This weekend, I should have been giving a talk about Josephine Tey and writing biography to students from the University of the Highlands and Islands: of course, this is all cancelled because of the coronavirus.
A friend of mine has been busy compiling a list of books to read while she is on lockdown in self-isolation, starting with Camus “The Plague” and going up to Emily St John Mandel’s “Station Eleven”. I did read “Station Eleven” a while back, thought it was brilliant, and recommended it to a few people, one of whom read it last week. I’m not sure if they’ve forgiven me yet…
Personally, I tend to go for comfort reading in times of stress: books that I know and love. Normally I enjoy talking about books and discussing them, but these particular books are like family – they might have faults, but only I am allowed to see them – they are not up for discussion!
However I did find this photo of a pile of books I read towards the end of last year (which I took for a blog post that never got written). A fairly varied selection. What books are you reading just now?
While local bookshops are of course all closed for now, it is worth checking out their webpages or facebook pages to see if you can order online (though this may change). Waterstones Inverness have directed people to the main Waterstones webpage, or you can also try Picaresque books in Dingwall, who were doing some local deliveries. Leakey’s second-hand bookshop in Inverness has a facebook page, and normally sell via abebooks. The normal links to buy my own book are on this page – and it is available as an e-book.
And, a final note, again from Emily St John Mandel:
Jennifer Morag Henderson 