Sunday is reading day

Ever since I was little I’ve thought of Sunday as reading day. It’s a day for curling up on the sofa with the Sunday papers or a big thick novel. Sunday was always a calm and quiet day, with no commitments or activities – when I was a child, when I was at university and when I was working in-house. As a freelancer, it did sometimes end up as a work day, but these days, now the children play happily (usually) together, I can often manage to squeeze in an extra hour or two of reading. And we also tend to read a bit more to them on a Sunday, too, because we don’t have to rush out the door for anything (we do usually go swimming on a Sunday, but there’s no big rush to get there for a specific timeslot).

Since starting my Book Weeks, I’ve wanted to have more regular book-related posts, rather than saving them all up for the next Book Week, and what better than a Sunday Reading day? I’m going to have at least one reading-related post every Sunday. I might review a book I’ve read recently, talk about some publishing news, discuss a genre, mull over a book-related topic or issue, round up some new books coming out soon or maybe even interview an author. I’ll probably also put in links to any book-related posts that have really caught my eye or snippets of literary news, or just point out some book blogs I enjoy reading. I’m not going to make any promises about content, though. I might just put up a quick link to the Amazon page of whatever I’m reading at that moment, or a photo of my to-be-read pile.

I have a few weeks of posts ready-written (apart from the topical bits, of course), but I’m happy to consider guest posts from anyone who has something booky they want to talk about. And if you’re an author or publisher (or someone else in the industry) and want to let me know about new titles or other news, you can email me at codingmamma@gmail.com. Please try to use the subject line ‘Sunday Reading’.

I hope you enjoy Sunday Reading at WAHM BAM! and watch out for a Picture Book Picnic special on Sunday 25 September and an announcement about the next Book Week in the next few weeks.

My Sunday Reading contributions

This week I’ve written a review of Tess Gerritsen’s The Killing Place and my thoughts on the new adaptation of Jane Eyre, which I saw last night (and loved).

Book news

The Guardian and Observer are having a Book Season, running to the end of October and celebrating good reading and writing and starting next week.

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival is coming up soon and I am ashamed to say that, despite living only a 40-minute bus ride away I have still never managed to attend it. I intend to remedy that this year.

Waterstone’s are planning to launch their own e-reader next spring. Are they too late?

Book blogs (or blog posts about books)

Children’s Book Week is coming up soon and Zoe Toft of Playing by the book has an amazing week planned for her school, including a stunning themed school dinner.

If you’re like me and have lots of unfinished novels clogging up your drawers (or My Documents folder), you might well find this post useful – Don’t be afraid to write a bad book (via Elizabeth S Craig).