Attrition rate

Since I started the habit of putting books in the bookswap bag instead of on my shelves unless I'm really, really sure I want to read them again (I think my previous criteria was 'did I enjoy it?', which wasn't strong enough - the world is rich in books, there will always be something new to enjoy, and only very old favourites tend to get a re-read) I've found I have a bit more space on my shelves. There's still some double-shelving (books behind books) but it's manageable. 

I have roughly 600 physical books (and some ebooks, but I'm leaving those aside for now), of which I think about a half to a third are what I'd consider my 'core' library - books I wouldn't think of getting rid of. 

And it occurred to me that leaves only about 300-400 books that I haven't read still on my shelves - and that 400 books max is actually doable. I could make a commitment to only read my own books and at a rate of 80 books a year (roughly) I would get through the lot in five years. 

Only, now I'm coming to write it down, I'm wondering why I'm even considering this. Remembering the posts I made in January last year about how I'd got bored of tracking things and it was making stuff that should be enjoyable a chore, and went back to my very relaxed New Years Resolutions this year - 12 'things' fewer overall, lose a few pounds, finish the canal. 

Things are already shifting in the right direction. 15 books in and 24 out - an attrition rate of about 2.25 a month. Reading off the shelves I've enjoyed The Victorians by Jeremy Paxman and The End of Everything by Katie Mack, Levels of Life by Julian Barnes and Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. So all I need to do is keep doing what I'm doing, and I will get there in about 14 years or so - and really, why make a chore of it?

April Jumble

As usual I had plans for blog posts that never really got as far as an actual post, and now April has slipped by. 

I started the month in Bath, where I went for a short break at the end of March. The pictures I've taken make it look wetter than it actually was -  Bath is very lovely when the sun comes out and the bath stone glows gold, but despite trying, I didn't manage to capture those fleeting moments. 

I didn't go in the actual baths either as I've been there before, but I did visit a number of other attractions, and also popped into Persephone Books, mostly in search of a copy of Few Eggs and No Oranges which I borrowed from the library some years ago and wanted my own copy of. I also picked up a copy of Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter Downes, but although I enjoyed it I didn't think I'd read again and have dropped it at the bookswap. 

Bath has quite few bookshops, and I also bought Brandy Sour, which I think I will read again - as well as having a beautiful cover, it packs a lot in a small space. 

Then later on in the month I read Sophie Kinsella's last book How Does it Feel? - also very slim - which is a fictionalised account of discovering she had a brain tumour and the confusion and treatment and ways she found to get through it. 

It's the first book of hers I've read through since Shopaholic, which mildly irritated me with it's excessively happy ending.  She's very funny in this book in describing how she started writing Shopaholic and the horror of one of her fans at a book signing when she threatens to write a book without a happy ending. 

She also, rather sweetly, tries to provide one here, but of course she can't.  

Between that and Julian Barnes' Levels of Life - which is about the death of his wife (as well as about hot air balloons), and Olivia Laing talking about Virginia Woolf's drowning in the Ouse, April could have been a gloomy month, but actually none of these are gloomy books. I'd recommend any of them. 

I'm still gradually walking the Grand Union Canal - I'm well within striking distance of London now, and have been taking in some lovely Cotswolds scenery, as well as more frequent villages and pubs. The next bit begins at Apsley, and perhaps takes me as far as the top of the Metropolitan line. 

A Dull Spring

We're mostly having a wet and overcast spring here in London. Not excessively cold for the time of year, though, and the magnolia and some blossom trees are out already. 

I had a good wander through Bushy Park and Chiswick Garden last weekend, saw the deer, had a coffee and took some pictures. 

Then this weekend had a little wander up through Brompton Cemetery and over Albert Bridge, which as you can see is only open to bikes and pedestrians at the moment as they've found something wrong (you can also see that there was blue sky when I was at the cemetery but by the time I was coming home it had got cloudy again. Raining now.)

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

 ..and I have a cold. But as I had a day off work today anyway (two more days to take before April. I'm a person who believes in taking all my holiday allowance) I trekked up to Myddelton House Gardens  for snowdrop spotting (with sturdy vintage umbrella) and cream tea - I think the only other time I've been up to that bit of Greater London was when I was doing the Enfield Lock bit of the London Loop - and then doubled back and went to the V&A East Storehouse, which recently opened up in the Olympic park area. 

Happy New Year 2026

I'm having a quiet New Year, having been staying in two other people's houses over the festive period up until yesterday. 

Which gives me plenty of time to get this post into shape before I relax with a glass of something celebratory. 

