Booker international shortlist my reaction

Here is the Shortlisted books

Not a River

Written by Selva Almada

Translated by Annie McDermott

I think this is one of my favourites to win it tackles being male in a tough world but also secrets and  set in the hinterlands,make it a wild ride.

Mater 2-10

Written by Hwang Sok-yong

Translated by Sora Kim-RussellYoungjae Josephine Bae

I have yet to review this, but I have read it as an insight into the political past of Korea through the lens of strikers in a rail strike. My review is to come shortly. He got the idea for the story from someone that he meet.

What I’d Rather Not Think About

Written by Jente Posthuma

Translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey

A sister looks back on her and her twin brother’s life as she tries to get to the heart of why he has taken his life and what brought him there and left her as the only twin.

Crooked Plow

Written by Itamar Vieira Junior

Translated by Johnny Lorenz

Twins the second book with twins this time twin sisters story told after they cut there tongues which lost there tongue and how do there lives and the world around them pan out after that event.

 

Kairos

Written by Jenny Erpenbeck

Translated by Michael Hofmann

A love affair falls apart as the country they arelibving in the Old East Germany falls apart partly based on the writers own life.

The Details

Written by Ia Genberg

Translated by Kira Josefsson

A woman remembers four relationships whilst in a fever in a fever dream state

Well I had picked

Karios

Not a river

Undiscovered

Lost on me

white nights

A dictator calls

The house on Via Gemito

Well as you see I have two books on the official shortlist. I feel one of these two will win the prize but I haven’t got much right this year. I feel this years list is aim at a young readership than me but has a great selection of autofiction , rural tales father figures and poverty all make the shortlist. I finished the last book off the longlist today and will have my reviews finished in the next week or two.

 

Wow that was March 2024

1. Star 111 by Lutz Seiler
2. The end of August by Yu Miri
3. The silver bone by Andrey Kurkov 
4. what I’d rather not think about by Jente Posthuma 
5. Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener 
6. A Dictator calls by Ismail Kadare 
7. The Details Ia Genberg 

This month is the same as every year. It starts with a couple of hopeful reads for the Booker International longlist. This book from Korea was written in Japanaese about two generations of runners. Then a story of the wall coming down in Germany as one part of a family heads West and their son stays in the West, Then the Bokker international longlist came out. I started with a historical crime novel with a touch of Magic realism set In Kyiv. Then to a tale of twins what happens to the other when ones decides to take their own life .It picks apart their lives and asks why. Then what happens when you see objects taken from your homeland and then see it was a relative that brought them what does this say about your family history. Then, a slice of history is replayed. What really happened when Stalin called Boris Pasternack? Then, four friends and a woman’s interactions with them are recalled as she is getting over a fever in a fever dream of a book.

Book of the month

How this epic work of the wall falling down missed the list I don’t know. As for the long list, I am now on book 12 of the 13. Part of the reason I have blogged a little less is to push on and get them all read  I had hoped by today but I failed in that but a small insight into the longlist from me is that I had only one book I had mentioned in my longlist and had only read two books from the longlist when it came out the lowest total for a long time. For me as a reader, this list may be the one I have least enjoyed reading. not that any book is terrible, but that said, no book is a stand-alone book, possibly barring the two I had already read, Karios and Not a River. I then wonder if it is time for me to consider swapping prizes. I have questioned this the last couple of years as there is a new prize that has been around for a few years called the ERBD Book prize; now, if I hadn’t brought the books for the Booker international longlist, I could have shadowed this prize this year. I will be from next year, though, as the last few longlists of this prize have appealed to me if you are a publisher on this year’s list, I would love to review your books. So if you would like to join the SHADOW EBRD prize from next year let me know.

