As you may remember from my January post, this year I am taking part in Circle of Pine Trees 'Year in Books' project, a year long personal project, in which you challenge yourself to read one book (at least) every month, and share it online if you wish.
My January choice (post here) was The Island of Adventure, from Enid Blyton's Adventure series. Oh how I adored it, and reading it has rekindled an old love of mine too. When I was younger, I read and re-read the Famous Five series, and listened to The Faraway Tree stories on audio cassette every night while I fell asleep, but this was the first of the Adventure Series that I'd come across. Since reading The Island of Adventure, I've become a bit obsessed with Enid Blyton all over again, and have been listening to audio books I've found on Youtube non-stop.
I love the language used throughout all her books - "Oh, do let's go, what a fine time we shall all have together." I love that as an adult I can almost hear my grandparents talking about their own childhoods while listening to the adventures the various children encounter during the long summer holidays, allowed to play outdoors and explore the world on their own.
I love that a tea of plums with new bread with butter is described as a 'feast' (and why not!) and that every child in every story is expected to help out with the chores at home before being allowed to have time to themselves. It's interesting too, that 'George' (one of the Famous Five) who's full name is Georgina, prefers to wear boys clothes, use a boys name, and generally identifies as male, and nobody bats an eyelid, even referring to her affectionally as 'Master George.' For an author published in the 1940's, Enid Blyton was clearly ahead of her time!
Anyway, onto my choice for February! At the beginning of the month, Laura (of Circle of Pine Trees) proposed that for one month only, everyone who fancied it bought/borrowed and read the same book, and joined her, and the author for a live twitter chat on the 14th of March. I scurried off and pre-ordered 'The Trouble with Goats and Sheep' by Joanna Cannon, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far! I'm totally gripped by the story, although the more I read the more I'm finding the sheer volume of descriptive smilies and metaphors a little tiring. It's not enough irksome enough to put me off reading, and don't get me wrong some of them are beautiful, but the awesome ones are getting a little lost among others that feel somewhat forced! I'll let you know in a week or so what I think when I'm finished!
I have next months choice lined up already too! I can't help feeling this year is just going to zip by before we know it!
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