Time flies...

...buzzing around as time decays. The whole thing made worse by the fact that we are moving in a different time stream to everyone else. This has always been the case, but it seems worse when you are packed up and ready to go and the others are, metaphorically, still scratching their arses as they climb out of bed.

Still. At least I can write and read as I wait for my home to be torn apart and put back together (such joy).

With writing, I’m at the bitty stage. A bit like all the preparation you need to do for decoration (to stick with a theme). All the choosing and buying of stuff. Going back cos you forgot the right sort of glasspaper (not sure of the metaphorical value of that, but there you go). And then stripping everything down to the bare bones.

As for reading, that is also back to basics in a fashion. I am replacing all my worn out and falling apart Ursula Le Guin books and re-reading most of them as they arrive. It is an education (or re-education). Not least because some of these books are out of print and I’m scouring the world (courtesy of that interweb thingy) looking for pristine copies. They have to last me the rest of my life and whilst I am happy to have second hand copies of some things, these I want new.

It was a blow to realise that a writer of such talent should have work that is out of print in an era when no book need ever be out of print, but not altogether a surprise. It is that sort of a time.

And as I get older, I was thinking about what will happen to my books when I’m gone. I’d hate to think they ended up in bins or the collections I have built up over the decades are dispersed. Although I don’t suppose I’ll be unduly worried.

And on that cheerful note… I’ll buzz off.

Books read in June

Brazen Tongue – Gladys Mitchell

Enderby’s Dark Lady – Anthony Burgess

Dead Men’s Morris – Gladys Mitchell

The Abominables – Eva Ibbotson

The Grand Banks Café – Georges Simenon [new tr]

Rocannon’s World – Ursula K Le Guin

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters – Ursula K Le Guin

Hangman’s Curfew – Gladys Mitchell

Planet Of Exile – Ursula K Le Guin

The Compass Rose – Ursula K Le Guin

Buffalo Gals & Other Animal Presences – Ursula K Le Guin

City Of Illusions – Ursula K Le Guin

The Eye Of The Heron – Ursula K Le Guin