I wrote in my blog, but I can’t think of a title.

Happy new year, season’s greetings, and also happy birthday, for I have not written in this blog of mine for so long that there is a reasonable likelihood that it has been your birthday. Sorry if I forgot your birthday.

It’s tricky thinking of something to say after so long, isn’t it? This is now one of Very Few blog posts so it better be a proper good blog post, and yet, I (almost) can’t handle the pressure of writing anything at all. Gosh, must stop thinking about it and just write it before I change my mind.

So, long time no blog, as per usual. I have been twittering away, but I don’t know if that really counts for posterity…? I have a tendency to wipe tweets every now and then, in any case, so probably not. I am not a New Year’s resolution-person, preferring to constantly set myself unachievable goals, but I do want to blog more regularly this year. Plus, now that the initial Jesus-Christ-we-have-two-children thing has worn off, I kind of have the time to do it (until I go back to work.) HELLO. Can you tell I’ve forgotten how one writes in a blog? Because I am pretty sure that the first rule of blog club is not to talk about blog club.

One thing I have been doing instead of blogging is reading books. Books are a really good idea. Way better than smart phones, not quite as good as babies. Some books I’ve enjoyed lately (and one by Julian Barnes):

Sarah Moss – Night Wakings. Good because of the babies and the night wakings, both of which I can relate to. Lots of it I could relate to, in fact, which isn’t necessarily a good thing in a book, but in this one it was. Made me want to live on a remote island, even though it doesn’t go all that well.

Carol Birch – Jamrach’s Menagerie. Hey, I know that the Booker Prize is overrated, and the cover of this book is a bit shit, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn’t bear the bit where they were on the boat, when the stuff happens. Made me want to travel to remote islands, even though it doesn’t go all that well.

Patrick DeWitt – The Sisters Brothers. Even though the Booker Prize is overrated, this is really ever so good, read it. You can borrow mine, if you like. I read it in a cottage in Cornwall with no central heating or telly or internet (in about an hour, then), and I think it was the first time I’ve cried over a horse in a book. Doesn’t go terribly well for the Sisters Brothers.

Julian Barnes – Sense of an Ending. Hey, Julian Barnes, your book is boring. You can’t just write a book about how memories are different to reality and, I don’t know, whatever other boring stuff you wrote about in this book. Plus, yes, it does have a nice cover. BUT IT’S STILL REALLY BORING.

Robin Black – If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This. I loved these short stories, and then I told Robin Black I loved them on Twitter and she said THANKS. So, you know? That makes me like them even more.

David Vann – Legend of a Suicide. Another remote island where things don’t go terribly well. I read Caribou Island first, which I liked but did not love. This one is a lot better. I am still a bit freaked out by it, and I even want to read it again. Which I never, ever, ever do.

Rebecca Asher – Shattered: Modern Motherhood & The Illusion of Equality. Heh. This is a good one to read if your husband is a stay at home parent.

So, that’s us all caught up. Apart from, of course, MY BABIES LOOK AT THEM.

Oh, it’s been so long since I did this that they made me make a gallery. I don’t know what’s going on there. Apart from I know that one photo shows H & E looking super cute together, one shows Hallam in a high vis vest thing that they gave him at PRESCHOOL yesterday, and one shows what happens when your baby girl has crazy hair and you have access to a hairdrier.