Like this gin, ginger ale and lime juice I had in August

Or this Harvey Wallbanger from January 2025

It's been quite a good year for walks.  

a long trek up the Phoenician steps in Capri

and up Vesuvius

and down the valley and up the other side in Matera

As well as places nearer home like Oxford and Brighton and Sheffield and my ongoing project to complete the Grand Union Canal, and of course London:

Its not been a bad year for books either. I gave C P Snow a whirl for the first and second time, read a Nina Bawden for the first time since I don't know how long (I read a lot of her as a child but never really got into her books for adults), read four books in translation and got seriously stuck into books by Catherine Aird, George Bellairs and of course E C R Lorac

Full list pasted below:

Black Beadle - E C R Lorac

The Affair in Thor's Head - E C R Lorac

The Long Shadow - Celia Fremlin

Army Without Banners - Ann Stafford

The Religious Body - Catherine Aird

The Captain of the Pole Star - Arthur Conan Doyle

Passing Strange - Catherine Aird

Parting Breath - Catherine Aird

Murder as a Fine Art - Carol Carnac

After Effects - Catherine Aird

A Going Concern - Catherine Aird

A Dead Liberty - Catherine Aird

Henrietta Who? - Catherine Aird

A Late Phoenix - Catherine Aird

Wild Chamber - Christopher Fowler

Guilty by Definition - Susie Dent

The Stately Home Murder - Catherine Aird

Some Die Eloquent - Catherine Aird

Talking to my Daughter about the Economy - Yanis Varoufakis

Slight Mourning - Catherine Aird

The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman

Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie

Deadly Duo - Margery Allingham

We Solve Murders - Richard Osman

City Adrift - Naresh Fernandes

The Point of Distraction - Will Eaves

Scandalise my Name - Fiona Sinclair

Not to be Taken - Anthony Berkeley

Jumping Jenny = Anthony Berkeley

Leaving Beirut - Mai Ghoussoub

Underground, Overground - Andrew Martin

Cat and Mouse - Christianna Brand

Learning to Talk - Hilary Mantel

Ghost Cat - Beverley Butler

The Last Children of Tokyo - Yoko Tawada

Death Under Sail - C P Snow

Duplicate Death - Georgette Heyer

Black Plumes - Margery Allingham

Murder Makes Mistakes - George Bellairs

Death in the Fearful Night - George Bellairs

Death on a Dark Sea - R A Bentley

The House of Silence - E Nesbit

Excellent intentions - Richard Hull

Death of a Tin God - George Bellairs

A Strange Manor of Death - R A Bentley

Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

What Katy Did Next - Susan Coolidge

Clover - Susan Coolidge

In the High Valley - Susan Coolidge

The Greenwell Mystery - E C R Lorac

The House of Footsteps - Mathew West

Unnatural Causes - Richard Shepherd

Stone and Sky - Ben Aaronovitch

Colonel Marchand - E C R Lorac

The Perfect Alibi - Christopher St John Sprigg

A Flat Place - Noreen Masud

Death in Room Five - George Bellairs

Lonelyheart 4122 - Colin Watson

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

A Legal Fiction - Elizabeth Ferrars

Murder in the Basement - Anthony Berkeley

The Mystery of Henri Pick - David Foenkinos

Death Stops the Frolic - George Bellairs

How to Stop Spending Money Your Don't Have on Clothes You Don't Wear - Jodie Gillarty

How to Save Money - Ann Russell

How to Clean Everything - Ann Russell

The Library of Unrequited Love - Sophie Divry

Hybrid Humans - Harry Parker

W is for Wasted - Sue Grafton

Smoke Without Fire - E X Ferrars

Insomniac City - Bill Hayes

Family Money - Nina Bawden

Crime in Kensington - Christopher St John Sprigg

Fatality in Fleet Street - Christopher St John Sprigg

The Gentleman in the Parlour - W Somerset Maugham

Cat Among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie

Homecomings -  C P Snow

A predominance of crime fiction as always (50 out of 77 books), 14 non-fiction books. Approximately two thirds women authors. Stand out books for me were both non-fiction: Noreen Masud's A Flat Place and Bill Hayes' Insomniac City. 

So on to 2026. My only resolutions are to declutter 12 more things than I bring into the place (this sounds a doddle, but in my experience is harder than you'd think. We seem programmed, both individually and collectively, for accumulation) and end 2026 at least a few pounds lighter than I am now. No unrealistic goals, or absurd regimes, just a bit of running and fewer fried potato products. 

So Happy New Year all. See you in 2026

 

Some London Pictures

This is the first properly cold day I think we've had for a while. It's been mostly wet and nippy in the wind, in London, very much the last days of autumn rather than the shift into winter, but this morning coming back from the opticians across the park it was that bright, misty cold that comes off the grass as if it's exhaling. 

It's very near the solstice now - the days get longer from tomorrow. 

I've mostly been Christmas shopping just lately but have spent time in some museums as well. 

All the above from Sambourne and Leighton Houses

Both the above from the V&A on a Friday evening - the best time to go as it's reasonably quiet. 

As you can see here. This is the WC off the café and I genuinely don't know if it has always been like this and I've never noticed because it's usually full of people or they've recently refurbished and reopened - but isn't it lovely? 

Another thing I've never noticed before is the lifts in the Heals in Tottenham Court Rd. This is a very large building that I assumed once had multiple floors of goods but a quick google shows that manufacturing happened on site, so perhaps not. I also assumed it was meant to be a department store but actually it's a furniture store. Either way it always feels like it should be huge when you walk in but actually a lot of it seems to be offices. 

These are the lifts that service those offices though. Unfortunately as the space is quite confined I'm not doing them justice but they really are very nice.  

and obligatory Christmas shot of the staircase, again nicer if you can get there to see it yourself. 

BTLS has been in Italy (again)