Ooops, Big Error. how could I do that?

Oops. I was looking over my last post, and I thought, 'where's The Moonstone'? I'm sure The Suspicions of Mr Whicher talks about that book too. So I went to check and sure enough. The Woman in White was being published by Charles Dickens' magazine, the 33rd instalment, as Det Whicher gets on the train for Road Hill that July 1860 evening. The Moonstone wasn't written yet. Here is what the very first page of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which is the introduction, has to say:

"The Road Hill case turned everyone detective. It riveted the people of England, hundreds of whom wrote to the newspapers, to the Home Secretary and to Scotland Yard with their solutions. It helped shape the fiction of the 1860s and beyond, most obviously Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, which was described by TS Eliot as the first and best of all English detective novels. Whicher was the inspiration for that story's cryptic Sergeant Cuff, who has influenced nearly every detective hero since. Elements of the case surfaced in Charles Dicken's last, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Introduction. (bold sentence is mine, for emphasis!!)

The Woman in White is more gothic in tone, as I recall. It certainly doesn't feature the police investigation so prominently, as The Moonstone does. And I have read both books, so I have no excuse for mixing them up in my review, but alas, I kept getting interrupted by my kids and husband that night while I was writing the post......and I didn't do a final check in the book. So, for those of who about to read The Woman in White thinking it is the best and first detective novel, please don't!!! It's The Moonstone.

So please accept my apologies! The Woman in White is a fun read, but it's not a detective story!

A Book Review! The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

I thought it was about time that for a blog about books and reading, I actually wrote about a book I've read! It seems to be ages since I last did a review.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is a true-crime mystery set in 1860 England. A terrible murder, set in a house that was locked from within, so the only ones who could have done it are among the family members and servants sleeping within. What set this murder apart from the many appalling others, were two things: one, that it was in a locked house, and two, London had just formed the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829, and it had started, very quietly, forming the first detective division, which in June 1842 was officially allowed to exist by the Home Office. Jack Whicher is one of those first detectives, a police officer invited to become a plains-clothes detective, in 1842. He is a successful detective, and when the Road Hill murder can't be solved after two weeks, he is invited - because it is outside the Metropolitan City, the county officials have to ask the Met to lend one of its detectives to help solve the crime.

There was enormous publicity about the crime, partly due to the victim - a child - but also because of where and how it takes place - inside the safest place a family should be, inside the home. All of England watches as Mr Whicher investigates.

The incredible irony is that he solves it, but no one believes him, and because he has no proof - the only evidence has been disappeared, everyone is claiming innocence among the family members and servants, and no one is found with any evidence upon them - the murder is not solved immediately. When it is, it is unexpectedly.

This book was a fascinating read. I read it in 3 days. I could hardly bear to put it down, and even though I was on holiday, I read every chance I got. The first part especially is haunting. Kate Summerscale, the author, not only relates the history of the police force (which isn't much since it had just begun to exist!), she relates the idea of policing and investigating with the English society at that time. She quotes from existing newpapers, journals, letters, of that time. I felt like I was seeing the evolution of the detective force before my eyes. "Jack Whicher was one of the original eight Scotland Yard officers. In the eighteen years since the detective force had been formed, these men had become figures of mystery and glamour, the surreptitious, all-seeing little gods of London." prologue

She also relates the idea of a detective to the literature of the time - specifically, of course, to the first mysteries being written by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, and Edgar Allan Poe. Dickens was fascinated by detectives, and Wilkie Collins wrote what many consider to be the best (and very first) of the locked-room mysteries, The Woman in White, which Summerscale says is based in part on the atmosphere surrounding the Road Hill mystery. Henry Wills, Dicken's editor at his paper, saw Whicher in action and described him as "A plain, honest-looking fellow, with nothing formidable in his appearance, or dreadful in his countenance....
"Whicher was a 'man of mystery', in Will's phrase, the prototype of the enigmatic, reserved investigator. He appeared from nowhere....Many of the traits that Wills saw in Whicher became the stuff of the fictional detective hero: he was ordinary-looking,keen-sighted, sharp-witted, quiet." Prologue

I don't normally read true-crime books, partly because the photos leave a bad feeling in my mouth, and the crimes are always horrible. I did read Helter Skelter, that terrible and chilling account of the Manson murders in the 1960's, and a few others that occurred in the 1970's, but they were often left unsolved - the accused never confesses, or the evidence isn't enough to convict. In fiction, the perpetrator usually confesses eventually. Life isn't that neat, and so The Suspicions of Mr Whicher is less thrilling in the second part, which deals with the aftermath of the investigation and what happened to everyone. I still found I couldn't put the book down. I had to know what happened, and how the world - English society - felt about what happened. I came away satisfied. This is a very good book.

