BooksyBoff

It makes me feel sooo good. No olympian feats today; just 3 miles there and 3 miles back on a heavy old hybrid - I'm glowing !

Started with The Bell and it did require some staying power. I found The Sacred and Profane Love machine really funny, a farce. I got Under the Net from a charity shop so may read that at some point

Paperback copies of Iris Murdoch’s The Bell and The Sacred and Profane Love Machine. Also: Lucy Mangan’s Bookish, Balle’s On the calculation of volume and Schlee’s Rhine Journey

January was rubbish for cycling but excellent for reading. Rounded off the month with Iris Murdoch. How have I not read her until now? Thanks to @backlisted.bsky.social for prompting this with another excellent podcast.

Whoooaah? Really? It’s in my TBR pile but languishing at the bottom. Promoting it up now!

There’s an Iris Murdoch Podcast. I didn’t know that. I will take a look. Thank you

A paragraph from Murdoch’s Sacred and profane love machine when Harriet surprises her husband by taking on his infidelity as a cause that she can adopt and save

Halfway through and loving it! Looking forward to the @backlisted conversation

Well read paperback copy of Rhine Journey by Ann Schlesinger

I very much enjoyed this. Loved Charlotte’s imagined love life. Sadly, she has sacrificed her life for others. Thank you to @backlisted.bsky.social and many others for suggesting it.
A bit disappointed with the wrinkled scuffed copy that World of Books listed as very good £6.60

Yes! The Townhouse was a wonderful Backlisted find from a great guest: Lucy Mangan who talks about the book in her latest memoir ( see also Bookworm in which she talks about children’s books)

Yes the Protect and Survive booklet and all the information had a great impact on me as a child. Wow, not seen this since but this is so scarily familiar.

Now, if the women were wearing suggested suitable clothing for the weather - that would help.

i like books about books eg "My life in Middlemarch" and "All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf" but this sounds like totally different take on that. I shall seek it out.

All excellent choices. I love Elif Shafak’s books. I haven’t read Intermezzo yet.

I have hiked the 190 mile coast to coast, I would call that Northern not middle England. This book frequently made me laugh out loud. The cover design certainly makes the most of the title

It deserves to be heard in the slow radio slot of Paddy O’Connell’s Broadcasting House

By coincidence, I am reading it today and enjoying travelling and losing myself through the character’s memories, dreams and fantasies. While very different I get echoes of A Room with a View.

I have been rootling through my shelves to find a TBR selection for the new year . Couldn’t decide where to start - then - On the Calculation of Volume arrived. I consumed it in one day (appropriately). Beautifully written, unsettling, so much to think about.

Cover of Lucy Mangan’s Bookish featuring her green bookshelves reading chair, cat and a woman reading

First book I read this year. A very enjoyable follow up to Bookworm

Audible version of Anita Brookner: Falling Slowly. Read by Eleanor Bron

Last year I enjoyed reading more Brookner: Providence, Family and Friends and the truly superb Latecomers. And Eleanor Bron was the perfect voice for Falling slowly

BBC Sounds - The Dark Is Rising - Available Episodes Listen to the latest episodes of The Dark Is Rising on BBC Sounds.

I enjoyed revisiting this brilliant audio experience again. Now a Christmas tradition.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

I plan to read some of her novels this year starting with The Bell

They actually say “spanking”, in true Private Eye style, making the point that it’s not how good an author is but how hard people work to manage the author’s estate.

These lists of best books are helping me to add to my list of must reads for 2026: Image of her and On the calculation of Volume.

Outside Sainsbury’s today. Not many seen in Milton Keynes: the city built for the car.

I would have to go commando 🫢

Picture of the 1st ed of Absolute Beginners

A first edition of Absolute Beginners may interest followers of @backlisted.bsky.social I am more a reader of books than a collector of 1st editions but this is the Hospice Charity bookshop where I volunteer.

A pencil written note within a copy of Iris Murdoch’s The Bell recording a readers thoughts on it in attractive but not easy to read handwriting: “Sharply observed if chilly/toned. Dora very well observed and interplay ditto though confusing number of characters and slow pace; often feels like not heading anywhere, tension sacrificed….. Book of morals as much as ideas … prone to longeurs …etc etc

My copy of Murdoch’s The Bell had an earlier life as a library copy labelled “reading group pack” I bought it in a charity shop and benefit from someone’s analysis scribbled in pencil in it. Lovely.

Happy 10th Birthday to @backlisted.bsky.social and thank you to Andy and friends for sharing some great books with massive enthusiasm. Looking forward to many more.

Instantly recognisable to fans of Birding. Did you crochet it yourself? - impressive!

Paperback copy of Wordsworth Classics edition of Trollope’s The Way We Live Now

Last read in anticipation of the 2001 BBC adaptation. Found in the charity bookshop today after hearing @onebrightbook.bsky.social is to discuss it.

Dancing in the Dark is absolutely brilliant. I found that edition in a charity shop.