September reads

quality over quantity...they were all winners

Other than the Sunday Scribble, I’ve been a bit absent here, of late¹. I had a whole publishing schedule and everything…and then I got a bit caught up in my current manuscript and developed a case of tunnel vision. Not a bad problem to have, though I do need to strike a bit of a balance, lest I veer off down the Burnout Road. I love that my brain can, when arsed, lock in like that, but experience has shown me that I do need to come up for air. It’s all about the sustainability, after all. The phoenix pattern of creativity has a certain noble glory to it, but the reality of it is less attractive. Anyway, on with the program at hand…I shall endeavour towards that elusive state of balance.

I read the least amount of books in September than I have in recent memory. A grand total of four — well, three and a half as one of them overlapped into October. That’s less than half of my typical amount. But, as I expressed the last time, I want to be a bit more intentional with my reading over the next while…to savour things just a little more. I had mixed results with that approach and while I still want to be more mindful and a lot less consumer-y², I don’t know that I’m ever going to be Slow. I just love books and I love reading…and I don’t really think I want to change that.

I’m naturally a fast reader. I’ve been doing it since I was four years old - I’ve had a lot of practice. That said, the sheer volume of words in front of me on any given day has turned me into a skimmer. And that doesn’t feel good. That feels like attention-erosion and I don’t like that. Not one bit. Recently, when faced with complex language and/or sentence structures, I got tripped up in a big way. It was the equivalent of zooming along on a paved road on one of those thin-tire ten-speed bicycles and then suddenly hitting a patch of gravel. Cue road rash. My brain went into a bit of spin and it took me a while to get my bearings again. But when I did, I enjoyed the experience. So maybe I just need to build some speed-bumps into my TBR pile, you know, to keep me sharp.

Anyway - I’m still turning over the greater implications of this - I’m wondering what reading and comprehension skills are starting to atrophy, both in myself and the population at large, but that’s a post for another day.

One way that I slowed myself down in September was reading more non-fiction. That, I find, by it’s very nature, required a slowing down because I was needing to absorb information and ideas, rather than story which I find to be a more natural skill for me. I read two non-fiction books - both of them recommended by the lovely

Leenie

.

The Light Eaters - Zoë Schlanger

No-one needed to convince me how amazing and valuable plants are - and yet, here I am after reading this book, with an even deeper appreciation of my plant friends. It’s also given me some new and interesting insights into the world of science - the politics of research, funding and what’s considered important or relevant. It was a bit sobering, actually. Science is certainly not without its biases and it was a bit distressing to see how the court of popular opinion sways decision making. Definitely food for thought.

Other than that unexpected insight, I’m now looking at my garden (and plants in general) with new eyes and appreciation. The book concerned itself with the research being done into plant intelligence (though first scientists need to argue about what constitutes ‘intelligence’ 🙄) and explored the various ways it’s being studied - it shared some truly fascinating (though not surprising, to me) ways in which plants exist in community, the strategies they have for survival and the ways they impact the ecosystems in which they live. Absolutely amazing!

The interesting science aside, reading this book was like a confirmation for me regarding my own beliefs about our place in the world - ‘our’ meaning humans. I’m thinking a lot about symbiosis and relationships and the unconscious biases resulting from the ‘dominion’ theory of humanity’s place in the food chain. Suffice it to say, we think we’re in charge…but we’re not 😉.

The takeaway, for me, is a confirmation that while I land more in the philosophy camp than the scientific one in the way I see the world, there’s scientific proof to back me up. The plant world, again for me, will always be rooted (ha!) in philosophy and spirituality, but it’s nice to have the scientific insights so that I can do better by my friends.³

The other non-fiction book I read in September - it overlapped into October, but the bulk of it was in this month so I’ll count it here - was The Nature Fix by Florence Williams. Again, a bit of preaching to the choir on this one, but it reminded me to prioritize both exercise and time spent outdoors in nature.

This one had the author following various scientists and their research projects into the impact that nature has on things like physical and mental health, memory and creativity. Again, I didn’t need convincing but I realize this kind of research is important so that decisions can be made about funding and services. That, in and of itself, annoys me — I mean, it’s OBVIOUS, but no, let’s spend time and money proving what we already know to be true rather than spending that time and money on things which will actually benefit everyone.

Ahem.

The bottom line is that we need our green spaces…we need more of them and we need to spend more time in them. It’s good for us.

The book was written in a sort of wry-humoured tone, as if the author herself knew all of these things to be true (she’s an outdoorsy person) and was a bit bemused that all of the effort was going into proving them — it made it funny in places and very accessible.

I can’t imagine not already intuitively knowing that being outdoors is good for you - but if, like me, you need reminding to actively make sure you make time for it, then this is a good one to refresh your memory. Along with my usual time spent absorbing the good vibes in my garden, I’ve started taking a walk after lunch - and yes, I do feel better and more creative for it.