I really enjoyed how she tied the development of the English mystery novel to the study of this real-life crime mystery. I learned a lot about crime in 1860's England, and how even then, it took a special kind of personality to be a good detective. This book is must-reading for anyone who reads mysteries.

I'm not the only one who thinks so - I'd seen this book reviewed since last summer in magazine and book review columns (no where in the blogging world though that I can recall), so I thought that while I was in England, I would look for it. It was sold out in York, in Grays Essex, and in London until New Year's Eve, when the publisher finally produced some more copies. It was one of 'the' books being bought in England for Christmas.

So there I was......

So there I was. Deslily had introduced me to Cath at Read-Warbler (and there are some great photos of an old house in Cornwall with a courtyard that she's just posted) and then looking at her blogroll, which I often do to see if there is someone new to meet, found myself at A Devoted Reader - who could resist a blog title like that??! - and there it was: a whole series of books currently being read by A Devoted reader, that I have been meaning to read like forever: Anthony Trollope's 6 books of The Barsetshire series. I had successfully gone to Cath's blog and not come away with anything to add to my TBR pile because I already have The Book Thief waiting patiently on the top of it. The fact that I had instant book lust for her other book, the Atlas of North American Exploration , is beside the point......maybe it is the point. I love going to all your blogs, my Gentle Readers, and finding new books I've never heard of, and being reminded of books I still haven't read, and discovering you love the same books I do.

I don't own any of Anthony Trollope's books, so a trip to the library - when we get our buses back!! - will be upcoming.

So, this introduces me to :

BAD BLOGGERS!
Started by Deslily, carried by Chris, I hereby join this blame game. It's easy. Read a book, recommend it, post about it, and ta-dah! my TBR pile is suddenly larger! And so......since I've only been blogging for a year, I can already blame several bloggers for increasing my TBR pile to dangerous proportions over that time. I hereby give 10 points to:
Chris at Stuff As Dreams Are Made of. I once joked that if he gave his list of books he was going to read, I'd go out and buy my own copies. Even if I'm not interested in the book, he makes it sound @#%* interesting! Witty, funny, wise, someone I'm coming to look toward for books to read - you BAD blogger, Chris! - I'm always thrilled when he has new post up even if means another book I need to look for!
- followed very closely by Nymeth at Things Mean Alot. As most of you know, she is a book reviewer without parallel in our universe. Kind, sweet, thoughtful, intelligent, her blog is a delight, and the one book we disagreed on last year - that's one! - was an ancient children's book by E. Nesbit. Ok, not so ancient, but to me it felt like it. And she made me feel I missed something because she loved it! She also made Freakonomics sound interesting. Based on that, she is awarded 10 points also.
There's Eva at A Stuffed Armchair, Deslily at Here, There and Everywhere, Stephanie (several Stephanies in fact)- So Many Books, Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic, Emily at Telecommuter Talk (when she talks about books!), Bybee at Naked Without Books, Rhinoa at Rhinoa's Ramblings, Geraniumcat at Geraniumcat's Bookshelf, Ann at Table Talk and Bride at Bride of the Book God: you each get 7 points, because you read books I either am going to read (thus moving them up my TBR pile) or read books I want to read, so suddenly my TBR pile grows by 10 books in one night.

I love you all, and in 6 months time, I will get my revenge by letting a randomly chosen winner pick from my 'read' pile a book that you want to read :-) This is open to all bloggers, so many of you will be awarded points as this year goes on, and you post about good books to read, but I wanted to start this little competition with a bang.

Of course, if I don't hurry up and get reading, that book on my 'read' pile will be Middlemarch!

Monday Musings

I am having trouble settling down to reading. I had the same difficulty in England, so maybe travelling does throw me off center more than I realized. I have picked up Middlemarch again and am hoping to finish it this week.

