2019, the year of audio

This year, I fully embraced the delights of audio.

I finally acquired a smartphone, which means I can easily borrow and listen to audiobooks. They make exercising far more tolerable, and accompany me in my daily tasks. Thus far, my preference has gone to non-fiction, and I highly recommend these:

- At Home by Bill Bryson, a delightfully eclectic study of the domestic space (read my review here)

- Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith, a fascinating comparison of human and other minds

- Stiff by Mary Roach, a funny and irreverent but never disrespectful look at what happens to us after death

As a longtime fan of podcasts, I'm always happy to add new ones added to my feed. These are the ones I found over the course of this year:

- Shedunnit, a celebration of Golden Age mysteries with an emphasis on women's contributions

- Words to that Effect, about the written word in all its multifaceted glory

- The Memory Palace, always food for thought

- Literary Friction, which feels like eavesdropping on two smart, funny friends having a literary conversation

- Finding Fred, a touching look at beloved TV figure Fred Rogers and his lasting legacy of being a good neighbour

Despite my love of podcasts, I'd never realised before this year that there was such a thing as audio dramas! I've fallen headlong down the rabbit hole and have made amazing discoveries, with superb voice acting and mind-blowing sound design. Give these a listen if you're curious!

- Victoriocity

what: Staid Inspector Archibald Fleet and plucky journalist Clara Entwistle's (mis)adventures in Even Greater London under the reign of cyborg Victoria (& Albert)

listen while: nibbling on ginger buns

in two words: steampunk comedy

- The Amelia Project

what: Tell them a good story and pony up the cash, and they'll fake your death

listen while: sipping cocoa

in two words: this review isn't happening

- Wooden Overcoats

what: Cantankerous Rudyard Funn and his perpetually gloomy twin sister Antigone ran the only funeral home in the village of Piffling Vale, until (almost) universally popular Eric Chapman moved across the street

listen while: enjoying a hot water, strong

in two words: Enjoy yourselves!

- The Axe and Crown

what: A chronically overenthusiastic young man inherits a ramshackle tavern run by a crabby troll; what could go wrong?

listen while: tucking into seagull on toast

in two words: absurd fun

- The White Vault

what: A team of strangers was sent to a remote area with a specific task; what happened next is told through their audio and video recordings and written notes

listen while: thawing your fingers on a mug of coffee

in two words: addictively terrifying

slowing down

Now that the weather has finally turned, I find myself busy with a variety of things that take up much of my reading time. This means that, at least until the end of summer in the northern hemisphere, I'll only be publishing one post per week (on Mondays) instead of the customary two.

Thanks for visiting!

bulletproof kinks

Bulletproof what?

I'm sure it happens to you occasionally: you hear or read about a book, a movie or a TV series, and something instantly pique your curiosity, making you say "Oooh, that sounds like my cup of tea!"

As explained in this post by author (and avid reader) Sonia Gensler, "bulletproof kinks" — a term originally borrowed from fanfiction, but that can now easily be applied to all works of fiction — refer to plot elements that hold an irresistible attraction for a reader or viewer; they may include situations, characters, settings or themes.

So you've had bulletproof kinks all this time and never suspected it!

Here are a few of mine...


situations:

- strange tales told to or by travellers (these occur several times in M.R. James' Collected Ghost Stories)

- a "treasure hunt" made up of clues that, once deciphered, lead to other clues (The Falls by Ian Rankin; episode of the Endeavour tv series entitled "Fugue")

- the struggle to live with limited means, especially as pertains to food, whether in penurious rural or urban areas, on naval ships, in wartime, in dystopian settings, etc. (I know, this is rather niche, but it's a long-established fascination and it's still going strong!) (Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring by Marcel Pagnol, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series)

characters:

- very close sisters (Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility; movie adaptation of Babette's Feast by Karen Blixen)

- beings or creatures from folklore (e.g. the changeling in The Good People by Hannah Kent)

- librarians (Cemetery of Forgotten Books series by Carlos Ruiz Zafón)


settings:

- United Kingdom or Ireland (of all settings, this is sure to pique my interest when I read a book's blurb); bonus points if combined with one or more of my other bulletproof kinks

- labyrinths (although these usually work better on screen, Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance by M.R. James is quite well done)

- self-contained communities (island, monastery/convent, isolated or small village, house in the middle of nowhere, ship at sea, girls' boarding school) (Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James; Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels again; Sonia Gensler's own The Revenant; The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco; Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell)

- the "hidden" side (or under-side) of a well-known place (Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman; the Harry Potter series to a certain extent)

- academe, especially from a feminine perspective (Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers)


themes:

- books and literature (the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series by Carlos Ruiz Zafón fits here as well; Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, about a detective able to enter books to investigate crimes)

- unsolved mysteries from the past, whether related to an object, a building or a disappearance; bonus points if a supernatural explanation is one of the theories (Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone; Possession by A.S. Byatt; Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca)

- growth in self-confidence and self-reliance of a downtrodden character (hence my admiration for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and for Helen Graham in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë)

- a family over multiple generations; this is a fairly recent one, as I clearly remember not even being willing to entertain the idea of reading a family saga when I was younger (Barkskins by Annie Proulx; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez; Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien)

Out of curiosity, what are your bulletproof kinks?

Umberto Eco (1932-2016)

why I'm not here

One day, last August, I switched my computer on and found that something had changed. I suddenly realised that I was craving silence, with an intensity that startled me. I'd become increasingly less tolerant of the tumult of the web (blogs! Twitter! news sites!) and had to step back for a little while, otherwise I might lose my balance altogether.

I needed quiet not only around me, but also from myself. There's so much noise out there — too much noise already for me to wish to add to it.

I closed those tabs and windows there and then. I cleared my feed reader of all but the few blogs where I feel at home. I turned down the volume. Thus far, it's been wonderful.