• The End by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Judith Sollosy and published by Archipelago Books
• Niki, A Novel by Christos Chomenidis, translated from the Greek by Patricia Felisa Barbeito and published by Other Press
• The Wounded Age and Eastern Tales by Ferit Edgü, translated from the Turkish by Aron Aji and published by New York Review Books
• Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated from the Russian by Reuben Woolley and published by MacLehose Press
• Exiled Shadow by Norman Manea, translated from the Romanian by Carla Baricz and published by Yale University Press
• History of Ash by Khadija Marouazi, translated from the Arabic by Alexander E. Elinson and published by Hoopoe, an imprint of the American University in Cairo Press
• Let’s Go Home, Son by Ivica Prtenjača, translated from the Croatian by David Williams and published by Istros Books
• This Thing Called Love by Alawiya Sobh, translated from the Arabic by Max Weiss and published by Seagull Books
• A Sensitive Person by Jáchym Topol, translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker and published by Yale University Press
• Barcode by Krisztina Tóth, translated from the Hungarian by Peter Sherwood and published by Jantar Publishing

Non book events

as for records, I got the new album from Adrianne Lenker called Bright future,I loved the debut record from the Big Thief singer.

TV-wise, the new series of the short comedy show Mandy has come out. This surreal series is just laugh-out-loud at times as we follow the jobs Mandy gets and loses, usually in a surreal nature. I just watched a film, Cat Person from a New Yorker story, a comic horror film that is cut above most of what is around, and earlier in the month, I watched American fiction after I read Erasure, the book it is based on last month.

Next month plans.

I hope to get the booker reviews finished in the next week or two. I will move on to the backlog of new books I have and hopefully a few books from the EBRD prize I do hope get a few read. I have the book at the end of the list and have reviewed another book on the list. I also hope to review Until august the last Marquez book as well. What are your plans? what are your thoughts on the Booker international longlist?

Some recent buys

A break from all things booker today. I’ll do a round-up of some books I got on two recent days out. First, as many of you know, My Mum’s ashes are spread in Macclesfield, and as it was recently Mother’s Day here in the UK, I went to take some flowers, and we had a couple of hours in Macclesfield. They have a small Waterstones. I always get a nature book from there as my mum loved Nature, and this time, I chose another from the Little Toller classic series.

This was an earlier work from the Children writer Michael Morpurgo about a farm he ran in the countryside for Farms for city kids at his farm in North Devon. I was torn between this and another in the series. I hope it will be there next time I go back. There is also a OXFAM small again but it has not often had any good books but this time I hit a nice selection of books.

First up the title of this book Kafka was the rage a memoir written by a former leading book critic for the New York Times book critic about his time in Greenwich Village when it was there hip place to be,

One that has been on my radar for a few years is the first part of four of Dorothy Richardson’s Modernist masterpieces, the Pilgrimage. I will watch over time for the other three parts of this series. dealing with the life of Miriam Henderson

Next up is another on the series of short story collection from Oxford university press this collection is set in Barcelona compiled by Peter Bush who also translated them all they range from Cervantes through Josep Pla and Juan Marse to Quim Monzo as one of the modern writers involved in this vibrant city. I have other books from this series.

Ever since I had seen this had come out from And other stories in a new edition, I was reminded I wanted to read more from Hines, best well-known for Kes, and the script for Threads, which I recently watched a terrifylng look at how a nuclear war would end up shocking as it was set in Sheffield. So I was pleased to see this old film tie on of the Gamekeeper on the shelf.

Amanda and I also had a nice day in Sheffield where they have a large waterstonmes. BNut as I had literally three days earlier brought most of the booker longlist as I need most lof the books I limited myself to three books from there this time.

First off was Butter by Asako Yuzuki. I have seen this posted a lot. It has a very eye-catching cover, a story of a female serial killer who cooked  for and then killed her men. She is interviewed by another woman as the two talk. The woman is interviewing and starts to see the world like the serial killer, an interesting-sounding book. I need a few new Japanese books as I read a lot of the ones I had at the start of the year

Then, another from Japan, a woman pretends to be pregnant for nine months. How will she get away with it and why? I liked the sound of this, and it has been on a lot of other blogs, so I wait and it will be reviewed next January, I think. A little forward planning from me. I also love the cover of this book.

