Reading More Books (But Not Blogging About Them)

My New Year's Resolution last year was to to try to read more books and to blog about my progress.

I managed the first bit okay(ish), but I totally failed at the second part. I started off super keen, photographing all the books I was reading and writing what I thought would be the first of a series of monthly blog posts (haha). I didn't blog about books again until August, but I kept track of my reading all the way through spring and most of the summer.

I bought books from my local bookshop, and second hand. I borrowed them from the library and from my mum.

 

I read books in bed first thing in the morning (sometimes with a cat for company)...

... while eating breakfast...

... on trains, in cafes, on lazy summer afternoons...

 

... just before bed, and late at night when I couldn't sleep.

 

I read fun books and boring books, old faves and new discoveries, some I absolutely adored and some which were so terrible that I'm baffled as to why they are (apparently) so popular.

I kept a draft blog post running with photos and a list of the books I'd been reading. Then when I discovered the joys of audiobooks in the summer I dutifully took screenshots of each book I started, still thinking "I'll get round to blogging about these sometime soon!"

My enthusiasm for reading waxed and waned through the year but at no point did I actually feel excited to blog about what I was reading. It gradually dawned on me that this was because I don't actually enjoy blogging about books that much and the act of keeping track of everything I was reading was sucking a lot of the joy out of the process.

For neatness though, I've had a think and tallied the books I read from June to December. Excluding the books I've forgotten about, all the books I started but gave up on and the many many books which I keep meaning to finish but just not getting round to, I read The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett , The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley, The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm & Career of Evil  by Robert Galbraith, The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis, and The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.

I also listened to How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan, Rack, Ruin & Murder by Ann Granger, Death Descends on Saturn Villa by M. R. Kasasian, A Study in Brimstone & The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles by G. S. Denning, Tales from the Dead of Night: 13 Classic Ghost Stories, Origin by Dan Brown, Murder by Sarah Pinborough, one of the volumes of The Time Traveller's Almanac, and La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman.

So (along with the 13 books I read earlier in the year), that's about 31 books in total for 2017. Not a particularly impressive number but definitely a lot more than I read in 2016.

I don't know how many books I'll end up reading (or listening to) this year. I hope it's more than 31 but it might well be less. Either way, I definitely won't be blogging about them!

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, so if you click through and end up buying something (anything!) on Amazon during that session I get a very small payment for the referral.

August & September in Pictures: Colourful Threads, a Happy Cat and a Tricky Selfie

Time to look back at some of the stuff I got up to in August and September!

My August involved colourful threads (shout out to Instagram genius Sara Tasker of Me & Orla and her put-your-phone-in-your-teeth-and-take-a-photo-with-the-timer photo technique - a bit awkward, but you can't argue with the results!)...

 

... and more muted ones, as I started to dream about Autumn.

I bought lots of books (it's awesome living in a town with a bookshop again, but not so great for my bank balance)...

... ooohed over some rather fabulous scaffolding...

and went on a photo walk organised by Instagramers Bristol (super fun!).

I blogged about the books I've been reading and finally had an excuse to share this deliciously yellow pic from the spring (the Boston Tea Party breakfast was just as delicious as that yellow looks!)...

... revealed August's slightly over-the-top wreath design for A Year of Wreaths (ice cream! and sparkles! and hearts! and emojis! oh my!)...

... and hung out with this fella, who was very happy to finally be exploring his new garden after weeks of stress, travel, and being kept indoors because of my parents cross-country move (just look at his little face!).

September started with a messy desk, as I worked on some projects for the Village Haberdashery.

I totally fell in love with the colours of these cards & envelopes from their shop, while working on some paper crafting projects. Aren't they just dreamy?

I shared some of the very many photos I took of the gorgeous branch of VV Rouleaux that opened recently in Bath (so much colour, oh my goodness)...

 

... blogged about a very fancy, very exciting trip to Bristol...

... and bought a whole bunch of nostalgic stamps for my letters.

I laughed myself silly trying to take photos of myself modelling the owl mask from my latest tutorial - it turns out it's very difficult taking selfies when you can't see your phone cos you're not wearing your glasses!

Oh, and - as if one themed Instagram account wasn't enough - I decided to start a new Instagram account for sharing the photos I take on my day trips to (wonderful) Bristol: Bristol My Beating Heart (and yes, I am very proud of that pun, thank you).