I've stopped feeling the need to keep up with the world. I don't have any urge to be informed of everything that's happening on this mad planet of ours.

I don't know if or when I'll return to this little corner of the web, but for the moment, there's somewhere else my head would rather be.

So what's up with me? I'm well, and so is Rebus, who is currently on a diet (on his vet's recommendation). I'm spending much of my time thinking, cooking, listening to a few radio programmes, making my apartment more of a home at long last. Yes, I've kept up with my Women Writers Reading Group commitment to read and purchase only books written by women this year, but am looking forward to reading O'Brian and Dickens and Thackeray and Trollope and Lamb and Balzac soon... I'm also corresponding with a few lovely people I first got to know online; I'd forgotten what a joy it is to receive a real letter in my physical mailbox, to hold the envelope in my hands, to choose which ink and stamp to use in my reply.

It's still a little early, but I'm told it's better than being late... so here goes:

I wish you happy end-of-year festivities, filled with all of the good things you deserve!

a humble list...

... of things I would very much like to receive on my birthday:

- Cahiers de jeunesse and Journal de guerre by Simone de Beauvoir
- a gift card from my favourite tea store
- a gift certificate from my favourite book/stationery store
- a gift certificate from a my favourite fountain pen store
- piles of notebooks
- a messenger bag
- a watch

Hila's book challenge (updated)

If you don't already subscribe to Hila's blog, then do your heart and brains a favour: click on the link right now and add her to whichever RSS feed thingy you use, because not only does she write sensitively and eloquently, she also deals with important topics, including issues faced by women in today's supposedly evolved society.

May I ask you a question, just out of curiosity? Off the top of your head, what proportion of the books on your shelves were written by women? About fifty percent? A little more? A bit less?

Until last week, I was convinced that my bookshelves were fairly equally split between male and female authors. After all, most of my books are classics and crime novels, where women are, at least to my mind, fairly well represented. Then I read this post by Hila, which makes it all too plain that literature remains a male-dominated field and that, shockingly, the situation is only worsening. Is it a case of being blind to something that's glaringly obvious if only one is willing to take a close look? Apparently so.

Eager to know the true state of my bookshelves, I went through my Goodreads account to check how many of the books I currently own are by women. The results were startling: 195 out of 571, a meagre 34%! Well, I never!

As Hila explains, the statistics gathered by VIDA speak plainly: women in the literary arts are underhired and underpublished, relegated to minor roles, and assigned to "wholesome" or inoffensive genres ("chick lit", forsooth!).

Now that the problem has been stated, what are we going to do about it? Is there concrete action we can take? Hila's excellent idea was to issue a book challenge to anyone willing to take it up. Here's how she put it:

It's quite simple: Make a conscious decision to read more books by women, and write about them on your blog.

How easy is that? So here's my commitment: by the end of this year, I'll read or re-read the following, and write about them here. (This is only a preliminary list.)

Mansfield Park / Jane Austen
Anne, ou quand prime le spirituel / Simone de Beauvoir
Le Deuxième Sexe (tomes I and II) / Simone de Beauvoir

La Femme rompue / Simone de Beauvoir
Five Classic Murder Mysteries (omnibus) / Agatha Christie

Middlemarch / George Eliot

Romola / George Eliot

La Princesse de Clèves / Madame de La Fayette

North and South / Elizabeth Gaskell
South Riding / Winifred Holtby

La Capture du Mouron Rouge / Baroness Orczy

Mauprat / George Sand

Galileo's Daughter / Dava Sobel

Longitude / Dava Sobel

Lark Rise to Candleford / Flora Thompson

Mémoires d'Hadrien / Marguerite Yourcenar
L'Œuvre au noir / Marguerite Yourcenar

In addition to this reading challenge, also until the end of the year, I'll only purchase books — new or used — by women.

I think this is the perfect opportunity to discover new authors, revisit old favourites, finally get to those unread books you've never had time to pick up before, or give some a second chance — and tell others about them. So what do you say? Shall we join together to show our love of women in literature? Leave a comment on Hila's blog to express your interest! (If you need specific titles to get you started, Hila includes an extensive list in her post.)


UPDATE: Hila has named her initiative the Women Writers Reading Group and has summarized its purpose and rules here. She even created a badge to display on your blog!

wishes

May the New Year bring you many good things...
including a comfy blanket on which to nap!

Proust questionnaire

Since I'm in a confiding sort of mood these days, here are my answers to one version of the famous questionnaire (found here):

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Being able to use my time as I please (hint: it involves reading).

What is your greatest fear?

Fire; one of my aunts went through multiple apartment fires when I was younger, and it completely traumatised me. 

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Relying on other people's judgment.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Hypocrisy.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Tea (since books couldn't possibly be seen as an extravagance!).

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Extroversion.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

Intelligence.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Intelligence.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

"There's only way to find out", "idiot", "seriously?"

Which talent would you most like to have?

Being able to draw.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Becoming my own person.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A cat.

Where would you most like to live?

In an isolated little cabin in the woods, near a river.

What is your most treasured possession?

My mind.

What is your most marked characteristic?

My short stature.

What do you most value in your friends?

Genuineness.

Who are your favourite writers?

Jane Austen, Patrick O'Brian, David Mitchell, Simone de Beauvoir, Ian Rankin.

Who is your hero of fiction?

Jane Eyre.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Winston Churchill. But seriously, I have no idea.

What is it that you most dislike?

Lack of consideration from people who live as though they were alone in the middle of nowhere.

What is your greatest regret?

Not continuing to write as I did in high school.

How would you like to die?

Sitting in a comfortable chair, under a tree, just after reading the last line from David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.

What is your motto?

Professionally, it's :"Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." Personally, I don't have one... yet.