Then this was the main book I had gone for as I am a huge fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have reviewed six other books from him at the time of the blog. I was excited when I heard that his last novel had survived. He wanted it bin, but his sons kept a copy, and we have this story of a faithful wife who goes away on holiday every August and has an affair whilst she is on Holiday. It is strange as he mostly had male lead characters in his books. But illicit love is something he always tackled in his books.

What new or second hand has hit your shelves recently. Are you looking forward to the Marquez as well? It is a writer’s last book he wanted to be destroyed. Was it worth saving just to have it ?

A century of books, A century in translation

I spoke with Simon from Stuck in the books on Twitter. He had mentioned he was thinking of doing another century of books. This is something he has done a couple of times over the time I have known of his blog. In fact last time he did it I did think about doing something similar but held off well. This time I am going to review books in trnalstion for each year between 1924 – 2023. The year will be the year the book was published in there original language. I had in mind to try for 100 countries, but I feel that it may be asking too much. But I will try to read as widely as possible so I can cover as many countries as I can. I am not putting a time frame on this at the moment. So far, I have looked at the first two years, 1924 and 1925. I have one book on my shelf for 1924 I read a number of years ago and failed to review and that is Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi it is an NYRB book and was widely reviewed when it appeared a few years ago I think that is why I didn’t review it. It is the tale of a spinster and her parents as she is sent away. I’m looking forward to reading this one again. Then, in 1925, one book jumped out at me on the list of books from that year. It was Chaka by Thomas Mofolo, one of the earliest African writers to be published. He wrote in the 20s, and this book came out in 1925. and he had spent some years working on this book, which follows the rise and fall of a Zulu warrior King. There is an online number of this book available, so I will make this my 1925 book. I think after that, I will move from decade to decade, doing a couple of years at a time rather than going year by year. I think 1960 may be the next stop and for that I have Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz which came out last year in a new translation I think I may have the old translation as well to compare. Anyway, that is part of the journey. This is going to be fun project I loved it when I saw how Simon did it for his taste in books. I’m hoping to find as many books around the world as I can to make this a journey of discovery. Here is a link to Simon’s 2018 Century of Books a few books I have read on his list.

Winstonsdads books of the year a dozen or so

I have picked 13 books I loved from the last 12 months. I am putting them down in no particular order. These are the cream of what I read in the last 12 months. All but one are books in translation. I avoid the Booker international books as they have had lots of attention due to being on the. longlist and shortlist, etc, and it gave me a chance to shine the spotlight on books that maybe others haven’t mentioned in the last year.

Black box by Shiori Ito translator Alison Markin Powell

A powerful work of nonfiction from an up-and-coming tv journalist that was sexual assault by an older renowned presenter, a powerful look at how sex attacks in the workplace are dealt with and how rape around the world is dealt with. After I read this, the writer finally saw justice for what had happened to her.

Balkan Bombshells various writers and translators

a collection of female writing from the Balkans showing the wide range of voices, from a woman with all she owned in a single blue bag to a woman in Belgrade and the leader died. Then elsewhere. There were creepy supernatural tales, an insight into Eastern European writing at its best.

The most secret memory of men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr translator Lara Vergnaud

I haven’t shut up about this since I a wonderful mix of being an African writer then and now a novel that was withdrawn that parallels a real-life event and then a writer falling down a rabbit hole to find the lost writer of that book and find out what really happened makes it part road trip fiction as well.

My rivers by Faruk Šehić. translator S D Curtis

I think this will be the first time I have featured poetry in my end-of-year books, but in this cycle of poems, three of them are set around the great rivers of Europe from Berlin, then back to the Balkans and beyond. In the last cycle, he sees a man escaping the horrors of war and looking for peace and hope.

Black foam by Haji Jabir translators – Sawad Hussain and Marcia Lynx Qualey

this is a twist on the other stories IO have read of people trying to find a new life on the migrant trail it follows a man called various names Dawood, David among them a man trying to reach Israeli as a Falasha Jew but is he it shows you how fluid nationality can be and how we can change it to get by and survive.