 

For more colourful, crafty updates you can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.     

Read More Books: February to May

My New Year's Resolution this year was to try to read more books, and to blog once a month about what I've been reading.

Have I actually been blogging once a month about what I've been reading...? Of course not! I did manage one blog post in January and then the days rolled by and suddenly it's August already and I've still not blogged about books (oops).

Soooo... here's a round-up of all the books I read from February-May. I've read more books since then, of course, but there's only so many books you can fit into a blog post before it gets ridiculously long and (I'm pleased to report) I have actually been reading relatively regularly this year (hurrah!).

At the beginning of February I finished reading Dead Cold, the second of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels (I'd read book one in January). It was a fun little mystery and I zipped through it quite quickly but I definitely don't feel the urge to work my way through the rest of her books. It's funny, isn't it, how some series totally grab you and you want to read them all IMMEDIATELY and others you see why people like them but they're not quite your cup of tea.  

Next I read The Miniaturist, which had a temptingly beautiful cover and which turns out to be a real Marmite book! 

 

When I shared this photo on Instagram and Facebook the comments were a mix of people who ADORED it and people confessing that they absolutely loathed it, hadn't been able to finish it, which I thought was very interesting - it's obviously a book that prompts strong feelings in a lot of people! I loved it to start with and thought it was beautifully written, but I found myself gradually losing interest in the characters as the plot developed. 

It was quite a light read though so I did finish it, and I enjoyed it enough to get Jessie Burton's second book (The Muse) out of the library to try. I'm also rather looking forward to seeing the TV adaptation - I love seeing how people tackle the challenge of adapting books for the screen.

In spite of my lukewarm reaction to these two books, my New Year's Resolution was beginning to have its desired effect and I was rapidly falling back in love with reading (hurrah!). I enthusiastically got a whole pile of books out of the library...

... then proceeded to read something totally different! I needed something light to read on a train journey, so I grabbed Unseen Academicals from my "to read" pile and totally neglected my library books while I worked my way through it. 

As I mentioned in my previous book-themed post, I've been slowly re-reading all the Discworld books over the past couple of years. Unseen Academicals is definitely not one of my favourites and I ended up reading it incredibly slowly, reading a bit here and there and wondering if I should skip it altogether instead of sticking it out just for the sake of completeness. I'm glad I finished it, though. I might not love this particular chapter in the Discworld series but the process of revisiting them all in sequence has been so enjoyable I'm glad I resisted the urge to skip ahead. 

After Unseen Academicals I dipped into that pile of library books, starting with Image on the Heart and other stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This turned out to be a compilation of some of his early stories, not remotely his best work but still with flashes of his delicious style. I zipped through these, reading them in a patch of sunshine on a couple of warm spring afternoons (totally blissful!). 

Not being able to sleep one night I picked up the next book on the pile, Up at the Villa by W. Somerset Maugham, and honestly if this hadn't been a library book I would have thrown it across the room (probably waking my neighbours in the process). Uggghhh, I hated this book so much. The characters! The plot! The dialogue! Pretty much everything about it! A friend whose book taste I tend to trust likes Maugham though so I'm planning on giving his books another chance but I wouldn't bet any money on me liking them.

After another library trip I made a start on some more F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories (The Love Boat and other stories), reading them on more relaxing sunny afternoons... but I bogged down partway through one of the longer ones and didn't pick the book back up again after that.

On another visit to the library I was tempted by a trio of Vintage books with their delicious red spines.

I started with Picnic at Hanging Rock which is not just the best thing I've read in ages but one of the best things I think I've ever read. I adored it, gobbling it up in one sitting and practically beaming with happiness the whole time.

My New Year's Resolution to try and read more books has (gradually) helped me get back into the habit of reading - carving out a space for it in my weeks, and enjoying the process of sitting quietly with a book and letting myself get absorbed in its pages. But it wasn't until reading Picnic at Hanging Rock that the real love of it came back - BAM! - like it had never gone away.

Spring brought some stressful things with it so I ended up doing a lot of comfort reading. I read a vast quantity of Harry Potter fan fiction, which isn't something I've read much of before but I fell down a rabbit hole of the stuff and didn't get out for quite a long time. It was exactly what I needed and quite delightful.

I also decided to reread one of my all time favourite books (and certainly my favourite romantic novel), Gaudy Night... but of course you can't just reread Gaudy Night, you've got to go back and enjoy the whole Peter Wimsey / Harriet Vane romance and really savour it. So, I started with Strong Poison...

