Other than what we’ve published on the website I’ve found reading anything other than Twitter near impossible for 3 months. I didn’t read a single book for most of lockdown, that was until Sophie gave me her copy of Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting. She hadn’t even read it herself but was told by her local book shop it might be a good way to get back into a reading state of mind again when she was struggling in the earlier stages of lockdown herself. The fantastic Ebb and Flo in Chorley was closed but still in touch with regular customers and doing an ad hoc mail order service for people. I somehow managed to get through all 400 pages over the course of month, very on and off, I didn’t really enjoy it to be honest, kind of a bit boring, but it did actually work. The story, and the family mystery threaded through it surrounding 16 walnut trees that grew in the battle field of the Somme did keep me going back for some reason, that and the realisation when staring at my bookshelf at home that I have a very poor hit rate on finishing books. I put down 60% (maybe even higher if I was being really truthful) of books I start and never pick them back up. I’ve given up several big books with less than 100 pages to go because frankly they’ve gone a bit shit and life is too short for reading shit books, listening to shit records and watching all the shit TV programmes that people insist are good, isn’t it.
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