Weekly Update: New Job

It’s been a while since my last update, and though I drafted a post in my blogging notebook over a month ago, I didn’t get to posting it here.

I got a new job! The process was much quicker than I expected both because of my excellent friends and colleagues network and because I aggressively pursued new employment opportunities. I was getting three interviews a day plus sending several applications a day despite being sick and having another “delightful” rocket round from Iran to deal with. In the end it took me two and a half weeks to find a new (and better) place, and I learned a lot from the process.

I had a little time off before I started my new job (I started two weeks ago) and I spent most of it on catching up with friends, getting on top of doctor’s appointments, decluttering and honing my technical skills. I didn’t get half of what I planned on doing done, but that’s the nature of the beast. I am very glad that I prioritised meeting friends because it was so energising and fun and fulfilling to be able to do that. It made me realise yet again just how important real life meetings with friends are.

I finished the NYT Summer Reading Challenge on the 6th of August, well before the deadline. I enjoyed the challenge and I’m glad that I participated as it got me reading books that have long been languishing on my reading list. I decided that I will review each of the ten books that I read, so expect those reviews up shortly.

I saw the new Spiderman movie (Spiderman: Brand New Day) and it’s very good. It reminded me of The Thunderbolts, which I loved. It was well written and performed, and Florence Pugh and Jon Berenthal steal every scene they’re in they are so magnetic.

I’m almost done with my Stillman and Birn pocket beta sketchbook and I might post a flip-through here. I normally take ages to finish a sketchbook because I have so many sketchbooks running in parallel, but this one took about a year, which is super fast for me. Most of it is full of cafe sketches, because I’ve put a focus on sketching people on the move. I do plan on getting back to more landscape and other sketches in my next sketchbook.

I’m still struggling with my journaling, and I also have a large pile of notebooks that I was planning to review but I’m not so sure how to go about that. Standard reviews take a lot of time and I’m not sure that they’re that enjoyable or interesting to read. I don’t want to spew a fact sheet of information on paper weight and binding types as you can find more accurate information on the manufacturer’s website these days. Even Moleksine, who had been elusive about their paper weights in the past, now publish all the relevant details on their website. I think it would be more interesting to read about why I selected a notebook, who I think would enjoy it, and who I think should steer clear of it. What do you think?

Book Review: The Odyssey, Robert Fagles Translation, Narrated by Sir Ian McKellen

This was the first audiobook that I’ve ever listened to, and if it wasn’t part of the NYT Summer Reading Challenge to listen to an audiobook, I never would have listened to it. While I listen to podcasts, I don’t listen to audiobooks because I find that my mind tends to wander while listening and thus I absorb much less of the text than I otherwise would have. Reading is exercise for my brain, a deeply enjoyable and immersive pastime and somehow listening doesn’t provide me with the same effects.

So when I saw the “listen to an audiobook” part of the NYT Summer Reading Challenge I felt daunted. Then I remembered that I had been planning to reread The Odyssey and wondered if this might be an opportunity to experience a book that I’ve read three or four times in a new way.

So I searched Kobo books and lo and behold – they had my favourite Odyssey translation read by Sir Ian McKellen, no less. I only wish that they’d also had him read The Iliad, but no luck.

The Odyssey is an epic poem. It was performed by bards for decades upon decades before it was written down, and the Fagles translation keeps the rosy fingered poetic beauty of the piece. Sir Ian McKellen is a phenomenal actor with great sensitivity to poetry and text. The combination of both is astounding. The text leapt to life, felt rich and full of nueance that I had missed before. It was like the difference between reading a Shakespeare play and seeing it performed by first class actors on stage. I felt Odysseus’s anguish, Telemachus’s frustration, Penelope’s melancholy. They became real to me.

For 13 hours I was mesmerised. It was like being in a dark theatre with just Ian McKellen on stage bringing a whole world of wonder to life. The only sour part of it all were the short musical interludes, which I found jarring. There was no need for that embellishment, and I felt that it detracted and distracted from the overall piece.

I didn’t do the dishes while listening to this book. I had read The Odyssey three or four times already, studied it in the university more than once, and yet here it was completely fresh, challenging my notions of this book. Poetry is meant to be listened to, not read, and I think that I have found a use for audiobooks in my reading life.

Morning cafe sketch

I really like today’s cafe sketch, so I decided to post it.

Here’s the line work before I added watercolour:

Cafe sketches are a great way to get used to sketching people in real life. If you want to get started, take a sketchbook and a pen to a cafe near you, and just spend 10-15 minutes drawing as many people as you can.

