It’s been a funny old time of late. There’s been a lot going on recently – it’s been the sort of time where a lesser person (okay, me) might curl up into a ball and stop functioning. But, for once, this time I haven’t.

And I think a large part of that is down to the fact I’ve been reading way more than I have for a long time.

I’m behind on reviews (I need to sit down and just blitz them all out, I have the notes all ready to go, I promise!), but recently I’ve enjoyed Invisible Women, Graham Norton’s A Keeper, the To All The Boys I Loved Before trilogy (honestly, judge away, they’re fantastic and I devoured them), countless articles and ahem, fanfiction, as well as some other books that are firmly in the ‘I gave them a go, but I won’t be rereading’ category.

And, in amongst this topsy turvey world, which seemed, at times, pretty dark, these have been what’s carried me through. (Alongside my friends and my endlessly patient fiance* and family).

Now things are a lot calmer – and should stay that way, I’m starting to think about what I want to read next.

There was a time that I wanted to set myself the challenge of the BBC’s Big Read. These days, however,  it’s a little outdated – there’s a lot of popular books very of its time and there’s at least one Jeffrey Archer book on there which I don’t think I could bring myself to read. So, I did a bit of googling and found the Penguin list of 100 Must Read Classics. You can find the list here.

To flatter my ego, I’ve gone through and counted all the ones that I’ve read and can actually remember reading/the bulk of the plot.  And frankly, considering I did an English Literature degree, and then Master’s degree, I really should have read more than, um, 34.

There are some (Catch22 and Catcher in the Rye, I’m looking at you) that I am pretty sure I’ve read, but I’ve not given myself the benefit of the doubt, so I plan on re-reading.

I’m not setting myself the challenge of reading the whole list, that’s a touch overambitious, plus there’s a few things on there I have no desire to touch with a barge pole. (I just don’t get Victorian literature…mmkay?). But I will give it a good stab and I’m going to make myself attack some of the books that I’m not so keen of the sound of.

I’ll also keep reading all the non-classics that I can lay my hands on. This list should, at the very least, save me scrolling through page after page on the Amazon kindle store trying to find something that sounds like it might be okay. (I specifically call out Amazon’s Kindle store because I still have not forgiven it for the amount of times I’ve been caught out and accidentally bought self-published books, thinking they’re normal ones. Editors exist for a reason, people.)

I’ve also really enjoyed some non-fiction recently – a phrase I never really thought I’d say – except maybe about history books. But there’s not a scrap of history on this list, no… I mentioned Invisible Women above – I’ve just bought Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office, started Bella Mackie’s Jog On, been recommended Love is Not Enough: A Smart Woman’s Guide To Money and then have How Brands Grow and Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete to get through on the recommendation of an exceptionally good Brand Marketing course I attended for work. It’s a lot of reading – and I’m back to my good/bad habit of being a book tart (picking up different books at different times, flitting between them and generally being a flirt).

Reading is my utter joy – It’s the reason that I set up this blog and it’s why I love writing reviews. It’s also the thing that I’ve got a bad habit of abandoning when everything is going tits up. (Please tell me I’m not the only one that’s such an nonce?). But recently, by putting reading back as my priority, I feel hundreds of times better. And it’s only taken me twenty-odd years to work this out.

Now, I’ll have to leave you here because I’m just about to receive a job lot of 42 vintage penguin books to work my way through, which Nick believes I have solely ordered for the purposes of table decorations at the wedding. Ahem. Poor, poor, naive, Nicholas.

*Wahay, he’s been upgraded. At, well, his request. You just wait until I start telling you all about the book themed wedding I’m planning.