All devils are here by David Seabrook

I blame an old Backlisted episode they replayed over the summer that just grabbed me with the description of the book, a series of essays around Rochester, the late home of Dickens, but also the artist Richard Dadd. Who was a killer in his time.  Did he inspire Dickens? This is a look at the darker side of those old seaside towns.

Karios by Jenny Erpenbeck translator Michael Hoffmann

I am on the fence with hr as a writer I am not as much of a fan as some of my fellow bloggers have been over the years but this story of a relationship that had failed was interesting enough and used some clever tricks in the book.

Wound by Oksana Vasyakina

This mixes a personal journey of a daughter taking her mother’s ashes to her home village in Siberia, but also a look at her own relationship as a lesbian in modern Russia. This is one of the first openly lesbian novels written in Russia. It is a powerful look at love, loss and memories.

Rombo by Esther Kinsky translator – Caroline Schimdt

It was a toss-up between this or the Kluge I read this year, but this collection of recollections of an earthquake in a small Italian village and how it affected seven people who were kids at the time and how it looked then and now, I love her books and this is another gem from this writer.

The Rider Tim Krabbe translator -Sam Garrett

Now if push came to show my book of the year would be this book. I loved the way he managed to get on the page about what it is like to cycle, the way you think the way he races in those big races the tactics he captured it so well no wonder he is a chess-playing cyclist and in some ways, the two share a certain amount in some cycle racing is a game of chess for the riders. one move can change the day the same as chess.

The missing word by Concita De Gregorio translator Clarissa Botsford

There is no word for a parent that have lost there children we have orphan and widower but there ins’t a word for a parent whose children have gone this follows a case where the husband takes the kids and then he is found but there is never a trace of the children he took and he won’t say hat happened to them powerful work.

Tranquillity by Attila Bartis translator – Irme Goldstein

I had this on my shelves for years and then decided to read it. I loved it, a tale of a mother and son living together as his sister got away from their mother, and he is stuck in a very Thomas Bernhard-like world. I just hope I can get his next book which came out this year but seems to have sold out and that is what spurred me to read this book.

Mothers don’t by Katixa Agirre translator – Kristin Addis

I finish with a powerful tale of two mothers one how killed her twins and the other a journalist who realises she knew this woman when they were at university together. another gem from Three Times Rebel Press.

So here are a few stats

I read 125 books this year, the longest being The End of August by Yu Muri. I just finished today. A total of 27,544 pages. I reviewed 98 books. I read 8 Japanese books this year the most from any country. I read books from 34 countries this year. I have posted 123 posts 100,000 words at an average of 812 words per a post.

How was your year ?

 

Looking Forward 2024 reading plans

This is the first time I can think of in all the time I have been Blogging I have done a post about the year ahead and thought that far ahead in Blogging terms. But I feel like I have been reading Water for many years, happy with the figures I get, and just doing the same year in year out about 120 posts about 90-100 reviews in a year. Well, I think next year I need to shake things up and raise the bar. I will again pass 100,000 words for the year this year. The fact is, I could easily carry on and do the same next year, but I feel the need to plan the year a little more and have firmly in my mind what I am doing throughout the year.

I have been buying lots of Japanese books for January in Japan. That is always a fun meme to join and always a good start to the year. Then I am planning to read 28 translations in February; I tried something similar last year, spurred on by Simon in Suck in the Books, that have done a few years with Novellas, where he reads one a day for a month. I loved trying to do it last year it meant I got to raid the Library for choices to read. Then we head into Booker International season. I will be reading the Longlist as I have for the last 12 years before it was the Booker International and was the old IFFP. I will then be looking at reading a few long books, getting ready for summer, and bringing back Spanish lit month in its original form, just Spanish Language literature. I’ve several books from Charco Press and other presses I want to read this month. I miss Richard, who started this with me many years ago. But I will do it Binnually with Czech lit month returning in 2025.  Then I will be doing Simon and Karen years in April. They take us back to 1937 , and what I love about this is the deep dive into the year. The books came out, finding those lost gems for every year they chose. Then we have German lit month which I didnt’ plan for this year and intend to have plans in place for next year. The hope is to increase the number of reviews to be similar to what I actually read in a year with 120 books. I said I have hit 100,0oo words in the last few years, so I aim to write 125,000 words. I will try to engage a little more on social media like I did when I first started this blog. I need to chat more; I miss the chat out there. I miss that. Well, there has been a whole lot of I, but it is me behind the blog, and it is time to step up and stop being so comfortable with the blog as we need to move on to winstonsdad the middle-age years. What are your plans for next year with your blog or just with your reading?