... then moved on to Have His Carcase, and took a short detour from the Wimsey/Vane novels to read Murder Must Advertise (because it's just so funny, though that whole Harlequin plot is the wrong kind of ridiculous). If you're a fan of murder mystery novels and have never read the Wimsey novels I cannot recommend them highly enough. They get better and better as the sequence develops and the introduction of Harriet Vane is an absolute joy, I love her so much.

At the end of May I took a break from Wimsey to make a start on The Muse...

... but quickly abandoned it for a book of Ghost Stories by E. F. Benson, which I hugely enjoyed.

I often associate ghost stories with dark winter nights but most of these are set in the blossoming spring or on sultry summer evenings. The stories are full of ancient, dark, nameless things lurking in woodlands and streams, of terrible things at your open window on hot, sleepless nights. All rather dated, of course, but gorgeously written and full of incredibly creepy moments.

Thanks to this book I also discovered that reading ghost stories on busy trains weirdly makes them (the stories, not the trains) even spookier. I totally expected it to be distracting but actually quietly reading a ghost story in the midst of all that noise turned out to be extra chilling. It is a teeny bit awkward though when you realise you're pulling "oh my goodness, this story!!" faces in public.

So, how many books is that in four months? Ten, I think? Plus a whole bunch of fan fiction and a tiny bit of The Muse.

Ten books in four months is nothing to shout about, but, still! Reading is happening! And continues to happen! Woohoo!

What have you been reading lately? Have you read any of the books I've been reading? What did you think of them?

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, so if you click through and end up buying something (anything!) on Amazon during that session I get a very small payment for the referral.

May in Pictures: Summer Travels, Foxgloves, & My Little Ponies

Time to look back at what I got up to in May!

My May was a busy one, but I had some breaks from my ongoing flat renovation and was able to squeeze in some lovely Nice Days Out.

I spent a weekend in Bristol and Bath, enjoying some free events as part of the Residents Weekend (I might not actually live in Bristol but I have a Bristol-area postcode, which totally counts!) and meeting up with friends.

I've been back to Bristol many times since I moved away from the city over a decade ago, but this was the first time I'd been back to one of the areas I used to live in: Clifton Village. It was deeply weird being back in Clifton after so long, and to add the the weirdness I immediately bumped into someone I knew from University! Clifton was looking just as lovely as ever, of course, especially with the #wisteriahysteria in full swing.    

The warmer weather (and some gorgeous sunshine!) meant lots of opportunities for walks on the beach and exploring places like this wonderful local nature reserve. (I'm loving living here so much, you guys). 

  
On a trip home to see my folks, I spent the day in nearby Reading and explored the excellent Museum of English Rural Life which I'd shockingly never visited before despite going to school just around the corner. The main gallery is fascinating but I especially loved the archive upstairs where you can peek into cabinets jam-packed with interesting things, and this fabulous little gallery devoted to Ladybird Books (swoon). 

 

One of the joys of visiting my parents is getting to see all the wildlife in their garden, including the badgers who show up to eat peanuts most evenings.

It's also great to see my niece and baby nephew. My mum has been clearing out the loft recently, and sorting out lots of toys for the next generation to enjoy - including our My Little Pony collection. (Did you have any of these when you were a kid?). So many 80s nostalgia feels. 

Later in the month I combined another family visit with a day in London - I do love being back in the southwest but I miss all those galleries and museums and beautiful parks rather a lot.

 

I was delighted to spot those foxgloves when I'd just delivered my Foxglove Wreath to The Village Haberdashery that morning. The felt foxgloves were a real challenge to design, but I was delighted with the end result and everyone's kind comments. It's so nice sharing things and getting such a positive response in return. (Click here for the free foxglove wreath tutorial)

 

In May I also got back into reading Actual Books, after a patch of mostly reading Harry Potter fanfiction. I'll be blogging sometime soon about my recent reads (as you might have noticed, my New Year's Resolution to both read more and blog about it each month has not been going entirely to plan).

 

Another project that's not gone to plan: my 100 Day Project. Long story short, I got sick (ugh) and then I got a horrible attack of creative block (double ugh) as my blogger's block expanded to envelop all my creative outlets (ugggghhhh).

