And another thing...

I seem to be getting my brain back.

What you need to understand, is that I am always been a voracious reader. I had a mother who used to say, "Get your nose out of that book and listen to me!" I read the Chronicles of Narnia in 2 days when I was off school being ill. My first taste of the Brontes came when I was 12 and in the 7th grade and Sister Anne Kieran recommended Jayne Eyre.   My BA is in Literature, and my MA in American Studies meant I got to read things like Edith Wharton and Henry James. Bliss.

But for some reason, I have really struggled with reading since having The Babe. Keep in mind she is nearly 3 and a half now. I have been knitting like mad. And crocheting. And lactating. And being all hormonal. But not really reading. I have read a few things - Bel Canto, The Tiger's Wife, Never Let Me Go, A Pale View of Hills, the first three books of The Tales of the Otori - but nothing like my 'usual' self. There was a time when that would be a month's reading list, not 3 years.

I was going to do a reading challenge that Martine is doing. Something about reading a book a month that has been on your to be read pile for at least a year. I starting doing a pile. But in the end, there weren't enough and then I got stressed about having to do it. So I just picked up a book and started reading. Geraldine Brooks, The People of the Book. Then it was Sandi Toksvig's Flying Under Bridges. Now I am reading another William Boyd. I do like William Boyd. And I have a present from Martine which is waiting to be next - Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? :-)

Yes, I think my literary appetite may at last be returning. I shall have conversations with people about books, I shall carry my books around the house, I shall lose my page markers with abandon. It is all beginning to feel a bit 'normal'.

I may even put down my knitting. :-)