 

MY reading Habits

I been inspired t write this by the recent Mookse and Gripes episode, where Trevor and Paul talked over their habits and other bits around them as a reader. I thought I would talk a bit about my reading life and world. I am not as organized as Trevor and Paul. I never will be. My dyspraxia mind is chaotic a lot of the time. But I do have some routines, and over the years, I have blogged how me as a reader work has constantly evolved. I still manage to read over 100 books every year I may not review them all, but since I started last year to track my reading more on Goodreads, I have seen that it is about 120 books a year I read, and I think I will move the stat keeping to Storuy graph as supposedly it can give you more detail even this is a struggle at times for some that constantly will forget to update things due to my dyspraxia one of the worst things I have is this lack of constancy with doing things like this. But over the last few years, I am getting a little better. When do I read well, I am a chunk reader I am not someone who puts bits in here and there. I read the morning I hope to get between 30-45 minutes most mornings  work or not. On my days off, I try to read for a couple of hours during the day. I tend to work 3 days one week and four days the week after. I read every evening for about an hour times more if I’m nearing the end of a book, so that means I tend to read 18-20 hours a week, which sometimes is less, sometimes more. I find I read more in the winter, more so this year, since I inherited my aunt’s serious read lamp. This lamp has a natural light, and I think will add a little more reading in the evening this winter.

Paper/e-book I do have a paperwhite kindle. But I have maybe read 10 e-books in the last ten years I just don’t get on with it. I love the idea the change of font size and font is all brilliant it is just an interaction with the kindle for me never quite works.,I love seeing my progress in a  paper book. I keep the Kindle mainly for Booker International reading as I sometimes need to spend a lot on books, and the books I have read in recent years have been for Booker International. I have tried to use Netgalley but never read the e-books I try to get. So yes I am a paper books man.

Audiobooks had you asked me this a year ago, I said no. I would always say I love book-based podcasts like The Mookse and the Gripes. But I finally decided to try Audible and have since then read and listened to four books so yes, for me yes I LIKE Audio books if they will add another few books to what I read or help me tackle longer books that be great. Book length I am someone that have always preferred books under 300 pages. I have more and more in recent years been avoiding longer books in fact, this was the one tip I did get from Trevor and Paul to spread longer books court over a long time, a chapter or section of pages at a time. I will be trying this more next year. Thanks guys.  I have posted about being a single book read I have a hybrid version of this these days where I’ll read multiple, but I will tend to read chunks of books like Base Camps on Everest. This is something I have done for the last few months, and it has meant I have read more books than I used to as I tend to switch if I feel my reading of a book slowing

