#currently reading challenge

[delightful-to-be-read]

The Winter Book - Tove Jansson

Book 1/105 in the Currently Reading challenge

I started reading this in 2018. My friend’s daughter told me that was the year she was born, as she sat next to me in the pub reading her own book.

Two jobs ago. A different house. Never heard of COVID and wouldn’t for some time. I hadn’t met the friend whose daughter was born in 2018, who I think of as a long-term friend. My workload was far less intimidating and the cost of living (and the cost of fun) far, far lower so even though my salary must have doubled in that time, I can afford to do less and am often too tired to do it. Back then, most of my reading happened on trains going to see friends or do fun things every weekend. Now, when I visit my parents, I get my Dad to drop me off for a slow train for the reading with train-snacks and train-wine time.

K and I did live in London. I remember the last book I read before we moved to London actually. Instrumental by James Rhodes. I remember this because it was the one and only book I read that year.

The Winter Book is a collection of short stories about winter in Scandinavia - not, I think, collected by the author. I don’t know how autobiographical it is, but it’s often told through a child’s eyes, so the stories have a magical, unreliable narrator. They’re living a cosy, harsh, exciting life. A life of art and beauty and storytelling - stories about storytelling are abundant.

Art and landscape feed her imagination until there’s a palimpsest imaginary world overlaying the shared one. Not a particularly friendly one. Maybe all children have one.

I can’t read Swedish or Finnish, but as far as I can tell, it’s a cracking translation. Her experiences seem strange to me. They have a monkey and nightly spontaneous parties. But who am I to say that all parents didn’t behave like that in Finland 100 years ago? Whether they did or not, everyone seems happy.

I didn’t think there was any great mystery about why I put it down. I often don’t read short story books all in one go. I didn’t this time (I read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries alongside, which I hadn’t known was set in Iceland and was a very interesting juxtaposition). It is an intense book and it seemed to take me much longer to read than most books three times its size. I don’t even remember where I put it down and I’m not sure which bits I was reading or re-reading. What I do know, because I knew my younger self very well, is that I would have been absolutely swept away by it and I feel sorry for her that she got distracted by the new Rivers of London book or whatever because she missed out.

[ocean-glint]

i love reading, i love thinking about what i am currently reading, i love thinking about what i am going to read next, i love being privileged enough to be able to read, read, read, and read so much that i never tire of it

[xoceansx]

I remember there was an unendurable sadness in me; I wanted to cry; I was constantly astonished and anxious: it had a dreadful effect on me that all this was foreign, that I understood. The foreign-ness crushed me.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

[tmedic]

Afternoon at: Keats House & Library

[a-ramblinrose]

JOMP BPC || January 3 || Currently Reading:

[magpie-trove]

Unfortunately I am a disappointment to Jane Austen. I would fall for a charming man. Not because I believed him, but because a man who said such insanely conceited things that he himself barely believes them would be entertaining to spend time with. I would walk in with my eyes open because I like to be entertained

[kryptonbabe]

Oh yes, squeeze that bat, Ultivac, squeeze him good

From Challengers of the Unknown #2 (2025) by Christopher Cantwell & Sean Izaakse

[gcantread]

some August reads and planned reads | JOMP book photo challenge | 1 August 2024

[manifestdestinytarot]

finished my fifth book of 2025

[bookishlyvintage]

lil rainbow moment to start the week 🌈

[twinkubus]

made my own book list! i feel like it's very random atp lol and books i read from 2021-current are prob overrepresented cause thats when i started tracking. but yay!

[xoceansx]

You know, in my opinion, being ridiculous is sometimes even a good thing, and better that; we can forgive one another more quickly, and acquire humility more quickly; after all, we can't understand everything at once, we can't begin directly from perfection! In order to achieve perfection, we must first of all fail to understand a great many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand very well.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

[booksandrandomfandoms]

JOMP day 2

Currently reading

The synopsis was too funny 😂 hopefully it doesn’t suck

[a-ramblinrose]

JOMP BPC || March 20 || Hello, Spring: I got to read All The Violet Tiaras by Jean Menzies surrounded by flowers at the park today!

[the---hermit]

26|03|2025

Once again doing a cumulative post for the past few days of studying. I have been so taken by reviewing for my exam I've barely had enough mental energies to look at my phone, or to keep posting daily journal entries. Since my last one, I have finished my second review of exam materials and started the third and final one. I have also managed to spend quality time with my family, including my brother and his partner, which makes me very happy. Ever since he moved out I have really missed spending time with him, and since lately I have not been in the best place mentally this has done me good. Plus I will also be spending time with them this week, which I am looking forward to. As I have also mentioned in other posts lately, my mental energies have been quite low, so I have been getting most of my daily reading done with audiobooks and graphic novels. I have decided to reread the Deadendia graphic novels for the trans rights readathon, since I decided to momentarily pause my reading of Compound Fracture. I realized it is going to be very very hard emotionally and I am aware right now I'd probably not handle it very well. My Deadendia reread has been so good tho, I have been wanting to reread these for a while and I am having a great time. I also finished the first Emily Wilde audiobook, and ended up getting the whole series because I loved it, and it is the perfect lighthearted fantasy for the mental place I am in right now. I don't need to focus too hard, it's fun and distracting and I am so looking forward to continuing the series.

35-38/50 days of productivity:

Read in the morning when I have enough energies to do so

Finished my second review of materials for my exam

Went to the last in person lecture of the first half of the semester

Started my third review of materials

Irish on duolingo