Three tools sketch

I wasn’t feeling well earlier this week, so I decided to sketch close to home and to simplify my setup. I was feeling the “Toulouse Blues” (where you’re part of the urban sketchers community but miss out on the urban sketchers symposium in Toulouse), so I wanted to sketch to cheer myself up.

The setup was unusual for me on all counts:

The notebook is a Leuccchturm1917 sketchbook that I’ve had since my first urban sketchers symposium in Porto back in 2018. It was Leucchturm’s first foray into sketchbooks, and so the paper isn’t the best. They have since improved it somewhat, even though it’s still far from a high end sketchbook. In this case I wanted something simple and serviceable, and it helped that this evoked fond memories of symposiums past.
The pen is a Sailor Fude Mannen fountain pen with De Atramentis Black Document ink. I usually don’t bother with the Fude pen and use fineliners but in this case I wanted something more expressive.
Two colors only – the green is a Faber Castell Polychromo earth green (172) and the Sienna is a Daniel Smith Quinacridone Sienna watercolor stick. That with a waterbrush provided the reddish earth tones on the tree trunk. The stick was a gift from the Poznan symposium goody bag, and I still find it very cumbersome and messy to use.

I kind of like the result, and I’ll try to create more experiments like it in the future.

Sunset at the Sea Overlook

I had about 10 minutes to sketch yesterday, so I took my new Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook (5 1/2 in. x 8 1/2 in.) a fineliner in sepia and black and a sepia brush pen and sketched this:

Sketch of people waiting to see the sunset over the Mediterranean.

I edited out the bench in this scene as the people were more interesting.

I’m trying to get back into regular sketching, and I think that simplifying both the scene and my selection of tools will help. This experiment sadly badly failed – I put so many restrictions on myself that I got paralyzed into not sketching at all.

We try. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t – but the point is to keep on trying. Sketch on!

Three Art Supply Stores Worth Visiting in Central Paris

As part of the Urban Sketchers symposium in Toulouse and general summer travel I know that a lot of sketchers will be visiting Paris this summer. Paris is full of wonderful art supply shops but I wanted to highlight three in particular that are worth visits. Each store caters for a different need, at a different price range, and with a different ambience. If you can, I recommend visiting all three, but if you can’t hopefully this will help guide to the store that best suits your needs.

Rougier & Plé Saint German – the most centrally located and accessible of the three stores, Rougier & Plé is on boulevard Saint German not far from Saint Michelle. This multi-level store is easy to navigate and expansive. The top floor is for sketching supplies – pencils, pens, markers, charcoal, sketching paper, glue, erasers, measuring and cutting tools, etc. The second floor is dedicated to watercolors, ink, printmaking and their related materials (brushes, paper, masking fluids, etc). The first floor is where you’ll find the discounted section, student art supplies, packing materials, hobby materials (beads, clay, etc) and stationary items. They provide tax free forms if you spend more than 100 euros (which won’t be hard), they have a very good selection of brands (this is a good place to buy Schmincke watercolors) and they usually have a good selection of products on sale – particularly paper. This is the “bread and butter” store and if you only have time for one I’d select this one. There’s also a good selection of stores nearby that can interest other members of your party, a nice coffee shop (Cuvée Noire) and a nice park just around the corner (Jardin médiéval du Musée de Cluny) so if you’re traveling with none-sketchers you don’t have to drag them in with you. There is an elevator so if you have accessibility needs this store caters for you. The staff is a bit surly and I wouldn’t go in looking for assistance, but they do have a decent website so you can check things out before you go.

Magasin Sennelier – You’ll find this store all over Paris art supply store recommendations but this is a store with quite a few caveats. On the pro side it’s beautiful, it has a wide selection of supplies that you just won’t find anywhere else (like Etchr sketchbooks for instance, Japanese fountain pen ink, certain sketching supplies), the staff is knowledgeable, and they have tax-free shopping over 100 euros. However the store is open in very particular hours (10:00-12:45 after which they close until 14:00 when they open until 18:30) and they will kick you out at 12:45 regardless of whether you’re just about to pay them or not. It is also inaccessible in terms of public transport because it’s on a one way street with no nearby metro station (so you can take the bus one way to the place, but you’ll have an issue getting back – or vice-versa, depending on where you’re coming from). It’s best to pair a visit to the store with a visit to the d’Orsay or the Louvre but make sure that you don’t end up there when they’re closed for lunch. The store is on two floors, but there’s no elevator and the place is very cramped and chaotic. It’s most likely that you’ll need to ask for help finding things, and you may have to rummage around or ask the staff to bring up things from the back. The staff is helpful (up until lunchtime when they become surly and brusque), and while the prices aren’t the best to be found they do have things that you just can’t get anywhere else so it may be worth scheduling a visit there. This is, however, not a store that you can spontaneously slip into your schedule. Plan your visit carefully so as to not be disappointed.