MyTBR I have two yellow trolleys, one in my library and the other in our lounge. One is the current TBR books. The other will be when I have a project reading like Czech Lit Month or Club 1962 etc, where I will find all the books for the said project and put them in my library trolley. This is something I have seen Simon Savidge do and I thought it was a great idea to sort them once a month as they tend to also get overloaded with books. I love project reading the year clubs Simon and Karen do are highlights of my years, as is the booker international longlist reading Czech Lit Month, German Lit Month and, of course, Spanish and Portuguese Lit Month. As for me and my mind, the focus it brings gives me clarity, and I’m sure these periods are when I read most. Where I read well I have my sofa downstairs which is by my serious light and upstairs my old reading light is next to a chair from Ikea in my library. I like listening to instrumental music and can cope with some lyrics but more on the acoustic country vibe than some of the punk, new wave industrial goth music I like, which is too distracting to read. Notes I use a few book tabs on passages I love and take pictures of pages I think I will quote, and with longer books take a few notes on index cards this is something I am doing more and more every year. I think in the process of writing my post these days, they are longer I like meaty quotes that I usually mention in the review. Well that’s me, nothing new A chaotic reader who has more order than I did when I started this blog but will be the most planned and ordered reader, but this chaos I have in my mind is what drives the wanderlust in my reading and the driving passion for books in translation as I have a very obsessional mind which is what makes me constant look for those underlooked gems and the sheer solo drive in my mind is for books in translation and world lit which will never change. I am so passionate about this as any of you who have met me will agree with it.

September 23 Round Czech Lit month 23

1. Case Closed by Patrik Ourdeník
2. The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz
3. The living and the rest by José Eduardo Agualusa 
4. Summer of Caprice by Vladislav Vančura
5. Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg 
6. The questionnaire by Jiri Grusa

I managed 6 books this month but I did read four for the first Czech lit month I only review Male writers which I ran out of time and the other book I read unfortunately had a print error which is a shame as it was from a female writer. I feel I managed to get a number of the great writers of the 20th-century  Czech fiction reviewed. We went from a village in the thirties to an imagined island , a novel handed around in the seventies and a detective story that isn’t a detective story. So I will do this again next year and have more female writers. I do have a couple of female writers under review already. I also read a great piece of magic realism from a writer I love and a short Italian novella that I loved. It was a great selection this month. I will hope to get a few more reviews done next month and I have a number of days off next month.

Book of the month

I chose this as I love a twisty tale and a number of the books this month have been twisting tales but this detective story isn’t a detective story I loved it I like books that fragment narrative and twist plots. I could have chosen any of the books I read this month as they were all great reads.

Non-book events.

We had a holiday and I wrote a post about that. I brought a second-hand Suede Album which I never got on cd so when it was quite cheap the B-side collection was on three vinyls. But end the month on a YouTube rabbit hole of old disaster movies some made for TV and some like City on fire from the late seventies with a great cast led by Henry Fonda. These were big films back in the day. I also started watching an Australian black snow that has been shown on BBC 4 here.

Czech Lit month

Thanks for all that took part if you’d kindly link your reviews in the comments below I d be very grateful. I will  try and add comments to you all. I will be doing it all again next year.

Next month

I have a few books read to review four at least so I’ll get to them first I have a lot of new books to read so I think next month will be a mix of new and African fiction I’m aiming to add a number more books from Africa by the end of the year.

That was the month that Was May 23

1. 533 A Book of Days by Cees Nooteboom
2. I’ll do anything you want by Iolanda Batallé
3. I served the king of England by Bohumil Hrabal 
4. Liminal by Roland Schimmelpfennig
5. Balkan Bombshells Female writing from Serbia and Montenegro 
6. The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg 
7. All the devils are Here by David Seabrook

Well, the month started with a series of vignettes from the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom. Then we headed to Spain, and a woman’s a sexual awakening as she discovered her sexual side. Then a waiter climbs the ladder in the inter-war years but the dark shadows of world war two are already there. Then a failed detective finds out why a dead woman in a wedding dress drifts past some clubbers. Then Istros book has collected together the cream of Balkan female voices in a new collection. Then a fable-like tale of a child saved from the horrors of the Holocaust and finally the dark side of the some Kent seaside town. I read books from seven countries this month. There is no new publishers this month.

