Thanks, as always, to Eleanor and Skai for posting about their recent library reading!
Library borrowing is often the only thing that allows me to follow literary prizes. My library system always acquires at least the entire shortlist for most major UK prizes; sometimes the longlist as well. It would be fair to say that I’ve not engaged with what I’ve read from the Booker Prize shortlist this year. I half-heartedly skimmed two novels (Choi and Miller) and swiftly DNFed another (Markovits; see below). The Desai isn’t going to happen any time soon due to the length, and I haven’t enjoyed Kitamura enough in the past to try her again. David Szalay is my last great hope! I remember liking his All that Man Is, so when I pick up Flesh from the library tomorrow I’ll be hoping that it jumps out at me as a potential winner.
My library use over the last month:
(links are to books not already reviewed on the blog; some reviews are still to come)
READ
- New Cemetery by Simon Armitage
- The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
- Cathedral by Raymond Carver
- Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang
- The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness
- Endling by Maria Reva
- The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams
Naughty photo bomber on the dining table!
SKIMMED
- Flashlight by Susan Choi
- All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith
- Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
CURRENTLY READING
- The Honesty Box by Lucy Brazier
- Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
- Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner
- Misery by Stephen King
- Of Thorn & Briar: A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer by Paul Lamb
- Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
- Red Pockets: An Offering by Alice Mah
- Rainforest by Michelle Paver
- Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
- Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann
- Super-Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
ON HOLD, TO BE COLLECTED
- The Eights by Joanna Miller
- Flesh by David Szalay
- Notes on Infinity by Austin Taylor
- Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe by Adam Weymouth
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
- It’s Not a Bloody Trend: Understanding Life as an ADHD Adult by Kat Brown
- Look Closer: How to Get More out of Reading by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
- Honour & Other People’s Children by Helen Garner
- Snegurochka by Judith Heneghan
- The Perimenopause Survival Guide: A Feel-Like-Yourself-Again Roadmap for Every Woman over 35 by Heather Hirsch
- Queen Esther by John Irving
- The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly
- Heart the Lover by Lily King
- Night Life: Walking Britain’s Wild Landscapes after Dark by John Lewis-Stempel
- The Shapeshifter’s Daughter by Sally Magnusson
- Winter by Val McDermid
Library pick-ups on my birthday; I perused them over a cappuccino at my favourite local coffeehouse. Also got a voucher for a free pair of socks (which I gave to my husband).
RETURNED UNREAD
- The Two Roberts by Damian Barr – Lost immediate interest.
- Opt Out by Carolina Setterwall – Lost immediate interest.
- Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth – Keeps being requested off me.
- Night Side of the River by Jeanette Winterson – I was put off by the endless introduction about the history of ghost stories, and at a glance none of the stories themselves jumped out at me.
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard – Great premise but iffy writing/editing, including lots of “reigns”-instead-of-reins nonsense. I read 40-some pages.
- The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits – THIS is one of the six best books of the past year!? I thought I’d try Markovits again after the lacklustre A Weekend in New York but I barely made it past page 10. What a boring voice!
- What We Can Know by Ian McEwan – I was tickled that the protagonist shares my birthday, but not at all drawn in. I read 20-some pages.
- The Lamb by Lucy Rose – The vampire novel I have on the go is enough for me for R.I.P. without cannibalism added on. I glanced at the first few pages.
- A Long Winter by Colm Tóibín – Jumping on that Claire Keegan stand-alone-story bandwagon. Except this story of an alcoholic mother and soldier brother was deathly dull. I read 30-some pages (in a small hardback with some supplementary material this is stretched out to 130+).
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 
I’m done with Markovits after this one and I’ve read several! I hope you’re enjoying the Erpenbeck and would be interested to know what you make of the Perry.
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I’m on the home straight with the Perry and it’s brilliant (and I read loads of bereavement memoirs and books about death).
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Goodness. As ever I’m exhausted by your long list. And from which I’ve only read Kairos.
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I’m planning to switch to audio on Kairos and will listen while mending a giant pile of socks.
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Very worthy. I don’t ‘do’ audio, as I find my attention wanders, and the reader has to fit in with my pre-conceptions too. It’s a tall order..
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This will only be my second work of fiction on audio, and my fourth full stop. I have to have something to occupy my hands while I listen; other times I also wrapped Christmas presents.
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Christmas presents already? Oh, I see. For the States. All is forgiven.
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I meant while reading my previous audiobook (last November-December). I don’t send physical presents to the USA anymore. Just vouchers or money. Shipping costs are outrageous!
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Your photo-bomber is adorable!
I thought about reading the Elizabeth Gilbert but as I skimmed it I was very much turned off. I think she should give memoir a rest maybe and stick to fiction or nonfiction about other people!
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I thought I’d like it because it’s a bereavement memoir … but it felt very much about her rather than about Rayya. The poetry was kind of terrible as well.
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As a writer, the library introduced me to Trove and the British Library and other links where I find all sorts of interesting articles and books. I hope I never take the library, totally free for everyone, for granted.
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Libraries are invaluable for so many reasons!
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Of all of those, I only have Of Thorn & Briar. I can understand why you’ve left the Desai – I only saw a picture showing its bulk after I’d won it from NetGalley, and I still somehow thought it was “only” about 500 pages when I launched into it!
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I’m reading Of Thorn & Briar gradually, as a seasonal selection (it covers a whole year). Pleaching is my new vocabulary word!
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At a co-worker’s suggestion, I listened to Misery last year. It was most gruesome than I usually read. In October, I was only able to read/listen to four books from my library. Here is the link to my very tardy blog post. Inspirational Skai: Love Your Library October 2025 (September 30th-October 27th)
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Definitely more gruesome than my usual fare, too!
Thanks for your contribution — welcome any time.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one to find Markovits an absolute snooze.
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The only novel of his that I’ve read was free from the publisher at a London event and I wrote it up for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — except I couldn’t summon up much enthusiasm and made it sound about as boring as it was, and my review got killed.
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Oh dear! 😂 I know I’ve read something by him but it was so dull I can’t remember it. Maybe Either Side of Winter?
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I finally was able to get back to the library last weekend, and will probably try again one more time before the snow’s too deep, so I will be able to post for November’s Library month!
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Oh, I meant to add that I had considered the Winterson collection: do you think it was a mood thing, that it didn’t click for you, or was it one of those “need to get something on the market” stretches where it felt like her heart wasn’t really in it?
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Mostly mood, I hope. I might try it again another year.
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Hurrah for libraries! I hope you checked out a goodly stack to see you through.
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[…] Last month I was lamenting my disengagement from the Booker Prize shortlist. Luckily, I loved the eventual winner, Flesh by David Szalay, which I finished reading about an hour and a half before the prize announcement! In other news, I’m judging the McKitterick Prize again this year. When, mid-month, it hit me that my first shipment of submissions was going to be arriving soon, I had to clear the decks by returning some library books I knew I wasn’t going to get to anytime soon. This included a few 2025 releases that I’d hoped to prioritise but that didn’t, at least within the first few pages, leap out at me as must-reads. […]
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