Middlemarch update:This story is skilfully told, with such wisdom about people's natures. I love this section where Dorothea and Will meet, as he comes to say goodbye to her: 'Something which may be called an inward silent sob had gone on in Dorothea before she said with a pure voice, just trembling in the last words as if only from its liquid flexibility -
' 'Yes, it must be right for you to do as you say. I shall be very happy when I hear that you have made your value felt. But you must have patience. It will perhaps be a long while.' '
'Will never quite knew how long it was that he saved himself from falling down at her feet, when the 'long while' came forth with its gentle tremor.' p 446
Aren't those lines a little like pure music? Who taught Eliot to write about people like that? People's thoughts are woven into the story line, so we know what Susan Garth thinks of her husband's inability to think or even want to know anything bad about anyone he has business dealings with. And I'm finally at the part where I discover that Mr Bulstrode hides a deep dark secret, that I hope will be his undoing, but I also see why he is so Christian oriented - he thinks he is living a blameless life, but it's really to make up for how he came into his money. And we find out through a secondary character who really is a scoundrel and creepy. There is so much about life that is in Middlemarch, that it really is one of the most enjoyable novels I've read in a very long time. And people change in this book due to their actions - or don't, depending on their natures. and that makes it like real life, and so very satisfying to read.

I took The Polysyllabic Spree with me to work today. I am enjoying Nick Hornby's comments about what he reads, though I have to admit that his reading tastes are very different from mine! I like how he's not allowed to comment negatively on anything he reads, either, for the journal he was writing for at the time.

I haven't made any resolutions about what I'm going to read yet this year, other than I am determined to read 100 books this time!! I am going through my shelves, cataloguing my books so I know what I have - my computer crashed two years ago and took the list I had then, which I haven't replaced until now. Sometimes I have to look at my books, touch them, so that I can remember I have them, until I find the time to read them!! Doing the cataloguing, I am finding I am pulling books out I want to read, so I think I'll see what I come up with that I already have, and then what challenges fit what I want to read! I have some Charles de Lint to read to start catching up on my Canadian Challenge, and a science fiction book or two for Carl's Sci Fi reading experience. And then - Oh, so many books to read! I love challenges, so it's more a matter of me finding my way to different blogs and see what's happening.

It was much harder to be without a computer than I expected, when we were in England. For me, it's taken about 6 years for the computer to change completely how I communicate with people. I think I realized on this trip, how much I have come to rely on the computer. I used to be a great letter writer, and sends so many things through the mail. Now, except for birthdays and Christmas, almost everything is sent through email/via computer now. It was very difficult to not be able to look up news from back home, to not be able to check in with my son on Facebook or via email, and our friends in England too looked for us on email. Since I had planned to connect with some bloggers in England to meet with them, all my plans were thrown out when the computer was suddenly not accessible! And I couldn't email or check blogs because I didn't know next when we would get to an internet cafe! It didn't change the quality of our trip at all, except that I missed out on meeting with some of you, my Gentle readers, and I regret that very much. Sometimes the telephone is still better! I do love the computer, I know it now!! It's a great way to find out about books, too, in so many ways!!

So, just some thoughts on a Monday evening as we prepare for Day 35 without buses - yes, that transit strike I mentioned way back in mid-December before we left for England, is still on-going, and our lives are a bit in upheaval while we try to get to and from work every day. My reading time is completely changed because I don't have that hour or so on the buses each day to read. I am lucky enough to have a really good friend and co-worker who lives near, and we carpool to work, along with a mutual good friend, and another co-worker who shares in the driving. So we have fun rides into work and back - we all are fairly sarcastic people when it comes to our jobs, having been at the office long enough! The good news is, it means I can't really get around the city outside work, so my evenings and weekends are freer for reading! At least the children's school buses aren't affected, although the teachers may go on strke in March.....

Happy reading on this quiet Monday night, everyone!

York, England

As you can see, I have changed my header! I LOVE this photo. It's part of the wall around York, built in the 13 and 14th centuries. The door looks like it's from the 16th century. I love the idea that people can enter through the door - or leave! - friends, who don't need to use the main gates to enter the city. It's like a secret doorway.

I am going to put some photos of York on, but I'm not sure how many I can upload into a post, nor how often the commentary will match, so bear with me. Out of the 130 odd photos we took of York, I'm attempting to whittle them down to 10-20 for you and this blog! Though I'd rather show them all!


This is the view coming into to York city centre from Lendal Bridge. We have just come under the city walls - the train station is on the other side of the walls to the left - and we are now inside the walled city. York Minster, the finest Gothic cathedral in England with stained glass windows, is in the background. There are no high rise buildings in York, so the Minster can be seen from quite a distance away. It is an awesome sight, and York is the only city that I have fallen in love with on sight, absolutely, and completely.


York Minster. The entrance is just to the left side of the picture. It is extremely difficult to catch all this beautiful cathedral with a digital camera!



