Hello and welcome back to the blog!

I didn’t manage to post last week, as life just got in the way. But despite the busyness of this January, I am really pleased to say that I have managed to read two full books and am almost at the end of my third of the month! I’m pretty happy with that kind of number so early in the year, and have really been trying to focus on the slow reading ethos I wrote about a few weeks ago, all about reading less but better.

As I said in my round up of my 2022 reading challenge post, whilst I enjoyed trying a reading challenge last year, and whilst I didn’t achieve my 50 book target, I was pretty pleased at the number I came out with (35) and I definitely felt the challenge (and reviewing the books on here) helped me to push myself to read more. But I felt that for this year, I would let go of challenges and numbers, and just try to focus on getting back into reading for fun.

I have definitely started the year well on this front. I began the year with The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir, which was a Christmas gift, and my second book has been Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan. The book, written in 1955, was the first novel by Sagan, who was only 18 years old when it was published. It became a sensation, and she went on to write many more successful novels.

The novel is set in the French Riviera and features 17 year old Cécile as she spends the summer with her playboy father and his latest mistress, Elsa. They attend parties and hang out at the beach, where Cécile begins a love affair with Cyril who has a small boat. When Cécile’s dead mother’s friend Anne shows up and appears to be in love with her father, their days of hedonistic pleasure appear to be over, and Cécile plots with Cyril and Elsa to convince Anne to leave.

The setting reminded me of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, with its beautiful people and glamorous parties in the South of France, and it brightened up the cold winter nights for me!

What I’m most pleased about though is that I’ve felt much more like picking up a book again. I have had to push myself to read over the past couple of years. I don’t know if this was due to the pandemic making reading difficult due to the closure of libraries and an overwhelmed mind, where the words often just wouldn’t go in and stick. Or whether it has been down to my studies, which have involved lots of required reading, which is a totally different experience to reading for pleasure.

But I have also set myself some ways to ensure reading is something I want to do, rather than forcing myself to read more, just because I feel I ‘should’. These have included simple habits which I’ve mentioned before, such as taking a book with me wherever I go, and leaving my phone charging or out of sight. I have also been more careful about the books I choose to read. I have stuck with fiction, as this is the kind of reading that I find the most escapist and inspiring. I have also tried not to overwhelm myself with books – which is something I often fall into the trap of doing. I know there are some people who love having a huge tower of books beside their bed, ready for their spines to be cracked.

I used to be one of those people too. Now I find it intimidating.

I don’t know whether it is my minimalist tendencies, or whether I am just a bit slower at reading than I used to be, but when I can see how many books I have to get through, it makes me feel a bit panicky! I end up worrying they might need returning to the library, or wondering whether I’m missing out if I choose one book over another. I often end up starting a book, only to reject it because it doesn’t pull me in straight away, when I have so many others to choose from.

Something I think the pandemic did reveal to me was that because I had to buy more books online, due to the libraries being closed, I often only had one new book to read at a time. This meant that I would often persevere with a book longer than usual, leading to me finishing more books. I found that many of these books just had a bit of a slow start, but would pick up pace, having me unable to put the book down by the end! This was definitely a lesson for me to be a more patient reader.

I now try not to order or take home too many library books each week, to give myself a chance to read the ones I have before bringing home more.

I am now over half-way through my third book of the year, Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout, which I have had on order for a while is it was only released a few months ago. So far, it is as wonderful as many of her other books, and I will post a review on it next week.

How do you choose which books to read…?

Sometimes, I struggle to think of what to read next. A habit I’ve adopted in recent years is to trawl good bookstore websites, such as Waterstones, typing in the search box ‘Contemporary Fiction’ and then reading the blurbs. I will then check the local library to see whether they hold the book, and order it there.

Another more recent habit has been watching book bloggers on YouTube (although this can quickly take you down a rabbit hole, leading to less reading and more watching…). A particular favourite is Jack Edwards, who has two channels featuring his life as a book nerd and writer, and apart from receiving lots of book recommendations (I got Bonjour Tristesse from his channel), his easygoing character makes him likeable and entertaining.

If you need any more inspiration, here is an article I found online about the best new books to read in 2023 to get you started.

Wherever you find your reading inspiration, I hope you are getting stuck into some good books this January!

Until next week, happy reading (and writing : ).

Kate