Whose Birthday? My Birthday

Or, to be more precise, my blog birthday!

Yeah, that's right, I've been blogging with various degrees of, you know, effort, for SIX WHOLE YEARS now. Even I'm pretty impressed with myself, even if the way I blog has changed so drastically over the last six years. For instance, I'm writing this in literally a stolen 15 minutes before work at 6:45am, whereas for my first blog birthdays I baked actual treats for an inanimate internet thing.

I would say oh how the mighty have fallen, but really I think it's probably a good thing that I didn't at all have time to make the above cake. But shit, I wish I had made it, because it looks freaking delicious...

Anyway. I probably say it every year (I definitely do) but there are so many wonderful things in my life that just wouldn't have happened without blogging. I had so many wonderful experiences last year, which were topped by going to Haworth with Nahree and Bex (ultimate readers trip!) but also included two bookshop crawls, an actually really important heart to heart with Katie, and one little night where I was in a hospital and pretty freaked out and couldn't sleep even the tiniest bit but I had friends on both other sides of the world to comfort and distract me, and really who could ask for more than that?

And this year is bringing even more blogging goodness, with another bookshop crawl in mere weeks and I believe some more foreign visitors at some point of the year, and oh man, who knew being depressed and aimless and wanting to write about how bad the last season of Brothers and Sisters was (so bad I didn't even finish it, and I realise I have not even thought about that programme for YEARS other than to mention it every year on this day) could lead to such wonderful, off internet things? Definitely not me.

In summary (because, you know, work and stuff)- if you have been here, in any capacity whatsoever, then thank you. I love you and I kiss you and Imma try to write about books for as long as it's fun, which, no matter how infrequently I do it, it does continue to be. Y'all are fabulous, keep being you.

Things I Read in December

Oy vey is this late or what..? Something something life and trying to catch up on stuff and also other stuff going on and ok look at the time, let's talk about the things I read in December!

(text only because seriously, look at the time!)

Agorafabulous by Sara Benincasa

I loved Agorafabulous so much that immediately after finishing it I requested another of her books (Real Artists Have Day Jobs) for Christmas, and it looks set to be the first book I finish in 2017. Agorafabulous actually is fabulous in many ways, not least because it gives Benincasa a platform to look at herself and her past and her struggles with mental illness in a funny but frank way. The entire book, even though it covers the lowest points of Benincasa's life, is hopeful in tone in a kind of 'I got through this, so can you get through anything' kind of way, and it's also really well written. Did I mention yet that I really liked it? Ok, good.

Wallflower at the Orgy by Nora Ephron

Oh, Nora. Is there anyone more wonderful? Probably not. This is a collection of articles and whatnot that Ephron wrote in the sixties, and even if some (ok all) of the subject matter is somewhat outdated now, Ephron's writing definitely isn't. I would literally read anything the woman wrote, and I'm really trying to read all of it. This is a pretty good place to start, especially if you're interested in Helen Gurley-Brown, Ayn Rand, the celebrity chef culture of the 60s (including a Julia Child mention, sooo many years before Julie and Julia!) or the work of Mike Nichols, and a must read if you care about Nora like I do.

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

After I read Never Let Me Go, I started collected Ishiguro books that I ended up never reading. This is a pretty common theme for me with most authors, but I'm pretty sure I have owned When We Were Orphans for about 10 years now and still haven't touched it. I did read Nocturnes though, and it's a pretty charming set of short stories, all based around music in very different ways, and all kind of excellent. It was the perfect thing to read in a ridiculously hectic December, and brightened up many a dull bus ride through Christmas shopping traffic.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Before this December, I had only read Landline in the middle of summer, outside in my back garden. I always meant to read it at Christmas, and this one finally seemed like the right time. This reading reminded me why I've only read it once before, not because it's not good (as if Rainbow could write a bad book) but because it's really kind of stressful. It's stressful not knowing what's going on with the main character's marriage, or her TV show, or the fact that she has a magic phone, and I felt kind of frustrated throughout the book, and not in a good way. Having said all of that, reading the end (the end is SO good) on Christmas morning before everyone was up was pretty excellent and magical itself, so there's that.

And that was December! I had limited time to read things, but I think I still did pretty well! Of course, it's practically February so who can care what I read in December, but you know what? I CARE SO THERE.