To Be Read (and read again)

Have you ever had a nice, neat stack of books to be read...








and then gone off and read something completely different?



A recent trip to the library saw me leave with a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and very happy I was to have read it. Just the thing for hot summer days. Now I want to go look for some other books I've read long ago, The Book of Ebeneezer Le Page, 84 Charing Cross Road, How to Make an American Quilt, and even Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Is it too late to add Lady Susan to the Jane Austen Challenge? (That is epistolary, isn't it?)

Actually, I'm being good and have started Persuasion over again as I went about a week without touching it. This time, I've noticed that Anne's first direct words in the novel are about the navy. She defends sailors as deserving whatever benefits they earn. And Mrs. Clay's first words are also about sailors. She mentions knowing firsthand not only how generous they are, but also how "neat and careful" they are. And just how does she know that, I wonder?