Charvin watercolours purchases in Le Géant des Beaux-Arts

Le Géant des Beaux-Arts – this store is not as centrally located as the other two, but is still not too far away from public transport to make in inaccessible. This is a warehouse kind of store, huge, sprawling, and the cheapest by far of the three. You won’t get a tax return here, but you will get a significant discount on practically everything you buy (the cashiers will sign you up as a member for free if you aren’t, so you’ll get the most discounts on your shopping). They have a very wide selection of supplies and brands (though not everything – it’s worth checking their website first), and the biggest problem there is not getting lost in the cavern of supplies or overdoing it. There are stairs here and there so if you have accessibility issues I’d stick with Rougier & Plé, and there is only some method to the madness (particularly in the paper section). The staff is largely busy stacking art supplies and while they’re nice and try to be helpful, usually only the staff behind the till is knowledgeable. You will find Paris exclusive brands like Charvin and the widest array of Clairfontaine paper you could ever want, so it’s worth visiting the store even if you’re not particularly in search for bargains.

Paris is a wonderful city for artists in terms of its art supply stores, so this is far from a comprehensive list (there’s Charvin, various Sennelier stores, etc). Use this if you are short on time and want to hone in on which store best suits your needs and budget.

Tips for the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse

The Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse is starting next week, and this year I won’t be participating. For the lucky few that are going to be there, whether as official symposium participants or as “free range” sketchers I thought I’d write down some insights and tips that I gathered from last year’s symposium in Poznan.

In no particular order, here they are:

Talk to people – even if you’re shy or an introvert, the symposium is THE place to connect with people not only because everyone will be nice and kind and many are also introverts, but also because you have a guaranteed shared interest: urban sketching. If you’re unsure how to approach people, just ask them about their favorite sketching setup or tool and see what happens.
Wear your badge everywhere, even at breakfast at the hotel, even if it’s “just” an urban sketcher ID tag. This lets other sketchers know who you are, and opens up opportunities to connect and share with other sketchers. Invite them to join your table at the busy hotel buffet, or ask them where they had lunch or where they’re going to sketch next.
Swap and share art supplies. People rush from place to place, and people forget or misplace art supplies all the time. It’s worth packing some extras and sharing them around – pencils, pens, a tube of paint, etc. You could save someone’s workshop experience with this simple gesture, and it costs you next to nothing. And swapping art supplies, even for a brief sketch is a great cost-effective way to try before you buy. I packed a whole pencil case full of a range of pencils for a workshop and then forgot it on the desk in my hotel room. Thankfully the wonderful instructor and workshop participants had enough to share to help me out and allow me to fully participate in the workshop.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help – whether it be directions to the starting point of the sketchwalk, help with understanding something you didn’t get in a workshop or demo, or assistance with your gear, people are ready to help if you just ask them.

Quick sketch made from goody bag supplies just outside the art market

Go early to collect your badge and goody bag and take time to appreciate them. The symposium crew put in a LOT of effort to create amazing goody bags with the sponsors. Collect the bags early and help the symposium and sponsor out by posting about them on social media (Instagram in particular, using the correct tags), and by using them and enjoying them. In Poznan most of the attendees sat in a room adjacent to the one where we collected the bags, did a throw down post and then a sketch with lovely supplies that we got. There was a wonderful view of a historic building next door and it was really fun to create this shared sketching moment. Also remember to share and swap with other sketchers and the volunteers.

