where you and Rachel usually get your books from – do you also like to try and hunt them down in dusty old bookshops??
Oh wow, ‘Industry’ is not a compelling section, is it! And good qu – we have answered that on the podcast we jsut recorded. I’m afraid I couldn’t attribute it to you as the question shows up as anonymous, but hopefully you’ll hear it nonetheless :)
I’ll look out for the podcast – sorry, I forgot to add my name previously! Just have to watch I don’t tip over into spending more time buying/browsing books than reading them.
Thanks Lisa!