Hello hello – it’s been a while since I did a Weekend Miscellany, hasn’t it? And I am spending at least some of the weekend in a lovely airbnb in Malvern, as a little treat to myself. Sadly I also have a horrible cold, but… well, if you have to have a cold, I suppose it’s better to have it in a pretty airbnb? Maybe? It’s certainly warmer than my flat. Malvern also has some wonderful secondhand bookshops, so watch this space for a haul, if I come away successful.
Oh, btw, I’ve sort of left Twitter – my account is still there, but inactive. You can find me at BlueSky, which is currently rather nicer and bookish and not run by a cartoon supervillain.
Anyway, hope you’re doing well. Here’s a book, a blog post, and a link!
1.) The link – I love Tracy Chevalier’s Books of My Life in the Guardian. Along with the sort of classics you might expect, she mentions the sort of authors we love in this part of the book internet – Elizabeth von Arnim, Dorothy Whipple, R.C. Sherriff.
2.) The book – Dear Oliver by Susan R. Barry is a book my brother got me for my birthday, and I’m excited to read it. You might know about my abiding love for neuroscientist and lovely human Oliver Sacks – this book is about the friendship that Barry (a fellow neuroscientist) had with Sacks over a decade of letters. (Cheating, with another book – Sacks’ selected letters are also recently out.)
3.) The blog post – Jacqui always has such good ideas for book lists – I enjoy the variety of her list of haunting, atmospheric novellas. I’ve only read three of them, and am especially glad now that I recently bought Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts.
Hope your cold does not hold you back from second hand bookshop outings this weekend! It’s not exactly wonderful weather for exploring but the bookshops and cafes will be warm inside for reading breaks from the rain.
Thanks for the links. I enjoyed the Guardian article (The Waves is my favourite Woolf – but I guess it is like medicine in its ‘taking me out of myself’ effect!). Jacqui’s post this week was wonderful and I am fairly certain you will enjoy Whereabouts (I’ve already been tempted by her list to obtain Baron Bagge too).
I can’t wait to see your selections from all those book shops; it’s such a vicarious thrill to see others’ little bookish indulgences (even though it always adds to by TBR list). It’s particularly true for me now, as my one reasonably good, and accessible, second hand book shop never recovered from its Covid closure. Also thanks for the links! It’s so nice to be reminded of interesting, book-related things to enjoy between the novels. Hope the cold is soon better and may you find many treasures to share from your strolls around the bookshops!
Thanks so much, Simon, for featuring my novellas post in your Weekend Miscellany; it’s very kind of you! I enjoyed Tracy Chevalier’s selection, too – it’s always an interesting feature to read, just to see what authors pick!
Cold aside, your Malvern trip sounds great, and I look forward to seeing what you picked up!
Ooh, I knew about the Letters but did not know about Dear Oliver – onto the wish list it has gone – in bold!