Thanks to Eleanor, Laura (here, here and here & Happy birthday!), Marcie and Naomi (here and here) for posting about their recent library reading!
On our holiday I popped into the Dunbar library (East Lothian, Scotland) while my husband was touring a nearby brewery. It seemed like a sweet and useful community centre, and I enjoyed the kid-friendly book returns box.
Last week my library removed its Perspex screens from around the three enquiry desks, nearly four years on from when they were put up during Covid.
I’m dipping into the Booker and Wainwright Prize shortlists through my library borrowing, and stocking up for R.I.P.
I appreciated this passage about libraries from Home Is Where We Start by Susanna Crossman:
Every week, from the age of seven, I walk the twenty minutes to the local library, and I borrow four books. My path takes me past the greengrocer’s, the newsagent’s, the butcher’s, the baker’s, the bank, the post office, and across the town square … Inside the library, high walls are lined with books, and when I’ve read all the Children’s section, the librarian lets me take the Adult books, but only the Classics. Back in my room at the community, I read for hours. Reading is one of my forms of resistance. … Books are my home, and when you turn the cover, you close one door and open another, moving to imagined worlds.
My library use over the last month:
(links to reviews not already featured on the blog)
READ
- One Garden against the World: In Search of Hope in a Changing Climate by Kate Bradbury
- Clear by Carys Davies
- Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson
- The Song of the Whole Wide World: On Motherhood, Grief, and Poetry by Tamarin Norwood
- Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
- Heartstopper: Volume 1 by Alice Oseman (reread)
- Heartstopper: Volume 2 by Alice Oseman (reread)
- Heartstopper: Volume 3 by Alice Oseman (reread)
- Lumberjanes: Campfire Songs by Shannon Watters
- The Echoes by Evie Wyld
SKIMMED
- The Garden against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing
- The Accidental Garden: The Plot Thickens by Richard Mabey
CURRENTLY READING
- The Lone-Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
CURRENTLY READING-ish (more accurately, set aside temporarily)
- Death Valley by Melissa Broder
- The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
- Learning to Think: A Memoir about Faith, Demons, and the Courage to Ask Questions by Tracy King
- Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar by Chantal Lyons
- Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets by Kyo Maclear
- Late Light: Finding Home in the West Country by Michael Malay
- Mrs Gulliver by Valerie Martin
- After Dark by Haruki Murakami
- Stowaway: The Disreputable Exploits of the Rat by Joe Shute
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand
- Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee
- Now She Is Witch by Kirsty Logan
- Held by Anne Michaels
- Heartstopper: Volume 4 by Alice Oseman (reread)
- It’s Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis by Tori Tsui
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey
- Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter by Kat Hill
- The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes
- Playground by Richard Powers
- The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
ON HOLD, TO BE PICKED UP
- The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
- James by Percival Everett
- Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
- Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
RETURNED UNREAD
- Wasteland: The Dirty Truth about What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters by Oliver Franklin-Wallis – Twice I’ve had this out and failed to actually open it. I think I’m worried it will depress me.
- This Is My Sea by Miriam Mulcahy – A bereavement memoir with a swimming theme was sure to attract me, but the writing was blah. In fact, I think I may have borrowed this when it first came out in hardback and DNFed it then, too. Whoops!
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- The Forester’s Daughter by Claire Keegan (a standalone Faber short) – This didn’t seem very interesting, and I figure there is no point reading just one story from a whole unread collection.
- The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal – I actually read 109 pages, then left it alone for weeks before it was requested off me. It was perfectly readable stuff but I kept feeling like I’d encountered this story before. It reminded me most of The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan but was also trying for the edginess of early Sarah Waters. Now that I’ve DNFed Macneal’s two latest novels, I think it’s time to stop trying her.
What have you been reading or reviewing from the library recently?
Share a link to your own post in the comments. Feel free to use the above image. The hashtag is #LoveYourLibrary.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Ah, I don’t know how you remember my birthday, thank you! It’s a shame about Macneal as I know we both really enjoyed The Doll Factory but I DNF Circus of Wonders as well and sounds like it’s not worth trying this one. I have all the Heartstoppers on Kindle so it’s always nice to see them in their full chunky glory!
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An easy one for me to remember as it was my childhood best friend’s birthday, and my best friend since age 9 has their birthday on the 29th as well.