Follow the official symposium instagram and use the official tags. The Instagram will have giveaways and useful information (some of the giveaways are also open to non-symposium participants), and the tags help spread the word around and bring positive attention to the city and the sponsors. It was amazing to see as the symposium advanced how much attention Poznan got due to hundreds of talented sketchers bringing it to life.
Embrace the locals. They will notice you because you’ll be noticeable – large groups of sketchers call attention to themselves. Remember to represent the urban sketchers community, be kind and welcoming, and answer any questions they have. From my Poznan experience the locals will embrace you in return – with kind words, tips, stories and sometimes a free drink or a bite to eat (but don’t do it for the freebies!). Children in particular are attracted to sketchers, and we oftentimes shared bits of sketching paper and art supplies and invited them to join in.
Respect the instructors and lecturers. It’s tough to stand in front of a crowd and talk about your art. Don’t mess with your phone during lectures, listen to the instructors, be kind and respectful, and be open to learning. This is a given, but it’s worth stating anyway just in case because it’s that important.
Be nice and kind to the volunteers and talk to them. Many of them are sketchers, many of them are just locals who answered ads and are curious about sketching and the symposium. Share your work and be kind to them – it’s a tough job performed by a dedicated and small group. People gave them stickers, sketches, art supplies, and just chatted with them. A great volunteer can really improve a workshop, and it’s worth acknowledging their work.
Be nice and kind to restaurant and cafe waiters, baristas and owners. Urban sketchers love to camp in these locations to sketch, but be aware of your surroundings. Don’t hog tables during rush hour, be sure to order food and drink (don’t share one dish for four people, even if you’re broke. It’s not fair for the waiter or for the restaurant), tip well, and clean up after yourself. Tag places if you sketch them to raise awareness to the meal you enjoyed there, and remember that you represent urban sketchers everywhere.
Come with art supplies to donate. There will be an opportunity to do so throughout the symposium. We all have too much or supplies that we no longer use, so donate them (if they’re in good condition) to the local charity the symposium is sponsoring. The front desk volunteers usually start the collection on the first full day of the symposium.
Go to the art market. Make sure to visit all the stalls – many if not all of them are sponsors, and there will be local suppliers that are worth checking out. Try new things, talk to the vendors (they’re usually very knowledgeable), and be prepared for the rush of the first day crowds. Many stalls will also have giveaways and contests set up, so be sure and ask about them.

If you are looking for deals, go the art market during the final hours it is open. Although you will find many things out of stock, most vendors will have deals on the last hour or two of the market, to avoid having to ship back supplies.
Talk to the locals, whether they are sketchers, volunteers or instructors. Ask them for good, cheap restaurants for lunch, cafes worth visiting, shops and market stalls of note, cool places to sketch in, and where they get their art supplies. Their local knowledge is priceless.
Sketch a postcard. Even if you don’t work in postcard size, or you don’t love the paper, or you feel self-conscious about your work, sketch a postcard and participate in the postcard exhibition. It’s fun to see your work out there, and most participants get prizes, plus you can always donate the postcard for the silent auction and help raise some money for the organization.
Go to the daily morning briefing. Even if you’re tired, even if you don’t feel like it. It’s short, it starts on time, and it has a lot of important information that you just won’t get anywhere else. Also there are giveaways, but I won’t ruin the surprise…
Go to the demos, lectures, drink and draws – the morning lectures were great, and worth listening to and learning from. The demos were a fantastic way to get to experience the techniques of sketchers that you couldn’t get a workshop with, and the drink and draws are just a nice way to connect with people and share your sketching love. I will confess that I was so tired at the end of each day that I missed out on the drink and draws and I regret it.
Be ready to be tired, and try to pace yourself. It’s a lot of fun but very draining to run around town and sketch all day. If you take a lot of workshops or go to all the sketchwalks you will have very little down time between events. Be sure to hydrate, rest, and know your limits. Take into account that you’ll be lugging a lot of weight around (art supplies, a stool, water), and that adds to the fatigue. Check your schedule and if you have only an hour or so between workshops, find someplace close and convenient to grab a bite to eat. Save the fancy restaurant for the evening.
Share knowledge among the group – found a great place to sketch in? A wonderful restaurant or patisserie? A clean toilet or a decent supermarket? Share that information with other sketchers.
Follow people on Instagram. Even if you normally avoid social media, this is how you can stay connected with other sketchers after the symposium, and be inspired by other artists.
Never, ever, ever critique someone’s work. Ever.
We share, we don’t compare. This is a Liz Steel mantra and something you should carry with you during the symposium. Be inspired, not intimidated, by other sketchers’ work.
Follow along with the demos – if you’re going to a demo, it’s OK to watch and listen but it’s equally valid to sit down and sketch while the demo is going on, trying to follow along as you work. There is value in both these approaches – don’t be afraid to start out by observing and then dig in with a sketch of your own.
Try new things, and don’t worry about the results. This is a tough one, but an important one – the point of the workshops and demos isn’t for you to come out with masterpieces, but for you to try out new things. When you do that, you may not like the results, or it may take a few tries. That’s OK. The best workshop I had in Poznan was also “traumatic” in this way – I made several sketches and they were all terrible. Only on the last sketch did things click, and I got one of the best sketches I have ever made – and one that took third place in the postcard exhibition.

