It has been an odd year for reading for me. My usual goal of reading 50 books – which I have managed for the past two years – is almost certainly out of reach. However, after months of not reading very much at all, I am looking forward to enjoying some books that befit this cosy season.
A lot of my so-called reading has been happening via audible books and I’m currently very much enjoying a witchy novel called The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. It is the perfect mix of cosy settings, romance, witches, and humour.
On my Kindle, I have just added Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (which sounds suitably spooky for Spooky Season) and a short story by Alice Hoffman (who wrote Practical Magic – the film is on my Autumn Fun List) called The Bookstore Sisters. Both were free with the First Reads offer I get where Prime members get two free Kindle books every month from a selection.
But of course, I am also reading physical books too as these are still my favourite. I have started Persuasion by Jane Austen (after watching the controversial adaptation on Netflix which I happened to love despite its anachronisms). I also have a wonderful pile of books which I want to get through this autumn including The Last to See Me by M. Dressler (a gift from my Head of Department who has great taste in books), Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (one I have started and enjoyed but somehow forgot to continue), The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (borrowed from a colleague and surely needing to be read near Halloween – I haven’t watched the Netflix series as I am too scared!), A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (the second in the Chief Inspector Gamache series although as this is set in winter, this one might have to wait) and finally The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks (recommended by Anne Bogel who reads everything).
I am sure there are so many other books I want to read, not least L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables which provides this beautiful description of the farmstead in autumn time as well as the much-loved quotation (in bold below):
October was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths.
Anne reveled in the world of color about her.
“Oh, Marilla,” she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it? Look at these maple branches. Don’t they give you a thrill—several thrills? I’m going to decorate my room with them.”
Notes From My Day 