I hoped to jump back into the project in mid-May and made a start with a felt puffin (for day 12) but then life got in the way again, I was busy with messy decorating projects, have been generally feeling a little worn out, and am still suffering a bit from the curse that is creative block... which is all deeply frustrating.

At this rate I will probably have finished my 100 Days of Felt Stuff in a few years time (haha), but I'm hopeful I can get back into it soon. In the meantime though, hurrah for puffins!

 

This was a funny one because the sketch came together really quickly (and just how I pictured it in my head) but translating it into a 3 inch high felt bird proved much trickier. I felt quite exposed sharing it at the time, but now I'm rather pleased with him. I really need to remember how this kind of thing keeps happening, and to stop being so hard on myself when I make things I don't think are quite "perfect".

Want more colourful, crafty updates? I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

February in Pictures: Beach Walks, Lunchtime Reading, and a Cosy Blanket

February might be the shortest month, but I squeezed a lot into it... including a mini photoshoot where Jo and I modelled my rainbow blanket as if it was a trendy blanket scarf, getting lots of funny looks from passers by in the process.

My DIY projects continue to keep me busy, and to make working from home a little chaotic as I'm surrounded by boxes at all times!

I decided to start blogging about the progress of my new flat (click here to read the first post) and was delighted with the positive feedback from everyone. Doing up this place is definitely going to be a marathon not a sprint so all cheerleading is very much appreciated (please ignore the mixed sports metaphors there). 

Most of the time it's not too bad juggling DIY and everything else, but sometimes it can be a bit frustrating. I had a bit of a pity party at the start of the month, feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't join in with an Instagram photo challenge because my home is such a mess and everything nice I own is packed up in boxes. I mean, talk about a first world problem, right?

After I snapped out of it I decided to have some fun and put together a DIY equipment flatlay - proving you don't need a beautiful space or lots of fancy stuff to get creative!

 

I love that photo and I also rather adore this snap of map-like paint layers uncovered while redecorating in the living room:

Here on my blog in February I shared three posts (one, two and three) filled with photos from a photowalk I went on last year. This photo isn't the best picture but it never fails to make me laugh - so many warning signs!

I also shared three fun felt fruit tutorials (apple and orange slices, strawberries and watermelon slices)...

 

... a free embroidery pattern to remind you to Never Stop Learning...

 

... and I blogged about the second wreath tutorial I've designed for The Village Haberdashery's blog. Unsurprisingly, February's wreath was Valentine's themed but as someone helpfully pointed out this wreath would also be great for Mother's Day. I think it would also be lovely for weddings or anniversary parties. You could also use the templates and tutorial to make embroidered felt hearts, which would make fab brooches or ornaments. 

By the way, how gorgeous are these industrial-look shelves in The Village Haberdashery's new shop?  I took so many photos when I visited to deliver the Valentine's wreath. Fabric heaven!

In the middle of the month I spent a freezing day in Bristol with some friends, peeling my gloves off to take a couple of quick photos then hastily putting them back on again. (It snowed. I had to go to Primark to buy a pair of fleece-lined leggings to wear over my tights. Brr!).

I continued to try to read more books, squeezing in some lunchtime reading and blogging about the books I read in January.

 

(You'll have to wait until the next "read more books" blog post to find out what I thought about The Miniaturist!)

I fell totally in love with my new bedlinen (bought from John Lewis in their January sale), which looks so great with my hand knitted rainbow blanket. This photo is pretty much a mood board for my home decorating plans: lots of white and clean lines but as a backdrop for all the colours. It's going to be a long while until my flat gets to the decorating stage but in the meantime a girl can a) dream and b) make Pinterest boards.

I also took so many walks on the beach in February and took so many photos along the way that I've started a new Instagram account for sharing all my pics. I'm loving exploring my new hometown, and it's proving rather fun having an Instagram account with a totally different vibe to my main one. Instead of craft and bright colours it's all beach views and soft greys and blues.

 

I might have started a second Instagram account but I've also been trying to enjoy analogue, offline pleasures as well. I've been doing some stitching (of course)...

 

... buying some lovely new stamps for my letters...

 

... and borrowing way more books from the library than I'm ever going to be able to read before they're due back (even with the magic of online renewals!).

 

I do love the internet, but it's wonderful to switch off the screens and spend some time with pens and paper and fabric and thread.

Want to keep up with what I'm up to day-to-day instead of just catching up once a month? I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.