Having had a good shufti round Blogger, I realise that I haven't actually blogged about anything since 2012. Which means that I haven't really written anything since 2012 (other than a bazillion essays for my degree!) A four-year hiatus really calls for a fresh start, don't you think?  A clean slate.  A shiny new blog. One that contains something other than the detritus of my brain.

Books, then. Every year I set myself a challenge of sorts - it's usually to read in the order of fifty books.  Last year I just scraped through (I think the final total was a pleasing fifty-two, or one a week, if you prefer).  This year I'm trying to broaden my reading horizons by reading more translations and more books by non-white writers.  To this end, I have a spreadsheet (a surprise to no-one who knows me) where I can monitor how this is going, but a blog is more satisfying, isn't it?  Somewhere where I can actually write about the books I've read, in the hope that I will remember them, and be more able to recommend them, rather than saying something helpful like, "Hey Fred, I read this book that I know you'd love.  Oh, what was it called? Ummm, hang on it'll come to me.  Ok, I know the author though, he was called...ummm.  Dammit! Listen, you'll love it so when you manage to track it down, let me know what you thought, ok?"

I don't pretend to be an intellectual. Nor do I intend to read the Man Booker Shortlist every year (or even the winner, truth be told).  I read books because people buy them for me, because someone I know (or the internet) recommends them, because they catch my eye when I'm browsing a bookstore, or when I'm on Amazon or because someone lends them to me.  I read trash of the highest order when I want a break and an escape, and I read more meaty, weighty tomes when I feel like I need stretching. I'm more contemporary than classic and I'm a quitter.  So many books, and so little time means I have no qualms about giving up on books that I'm jut not feeling.  Expect one of my most oft-used tags to be giving up is for quitters.

I read more in the holidays and less during term time, so this blog won't be updated daily, or even weekly, in a regular manner. I can swing through a short-ish novel in a day when I'm holiday.  During term time, the same book'll take me a fortnight.

I have a number of books 'in progress' at any one time.  The number of books in my current 'to read' stack is approaching forty. I am still buying books. I can be obsessive, discovering an author and then reading their entire oeuvre, gorging on them until I'm satiated. Oh, and I'm not good with literary criticism.  Themes, allegory, foreshadowing, all the literary methods can usually be found sailing over my head.  I read fast and I rarely read deeply.  Do not expect deconstruction and analysis, please. I would hate to disappoint.