This is Stonegate, that was the Via Praetoria of Roman York. The Romans built a walled fortress here in the 2nd century AD, and much of it is buried under medieval streets and houses in the city center, but the street layout of the Romans remains. I used to work in one of the shops to the left, the third window from the front of the picture, I think. It's gone now (my shop), and it now houses a beer shop, where Toby bought some local ale. These shops are 14th century, you can tell from their shape and the size of the shops inside - quite small. Of especial note to us book readers, Stonegate used to be the book sellers and printers street, in medieval York. In the building far at the back on the right side is the only bookstore now on Stonegate, a used bookstore (the stone building at the very end), that I used to wander into on my lunches, when we had enough money. At the end of this street, you can see the Minster. I love Stonegate, and despite the crowds, you can see the many centuries of architecture, the buildings built onto one another, that are part of York's history and charm.

I do not have any pictures of the Shambles, because I took many with our regular camera 8 years ago when we lived in York! What we did do instead this time, was go for a walk on the medieval wall that encircles old York. York is one of two walled cities left in England, the other being Chester. The walls have one break where a road was put through (by Bootham Bar), and there is a section that used to be a marsh so no wall was ever built, but other than that, the wall is complete, and you can walk around the city centre - it's about 3 miles altogether. Unfortunately we left our friends' house too late in the morning to be able to walk along all the wall and catch the train in time, so we walked only a small part of the wall, and I took photos of anything of interest we saw. We started at Bootham Bar, which is the only Bar (gate entrance to the city) built on the site of a Roman one. Below is the picture of us coming up on the bar from inside the city. I love the medieval buildings lining this street here!





Next is the view of the gate from up on the wall. I thought it was interesting how the city is built right up to the wall inside, and on the outside, the outer ramparts remain, so the wall is higher than the city outside the walls.



Here is a picture of me along the wall, with part of York Minster behind me. Part of what i wanted to do was see if you could see the Minster from all parts of the wall, which is what is said about the Minster!



The view of the next gate, the houses built higgledy-piggledy up to the wall.


YOu can still see the Minster from the wall:


The roman tower ruin, excavated a few years ago:


The view of the outer part of the wall, with what I think is the outline of the original moat:



Monk Bar, the second gate we came to. This one has three stories, a working porticullis, and statues on the outer edge, holding stones - to represent a strong force to the enemy. Unfortunately we didn't think to take any pictures of it from the ground!


Next up is the second oldest church in YOrk, St Cuthbert's in Peasholme Greene. I had never come across this one, and time and again I come across headstones left as markers of an ancient graveyard, like here. This church dates from 670, and I have never seen one with a cross built into the stonework like this one has. I like the quiet melancholy of a graveyard, and I find church architecture fascinating up until the Reformation.




This is St William's College, built in 1453 for Minister Chantry priests, put into private hands after the Dissolution of the Churches. It now houses meeting rooms. I love the careful restoration and character of these medieval houses. It gives a good idea of how small houses were back in the middle ages, and that even then, very few were stand-alone houses!





Next is a back view of York Minster. By this time we were running for the train, so I had only a spare minute to take the final two pictures of our stay in York. I discovered that the grounds are well-kept and have benches placed for sitting and looking at either the Minster or at the houses on the edge of the grounds. I had not seen this before, or I would have come here 8 years ago!


Last, High Petergate St, leading back into the heart of medieval York shopping area. The red building on the right is a tavern now, but once was the birthplace of the very infamous Guy Fawkes, the one and only man who tried to blow up Parliament.


We've come in a small circle now, since our friend Keith took us through shortcuts across the city so we could catch our train on time. Here is what the backstreets of York city centre look like:



The door really is leaning to the right! It's the entrance to the building on the left in the bigger picture (with my husband and Keith in front of me), Bedern Hall built in 1252. York, and towns and cities, including London, are like this: off the main streets, beautiful buildings are hidden away, old houses and interesting historical places.


I hope you enjoyed this little tour of York. There is so much more to it, though you have an idea of its history and architecture now, and how pretty the city is. I think it is lovely, and even in the darkest winter days, there is something soulful about this city. Both my husband and I miss it, and our friends there, very much! It was so wonderful to be back to visit it again.

As a side note to my Gentle Mystery readers, there is a mystery series set in York, by John Baker: the Sam Turner mysteries, published by Indigo. I have most of the books, which number 6 now, I think. I like them, and they certainly have the atmosphere of York in them!