Right, on to fiction…

Villager by Tom Cox

If you spend much time in Notes, you might be familiar with Tom’s work. I think that “knowing” him as a writer on Substack lent an even more interesting layer to reading this book - being familiar with his ‘voice’ on Substack and knowing his deep connection to the countryside meant I could see that yes, this is absolutely the kind of book he would write - and that made it all the more captivating.

How to really describe the book? What’s it even about? It reads a lot like a series of interconnected short stories and has a fabulous rambling kind of energy - the stories/chapters jump around in time and character and are connected by a folk music album and the landscape, specifically a moor (that has its own voice) which, as Tom has said, isn’t Dartmoor but that’s where he was living when he wrote the book so...

It’s truly and incredibly powerful but in a way that I find hard to articulate. It’s like a fever dream of the best kind…utterly immersive and and just the right amount of strange. There’s commentary on social history, environmental advocacy as well as being eerily prophetic in places. It’s a difficult book to ‘encapsulate’, but it’s the kind of writing that gets under your skin, seeps into your subconscious, a bit like a moorland mist 😉. I really didn’t want it to end and was quite bereft when it was over.

If this sounds appealing, I’d really encourage you to check out his Substack…and if you like his writing here, you’ll definitely like his novels. I very much plan to get my mitts on his other work.

In Memoriam - Alice Winn

A beautiful and thoroughly heartbreaking book. It follows the story of a pair of boys (and their friends) from their time in boarding school, through their enlistment and service in the army during WWI.

It was difficult to read at times - the casual cruelty and abuse taking place in public boy’s schools and the horror and pointlessness of WWI - not comfortable in the slightest and my empathy-meter was off the charts. Still, there was love - love that overcame some truly insurmountable odds and that felt like a redemption arc worth sticking around for.

The whole book is a memoriam to those boys - because they really were all boys, hardly more than 18 years old…I’m going to be thinking about this one for a long time. I can definitely recommend it...though with the caveat that it really does stretch the heart-strings.

The Fortnight In September - R.C. Sherriff

From the trenches to the seaside…this one was a recommendation from Miranda Mills on one of her seasonal reads videos. I actually got this for Christmas last year but saved it to read…in September.

I adored this book. So. Much. It’s wonderfully wholesome and the author portrays an ordinary family doing very ordinary things on their very ordinary holiday and yet does it with such emotional depth and pathos that it’s far from ordinary or boring to read.

Nothing really happens, and yet so much happens. A simple, middle-class family goes on their annual holiday at the same time and to the same place as the married couple went on their honeymoon twenty years prior. Two of their three children are now adults, both finished school and working (though still living at home) and the threat looms that this might be their last holiday together as a family. We get beautiful glimpses into the interior life of four of the five characters (the youngest doesn’t get a lot of air time, though I think his presence in the narrative serves as an anchor to the past) and I got the feeling that, in someone elses hands, this could’ve taken a darker and more despairing road. In fact, it was a while before I felt I could relax into the sheer delight of the story, without waiting for something awful to happen to ruin all the good feelings (not sure what that says about me 😳). Instead, it’s full of hope and simple pleasures and left me feeling happy and satisfied with the time spent reading it. It was, in effect, something of a holiday for the reader, too…one which I will assuredly go on again in regular re-reads.

Highly recommended for it’s gentleness, sublime pathos and general good feelings.

So there we are — some absolute corkers in September. I had planned to spend October doing a Gothtober⁴…but I had some library books that needed reading - which, though not Gothic, are definitely spooky-season themed so they feel timely. I seem to have inadvertently picked up a horror novel (I tend to avoid those….I’m soft, what can I say?) but it’s giving me Stephen King vibes so maybe I’ll stick with it? Anyway, Gothtober is a bit behind schedule. Gothvember doesn’t really have the same ring to it but there you have it - I apparently can’t walk into a library without coming out with something. 🤷🏻‍♀️

How about you? What are you reading right now? What’s on your TBR? Hit me up with the recommendations…I acknowledge I have a problem and I’m absolutely not going to do anything about it. 😎

~m. xo

1. Maybe just in my own mind, but nevertheless. I haven’t been keeping up with my reading here, either, as well as my posting and that, more than anything, feels neglectful.

2. I mean that in a inhaling-books-like-an-oxygen-starved-person way, rather than a buy-all-of-the-books way…though, were I less budget-restricted, I could totally be the buy-all-of-the-books person.

3. Fun fact: some plants recognize their kin…sunflowers that are related to one another will go out of their way to adjust themselves so as not to shade one another out. I know!

4. Is this an actual thing, or did I make it up? I know there’s Victober, which is devoted to Victorian literature…theoretically there’s some crossover there but…