Recent Reading

Read my way through all kinds of odd and varied stuff over the holidays, some of which I've detailed here recently. But now that the sober days of January are upon us, I've re-embarked upon a proper course of reading.

• Tomorrow on my way to work, I'll finish Long Spoon Lane by Anne Perry on audiobook (handily transferred to my iPod). Reasonably good, though standard, detective fiction set in 1890s London, and featuring the recurring characters Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. I've worked my way through nearly all of Anne Perry's many, many novels these last few years; this is probably the 7th or 8th featuring the Pitts. It's not high literature, by any means, but it's well-plotted, reasonably historically accurate, and not too heavy.
• I'm nearly halfway through The Tulip by Anna Pavord. This is another one I picked up from the sale bins at Hodges Figgis in Dublin. Who knew botanical history could be so interesting? Erudite stuff, and I'm quite enjoying it. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped me putting it aside this week so I could pick up...
• The Sea by the Irish novelist John Banville instead. A.'s boss gave me this for Christmas. It won the Booker Prize this year and so is very worthy. Again, not the type of thing I normally read, being contemporary fiction, but I've been strangely drawn to it. So I started it a few nights ago. It's a kind of memoir, and very lyrically written. I'll review it properly once I've finished, which shouldn't take long - it's a relatively slim book.