My favourite book of 2008

It's that time of year for me! My year-end review for 2008:

books read: 60
biggest increases: children's fantasy, and non-fiction
challenges completed: 6
best reads of the year:
not in any particular order
Tamsin - Peter S. Beagle
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Terror - Dan Simmons
The Night Country - Stewart O'Nan
Owls and Other Fantasies - Mary Oliver
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

and my favourite book of 2008: Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar

I loved Lonely Werewolf Girl. Of all the books I read, it is the one that keeps coming into my mind, that I keep reliving parts of. The characters are vivid and funny and realistic and the family is dramatic and oh so real, the story is interesting and heart-breaking and affirming, just like life is. And it's about werewolves in the real world, a terrific urban fantasy. I will be rereading this one again soon, just so I can take my time with it this time, and savour it.

I do have to give an honourable mention to Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes. I am almost half-way through reading this collection of poems. The poems are so powerful with emotion, with love and pain, hate and joy, that it is a rollercoaster ride to read them, and I have to take it slowly. It's also an opening into how he saw Sylvia Plath, which brings her to life for the reader, too. Every poem is a revelation of his heart and soul. This is what poetry should be, though it doesn't make it light reading! I am lingering over phrases and words and images as Hughes presents his life with Sylvia, and what she was to him. As a poet myself, I recognize how these poems must have burst out of him, they had to be written, but at the same time they leave him so naked, that they must have been both painful and joyful to write. Anyone who says writing is easy, should try writing a poem or two about something that really hurts, or that the writer feels passion for, for in that passion is also life, or least that is what I'm finding. These poems are about passion, which isn't nice, but without which we could not live. At least, I wouldn't want to, and these poems are about living with that passion with another person. For just moments we get glimpses of Sylvia alive. I'm not a poetry critic, but from my humble perspective, these are poems that are about being alive, and are awesome for the energy and life that comes through them.

All in all, a successful year for me, I read as much as I have in previous years, so my next goal is to increase the numbers of books I read, as always! But to have that many favourite reads, makes it a really satisfying year for me for reading.

The challenges were fun, and certainly helped me read more widely - and add more books! - so I will be continuing with the ones I've already joined. I have to update the list on my sidebar and see what I want to join for this year. I'll write about Carl's sci fi experience later this weekend (click on the sidebar button), as well as Dewey's challenge hosted by Chris and Robin (same, sidebar is linked), and see what else is new and exciting for challenges this year. I am enjoying Becky's 42 science fiction challenge (also linked already),which I have already started on by watching the Dr Who special on New Year's Day in England!! 39 science fiction things to go!!

It's the weekend! Hurray! Happy reading everyone!!

Books, books, books, and more books

This is me, outside Piccadilly Circus, carrying a Hatchard's bag and a new tote bag. Hatchard's is London's oldest bookstore. Both bags are bulging with books; however, I just thought I was picking a few books up here and there.....

It was unpacking through all yesterday and again this morning, that I came to a realization: I am a bookaholic. I went to the city that is the center of fashion, I was even on Regent Street, on Piccadilly, in and around Hyde Park, and did I buy any clothing? Nope. Nada. Nothing. I bought books. I bought a lot of books. I bought more than even I knew, until this morning when the last bag was finally unpacked and I found more books stashed away at the bottom. Here, forthwith (having spent 3 weeks in England, I now talk like a person straight out of a novel!), is my list of books bought during my holidays:

- Cats' Miscellany - Lesley O'Mara
- Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
- A Residence At the Court of London - Richard Rush *second-hand bookshop *diary
- A Quiet Belief in Angels - R.J.Ellory
- The Butcher of Smithfield - Susanna Gregory
- The Hollow Crown - Miri Rubin *second-hand bookshop ** history
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale *history - DONE
- The Complete Pollysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby *essays - reading
- Not in the Flesh - Ruth Rendell
- The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
- Serious Concerns - Wendy Cope *poems
- The Fabric of Sin - Phil Rickman - DONE
- The Cup of the World - John Dickinson *second-hand bookshop
- Fingerprints - Colin Beavan *second-hand bookshop **non-fiction
- Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries - Ruth Barrett *non-fiction
- The Grandmother of Time - Zuzanna Budapest *non-fiction
- Good Food Magazine's 101 One Pot Dishes - BBC Books *non-fiction
- Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
- Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day - Winifred Watson (Persephone Books, thank you again Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, for bringing this publisher to our attention!)
- Poetry in the Making - Ted Hughes *non-fiction, poetry
- Tea and Coffee in the Age of Dr Johnson - ed Stephanie Pickford *non-fiction
- Mean Time - Carol Ann Duffy *poetry
- The Hawk in the Rain - Ted Hughes *poetry
- A Plague on Both Your Houses - Susanna Gregory
- A Novel in Year - Louise Doughty *essays on writing
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - A big shout out to all of you bloggers who mentioned this book in the months before Christmas, because otherwise I would have totally bypassed this book. It looks wonderful, about a group of book readers who correspond during Guernsey's occupation by the Germans in 1946. THANK YOU, MY GENTLE READERS!
- Un Lun Dun - China Mieville (it was out in paperback in England at least!)
- I Never Knew That About London - Christopher Winn. *Non-fiction. A historical guidebook to London. It's how I found out the history behind buildings in London. Who went where to church, who lived where, anything of note or of interest. Essential in my view. I wish I'd had this years ago! But then it wasn't out then...
- London's Strangest Tales - Tom Quinn *non-fiction. I've only peeked into it, but full of strange, quirky tales about eccentric people and laws. Again, essential for reading every night before exploring the streets of London the next day. Historical London especially comes alive, and if you are like me, and like to imagine what the streets and the city was like in times gone past, this book will help you imagine it.
- Beauty and the Beast - Max Eilenberg, illustrated by Angela Barrett. I had seen this book reviewed - I think on Endicott studios before it closed? somewhere online, and had been looking for this for quite some time. There, in the last bookstore I went into, on New Year's Eve, in a Borders off Charing Cross Road, I found it. It is hardcover, and the illustrations are gorgeous, moody and fantastical and full of wonder. I love it. It's a child's version with very grown-up drawings, and I wish I had had this growing up. It would easily have been my favourite book. I can hardly wait to read it to Holly-Anne, though I have to admit that I'll only be sharing it with her, I love it too much to give it away! It's a present for me!

So how many books was that? Er...30. I bought 30 books on my holidays!!! So in this new year of 2009, I proudly say that yes, I would rather buy books than almost anything else in the world!!!

To continue with the debate begun back in my post about what books to bring, to catch you up, here is what I did bring with me on Dec 15, on the airplane: Mistress of the Art of Death, and The Wood Wife. I did get a few pages of The Wood Wife read, but only 3 or 4. I just couldn't get into it. This period of not being able to settle down into it, or any other book I picked up, finally came home to me when I was in York on the weekend of Dec 19, and I was in the Borders bookshop, and I suddenly knew that I couldn't settle down because I had left Middlemarch half-read, and I desperately wanted to finish it! I looked around in the store for a cheap paperback copy, and they didn't have any. Only a hardcover version, which I wasn't going to bring back in my luggage! Then I found Phil Rickman's latest Merrily Watkins mystery in paperback, and I knew I could read it, and still hold where I was in Middlemarch in my mind. It's a trick I haven't used in ages, and one I learned long ago in university - how to stop reading at a point in a book and be able to pick it up some time later and finish it. It is a trick, because it involves many things for me, which includes thoroughly enjoying the book so I am immersed in it, and being able to contain the story in my head while I read something else. It just sits there in the background until I can get back to it. I can't do this with everything, and certainly if too much time goes by, I have to go back to the beginning and start over again. I think it is a trick that most of us who read, use, since so many of us have more than one book on the go! I am happy to say it worked this time, and Monday night, as soon as the kids were in bed, I read a few pages, and then more yesterday as I settled down into being back home. This means I will be able to continue with my updates!

The sad news is that I did not read much until after Christmas, so I did not complete any more books before the end of the year. I did finish The Fabric of Sin on Jan 1, so my husband said, why don't I add it to my 2008 totals? I said no, shaking my head. That would be cheating. I finished it today, so it counts for this year. So the good news is, it is Jan 7, and I have read two books already!!!

I will do book totals another day, I still have more putting away of things to do. I haven't written much about my trip yet because I am still getting pictures sorted and letting the trip settle in my mind. I will say that I love London, which I didn't quite know for certain until I realized that every time I was in the city I was taking deep breaths like I was breathing it in!

York, as always, was breathtaking for me. It is where I am most at home in the world. There is something about the view as I enter the city walls from the train station and see York Minster rising from the city centre, that makes me whisper 'home' to myself, every time I see it. The picture below was taken along the city walls (York still has its original city walls around most of the city). This is one of my favourite pictures so far:


So as soon as i get my favourite pictures chosen, I'll post some on here. For now, I hope you are enjoying some new books in this new year! And as soon as I can, I will be coming by to say hello and catch up on what you've been reading while I've been away, Gentle Reader....

It's good to be home!