Reading in the garden

Today I found myself sitting on a bench in the garden in the sunshine. This is a rare occurrence because it is not often that good weather coincides with me having some quiet time to sit outside in it. Usually our time outside work is quite busy; we either have useful things that need to be done like housework, cooking or shopping, or we are taking Ally and Davie to various activities and outings, helping them with schoolwork, or we go for a long or short walk at James' suggestion. This is no bad thing, it's nice to have lots to do and I certainly need to take more exercise. On the other hand it was really nice to sit outside and read my current book (Fingersmith), with Jack cat sleeping on a cushion beside me on the bench. I am enjoying Fingersmith, the second Sarah Waters book I have read since I saw her at Aye Write in March, and recommended to me by Heather and Ewan. I am about a third of the way through and the plot has just taken a pleasing twist that I wasn't expecting. I read quite a few books on holiday, the most recent being "The Hand That First Held Mine" by Maggie O'Farrell (quite good I thought), "The Crying Tree" by Naseem Rakha (a good read) and "A Cotswold Killing" by Rebecca Tope (truly awful). I am toying with whether to read "Ulysses" by James Joyce. I was talking to Andrew about it on holiday and it sounds daunting, but it is such a famous book that I think I might have a go at it to see why it is such a highly regarded example of modernist literature. I once read exactly half of "War and Peace" and then stopped which has always annoyed me because I can remember precisely nothing about it now, so if I ever decide to read it I will have to start all over again. Jamie phoned later to say hello, I am so relieved for him that his exams are over. It will be several weeks if he knows if he has been successful, I know that he worked very hard and deserves to get through. He now has a week off and is planning to go away for a few days with friends to relax. I can't wait for his next visit home, it has been weeks since I've seen him because of his exam revision and I miss him a lot. On the subject of revision, Alasdair is working well, hopefully he is getting into his stride. He is also being very pleasant and chatty to me, and doesn't seem so infuriated by me as usual, we have been having some nice chats and have watched a couple of episodes of The Paperchase together which has been a good laugh. Now I'm going to read more Fingersmith.