Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Le Fanu has pretty much done nothing but impress me thus far. Uncle Silas - In a Glass Darkly (including Carmilla). So, this is a priority.

Entertaining stories.

So this represents 1969, in my adherence to the 'My Novel Life' reading challenge. I was 1 year old when it came out in hardcover, and didn't get to it, even when it came out in softcover. This author is not one where I can reflect on his importance in my reading life, but this and my 1970 pick Grave Descend, do remind me that many of the first novels I read were sea stories. I do still enjoy them.

A book I’m reading as part of the My Novel Life challenge. I’m supposed to be dealing with each book in chronological order - each year of my life represented by a novel from that year - but I’m reading one book in proper order, followed by one book from any year. Since I started with 1968, and then my ‘Anything’ pick was from 1970, and now I’m in 1969, it looks like I’m just messing around with the first 3 years.

I love this. I’ll admit that I’m glad the Cricket season has ended, as the school year has gone along - because I don’t know Cricket rules - but the Cricket sequences were not long anyway, so I wasn’t too discombobulated. Some stories in Tales of St. Austin’s were all Cricket, whereas this is much more than that. Lots of great subplots among the boys, and this cheating business in the late chapters is gripping.

I’m having a fabulous time with this; although I am loving the experience of Giallo July, and Rocket Summer, it was time for something both down to earth and not murder-y. I did love Wodehouse’s early fiction set in boys’ schools…and this cousin to those books is just as good. Maybe better…but then, Wodehouse would move on to his true calling. Meanwhile, it’s fun being back in school, this time in 1881!

It feels traitorous to move a Wodehouse novel from my Currently Reading back to Want to Read, but I’m just not in the mood for his so-called serious novel. But, this “Boy’s School” novel is from the year Wodehouse was born - and, in fact, Benny Green in his Wodehouse bio, of course linked it to Wodehouse’s first published novels, most taking place at boys’ schools. So this is a quiet nod to where Wodehouse started.

The first two stories - Erle Stanley Gardner, and Eric Ambler, the authors - were fun. If there’s one thing Otto Penzler’s Big Book of Espionage taught me, it’s that I prefer Spy novels (and films) to short stories. Samey-ness, and quick scenarios without the pages to create a strong emotional pull, can be prevalent. But I think this will be a solid collection based on the first two tales.

This is the 1970 entry, in my attempt at the ‘My Novel Life’ reading challenge (novel from each year I’ve been alive). Some of the books will prompt me to discuss how much the author has meant to me over the years; others, like this one, don’t make me reflect as much on my life of reading. I’ve read a couple Crichton novels, and should probably get to Jurassic Park. I saw Westworld (film) as a kid, loved it.

The “not funny” Wodehouse novel I have put off dealing with for almost 40 years. It’s time.

I figured this would be a bit like The Shop Window Murders by Vernon Loder, or even The Corpse in the Wax Works by John Dickson Carr - both whodunits I enjoyed and found to have an extra creepy edge - but this one seems like its taking own path. I do like it so far; no idea what all these deaths mean.

Naturally I’m gonna mess with the guidelines for the ‘My Novel Life’ reading challenge. I will read one book in its proper chronological order…followed by any book from any year that I have put in my My Novel Life tbr list (see list), and then back to going in order. So having started with 1968, I am picking something out of order…and yet, in this case, I’m only jumping to 1970. (Soon, 1969, soon…).

After reading two of his books, I’m more than happy to keep going to the Starrett stuff. This one has gotten ‘Giallo July’ oozing from it, at least in turns of a macabre hook right near the start.

I’m so shocked at how much I’m digging this; the last book by this author was terrible, IMO, and a couple of other EFR’s were okay, they were decent…but this is probably gonna be my favourite. The first one I read, decades ago - Sinister Barrier - has been the only by EFR that really dazzled me (who knows what a re-read would do!), but this one is great fun. I love all the mutants, and the factions.

Back to the Rocket Summer reading project; this is the closest I’ve come to reading the books I’ve picked for this project in the order I was ‘supposed to’. A book from the 1950s is what we participants are supposed to be cracking open just about now - it’s just that I read 1940s when others read 1930s or earlier, and I read 1960s during 1940s week. Such a troublemaker I am! Anyway, I hope this is good EFR.

I’m loving it.

Wow - that was an early shocking development! I am officially on whatever tenterhooks are.

So. I’ve decided to muck about with this My Novel Life reading challenge. It’s not guaranteed that I’ll read each book in chronological order, though this would seem a bit treasonous to the spirit of reading one novel for each year I’ve been alive, when it comes to copyright dates. Anyway, no promises. My first Maigret would have been in the late 1980s - Maigret and the Apparition. 2024, and not many left for me!