vivdunstan

Just finishing the book Forgotten Churches: Exploring England's Hidden Treasures by Luke Sherlock. A quite magical book, a mix of architecture, travel and history. Also exploration of place. With evocative illustrations throughout from Ioana Pioaru. Thoroughly recommended.

I mainly read it on my Kindle for disability reasons, but also had the hardback book, which is better for appreciating the gorgeous illustrations. It's a quite compact hardback book, not too large, but just right. I was just tormenting Martin over tea with questions about "Do you know X?" re X places in Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset! But also had fun showing him some of the fantastic pictures I enjoyed in the later sections of the book. He's a lapsed bellringer, and in his younger days rang bells in many churches in southwest England.

Kindle books anyway, the main thing I read now, so I can have a gigantic font to cope with reading difficulties due to my progressive neurological disease. A mix of fiction and non fiction as always. I also have library books and others on the go.

Starting my reread of The Return of Sherlock Holmes with this story.( spoilers )

Recently rejoined the public library (Angus Libraries). I struggle with print due to progressive neurological illness - indeed have done for 25+ years - so borrowed a mass of illustrated/painting/photography books. Latest catalogue request from elsewhere in Angus is a new manga Sherlock Holmes. Fab!

It is encouraging I can still find physical books I want to borrow, even if I can't read print or even large print now. And it's marvellous how the online library catalogue lets me call books in from all over Angus. There's a particularly good Scottish cultural/history collection in store at Forfar.

Meanwhile I continue to read masses on my Kindle. I have a huge pile of ebooks on my virtual to read pile. I often snap them up when they're on reduced sale price. I buy far more ebooks than I ever get read! But at least it lets me keep reading extended fiction and non fiction. With gargantuan font.

Getting near to the end of my catchup watch for the Cymera 2025 festival of scifi, fantasy and horror writing in Edinburgh. I had a digital weekend ticket, so had access until this coming weekend to the digital recordings. Didn't get through as many as in some years. But happy with what I've managed to see, considering. And found many new to me authors whose work I want to follow up.

Catching up with this, and another 6 titles finished since my last post:

( earlier books )
1. Winter's Heart (Wheel of Time book 9) by Robert Jordan
2. Insomniacs After School volume 6 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
3. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
4. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
5. The Wee Free Men (Discworld book 30) by Terry Pratchett
6. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan

Of the new ones, the Wheel of Time 9th book was not as bad as I feared. Still way too long, still over written. And I'm rather dreading book 10, which retells much of the same plot apparently as book 10. But not too bad, and overall enjoyable. I am determined to get to the end of the series!

Still loving the Insomniacs After School manga series, though trying to spread them out, because there are still some more due to be published in English translation.

Assassin's Apprentice is the first Robin Hobb book I have read. I enjoyed it a lot, though some bits made me so very angry as I was reading. Angry at the author for making me go through reading them! But it was well written. I expect to continue on to the sequel in the near future.

Belladonna is a Young Adult gothic/fantasy/historical/romance book. I'm honestly surprised how "spicy" it was, given the age it was targeted at. I also found it a slog to keep going through much of it, and it needed heftier editing. But I did enjoy it enough that I might read the sequel.

Continuing my reread of the Discworld "Witches" mini series of books saw me get to the first Tiffany Aching book. These Tiffany books late in Terry's writing life are so very good. I can understand why he was so fond of them and also so proud of them.

I enjoyed Lucy Mangan's book recalling her childhood reading, from her very earliest memories of being read to, through to her transition to adulthood. She's a couple of years younger than me, but we read many similar books in childhood. Though she didn't share my enthusiasm for fantasy, and was far more keen than me on contemporary fiction and also dystopian which I tend to avoid.

I am now reading the first in David Bishop's Renaissance Florence set series of mystery/thrillers. As well as continuing to read a non fiction book about a slow canal boat journey around England, another British Library Weird Tales short story collection, and more.

Finishing my 25th book means that I've reached my self-set Goodreads reading goal of the year. I was very modest in my 2025 reading goal, and wanted it to be something easily achievable, not least given how sedated and time limited I am now. And to be fair the last 6 months have included some whoppers, including another Wheel of Time book, and a reread of Charles Dickens's very lengthy Our Mutual Friend. I will keep reading, but it's nice to have 25 books under my belt.

Our garden that is. It's taken until now for it (1) to be warm enough for me to sit out for any reasonable length of time, and (2) a warm sunny day when I'm not doing something else, even in another city as on the Capercaillie concert day! We were out from 4.30pm-6.30pm, when it was pleasantly warm, with a little breeze. Martin got our folding table and chairs out, in our usual excellent spot.

Martin sat with me for the duration, happily reading, and intermittently taking photos of planes and birds in our garden. We also had seagulls flying overhead at just 3 metres! From below that's rather terrifying, like seeing a giant plane from below whoosh overhead at speed. But we were more surrounded by sparrows, blackbirds, chiffchaffs and wood pigeons. Oh and #notourcat Isla was curled up, tail swishing happily, in the garden nearby.

I had a first tentative go at sketching. Very rough, very rudimentary, but I was enthusiastically trying it. Looking forward to doing it more. It's about 35 years since I've seriously drawn anything ... I also took out my latest society magazines from the Tolkien Society and Sherlock Holmes Society of London. And was reading a recently published book of charming paintings around St Andrews. And planning various other bits and bobs.

Nearing the end of Memoirs and on to this tale of a stolen secret treaty ... ( spoilers )

Generally Benny audios are fairly family friendly. But there are some where they're absolutely not suitable for younger listeners. Scenes of torture (portrayed through audio) sometimes happen. And then there's this one, where the population of the Braxiatel Collection are overcome by an orgy of lust. Which is handled on audio much as you might expect. Though that aspect could have been far worse! They're also pushing the comedy factor in this story, with the pair ups happening. I first heard this audio many years ago, but it works better slotted into the ongoing continuity of the series. And it's surprising how enjoyable I found this story to be, given the content. It does make me want to read more of the Benny books and short stories though. In particular the short story collection Something Changed could have been helpful here. I do have it in print, though have barely managed to read any print for prolonged periods for a couple of decades now ...

But yes, surprisingly enjoyable, pretty disposable, and absolutely not essential. But an original take on the premise. And I was amused.

Going into quite a significant story, that I'd forgotten much of! ( spoilers )