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a graphic novel on Kindle. (I don’t think my old e-readers could cope.) If I don’t have them in print I always end up reading them on my PC screen. The pages turn so quickly with Heartstopper!
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Ah, that’s a coincidence! I often read graphic novels on Kindle – I’m sure it’s not the best way to experience them but they’re much cheaper and take up less space!
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Reading the Joe Shute has had me completely revise my feelings about rats. I found it so interesting. What do you feel about the Chantal Lyons about wild boar? Worth a punt? I do hope you enjoy Orbital. It’s one of the few books on your list that I’ve actually read.
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The Lyons is quite readable and has made me want to go look for boar at the Forest of Dean. She won the ‘highly commended’ (runner-up) Wainwright Prize for conservation.
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Can’t be bad then!
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I’m engulfed in a huge historical fiction book called China by Edward Rutherfurd. It’s 761 pages of richly worded and thoroughly researched prose, written in first person from the perspective of a eunuch in the King’s summer palace and the Forbidden City. Fascinating.
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I’ve not read any Rutherfurd, though when my stepfather came to visit a few summers ago I had him get out London from the library for his trip. They seem like good chunky novels to get stuck into.
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I’m impressed that Intermezzo is waiting for you to pick it up already. I imagine you got in quick with that request!
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I’m the first of 20 holds on 1 copy; I’m actually surprised it wasn’t more (vs. 25 people waiting for 5 copies of The Glassmaker).
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That’s interesting. Presumably it reflects the reading tastes of your borrowers.
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I’ve just finished Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women they Destroyed by Maureen Callahan. I read it with increasing incredulity – if a small % of what she claims is true then I am staggered at the whole lot of them!!
It was a welcome relief to turn to Jay Rayner and his new book Nights out at Home – a lovely mix of recipes and stories from his 25 years as a restaurant critic.
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They were quite the cursed family, it seems.
Our favourite Newbury restaurant recently got a rave review from Jay Rayner. Hoping it doesn’t become impossible to get a table reservation!
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I’ve got The Place of Tides from NetGalley to read this month. I have Learning to Think TBR and really want to start it soon, and I loved Late Light.
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Rebanks is actually coming to speak at our local Corn Exchange soon, but the tickets (for a book talk) were alarmingly expensive, so we’ll give it a miss and I’ll read the book from the library. It promises to be quite different from his others.
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[…] [Something went awry with my scheduling, so this is appearing on Thursday rather than Monday. And I neglected to include the link to Rebecca’s page.] […]
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All the Heartstoppers! Is this your first run-through with them? I haven’t read them, but I have watched all the TV episodes with my daughters who are very big fans of the books and the show.
I’ve just read Held and Orbital. Such different books but both are so beautifully written.
I love stopping in at libraries when traveling if I can. It’s fun to see the different set-ups and ideas!
Thanks for hosting this! 🙂
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No, this is a second reading of Heartstopper for me. I’m on Volume 4 now.
Orbital is our buddy read for Novellas in November, so I need it show up soon!
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Oh wow, I’m already ahead of the game! Lol
Once it shows up, you’ll zip right through it!
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I was just browsing the graphic novels the other day and spotted Heartstopper and was reminded of how much you loved it. I think I’ll include it on my list of series for 2025, which is usually about “remembering” to finish them, but this is… more fun? lol (My borrowing is way down these days, but I’m still enjoying a Good Browse. Soon it will be too snowy to really borrow very much.)
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You could read the whole Heartstopper series in a weekend if you wanted to! Unless you were really disciplined and decided to savour them. But I find they are so cute you just have to keep turning pages.
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Oh, GTK! I managed to spin out Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s Roaming for four days, but I really just wanted to gobble up the whole thing (it’s twice the thickness of their usual): I really love that feeling!
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[…] tales of the library, why not link to Bookish Beck’s monthly visit to the library. This is the link for September 2024. I suspect the October post will be up any minute […]
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I’ve finally posted a Love Your Library post. I’m sure I’ve got some others lurking in my drafts, but this is about a recent trip to pick up a reservation and my issues with their app.
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Thanks so much for your post! I’ve linked to it in my October Love Your Library, going up tomorrow morning. It’s so interesting to see what English-language books are available at your library and what gets translated. I’ve not yet tried our library app or the system’s various e-book borrowing options as I usually have plenty to be getting on with between review copies, my own books, print library books, and NetGalley downloads, but eventually I should get to grips with it so I can keep an emergency book on my phone.
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