Monday, September 14, 2026

Books Books Books

 Books, books everywhere, but not a thing to read.

Do not ask me about my 'TBR" (to be read) pile. It's vast. It's excessive. And I've no idea where to start. 

Remember, when it comes to books, it's not hoarding. 


Yet, after a what felt like a day spent in the car - which really was just dropping the car out to Mulgrave for its annual service, and picking it up some hours later, driving what felt like a couch of a loan car (Mazda CX-5s - seriously, it felt like I was driving the Titanic after my little CX-3) I got to finish my audiobook. The book, JoJo Moyes's The Peacock Emporium got off to a slow start, but I loved it in the end. It helped dim the anguish of the $700 bill for the service. (40K services are always a killer).

I also started our book group book, Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell, on Sunday morning. It's a wonderful, and quick read - I flew through this. That too has been finished. 

So, now what? 

I need an audiobook to listen to while on public transport and while I'm in the car. 

And as the book group book is read for next week's meeting - what now?

I've been going through a stage with audiobooks where I do a classic, then something lighter. Do I go something lighter again (as JoJo Moyes tells a great story, but she's not literature), or line up another classic? Do I finally dib into Middlemarch, some 40 years after I was supposed to read it at uni? Or get around to a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I've somehow not gotten around to reading? Or get onto the last Austen, Northanger Abbey? Do I listen to the audio version of Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things. Most of these books I've picked up on sale or free from Audible. 

As for the paper book, there is too much choice? Again, do I go contemporary, or find something older? Do I dib into my shelves and read something that's been sitting there unread for years? Murakami anybody? Franzen? Louis de Bernieres' first trilogy set in South America where he attempts to emulate Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Something impenetrable like Ducks, Newburyport or Ulysses? (Mind you, Ulysses is meant to be dipped into - it's not something you read in one sitting.....yes....yes, YES!

Do I find something Australian, or something shortlisted, or something obscure. It's all there in the TBR pile. 

The choice is exhausting. 

(After a night of deliberating, I've decided on listening to Russell Tovey read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray for the audiobook, and I've picked up a copy of Gabbie Stroud's The Things That Matter Most - mainly because I know nothing about it. If I don't like them, I can find something else.)

Today's song

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