I recognise that, at the time of writing, the weekend is almost over – and somehow it is only my third post in February. It has been a busy year so far! I hope you’re having a good month – I’m pleased to say there are finally signs of spring in the air, and I even have a window open (albeit also a heated blanket). For the final hours of the weekend, here is a book, a blog post, and a link…
1.) The link – I enjoyed this Guardian article on reading targets, with quotes from a wide range of philosophies (and pics of the darling of Book YouTube, Jack Edwards, who seems like a wonderful advocate for reading. And followed me on Twitter back when I had a Twitter account, y’all).
2.) The blog post – is actually a video, forgive me. Ages ago I filmed with Shawn from Shawn Breathes Books about a book we both love: O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith. And now you can watch our hour-long chat in the video below!
3.) The book – speaking of British Library Women Writers, I have now spotted a cover in the wild, so I’ll make a little announcement! It’s been a long time (too long) since we had a new novel in the series – but there will be one in June, and it’s the wonderful The Spring House by Cynthia Asquith. You can preorder in the usual places, and have a gander at what I thought of the book when I read it in 2024.
The Asquith cover is gorgeous!!
Isn’t it stunning? Can’t wait to see it in the flesh!
Great post, Simon, but for me, at least, the link to the video is missing.
Curious! It’s showing on my screen, but here is the link to make things easier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOQI1ZHEKc8
Thank you for the interesting Guardian article. I’m already excited about the Cynthia Asquith. I remember longing to be able to read it when I first read your blog post about it and I had already clocked that it was being reissued by the wonderful BLWW publishers later this year. Hooray!
It is definitely one of the ones that is almost impossible to get hold off, so I’m delighted that I can recommend it AND press it into people’s hands!
Just clicked over to read your review of the Asquith novel — it sounds great (and has gone on the TBR)! Lovely cover by the way. Thanks for the reminder about the Guardian article, which I haven’t yet read.
So excited for people to discover it!
Came here to comment on that beautiful cover but am joining a happy chorus! Definitely onto my TBR
Loved your post
Lovely, thanks Ana!
I guess that this could be considered an informal reading target.
My sister and I make two book bingo boards every reading season (September 1 to August 31, for some reason), so there are squares for about 40 books altogether. The squares aren’t a particularly book title or author, but rather a general description (for example, lots of travel-fiction or nonfiction; read in the same year you purchased the book; author’s name begins with B; set somewhere other than the US or the UK; a book borrowed from the library; author new to you).
We both read books as we want to read them and then see if they fit a bingo square.
Neither of us has ever filled every square on even one of the bingo boards. Whoever scores the first bingo buys the other breakfast, but we still keep filling in bingo squares as the reading year goes on.
The bingo boards are just a fun complement to the reading season, but they don’t dictate what we read or how many books we read.
Oh I love that idea so much! Especially when you can just read what you want and fill it out – those are always my favourite kinds of challenges too.
That’s a beautiful cover for the Asquith and now I have O, The Brave Music on my list too, thank you Simon!
Excellent!