Fully Interlocking Pieces, by Catriona

Reading: Last year, about a month into “Lockdown Life”, the internet was a-buzz with ways to “pass the time”; reading was high on that list, for many people. Have you read more/more widely/differently/less during the past 12 months? Please tell us a bit about what, and why?

When Cathy Ace was redecorating her house (useful) as a way to pass the time, I was doing the jigsaw puzzles (less useful) that I'd been avoiding because they looked too hard, while Coronation Street (essential) burbled away on Britbox beside me. This one was a killer:

But that's not the question.

Have I read more? I think so. I've certainly been keeping better reading notes than ever. In 2019 and years preceding, I started out jotting down my reading in my diary. Jan, Feb, March . . . all fine. Then spring, the beach, Edgars, Malice, Edinburgh, Bouchercon, houseguests . . . and all of a sudden I hadn't written anything down for months and the books were shelved all over the house, or left behind in Scotland, loaned out, donated . . . gone. 

Last year and this year, I wrote all the titles down in the notebook, on my desk, in my house, where I was too. I also started posting them on my website under "News and Events" because, seriously, what I was reading was about the only news I had to post, back in the spring when the screamer at the top of every website page was "Whatever it was, it's cancelled".

(Yesterday, on the phone to my mum I said - not sarcastically - "Oh, you'll never guess where I've been today? To the corner of the track to take cuttings from that fig tree growing in the drainage ditch." Man, life's going to feel fizzy when we're back to normal, isn't it?)

Have I read more widely? I thi-ink so. Looking at early 2019 before it all fell apart in a giddy whirl of travel, and comparing 2020, I see Stephen King, Elly Griffiths, Ovidia Yu, Ann Cleeves, Colson Whitehead, Hilary Mantel (no website; there's fame!), as well as people I'm on a panel with, people I'm on a shortlist with, Edgar nominees, Booker winners ... all of which suggests no change.

But then, as "Whatever it was it's cancelled" turned into "Whatever it was, it's virtual" and I started attending events - especially Noirs at the Bar - all over the country, the buy links began to sing to me and I definitely clicked on books I might not have come across before, both books featured in the event and staff picks at the particular bookshop involved.

For example, I don't read many short stories (or write many either), but after hearing Jessica Laine's teaser of "The Sundowner" and Richie Narvaez's Oscar-worthy performance (you couldn't call it a reading) of "Bobo" during a N@B I bought and devoured Pa'Que Tu Lo Sepas, which sent me off in search of further short stories by the contributors, and I ended up reading more short stories last year than in all the other years of reading put together.

Also, one of the staff picks one night was In the Dream House, a haunting memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. Now, I do read memoirs quite often, but usually (inevitably?) they're memoirs of people I've heard of. I would never have found this lyrical, brutal account of domestic abuse without that online event and the staff member of the supporting bookshop who picked it. It's like the memoir that launched a thousand domestic noir novels. And it's a memoir with a plot twist! How often do you get that?

Have I read differently? Yes, definitely. For a reason that makes no sense at all - not options paralysis, not creeping rigidity, not because I realised I'd bought the same book twice - I decided to put my TBR shelves into alphabetical order and read from A-Z. Except when I'm blurbing, or it's a new Tracy Clark/ Kristen Lepionka/Harlan Coben. (We've all got our 'drop everything' authors; these are some of mine.) Thus I finally read Alafair Burke's The Better Sister, which I've had since it was an ARC,and Brian Allen Carr's Opioid, Indiana and Michael Connelly's Late Show . . . all books I'd owned for at least a couple of years. I'm up as far as Tori Eldridge now, so I've finally made the acquaintance of Lily Wong.

And if you must know why I went ABC all of a sudden, it's because I noticed Neil's TBR shelves one day, while doing yoga in our bedroom, and had to unwind from eagle pose and put both feet on the ground. We have been together a while now. Next month is our silver wedding anniversary. People, he colour-codes his books and I never knew. When I mocked him*, he hit back with "Well, how do you sort yours then?" When I opened my mouth to deliver my zinger of a reply I realised I had nothing. 

*We've both been working at home for 53 weeks. It's going really well. 

Neil in distance: Quite well. 

Me: Pretty well. 

NiD: Somehwhat well.

Me: Fairly well.

NiD: I've got a Zoom now.

Me: (whispering) I win.