Ciaran Isn't Writing

Don’t even think about reading 100 books in a year. It’s not fun, it’s not quirky, and it’s not a substitute for a personality. I don’t know why I set myself this challenge. Because I’m stupid? I wanted to make a dent in my massive pile of unread books, I suppose. And yes, on the one hand, it was really useful for finally reading all those short books I’d found in charity shops over the years and bought because they were vaguely related to something I was interested in at the time. I’ve managed to get rid of so many books this year (only to be replaced by more but that’s another story). And this list doesn’t even cover the books I started to read, realised were terrible and not worth my time, and promptly sent to the charity shop.  On the other hand, there are so many books I wanted to read this year that I’ve put off for being “too long”. I’ve ordered my TBR on goodreads by page number and using that to determine what I would read, and only a few of the books I...

  A meanness runs through this sad, little island And it settles over us like a skin, And we hide under ten layers of irony, And we recoil from sincerity, And we mock everything left exposed, And we rejoice at the pain we cause, And we pull everyone to the bottom with us, And we pull everyone to our level And below.  

  March has been pretty quiet. Nephew and his parents have been staying, and that’s been fun. His birthday was at the end of last month and we celebrated it a few days later. Man, that kid loves cake. He was shovelling fistfuls of the stuff into his mouth and eating every crumb he could see. He’s also become obsessed with drawing, and he can now sort-of draw a car. And if he’s not drawing cars, he’s forcing me to draw cars so he can colour them. He’s also gotten really into sharks, especially shark-shaped cars. And, as usual, he wants to spend as much time as possible outside, wading through the mud and picking up sticks. In terms of writing, I’ve been getting a lot done. It’s been so refreshing to have so many ideas and work on so many things, even if at times it’s overwhelming and I don’t know which to work on or prioritise. Also the new Stardew Valley update got me back into the game so I’m having another phase of doing nothing but playing Stardew Valley constan...