Last post before xmas

I’m taking an xmas break – one where I don’t write at all for a few days instead of writing sporadically! – so I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year. Have fun, I hope you get what you want!

I’ll do an end of year type post before the new year; I have to say, I’m not sure my around the world reading has been progressing much recently, certainly not as fast as I’d hoped. I’ve got stuck on the Sandman series, reading the whole of book two yesterday (I am now completely hooked and can’t wait for number three to wing its way to me), and reading more from China, this time in the form of a novel. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress has been a book I’ve glanced at many times in the past but never wanted to read, so I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting I found it. It was a testament to the power of great writing and how great writers can change lives, give hope, encourage people to believe in themselves. I thought the quality of the writing fluctuated a little, and the very good passages stood out from the rest as being exceptionally noteworthy as opposed to merely very readable; I have one more Chinese novel to read, then I’ll move on, but my recent forays into Chinese writers, or writers of Chinese origin, has made me very nostalgic. I have a feeling one of my new year’s resolutions will be to start reading in Chinese again; I didn’t realise how much I’d miss it!