Blog Archive
July 2025
1 July 2025
A bad year buoyed by a new reviewer!
People talk about the weather and time passing as though it is something miraculous, but from my point of view the fact that we are now halfway through the year and the Reading Project is still going is something little short of a miracle. I’ve mentioned to a few people that we have a development next door and the workmen feel entitled to play their music loud, despite our complaints. It gets hard to concentrate on what I’m doing sometimes. Thankfully, they should be finished sometime in November.
Some good things happened towards the end of last month, though. Despite everything, I managed to complete the last three pages for The Iliad, which is a part of our larger Homer and the Epic Cycle Project. I even managed to get the first page for The Odyssey completed, too.
What is more, we have another new reviewer. Skelequin from Pennsylvania contacted me last month, asking about reviewing. I’m always happy to hear from anyone interested in taking part in the Reading Project. Skelequin describes herself as an aspiring librarian and writer. For her first review she talks about Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, a book I’ve long thought to read myself (I actually have a beautiful edition), and a book another American contributor, Skep, has reviewed earlier. However, Skelequin’s review came with a set of stake knives (I don’t know if that joke will be understood overseas). I mean, she sent me two reviews yesterday. I held off publishing the second review until this morning. The second review is for Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson, a book I was unfamiliar with.
Check out Skelequin’s reviews if you can. And thanks, Skelequin, for your generosity and enthusiasm!
- bikerbuddy
23 July 2025
My reading hiatus
No one but me would have noticed that until yesterday the Reading Project had gone somewhat dormant. We published a review early last week by Victoria, but apart from that I had basically stopped working on the site. I had started reading Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time the week before last, but I think the last time I read anything from that book would have been the 10th or 11th of July. I think it’s the longest period I have entirely stopped reading since we started this website. Yesterday was the first day I got back to it with a new page for the The Odyssey.
So, what have I been doing?
Our youngest son, who had been working as a speech therapist in a regional NSW hospital about four and a half hour’s drive away, had got another job in the same occupation at Nepean Hospital in Penrith, close by. He and his girlfriend then bought a new house and he stayed with us until the sale went through, and during the weekend of 12th and 13th we used our trailer to help move him into their new home.
That left his bedroom empty. And with a construction site next door (with workers who insist on playing music) I suggested we move our office from the portion of the enclosed veranda we were using – which was a small space – into our son’s bedroom. That involved a mammoth task of moving furniture around the house, cleaning, shopping for new desks, getting rid of the old furniture and building and installing the new furniture. But apart from that, I had the idea of making the room entirely sound proof against the noise from next door.
To that end I employed our son’s old mattress against the wall, camping mattresses, large boxes and insulation from the furniture we had just bought, blankets and sleeping bags, boxes stuffed with shredded paper we had also needed to shred, rubber floor tiles, a wardrobe full of clothes and a host of other stuff, too.
The result . . . another week gone by.
But what we now have is a new and much larger working space (even with the soundproofing, which we will remove in December once the construction is finished) which is completely quiet!
So, after posting this blog today, I’m now going to sit down and try to get back into The Ministry of Time. I’m about halfway through. It’s had a lot of praise since it was published. So far, it’s been interesting.
- bikerbuddy
27 July 2025
A Blind Date at Springwood Markets
Market Day in Springwood. We like to get there early, grab some Gozleme and mini-Dutch pancakes for breakfast, then wander the stalls. My sister likes to pick up a new pin for her collection. Mum got herself a pin this time, one with a book theme:
And I found a new stall, one selling blind dates with a book. I liked the concept but it was hard to find one that wasn’t a romance (romance is not for me!). Then I found this one . . .
Sounded interesting so I’m giving it a try.
- Raven
31 July 2025
The Booker Prize Longlist 2025
I don’t normally post this late in the month, but the Booker Committee has announced its longlist for this year’s Booker Prize, so I thought I’d just record that here. Later, when the shortlist is announced, I’ll put some covers up and some brief information about each book. Since I have so much to read already, I tend not to keep up with a lot of new fiction, which means that of the thirteen nominated books for the longlist, I had only heard of Kiran Desai’s book, which caught my attention because she is a past winner I have reviewed. The nominees are
- Love Forms by Claire Adam (Faber)
- The South by Tash Aw (4th Estate)
- Universality by Natasha Brown (Faber)
- One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
- Flashlight by Susan Choi (Jonathan Cape)
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton)
- Audition by Katie Kitamura (Fern Press)
- The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits (Faber)
- The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre)
- Endling by Maria Reva (Virago/Little, Brown)
- Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape)
- Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking)
- Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (Daunt Books Originals)
You can find out more about the Booker Prize by visiting the official Booker Prize Website.
- bikerbuddy