This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging at the end of October 2023. Every six-ish days, I’ve been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I’ve found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.
The month started with the sad news of the passing of Terrance Dicks. We then had the usual dorpfeest in the first weekend of the month, with local festive dancing.
Other artistic explorations are reported here, in a post made the following month:
I started rewatching Blake’s 7, and researched the oldest shop at Finaghy Crossroads. We went to the Fete de la BD in Brussels.
In real life the Brexit situation got crazier and crazier. I was in London briefly at the end of the month but haven’t recorded much about that trip. The month ended with a positive experience:
I read 23 books that month.
Non-fiction: 6 (YTD 41)
Setting the Truth Free: The Inside Story of the Bloody Sunday Campaign, by Julieann Campbell
De Bourgondiërs, by Bart Van Loo
Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text, by Brian Morris
The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard
Cycling in Victorian Ireland, by Brian Griffin
In Ethiopia with a Mule, by Dervla Murphy
Fiction (non-sf): 4 (YTD 25)
Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver
Make Out With Murder, by Lawrence Block
The Topless Tulip Caper, by Lawrence Block
How To Be Both, by Ali Smith
sf (non-Who): 2 (YTD 63)
The Devil in Amber, by Mark Gatiss
A Local Habitation, by Seanan McGuire
Doctor Who, etc: 5 (YTD 25)
Resurrection of the Daleks, by Eric Saward
Resurrection of the Daleks, by Paul Scoones
Doctor Who: 365 Days of Memorable Moments and Impossible Things, by Justin Richards
In Time, ed. Xanna Eve Chown
Lethbridge-Stewart: The Havoc Files, ed. Shaun Russell
Comics 6 (YTD 25)
Paper Girls Volume 1, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Paper Girls Volume 2, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Paper Girls Volume 3, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Paper Girls Volume 4, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Paper Girls Volume 5, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Paper Girls Volume 6, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
5,000 pages (YTD 49,000)
7/23 (YTD 72/180) by non-male writers (Campbell, Dillard, Murphy, Kingsolver, Smith, McGuire, Chown)
6/23 (YTD 29/180) by PoC (Chiang x5)
5/23 (YTD 23/180) rereads (The Topless Tulip Caper, Resurrection of the Daleks (Scoones), Paper Girls 1, 3 and 4)
I’ll concentrate on the good books and omit the bad.
- Paper Girls – wonderful comics series. You can get it here.
- De Bourgondiërs / The Burgundians by Bart Van Loo, brilliant exploration of this part of Europe’s heritage. You can get it here in Dutch and here in English.
- How To Be Both, by Ali Smith – nicely constructed two-part novel set in different times with surprises. You can get it here.
- Cycling in Victorian Ireland, by Brian Griffin; does exactly what it says on the tin. You can get it here.