My postcard on display (it’s the one in the middle)

Draw your food. It’s an urban sketchers tradition and a great way to remember a restaurant or cafe.

Take reference photos – you may not be able to finish a sketch, but if you have reference photos you can return to it later on and complete it.
If you can, give away sketches. People who were kind to you love receiving sketches as a gift, and you should see them light up when you give them that quick napkin sketch, or a page from your sketchbook. Also consider donating artwork to the silent auction if you can – it helps Urban Sketchers raise money for the great work they do.
Tell the instructors how great they are. They really are amazing, and they’re artists so they all have imposter syndrome and they love to hear good feedback about their demo, workshop or compliments about their sketches. They are all volunteers and they put in a LOT of work and research into their sessions so be generous with your praise.
Tell the organizers how great they are. They’re also volunteers and they work like crazy before, after and during the symposium. Let them know that you see them and appreciate them.
Be very, very kind to the symposium correspondents – they put in a crazy amount of work and effort into bringing the symposium to life for those of us who can’t be there. That means that while you were at that one workshop they zigzagged across the city and went to three, making sure to sketch and take photos in each. And while you were sleeping they were staying up late editing photos and posting to social media. They do a mammoth amount of work every single day, so take the time to be extra nice and helpful to them.
Be kind. People can get tired, hot, blustered, overwhelmed. Give them the benefit of the doubt and be kind. Look out for each other and help each other through the whirlwind of this symposium.
Take time after the symposium to decompress and process what you’ve learned. Go over your notes and sketches, look back and what you’ve learned, try out the new techniques and supplies that you’ve gathered, and go out there and sketch!

Have fun, remember to hydrate and use sunscreen, and bring Toulouse to life with sketches!

Rose Garden Watercolour on Location – Full Process

I went to Ramat Hanadiv garden today, and created a quick watercolour sketch on location. There were a lot of details in the scene, and I wanted to capture a relatively wide angle, so I had to do a little planning ahead. I normally don’t take photos or videos when I sketch (only once I’m done), but this time I made some unusual choices for me, so I decided to document them as I went along.

This is part of the scene that I was sketching:

The rose garden. This is about half the scene that I was sketching, and by the time that I was done the sun was fully up overhead so I lost the interesting shadows.

I was using a cold pressed Etchr watercolour sketch book. It’s wonderful for watercolours, but pen and ink struggle on this paper. I usually start the sketch with pen and ink (a fineliner or a fountain pen) and then move to watercolours, but since there was so much detail here and I didn’t want to get carried away by it, I started with a Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayon:

Laying down the rough location of the path.

Then I blocked in the greens of the roses, the trees, and a bit of the ground. I’m using the lightest green hues as this point – I’ll add darker greens later to add volume and depth. In watercolour you work light to dark. I also went over the Neocolour II with some water.

At this point I took out the fineliner and sketched out the palm tree and started sketching in the tree trunks. I also added colour to the palm tree trunk. The palm isn’t supposed to be the focal point of this sketch, the roses are, but it’s there to give things perspective (and it literally was standing nearby – I just pulled it into the frame because I thought the sketch needed it).

At this point I finished the line work, and then moved to adding depth to the greens. I deliberately left the path largely flat because I wanted the roses to be the focus, not the cobble stones. There’s only so much detail our eye can take, so you need to be mindful of that when sketching. This is something I’ve been struggling with for years – what to leave in and what to edit out.

This is the finished sketch. There are roses added in, some shadows under the plants, tree trunks, the palm fronds. I was tempted to add the sky after I was done, which is why I knew I shouldn’t add the sky. Never add anything after the bulk of the sketch is done just because you had the idea as an afterthought. It’s the best way to “ruin” a painting.

This took me about 40 minutes, much of the time spent waiting for the paint to dry or mixing greens.

What do you think? Would you try and sketch something like this – by blocking it in paint first before moving to pen and ink?

Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel’s “Sea of Tranquility“ is difficult to review because the less you know about it going in, the more impactful it will be when you read it.

Like “This is How You Lose the Time War” this book has time travel as major plot element. Unlike that book, “Sea of Tranquility” is less a work of sci-fi and more of an exploration of human connection, hope and dare I say it, ethics. It just happens to use time travel as a way to introduce the main ethical conflicts to the main character (and his sister).

In an ever more isolated and isolating world, where events beyond our control often tear us apart “Sea of Tranquility” asks what does it mean to care about others? To seek connections with other people despite differences of time, space and circumstance? What price would you pay to preserve that connection with humanity?