Book of the month

I had to pick Balakn Bombshells. This is a month that has been strong on the blog I can’t remember a month with so many great books reviewed. But this captures the voices of the top writers in Serbia. The dark years of the break of Yugoslavia are there, but also a sense of writers breaking free of that of women writing about being woman female issues/

Non-book events

I had a post around my favourite podcast this month, which I have been listening podcast a lot more recently.I think this will show as I aim to head into the world of Marias a bit more. I also caught Peter Davison Campion again, which I had not seen for years, and I had mistaken a crime journalist that had worn a Campion tie thinking it was a Kames Joyce tie many years ago at a crime writing meal I got invited to. Amanda and I have watched a couple of series; ten pound poms followed a group of people that followed the Aussie dream for various reasons, a sort of call the midwife in the Sun, almost that Sunday night sort of show, but it was fun. We are now halfway through Small Light which uses Mieps Gies the woman that helps hide the Franks during world war two it is a new take on the story that shows their world of being Dutch and under Nazis rules the different attitudes to the events. Music wise I’ve been on a retro kick a lot of Fury in the Slaughterhouse, Pet shop boys, Depeche Mode, and the month finished off with a new album from Califone, a band that I have loved for years, and this is maybe their best album.

Next month Book wise

I have a backlog of 16 books to review, as I have just read the 50th book of the year and have reviewed 34 this year. This includes the last of the bookers to review. We announced the Shadow winner this month. I also have a couple of classics. Then a couple of new books. Mostly from Europe, but I need to catch up, so I hope to do so this month. I’m of the mind to read a couple of really long books this month. I fancy Shira by SY Agnon, and maybe another to help catch up on the review backlog, and summer nights are great for reading longer books. What are your plans for the next month?

Weekend away and some books brought

Amanda and I have just had a weekend away. We do this every year with Amanda’s parents, sister and Aunt and Uncle. This year we chose a country hotel between Ashbourne and Leek on the edge of the peak district. We arrived Friday and wandered around Ashbourne, but as it was late, things were closing, but we had something to eat and planned to visit in the morning. We headed out in the morning, had coffee in Ashbourne, and then headed to the Oxfam bookshop. I had been a few years ago and often find Oxfam bookshops about the best charity shops to look around for books, and this was the case again.I found three books in there. We had a look around the antique shops. I am searching for a Victorian writing slope for my library come office to finish it off but to no avail. Anyway, here are the books.

The three books are Beckett’s essay on Proust and three dialogues. I don’t know a lot about this, but I Have enjoyed the Beckett I have read over the years. Then from Joesph Roth’s The String of Pearls, another book a Writer i have read but hadn’t heard the title of before, I have reviewed two other books from him over the years of the blog. The last is a former Prix Goncourt winner, Fields of Glory; I have in my head either a run-through former Goncourt winner or Nobel winner as a long-term project or both not quite decided yet. It is something I have been thinking over for a couple of years to do.

We then headed to Leek, a town I had often driven through as it is on the way back from my childhood home of Congleton to Chesterfield, but on all those trips through, I had rarely stopped, and we were surprised it was bigger than I remember it had a flea come antique market. I was nearly tempted as there were two writing slopes, but one had no lock, although I could replace it with the other lock, and the other was a tad too large, and neither had a secret compartment a must in my eyes the search will carry on. We visited the Oxfam in Leek, just a shop, and I found two books.

Murakami’s Birthday Stories a collection of short stories he chose a number of years ago with one of his own stories. I looked at this over the years and felt I should get it. Then Shakespeare by Anthony Burgess. I am a huge Burgess fan, and having all bar one of his novels, I am now on to the non-fiction titles, and this cover matches in part the copy of Dead Man in Deptford by Burgess I have. Then as is the case, I felt the need for a coffee and some cake. We stopped at a cafe called Kiek just off the marketplace, and it was the best Dairy free Brownie I have ever eaten. So tasty. Then we headed to the bookshop in Leek on two levels, which reminded me of Scriveners in Buxton. I brought some more books there

First of all, is Nature writing by Little Toller called Snow, One of my favourite books of all time is Encyclopedia of Snow by Sarah Emily Miano (A book worthy of being on the Backlisted podcast, a real lost gem, a book that is more Sebald than Sebald!) anyway this is another book around snow. Then there is Jean Cocteau’s debut novel, a short book from Zola, a nice weekend, and some unusual books that are less well-known by great writers. Have you had a good weekend?