This is a beautifully written and carefully plotted novel that doesn’t sacrifice its characters on the alter of its ideas. It will leave you pondering its depths long after you’ve turned over the last page – a sublime novel if ever I read one.

The NYT Summer Reading Challenge

My reading hit a bit of a slump in May, so when the New York Times came out with their summer reading challenge I decided to use it as an excuse to not only read more books, but also to read books that have been languishing on my shelves and my Kindle.

If you’re looking for a way to boost your attention span and get back to reading books and not just 3 minute social media posts, participating in a challenge such as this one is very beneficial. Since the challenge calls for you to make your own list of ten books to read during the summer, you can easily tailor it to your tastes. That means that you have a higher chance of both completing the challenge and enjoying it than if your would have been assigned a set list of books to read.

Here is the list of books that I selected and why I chose them:

Read a book published in the last year – I selected “The Faith of Beasts” by James SA Corey. It’s the second book in their new series, The Captive’s War, and though this will be a challenging book because it’s a dystopian sci-fi novel and it isn’t particularly short, I wanted to keep following this series to its conclusion. I expect good writing, a gripping plot, and some thought provoking ideas about human beings as a species.
Read a book in a genre you don’t typically read – I struggled a bit trying to decide which book to select for this category. I never read horror or romance, but I really don’t like these genres and I wasn’t willing to subject myself to them just for the sake of this challenge (if you love horror and romance that’s great! It’s just my personal taste that makes me avoid them). The NYT selected “Yesteryear” for their choice for this category, and since I very rarely read psychological thrillers I decided to select it too. This was just one of two books that I purchased for the sake of this challenge.
Read one of The New York Times’s Best Books of the 21st Century – The list is long so it took me a while to go over it and select a novel. I was debating whether to select “Bel Canto” or “Pachinko” and went with “Pachinko” in the end since I had already purchased it (it was part of the Tournament of Books a few years back). It’s on the long side, but so are most of the books that I had selected.
Read a really short, or a really long, book – since I have so many long books on my list, I selected to go with a short book for a change – James Stockdale’s “Courage Under Fire“. It’s a transcript of an address that he gave, and it’s less than 30 pages long – but a very impactful set of pages they are.
Read a classic you’ve been meaning to read (or revisit) – this one was easy – I was in the middle of reading “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius so I selected it for the classic I was reading. Of course my choice for audiobook also fits this category.
Read a book that takes place during the summer – this was hard to select, because it’s not a category that is easy to filter books by (unlike genre or length). Eventually I settled on “One Summer America 1927” which is a very long book (600 pages) but one that clearly fit the bill.
Read a book in translation – I debated whether to read “Breasts and Eggs” or “When the Cranes Fly South” and selected “Breasts and Eggs” because I had a feeling that it would be a more challenging book to read.
Read a book that’s been adapted for the screen – I’ve had the book “No Picnic on Mount Kenya” gathering dust on my shelf for years. I bought it at the legendary travel bookstore Standfords in London back when the store was a giant one at the end of Long Acre (it’s now not far from there, at Mercer Walk). It’s the story of three prisoners of war who escaped their camp just to climb mount Kenya, and it turns out that it’s been made into a pretty terrible film. I have no intention of watching the film, but this seemed like a good excuse to finally read this book, thus it was chosen.
Listen to an audiobook – I don’t listen to books – I read them, which made this one a serious challenge. Eventually I purchased “The Odyssey” audiobook, read by Sir Ian McKellen. It was the first audiobook that I’ve ever listened to, a 13 hour event. The book itself could have worked for the “(Re)read a classic” category of course, but I wanted to hear Ian McKellen’s rendering of this text – especially since it’s a work of poetry.
Check out and read a book from your local library – I went to the local library and after much debate picked up “Sea of Tranquility” even though I had never heard of it before. Emily St. John Mandel has written “Station Eleven,” which I have heard about and is considered to be a very good book, so I decided to give this book a try. It turned out to a real gem, so I’m glad that I found it and that this challenge pushed me to check it out.

The challenge officially ends at the end of August, but you can set your own rules and deadlines of course. I would recommend setting a deadline though, since they are useful motivators and will encourage you to read more every day.

As of writing this I have finished reading five out of the ten books that I’ve selected, and I’m almost three quarters through the sixth one. My secondary goal is to get back to reviewing books on this blog, so I will try and post a review for each of the books that I’ve read.

What do you think? Would you join such a challenge?

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